God’s Presence: A Guide to a Spirit-Filled Life

Is going to be fine and he's going to get the glory.

So I want to do this real quick before I get to tonight's message.

Last night I told you there was four reasons why God brings his hand down in her life.

And I said there's three responses.

And I never did tell you about the three responses, so I won't.

You won't get the whole thing, but I'm going to give you about a teaspoon of it, okay?

So just.

Just listen to it.

It you've forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.

The first response people have is they despise God.

I don't know if you know, one of the synonyms of despise is to hate, to be aggravated.

It's amazing.

In my book I wrote, it's amazing that the timing.

Tiny little human thinks that they have a right to be mad at God.

That's incredible.

But we all behave like that sometime or another.

And so that's one of the responses.

The second response is, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

You and I, when we think of the word faint, we generally think someone's laying down, they done, they're out.

So when someone has fainted and they're unaware, the deal is they're not doing anything.

And so how I measure that is that there are many, many people that crummy things happen to them and they've quit, they've given up.

And one of the things in writing the book that I'm working on that the idea when we think of people have quit, here's what I've learned, is that some of you have.

You have quit, but then you've come back.

But here's the deal.

You're not all the way back.

You're not all in.

Now you're on a Monday night, so you're doing pretty good.

But that still doesn't mean because you're on Monday night that you're all in because of stuff that has happened.

You just are still holding back some.

And that's the inappropriate response to despise or to faint.

The third response is two verses down.

It says, if ye endure chastening, so there is the possibility that we can hang in there, we can make it, we can endure.

And so the cleanser of enduring is these words.

And it says, no chasing for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.

Then it says these words, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit unto them that are exercised thereby, it will produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

But only to those who exercise thereby, only to those who receive it and accept it and don't fight it and don't resist it and don't faint.

Is everybody hearing me?

So when you know someone's going through difficulty and is horrific and they got peace, you're going, they're, they're doing this right?

When you don't have peace and you're in turmoil and you're in aggravation and you're in.

Huh.

You're not accepting what God is trying, what he wants to do.

The peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Fruit is an outgrowing of what's inside us.

So if you have peaceable fruit, praise God, that'd be a wonderful thing if your wife could look at you and go, honey, you're one of them people with peaceable fruit.

It'd be a wonderful thing if he could say that to you or if your children can say, mom, I love, I love your attitude.

You got the peaceable fruit, mom, maybe.

Okay, as far as we're going to go on that, now, we're going to work on the sermon tonight, so we're going to start.

Did I ask you to put a ribbon somewhere?

I meant to.

Shucks.

All right, put a marker in.

Ephesians, chapter 5.

Ephesians, chapter 5, Ephesians, chapter 5.

Put a marker there.

All right, now let's go to John, chapter 15.

The Gospel of John, chapter 15.

We read this last night.

It's a valuable, valuable part of the spirit filled life.

Actually, tonight I'm going to read these verses.

Tomorrow night I will read these verses.

I'm not going to talk about them distinctly until Wednesday night.

I am going to mention a couple of things, but I'm going to go over it in more detail on Wednesday night.

All right, John, chapter 15, if you're able, I invite you to stand with me, please.

We stand to give reverence, to give honor to the eternal infallible inerrant.

It is the perfect preserved word of the living God.

Praise his name that we don't have to look for.

If God said he would preserve it.

I trust him.

I trust him for my eternal life.

I might as well trust him that he said he would keep his word intact.

Amen.

John, chapter 15, verse 1.

Our Savior says, I am the true vine, my father is the husbandman.

Verse 4.

Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Verse five.

I'm the vine.

Ye are the branches.

He that abideth in me and I in him.

The same bringeth forth much fruit.

This phrase is so powerful.

For without me, ye can do nothing.

Here's my dilemma or part of a quandary that I struggle with in teaching and preaching the Bible and living it.

Without Jesus, ye can do nothing.

I struggle with that.

We don't believe that, But Jesus said it.

