Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: We love our pajamas and our slippers. Blessed be the name and fall back asleep. But isn't there something within us that wants to discipline the flesh? I personally think God says that is a person seeking me. Whether, let's say you do stay home, good. I would encourage that. Do stay home, same benefit, but you have to do it, not just talk about it.

Maybe you're a late-nighter, that's great. Whatever, there's got to be a time of a season of pursuing God. Kind of a funny side note, the majority of late-nighters I know are actually early morning risers. They just got off schedule.

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 and final part of this contrite message titled "Choose Your Hard." Leonard Ravenhill once said, "The only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it."

Choose who you will serve is the question Pastor Shane puts to us the listener today. Will we respond with a yearning necessity for Christ or will we allow the cares of this world to choke out and quench the Holy Spirit in us? Be encouraged and get on track with Jesus right now. 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: Proverbs. What about Proverbs? "He who lacks self-control is like a city broken down without walls." When you see honey hanging, eat just enough. If you have ever had live honey, oh man, you can go to town, especially if you have some chocolate and some peanut butter to dip it in.

In other words, guys, I'm learning this. I'm going through this now as part of this reset that I talked about Sunday. Discipline is more important than we think. God will take care of it. God just change me. I know the doctor said diabetes, high blood pressure. I'm enjoying this Krispy Kreme donut. I'm sitting on this couch. Just change, oh Lord. The devil is a liar. Come and heal me. Just get that blood pressure down to normal next time I go to the doctor. I want to get off medication. Oh, praise God, the Lord will do it.

If your disobedience is causing the issue, He might want you to shore that up and work on it. Now, are there times that God works in spite of what we do? Absolutely. I'm talking about that tomorrow. Absolutely. But more often than not, we've got to discipline ourselves in this area.

Choose your hard. Temptation is much easier to deal with when you pull out the small root versus trying to chop down the tree later. Most of the marriages we see people counsel in really tough situations, it is because the root wasn't pulled up initially. And now to try to revamp, once the damage has been done—men, just a little secret—a woman, they look at things differently. You can be fighting and she, you don't care, you want to be intimate.

But if you guys are fighting, she has a whole different idea. And if you keep beating her down verbally and emotionally, you will get to such a point where she loses that desire for you. You still desire her; you don't care if you are fighting. But you begin to quench that, and it's hard to get that back when they cross that line.

It doesn't mean they're right. She'll have a hard time obeying the Bible just like you do. But there's a point where you push them and it literally breaks their spirit. Dr. James Dobson talked about this in his book *Love Must Be Tough*. I'll never forget that when I was going through a very challenging situation. It said when they feel that pressure—because as men, as leaders and as controllers in a good way, leading, controlling the family—they can feel caged in because they're not the head.

And so he talks about opening the cage door. Especially if they leave and they say, "I can't handle this right now," open the cage door. The more you try to force them back in, the more you're putting them under that heavy hand that's been in the home. I know it's hard, but you've got to say, "Honey, whatever you want, whatever you need," and you release.

And you need to start leading with your wife, not over them. Because we have that natural desire to lead. "I don't want to spend money on this, I don't want to do this." You can really stifle them. I learned the hard way. In 2005, my wife left her journal out, probably on purpose, and she's like, "I married a guy that's controlling, and he won't let him do this to the kids." I'm like, "What? I'm a Christian! What's going on?" I was mad.

And it's not necessarily a bad thing because I've got to steward our finances. "No, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do that. You don't need to go start some little business, you need to just stay home." You start to control everything versus coming alongside. And what I've found actually, "So what do you think of this? What should we do? Here's what we need to do." And you give them the freedom to be who they are. You don't stifle them with control and manipulation.

Lots of rabbit trails today. Ponder the path of your feet. Ponder it. Let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Do not and remove your foot from evil, which is to contemplate, to think about. When we choose according to the flesh, fulfillment is temporary, followed by regret. I want to just give you some verses. I've got too many notes here, we'll be an hour more. I want to hop to the section that says verses that help me.

When I was going through this difficult season, I had verses in the garage that I would look at every day. The word really helps you because you can worship, but if you're not grounded in the word, you can become emotional. You have to ground those things in the word. I'm going to share them with you. "Until the time his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him." So there was a reminder to us that we are going through tests and whatever God placed on your heart, continue to pursue it.

God doesn't give us overcoming life, Oswald Chambers. He gives us life as we overcome. Isn't that huge? Because I don't know about you, but I'm like, "Lord, give me that overcoming life. I'm just going to sit here and wait and go Lord, give me that." In other words, I think I'm waiting for an experience or I'm waiting for an emotional impulse. "Lord, give me that feeling, give me that desire, and give me that overcoming life. I'm going through something challenging, so Lord, almost like let a David come upon me so I can conquer Goliath."

