Regaining Lost Ground

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 targeting message from Pastor Shane titled Caught in the Crosshairs.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Today, Pastor Shane hones in on besetting sin and how we can overcome all things pulling us down if we would but surrender to Jesus and live powerfully in His Holy Spirit today.

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 Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: I remember when a guy, I think his name was Daniel, in 2017 told me, "You need to start doing a podcast. Just sit with a microphone and talk." He took me a couple of times. I still haven't done one in a long time, so I need to start doing those again because God has really put that on my heart. There are so many interesting voices now with where Tucker Carlson is going and Candace Owens is going and Steve, whatever his name is, and all these people. We need to get some other voices out there as well to compensate for that. But voices and words matter. They carry weight, especially when they carry the weight of God's word and begin to affect people.

They were whipping up the crowd and even the rulers of the city, and they were all frustrated and upset. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. They're going to be looking for Paul here shortly. But a very important lesson. I don't know if you've ever been dragged out of your house, probably not many of us here. But trials, I'm sure in the life of Jason as well, trials are designed to strengthen our faith. That's what they do. We don't like them, just like we don't like going to the gym. Maybe some of you actually like it. I guess you do if you start to feel better with endorphins and things. Doing hard things has incredible results.

Think about most things: financially, relationally, fitness-wise. Doing hard things eventually pays off. It's the same thing with our faith. Going through hard things strengthens your faith. Listen to these words from James. It is very important. "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." Now, he's not saying to be happy about the trial itself. The phrase "count it as joy" means turn it into a joyful experience. Be thankful about it versus becoming bitter and angry. "Lord, how could you?" Has anybody been through those times? When you go through a challenging situation, try to find hope in this and take joy in it because you know God is working.

Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Does anybody need more patience? Patience will stop the email before it's sent. Patience will stop the text message before it's sent. Patience will stop the mouth before it speaks. Patience will stop you from getting fired. There are so many things. Patience is waiting upon the Lord, responding, not reacting. You have to go through this testing, these trials, to produce that. But then it says something interesting. "But let patience," and those words, if you break down the Greek, are action words, meaning there's something you have to do.

It doesn't happen by osmosis. It doesn't happen naturally. You have to let patience. In other words, instead of getting bitter and angry and upset and digging your feet in, you say, "Okay Lord, I know you're doing something here. Let this patience do a deep work." You're letting patience have its perfect work in you, which means a complete work, that you may be complete, lacking nothing. So when you're patient, when you're good with God, many of us can attest to the fact, I'm good, I'm complete. It actually uses the word perfect, but it doesn't mean like we think.

Life isn't without challenges. There's a completeness there. You're not lacking anything. You're right with God. But then it continues. Here's where it gets interesting. "And if anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." Don't you love that verse? "Hey Lord, I need wisdom here. I need help here. I have questions here." And wisdom, basically, we know what it is: the practical choices of living out your life according to God's word. It means living out your life according to God's word.

If you lack wisdom, ask God and He will show you. But here's where it gets interesting. Are you guys ready for this twist? It's in your handout if you've already read it, or you'll read it later, hopefully. It says, "But let him ask in faith." Okay Lord, I lack wisdom. I'm asking in faith. I'm believing you're going to show me with no doubting. Has anybody ever doubted? Let me rephrase it. How many in here have never doubted? Okay, that's a good point. Maybe they're kidding because I had three people at the first service raise their hand, "I've never doubted." I said, "Can I see you in the prayer room after service because I'd like to know how you master this one?" And nobody came in, so I think they were fooling me.

Ask in faith with no doubting. "For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man or woman suppose he will receive anything from the Lord because you are double-minded and unstable in all your ways." So I said, let me look into this a little bit because that just seems, who doesn't doubt? What you're supposed to do with doubt is, here comes doubt, and you say, "Lord, I know I trust you. This is not your thought. This is me. This is me doubting. Lord, I don't want that. I'm repenting. I'm going to go in the right direction." God would honor that. That's how you handle doubt.

You don't dwell on it and let it induce fear and anxiety and then make decisions based on it. Now you're living in this fear and doubt. You take those thoughts captive. It's interesting once you study the original language and how the words are. What exactly do these words mean? It really means to be divided within oneself. So when it says "don't doubt," it actually means to be divided in yourself, to be hesitant, or to go back and forth between two opposing choices or views. Here's what Berean.org said that really summed it up.

