Blessedness of Openness

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Investing in eternity.

Man, I'm excited about just what God's been doing in our lives.

I've had a lot of people respond to me, and I know myself, this has been one of the most fruitful, enlightening, changing messages that uh are series that I've preached in a long time.

And the Beatitudes are the key to investing in eternity.

And uh last week, I don't know about you, were you able to apply the principles of being gentle all week?

I almost made it.

Almost.

But I did have a little instant that I had to so the Holy Spirit got me so quick, and I had to turn to that person and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Uh uh I'm supposed to be gentle.

And uh and I need to be gentle, and I need to be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving.

So would you forgive me for just bowing up a little bit?

And uh so anyway, it was good.

Even my wife, when my wife says, honey, I have watched God work on you and really in a good way that uh that makes me feel a little better.

That uh I tell you, folks, it's hard being a spirit-filled Christian.

Now, if you're just sitting out there and you watching and you think it's easy, I got news for you.

Yeah, I'm not sure you're spirit-filled.

Because it is a daily battle.

Can I get an amen?

Paul says I have to die daily.

I meant the great apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament.

He had to die daily.

So it's a daily dying.

It's a moment by moment dying.

And uh, so let's continue this series this morning.

And today we're gonna be looking at the fourth beatitude and uh what a beautiful saying it is, and it's found in verse 6 of chapter 5 of Matthew, and it says, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Now, you know, I don't know how many times you've read that.

We've all read the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, chapters five through seven.

But right here, I thought to myself, the Lord is really giving us a beautiful illustration of really what a spirit-filled Christian really is compared to a lost person or a carnal Christian.

And what he says, basically, because we know that man's natural inclination is to shut himself up and away from the things of God.

How do we know that?

1 Corinthians 2.14 says, the natural man receives not the things of God, for they are spiritually discerning, and that he cannot receive them.

So that's the lost person.

And then when you deal with the carnal Christian, listen to what he says in Romans chapter 8, 6.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

He says, to be carnally minded is what?

Death.

Death.

In other words, there is no connection with the Spirit of God in your life.

And you are dead to the things of God.

You are dead to the ways of God.

And basically, what you're saying is, you've decided, I have decided to go my own way.

I'm not going to go God's way, I'm going to go my way.

So we see upon such human fullness, though, the Lord Jesus pronounces some pretty powerful words for those who choose to go their own way.

Listen to what he says in Luke 6.25.

Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger.

Now, whoa, I had to really think on that powerful statement.

Woe to you who are full, for ye shall hunger.

What is I said, now wait a minute.

If I'm full, how do I hunger?

Well, see, what Jesus was saying, he was saying to that colonel Christian or to that lost person, you are full of everything you want.

The world has to offer.

You've got the power, you got the prestige, you got the position, you got everything, but you are still empty.

I'm satisfied.

Wow.

That's exactly right.

You can't be satisfied.

Why?

What's this?

Psalms 107, verse 9.

Psalms 107:9

He, God, satisfies the longing soul.

He fills the hungry soul with goodness.

And then I saw this verse this week and I said, whoa, that's good.

Psalm 17, 15.

I behold thy face, now watch, in righteousness.

I behold God's faith in righteousness, and we've been talking about righteousness.

What is righteousness?

It's being pleasing and obeying God.

And in turn, you're blessed and useful for God.

Remember as we started this series?

So what is he saying?

Hey, he says, I behold thy faith in righteousness.

In other words, what he's saying is, when you behold his face, you're talking about, I have sought God, I have hungered for God, I have thirst for God, and I'm being obedient to God.

And then notice what he says, I shall be satisfied.

Wow.

He didn't say you might, he didn't say you could.

He said you would.

You would be satisfied.

Now watch this, the last phrase.

Because when I awake with thy likeness.

When I awake with Christ's likeness, I am full.

So this morning we're looking at what it really means to hunger and thirst after God.

So if you've got your outline, does everyone have an outline?

You got your outline?

Anyone need one?

All right, let's go.

Number one, first of all, who hungers and thirsts for righteousness?

This fourth beatitude shows us some indicators for what it really means to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

The question we want to answer this morning for all of us do we hunger and thirst after righteousness?

Now we hunger and thirst after a lot of things, but the hunger and thirst for righteousness should be the main thing.

Can I get an amen?

It should be the main thing.

Now watch.

Number one, the indication of a holy desire.

Verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst.

When the Lord used the words hunger and thirst, he was speaking of a couple of things that I want us to look at.

