Losing to Gain

I invite you to turn to the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 2. Through this reading and this meditation, I want, in one sense, to connect with and bring us into alignment with last Sunday’s sermon, in which I spoke about radical commitment, total surrender to the Lord, a life radically committed to the Kingdom of God, surrendering our entire being to the Lord, a life that pleases the Lord, a life in which everything has been lost in order to gain everything, in which we leave everything behind so that we may have everything of God in our hearts. Amen.

If we do not lose everything, we cannot gain everything. The Bible is full of those images of losing in order to gain. When the disciples had their encounter with Jesus out in the deep water, it says that they left their nets and followed the Lord. Levi, I think it was—I do not remember which person it was—was a tax collector; he also had another name, and he too left his tax collector’s table, went away, and followed the Lord.

The Lord asked the rich young man, hey, sell everything you possess and follow me, and you will be happy and you will have God. So we see that radical calling: to lose everything, leave everything—father, mother, brothers and sisters—and live a life radically surrendered to the Lord. And brothers and sisters, I desperately want to strengthen you in that calling, as well as myself and our entire congregation; we want to be a church of people committed to the Kingdom, not Sunday-only people. Amen. Not people who put on their evangelical hat when they walk through the door and then hang it up so they can pick it up again the following Sunday. No. People who live over a slow-burning fire, being consumed for the glory of God; who have a vibrant devotional life; who continually meditate on the word of the Lord; who are witnesses of Jesus Christ at their workplaces; people who love others and are kind and compassionate toward them; who exemplify the character and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

We want that. I desire and deeply long for the day when, on a day like today, with a little rain falling, I will not have to worry about how many people are going to come to church, because I know that everyone who can will come, and even if it is snowing, they will bring a sled or skis or whatever it takes, but they will make it to the Lord’s church insofar as possible. Of course, one must also be prudent many times. But people whose hearts are devoted hearts, surrendered to the Lord—a church of disciples who are living the life of the Gospel white-hot.

So we talked about all of that, and this afternoon I want to do two things through this sermon. Number one, I want to reinforce that call to radical commitment, to a radical life with the Lord, through this reading and these characters who appear here. So, number one, to continue reinforcing last Sunday’s sermon. And number two, also to celebrate the Christmas season with a Christmas reading and meditation having to do with the advent of Jesus, the coming of Christ into the world during the season we celebrate today and call Christmas.

Luke chapter 2, beginning with verse 21, tells us that when the Lord was eight days old—as custom and the law prescribed that at eight days a child was presented in the temple to be circumcised—Jesus’ parents obediently… Notice something very interesting: the Lord did not come to abolish the law; the Lord did not come to undo it. He says that he came to fulfill the law and interpret it correctly. And here we see that Jesus’ parents, in obedience to the Old Testament, which contained the Scriptures they had, brought Jesus on the eighth day to be circumcised. On the eighth day, he was also formally given his name; the child was considered to have taken root in life, so to speak, and was then formally given a name. And they called him Jesus, also in obedience to the angel’s word and command and to the prophetic word that Zechariah and Elizabeth had received, that his name would be Jesus, which comes from the name Joshua, meaning “God saves.”

Within Jesus’ very nature and his very name was this idea of being the Savior of the world, and that name was given to him because, in both the Old and New Testaments, a person’s name sort of embodied that person’s nature and the prophetic aspirations of the parents who named the child. So he was called Jehovah Yahweh saves; Jesus is the content of that name. And they named him Jesus, the name given to him by the angel before he was conceived.

And when the days of their purification were completed—because, again, the law also said that after giving birth, a woman had to spend a certain amount of time resting and separated from others until her purification was completed; there is a long story behind that, but they obeyed that command as well because it was what they knew at the time: it was the law, the Scriptures as they understood them—Mary and her husband went there when those days had been completed according to the law of Moses, and they brought the Lord to Jerusalem; they brought Jesus to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law, that every firstborn male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

The Lord had also said this when the Jews were about to leave Egypt: every firstborn male was to be consecrated to the Lord. And so they came and presented Jesus in that capacity. They also came to offer what is prescribed in the law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. An interesting detail there. You know that poor people were not expected to bring, for example, a lamb; wealthier people brought a lamb, but for people without many means, that particular rite allowed them to bring turtledoves or young pigeons, which already tells us something about Joseph and Mary’s socioeconomic status.

