Why You're Not Filled With the Holy Spirit

They denied Him, and in this case, denial had to do with fear and pleasing men. That's why they denied Him, correct? They said, I mean, in a comfortable setting, we're praying with Jesus in the garden. Of course, we're going to say, I would never deny You.

But when the soldiers come, I don't know this guy. I don't know Him. So fear and pleasing men, that hasn't changed.

Fear and pleasing men will cause us to deny Christ. And I know many people say, I would never maybe verbally deny Him or completely deny Him. But many are afraid to truly live for Him and truly acknowledge Him.

All you have to do is look at Facebook. If they're worried about their 800 friends, they'll just, I mean, they'll post a post supporting Trump. But they're not going to post something supporting Jesus Christ.

They're not going to make statements about Christ and bold statements. Not to where you get weird and out there in 14 posts a day, and Jesus said this. You know, but just, we're sometimes scared to live for Christ.

And I saw this a lot in construction in different fields. They'll go to work, nobody will know they're a Christian. Well, you're a pretty good person.

Yeah, I'm a good person. And nobody knows they're Christian. They don't want to talk about it.

They don't want to mention anything. Why? Fear of men. Fear of men.

And it happens in the pulpit as well as the pew. Here's the key to that. If you suffer with that, and I'll tell you the truth, all of us suffer with that if we're not filled with God's Spirit.

Acts 1.8 identifies this experience. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me. Isn't this interesting? Peter, the disciples, are with Jesus in the garden.

They're with their master. They're with him. We'll never deny you.

The soldiers come. We're denying you. Fast forward now.

Jesus is gone, and the disciples are by themselves, and you couldn't beat it out of them to deny their Lord and Savior. They went to their grave, boldly speaking for Christ. They were beaten, boldly speaking for Christ.

They stood up in front of the Jewish people and said, you stiff-necked people, you put Christ on the cross. A mob would have killed them. So what was the difference? What was the difference between this Peter and that Peter? What's the difference? It's a good time to take a water break while you think about it.

This is a portion of the sermon that's going to step on toes again. The difference is, this difference makes all the difference in the world, and this is why many people, including people in this church, are not living boldly for Christ. It's because they are not filled with God's Spirit.

They are not filled with his Spirit. They have religion. They know Jesus, but they've never been filled with God's Spirit.

Now, that would take me another whole sermon when you talk about the different things out there, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit. Suffice it to say that you are, I am, baptized by the Holy Spirit when we become believers. We're baptized into the body of Christ as believers.

But then there's subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit. Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's how you have this boldness. So you can either quench and grieve the Spirit of God by the way you live, or you can be filled with the Holy Spirit by the way you live. It's all about surrender.

So to sum it up for you briefly, you have all of the Holy Spirit that you will ever need, but does he have all of you? That's the problem in many churches. That's why we're bored during worship. That's why we come to church when it fits our schedule.

That's why we'll go home and watch ESPN and NASCAR before we touch the Word of God, if we even touch it at all. That's why we spend three hours on media, no time in prayer and fasting. That's why.

That's why people have not been filled mightily with the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, I don't care if you can translate the Hebrew. I'm not concerned about your Greek New Testament.

And I don't care if you have three letters on your business card, Ph.D. I want to know, have you been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit? Has God radically changed your heart and broke you to such a point that your spirit cries out, Abba, Father, God, I need you, whatever you want me to do. My day starts with you, and then throughout my whole day, I'm focused on you. Then my night, I want to spend time with you.

In your Word, are you filled with the Spirit of God? Because that's the difference maker. That's why you can stand before a person and not deny God. What I just said about the Roman Catholic Church and the Mormon religion just 20 minutes ago, you think I would have said that if I were not filled with the Spirit of God? And there's no difference.

Sometimes, oh, pastor. No, you men at home, you need to be filled with the Spirit just as much as I do. Women at home, in the workplace, wherever you're at, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

All of us need to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And then when we come to church, we're united, we're praising God. Who cares what color the walls are or the carpet when you're united with the power of the Holy Spirit? It's all about unity and praising God.

That's what being filled with the Spirit is. Now, I didn't say that just because I painted that behind me. But it's truth.

It's truth. And that works on both sides. That works on both sides.

Can we not make any changes and still worship? Absolutely. So all of us have to look at our hearts. Everybody does.

What does God want? What's for His glory? The power of the Holy Spirit is like dynamite that ignites a hunger for God so intense that every aspect of life is changed. We become bold, not passive, stable, not fanatical, and committed, not wavering. I almost changed this entire sermon on the power of the Holy Spirit because that's what people need.

That's why they're lashing out at their spouses. That's why they can't raise their kids. That's why they're arrogant at church.

That's why they have no time for God. That's why they're not filled with the Spirit of God. That's why they're filled with bickering and complaining and angst and anger and irritation because they're not filled with God's Spirit.

And it's not a big checklist. You just say, God, I need You to fill me with Your Spirit. Get rid of this arrogance.

Get rid of this pride. Give me a deep hunger for You. Here's a very good indication of if you are filled with the Spirit of God.

The last stanza that we just sang, something like, Oh, I love you how I used to love you. If you're like, Oh my Lord, that is cheesy. You are not filled with the Spirit of God.

Or if you're bored, or if you're, who made those lyrics up? Those aren't theologically sound lyrics. Yes, they are. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish.

And because of that, I have to love Him. I have to praise Him. He is my first love.

He is the first, the beginning, and the end. He is my Sabbath rest. He is my high tower.

I escape from danger when I run to Him. He is my Sabbath rest. He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.

