Are You Filled With the Holy Spirit? — Shane Idleman

Jesus' Ministry Through the Holy Spirit

I want to get right to this point in Acts 1, it's Luke writing, he said the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up, after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen.

Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Now if Jesus needed the Holy Spirit, what in the world makes us think we can neglect this aspect of the triune nature of God? So are you filled with the Holy Spirit is the most important question a Christian can ask, besides are you saved, of course.

But as a Christian, the most important question you can ask is are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Balcony, this is for you too this morning. Even though you feel way back there, this is for you. Are you truly filled with the Holy Spirit?

Because this dictates everything. See the Bible had many different writers but one author. The Holy Spirit authored the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and it's not some little spirit sitting next to your heart or over by your lungs or above your kidney.

When the Holy Spirit, it's the triune nature of God, God's Holy Spirit residing in the believer, in their thought life, in the spiritual side of a person. He comes to guard them and guide them and lead them and direct them and fill them with God's power, God's presence, God's authority from that Spirit.

So if you neglect the Spirit, you are neglecting just about everything that has to do with Christianity because you're not filled with God's Spirit. And you cannot be filled with two things. If you're filled with the world, you are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

And if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you sometimes despise the things of the world. They agitate you. It doesn't, I just, I just see it even, I'll be careful on this sermon. Last night I let loose too.

But even driving through Hollywood yesterday, I was just, my daughter was in a gymnastic thing right at the Staples Center and I was able to go down there real quick and get back for the service. But just seeing the billboards and the, just the beers everywhere and Victoria's Secret is like, what, what, see there's something shouldn't resonate.

I don't, the Spirit is crying, Abba Father, not give me more of the world. And you're going to be filled with one or the other. But as a Christian, you do battle with both. The Holy Spirit wants more of you and so does the flesh.

But this is an interesting topic because as we get into the book of Acts, the distinct mark of the early church, without even, it's not even a question in my mind, the distinct mark of the early church of a true born again Spirit filled Christian is Spirit led.

They are Spirit led, led by the Spirit. Their words are chosen carefully, led by the Spirit. Their actions are led by the Spirit. The choices they make, see the choices you make will determine if you're filled with the Spirit or not.

You can go watch Hillsong at the movie right now or Jason Bourne. You can go watch Hillsong right now at the movie theater or Bad Mom. It's rated R, says Bad Mom, that's all I need to know. I don't need to watch the trailer.

See we make choices that we actually fill us with the Spirit or quench and grieve the Spirit of God. This is the most important aspect that we will ever cover in our lives, this area of the filling of the Spirit and being submitted and surrendered to the Spirit.

In Duncan Campbell's book that I would recommend, I think written over a hundred years ago, The Price and Power of Revival, he said, how is it that while we make such great claims for the power of the gospel that we see so little of the supernatural in operation?

Is there any reason why the church today cannot everywhere equal the church at Pentecost? I feel this is a question we ought to face with an open mind and an honest heart. What did the early church have that we do not possess today?

Nothing but the Holy Spirit, nothing but the power of God. See we need to wake up, you need to wake up, I need to wake up. We were born for such a time as this. You were not born to just go through life aimlessly and carefree and not concerned with the things of God and barely getting by in this thing we call Christianity.

You were called for such a time as this to be filled mightily with the Holy Spirit. Well Shane that's great you're a pastor, yeah but you're a parent. If we would have more parents, more parents filled with the Spirit of God, underscoring their words with love and truth and being built up and not tearing down.

What about the spouse? If families were filled with the Spirit, the divorce rate would plummet. Calls into protective child care and the state getting involved would be severely curtailed in the Christian community because you need to be filled with the Spirit just as much as I do.

It's Spirit led, Spirit directed. The Bible says that the Spirit intercedes, so He will intercede for you, He leads you, He guides you, He teaches you and so on. He enables and empowers us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and boldly live for Christ.

Charles Spurgeon said, what can a hammer do without the hand that grasps it and what can we do without the Spirit of God? That's why I want to camp out here for a while. I'm going to step on toes and I'm going to ruffle feathers.

Because again we need to wake up. This is the missing element. This is why people don't want to come to a prayer and worship service. They can sit and study the Bible for two hours, but when it comes to the prayer and worship service, why?