They were not people living in misery; they were not destitute, as they had been… Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room, everything was full, and it was the time of the census, but they might have been able to pay for a little hotel if one had been available. They were not rich; they were clearly working-class, and that was why their offering was a modest one: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

But now we come to the heart of the matter. I want you to look at these wonderful characters who accompany this account: Simeon and Anna. It says that there was then a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man, righteous and devout—remember those words—was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

Here we are given a characteristic of this man: he was righteous and devout, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and, something very beautiful and very important, it says that the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Anointed One. And moved by the Spirit—the Spirit accompanying the life of this wonderful man three times: it is upon him, reveals something very powerful to him, and moves him to come to the temple.

Moved by the Holy Spirit, he came to the temple, and when the parents of the child Jesus brought him to the temple to do for him according to the rite of the law, Simeon, this elderly man, advanced in years, took the baby, the child Jesus, in his arms and blessed God, saying—and what he says here is also a prophecy and is very revealing of Simeon’s character, whose psychology I also want us to examine, because we should imitate it as well.

He says, “Now, Lord, you are dismissing your servant in peace.” Notice something very interesting: he speaks in the future tense. He is not speaking in the imperative, “Dismiss your servant”; “Now, Lord, you are dismissing, now you dismiss your servant in peace according to your word, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.”

Notice where Simeon’s mind is as he says these things. And we will deal with that a little later. “He is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” And Joseph and his mother marveled and were astonished at everything being said about him at that moment. And Simeon blessed them and said to his mother, Mary, “Behold”—this is what the prophetic word can sometimes be like; sometimes it can be a little shocking—and he says, “Behold, this one.” “This one” is not disparaging; it is a “this one” of mystery: this being, this human being, this person whom I have just taken into my arms, is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

Do you know that when the Holy Spirit is moving powerfully in an atmosphere, in a life, dangerous things happen? The Holy Spirit is dangerous. When the Holy Spirit is moving in an atmosphere, we had better be on our toes, because the Holy Spirit has his sides… Here it says that Jesus is appointed for the fall and rising of many.

Many people want to somehow sanitize Jesus, turning him into a meek little lamb, into something we can consume, a little doll we can carry in our purse. The Lord is ominous. The Lord divides. The Lord creates dangers; many fall before him and others rise. There is division. The Lord said that he came to divide. Many people say that Jesus accepts everything, that Jesus loves everyone. No, the Lord divides. The Lord separates good from evil, truth from falsehood.

It says that he has come for the fall of many and also for the rising of others. “And as a sign that will be spoken against”; in other words, what he is, that sign he embodies, many will not believe in it, and they will fight against it and deny it and contradict it and refuse to accept it, “to the point that a sword will pierce your own soul.”

Why? Because she would see her son die. She would see her son crucified; she would see her son experiencing the greatest agony and most terrible humiliation a human being could experience: seeing her own son tortured to death.

“A sword will pierce your own soul.” He did not tell her what was going to happen, but in the Spirit he perhaps saw what would happen to that child. “So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” The Lord brings things to light. The word of God says that it is like a double-edged sword, penetrating even to the dividing of the thoughts and intentions of the heart; it penetrates even to the marrow, it says, even to the bones, and nothing remains hidden before it.

And Christ possesses that quality; he has that power to make all the vermin and all the nasty insects come out into the light, because he has that power to unsettle and divide, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

So we see Simeon; we are given an implicit profile of Simeon’s character. It says that Anna was also there, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, very advanced in age. I believe God wanted that very important event, when his Son was going to be presented, formally blessed before God, and initiated into his ministry through this prophetic word, to include a representative of Adam and a representative of Eve; that is what I believe. And that is why a man, Simeon, is there, as well as an elderly woman, a prophetess.

“…of the tribe of Asher, very advanced in age, for she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity and had been a widow for eighty-four years.” That is, this woman was about one hundred years old or more. She was an intergalactic, unusual character. A hundred and some years old at a time when a woman probably lived to be forty or fifty, and men also lived fifty or sixty years. She lived to be a hundred. God was preserving her for something. And she had lived her entire life consecrated to the Lord. Her husband died; she did not seek another companion or anything like that. She lived solely as a servant of God.

