Matthew 3 How to Be Filled, the Holy Spirit — Shane Idleman

Welcome to West Side Christian Fellowship. We are actually in the book of Matthew, as many of you know. And we spoke on a very controversial topic last week, did we not? The filling of the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Holy Spirit. The unction of the Holy Spirit. And as you can see, we're going to be doing part 2 tonight filled with the Spirit of God. And I will submit to you tonight that there is probably nothing more important than this topic, apart from salvation, being filled with the Spirit of God.

And to some people that might seem a little weird, a little awkward, a little interesting. But what we really believe as Christians is once you surrender, you give your heart to Christ, you repent of your sin, as a result of that, God's Spirit, the triune nature of God, God's Spirit comes and dwells with the believer inside of us.

And then now we are controlled by the Spirit of God, fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, contentment, long-suffering. All the fruit of the Spirit is there, but also the lust of the flesh is still there.

So I was thinking as a Christian, you probably understand this too, it's almost like a jack on a hide. You know, it's a pull of the flesh or the filling of the Spirit. It's the succumbing to the lust of the flesh or being filled with the Spirit of God.

And that's why the Bible speaks volumes on this topic of obeying the Word of God, because that is how a person is truly filled with the Spirit of God. So if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to go online and listen to last week's message.

It's already posted. It was part one on the baptism of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, the fire of the Spirit. And I'm not scared of those terms primarily because the Bible uses those terms. Jesus filled, you know, when he was filled with the Spirit of God and preached and the Spirit of the, and when he spoke, it said, the Bible records that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, upon him he was clothed with power.

So he brought freedom to the captives. So this isn't a topic we need to kind of cringe from. And what happens when you talk about the Holy Spirit, a lot of people either throw out the baby with the bath water.

So if anything, you know, we've seen all this stuff on TV. We've seen all this stuff before. Let's not even talk about the Holy Spirit. So as a result, there's no talk of this power of God, this filling of God.

And that's kind of what I want to attempt to do tonight. And as I said last week, this topic has been known to split many churches. I was part of a church that split because of this. It's divided friends.

It's caused a lot of disunity. And the ironic thing is it's the spirit of unity. And I often tell people it's the Holy Spirit in me and the Holy Spirit in you is not divided. Isn't that interesting concept?

If there's tension, if there's division, if we're butting heads, the Holy Spirit's not. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of unity inside of me and unity inside of you. So usually what happens, those flesh gets in the way, we argue, we backbite, we bicker, we complain, and it's like this.

And we think we're so spiritual and the other person's not. And the other person thinks, well, they're spiritual and the other person's not. But the Holy Spirit is never divided. If you think about that, the next argument you get into, it'll really make you stop and think, okay, what's going on here?

Because we should as believers be able to work through things. It's the spirit of unity that brings, that's why most of us are here tonight and throughout the churches of America, the true bloodbought church of Jesus Christ.

Why many people come together, it's because the spirit of unity is drawing them. The spirit draws them. And actually, nobody even comes to the Father except the Spirit actually comes to the Son unless the Father draws them to the Son.

So it's that drawing of the Spirit. The Spirit-filled life is something that you definitely don't want to take for granted. And we talked last week also, I'm just refreshing a lot of people, is the two camps.

You know, one camp believes we should never mention the filling of the Holy Spirit or mention, don't talk too much about the Holy Spirit. The other camp, it's all about the Holy Spirit. Emotional, if it's odd, it's God, anything goes.

And what we try to do is find the balance. As I said last week, one group needs to read their Bible and put certain things in parameters. The other group needs to experience the Bible that they're reading.

And that's kind of where we left off. We talked about the filling of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fire of the Holy Spirit. And really, do you know why this topic is uncomfortable?

It's because it challenges comfortable and it disturbs the normal. This is when you take nominal Christianity and it becomes passionate Christianity. That's the difference. You take a nominal Christian, which the Bible refers to as lukewarm or carnal, and they become a Spirit-filled believer.

Everything changes. Worship changes. The study of God's Word changes. They have a passion for God's Word. Their friends change. Their addictions leave. Why? I'm not talking about we don't struggle, but we have a carnal Christian and then a person filled with the Spirit of God.