Because that filling of the Holy Spirit is not taking place. Because the Spirit must worship. If it were up to me, I'll be selfish, I'll just admit it, I would just say, Gabe, you know what, just stay on that song for the next 30 minutes.

We're going to sit here, we're going to get our hearts right because Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. That's not bad theology, that's correct theology. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

How is that a bad thing? It just blows my mind that the whole point of the Holy Spirit has been either abused or neglected. So why the neglect of the Holy Spirit or why the abuse of the Holy Spirit? And I had two sides last night, I'm going to have two sides here too.

You guys, I know you don't like it, but you'll be the side that neglects the Holy Spirit. And you'll be the side that abuses the Holy Spirit. And that's what we see happening in the church. Aren't we sometimes afraid the Holy Spirit, uh-oh, weirdness is going to happen.

Here's my struggle with this whole thing. Some of what you, we can all agree that most of that is weird, right? But the group, it's Wretched Radio, and Todd Friall, I think his name is, and I love this guy and their stuff, and John MacArthur and all that stuff.

But what they do is they throw the baby out with the bathwater. And they'll throw Hillsong into that group, or anything charismatic goes into that group. Watching our worship this morning, they would have thrown us in that group.

And I don't, not everything in there, some of it's taken out of context, different things. So I'm trying to find the middle ground. But that's what abuse looks like. But when God truly visits a church, you'll be on your face before God, you'll be weeping.

But repentance, repentance is what is forefront, not weird manifestations. So that's what abuse looks like, the abuse side. But neglect is just as dangerous. It's just as dangerous. I'm going to talk about three reasons why we either neglect the Holy Spirit or abuse the Holy Spirit.

Theology Without Experience

Number one, theology without experience. You have theology without experience. And theology without experience is like faith without works. It's dead. See, you can be straight as a gun barrel theologically, but just as empty.

Put a round in the chamber and shoot that, if I had a shotgun up here and it was empty, what would you say? Oh Shane, that's not a good illustration. But it's okay. You know, at least it's empty. And I grab a round, put it in there, close it.

How many of you are running for that door? And I'm getting fired this week. But that's what the Holy Spirit, you can be straight as a gun barrel. You've got your theology down, but you're empty. You're not doing any damage.

You can just set that gun there. It's not doing any damage. So a person who has theology, I know about the Holy Spirit, but I've never experienced him. They will neglect that area. Because when we read, let's say, for example, we're going to be reading in the book of Acts about the disciples.

And everybody loves the book of Acts. Everybody loves chapter two. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke in tongues. You say that today, you must be filled with the devil. Well, it's in the book of Acts.

Yeah, but not for today. Well, it's in the, Paul talks about it in first Corinthians 12, yeah, but it's not for today. But they were, but it's not for today. Why do they say that? Because they've never experienced it.

So when we haven't, so, but our experiences need to line up with theology. Here's the key. You don't interpret theology based on experiences. You interpret experiences based on theology. So if what happens lines up with what happened to Paul, that might be a good thing.

There's nothing wrong with that. But this is why the Holy Spirit is often neglected because people are, they've never experienced the powerful move of God. So they're, and here's the second point. When something is feared, it's often avoided.

Fear of Spiritual Manifestations

See, I don't like a lot of that. So I don't even want to have anything to do with the Holy Spirit. Don't let them misrepresent the Holy Spirit any more than you allow Mormons to misrepresent the Bible.

There's always a counterfeit. And why wouldn't the devil want to counterfeit or bring in false manifestations with something as important as the Holy Spirit? So my concern with this group is they throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And let me just say some points on this because it'll help some younger people. This group is heavily identified or they'll, this group of a theology without experience really goes after, say, Jesus culture or Bethel music or even Hillsong.

Now, in my opinion, what I'm seeing is you've got Bethel, you've got Jesus culture. They're singing songs about fill me up, Lord, show me your glory, you're present, you're a welcome here. The more I seek you, the more I find you.

These are all Holy Spirit songs. But this group often will just allow anything to happen. If it's odd, it's God. There can be angel globes. There can be dust falling. There can be weird manifestations.

Doesn't matter. It's odd. It's God. Brother, just don't quench your spirit. No, that's not good. So I would say that these groups need theology to come alongside of them and somebody mature to guide them in what they're allowing to happen in these places.

To allow somebody, don't just say these things and do these things so they have experience but without theology. That's the other side. See, you can have experience and all these things going on but without the character of God.