“And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fasting and prayers.” There you have the profile of this woman who was radically committed to the Kingdom of God. “And coming forward at that very hour, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Two people radically committed to the Kingdom of God who appear at an important moment in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. And as I say, these two people are nourished, governed, and directed by the Holy Spirit. Anna is a prophetess. You cannot be a prophetess; you cannot prophesy unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit, unless the Spirit of God periodically reveals himself through you and within you. She was a woman filled with the Holy Spirit.

Simeon lives in the Holy Spirit. He moves prophetically. God speaks to him and has given him a momentous revelation. The Holy Spirit is nothing new in the Bible, brothers and sisters. It is not as though the day of Pentecost came and only then did the Holy Spirit enter the history of humanity. The Holy Spirit has been in the universe since creation itself.

The Bible says that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters and was the one who created everything that exists. The Holy Spirit and his gifts are manifested throughout all Scripture. He manifested himself in Saul’s life; he manifested himself in David’s life, where it says that the Holy Spirit came upon him, and from that moment God walked with him, and he killed giants and did great things in the Spirit of the Lord; he danced in the Spirit.

He was in Elijah, a man filled with the Holy Spirit. He was in Daniel with his supernatural wisdom; he was also in Joseph; he was in all the prophets of Scripture whom God used greatly and who prophesied under the prophetic anointing of the Holy Spirit. And now he is here at this moment, which is like an intermediate time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Which testament do Simeon and Anna belong to? Pentecost has not yet come, Jesus has not yet begun his ministry; he is only a baby. But neither are they in the Old Testament, because Jesus has already been born. They inhabit a kind of in-between place, a no-man’s-land that belongs to everyone, and there the Holy Spirit is moving in both of them. They are people of the Spirit.

And Luke is a writer who specializes in speaking about the Holy Spirit. How many of you know that Luke wrote the book of Acts? Isn’t that right? The book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, where everything concerning the Holy Spirit and his role in the birth of the church is recorded.

So we see here that the Holy Spirit is present in the life and ministry of Jesus. The Lord himself submitted to that law: every move of God, every ministry, must be animated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. And we want to point this out because we want to encourage you—and I want to encourage myself—to live that Spirit-filled life, brothers and sisters. It is not only a life of coming to sing and praise. No, it is also a life of seeking that fullness in our lives every day.

You have to be on fire for the Lord, and hopefully I will have a moment to talk about how to live that Spirit-filled life. But the Lord himself lived in that fullness of the Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit moving during his childhood and infancy; when he is baptized, the Holy Spirit appears like a dove, blessing and baptizing him. After that, the Holy Spirit takes him and leads him into the wilderness to be tested and to go into action against Satan himself.

John the Baptist says that he will baptize with fire and with the Holy Spirit. He is the specialist in baptizing with the Holy Spirit. So we see that the Lord himself lived by that law: every move of God, every ministry, every life in the Spirit must be baptized, filled, and saturated with the Holy Spirit. And we must do the same, brothers and sisters. And that is not necessarily automatic for every believer; there must be a moment when, after your conversion, you ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit, and you have to seek that—not only once.

Brothers and sisters, the Christian life must be drenched in the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you this: I could not minister or serve the Lord if there were not periodic baptisms of the Holy Spirit in my own life. It is something that must be continuous. Many times I look at the gas gauge and, spiritually speaking, it is on E, and I say, wow, what happened? Has that ever happened to you? You look at your car’s gauge and see—wow, where did it go? And then you remember that you went to Maine and visited up there, and that is why…

When we work, when we do things in life, discipline the kids, get upset on the road, argue with our wives, the anointing gradually goes down from being used. As a pastor—and the same is true of those who continually serve the Lord, expending spiritual energy—my energy goes down too. And what happens? If you remain like that for three weeks, you will be dragging yourself along spiritually. That is why churches die and ministries die: because they forget that we must periodically come and be filled with the Holy Spirit, because we cannot move without that power of the Spirit.

As I tell you, when one is a pastor, brothers and sisters, one is the first who must submit to that law. Someone might say, no, the pastor does not need to bother with seeking, because when he reads the Bible and prepares a sermon, when he is at church several times a week, it happens automatically. No. There must be those intimate, personal moments when you step away from your ministerial role and come as an ordinary man, thirsty and in need of God’s presence in your life.

And Simeon, Mary, all these people we see, Anna—they exemplify that hunger, that fullness of the Spirit of God. And you see that they were humble, simple people. They did not have extensive education or a theological pedigree; they were not highly educated, nor were they people of high birth or great wealth. They were ordinary men and women, but they had something: they loved the Lord above all things, they were people of spiritual quality, and they thirsted to see the glory of God manifested in their lives.