And that's the difference. They're filled with God's Spirit. So with that said, where did we leave off last week? Anybody remember? Matthew 3, verse 11. Better get this now. Matthew 3, verse 11. I think it's gonna be up there.

And here we go, this controversial topic again. John the Baptist is speaking here. He said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to even carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And if you wanna know what that means, again, next week, tune into the video because it'll take just too much time to explain that again. But his winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn.

But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, indeed, are I need to be baptized by you and you are coming to me?

I mean, can you imagine this? Jesus Christ is coming to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is saying, wait a minute, I'm not even worthy to hold your sandals and I'm going to be baptized?

I'm going to baptize you? And Jesus says, what's he say here? Permit it so, for thus it is fitting for all of us to fulfill all righteousness. Then John allowed him to be baptized. And in the King James, right here it's permitted so, but in the King James, Jesus says, suffer it so.

Suffer it so, which means allow it. John, allow this to happen so that it will fulfill all righteousness. And there's so many different commentaries on why did Jesus get baptized? You know, some say this, some say this.

Why did Jesus get baptized? I mean, why did John baptize him? Well, I like to just first look at the text. Suffer it so, allow it. For some reason, this must have been of God's will because it says, suffer it so that it might fulfill all righteousness.

So, John the Baptist is saying, Jesus is saying, let this happen. It has to happen. This is God's will. And in righteousness implies the will of God. And baptism is a sign of submission and surrender, really of identification.

So, what I'm thinking here is, if you look to John 1 .8, it says that John the Baptist was not the light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. So, John the Baptist, his Baptist ministry, he's baptizing people for repentance.

We know that Jesus didn't need that, right? He wasn't there to repent and have that cover of sins. He was there to allow this will of God, this mandate of God to happen. So, that's where we pick up. John the Baptist is baptizing him and Jesus is allowing him.

Then we pick up in verse 16. When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove. Now, notice there, he's saying like a dove.

You know, sometimes we see the little dove on Christian literature and it symbolizes the Holy Spirit and that's fine, but I'm not sure he actually saw a dove. He saw the Spirit of God clothed, Jesus being clothed with power from on high, this Spirit of God coming and descending upon Christ and alighting upon him.

And suddenly, a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And that's one of the proof texts we use for the Trinity, the triune nature of God, Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

We see that all right here. The Son is in the Jordan River. He's just been baptized, being obedient because of what the Father commanded. He's being baptized. Then the heavens open up and the Spirit of God descends upon him.

And then the Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear him. So we see the triune nature of God there. Now, this is very interesting. If you don't have to turn there, but Luke 4 records.

Luke 4 says, then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now, this is pretty interesting. Why would the text say, after his baptism, after his endowment of power, the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus Christ, now the Bible says, and then Jesus, being filled with the Spirit of God, was led into the wilderness to be tempted.

Why would Jesus need to be filled with the Spirit of God? And that's what a lot of people have been debating throughout history. Jesus was fully God, yet fully man. But to me, the Scripture's pretty clear that something, not extra, not in addition to, but this endowment of power, and what I mean by that word, I'm gonna explain that later.

A lot of old readers and writers used to use that word. It's being clothed with something. You're receiving, you're being clothed with the power of God. And we don't see Jesus in ministry before this time.

He goes from obscurity to notoriety, just like that. Nothing, 30 years, nothing. And then now he's baptized, the Spirit comes, descends upon him, now he's filled with the Spirit of God, now he turns the world upside down.

So it's this filling of God's Spirit that's this overflowing of God's Spirit. So we believe, and I believe, that Jesus somehow, when the Spirit fell upon him, he was filled mightily with the Spirit of God, then he began his earthly ministry.

It's crystal clear there. Luke 4, 14, then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. We don't see that in Matthew. But Luke 4, 14, a few verses later, after Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, then he went into the wilderness, and after his wilderness experience, which we'll talk about probably next week, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

So you see how Jesus is returning in the power of the Spirit, he's being filled with the Spirit, so how much more me and you not be filled with the Spirit of God? We need that just as much. So that's where we're at so far.

Everyone praised him when this happened. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue, and as was the custom, he stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, and we talked about this before. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Do we call that ironic? Do we call that, oh, it's just coincidence? No, Jesus was baptized into the Jordan River, filled with the Spirit of God.

The Bible says that he was filled with the Spirit of God, beginning his ministry, and now he stands up and he preaches. He says, the Spirit of the Lord is now upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor.

