Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: Do you see the seriousness and the magnitude of false worship? You see how desperate they were for genuine and true worship? No, men, we are just like you. Please stop. There was a passion. There was a fear. There was a reverence. There was a respect for the living God.

We should come into the house of the living God with the same respect and the same fear and say, "God, get this sin out of me. I know what I saw last week. I know what I did last night. But God, I want to come into this place in fear and trembling before You."

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 theologically sound message titled Building a God, Summoning a Demon.

Revivalist George Whitefield once said, "The great and important duty which is incumbent on Christians is to guard against all appearance of evil, to watch against the first risings in the heart to evil, and to have a guard upon our actions, that they may not be sinful or so much as to seem to be." Listen now to the strong, powerful message as Pastor Shane brings the important truth that every soul must hear. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. Listen 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's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: What in God's name is going on? Building a god summons a demon. That's what's happening. Because they do become demonic. This is what it is. Shane, be nice. I am. I'm being truthful. Nice means appeasement. Nice means I don't want to upset people. Look at what they turn to, do they not?

Be careful. Be careful of that worship, that intoxication it brings. And what will happen is a god will take credit for what it doesn't do. A god takes credit for what it doesn't do. Paul didn't do anything, but others in that situation will take credit. "Look at what he's done." God's man, God's woman, let's elevate them. Let's promote them. And they get credit.

I'm well aware, trust me, of everything God has been doing at this church in 16 years. It was not me doing it whatsoever. I can go to sleep at night saying I truly believe that. If it was left up to me, we wouldn't have made it one week. God gets all the credit and all the glory. And that's often why He keeps you humble. There's always that limp, that thorn in the flesh, that reminder.

Oh, by the way, a god is high maintenance. Anybody got high maintenance? Well, let's leave it there. I don't. I'm not saying that. But a god, which is a false god by the way, is high maintenance. It always requires a disproportionate amount of time. It wants your attention. It wants your resources in an effort to manage it and to please it. That's what idolatry is. A false god takes what is zapping your time.

What is taking your time and your resources and it's not of God and it's being put before God? It's your idolatry. Maybe they'll come to church now and then. But don't we see it all the time? To me, it amazes me how many idols we have out there. To some, it's called NASCAR. They know all the races and all this, but they don't know where Matthew is in the Bible.

Oh, I'm coming after you. Hold on. Baseball. All the stats, I don't care. Do you know what the stats are in the Bible of those who fall away? Football. What's coming up in June or July? I just found out. World Cup. Nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves, correct? But when they become the passion, when they become the focus, and we've seen even when your family becomes your idolatry and you're measuring your worth by that.

Anything that comes between you and your relationship with God. What about pursuing, I love the King James, filthy lucre? Remember that terminology? Money. It's money. I think, right? Okay, filthy lucre. There are some good words in there. Go fetch a compass. Doesn't mean go fetch a compass. That's a side note. But isn't that idolatry for many men? That's what knocks them off course. It knocked me off course in my 20s.

That was my god. Sure, I'll get God in. Of course, I want to go to heaven. But I want to be successful now. I want people to recognize me now. I want to go up that corporate ladder to show I've arrived. Look who I am. I can't wait to get that business card printed up. Idolatry. Be careful even pursuing an education. I hate to go here, but I've seen it. It's nasty. It's even in the Christian circles. It is.

Shane, by the way, I'm Doctor now. I've got my PhD. I don't care. You're Chris, whatever. I don't care. But you've got to put that on my book. That's my title. Now, I understand they earned it. They worked hard. I got it. I work my butt off writing 14 books, so I got it. I probably could have written a dissertation or two. I got it. It takes a lot of work. But this, "I've got to get this degree and that degree and look at what I've done," it doesn't make you any smarter.

It can, if you're more disciplined than somebody else, for sure. Not a bad idea if God's directing you, at all. Just don't make that. "Look at what I have." And I've seen pastors elevate, "Well, they don't have a degree. I have a Master's or a PhD." It doesn't make you, actually, as a matter of fact, God might use you a lot less and you'll miss the Spirit's power because you're more interested in education and how smart you are.

