Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: Trust me, you need to take a time of silence. Silence. Teenagers, try one day with no phone. You'd be amazed at how much better you feel because you have to get your identity from God. Everyone, every one of my high school friends, the mockers, I could care less. Two years later, way long time ago. Nowadays, I'm ministering to them.

But back then, all these people you were worried about, it doesn't matter what people say, it matters what God says. Because the people said the voice of God and not a man, the voice of God and not a man. And I said hashtag give me a break.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear the second part of this humbling message titled No Flesh Shall Glory in My Presence.

J.I. Packer once said, "Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God's near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love with an evangelistic flow."

Today, Pastor Shane brings us the keys to understanding how we may strive for the holiness of God right here on Regaining Lost Ground. You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: How I was feeling when I first found out, I still have the email of making plans of church transition, Easter. I was not in a good spot. I didn't even feel good. I could tell, I asked Morgan, the last couple years, something's going on. I don't want to go on vacation.

Coming up to the second service, getting up the stairs and trying, man, something's for a while I've been dealing with this. So to me, it just felt like such an accomplishment, what God has done to what the enemy intended for evil: discouragement. And so it's actually not a pulpit hog. I'm not a pulpit hog. I would ask Gabe, I would just have tons of people speak.

But I also realize He's called me for such a time as this. And what He puts on my heart, the message that gets out there, I have to be responsible to the calling that He has given me. I have a whole new view on that now, too. Lord, wherever You'll airplanes don't scare me anymore. There's turbulence and I'm like, "I do not care, that's quicker. Boom."

My daughter wants to go learn parachuting and skydiving or whatever. You're more bold. You're more bold. Don't you get bold? A couple people said when I got back in town, there's a witch's coffee brewery right down the street. "Are you going in there?" I'm going in there. Who is Satan to God? They have to bow to the light and we don't bow to the darkness.

Who told you to be afraid? Who told you to be afraid? You walk in there and you tip them and you love them and you pray for them and you invite them to church. It's not complicated. It's not difficult. Okay, I'm getting to the message here. But make sure to check out Wednesday's message, Lessons Walking Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, some lessons I learned through that season.

So the title is, I'm going to try to get through it, if not, we'll do part two, No Flesh Shall Glory in My Presence. Do you know God says that? That's powerful. That really makes you, that wakes you up. And we're in Acts 12, and I titled it When God Stirs the Pot, this kind of section, what we're talking about.

I guess I should tell you, it's been a little while, James was killed by Herod and Peter's in prison. God releases Peter, but He allowed James to be killed, probably pretty brutally. Go back and listen. I talked about God's sovereignty. Listen, that's the only way you're going to stay sane in this world. God's sovereignty must become your sanity.

Because wouldn't you be upset? I guess James is dead, but if you're James and you knew you're dying, or one thing that really blows my mind is John the Baptist: powerful preacher and he can't get out of prison. He was probably doubting, wasn't he? "Art thou the Christ or shall we look for another?" he said. "Are you really Jesus? Why am I in here?"

And I've struggled with that a lot with sovereignty. But rest in God knows. That will give you so much comfort. But then Peter, we talked about a few weeks ago, Peter is released from prison by an angel. And so when it was daytime, there was no small stir among the soldiers. The prisoner's gone. And you know what that means.

Today, the correctional officers will call security and law enforcement and they'll look for him. Back then, you would die if you were guarding the prisoner. And then when Herod had searched for him and he hadn't found him, he examined the guards and he commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea and he stayed there.

So a couple reminders before we get into the main text: man can never stop God. Herod thought he could stop, "I killed James, I'm going to kill Peter." No, you're not. No, you're not. And just rest in that. Man cannot stop God. What God wants to do in your heart, in your grandchildren, in your prodigals, the enemy can't stop that.

Now, it takes time, it might take prayer. There's a lot of discouragement. Prayer is wrestling. When I really pray, I spend a lot of time praying and I was tired. It's wrestling spirit. The prayer room when I leave, I'm like, "I'm tired." It's like when I preach a whole Sunday, people don't understand, but it's like I worked a day in construction.