And first of all, the main thing, number one, under the indication of a holy desire is the intensity of a desire.

In other words, do you really desire something?

What does it mean to desire something?

In fact, what we see, the word there for desire, is peinaho.

Peinaho, the Greek word, which means to crave.

What does it mean to crave something?

You want it?

Somebody else.

Gotta have it.

Ooh, like it.

I crave it.

In other words, I'm gonna do whatever I can to get it.

Nothing's gonna keep me from getting it.

I crave it.

I gotta have it.

That's exactly what the word means.

And then the other word, thirst, shaho, it means to thirst for.

I got to thinking about that.

The thirst for what?

For example, to thirst for water.

I was a big athlete during my younger days in high school and college days.

And oh, back then we would have football camps in the summer.

Be 90 degrees.

They didn't, back then they didn't believe in the It's a wonder they didn't kill us, to be honest with you.

But but uh we'd get out there and and if you messed up and at the end they start making you run run windsprints.

You ever run wind sprints?

Or basketball players, have you ever run the Sadaka over there?

Have you ever run the minute drill?

You know what the minute drill is in basketball?

Oh, you fix it.

Oh, good.

Soon as we get our floor down in a few weeks or in the next three weeks, I'll I'll I'll challenge any of us to run the minute drill.

You stand at the base of the basketball court, you put a minute up on the board here, and now you gotta take off, you gotta run, Adam, you gotta go to the foul line back, all the way to the half court, back, all the way to the other foul line, back, and then all the way to the end line and back within a minute.

That means you got a boogie baby.

But have you ever been?

For some of you, do you know what cotton mouth is?

It's to the point you're about dehydrated, you would do anything for a drink of water.

I mean, just give me a drink of water.

Just one drop.

It reminds me of the the rich man in hell, and he said, Oh, would Lazarus please just give me a drip of water?

That's the kind of thirst he's talking about.

I gotta have it.

I'm parched inside.

I mean, I've gotta have it.

I'm craving it, I need it.

I can't live by the way, you can't live without water.

You can't live without food.

In other words, I've got to have it to survive.

Wow.

Now that's the illustration right here, and that's what it meant.

Now let me show you.

I want you to see this with David.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalms 27.

David knew what this meant.

Oh, this is beautiful.

In Psalms 27, you got to see this.

Oh, all week I've been feasting on this verse.

In Psalms 27, verse 4.

Psalms 27:4

David said, One thing I have desired of the Lord.

That will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

Wow.

Listen to what the NLT, New Living Testament, says.

This one thing I ask of the Lord, the thing I seek most is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord's perfections and meditating in his temple.

Oh, and I I couldn't get away from that verse, so I had to dissect it.

Now, and and I this was after I'd already turned in the outline, but you may, if you got a little place to jot some things down, I want to give you what I saw in this one verse that David's he's really exemplifying this intensity of desire.

Number one, here's what it is the desire was great.

Davis, David's highest priority in his life, right here, was to dwell in God's presence daily.

And he wanted an uninterrupted time and enjoyment with God every day.

Did you hear me?

Uninterrupted, uninterrupted time with God every day.

Now let me ask you, do you have that time every day?

Because that's really what it means to hunger and thirst after God.

Now look at the second thing he said.

Diligence.

The diligence, that will I seek after.

God does not hand spiritual blessings to the lazy and slothful.

I got to thinking about that.

That's what David said.

He said, seeking here shows the desire is sincere.

When you have that hunger and that thirst, your desire to be with him daily is, hey, shows the sincereness of your feasting on him.

And by the way, you know what I've learned?

The more I feed on him, the more I want of him.

And then notice the third thing he said.

The dwelling in the house of the Lord.

I got to thinking about this.

Great illustration.

Because I not only was I in a stadium of 50,000 people last night, I watched some other reruns of uh, I love this YouTube TV thing I got because it records all the games.

I uh and you don't have to worry about how many because it's up in the clouds.

I don't understand all that.

Y'all boys do.

Y'all understand all that.

But I sure like it.

Because yeah, I meant I can go on every ball game that was played yesterday, every college football game that was televised yesterday.

I can hit that little thing and it says, join live if it's still playing, or it'll say you can uh use the best plays to catch up to where the game is, or if it's already been played, about 20 or 25 plays in about less than 10 minutes or six, eight minutes I counted on two of them.

I get to see the best playing of the whole ball game and who won.

Now I don't know how they do that, but I like it.