God forbid. You can see how idols can be built everywhere, correct? A couple of years into the ministry, God convicted me. I wanted to be in Greek and Hebrew and quote these words to you. Nothing wrong with that. But I realized I'm trying to build up this Greek scholar, Hebrew scholar, and I'm not. And again, there's nothing wrong. I love learning the language, but I'll remove the word. You don't need to know how smart I am because it begins to lose the power of the Spirit. He falls on broken, humble vessels, not those focused on self-exaltation.

True fact. If what I said upset you, God's convicting you. Straight up. And I know it because people will come in the prayer room. "You know what, Pastor? I need my education for this, this..." Good for you. Why did you feel the need to come up and tell me that? That's my concern. Because of course, go to school if you can. Get two PhDs if you can, if God's in it. That's not what I'm saying. The reason is you're redirecting it because you're convicted.

I do it too. I redirect things when I'm convicted. Own it. Do not let it become an idol in your heart. By the way, when we cave into something, there's a break in every chain and lust is so many. When you keep caving into lust, caving in is like worshipping a false god. When we cave into a stronghold, it often parallels with worshipping a false god.

So lust, the more you're worshipping that false god, the more you cave into those. That's what false worship was. It's caving into things and giving our worship, instead of to God, to others. Acts 14 continues, "Then the priest of Zeus, the priest of Zeus..." Okay, Zeus had a priest too or priests that would follow after that religion. And they had a temple as well whose temple was in front of their city. They brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.

So now they're going to sacrifice to the gods of Paul and Barnabas. We see that also today, don't we? False gods rob you of spiritual and eternal life. False gods rob you of spiritual and eternal life. Think of the wasted life of these false priests. Think of these false priests. They think these are real gods and they're not gods. They wasted their whole life. "If I could just be part of the priesthood, and little Johnny is going to be a priest." And it's the wrong god.

Think about the wasted life and following the wrong thing. My wife told me of an older gentleman she met at the mall recently and wanted to talk to him. Come to find out he's a Jehovah's Witness. Doesn't believe in Jesus. That's a wasted life. He's going to go to the judgment seat and find out he's been deceived by something called the Watchtower Society that translates the Bible according to what they believe.

Here's all you have to remember in these types of things: either the Watchtower is correct or the Bible is correct. Either the Book of Mormon is correct or the Bible is correct. Either the Quran is correct or the Bible is correct. Do you see? You can't have both. You cannot have both. Truth is not flexible. Truth is unyielding.

Who is Jesus Christ? Isn't that funny that they're all divided over that? "Oh no, he was the Archangel and Jesus and him were Archangels and this..." You deviate from the scriptural course that Jesus was God. He died for the sins of the world. You have to repent and believe. It's pretty simple. No wonder the enemy wants to complicate it. False worship appears genuine, doesn't it? They had a temple for worship and they sacrificed for atonement. It seemed genuine.

So let's remind all of us, don't have the heart of Herod or the arrogance of Pharaoh or the pride of Assyria. All of them challenged God. All of them believed in false gods. There are no other gods. Remember that. There's no other gods. That's why it's lower-case 'g'. There is no other god. It's either God, that's it, or demons, demonic realm, Satan. So are we building a god? And by so, we're summoning a demon.

Let me give you a fact from history. The Romans primarily sacrificed to Zeus, whom they equated with and called Jupiter, to maintain the peace of the gods. And so it was a reciprocal agreement and offerings were made in exchange for divine favor. Sound familiar? That's what every single religion on planet Earth does, except for Christianity. "I do this, you do this. I give so that you might give." Sacrificing was a way to guarantee the gods' support for military campaigns, agricultural, and civic life.

But God says, "I gave so you don't have to give anything. Big difference. I gave my Son. You don't have to give anything." What we do, though, is we repent and we believe. And the Bible actually says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Isn't that incredible? You can sacrifice to God. Did you know that? Not for salvation, but for intimacy.

I'm a lover of His presence. I'm a lover of His presence. What are the sacrifices of God? It's a broken and contrite heart. The Bible says you can give God a broken and contrite heart. And Paul says present your bodies as living sacrifices. Lay it on the altar and say, "Lord, whatever You want to do with me."

Okay, they're getting ready to sacrifice. A very important moment coming up. Here we go. Acts 14: "But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this..." Okay, here's the key turning point. This could go really bad or really good. What about if they said, "This sounds great. Bring on the wine and women. Let's be worshipped. Who's Yahweh? Let's be gods here."