And that is what qualifies you to be used by God. If you consider yourself ordinary and unqualified, glory to God—you are the person God wants to use. Those who think they are the last Coca-Cola in the desert are not going anywhere. But if you know that you do not deserve to serve the Lord, then God can use you. If you know that you are humble and of modest circumstances, God wants to fill you. If you are full of yourself and full of self-confidence, God will not use you.

That is why God revealed himself to shepherds. He revealed himself to a humble priest who was simply one more servant in the temple, Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband. Elizabeth herself was a humble, simple woman. Mary was uneducated; Joseph was a carpenter. At those great moments, God revealed himself to the elderly Anna and Simeon. Anna was a woman who, honestly, did not qualify for anything in those days… A woman was worth nothing in Jesus’ day, and yet there she is: the Lord wanted an elderly woman to witness the presentation of his Son. Because above all, God wants people who are seeking.

And that is what I said last Sunday: on whose behalf does God show himself mighty? On behalf of those whose hearts are wholly devoted to the Lord. Do you want to reach God’s heart? Examine your own heart and purify it. When other pastors sometimes ask me, “Pastor, how can one succeed in ministry?” I tell them, “Look, first of all, I wish I had a very sophisticated formula, but I say: your heart.” What is your life like before the Lord? How do you love the Lord? Do you love him passionately? Are you allowing God to deal with you and keep working on you? Are you being honest and transparent with God? Do you love him passionately?

Because when God sees a heart like that, the Lord wants to play that guitar; the Lord wants to play that instrument. The Lord wants to do something with hearts like those. When he went to choose a replacement for Saul, he did not look among Jesse’s great and powerful sons, each of them a great warrior and handsome in appearance. He looked for a young boy filled with the Spirit, whose heart was after God’s own heart, out among the sheep. He brought him into his presence, anointed him, and filled him to be his chosen king, from whose line his Son Jesus came hundreds and hundreds of years later.

Because God looks for the heart, and God wants burning hearts that seek the fullness of the Spirit and long to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God will speak to those people, and God will do things through them. That is why I want to tell you, brothers and sisters: let us be like Simeon, filled with the Spirit. Simeon lived his whole life under a prophetic word that, I imagine, took years and years—decades—to be fulfilled. One day Simeon received a powerful spiritual impression, or had a dream—we do not know how God’s word came to him—but he was told, “You are not going to die until you see God’s anointed Messiah and behold him with your own eyes.”

And Simeon lived with that word. And here we see that word fulfilled. As I meditated on this Scripture, I wondered what Simeon must have felt about the word he had received during all those years. I suspect that on many occasions he doubted it and thought, no, that was simply all those pastries I ate the night I had that dream. No, that is my ego playing tricks on me, making me think that I am going to see something as powerful and momentous as the coming of God’s Anointed One. At other times, perhaps he felt full of faith and said, yes, it is true; what I witnessed and felt is real. He lived with that struggle.

And one of the things this passage evoked in me is the idea of what happens when God tells us something, when we are pregnant with a word from God, with a vision from God, with something God has told us: look, I am going to do something through your life. And the years go by and it does not come to pass, but we keep wrestling with it and believing it. As Hebrews 11 says—read about the great heroes of faith to whom I alluded last Sunday—God told many of those people things that they did not see in their own lifetimes, and they died, it says, greeting the vision and celebrating it in faith, because it was reserved for others to enjoy. They simply set it in motion and declared it, but others would receive the fruit of those things God had told them.

And I see all of that in this passage. God speaks to Mary and tells her about this Son who is to be born, who is a holy being, but he does not tell her everything. He does not actually tell her that this is God himself in a human body, perfect God and perfect man. The church developed those ideas, those theological truths, centuries later, brothers and sisters, through the development of its theology, and it fought great theological battles. Was Jesus part man and part God? Was he God in an illusory human form, or what? Those issues had to be fought out in great theological councils.