It's kind of in red letters.

What does it mean?

So here's a thought.

Is it possible to go to school and go through all the academia and get an education and be quite intelligent and learn a lot of stuff without Jesus?

Well, of course it is.

You can get a job without Jesus.

There's a whole lot of people out there working.

You can get married without Jesus.

You can have a family without Jesus.

You can do it.

Is everybody hearing me?

That's a weird thing.

Without me, you can do nothing.

But there's all kinds of stuff we do without Him.

Here's the difference.

To bring glory.

I think he made us for his glory.

To bring glory to God that He will accept.

That Jesus will accept.

The only one.

Only one that he will accept is what's done with him and through him.

I didn't write it, friend.

He says, without me, you can do nothing.

So he's talking about, I have no access to him except through him.

And then after I have access to him and I'm born again, my spiritual man, I now have ability to bring glory to him and fellowship with him.

I have.

I have ability to accomplish things for him.

But, Mr. Concarni, whatever he does, does not bring glory to him.

I don't know if you're listening or not.

You can come to church right here tonight and be in this room and pay attention, son.

And not bring glory to him because you're in your flesh.

Well, the.

Dave, I'm here on Monday night.

I don't care.

I can stand here.

I can't.

I could stand here and preach the entire sermon in the flesh.

He doesn't accept it.

Okay, go to.

Go to where your ribbon thingy Bob is.

So I. I was going to have you stop on your way to the ribbon, but I'll read what we were going to stop at.

I'll just read it to you.

Romans.

This is Romans 8.

1.

Therefore, there is there.

There is.

Therefore now no condemnation to them which are.

Listen to these words in Christ Jesus.

All right, now you're at Ephesians Just go to a couple pages.

Well, just go to the Filipino book.

The next one.

Page over Filipinos are Philippians, chapter one, verse one.

Look what it says.

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints.

Say those three words out loud.

Come on, everybody pretend like you can read.

Okay, you ready?

Let's do it again.

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints.

What are those three words in Christ Jesus?

Return Philippi.

Flip over one or two pages.

Colossians, chapter one.

Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ for the will of God.

And Timothy is our brother.

But look at verse two.

To the saints and faithful brethren.

What's those two words in Christ?

Wow.

Now look at verse 27.

To whom God would make known.

What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles.

So there's this mystery that's very glorious among the Gentiles, which is.

See these three words.

Christ and in you.

All the other verses said in Christ Jesus.

In Christ.

In Christ Jesus.

This one says Christ in you.

Mercy sakes.

The key, I. I don't know if it's the major key, but the.

A key of Christianity is everybody who is a believer is in Christ is in them.

That is the whole function of the key of Christianity.

He is in you.

That's incredible.

You may be seated.

So I have a good friend.

In fact, he lives here in Fort Worth.

His name is Brother Jerry Locke.

I think he's preached here before and so on.

But he's good friend and he's been in the meetings when I've been here in the past and I. I use.

I have his books, I market his books, I love his writings and so on.

Anyway, he has a book called God is Always There.

That's not the last book he's written.

This is about three years old now, I think.

Anyway, it's.

It's almost my favorite book he's written.

But my favorite book he's written is still a Baptist.

Neither angry nor ashamed.

I love that book and so on.

All right.

But this book is really goes along with what I've been.

God's been growing in me.

The Spirit filled life.

The subtitle of the book, God is always There.

The subtitle is Living intentionally in the awareness of God's presence.

I'm going to read you small paragraph from his book and I'll quote it again later in the week.

He said the best advertisement a church can have is that unbelievers recognize the presence of God when they attend Well, I think that's pretty awesome.

When I first read it, I balked at it.

And I said, brother Locke, in my head, brother Locke, unbelievers don't know who God is.

And then God reminded me that Paul got onto the Church of Corinth and told these people at Corinth, he says, hey, hey, hey.

When you get together and unbelievers come in, do you want them to think you're a. Amen.