He has set me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. In a nutshell, he had received his baptism of fire.

He had been filled mightily with the Spirit of God, and now he's going to go in, and now he's going to preach, he's going to witness, he's going to heal people, he's gonna proclaim the kingdom of God.

So see, that's what many people don't understand. The filling of the Spirit of God is not some weird thing, it's when God fills you and you overflow. He fills you and then you testify, there's fruit of the Spirit there.

So a lot of people just aren't filled with the Spirit of God. That's what's happening. That's what the Spirit-filled life is, is being filled with the Spirit of God. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

I'm gonna get to that in a minute. But think about this. When we're talking about the Spirit-filled life, as we submit and as we surrender to God, he fills us with the Spirit. Some people don't want that.

And I'll say, okay, this message isn't for you then. They've got comfortable Christianity is what I call it. They've never talked about Jesus at work or at home or anywhere else. They'll come to church now and then, right?

Okay, I come to church, I'm a good person. But there's no Spirit-filled life. The Spirit is not overflowing from them. If you guys want a quick example to kind of wake everybody up, I'll give you one.

Here is what this should look like. And then you can remember this from here on out. This is the Spirit-filled life. You, me, emptying ourself. We're emptying ourselves of self. We're saying, Lord, fill me.

We're singing the songs, Lord, fill me. And that's what I'm gonna talk about in a little bit. But what it looks like is this. He comes in and he fills. And it doesn't just stop, right? What's it do? That's it, the Spirit-filled life.

It flows in, wait, it keeps going. It flows into everything, your marriage, your workplace, your friends, your relationship, everything, it's a Spirit-filled life. It's filling. But then what does D .O. Moody say?

We have to stay under this because we're leaky vessels. All the time we're leaking. We're filling our mind with things that we ought not be, our attitudes. We're leaking, we're leaking. So we come in dry and dead and stagnant.

We're not filled with the Spirit of God. So we need that filling of the Spirit. Lord, would you fill me with your Spirit? I'm gonna empty myself. Then it flows into everything, our study time, our worship, everything, it's a Spirit-filled life.

That's what it should look like. But the majority of Christians know nothing about this. They know nothing about this. They don't even, Shane, what are you talking about? Because our lives look like this.

Not this. That's the difference. That's a Spirit-filled life. God's Spirit is overflowing into all areas of life. Financial, relational, spiritual, everything's affected. Everything's affected. Or nothing is.

You see the difference? Either everything is affected or nothing is. And that's why I preach on this topic so much is because that's the key to the Christian faith, is it not? Being filled with the Spirit of God so you can do God's will.

You can understand His ways. You can be called of Him and witnessed and everything transforms, everything changes. That's how important this is. As we learned last week, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And I didn't get a chance to talk about this, but I want to tonight. Fire, what does fire do? It burns and consumes. It purifies and it refines. It warms and it comforts and it destroys and it annihilates.

So what does the Bible say about fire, this Holy Spirit and fire? That's not a bad thing, it's a very good thing. You should desire this, saying I want the fire of God in my life. I want that passion of God.

Have you ever heard the phrase that guy's on fire? That woman's on fire. Or in sports, we say it all the time. Such and such is on fire. Three home runs in two games, he's on fire. What's that mean? What's that mean in the Christian community?

That person is filled mightily with the Spirit of God. That's a good thing. And the Bible says this about fire. Great care was taken to preserve a burning fire. I don't want you to forget that statement.

I'm gonna bring it up later. Great care was taken to preserve a burning fire. Think about it. In Jesus' time, they didn't just have little matches and little lighters with a whole bunch of the fluid in there and you could just, whenever you want, turn on the stove, all this fire.

There was, once you started a fire, you needed to keep that fire going because it could go out very easily. And here's what, I wanna read what the, what R .J. Forbes said in studies in ancient technology and biblical doctrine here.

Great care was taken to preserve a burning fire. Think about this burning fire in your soul for the Spirit of God. To avoid the necessity of rekindling it, Abraham apparently carried a piece of burning fire with him when he went to offer Isaac.

Fire was used in warmth and refining metals. Also for destroying such things as idols. They would throw their wood idols into the fire and it would consume them. It also played an important part in worship of the tabernacle and of the temple.