Mary knew nothing about that. She knew that this being came from God, that God had come upon her, and that the holy being who was to be born was someone special, but she did not have all the details about who this being was. You see her here, astonished at what they say about him, at what Simeon says. It says that they were amazed; they could not believe it. Wow, what are they saying about my son? I do not understand this. Mary treasured many things in her heart. When she saw Jesus talking with the teachers of the law, she was surprised. She was a humble mother, and those things were too profound for her. She knew that God had used her for something, but that revelation unfolded over the course of the years. And she had to live with that unknown, with that inner struggle over what it was that she had given birth to.

And I wonder about Jesus as well. I am going to tell you my theory—you do not have to believe it—but I do not believe that at seven years old, or at five years old, Jesus knew that he was God himself and that he had been born for the salvation of humanity. You may disagree. He knew there was something special about him, that God had called him, and that he was set apart. He had an identity that he understood, and he knew that he came from God, but I believe that his complete awareness and clarity about what he was, in all its details, came to him over the years as that life of God developed fully within him.

That silence here tells me that many of you are not convinced by what I am saying. But brothers and sisters, that is how I have always seen the prophetic movement of God in our lives: God tells us things, and we understand only part of them, but we do not understand everything. Many of the prophets in the Old Testament said things without even knowing what they were saying. That you do believe me.

Many of the things they prophesied were prophecies that were sealed and closed until the fulfillment of the times. They said many things, and they said them in the Spirit; they were simply bearers of truths, but those truths were being released into time and space to be unfolded much later.

And I say that the same is true in our life of faith: when God speaks to us, when God tells us something, when God speaks to us prophetically, very often it will take time, and we do not know whether it comes from us, from our flesh, or from the Holy Spirit, but God delights in that inner struggle. And what I want to tell you is that if God has told you something in your life, if God has prophesied something over your life and you believe it comes from God, receive it, sanctify it within yourself, screw it down tightly so that it does not get away from you, and learn to live with the agony of waiting for its fulfillment until God completely fulfills it in your life. Let it guide you.

We must learn to live in that agony of the Spirit, brothers and sisters. Do you know why so many people in the Kingdom of God have become listless? Because they have grown accustomed to living by their emotions. When they are fired up, no one can beat them. When they feel a little doubtful, they stop coming to church or stay home asleep. No, you have to believe. God has said it; you obey it, carry it out, and move forward with that assurance. If God said it, it does not matter how I feel; I will continue to live in it.

And sometimes God’s prophetic word takes years to be fulfilled; it takes a long time, but it is fulfilled to the letter. And we must learn to obey that word, brothers and sisters, and to live in it. I can tell you that no word God has given me in my life, which I have believed came from God, has fallen to the ground. When I have held on to it and remained steadfast in it, God has always fulfilled it. And we must remain steadfast like that.

When God has spoken something to you—there are so many people to whom God has spoken about a ministry, a prophetic calling, a pastoral or counseling ministry, a calling to compose or create art, or whatever it may be—you received it; you are pregnant with it. Live in it until you see its complete fulfillment, as Simeon did at the end of his life. And every day, water that little plant and keep it alive through discipline. Study; do everything possible to help that word… Do your part toward the fulfillment of that word, because you have to fan into flame that gift of God within you.

What does Paul say to Timothy? I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. In other words, Timothy was pregnant with the prophetic impartation that Paul had placed upon his life through the laying on of hands. And the gift of God was beating inside him, but there was a part he had to play: he had to fan it, fan it into flame. When you take a fan and blow on an ember to bring it to life, that is what Paul is telling Timothy to do.

When God gives you something and tells you something, hold on to it in your heart and in your spirit until you see it fulfilled, and then do everything in your power to play your part in bringing it to fruition.

God has told me things that I still have not seen fulfilled in 30 years… No, 55 years since I first perceived them as a child, and they still have not come to pass. But when he told me, “I want you to pastor this church of 50, 60, 70 people,” I saw that this was a step toward what he had told me in other areas. And I said, “Amen, Lord, here I am,” still at my post more than 30 years later, until he fulfills what he has promised. And here I am, doing my part, doing the best I can with this little piece of the Lord’s vineyard. And if it comes to pass, glory to God; if not, I hit the jackpot anyway. It has been a great journey, and I thank the Lord for all the good he has allowed me to do. But we must live in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s word in our lives and do everything in our power.

Right now, I have to do everything in my power by performing my work well, learning things, and preparing my heart and my spirit. And you have to do the same in your own life. It may mean studying; it may mean improving your marriage; it may mean freeing yourself from some of the demons that take hold of your mind and other things—your way of treating people, your character, many things—surrendering all of that to the Lord, refining yourself, purifying yourself, preparing yourself, and adding things.