He didn't use the word morons, but he did say to them, you don't want them to think that you're out of your mind.

You're a bunch of crazy people.

You want them to realize this is God at work in them.

And then God also reminded me, hey, McCracken, you've preached a lot of times.

You've seen people fall under conviction from God.

God's meeting with them, whether they acknowledge it or not.

They know, whoa, something's happened here.

One of my best friends in high school came to hear me preach several years or 10 or 15 years after we graduated from high school, and after it was over, he goes, I got to get out of here.

God was turning on him.

Amen.

He says, the presence of God in our church is the it factor.

It's not the music.

It's not the preacher.

It's not the buildings.

It's not the programs.

It's the presence of God is what we need.

The touch of God's presence is what distinguishes one believer from another.

The touch of God is the it factor of the believer.

It's not their education.

It's not their background.

It's not their opportunity.

It's not their effort.

It's not their influence.

It's not their leadership.

It's not their personality.

It's the presence of God that makes them unique.

That's the kind of people you should want to hang out with, that it's obvious the presence of God is on them.

Hmm.

The factor could be called the hand of God, the smile of God, the anointing of the Spirit of God, the glory of God.

All right, I'm going to preface this.

I'm giving you a chance ahead of time.

If you've never said Amen in church, this is the time you should say it for the first time.

If you have said Amen in church before, you certainly should say it again.

Here we go.

We certainly need the filling of the Holy Spirit of God in our pulpits and in our pews and in our music, in our Sunday school, in our children's ministry and our Amen.

And our we need the if we're going to accomplish anything for him, we must have his presence.

Since you brought it up, I'll do it now.

I'm going to bring it up again later, but I'll just.

You brought it up, so just tell you now is that you can have church without the presence of God.

You can sing songs without the presence of God.

You can give large offerings without the presence of God.

You can get all the programs done without the presence of God.

We just read.

I read it to you.

Romans 8:1 Philippians 1, 1 Colossians 1:2 and Colossians 1:27 that in a believer is somebody who is in Christ Jesus and he is in them.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16 it says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Let's turn to Ephesians 5, where your marker is now.

Ephesians 5:18 is the marquee verse to talk about the Spirit filled life.

It is not the only verse that speaks of the Spirit filled life.

It's not the only one that's going to be direct about it.

But this is the most direct passage on it.

And so we're going to work on this for a bit.

Verse 18 and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

We love it when the Bible gives us the definition of a word.

Like, I don't know, like faith.

Hebrews 11 gives the definition of the word faith.

You say, what does faith mean?

Well, it says it right there in Hebrews 11.

1.

So when the Bible says filled, we can't help it.

We can't help it.

We're just regular people.

We're Americano and so on.

And so we think of filled.

We think of this.

Let's get her filled up right there, man.

That's what we think of.

We need to get more of it.

Well, the word filled in the Bible doesn't just mean like get more of it.

It's used one time Jesus is preaching at his home synagogue.

That's kind of fascinating.

And Nazareth, he's preaching.

He's the one up in front of the people.

He's got some of the scrolls out of Isaiah and he is preaching to this congregation.

And in the midst of preaching, the leadership has all been out of shape and they are angry.

The Bible says it like this.

They are filled with wrath.

I've always.

And most of the time when I read it and I talk about it out loud, I always thought about well, the leadership were filled with anger.

They were filled with wrath.

And they were, they were preparing.

They're trying to get ahold of him and they're going to throw him over the cliff and kill him.

They want to kill him right now.

But it's not just the leadership.

The Bible says that the whole congregation is aggravated and mad at him because he's saying the fulfillment.

You're looking at the fulfillment right now.

And they're going, get rid of this guy.

Throw him over the cliff.

Wow.

Why?

They were filled with wrath.

Now, some of you, some of you know somebody that they get angry just like that and all of a sudden the anger blurts up and they, they are so filled with anger that they say stuff they wouldn't normally say.

They are so mad they do something they wouldn't normally do.