As I'm reading this, I'm thinking, this is exactly what the fire of God does in our life. It gives that warmth. It also refines us and shapes us and it destroys the sin, these idols in our hearts that shouldn't be there.

Not only that, it plays an important role in worship. Everything changes. In my life, when I talked about last week, when that Spirit-filled life, when the Spirit began to fill me mildly with the Spirit, worship changed.

I used to be bored to death. When is worship over to now? I don't want it to stop. Where is that? How did that happen? It's surely not me, because my flesh in here is ready for an in-and-out burger and I want to get out of here.

But the Spirit cries, Abba, Father. And as you submit to that, the Spirit says more, feed me, feed me, feed me. The flesh says, feed me so I can destroy you. The Spirit says, feed me so I can guard you.

So you're feeding one or the other. And that is my greatest struggle up here, my greatest struggle when I do this and when I preach sermons and I put all this together, my greatest struggle and what I'm trying to do is fill you with the Spirit of God.

Not me doing it, Him doing it. But sometimes it takes that stirring and that convicting and that emptying to do that. If I had a whole bunch of concrete and I just put a whole bunch of concrete in here, how much water could it take after that?

Nothing. Nothing. That's what a hard, rigid, prideful, arrogant heart does. There's no Spirit of God in them. They're not overflowing with the Spirit of God. They're overflowing with the world. They're overflowing with bitterness and judgmentalism and jealousy and envy and backbiting and gossip and arrogance.

They're full of the world. They love the things of the world. There's no Spirit of God in them. So when they come to church, they're bored to death. They can't wait to hurry up and get out of here or when's Shane gonna finish?

That's why I often say that. I'm tying it back into the Spirit-filled life. Now I'm not talking about a perfect life where everything's great and we're never worries and there's never valleys, there's always mountains, but it's a life anchor to this and you're standing under that and you're just sitting there going, Lord, fill me, fill me, fill me with your Spirit and it just flows into all areas of life, everything.

That's the Spirit. That's what it looks like. I didn't want just a little cup, a little pixie cup because that doesn't adequately do it. It's a Spirit-filled life that just keeps filling everything. Our marriages, our finances, everything changes.

Everything's affected by that. So that's what the filling of the Spirit is. That's how contextually when the Bible talks about it, he's talking about the Spirit-filled life and I love that song Chelsea did.

I think I actually, she sent it to me or I sent it to her, I don't remember, but there's one thing and I wish I could write the author of the song. When they say, I will provide the fire, right? God says, provide the fire, I'll provide the sacrifice, but it's actually the opposite.

I must provide the sacrifice. That's when the fire falls. A lot of people are like, Lord, as soon as you provide the fire, I'll provide the sacrifice. He says, no, it's not gonna happen like that. Romans 12, present your bodies as living sacrifices.

Holy, what is your reasonable service? As we present our bodies as living sacrifices, that's when the fire of God falls. I will bring the sacrifice, Lord, you bring the fire. It's not a weird term, you guys don't need to worry about this term, you need to embrace it.

The Spirit-filled life, the fire of God because it's got Spirit in it. I know many people feel the stirring, don't you? You feel, Lord, I want that, I want what he's talking about, I want that, I need that, Lord, I want that, but the difference between want that and have that is this, the emptying of self.

Because as you empty yourself, God fills you. You see how that works? When you say, Lord, this is your job. Wherever you work, this is your job, this is your career. Lord, take me wherever you wanna take me.

Lord, do with me, I am yours, that is the Spirit-filled life. We say, well, Lord, here's my plans and here's what I'm due. I don't wanna work there, I don't wanna live there, and we've got everybody wanting to leave California right now and they just don't like it here, and we wanna do this, we wanna do this, and then, Lord, come and bless these plans.

And we wonder why we're hard and rigid and no fun, and where's the Spirit of God, and I feel this and God seems distant, and there's nothing there because you're not allowing him to move. You're not allowing him to fill you and guide you because you've got your plans.

I'm guilty as charged, I've made many plans. And every time I say, I'm not gonna do something, he says, oh yeah, you're gonna do it. So be very careful what you're telling him you're not gonna do, because it's usually a heart check.

And he wants to show us, he's more concerned about our character than our comfort. And I forget that, it's hard. I want this, and I want this, but he wants my character to develop, he wants your character to develop.

