Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: You're lulling people back to sleep. Spiritually speaking, they need to be awakened from their spiritual slumber. And it can happen like that with repentance. Cuz I came back to the Lord, experienced that, and then for about a year I'm reading in the Bible like about baptism like nope, nope, nope. That's embarrassing. I'm 30 now. I've been coming to church a year. People are like, why is Shane getting baptized for? Oh, this is so embarrassing. But I kept reading it, right? And reading it. Why why was I embarrassed? I'd swim and say, God, here I am publicly publicly pronounce that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

I'm on here. I don't care what the world says. I want to know what God says.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at West Side Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, 1 hour north of Los Angeles.

Guest (Male): Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear the third and final part of this charging message titled, Are You Provoked? You Should Be. Friend and fellow California pastor Jack Hibbs once shared, we see it repeatedly throughout the Bible in examples such as Nehemiah, Josiah, and Hezekiah. First, these men personally renewed themselves in the Lord, and then they set out to influence the culture and their nation for what was right. Today, pastor Shane takes aim at the spiritual battle before us, calling the church to humility, but living truth boldly and not accepting a cowardly Christian life. Take a listen.

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 Idle Men Unplugged weekly podcast. And now from West Side Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's pastor Shane Idle man.

Pastor Shane Idleman: Who knows how long it took? Weeks, months, who days, we don't know. But after he said that, he's spending time with the Lord. And what does he say? I can't hold it back anymore. Your word is in my heart like a burning fire. Shut up in my bones. I'm weary. I'm weary of holding it back and I cannot. My son brought it to my attention, but when I said something about that lady, the one recently who who was with her three kids killed them, there's about my Instagram dropped by about 2,000 followers. I'm like, well, they don't need to be following then.

Provoked. Provoked. The things that upset and something I've been really struggling with since yesterday and I've been praying in the office and came in early. And I and I I just I think it needs to be said though. I I because silence on on just because we, you know, agree with somebody politically. But I don't know how many of you have seen uh Steve Hilton's new ad. It was absolutely horrific. Um it's called um just try it series. I I emailed his his staff. Jack Hibbs has put out videos. It's just it's just there's it it provokes such a there's a there's a girl who's got her LGBT flag in college sitting there and another girl and she's encouraging her to just try that's coming across as lesbianism.

Just try it. Here, let me I'll take your hand. And then she takes her hand and votes for Steve Hilton. I about like you I'm I'm this is AI, right? Look, Steve, you wouldn't and it and his video coming out was was pathetic. Well, I know some don't agree, but we're having to reach each other. You don't reach each other side by like that. Here's the thing. Christians are mad at me. We need the votes. It's just satire. That's satire. That's disgusting. It's actually worse than what I said. Anybody saw it? There's a little it's gets it's even worse than that.

Where's the righteous? Where's the whole this is not right. This isn't wrong. Course, still vote. I got it. I'm not saying I didn't say anything about I said this is wrong. This is wrong. How do you put out perversion like that and and the Christians oh, it's no big deal. Let's get our guy in office. No, let's get God on the throne again and be broken and be provoked for the things that provoke God. This isn't an abomination in the sight of God. He would go he told Ezekiel, go and mark those people who share my passion for the word and spare them.

Where's the blushing? Where's the the passion, the zeal for the things of God? Where is it? You must be provoked for the things of God. And then to hear people excuse this like oh. I mean, that's perverted. Somebody better check yourself if you think it's no big deal. You can get votes on the other side a lot differently. They compromising such a sacred thing, a sexuality to children. Put up a verse. I don't know. I don't didn't reference it. God says, were they ashamed? Were they ashamed because of the abominations they have done? They were not even ashamed.

Do we have that slide? I want you to I want you to see these next few verses. There should be about four more slides, maybe. I could be I might have added these later. So just just listen then as I read it. Were they ashamed because of the abominations they have done? They were not even ashamed at all. They did not even know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I punish them, they shall be cast down thus, saith the Lord. What about Jesus? My house shall be called a house of prayer.

But you've made it a den of thieves. Ezekiel, go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over the detestable things that are done in this city. He was sending a death angel and he said, but go and mark those. Mark them just like the Passover. Go and mark those who also have a heart for the things that I have a heart for and spare them. They're the remnant. I truly believe without the to the bottom of my heart that the remnant is sustaining our nation and this church.

Yep, there there's that's why I'm hopeful. Sure, things happen. There's darkness and things are going to happen. But you can't tell me that God doesn't hear the voice, the cries of his children. Because we are we are way worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, guys. And there's more than 50 here. Praise God. Our nation has many, many people. When the leading men of the city got up early the next morning, this is Judges about Gideon. When the leading men of the city got up early in the morning, they saw that the altar to Baal had been torn down along with Ashrah that he stood beside it.

Gideon was so provoked. He broke down those sacred altars. He broke down those things. One of my favorite ones, King Josiah, 2 Kings. When Hilkiah found the book of the Law of the Lord, basically, the Bible had been put aside. This is where it starts. This is where it starts. Oh, I feel that strongly. When you put the word aside, when you when you let it collect dust, you will drift. If it has dust, you will drift. It's a new saying at this church. But when this priest, I believe he was, he found the book of the law.