See, these guys, when they say drunk, toking the Holy Ghost, I have a problem with that. You don't say the Holy Ghost is like taking a bong hit and you're sitting there toking the Holy Ghost. Brother, I feel you're drunk in glory and you're acting all weird and you're kicking people in the stomach for healing.

That's just wrong. That's just wrong theologically and practically. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. And the reason this group doesn't like a lot of those songs is because they've never experienced the power of the Holy Spirit breaking them.

Because when I read those lyrics, I'm like, fill me up Lord, show me your glory. The more I seek you, the more I find you, the more I find you, the more I love you. That resonates with me. I want that.

I want that worship. So, this side has theology, but not experience. George Watson said, The true saints of God who have clear heads and pure warm hearts have in all generations had to walk between the two extremes of cold formality on one side and the wild ranting fanaticism on the other.

Dead formality and the false fire of fanaticism are both Satan's counterfeits. And he does not care into which extreme the soul plunges. See theology is important to Christian living, but so is experience.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, there's no way to get around this for you who are conservative or politically correct. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, your emotions are engaged. Is fire evident?

If this church is on fire, who's going to say, I don't know, is it? I can't really tell. There's a lot of big flames and things are happening. The fire truck's outside. I don't know. Of course you know fire is evident.

So is the Holy Spirit. When a person's filled with the Spirit, it's evident. It's clear because he bubbles over, I guess is a good word. That's the baptism of the Spirit. There's an overwhelming, an over sense of the Holy Spirit in your life.

So the worship, you love the worship. You love the Word of God. You love the things of God, where the things of the world irritate you. So if a person is more drawn to the things of the world and not the things of God, they are not filled with the Spirit.

They are quenching and grieving the Spirit. Quenching is like throwing water on a fire, so besetting sin. If you continue in a certain sin, let's just throw pornography out there, addiction, all these big ones.

We forget about the sins of the heart such as pride and stuff, but let's say, and we're just, I'm going to continue in this sin. You are quenching the Holy Spirit. That fire of God is not going to resonate inside of you.

It's not. And you grieve the Holy Spirit. It's a withdraw, that sense grieving. Have you ever grieved your spouse and they withdraw? Same thing with the Holy Spirit. Same thing. The power is not there.

The presence of God is not there because we're quenching and we're grieving. And I'm not talking about quoting the Bible. The devil can do that. I'm talking about knowing the Bible because you've experienced that power of God in your life.

A .W. Tozer insightfully said, If the Lord's people were only half as eager to be filled with the Spirit as they are to prove that they cannot be filled, the church would be crowded out. I'm going to have to say that again.

You didn't get it. If the Lord's people were only half as eager to be filled with the Spirit as they are to prove they cannot be filled with the Spirit, the churches would be crowded out. What he's talking about is, there are many people in Christianity who say, you got all the Holy Spirit at conversion.

You don't need to talk about this topic, Shane. You don't need to discuss it. This is not true. And they prove that you don't have to be filled with the Spirit. And then it gets interesting. Man, there's just so much.

You have, say, charismatics. And that just comes from the word charisma in the Greek language, which means bestowing spiritual gifts. Nothing wrong with that. Pentecostals, they believe, like as in the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit still moves in that way.

So that's why you have these different denominations breaking apart from each other. And you see that stuff, and you're like, okay, I don't want to be a part of that. And we polarize, we get to the other end, where we just don't want anything to do with the Holy Spirit.

And that's dangerous, because it's the Holy Spirit of God who's going to be giving you the love for others, the love of His truth, the ability to overcome sin. It's through that Holy Spirit power. Also, there's some confusion when a person says you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

If you look up the incidents of that, the Bible talks about being baptized into the body of Christ. So as a believer, when you believe in Jesus, you're saved, you are baptized into the body of Christ.

You have all of the Holy Spirit that you'll ever need, but the question is, does He have all of you? You see how that works? You have all the Holy Spirit you'll ever need, but does He have all of you?

And you will read that Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit, and Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit. Also, very interesting. Oh, let me, before I forget that point, let me go back to it. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is when a person is baptized in the body of Christ, but Paul talks about subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be being filled. Don't be drunk with wine, as in dispensation, but be filled with the Spirit. So it's a command. So you don't say, I'm filled with the Spirit, I'm good for the rest of my life. That's like saying I ate breakfast, I don't need to eat again.