He is the bright and morning star. If I had time, I would tell you who Christ is to me. So I have to worship Him.

I have to. That's the Holy Spirit crying, Abba, Father. The flesh hates it.

But at some point, you tell the flesh to shut its mouth. And be quiet. I don't care what you want.

I would encourage everybody in this room to read this book. They found the secret. And it's not some weird secret that you'll see on Oprah.

Ananiah Judson, Hudson Taylor, John Bunyan, Amy Carmichael, Oswald Chambers, Charles Finney, John Hyde, Dwight, ever heard of D.L. Moody? Andrew Murray, Eugene Price, Walter Wilson, John Allen. All these men and women who came before us. The interesting thing is, all of them, I believe in most cases, Finney's experience was a few days later.

But in most cases, these people, watch my English here, these people were believers. But they were disgruntled. They were dead.

D.L. Moody even said that he was doing ministry in his flesh. There weren't big crowds. There was nothing.

I can take you to Adrian Rogers. You listen to him. Remember, he passed away some time ago.

On the football field, I believe it was, he fully surrendered his life. A.W. Tozer, years after his conversion, finally surrendered his life talking to his mother-in-law. In every single case, they are believers dying on the vine.

Dead. Or they have legalism. Dry, dead religion.

Nothing. But God's touching nothing. Yeah, they get through it.

They'll read their Bible. They'll sing a few songs. They'll listen to me.

And that's about it. But this group, once they finally surrendered their life completely and said, Lord, I need to be filled with your Holy Spirit. I'm going to stop watching the garbage on media.

I'm going to stop bickering and complaining. I humble myself. And God came in.

He filled them mightily with the Spirit. Now you hear of them. You see the difference? D.L. Moody realized all of his ministry was in the flesh.

He gave his heart to the Lord. I believe it was either Chicago or New York. He said it was joy unspeakable.

So much joy came over me that I had to run into a side room and just cry out to God. I can take you to Finney and John Bunyan and the Whitfield Journals. And all men and women who came before us and even live today who are doing mighty works for God are filled with his Spirit because they're broken and humble inside.

And God says, I'll fill that vessel. Because now he'll go wherever I want. You want to go here? You want to here? Just direct me, Lord.

And here's where we have to be careful. Hear my heart. The Pharisees read the Word of God.

The Pharisees prayed. The Pharisees even fasted. The Pharisees sat through a worship service.

But they're on their way to hell. But if you parallel that to many believers, they are not filled with the Spirit of God. You can go through all the motions.

That's not being filled with God's Spirit. And I weep for people in that state. Don't you? Maybe that's you.

And I weep because God has so much more. If you would just break and humble yourself. And I've noticed the older we get, the harder it becomes.

If I talk to a group 18, 19, 20, 20, they'll run to this altar. They'll be weeping. They'll be on fire for God.

There's your next worship leader. There's your next pastor. There's your... But by the time we hit my age, I've read this 25 times now.

I can quote hundreds and hundreds of scriptures. I was raised a certain way. Who do you think you are? Well, let me tell you who I think I am.

I'm preaching what God's Word says. You can have the letter of the law, not the Spirit, and you will be dying spiritually. Ask, when was the last time you led somebody to the Lord? Ouch, don't raise your hand.

But if you think... I mean, I remember one guy, he was arguing with me, something about politics or different things, many years ago. And I said, when was the last time you ever just led somebody to the Lord? Wow, tons of... 10 years? 5 years? How long ago was it? Never? See, when you're filled with the Spirit, you have to. In your line at grocery, ma'am, I see you're having a hard time.

Can I pray for you? Yes, could you please? Here's a gift card. Everywhere you go, the Spirit's bubbling. That's why it's called overwhelmed.

That's why people say the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't freak out because baptism in the Greek is baptizo. It just means an overwhelmed feeling of the Holy Spirit.

So, you can call it baptism, you can call it filling, you can call it unction, you can call it anointing. You better have it. See, I'd rather... I like what R.A. Torrey said.

I'd rather miss the theological term exactly and have the power than get the term just right and miss the power. Now, I love theology. I think it's proper theology to teach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and being baptized in the body of Christ and subsequent fillings.

But ironically, it's the people that like to argue this subject who aren't filled with the Spirit. Oh, all those gifts of the Holy Spirit, they ceased a long time ago. Oh, really? Okay, any scriptural proof for that? Well, let me show you church history.

No, any scriptural proof for that? So, what Paul did, it was wonderful, but when we do it, it's of the devil. I haven't got to the message yet. Look what you guys did to me.

Don't look at that clock. You turn that clock around. If you need to leave, you can walk out quietly.

Let me just... You wouldn't know, but this is really now where my heart is. That was all supposed to be an introduction, but God really changed that. Ask my wife, 90% of what I talked about was not at last night's message.

So, I hope somebody's being touched by what God wants to do through His Holy Spirit. And you know what? It's sad because nobody... Francis Chan, I think, wrote a book a while back on the forgotten God. And we forget about the Holy Spirit.

And what we have is we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Word. And we forget. Are you aware that it's a Holy Spirit who convicts? It's a Holy Spirit who draws.

It's a Holy Spirit who seals. It's a Holy Spirit who's given to you as a guarantee. It's a Holy Spirit who intercedes.

It's a Holy Spirit who prays with groans that cannot be uttered. It's a Holy Spirit that'll lead you. It's a Holy Spirit that'll guide you.

It's a Holy Spirit will direct you. And when you discount all of that because of some weird thing you see on TBN, you're discounting the work of God in your life. That's how God the Father works.

We believe in the Trinity, the triune nature of God. God is one, revealing Himself in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.