But God often says you step out first and go face the giant. And then as you come out, that overcoming life, that strength, will follow you. I've noticed that more times than I can count. Often you have to step out in faith; you have to take the initiative. If we take the initiative, we find that the strength follows. Isaiah 50:7, "For the Lord God will help me; therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed."

It's about Jesus and the Messiah setting his face towards Calvary. But there's something about when a man sets his face like flint. Flint is a huge rock. Think of Yosemite's Half Dome. And you said nothing is going to move me. When you say, "I'm going to restore this marriage, I'm going to work on this character, I'm going to do this," nothing is going to dissuade me from this.

I don't care if there's no results. I don't care if nobody agrees with me. Lord, I'm going to pursue you. My face is set like a flint. So no matter what happens—disease, detours, distractions, and discouragement—no matter what happens, I've set my face upon you. Be strong. Do not become weak and your work will be rewarded. That's a promise from God. Isn't that cool? Be strong, do not become weak. Eventually, your work will be rewarded.

Don't give up, don't give in. "Behold, the days are coming that I will perform that good thing I have promised." Do not remember the former things, nor ponder the past. How many of you let your past beat you up? Do not ponder the past. Listen carefully. I'm about to do a new thing. It will spring forth and you'll be aware of it. I will even put a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Now, I don't think we can just put this verse on whatever we want. But as you're going through something, as you're reading, something just really resonates. Some of you know if you've been there, that verse is for me. That just gets you through the week because it's so important. Do not ponder the past. Listen carefully. I love Joshua as well. Joshua 3:5, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

Isn't it interesting if you do a study over the Old Testament? When God was beginning to do something, like "I'm going to deliver," whatever it was, actually man had to do something as well. They didn't just sit back in their camp and go, "Okay, do it, God." Sometimes, I mean, you can go back, the children of Israel had to go out of Egypt. They had to walk down to their journey. Hezekiah had to send out the worship team ahead of him in battle. Others had to pray, they fasted, and prepared.

And here, sanctify, in other words, prepare yourself for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Could it be that God is putting in a lot of our hearts, "Get your life ready now, get your heart ready now. Things you've been praying for, things you've been desiring, are they on hold because there's lack of obedience in certain areas?" Get ready, sanctify yourself. I don't know, you apply it to what you need it to apply it to.

And I love Ezra. This is not really in context, but the context is he said, "Get up, this matter is your responsibility." One day that really, the context is they married pagan wives. And so they said, "Get rid of them. It's your responsibility to clean up and to get us back on track with God." But to me it meant, I'm praying for things and he's like, "This is your responsibility."

One of the things I shared about on Sunday was as I'm getting older, my health is not cooperating. And I'm wanting, "Lord, just do this. Lord, you take the thirty pounds off. Lord, you take away these pre-diabetes symptoms. You get this blood pressure down. Lord, do it, do it. I'm waiting." Week in and week out. I know you can, I know you can. You are Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi, as I go through In-N-Out Burger.

And this just was like four in the morning for some reason. I went and I'm praying about this exact issue of all different things, and I go on WhatsApp just for a minute and this post comes up that said that. And I'm like, "That's not in the Bible." I turned to Ezra and I'm like, "Oh, that's out of context." No, but there are sometimes it's like, "Get up, this is your responsibility." And I've learned that God will help us, but not always heal us. Some things, I mean, if anybody wanted to disagree, we could spend some time and go over a lot of scriptures where God says, "If you do this, I will do this."

Did you know not only corporate revival, but individual revival is more up to you than God? Now, I better clarify before I get heresy hunters doing videos about this. You can't work up a spiritual awakening. God does whatever he wants. He's sovereign. I wasn't expecting it last Sunday at all. So but there are, you can prepare the soil in order for it to receive the rain. What about if this was not in the Bible, and it just was chapter 2 Chronicles 7, "I will heal your land." Praise God.

There's something before that. "If my people..." If my people humble themselves. What else, Lord? Pray. Not a quick prayer as you're driving to work with your music on. I mean like "Lord, I need you to move" prayer. Do you ever put God on your calendar? You need to. Because we get too busy. "I'll get to prayer tonight." I've been there. Like right now I'm actually in a deadline writing this book and things going on.

I haven't been in the Bible the last week as much as I want. And each time I say, "I'll read it later this afternoon." Does that ever happen? "Not yet because I've got little kids running around that are getting older now." If my people humble themselves and pray. Anything else, Lord? "Seek my face, not my hand." How many of us go into prayer seeking his hand, what he can give you? Conviction alert. Hello. "Lord, I need this. I need this. Lord, I need gold and silver to take off. I need cryptocurrency to take off. Lord, I need this new job. Man, this house stinks, I need a... and Lord, I need a wife. I need and I need and I need."