So I can watch six ball games in 30 minutes and get the best plays.

And you notice what I noticed about that yesterday, all the stadiums were packed.

And you know what I thought?

Here's what I thought.

In fact, I wrote it down.

I opened my notes and wrote it down.

People are more interested in dwelling in sports stadium than church sanctuaries.

God help us.

But listen to me, when we hunger and we thirst after God, church, oh, you'll be here.

You can't wait to get here.

You know why?

Because you know your pastors are gonna teach you, or your uh Bible teachers in your small groups, they're gonna teach you the things of God, and you ought to be hungering.

I want to know what God has for me.

That's what it means to have an intense desire.

Number two, it is an insatiability of desire, which literally means kind of like you can't get enough.

A hunger and thirst are not just feelings that go away.

Oh, do I hunger and thirst for God like that?

Do I meet him every morning?

Do I drink deeply of the Spirit of God?

Now watch this.

Am I desperate for God?

Am I desperate for revival?

That's what I was asking myself.

Am I desperate to obey, to serve, to witness, and hey, hey, to be all that he wants me to be?

Do I have that same hunger and thirst for him that I have for everything else?

Is he number one in my life?

And see, it's not that the other things are bad.

Okay?

That's not what I'm saying.

But what's the most important?

It's him.

And listen to what he says.

Here's what's exciting about it.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, Matthew 6.33, and all these other things shall be added unto.

He wants you to enjoy it.

He wants you to enjoy your sports.

He wants you to enjoy your hobbies, your fishing, your whatever you do, but it's gotta be, hey, second or third.

It can't be the, hey, first.

And here's what you miss.

Remember what Jesus says, you're full, but you're not satisfied.

The thing is, you can be full and think you're happy and think that you're okay and you've lived in the life of Riley, but in reality, if he's not first, you're empty.

And it will show up.

It'll show up that you need Christ if you're lost.

And it'll show up if you're carnal, you need to come back to Christ and make him Lord.

Amen.

Oh, it does, folks.

I mean, that's what he's saying.

To him who overcomes, he says, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

So it's that indication of a holy desire.

How hungry this morning are we for God, church?

You know what I pray?

I pray right now all week.

And last week, as I was in that beatitude, I was saying, God, make CCW gentle, kind, loving.

And this week I've been praying, oh Lord, please give our church a hunger and thirst for you.

Thank you for all this building.

And by the way, we love sports.

We build them soccer fields, baseball fields.

I mean, we love it.

We basketball.

We love it.

What do you call it?

Volleyball.

Thank you.

All that's gonna be in here in a few weeks.

And and then I really love pickleball.

I'm getting to go to the Nationals next year.

I told you that was my desire, and I beat the tar out of those Tennesseans so I could go.

But that wasn't kind and gentle, was it?

Oh Lord, I'm sorry.

Oh mercy.

Sorry.

It's hard being spirit-filled.

Especially when you're as competitive as I am, amen.

But but what I'm saying, folks, is oh, listen, there's gotta be, he's gotta be foremost.

Foremost.

Notice the second thing: the aspiration of a holy desire.

Let's look at that.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness.

For many Christians, the word righteousness is merely a theological concept or a theological word with little or no personal meaning.

When Jesus uttered this fourth beatitude here, he was not thinking of some abstraction of moral conformity to the will of God, but rather the life of holiness in Christ.

In practical terms, get ready.

Here it is in your notes.

Number one, it's a life.

What is that?

What is a life that hungers and thirsts after God in Christ?

Number one.

It's a life of moral separation.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

This aspect of sanctification, now write this down.

Here it is.

Here's a good statement.

Separation.

It's the aspect of separation, and I wrote this to myself, and here's what it means.

It means separating yourself from anything and everything that displeases God.

Separating yourself from anything and everything that displeases God.

Wow.

Woo! I mean, we had a bracelet years ago when I first was young in the ministry.

WWJD.

What does that stand for?

What would Jesus do?

Everything we do, we ought to ask that question.

That's why I wear Jesus' awesome bracelet, and I've worn it for 20 plus years.

It's because if I get in a situation or I'm tempted in a situation, I look down, Jesus is awesome, and you know what I'm thinking?

I am representing Jesus.

He's awesome.

I'm his testimony.

I'm his testimony.

Ambassador, I'm his witness, and what the way I'm acting, what I'm saying, what I'm thinking, hey, is reflecting him.

Woo!

I dunno I'd have to make it go right.

I don't keep you from going in that movie theater or listening to the wrong thing or watching the wrong thing.