Rather than just a brief mental question or a lack of confidence that we all have, it describes a person with a divided loyalty, someone trying to hold on to God and His word but while simultaneously leaning toward the world and sin. Now it makes sense. A little bit more, obviously. Double-mindedness occurs when we have knowledge of God's law, yet we deliberately harbor sin, choose to conceal it, repress it, or ignore it. That's what double-minded doubting is. It is like, "Lord, I'm asking for wisdom. You give me wisdom. I know what the right choice is to do, but I'm not going to do it."

It's an active choice to reject wisdom, to reject God's law, basically the word, and instead do what I want to do. So that man is unstable in all his ways. There are lots of verses, but I just want to share one, Psalm 119. The writer of the Psalm says, "I hate the double-minded, but I love your law." So the contrast is the double-minded do not obey and follow God's law. They're double-minded in what they do. Now it makes a lot of sense when people are truly double-minded. They waver. They're not stable. Have you been there? Maybe you're there this morning. Repentance can fix that. Praise God.

What a beautiful word that is, repent. Repent. It stops double-mindedness and gets you on solid footing. Repent. It brings refreshment and revival and the goodness of God to your soul because now you're in right relationship with Him. I also just thought of this. You remember on Mount Carmel, Elijah's up there and these prophets of Baal, they're cutting themselves and Elijah says, "Hey, let the God who's really God, not Baal, but God, let Him answer by fire." So they built their altar and they're cutting themselves and crying out. And he's like, "Maybe your god's sleeping. Maybe he's using the bathroom."

He's just sitting there. I would love to see that, he's just standing there watching. And then he restructures everything. He soaks the altar in water, buckets and buckets and buckets of water. He puts a ring around it, so it's all wet. And he prayed and the Hebrew language says God licked it up. Fire came down and consumed everything. And then they said that changed the people from following Baal in that moment and they killed the prophets of Baal. But before that, he actually said, "How long will you be double-minded? How long will you waver?"

Maybe your Bible says "how long will you falter between two opinions? If God is God, follow Him. But if Baal be god, follow him." See what they were trying to do? They were double-minded. They were unstable. That actually doesn't please God at all. Partial obedience is still disobedience. What they were doing was going through the sacrifices, doing stuff God said, but their heart wasn't in it. They would sacrifice their children to Molech. They would sacrifice to other gods, but yet they would come into God's house and do God's thing. How many know that doesn't work?

How many know Christians still try that today? They still try that today. They love the world and the things of the world, but they also know, "Oh, but I love God too." I lived there for a long time. I think you can be saved and distant from God, a prodigal. I don't think you can just disregard God and live a life of sin. There's always that conviction there because you've quenched and grieved the spirit. So you're often convicted. These are the people who get upset at you when you convict them. Anybody experienced that before? Parents?

That's what double-mindedness is. But I want to close with this statement. When they said that there is another king in addition to Caesar, I wish I could have screamed out to these people, there is not another king. There is only one King. Caesar's not king. There is only one King, Jesus Christ. There is only one King. That's why I want to read this verse to you in Philippians. "God has highly exalted Him." This is going to make sense why there are a lot of problems in the world right now, maybe at your workplace, maybe what we're seeing in California.

This is why: "God has highly exalted Jesus Christ and He has given Him the name which is above every other name." Not equal to, not in competition with. He has put His name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee should bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's why there is a massive upheaval. You've seen it before. You've talked to people and once they hear that name, you spark something, upset something. If this offends, it offends. It's just the truth. But you're either a child of God or a child of Satan.

Right? I mean, let's be honest. No, you can be in the middle. No, you can't. Jesus said, "You are like your father the devil, father of lies." Or you're a child of God. You can't be both. That's why you watch the news, how are some politicians doing this? It's because they're all on the same side. They're all on the same side, child of darkness. And so when we're in Hollywood, you name it, when you begin to talk about Jesus and the light, the demonic realm knows that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess and they get upset.

They hate that. And so the person sometimes doesn't even know why, but that demonic darkness is stirred by the light. How many of you saw the picture of the guy in the airplane all duct-taped up? They got his head and his mouth. How many of you don't know the story behind it? Do you know who was sitting next to him? Jonathan Cahn, Christian evangelist who wrote *The Harbinger*. He's pretty well-known. He was sitting next to him. He said the guy was nice for a while until, guess whose name came up? Maybe he said, "I'm working on a new book on my laptop," and they started to fight over the laptop and this guy got absolutely crazy.