I praise God.

I've only seen like three people do this, but I've seen somebody so mad that they take their fist and they just bang it into a concrete block wall.

And I go, you're a genius.

And I have to go to the hospital with broken hand because, well, I, I couldn't help.

But.

They're filled.

Is everybody with me filled with wrath?

Here's what the deal is.

They were controlled by their anger.

In the Book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Antioch.

It was wild.

It was awesome.

They were having a revival.

It was crazy.

Leadership came down and say, hey, hey, hey, we're not putting up with this.

You can't preach this anymore.

And they kicked Paul and Barnabas out of their city and told them not to come back.

The Bible said that they were filled with envy.

They are so jealous that they had so been out of shape that the jealousy began to control them.

And they hustle Paul and Barnabas out of the city and said, do not come back here.

Some of you know people that get jealous just like that.

And they say things, they do things out of jealousy.

Is everybody hearing me?

That's too bad that you have to know people like that.

They don't have self control.

Well, I can never.

Yes, made me mad.

When the Bible says be filled with the spirit, it's not talking about that you're going to get more of him.

It means that you're going to be controlled by him.

You're controlled by the Holy Spirit of God.

So since we're talking about the Holy Spirit, well, he's a person.

You got the Father, God, the Son, God, the Spirit.

He's a person.

When you get saved, you get the person of the Holy Spirit.

We read it in 1 Corinthians.

I quoted it to you.

1 Corinthians 3:16.

The Spirit of God dwelleth in us.

Well, he's a person.

God doesn't give.

He doesn't dole him out in chunks and pieces.

I am a crack.

And now that you're a believer, I'm going to give you the left leg of the Holy Spirit.

If you do real good and you do good, go through probation, I'll give you the right leg, too.

Keep moving up, I'll give you more of the Holy Spirit.

You don't get more of him.

He's a person.

Either have him or you don't.

He that hath not the Spirit is none of his.

It says in Romans.

So when we're born again, you get the person.

Holy Spirit.

The preacher said it last night, and I think it's an appropriate way to say it, is that we don't get more of him.

He gets more of us.

We allow him to control us.

Since you brought that up, if he's controlling you 90%, that means he's not controlling you.

I use this illustration one time and I realize it's not a good one, but I use it again anyway.

If your child is 90% obedient, you could be happy.

And that's a poor illustration, but we still would be happy.

That's poor illustration.

But they're not obedient if they're 90% obedient.

Yeah.

So the scripture says, be filled with the Spirit.

Let the Holy Spirit control you.

I think it's.

I love that God is so simple in things.

It says, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.

Why would he say that?

Why does he use that illustration, that analogy?

Why would he do that?

Because when someone's drunk, it affects them.

Amen.

It can change their personality, who they are.

And since I'm talking about it in the preparation of these messages, I had never.

I. I'm not against Google and IA and all that business.

Is it AI?

Anyway, I'm gonna.

So, however, I did ask Google.

I said, give me some information about alcoholics and drunkards.

Give me.

And I had no idea what it was going to come up.

It gives me three psychologists.

I had no idea that psychiatry had lists to describe drunks.

I didn't know it.

I just found it out in the preparation of this.

Do you know that one of the psychologists, he calls it the Mary Poppins drunk.

They're real helpful.

They're always smiling.

They have a cheerful, overly kind Spirit.

Mary Poppins drunk.

Then another one was the nutty Professor.

He's a loose cannon.

He has lost.

He has no inhibitions.

He just says whatever and does whatever.

He's silly.

Acting energetic.

A nutty professor.

I thought this was fascinating.

Hemingway, the author, was.

When I was in high school, I had to read some of his stuff and so on.

I didn't know that Hemingway was a known drunk, but one of the categories of drunkards is a Hemingway drunk.

And they become reclusive.

They are quiet.

They.

You could say it like this, that they are a functioning drunk.

They're still a drunk, but they are able to function.

Is everybody with me?

Then, of course, most of us would know.