It's different, it's a different type of tired, but it's still the exhausting spiritual battle. With God, delay is never defeat. Anybody waiting on God? I'm sure Peter was waiting on God. But when God delays things, it's never defeat in His eyes. How many of us have prayed for healing?

And many of you can probably look back and say, "I'm glad it didn't happen right when I prayed," because I need to learn some lessons. I need to go through some things. He knows His perfect timing. Good, good Father. That song, "Little Shepherd" or "Little Lamb, You've Got a Good, Good Shepherd." I read a book while I was gone, too.

I don't know his name now, but he looks at Psalm 23. Lambs are stupid. What an example that we are lambs. Every chapter is like, "He does this and this and this, he falls over." They fall over and they can't get back up. And they get parasites and they can't do this and they run where they shouldn't.

Every chapter is talking about how much lambs need a shepherd. And it was so powerful to realize that. With God, delay is never defeat. Man can never stop God. I remember in the Old Testament, Pharaoh boasted against Yahweh. Do you remember that? Sennacherib, Assyrian, mocked God. "Who is this God who's going to deliver you, Israel?"

And the Assyrians, they trusted in their brutality. The Philistines believed in their gods, Dagon, Ashtoreth, Baal. Goliath taunted Jehovah. How many of you get chills when you read that? When Goliath taunts David. "Who is your God that's going to deliver you from me?" The Pharisees tried to silence God. You cannot silence God.

I want to tell you something on the next slide here that I hope you always remember: Israel never lost in the Old Testament until they boasted, sinned, and walked away from God. I looked for a scripture. If you can find one, let me know next week. Joshua lost a battle because he didn't first inquire of the Lord.

But when Israel's defeated, Assyrians, Babylonians, I mean, you just this group, the Philistines, it's because they sin and they walk away from God and they walk away from their protection. There's some practical application there. And then Herod, who thought he was in charge, we realize he's not. And so we keep reading.

Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, but they came to him with one accord to make him happy with them. You don't want your king mad at you. And having made Blastus, the king's personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food by the king's country.

So on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, so you get this picture, this purple, this royal apparel, he sat on his throne and he gave an oration to them. "Good people of such and such." And who knows what he said, but I'm sure it was wonderful. And the people kept shouting, oh my goodness, you guys ready for this?

I have cringe moments. There's cringe moments in the Bible. Do you have those? Like, oh, Goliath, mmm. Herod, mmm, these people, oh. "This is the voice of a god, not of man. This is the voice of a god, not of man." Did they really believe that? I don't think so. I think they were trying to appease him.

And then immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied. Did you know that every king will bow their knee to Jesus Christ? Every king, every leader will bow their knee to Jesus Christ. They will realize that they were never really in charge.

And that's where I came up with that title, No Flesh Shall Glory in My Presence. No flesh shall glory in my presence. And guys, here's where it also begins. When you begin to drift away from the Lord and you begin to look for applause from people or you begin to just not make God the center of your life, you begin to glory in things.

I'll talk about that in a minute what it means, but He no longer becomes the priority. And you begin to drift, and you take, "Look at what I've done. Oh, business is going good. Yeah, brother. Oh yeah, I did this. Man, how did you do that? Oh, here's what I did. Here's what I did." And when we begin to drift, we also begin to drift from holiness and God.

A.W. Tozer said, "In every generation, the number of the righteous is small. Make sure that you are among them." Repeat. In every generation, the number of the righteous is small. Make sure that you are among them. In other words, the number of the holiness, the number of those who focus on holiness and truly seeking God, it's small.

You realize it's not the whole church. It's not a big portion of the church. That's why they call it a remnant of the church. The world marks men by apparel and by applause, doesn't it? What are they wearing? He was clothed in fine garment. What are they wearing? And they look at this, and also the applause.

And that's what social media influencers, that's the big thing right now. "If I could just get that many followers, if I could just do that, if I could just," and then you have to wear these certain things. It's the applause of men. This applause is fake confirmation because they're only following you because they like something you're doing.

The world marks men by apparel and by applause, but God marks them with His presence and He gives them purpose. I don't know about you, but I want to know somebody marked by God. Marked by I want to hear from them. I don't want to hear from people with ulterior motives and agendas. I need you need to hear the voice of God.