So it's an ongoing, the devil goes after that filling of the Holy Spirit. You can be on fire for God, and He's going to go after that. By bringing things into your life, they'll quench and grieve the Spirit's work.

So I don't necessarily use the term baptized in the Holy Spirit, even though I personally don't have a problem with it. I refer often to the word filling of the Holy Spirit. However, I like what R .A. Torrey said.

He said, I'd rather get the theological term wrong and have the Spirit's power, than get the terminology just right but miss the Spirit's power. See, we like to argue over all these little things, and usually it's this camp with theology but no experiences who likes to argue all these little things.

It's funny, I used to read books, or actually I still read books, but written... I've got to bring some humor here, because this is weighty. You guys are, we're stepping on some toes, but that's a good thing.

When, do you know a hundred years ago or so, like let's say when this church was looking for a pastor, or if they ever went that direction, they'd hire a pastor search committee and different things, and it happens.

They search for a pastor. Well, a hundred years ago, they wouldn't ask, does he have his Ph .D. in theology, does he have a Master's in counseling? They would ask one question, has he received his baptism of fire?

That's what the main, so you can get, I love theology, but if all you come up here with is sound doctrine with no power, you're going to fall asleep. The Spirit's power is not going to be there. You need to have both of them.

So they would, before they even called the pastor, they'd say, has he received his baptism of fire? Has he been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God? Is he filled with the Spirit? See, our choices allow us to be filled, or we quench the Spirit.

The Spirit's Power and Daily Submission

How good do you think this sermon will be this morning, if I got up and put on CNN, and Fox News, and watched what's going on with ISIS, and everything else in North Carolina, and got on Facebook and started to gossip, and then just strolled over to Victoria's Secret page?

What would happen? The Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved to such a degree that you lose that connection with God, you lose that power, and that's what the enemy's going after. That's why I tell you, the enemy's got his sights right here with a 30 -06 on me every single day.

I'm well aware of what his schemes are. Why does he want to do it? Maybe he wants to take the Spirit's power out. Think about it. When is the last time you talked to anybody seriously about Jesus, let alone led them to the Lord?

That's one thing about the Spirit. Everywhere I go, God seems to prompt me, and the flesh hates it, but the Spirit, ask Him about God, ask Him about church. Whether it's five in the morning or five at night, where are you at?

See, there's this filling. What is in comes out. That's why this is the most important question we can ever ask. So if you're on this side and you have theology, you love to study about the Holy Spirit, but you don't know anything about the Spirit's power, you don't like to worship, you're a worker, not a worshiper, you don't have anything to do with emotionalism and these songs and this and that, you've got a problem in the heart.

You need to have both theology and that spiritual power. Because when the Spirit cries, when He says, Abba, Father, when you see a baby born, are you not emotional? I hope so. What's the difference from the Holy Spirit within you crying, Abba, Father, and saying, God, I come before you and I sing these songs.

Lord, You're presence, You're welcome here. And something is happening in your heart. You get all excited over the NFL. What's the difference? It's what you're filled with. It's what you're filled with, what I'm filled with.

So the second point why the Holy Spirit is either abused or neglected is they have experience, this side, but you have no theology. You can't just say, if it's odd, it's God, let whatever happen. Happens.

And just God take over and just don't let, just whatever. Well, John says to test the Spirit. He says to discern all things. And this group cracks me up because when I ask them about some of these things, hey, brother, whatever, you're quenching and grieving the Spirit of God.

And I say, when did discernment become quenching and grieving the Spirit of God? God gives us discernment to discern the Spirit because I don't know what spirit you have, but I don't have that one. To be drunk in the Holy Spirit, to toke the Holy Spirit, all these weird manifestations.

Anything goes. It's odd, it's God. Now, again, I'm careful because when God truly moves in a group of people, it's not going to look normal. I've been in places where men are literally on their faces before God, on this altar, while I'm preaching sometimes, people are crying, you can hear them sobbing, you can hear God working.

You can hear, this is not, Shane, this is not good, this is not conservative right. God is working, but the fruit is repentance, not hysteria. That's the big difference. What is the fruit of what is happening?

And we don't, nobody has perfect theology. Nobody does. We don't know, because John MacArthur says the spiritual gifts don't exist anymore. Jack Hayford says they do. Well, who's right? What's the Bible say?