Let me take that bracelet off before I go in here.

Not ashamed.

Everywhere you go, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

That's the key, folks.

It really is.

And that's what we're talking about.

There are now, you know what I started thinking about?

Now that doesn't mean we don't witness and eat and hey, eat with the sinners or those that are out of fellowship.

We try to befriend them, hey, so that we can reach them.

Can I get an amen?

But the thing we can't do is have an intimate fellowship with their wrongdoings.

Can't do it.

In fact, listen to what the scripture says.

Remember when scribes and Pharisees got upset with him because he was eating with sinners?

He said, I didn't come to heal those of the well, I came to heal the sick.

But yet, we see in Hebrews 7.26, even though when he mixed with the sinners, he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from them.

In other words, his lifestyle was different.

Can I get an amen?

He didn't, hey, he didn't lower himself to do what they were doing to try to reach him.

He stood in a distinct difference with love, saying, Follow me.

Because my life, my ways, ten times better than the world's.

Let me tell you, I never thought of it this way.

There's three degrees of sin.

This is worth you writing down.

There are three degrees of sin that the Word of God talks about.

Somebody asked me, and one of the reasons got me thinking about this, somebody asked me, said, is there any difference in a little sin, a big sin, major sin?

And my first inclination was no, sin, sin.

But it really got me to start asking myself, what is sin?

Good question.

Alright, you ready?

Theological 101, theology 101, are you ready?

What is sin?

Here it is.

Number one.

For Christian, for a Christian, sin is a disobedient act.

Write that down.

And here's the verse.

John writes that sin is lawlessness.

1 John 3, 4.

For example, if a young man plans to marry a young lady who is unsaved, guess what?

He is playing with sin.

Oh, wait a minute.

Wait, wait, wait now.

I know that sounds, or he's yielding the wrong direction.

Why?

Listen to what God's word says.

And it's very powerful.

2 Corinthians 6, 14.

He says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

That's what God's word says.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

So now you're going against exactly what God says.

That's a disobedient act.

Or let's take a business man's got a business, but he's underhandingly embezzling money, cheating, stealing.

That's a disobedient act.

That's sin, folks.

It's disobeying what God tells us to do.

But notice there's a second type of sin.

Number two, sin is also a disloyal act.

Look at James 4.17.

This is where we all get caught.

To him to knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Ooh, James 4.17.

It's called the sin of omission, which means failure to do what God says and what pleases him is a disloyal act.

That means, hey, you didn't do anything wrong, but you didn't do what was right to do.

That would be like God tells me to go witness to one of you, Barry.

God's, we're talking and God says, share the gospel.

And I say, mmm, I don't, I'm scared.

What will he think?

He'll think I'm a spiritual nut.

He'll think I'm a fanatic.

Well, I am.

But but uh uh uh or or somebody's over there and they need help.

And the Lord tells you, you need to go help them.

But you just pass them by.

You don't do it.

You don't do it.

Wow.

We're all guilty every week.

We need to pray, make me sensitive, Lord, to doing what you want me to do and helping people you want me to help.

And don't let me miss those opportunities.

He says, if you love me, keep my commandments, John 14, 15.

So we see that's a disloyal act.

Sin is a disobedient act.

Notice the third thing: sin is a doubtful act.

Whatever is not from faith is sin.

Romans 14, 23.

This matter of faith is essential to our belief and our behavior.

In fact, Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

If there is something doubtful in my life, then I need to pray and ask God to show me his word and the counsel of mature Christians to know whether or not I need to proceed or what I need to do.

As the saying goes, when we doubt, hey, when in doubt, don't.

Every time I've gone against that cardinal rule for my life, when in doubt, don't, I have run into trouble every time.

Big trouble.

In fact, I found something.

I'd never seen this before in my research this week.

And I put a star by it.

Stanley Jones, who's an old 1800 theologian, I was reading some of his works and listen to what he said.

Stanley Jones states it graphically.

Here's what he said.

If you don't make up your mind, then your unmade mind will unmake you.

I'm going to repeat that.

That's powerful.

He said, if you don't make up your mind, then your unmade mind will unmake you.

And then he went on to say this.

This is a place where there must be no dilly-dallying, he said.

For any dallying will be the Trojan horse that will get on the inside of you and open the gates to the enemy.

God can do anything for the man who has made up his mind.

He can do little or nothing for the double-minded.

Wow.

James 1.8, what does it say?

A double-minded person is what?