Be careful, there's a lot of competing voices, isn't there? Instagram has a lot of ads. You ever hear something like, "Oh, that's cool. Shop now." Then it's going to take me to a place in China and my order's going to take about 42 months to get here. But it's this and this and this and this and this.

And I got a lot of well-meaning people, can you imagine sending me all kinds of stuff? "Have you tried eating lemon peels and baking soda and" No, I'm sure it's good. Right, but look at this social media influencer. Are they hearing from God? Because I would hate to boast in something that man is doing and not God.

And He might lead you to certain things, of course. But that because we're prompted, we're triggered. We're triggered by certain things. It doesn't matter what people say, it matters what God says. Don't you wish you could tell every teenager that? Every teenager. I wish I could tell you that with love.

It doesn't matter what people think of you. I at a young age, I was called a cross-dresser. Do you know why? I dared to wear Adidas, Puma, and Nike. I didn't know that was against the rules. "Bro, you're a cross What are you talking about? You can't" You go home, you cry, and you got to wear all Nike.

I wouldn't be here if I listened to the opinions of men. "You're stupid. You're not going to amount to anything. You'll be dead." The opinion and that's how they did and that's why this bullying's such a big thing and people wanting to take their because they're on TikTok and how many people are looking what they said.

Look at their comment and they're being influenced by the world. Trust me, you need to take a time of silence. Silence. Teenagers, try one day with no phone. You'd be amazed at how much better you feel because you have to get your identity from God. Everyone, every one of my high school friends, the mockers, I could care less.

Like, two years later, way long time ago. Nowadays, I'm ministering to them. But back then, all these people you were worried about, it doesn't matter what people say, it matters what God says. Because the people said the voice of God and not a man, the voice of God and not a man. And I said hashtag give me a break.

Give me a break. King Herod was wicked, godless. But I will say this as well: what do you do with praise? It reveals a great deal about your character. How you handle praise reveals a great deal about your character. And God has to break this out of all of us, correct? I mean, would I rather hear after a sermon, "Great job, Pastor," or "You convicted me"?

Now I'd rather hear that one. But and sometimes, you honor people and things like that, but if you're constantly listening to the praise of people and the opinions of people, it can really sidetrack you. And it reveals a lot. It reveals a lot. I mean, how many if if and maybe this will go out, it goes out to if you truly want to pastor or you truly want to preach, why are you doing it?

If you think it's "I like people and it's kind of cool," oh, you're going to be destroyed. It's got to be a calling of God. Why do you want to be on the worship team? Why? Why are those people so popular? Taylor Swift, this this Billy Eilish or whatever her name why are they so popular? Why? Can you think why?

And if you want praise of people, "Look what I've done. Look at the business I've built." No flesh should ever glory in His presence. Do you pursue more of Him or do you pursue applause? That really is the question this morning, isn't it? Because here's praise can be dangerous. That's why like even politicians or whoever you you know you got the cheerleaders praising them and they think they're doing what is right.

You have people that just start out singing and they begin to get all these praises and accolades and Hollywood and they so that's what they pursue, isn't it? It can be intoxicating. Ask anybody who's ever a worship not even worship, but a musician, and they'll say it's unlike anything they've felt before to be on stage with 50,000 people.

Why? Because it's godlike. You're being lifted up. That's what it is. It's exactly what it is. Now, there's nothing wrong if there's a powerful move of the Spirit and you're being used by God, and that's exciting, it's very exciting. It can be if God if you don't glory in His presence.

But but searching, isn't that what destroys Hollywood and these people? If they didn't have any applause, they would they go "I'd better go back to being a waitress in Beverly Hills." But the applause: more applause, more applause, more applause, more applause, more applause, bigger star, bigger star, bigger star. And then they start to get weird and lose their mind.

Can you imagine little 12-year-old Katy Perry used to sing in church? She used to sing in church, guys. Can you imagine walking down sitting with her mom, sitting with her at 6 years old, 8 years old, 12 years old?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Regaining Lost Ground with Pastor Shane Idleman. You can find more information at westsidechristianfellowship.org. That's westsidechristianfellowship.org. And for all the latest on what God is doing with His ministry here, please be sure to follow us on most social media platforms.

Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of Regaining Lost Ground where we are reminded daily: times change, truth does not.