The last category for this psychologist is Mr. Hyde.

He's the mean drunk.

Another one of the psychologists just elicit off these words, the mean drunk, the sloppy drunk, the reckless drunk, the happy drunk, the sad drunk, the secret drunk, the affectionate drunk.

It changes people's behavior when someone is drunk.

It'll change their speech.

It'll change their walk.

It had changed their attitude.

Amen.

I don't know.

I'm sure that most of you know this.

A police car is out there.

And he sees a car moving in erratically in traffic.

And they pull the car over, and the policeman ask him, roll down the window, talks to him.

And the police say, you need to get out.

And the priest, the policeman's going to do one of those tests on him.

The.

Yeah, I knew that some of you would know what that was.

The sobriety test.

Why?

Because it affects them.

Amen.

So since we're talking about it, the Holy Bible says, don't be drunk with wine.

Let wine control you, but be filled.

Let the Holy Spirit control you.

And I guarantee you, if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it will affect your speech.

I'm weary with Christians who say, pardon my French.

It ain't French.

I'm weary with that.

That.

We just act like it's no big deal.

It is a big deal.

The Holy Ghost is inside you.

If it doesn't affect your speech, I'm saying, well.

Well, he's not in control.

Oh, brother Dave.

No, it affects your walk, too.

People pay attention to what you and I do in our walk, how we behave.

The walk is our behavior.

It'll change your behavior.

Amen.

It's amazing to me that how many Christians act like, well, it's no big deal.

It's because.

I'll just say it to your face.

It's because we're carnal Christians.

Mr. Khan.

Carney is in charge.

Wow.

Well, let's look in the text.

In the text.

It gives us some indicators of when you are filled with the spirit.

Be not drunk with wine.

Word of success, verse 18.

But be filled with the Spirit.

Verse 19.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Ladies and gentlemen, listen.

If you are filled with the spirit, you'll have a happy heart.

If you're depressed and you're discouraged and you're always down and things are horrible, I'll look you in the face and tell you, oh, you're not filled with the spirit.

You're not under his control.

Because someone under.

I didn't write it, Finn.

If you're under his control, you'll have a happy heart.

Singing, making melody in your heart, singing psalms and hymns.

That's what the Holy Bible says.

Well, Brother Dave, you can sing whatever you want.

Well, the Holy Bible says psalms and hymns, songs that bring him glory.

Songs that are about him.

I just don't think that's the only song you can sing.

I don't either.

I sang to my wife.

Our 50th anniversary was last Friday.

I sang to her.

First time ever.

I saw your face.

She almost passed out.

That's awesome.

You that don't know the song, Google it, baby.

I mean, whatever.

There's nothing wrong with the love song and so on, but the songs that are part of our life, we have a happy heart.

Bring him glory.

Amen.

Psalms, hymn, spiritual song.

Mercy sakes.

There's another one right here in the text.

In verse 20.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You'll have a happy heart.

You'll have a thankful heart.

If you are under the spirit's control, you will have a thankful heart.

I wonder what you'll be thankful for.

Giving thanks always for all things.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry, I don't.

If you live with a person that's not thankful, they're always missing something.

They always need more.

Well, maybe you ought to look at them and go, looks like you might not be controlled by the Holy spirit.

I think Ms. Konkarni, I mean Mr. Konkarni's got a hold of you.

Thankful always for all things.

Some people have balk at that and they go, brother Dave, that's like impossible.

We can't do that.

When the doctor came and told me that Nancy had cancer, we didn't get the girls together in Nancy's hand and said, let's all thank God for the cancer.

Let's thank God we didn't do that.

That would be idiotic.

It wouldn't be normal.

My grandson was three years old.

He's not anymore.

He was three years old.

He turned four in July.

June, July and August.

He was molested by a teenage boy all summer long.

It ripped my daughter's heart out and her husband ripped mine and Nancy's heart out.

I wanted something to be done.

We don't need to mess around.