One of these Sundays I am going to speak about adding qualities to our lives so that we can bear fruit for the Lord. Simeon and Anna lived under that revelation from God, and now the moment had come for that word to be fulfilled and for them to see the Son of God presented before them. And all these things were what made them worthy, brothers and sisters, and they are what we must imitate.

There are a couple more little things, and then I will leave you. Simeon is described as righteous and devout—two words in Greek, dikaios and eulabes. In his character, Simeon was righteous, dikaios, and eulabes is the word translated as devout. These are two qualities that you must possess as a man or woman who lives a radically committed Christian life and that make God’s work in your life possible. They are two qualities: one speaks of the horizontal, and the other speaks of the vertical.

Dikaios, righteous, speaks of conduct, human relationships, and one’s testimony before others. He was a righteous man, an upright man—the idea is that of a man who behaved well, who was upright before God. That is the idea of righteous. It does not mean righteous merely in the sense that he treated people justly, although that was included; rather, he was a man who conducted himself properly before others. He was a man of whom nothing bad could be said; his conduct before others was admirable, respectable, and honest.

And devout refers to his relationship with God. He was a devout man; he was a man… it is the idea of being godly, of visiting the temple regularly, of praying to the Lord, of loving God, of surrendering his life to the Lord. And these two things were balanced in his life. That is why it says that he was righteous, upright in his conduct, and devout toward his God. And we must manifest those two elements in our lives.

We want the people of Lion of Judah to be a righteous and devout people. Righteous because we have a good testimony in the city and behave well. I said last Sunday that one of the qualities of a radically committed person is that their horizontal life, their relationships with others, is good and admirable. Righteous speaks of ethics: how we conduct ourselves at work, how we treat our loved ones—in our marriage, our wife, our husband, our children, our friends—what kind of testimony we present to the people who know us, and how ethically we conduct ourselves.

And devout, once again, speaks of that passionate life toward God. And I believe that we need both. I believe that many Christians compartmentalize the Christian life and specialize in either one or the other. I know many very devout people: they are filled with the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues more than anyone else in the world, know the Bible from cover to cover and quote verses endlessly, tithe, serve in the church—they do everything; they are devout. Ah, but you know how it is: look at how they treat their husband or wife, their children, how they behave at work, what kind of testimony they have, how they behave on the road—a disaster. What are their practices in business and in their dealings with others?

Then I say, no. On the other hand, there are people who are very upright, behave well, and do all kinds of things, but they do not have that passion for God. They do not seek that fullness of the Holy Spirit; they are not crying out before God; they are not worshipers; they do not fully devote themselves to seeking the word of the Lord. And so they have one wheel out of alignment, and we need both things, brothers and sisters.

A man or woman who is truly used by God is a person into whose very pores and the very marrow of their life the Gospel has penetrated. They do not even have to think about being evangelical, because the identity of a servant of God has been planted within them subconsciously, brothers and sisters. Their way of speaking and thinking, their very structures, their very neurology have been changed through being so deeply immersed in the word and the principles of the Kingdom of God. Because the two things are united.

Simeon exemplified the fullness of the Holy Spirit, righteousness toward others, devotion and passion toward God, steadfastness, and faithfulness to the word he had received. And we must do the same. Anna was the same. Anna, this wonderful woman, a 100-year-old elderly woman. How did that woman manage to get to the temple? It says that she was always in the temple. From her youth she had decided, “No, I have been widowed; let other women look for a husband. I am going to serve the Lord all my life,” and she stayed in the temple like a priestess of the Lord.

It says that she fasted continually, prayed continually, worshiped in the temple, and testified. Because when she left there, she immediately began to say, “I have seen the Messiah; he has now been born,” just as we must do in our lives. We must testify to others about Christ. We must live a life of fasting, prayer, and seeking the Lord. It is the only way, brothers and sisters, to be used by God, to have these experiences, and for God to speak prophetically through us.

I want that for you and for me. During this Christmas season, and as we look toward the beginning of next year, let us make a renewed commitment to seek more of God’s anointing in our lives. Amen. Let us fan into flame the gift of God that is within us. If God gave you a word and you allowed it to die, today you can take it out and blow on it. Clear away all the ash that has accumulated. There is still heat there; begin blowing on it so that it may come alive within you again.