Unstable in all his ways.

That's good, preacher.

Somebody say that's good, preacher.

So, we see how important it is.

When in doubt, don't.

Always.

Number two, not only is it a life of moral separation, but hey, this aspiration of a holy desire is a life of spiritual transformation.

Woo! Oh, listen, the purpose of redemption is to be conformed to the image of God's Son.

The purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit living in Danny and you as Christians.

Once we get saved, we're baptized, 1 Corinthians 12.13 by one spirit.

We're baptized into one body.

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, takes up residence in our hearts.

And then he goes to work in seconds.

And 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, as we look into the mirror, which is the word of God, and we see how we're not like Jesus.

We allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse us and to direct us and to instruct us and to lead us into the things and hey, of Christ and to take on his image and take on his attitude to take on his actions.

And he is conforming that in us as we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

I know you say that's deep.

But you got to launch out into the deep.

That's what's wrong.

We're selling for the crumbs.

When God wants to give us the meat.

Oh, help us, church.

Help us to hunger.

Help us the thirst.

Oh my goodness.

That's so good.

Oh, people everywhere today are searching for happiness in an end in itself, but happiness is only a byproduct of something far more important than, hey, of hungering and thirsting.

Hey, it's the hunger and thirsting after righteousness, which is Christ-likeness.

When we seek first the kingdom of God.

He says, Blessed is the man.

I love this.

That, hey, that hears me, waiting daily at my gates.

Proverbs 8.34.

Man, that's good.

Oh, that's good.

Oh.

And then the last thing, the third thing that's so beautiful about this whole blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, not only the indication of a holy desire, with the intensity of that desire and an insatiability of that desire.

And then, secondly, the aspiration of the holy desire, a life of moral separation, a life of transformation.

God turning you and transforming you into the image of Christ.

Somebody says, How does he do that?

He takes the word of God, he gives you a hunger for it.

You read the word, you live the word.

That is the transformation process.

Amen.

It's that simple.

Why is something that simple so hard to do?

Hello?

We okay out here?

Because it's called the war of the flesh.

Every day I get up, Satan says, Stay in bed.

That's a good idea.

I get up, first thing he says, you don't have time to have your quiet time.

You don't have time to do your memory work.

You need to go.

You got a lot to do.

Go get it done.

He does everything he can to keep me from getting in this book and in my prayer time because that is what God uses to transform me, the transformation into the likeness of Christ.

And the more he can keep me from being like Christ, the more effective, should I say, the more unaffective I am as a Christian.

And the bad thing about that is the less I'm blessed.

See, we don't think about that.

Remember the beginning of this series, invested in eternity?

God wants to bless us.

So, hey, when we're blessed, we're useful to Him.

Usefulness produces blessedness for God.

It all fits in a beautiful, beautiful picture here.

But then look at the last thing.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The satisfaction of this holy desire.

Oh, look.

Some versions in the word means blessed are they that are satisfied.

That's powerful.

Blessed are they that satisfied.

Which, and by the way, the Greek word there, in the classical use of its term, the word feel there means the fattening of an animal for the killing.

I got thinking about that.

It also has the concept of being filled not just once, but continuously.

See, as a Christian, you don't just get filled once and it's done.

It is a continuous feeling every day.

When he says, be not drunk with wine, wear it in excess, but be filled, it is in what we call the present tense, which you have basically two tense in the Greek that's so simple.

I can give it to you so you can understand it.

You have an aeros tense in the Greek, which means it's a completed act, once and for all, or you have a present tense, which means it's a continuous act.

Well, being filled, being filled with the Spirit is in the present tense, which is a continuous thing.

It's not a once and for all thing, it's a continuous, daily dying to sell and a daily feeling.

Can I get an amen?

That's why Paul said, I die daily.

It has to be.

So look right here.

First of all, I want to give you two things on this last point when we look at the satisfaction of a holy desire.

Look at what God gives us.

Are you ready?

He gives us the fullness of satisfaction.

They shall be filled.

Now, watch this.

Spiritually speaking, this means to be filled with the fullness of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And I went to Ephesians 3.

It's, I call it the filling station chapter.

He tells us how to be full.

He tells us how to be filled.

And watch this.

I came up with this.

This is so good.

Are you ready?

This is this is unbelievable.

In chapter 3, verse 19, listen to what Paul says.

He says to the believers that they be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now, watch this.

It's a reference to God the Father and the infany of his fullness.

It is mind-boggling to think that we can be filled with all the fullness of God.