There's a turning point, isn't there? What do you do with praise? What do you do with promotion? Are you always trying to jockey for position? Or is it about you and elevation? Be careful. That's an important turning point. A choice needed to be made here and now. The choice had to be made right now. And this decision will forever seal their fate and it will dictate their future. They're about ready to make a decision that will seal their fate.

And so here's the right response. What did they do? Well, I'm not going to say anything until you answer. They tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things?" The reason this is pretty incredible is because it shows the magnitude and depth and seriousness of what's happening.

Because they're not trying to, like, "No, guys, thank you, but no." It's like, oh my God. Every time I say "Oh my God," I get emails from elderly people. And I get it, I get it. I'm working on it. But "Oh my God" in a good way. Oh my God. Their heart is breaking. No, no, no, no, no.

And that was a sign. It wasn't just, what does that mean? They ripped like the Pharisees you saw in the Passion of the Christ. It was like blasphemy. No, no, no! And they would run and they tried to tell the people, "No, no, no, don't go this direction. Do not do. You see the seriousness and the magnitude of false worship. You see how desperate they were for genuine and true worship." No, men, we are just like you. Please stop. There was a passion. There was a fear. There was a reverence. There was a respect for the living God.

We should come into the house of the living God with the same respect and the same fear and say, "God, get this sin out of me. I know what I saw last week. I know what I did last night. But God, I want to come into this place in fear and trembling before You." The seriousness of sin.

Haven't we drifted from that? They tore their clothes and they said, "No, men, no." Sometimes I want to run into some churches or parades in L.A. "Men, women, this is not right. This is not right." They understood the seriousness and the magnitude of bowing to a false god. Do you? Because a false god doesn't come and ring the doorbell.

They wait for that opportune time. Wealth and materialism, social status and fame. Isn't social status funny? It's like, "Look at me. Look where I live." To me, it makes me sick. I love being around the humble, don't you? Just nothing to give you. I don't care where they live. Just sickening. This uppity, this arrogance.

It's a fame. And it's in the Christian circles. The Christian influencers. You see them. You guys watch them. You follow many of them, as do I, just to see what's going on. And it's about building a brand. And you have to be careful because you might be building a god. There's nothing wrong with God opening the door. Praise God when He does that.

But remember, He opened it, not you. You realize He holds your very breath in the palm of His hands. Relentless ambition and career success and things I've already mentioned. Just be careful. Remember what I talked about in Acts. It was number 51 in the series. No flesh should glory in His presence. Remember what happened to King Herod? God took him out quickly.

And that verse means no flesh should get credit for what God is doing. No flesh glory in my presence. Again, He must increase, but we decrease. And oh, here's where I remember to say it: stop saying that men are amazing. I keep hearing, "Oh, that person's amazing." No, God's amazing. God's amazing. Such and such is just a man, just a woman. If you saw their true character, you would not think they were so amazing many times.

And maybe I'm biased. I try to be careful, but I've been in green rooms with people you would know. And many times, I come away saddened because it's about building their ministry or their name. They don't really care about the people. "We also are men with the same nature as you." So they stop them and say, "We're no different than you. And we're preaching to you that you should turn, turn, repent, from these useless things to the living God."

So that, guys, that's repentance. That's repentance. That's the theme of my ministry that God has granted us with here at Westside. I should say His ministry, right? Repentance. To turn, to turn. And I know many of you in this room need to turn from that thing that has captured your heart. That idolatry that comes in so subtly. It's captured your heart. And it can actually be exercise. Idolatry. Any- oh my goodness.

I don't struggle with this one, so I don't remember too much sometimes. But this whole craze of gaming. People will call, they'll say, "Shane, I don't know what to do. My husband's on video games five hours a day." Five hours a day playing video games? What in God's green earth is going on? Addiction. Gaming. Addiction. Anything. Anything.

Now, if you want to sit down, have some fun with your kids, enjoy it, right? It's not about that. It's about what am I putting first? What am I putting first? I used to go off on Grand Theft Auto, but I won't today. You can be intimate with a prostitute, take back the money, and set her on fire. That's what they do in video games. Some of them. Yeah, I see your mouth drop. Mine too.

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.