Somebody needs to take care of this right now.

I was in California and they're in Oklahoma when this is going on or when they found out we didn't get together and hold hands.

So let's all pray God and thank God for the molestation.

Now, you can lie if you want to, but God knows your heart, friend.

You do not ever have to say to him and try to trick him, say, okay, God, I want to tell you thanks.

You don't have to lie to him.

He knows already how you feel.

I wanted to kill the molester.

I wanted it taken care of.

I didn't want him around anymore.

I wanted to remove this pain or this, what my grandson's gone through.

I don't want it to be inside his heart or head.

God knows that.

I can't lie about that.

I'm not going to.

Well, brother Dave, you just ever supposed to be thankful always for all things.

That's what the Bible says.

A person that's spirit control will be.

Well, I don't know how you can do that.

Well, you can do it like this.

God, I hate what happened to my grandson.

I hate what it's doing to her.

Mama.

His mama.

I hate it.

I don't want this boy to get by with it.

God, I don't have a clue of how you do it.

But you say you promise in your word that all things work together for good to them that love you.

I have no idea how you're going to work it for good.

I have zero idea.

But I trust you.

You're still God.

You're well aware of what's going on in our life.

You don't hate me.

You don't hate my grandson.

Are you aware that God protects us from stuff sometimes?

A lot of us are here tonight breathing air because God protected us.

Because we.

We were just seconds from a horrible crash that would have taken our life.

Or we were on death's door with cancer or other problems.

We all God's let us live.

But God doesn't let everybody live.

And my grandson could have died in some tragedy or some sickness before he ever met that teenage boy.

And God could have spared us that agony.

That teenager could have died in some kind of.

Is everybody with me?

Is God.

God knows what he's doing.

God is God.

Is God the author of sin?

No.

But God has allowed humanity to make decisions.

They are not puppets.

And he allows them to behave how sinners behave.

Does he ever intervene?

Bless his name?

He can and sometimes does.

But if he doesn't, he's still God.

And we can still thank him that he's God.

Because when you despise him, you're not right with him.

You're not going to be exercised by what's going on in your life.

When you quit faint.

Oh, yeah, I got a good reason.

You know what they said about me?

You know how they talked about me?

Why don't you eat a rock?

That's not in the Bible.

I don't want to say that.

I'm just weary with crybabies.

Who.

You know, you just are so full of carnality.

Mr. Khan Carney is in charge of the Holy Spirit.

We are thankful always for all things with a happy heart and a thankful heart.

And since we're going on, might as well do the next verse.

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

That's what it says.

Submitting.

You'll have a submissive heart if you're spirit filled.

Since we're talking about it.

I know it's really close.

Might as well do the little next verse.

Hey, wives, submit yourselves under your own husbands as unto the Lord.

Hey, girls.

It's in the Bible.

Well, why are you bringing it up?

It's in the Holy Bible.

Submit yourselves to your own husband.

Well, I don't think you have to bring it up.

It's in the Bible.

What's wrong with it?

Well, I don't like it.

That's archaic.

That's not how it should be.

The Bible says, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as the same way you would to the Lord.

Well, my husband's an idiot.

Some of you married one.

But you married him.

Amen.

Well, we just have to do the best we can around him.

No, you don't.

Because when you get to heaven, God's going to say you're the smartest woman that ever lived because you went around your husband.

God is not going to applaud you for that.

And it will not help your children recognize authority.

Ding.

Yeah.

Oh, brother Dave, he's not.

He's not very.

He's not very good at stuff.

Well, you help him, you don't take over.

And some men are so very spiritual.

Well, my wife's much smarter than me and I know it.

She knows it.

She's more spiritual than me.

I just let her take care of stuff.

Hey, bubba, God's not gonna pat you on the head and say you're a fine fella.

He said you ignored my word.

Submitting yourselves.

The verse in front of submitting yourselves one to another, since we're talking about it.