Do you understand that?

Can you comprehend that?

Don't say you can because you can't.

But he says we can be filled with all the fullness of God.

Colossians 2.10 says that we are complete in him, which is the head and principality of all.

How do we know and how can we be completely filled with the fullness of God?

And then it gets even better.

Watch what he says.

Then he goes on.

Let me tell you how I got to thinking about it.

This may be a bad illustration, but let me tell you the illustration God gave me.

Just as a balloon.

How many of you ever tried to blow a balloon up?

I'm not talking about cheating with that air thing.

Where I grew up, we didn't have that stuff.

You had to stretch the balloon, and then you had to go, and for me, I go, the balloon goes.

But have you ever been blowing that balloon up and it starts expanding, expanding, expanding, expanding, and you get it until almost you're having a hard time getting any more air in it.

And sometimes it goes.

Wouldn't it be exciting to have your life being so filled with the Holy Spirit of God that you can't contain yourself.

You're about to explode.

Now, folks, that's a hunger and a thirst for God.

And then Paul said in chapter 4, verse 13, listen to what he says.

The writer says that the gifts given to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints is to bring us to the measure, watch, of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now we have the totality of his fullness in Christ, a living person.

And then when you get to Ephesians 5, 8, be not drunk with wine, wearing excess, but be filled.

Be filled.

We see the reality of his fullness.

The person living in us, living out Christ's likeness.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

So, how do you do that?

How can we be filled with the Spirit?

Here it is, very simply.

One, tell the Lord to fill you.

Listen to what he says.

If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?

You gotta ask him to fill you.

Secondly, trust the Lord to fill you.

Acts 5.32.

God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.

Wow.

And then third, thank the Lord for filling you.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

Ephesians 6.18.

And by the way, that is a continuous thing.

When you get out of the Spirit, you need to do the same thing again.

Say, Lord, forgive me for my sin.

Fill me.

Lord, fill me.

I'm trusting that you have filled me.

And I know you are filling me.

And then the last thing, not only do we have the fullness of sanctification.

Are you ready?

Now this is it.

This is where it couldn't end better.

In fact, when they were singing the song, just sit here in his presence.

I thought of this last point, the freshness of sanctification.

We have the fullness of sanctification, him completely filling us to the point we're ready to explode like that balloon.

But then we have the freshness of the sanctification.

They shall be filled.

Now there's a distinction between the fullness and the freshness of the sanctification.

Now listen to me.

This is so important.

This is probably the most important for Christians right here.

Most of us have experienced some sense of fullness in our life.

When we got saved, we were filled.

When you're walking with God intimately, consistently, you are filled.

But when you grieve and quench that spirit, or you do that disloyal acts, doubtful acts, disobedient acts, which is sin.

You grieve and quench the Holy Spirit of God.

Guess what?

The Holy Spirit doesn't leave you.

It's still in there.

But here's what's happened.

You being disobedient means, and if you've been disloyal, you've been disobedient, you've been doubtful, what you've done, you've now allowed the Holy Spirit no longer to be in control.

You've taken the Holy Spirit and you've gone over here to the door, opened the door, and put the Holy Spirit in the closet, and you've closed the door, and now guess who's in charge?

You're in charge.

He's there, but he's not filling all your rooms.

You know what you need?

You need a fresh touch.

Psalms 92, 10 says, David said he was there.

And David cried out, Oh Lord, anoint me with fresh oil.

Fresh oil.

You go to Revelation 2.

The church there was, it was everything.

I mean, it was, they were workers, they were witnesses.

I mean, they were doing everything.

They were honoring.

But then the Lord Jesus Himself said, but there's only one thing.

That was the only good church as far as him saying some good things out of the seven churches of Asia minor.

But then he says, But you're doing all the right things.

You're doing what you're supposed to be doing, but yet I've got somewhat against thee.

What?

Here's what he said.

You've lost your first love.

Now let me tell you what you gotta do, all of us, when we lose that first love.

We need a fresh touch.

How does that take place?

Right there in Revelation 2.

Number one, you remember, hey, where you disobeyed.

Remember where you stopped doing what you were doing.

Remember when you stopped blowing the balloon up.

What happens when you start blowing the balloon up?

It starts going down, doesn't it?

Number two, repent.

Ask God to forgive you.

And then number three, renew.

Right there, Lord, feel me.

Fill me again, Lord.

Touch me again, Lord.

Give me a freshness again, Lord.

Amen.

Every head bow, every head.