Can you imagine just living like whatever and you know, and you don't you really don't know God's standard. I mean, it's been passed down. You've heard about but when the book comes out, the old test is probably scrolls, right? And and you you can see what the scrolls would look like if you if you go online. But they would open the scroll and it says this. When Josiah heard the curses that were going to be given to the nation because they drifted, he tore his clothes. It's a sign of humiliation and broken his repentance. And then look, what did he do?

He said, well, I don't want to get involved. I don't want to set upset anybody. We're trying to win votes. Do you know what he did? This this is the this is the most thorough a king has ever cleaned Jerusalem. He tore down their altars, all the altars. He smashed their sacred pillars. He cut down their Ashras poles and he burned their idols in the fire. Zeal for God was so strong that many of these prophets would call for the the elimination of the false prophets. Think about that. Elijah, when he called down fire on Mount Carmel, and the God who answered by fire was God.

He said, now take those 400 prophets of Baal, I believe 450 prophets of the 850 prophets. Now kill these guys. Some things you've got to kill in your life that are pulling you back. You've got to you've got to clean house like Josiah. And of course, Isaiah, what about that? Woe is me. Woe is me. Why would he say that? Woe is me. The the actually in this context, he would pronounce woes against nations, right? Even Jerusalem, he'd say, woe to you. Woe is like a strong warning like God's judgment's coming. But when he says woe to me, that means he has seen his his his own his own sin before God and he he cries out.

He was passionate. He was fervent. He was fervent. And here's why zeal zeal for the things of the Lord. That equals passion. That equals fire of the Spirit. Listen, you don't come up here and just make this stuff up and let me go be a good actor today. Let me let me try to act and I'm on passion for God. No, you've got to get it deep down within your soul so that out of your belly flows those rivers of living water and then you can say like Jeremiah, his word is Can you imagine spending the day in God's word and you're fasting and you're you're just you just consuming the prophets and then how do you think you're going to feel when you come out of that prayer meeting?

You're going to say these things are wrong. Zeal for his house consumes me. Oh, that's right. Look what God's word says about this compromise. Look what it says and that fire, that passion, it's holy indignation and that's why we need it again. Holy indignation is a result of holy living. The fire of the spirit has been fueled and passion flows out. And that's why often throughout the Bible, you'll see that that famous famous phrase, return to me and I will return to you. Listen, guys, there's not one thing you've done that God can't fix at this altar.

There's not one thing that you have done that God can't fix at this altar. Or of course, where you're sitting or of course, where you're listening to later. There's not there's not anything that you've done that God can't fix. Maybe even Christians I say they get they they've drifted so far. It's like the what can I do for God could have used me years ago, but Shane in a moment in a moment he can give you back that passion, that zeal. In that in that moment in that moment you'll you'll go eat lunch. You'll begin ministering to the waitress.

You'll you'll go to Trader Joe's and you'll begin begin ministering to somebody who hates the Lord, mocks the Lord. Because why? Return to me and I'll return to you. It's instantaneous. Maybe others you you just pray pray for the fire of the spirit in your life. Pray for the fire of the spirit in your life. We've got to get back to that to just prayer being the priority. Guys, you you would wake up spiritually if you would make prayer a priority because prayer is fire. Prayer is calling down heaven. That why I've talked often about push push.

Pray until something happens. We need more people who will push. Don't give up on California. Don't give up on revival. Don't give up on your prodigals. Don't give up on your spouse. Just keep pushing. Keep pushing because pushing is perseverance. God says, I hear that prayer. I hear the cry of my child. Hold on, daughter. Hold on, son. Just hold the line and I'll come. I'll come and answer, but it's going to be a little while. I'm going to need you to press in like never before and then the God who answers by fire, let him answer by fire.

There's two ladies that have become very famous. Let's put the picture up if we got it in there in time. How cool. I don't know if I can get through this. I think I can. Peggy and Christine Smith couldn't even go to church in the 1940s. One was blind and the other was so bent over with arthritis. But for months, months, they said we're going to we need we need revival in the Hebrides, the islands of Lewis and Harris. And we are going to pray for it. We're going to pray for it. We're going to push.

You can read their words. We stayed up all night and God broke through. We prevailed in prayer. And God sends Duncan Campbell. And little did these ladies know that across the way on that island that men, young men, seven of them I believe were in a barn praying for weeks and that turned into months. And I could see this would probably have been me. One of the guys stood up, who knows how old he was, and they would use a word back then, humbug. It just means uh humbug like like what we're just wasting our time.

And they were reading the Bible and it said, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or stand in this holy place? He who has clean hands and a clean heart and has not lifted up his soul to his idol, nor has he sworn deceitfully. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And so he stood up and said, Lord, this is all humbug. And unless unless you this is real and and look at me, examine my heart. Lord, do I have clean hands? Do I have a pure heart? God, I want the fire of the spirit back again and the the power of God hit that place.

It hit that place and that that barn was transformed. Those men were on their face prostrate before almighty God and then the revival fire started to flow and people started to come to the church. they didn't even know why and then the bars would close down and people people were singing hymns throughout the whole land because the spirit of God came down on a group of people that was honest and two ladies. They kept pushing. They kept persevering in prayer. They kept seeking him. They did not give up. There's something that happens when you don't give up on God.