If Nancy were here, she'd probably be sitting down here by Ms. Shelley, or so I would look at her and go, nancy, it's in the Bible.

Submitting yourselves one to another.

You are a one another.

So what does that mean?

I'm supposed to be submissive to her?

She's in one another.

It's not always.

She's just submissive to me.

She has wishes, desires and wants that I need to be willing to surrender to.

I was going to say acquiesce, but I don't remember what it means, so I'll just say that we need to be willing to give in too.

Why?

Because it's not always about me.

Hey, it's in the Holy Bible, ladies and gentlemen.

Our children are supposed to be submissive to us, but the Bible says, submitting yourselves one to another.

Children are another's also, brother.

That's it.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

I'm not gonna let my kid make decisions.

They have wishes, desires and wants too.

Doesn't mean they're in control of the house.

Let me tell you the bottom line from submitting yourselves one to another.

I'll just say it to your face.

The bottom line is this.

If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're under his control.

You will put everybody else before yourself.

Who?

Everybody.

Well, I ain't doing that.

Well, that shows exactly where you are.

See, we're all willing to be servants until someone asks us to serve.

We're all willing to be submissive as long as I don't have to do it in front of people.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit, under his control, have a submissive heart.

Here's how I define and describe how to move from being under control of Mr. Konkarni to be under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Here's the words I use.

I use four.

Humbled, surrendered, obedience by faith.

What happens?

We humble ourselves.

Tell me, since we brought it up, do you know these are the exact same four ingredients it takes to get saved?

You can't get saved if you're Proud and arrogant.

You have to humble yourself.

You can't save yourself.

Surrender.

You have to surrender his way, not surrender to your way.

Well, I know I can't do it myself, but I want to do it like this.

You humble yourself to him.

Humble, surrendered obedience.

We do it his way, not our way.

By faith.

The only way any of us move from the Adamic nature over to the spiritual nature is by faith.

Somebody say amen.

That's the only way.

Well, the only way you can move from Mr. Konkarni being in charge of your life is humbled.

I can't do this.

Life surrendered.

You can.

Jesus obedience.

I'll do it your way.

Thank you.

By faith, you can be under his control.

Charles Spurgeon was a Baptist preacher.

That's one of the reasons he's our hero.

He's a great pulpiteer.

I love how Brother Spurgeon said these words.

When a home is ruled according to the word of God, angels may be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.

Could you imagine an angel sitting in your house today going, whoa, this is just like being in heaven.

I think it's a true statement.

If we're ruled according to the word of God and we've surrendered to God's word and the Spirit is in control of our life, our home, angels will go.

Just like being at home.

That's a hallelujah.

Michael Wells, he wrote a book called Sidetracked in the Wilderness.

This is the book that was the catalyst that pushed me toward understanding and being aware of the spirit, controlled spirit filled life.

Brother Michael Wells asked us to imagine a door above our heart that when we get saved, the door is wide open.

The Spirit has freedom and liberty to flow out of our life.

The Bible says, jesus says, he that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The door is wide open when we get saved.

Amen.

I like that picture because pictures help me visualize and see things.

There is nothing impeding the Holy Spirit.

There's nothing holding and resisting him, holding him back.

When that happens, I wrote these words, oh, what joy, what peace, what freedom, what liberty, what love.

There's nothing better than the moment of salvation.

You know, you're forgiven.

Hallelujah.

You don't know all the other stuff going on, but I know this.

I ain't going to hell.

I'm born again.

I'm saved.

This life is granted and promised to every truly born again believer.

There are no exceptions.

This life is not something that is worked for it's part of the package of salvation.

Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new.

The peace that passes, all understanding really and truly does come.

I'm forgiven.

I'm accepted.

I have eternal life, and it's not dependent upon me.

Jesus did it all.

Hallelujah.

Glory to his name.

These facts are true.

Indisputable, irrefutable.

Glory to his name.

I am saved, and he lives in me.

Watch this.

When you are filled, it's impossible to be partially filled.