What's the Word of God say? So see, when I see the disciples in an upper room praying and fasting and worshiping and the Spirit of God moves mightily on them and they change the whole world upside down and now they say, no, no, no, that today doesn't really happen.

But if you've experienced that, it doesn't matter what this site says, you'll disagree, because you've experienced it. So how can it be a bad thing if Paul experienced it? You can't have somebody worshiping God and let's say like Paul says, I pray that you speak in tongues.

So that doesn't exist anymore. Well, it existed for Paul's day, but now it's of the devil. How do you make that connection? Now granted, there's been abuses, this is a very controversial topic, but I just want to be careful that we don't quench and grieve the Spirit of God, because last I checked, he's the same yesterday, today and forevermore.

There's no reason why the supernatural act, why could he go and somebody be healed during worship? Why? Because we're scared? Because we don't want this to happen. So this group, experienced without theology, and I did see, I've seen guys kick people in the stomach for healing.

Bam, right in the stomach with a boot. Like, really? Again, the devil mimics the true work of God. They allow very odd things, but fail to look at the Word. So here's three signs of false fire. Number one, people are acting bizarre without repenting.

Just alluded to that. Number two, sound doctrine is called divisive. Whenever you bring, let's look at what this looks like in God's truth. For example, that girl who said, the Holy Spirit, Father, Son is my genie in a bottle.

Well, let's look what theology says. It doesn't say, he's not your genie in a bottle. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. You better bow your knee and confess and get correct theology. But when you tell them that, they're just being divisive.

No, I'm not. See, you look at the character of God. You look at the nature of God. And that's what we allow to take place. Discernment is not of the devil. Actually, the devil would love that nothing be discerned.

Just let whatever happens. Number three, the so-called love replaces truth. This side often says, but Shane, it's all about love and unity, man. Just chill out. You're quenching, grieving the Spirit of God.

I'm like, well, that's what the hippie said in the 60s. Just love and unity, just chill out. Well, that's not God. So see, they'll allow weird behavior. They'll say it's love and unity, leave us alone.

They'll allow weird behavior and say we don't want sound doctrine, it's divisive. So this group is just as prideful and arrogant as that group. It's what it boils down to. We don't want to submit underneath the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.

The last I checked, a fruit of the Holy Spirit was self-control. That's why Paul said, with this issue of tongues, have an interpreter. Don't do certain things because people are going to come in from outside and think you're out of your mind.

That's what the Bible says. So it tells me I've got to discern. Not every spirit is of God. I've had people come up, I've never met before, it's the first time, I've got a word for God for your church.

They say, no you don't. He didn't tell me anything, I don't know you. It doesn't check out, it doesn't register with me. There's been other times where people have wanted to do that. And you've got to run that through the filter of discernment because God has given the leadership this enormous responsibility of making sure and like some, I can gravitate to this more conservative side.

I'd rather hide over here than hide over there. There's people acting bizarre and different things. So, with that said, let's go to the third point. Theology without humility. Here's why the Holy Spirit is neglected or grieved.

Theology With Humility and Submission

We have theology without humility. So when you have theology but you're not humble, you're not obeying God's word, you're not submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit, He's not going to fill you. Submission is a very difficult thing, isn't it?

We don't want to submit to the work of the Spirit. We don't want to submit to certain areas of our lives. We want to hang on to these things. And if you want to be filled mightily with the Spirit of God, listen, I know I'm not talking to this whole room.

I know in this whole room there's going to be people that go back and nothing changes. But I'm talking to the small percentage of people who want to wake up and be filled with the Spirit of God that you were called for such a time as this.

Stop playing games. Stop being in a hurry and put God back on the pedestal. Get yourself off that pedestal. It's not comfortable up there. And come down from that pedestal and humble yourself. Just as, I like what Andrew Murray said, just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds you abased and empty His glory and power flow in.

If that baptismal overflows, where's it coming? Same thing with you. As soon as God finds you humble and abased, it goes along with that scripture, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God in due time He will exalt you.

You exalt yourself and He will abase you. He's bringing you to a low, embarrassing point. Has God ever embarrassed you and spanked you? Or is it just me? That's not fun. I'd rather humble myself. Thank you, Lord.