Listen, I know it's hard. I've been praying for things for years. But I will not give up until God says, son. It's it's it's it's it's run its course. Because when you persevere in prayer, it keeps you close to the fire. That's the best way to stay close to God, believe it or not. Unanswered prayers are the best way to because you persevere in prayer. You keep keep going because what you're really saying is, Lord, no matter what, I love you more than the answer. I love you more than the answer. I'll have the the worship team come up.

And um if you need to pray for the fire of the spirit in your life, just just pray that during worship. God, I need that zeal back. I need that passion. Guys, one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this topic is is I know the difference. Amen. Anybody else? I know the difference between being bored with God and being on fire. I know the difference between reading the Bible. This this doesn't make anything uh this I don't even understand this. This is boring. Doing nothing for God, no passion, no zeal, just going through the motions.

And then when God turns on the fire of the spirit, everything changed. It it is so dramatic. John Wesley wrote about this in his journals, others. It's so dramatic that many people wonder if they were even saved to begin with because they look more like the world than they do Christ. They're compromising. They're quenching quenching the spirit. There's no zeal for the things of God. They're And but when the fullness and the spirit comes in, the fire of the spirit comes in, they've been so radically transformed that they wonder if they were even saved to begin with.

Now I won't get into I mean, that could just be quenching and grieving the spirit. Some of them were not saved, but others were quenching because when you're have you ever really quench and grieve the spirit big time? When you stay in sin, you don't feel saved, do you? That's why you question your faith because there's no intimate relationship. And so that's often what I talk about here, the call to repentance, the call to come back to God, return to God. And it happens in a moment. It happens in a moment, guys, that quick. Listen, I don't want to get details.

My kids listen, but I went from a Saturday night closing down schooners, the old location, hung over, Sunday morning, depressed, really depressed, no hope. And I hear this guy on TV and I came back to the Lord. That that quick, that quick, that quick. I get on my knees. I start crying. I start begging God for forgiveness. I get out the Bible again. I have it still 1999. I have it right at the corner of my Bible. I give it and it changed from dark to light and now there's a passion. What happened? Repentance. Repentance.

So the people who put down these types of churches, I need to ask how many people have you won to the Lord by being lukewarm and quiet? Not many. You're lulling you're you're lulling people back to sleep. Spiritually speaking, they need to be awakened from their spiritual slumber and it can happen like that with repentance. So we're going to actually have some baptisms. If anybody's interested in getting baptized, I would love to to baptize you this morning. Maybe you're just becoming a Christian for the first time recently. We had we've had people that recently become Christians like that day of and got baptized or weeks later or months later or God put it on your heart because you've never really made that commitment and and we want to offer that to you.

Don't run from this opportunity. And to me, actually something even shift after I got baptized cuz I came back to the Lord, experienced that and then for about a year I'm reading in the Bible like about baptism like nope, nope, nope. That's embarrassing. I'm 30 now. I've been coming to church a year. People are like, what is Shane getting baptized for? Oh, this is so embarrassing. But I kept reading it, right? And reading it. Why why was I embarrassed? If I could do that over, I'd run to that water. I'd swim and say, God, here I am publicly publicly pronounce pronounce that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.

I'm on here. I don't care what the world says. I want to know what God says. Oh, through obedience. So make that decision. Men, you just go through this exit. Women, right through this exit. And we're also going to have communion available. If you missed it during the opening worship, just come up and grab communion. But again, it's for believers. The Bible says this is for those who remember what Jesus did for them. It also says, do not take it in an unworthy manner. So you're worthy because of what Jesus did, but sometimes our character needs to catch up.

In other words, if somebody's caught in be setting sin, they're not going to they're just gossiping, complaining, backbiting, or other sins and they're just I don't care. I'm not repenting. I'm going to take communion. Don't. Repent. Get your heart right. Get your heart right cuz you're remembering what Jesus did. He He set you free of those things. Amen. So let's go ahead and stand and I'm going to close in prayer. We're going to go into worship. Even that song Amazing Grace was written how many year how many hundreds of years ago. I was lost, but now I'm found.

I was blind, but now I'm see. Read his story. It happened in a moment. The song came later, but in a moment when he repented the light and that's what the light comes on why? Because you're born again. It's not like you're born you know, you're in the womb 9 months. You know, you got to spend some time. No, it's just darkness to light. Born again. So let's go ahead and we're going to go into worship. Again, communion will be available. Actually, the front available too. If some of you need to say um like the prisoners did, I need to run to that altar.

I need to create in a clean heart of me again. I need to repent of these. I need the fire of the spirit. Dad Dad, if you get the fire of the spirit back, watch your family change. Moms, get the fire of the spirit back. Watch your kids change.

Guest (Female): He's calling, wake up, child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling, wake up, child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Regaining Lost Ground with pastor Shane Idle man. 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. West Side 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.

Guest (Female): I'll hear the father when he calls. He's calling, wake up, child. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling, wake up, child. It's your turn to shine.