You can't say, well, I'm about halfway.

Well, I'm mostly filled.

You're either filled or you're not, friend.

I love the picture of the word filled.

It's to the brim.

Have you ever got a glass of water that the water's just a little bit of bump above the rim of the glass?

I love to do that to people when they ask me, would you give me some tea?

Oh, yeah.

I fill it up where you can't get another drop in it.

Go.

There it is.

They can't even slide it.

They have to bend across and go suck out sound.

To be filled at the moment of salvation.

Here's the deal.

Watch.

You can't have the door partially open.

That's either opened or it's not.

Wow.

In Ephesians 5, when Paul says, be ye filled, the inference is we might not stay filled.

So he gives us the admonition, be ye filled.

What does that mean?

He's saying, it's possible that the door might not stay open.

It's possible the door could shut.

I don't know if you're paying attention or not.

When the door is open, you say, who's in control and the door is not.

Mr. Congarney, Two more things.

To have humbled, surrendered obedience by faith to be filled.

Listen carefully.

It's on purpose.

You don't accidentally get filled with the spirit.

You don't accidentally surrender to his control.

He is in control or he's not.

The only way he will be is if you surrender to him on purpose.

And the only reason you will surrender is cause you know you can't do it on your own.

And you must surrender to him in obedience and say, jesus, thank you.

That you would forgive me and cleanse me and take over, control my life the same way you did when you got saved.

You asked him to be in charge.

Here's my conclusion.

I'd like for you to answer out loud, please.

Since I'm asking you to answer out loud, I don't want you to say all the time.

There's a number that you should say.

Okay, are you ready?

Here it is.

How many days a year does Jesus love you and want to have fellowship with you?

How many days a year?

You did good.

How many months in the year does God love you and want to have fellowship with you?

How many days in the week does God love you and want to have fellowship with you?

Okay.

How many hours in the day does he love you and want to have fellowship with you?

Wow.

How many minutes in the hour does he love you and want to have fellowship with you?

Here we go.

How many seconds in the minute does he love you and want to have fellowship with you?

Did you hear it?

I don't know if you're catching it.

Here's the truth.

God loves me and he wants fellowship with me.

Moment by moment by moment by moment by moment.

When he doesn't, Mr. Khankarney's in charge.

It's pretty serious.

I'll just give you a brief piece of my testimony.

When I heard people talking about this.

Moment by moment all the time feel.

Well, you gotta do it.

I was thinking, well, that's impossible.

No one can do that all the time.

I got stuff to do.

I gotta go mow the yard.

I don't have time to be filled with the spirit right now.

I gotta go pick up the kids.

I got work to do.

Is anybody hearing me?

I gotta paint the house.

Ain't got time.

Can I paint the house with the door open and the spirit in control?

Sorry, kids.

Can I do the homework?

Not likely, but you can try real hard.

No.

You can be surrendered to him.

Oh, you could have a. Wow.

A happy heart, a thankful heart, a submissive heart while you're doing homework.

Wow.

That's one of my daughter's favorite words that uses on my grandchildren.

She says, hey, you can get a happy heart right now.

You can do that with a happy heart.

I'm glad she ain't yelling at me about it.

How often does he want us to have this happy heart moment?

It's not make Believe, friend.

I'm 71 years old.

I was 69 years old before I finally accepted the truth.

It's supposed to be all the time.

Did I ever preach about it before that you're supposed to be all the time?

Yeah, but I just knew that no one could really do it.

Why would God ask us to do something that's impossible?

He wouldn't.

It's his life.

That's supposed to be our life.

And it truly is life changing.

If you're not saved tonight, first thing you need to do is get saved.

He loves you.

He wants to save you.

He died.

He's already died for your sins.

He died for your sins too.

If you'll accept his payment, he'll forgive you.

So, Brother Dave, I'm saved.

Well, who's in control?

Is the door open or is Mr. Konkarni in charge?

Would you stand with me, please?

Thank you for listening.