And that's how the Spirit-filled life works. Now I'm gonna go to the historical context of the filling of the Spirit, because a lot of people aren't really sure what I'm talking about here, so I wanna talk about the historical context in the Bible, and if you can look up at the screen, it should be John 20, verse 19 through 22.

Now keep in mind, this is right after Jesus' resurrection. Jesus was just resurrected, and he comes to the disciples, then on the same day and evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came in and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you.

And when he had said this to them, now listen, pay attention, this has got a lot of people baffled. You know, it is a baffling text, so we need to think through this. He showed him his hands and his side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Then said Jesus to them again, peace unto you, as my Father has sent me, even so I send you. Now are they Christians at this point? Disciples? Well here's the interesting, now here's the interesting, and when Jesus had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Ghost.

Wait a minute, they're disciples, they're followers. Are you telling me these guys die, they're gonna go to hell? So you see why this has people baffled? I mean, what is he talking about here? Well, well, let's just read this.

When he breathed on them, he said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. And what we do know is the Holy Spirit could not come yet, the Paracletus, he could not come until Jesus was glorified. So some say that he was breathing the Holy Spirit into these people, filling them with the Holy Spirit of God.

So something to think about, Acts 2. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now we're not gonna talk too much about this, but this is this whole issue on tongues debate that there's two sides of this as well. This is where this comes from. What they did, these people heard the disciples speaking in their native tongue, Phoetian and Roman and all these different, I don't have the time to read over them, but they're speaking all their different languages.

They're speaking the glorious gospel of God. And these people are convicted, they're saying, look it, these guys are speaking in our language. They're crying out to God, they're speaking the glories of God.

These people were filled with the Spirit of God, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Back then, nobody has a problem with it, but now it's of the devil. Okay, let's save that one for a later date.

But if you're glorifying God, you're not of the devil. You cannot have blessing and cursing coming out of the same mouth. You cannot be worshiping God and glorifying the devil. So just think about that.

But the disciples were filled with the Spirit of God, they spoke in tongues, all that is is an unknown language, unknown to them, known to somebody else. I don't think that's for God who created the universe, I don't think it's too far-fetched to give somebody that language of speaking in an unknown tongue to them and known tongue to somebody else.

They said, these guys are not drunk as we suppose, they're filled with the Spirit of God, they're speaking the glories of God. And they are convicted at their heart. Peter said, repent and be converted.

They were full of fire, they were full of the Spirit of God. So that's why you'll see, which is considered Pentecostals or Charismatics, believe that when somebody's filled with the Spirit of God, one of those signs, one of those evidence is speaking in tongues.

That's where that denomination comes from. So now you see the need for denominationisms. Even though we don't, well, the church is divided, well, I can kind of see why we need those because you have a church that doesn't believe in that, doesn't believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, doesn't believe that those are for today, all that's ceased, all that.

Well, they're gonna have a hard time fellowshipping with the group that does. You see why there's different denominations? Could we say both, you know, they have different theological issues, right? But this has nothing to do with salvation.

These are not what we would consider essentials. So that's why we don't have to divide over them because these aren't essentials to salvation. These are non-essentials, I think are very important, but we can still be believers, we can still be united for the cause of Christ.

So that was just a side note. That's why there's different denominations. Baptists arose out of believing you have to be baptized, not just as little infants or not as sprinkling, you had to be baptized, so let's call them Baptists.

We have Reformed, right? Reformed doctrine from John Calvin, John Knox, the Reformation, that's where the Reformed faith comes from. They come from the Reformed faith. Pentecostal Charismatics come from the day of Pentecost.

They believe that when somebody's filled with the Spirit of God, that they speak with tongues in an unknown language. So now you see where all those different denominations come from. And really, it's the same God, it's the same Spirit, but different in ministries, and just in my opinion, somebody who's been filled with the Spirit of God, they don't have to argue it.

You don't have to argue this filling of the Spirit. I've experienced it, it lines up with Scripture. There's no need to argue and debate it. You're just trying to tell me the sky's not blue. Well, I see it, I've experienced it, and it lines up with Scripture.

So that's what this, the day of Pentecost, the tongues issue doesn't bother me whatsoever. It's clearly biblical that they spoke in other tongues, and God enabled them, and we see that throughout the New Testament.