I will humble myself. Because that's what happens. He will humble you. Just as water looks for that lowest place. If you get to the lowest place and you say, God, fill me with your spirit. I'm not leaving here.

He will do that. He's bound to do it. He says, if you seek me, you will find me. And if you find me, you'll continually seek me. And then you'll have this seeking hunger. It's a hunger that is never satisfied.

He who drinks of this water will never thirst again, Jesus said. Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. So it begs the question, where is this living water? All I see half the time is a cemetery from the churches across America.

If they're filled with the spirit, where is it? Where is this living water? Jeremiah said, his word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's shut up in my bones. I have to give it out. Jesus said, believe on me as the scriptures say.

And out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. So if we sit there and go, I don't know where these rivers of living water are. It's because you're not filled with the spirit. Truth be told. Same thing with me.

Sometimes I wonder, was I even saved before I was filled with the spirit? I would go to church, same thing. Sing the songs, listen to the sermons, sit in the back row, get out quick, come in late, miss his worship.

Just nothing. God was just not even on the top ten list of agenda things. But I came to church because that's what good people do. Good people go to church. And then when he humbled me, the spanking of God, thank God for it.

When he does it, humble yourself, don't argue, don't fight, don't make excuses, just humble yourself. And he filled me with his spirit. I couldn't get enough worship. I'm talking hours a day. God's word just came alive.

Just joy unspeakable. Bubbling over. All these things that Paul talks about. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were revealed. And I'm just crying out to God, if that's of the devil, then I don't think that is.

None of that's of the devil because you're drawing closer to God. Anything that draws you closer to God is not of the devil, it's of the Holy Spirit. Make the distinction early on so you know. And so I was wondering, was I even saved?

Was I even saved? The reason is because it's such a dramatic experience that you have to look back and go, I was living on this much water instead of the whole baptismal being full. When it talks about John said he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

That fire in the belly. That's why there's martyrs. They die for their faith. They're filled with the Spirit of God. This is the most important thing and it's going to hurt. It's going to take extreme submission.

I'm an extreme kind of guy. I don't mind using that word because that cross was an extreme price. To follow Jesus, pick up your cross, follow me and die to self is very extreme. If I had time, I would show you what that looks like and it's not pretty.

It's extreme Christianity to die to self but it's the most fulfilling because we live in the middle. If it's not, we're miserable. Do you know how many Christians are just miserable? Miserable. And they're medicating because they're miserable.

God says just humble yourself. Be filled with the Spirit of God and I will restore that joy that you used to have. And if you're not sure, let me just go over this real quick. Are you filled with the Spirit?

Examining the Fruit of the Spirit

Well, Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love. Do you have love or do you pounce on people? Are you loving? Are you a loving, gentle person? The fruit of the Spirit is joy. You can't suppress that joy as much as you can try to suppress Niagara Falls.

It has to come out. Joy filled, joy in the midst of adversity or are you sour faced? Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace or are you always disgruntled? Patience or are you irritable and restless? Kind or are you heavy handed?

Goodness, do you have sympathy for people? Do you truly have sympathy because there's a lot of sin sniffers. Did you hear? Let's apply Matthew 18 really quick. That's not good. You don't have sympathy.

You're not filled with the Spirit of God because the whole point of confronting somebody or Matthew 18, for example, is restoration. Not to go get them, church. It's restoration. So the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness, are you loyal, gentle or are you heavy handed?

And is there self-control? Well, we could put our names in there, couldn't we? Is Shane loving? Joy filled, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and has self-control? Or do we lack these things?

You have to take the test. You have to examine yourself. Often the Bible talks about examining yourself before God. Are you filled with His Spirit? And it does take some changes. I'll just share a few.

I remember D .L. Moody reading about his life. Many of you know who D .L. Moody is and he was in ministry, depressed, nothing was happening. Nobody was coming to know the Lord and he realized that he was in ministry for the wrong reason.

He was trying to build the name of D .L. Moody not God's kingdom. He repented of that and he asked God to fill him with His Spirit and he had to run into a room I believe it was in New York City and just fell on his face before God and he said, God take your hand away from me this love, this overpowering work of the Holy Spirit is too much for me to bear and then he came out of that room a different man.

Have any of you read My Utmost for His Highest? Most read devotional book of all time by Oswald Chambers. Many people don't know he was a seminary teacher I believe for four years. He was miserable. He had theology but not the Spirit.