I love how the verse says, "If you seek my face." That is just you getting down low with God and you say, "Lord, wherever you put me, I'm so content, I'm so thankful." I begin to praise you and I begin to worship you. And that's actually where a powerful life of worship's going to flow from. The prayer requests are great, Jesus said to pray, but those should not be the majority of our prayers. And I got convicted of this a few years ago. I had a prayer list. It was long.

And there's nothing wrong with that, I encourage that because there's time to do that. But there needs to also be some time of seeking the Lord. And then now we're off the hook, right? We're not off the hook yet. If my people humble themselves, pray, seek my face, here we go, and turn from their wicked ways. Do you know how many people still pray and read their word and stay bound to their sin, unrepentant sin? It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

So this is your responsibility. Remember the word to your servant upon which you have caused me to hope. Remember that word. And here's a few quotes that had helped me, and I'm coming to the end here. "You have not sought the Lord with your whole heart until you have tried a protracted season of prayer and fasting." Now, I read that over a decade ago and I didn't like it. I did not like it. "Who does this guy think he is, Gordon Cove?" Because it's hard.

It's hard to just keep caving into your stomach. It's so hard nowadays. It's just everywhere, and we keep caving in and we stay addicted to things. But I want to draw closer to God. Sometimes you have to put those things away. In many cases where fasts have been added to the prayers, along with deep consecration and heart searching before God, the answer has miraculously come to hand.

Let me conclude with this. We must endure until God brings victory. Choose your hard. I think I might have this quote up here. Look at this: "A sure-fire way to weaken your pursuit of sin is to strengthen your pursuit of God." If sin has a stronghold on you, why aren't you spending countless times a week seeking him and praying and worshipping? And I know not everybody likes to hear this, but it's the truth. God didn't call me to be a motivational speaker.

He didn't say, "Let's plan a social club. Let's all get together, let's have life groups and potlucks." The main goal of a New Testament church is to seek God, to pursue God, and then everything else flows out. So to weaken your pursuit of sin, you have to strengthen your pursuit of God. Men, we've got to become stronger in this area. Spiritual disciplines make the difference. Growing spiritually by the disciplines, that's what makes the difference.

How many of you seen that video of they're actually interviewing a pedophile? And he said, "I would always look for the homes with the weak father, uninvolved, aloof." The video had these guys working out, of course; that helps. But the bottom line is spiritual strength is your greatest asset. You begin to put, what could it hurt, for example, to show up tomorrow at 6:30? What could it hurt and pray for your son and daughter or your grandkids?

Now, are you ready? I'll get the excuse out there right now that I hear all the time. People that don't like me saying that, here's what they say. Ready? "I can do that at home." You sure can, but I bet you're not. You arrogant Pharisee. Corporate worship is commanded in the Bible. But again, if you can't make it or things, I understand. I hope you understand that. I'm throwing it out there for those who can.

And the reason I said such a strong statement like that is because I know these individuals who said it, and they're lying to me. They can do it, but they don't. We love our pajamas and our sneakers—I mean our slippers. It's 72 degrees, it feels so good and I'll just lay here and pray. Oh Lord, blessed be the name, and fall back asleep. But isn't there something within us that wants to discipline the flesh? I personally think God says that's a person seeking me.

Whether, let's say you do stay home, good. I would encourage that. Do stay home, same benefit, but you've got to do it, not just talk about it. And maybe you're a late-nighter, that's great. Whatever, there's got to be a time of a season of pursuing God. Kind of a funny side note, the majority of late-nighters I know are actually early morning risers. They just got off schedule. They've got to watch my show until 9:00 or 10:00. They've got to watch the internet. And now I'm stimulated because of all this and I had this energy drink earlier. But I'm a late-nighter. No, you're actually not. Your schedule's got off here.

Because I truly believe the Bible talks about seeking God early. Jesus went out early in the morning, and he did late at night as well. I'm going to end with this quote. I promise this time. I wrote this before we planted the church. I don't think we have it up there because I've been, I don't know if I wanted to share it or not. But I think some of you it might be important that you write your, I call it "If I Fall." So you should write your "If I Fall."

I wrote before we planted the church, I have it on my documents. Fear is a good thing. When we become comfortable, we begin to slip. Fear is a good thing, fearing God. I said, "If I fall, my wife, kids, and countless others will lose all respect for me in the ministry. It will hinder the gospel while unbelievers mock and scorn me until the day I die. The years of hard work in the ministry will crumble. A lifetime to build, but only seconds to destroy. The kids and countless others may begin to doubt God as they struggle with disappointment and discouragement.

My children will live the rest of their lives knowing that Dad failed, that he didn't finish well. He didn't practice what he preached. Instead of rejoicing over what God did through me, they along with their children will weep silently. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. And you remind yourself, you remind yourself of what the outcome can be. You play the end of the story out in your mind. Where can this lead? Men, you've got to choose your hard, the right type of hard to follow God.

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 sixty 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.