If you were once in love with the Lord and time passed and you forgot that first love, recover it again this afternoon. Say, “Lord, this year I am going to passionately seek your Kingdom. I am going to commit myself to you. I am going to live for you.”

What does Simeon say after seeing the Lord? “Now you dismiss your servant in peace.” Simeon lived so completely for God that when the prophetic calling in his life had been fulfilled, he said, “Lord, that means that I am now going to be with you. I lived for the fulfillment of your promise, but now this world holds nothing attractive for me, because my life is lost in Christ, hidden in Jesus, so now I can leave this world.”

A man or woman of God lives for the word of God, for the revelation of God in their life, so that God’s purpose may be fulfilled in their life. That is the most important thing. Let us surrender our lives to the Lord. Let us surrender our marriage to the Lord—everything we have, everything we are. Right now, I myself take everything once again and lay it at Jesus’ feet.

I invite you to bow your head for a moment right where you are and surrender your boat to the Lord right now—your nets, your money-changing table, everything. Cast it at the Lord’s feet right now. Surrender it all and tell him, “Lord, I commit myself to you. I consecrate myself to you anew.”

If you have not done so before, and you are here for the first time, and God has spoken to you, and you want to surrender your life to the Lord and invite him to take control of your life, and you would like to raise your hand, I want to pray for you this afternoon and set you on that journey of intimacy with Christ. If anyone wants to surrender their life to the Lord, I invite you to come up here to the front or rise, stand to your feet, or raise your hand wherever you are. We want to pray for you this afternoon and place you in the Lord’s hands.

Is there anyone who has not done so before and who now wants to surrender their life to the Lord or reconsecrate their life to the Lord? You may raise your hand or stand up, or do whatever you prefer.

Lord, we worship you, we bless you, and we thank you for your presence, Father. We want to consecrate our lives; we consecrate our lives to you, Lord. We surrender our lives to you, Father, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Did someone raise their hand? God bless you. Amen. We bless you; we declare the Lord’s grace over you. Right now, invite Christ to enter your heart. Tell him, “Lord, I consecrate myself to you anew,” or, “I open my life to you for the first time and surrender myself. You are my Lord, you are my master, you are my God. Take control of my life. I consecrate myself to you, my Savior, my Lord, my King. You are born within me this afternoon.” Receive him there. Mark this date; write it in your Bible or somewhere else. Remember this moment, because God is recording it, and you are being presented just as Christ was presented before the priest in the temple.

In the same way, your soul is now being presented before God. And if there is anyone else, we want to pray for you. God bless you, young man, and we say the same thing to you. Surrender that life to the Lord. Open your heart to him right now. Say, “Lord, I receive you. I receive you within me. You are my God. I receive you as my Savior and my master, and I invite you to reign in my life. Forgive my sins and make me your daughter.” And we declare it so in the name of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord.

Is there anyone else? This is the moment; do not leave. The Lord is powerful to hear your request and say yes. If there is anyone else who feels that stirring, do not leave without doing this this afternoon. We want to bless you and pray for you. Glory to God.

And those of us who are here, who already know the Lord, surrender our lives once again. This afternoon I reconsecrate myself to my ministry. I reconsecrate myself to my desire to serve the Lord as he needs to be served, and I surrender this church to the Lord, and we reconsecrate ourselves. This year, 2017, will be a wonderful year, a powerful year, and we want to enter that year prepared. We want to enter that year with brand-new batteries. Amen. Not recharged batteries—no, brand-new batteries. Amen. And we are going to do great things in the name of the Lord.

We are going to bring down giants; we are going to defeat armies in the name of the Lord. We are going to bring souls to the knowledge of Jesus. For the glory of God, we are going to become better known than ever as a people consecrated, surrendered, and anointed by the Lord. Amen. We are going to serve the Kingdom of God; we are going to give to the Lord; we are going to live ablaze for God, with hearts fervent for the Lord—not halfhearted hearts, but hearts completely surrendered to the purposes of God.

Commit yourself to the Lord. Surrender everything to him. Consecrate it all; seal it all for God—your home, your marriage, your youth, your studies, your money, your time, your energy, your body—everything for the Lord, for the Lord, for the Kingdom of God. That is how we will live, Father. We want nothing else but your full glory, Lord, until you are pleased with us, Father. Help us perform mighty deeds in your name and for your glory. Thank you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.