And the argument goes that now we don't need that anymore when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with. Some say this has come, this is the perfect. This is the perfect.

We don't need the gifts of this, the gifts of that. When that which is perfect comes, when that which is perfect comes, everything else will be done away with those kind of sign gifts. That's what one side says.

The other side says, well, we believe that all those are still active today. So you see how those can be, there's some tension there? And that verse, when that which is perfect comes, to me, even reading John Calvin's commentary, he says it's the perfect is Christ.

So they would say that all those things are still needed today, exercised today, because the perfect has not come yet. The canonization of Scripture is not the perfect. So when it gets into theological bantering back and forth on that, but we'll be here all night if I keep going on that.

When the day of Pentecost, they filled the Spirit of God, they spoke in other tongues, basically being baptized in Spirit, filled with the Spirit, is you're bringing down heaven's atmosphere into the life of the believer.

You're bringing down the Spirit of God into the life of the believer. That's why people have a passion for the Word of God. If you've ever had it where you couldn't put this down, or you just love to worship God, that's the Spirit of God.

My flesh doesn't wanna do it. It's the Spirit doing that, and that's what draws us in. It's that endowment of power I talked about, being filled with the Spirit of God. And do you know the Bible says, and when Peter was filled with the Spirit of God, he preached.

And when Paul was filled with the Spirit of God, he preached. And Jesus being filled with the Spirit of God went into the wilderness. And Jesus being filled with the Spirit of God came out after his temptation.

And they even said Stephen was filled with the Spirit of God as he was being stoned. What about when they said, go choose seven men filled with the Spirit of God. Let them rule over this area. See, this term is throughout the entire New Testament, being filled with the Spirit of God.

So it begs the question, what I just spent 25, 30 minutes doing is, are you filled with the Spirit of God? This is a yes or no, folks. You're asking me, Shane, are you married? Oh yeah, I am, I am. I forgot.

Either you know what I'm talking about. Right now as I'm preaching, you say, amen, brother, preach it, I'm filled with the fire of God, I'm filled with the Spirit of God. That resonates within me, I'm deep calling deep.

Abba, Father, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Others are saying, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about, Shane, and that's the group I'm speaking about because that's why other groups believe that there is something subsequent to conversion.

Not more, we have the Holy Spirit at conversion. We have the Holy Spirit, but does he have all of you? See, that's where the Bible talks about quenching and grieving the Spirit of God. So you can take two, I'll take, I've seen it before, I'll take two young adults, both say 26, and 26, both Christians.

This one hits schooners tonight, he gets drunk, he gets hung over, he gets hooked up with some girls tonight, he feels convicted, but he just continues, continues. Gets into porn next week, watching all this stuff on TV, MTV, BET, whatever, all this is just filling his mind with junk, just so depressed, so discouraged.

I got this guy, he's going to church, he's on fire for God, he's making right decisions, he just feels a passion, he wants to come to both services. What happened here? Filled with the Spirit of God, filled with the world.

I'm just shooting you straight tonight, that's the difference, that's the difference. I mean, I can remember clear as day, I would get in my, that pool of the flesh, I would get in my truck, and I'd be heading to schooners, think of that, nice, big, cold beer, I'm meeting some friends, put on worship music, uh-oh, uh-oh, something's happening, I'm convictions being drawn, you're worshiping God, and I can't, I can't do this, I turn around, I just go home, put down my blinds, turn off the lights, close it, I'm not home, I'm not home, I'm worshiping God.

What happened, it's that fight there, it's that fight inside, filled with the Spirit of God, I had to start filling myself because the flesh was pulling me. So as you obey, as you obey the Word of God, that's where the filling comes from.

That's what the Spirit-filled life is. All the Spirit-filled life is is somebody filled with the Spirit of God because they obeyed the Word of God. That's the simple definition. I just summed up the whole message, right there.

You wanna be filled with the Spirit of God, you obey the Word of God. If you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me. The if is conditional, that comes first. If you provide the sacrifice, then I'll provide the fire.

If you provide the humility, then I'll provide the grace. If you provide the repentance, then I'll provide the restoration. If you provide the brokenness, then I will rebuild and restore you. You see how that works?

God's always saying, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,.

Then I'll heal their land. We say, Lord, heal our land right now, but we have the most porn viewed.