They had to duct-tape him. You know it's bad when they duct-tape you. He's duct-taped in the airplane. Can you imagine? He said, "Yeah, we're having a normal conversation. This guy seems great. And then Jesus comes up." Now that doesn't happen all the time, but you can see it a lot in people. When I went through the hospital, one of the homes I went through, everything's fine until I say I'm from the church. Even the tone of the voice, he's like, "I'm not religious." I'm not either. That's why.

Nobody, I mean, you mention Buddha and Hare Krishna and your inner self and crystals and dreamcatchers. "Can I pray in the name of Mother Earth?" "Oh, no problem, City Council." It's like the Easter Bunny. There's no power. But when you say, "Can I pray in the name of Jesus?" or, "Do you know Jesus?" or you preach Jesus, people get visibly upset. Sometimes they'll lash out or they'll curse. They'll get upset. It's the demonic realm stirring up in them. And that guy, I feel bad for the guy because he doesn't know probably what happened.

Hopefully, he'll be led to the Lord. That's the goal. But I've heard a lot of stories of things like that where everything's fine and then they just fall apart. So that's why there is only one King, and that is Jesus. I want to remind everybody here, I did a couple of memorials recently and I was remembering about the brevity of life, how short it is, but the permanence of death. They don't compare. The brevity, we don't know. And then the permanence of what happens after that because of the decisions we made now.

If we truly believe in the Bible, wouldn't we be more compelling and convicting people? The short time we have here and the longevity of eternity. And just remembering and thinking about there is no other King than King Jesus. You need to submit to that King now. See, here's the deal. You either bow now and you thank God that you did, or you bow later in tears and regret. Either way, you bow. Either way, you bow. That's a good sermon title, "Either Way You Bow." Maybe I'll use that one at the prison. What do you think, Kevin?

Either way you bow. So I don't know. People listen to this on the radio later and the internet. Maybe some here today, make that decision. I would to God, like Paul said to King Agrippa, I would to God that I would persuade you. You can go from darkness to light. You can go from hell to heaven, wrong to right in a moment, in a moment of repentance. The Bible says it. That's why I get passionate about this. Many of you do too. You've lived it. You've experienced it. You have the Holy Spirit crying Abba Father.

You know that you know that it is true because He has changed your life. If it wasn't for the grace of God, there go I. I was lost but now I'm found. I was blind but now I see. He's talking all about spiritual things. I was lost. I was groping around, as Paul would say, and the writer of *Amazing Grace* would say. But I was blind but now I can see. I can see spiritually. I can behold the King. I can say like Isaiah, "My eyes have beheld. I've seen the King, the Lord of Glory, and now I realize just how undone I am." And you can make that decision and you can repent and believe. I was lost spiritually but now I'm found. Oh God, bless the broken road that led me straight to the cross. Make that decision today. Do not keep living against the grain, against Him.

Oh, but I don't know about this. I read this in the Old Testament. Listen, I don't know everything, but I'm not going to hell over a question mark. Look at these people. "Why did God do this?" Who cares? I mean, I don't know, but I'm not going to let that stop me from a relationship with Him. Why don't you ask Him? You'll usually find out they're bitter and they're angry and that's their excuse. The demonic realm has a hard hold on their heart and it's hard to break that. That's why everybody that will be in hell was led there by pride.

Pride does it. "I don't want there to be a God. I want to be the captain of my own ship. I want to determine my own destiny. I don't want some God telling me what to do." I want to say, I can't relate because I want my Creator telling me what to do, don't you? "Here's how you avoid darkness. Here's the light. Here's the guardrails in life. Here's what you want to avoid." I want God telling me what to do. I want God to show me the light, show me the right path. That's why they would pray in the Old Testament, "Show us the old paths, the paths of righteousness and holiness, and let it run down like a river again, and righteousness like a stream." I want to know God. I want Him to tell me exactly what course to take. That's just pride and arrogance. Humble yourself this morning and turn to Him.

Pastor Shane Idleman: Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. I want to tell you about a new booklet I just released titled *The Dark Night of the Soul*. This book came from a very challenging season in my own personal life. Dark seasons reveal what we actually believe, not just what we say we believe. The phrase "the dark night of the soul" captures a moment we all dread. It's the moment when the floor drops out from underneath us and we realize that we are not in control and we come face to face with something we cannot fix.

Time and time again, God demonstrates that what appears to be the end of something is actually only the beginning. So again, I want to encourage you to take time today and download my new booklet, *The Dark Night of the Soul*, for free right now at WestsideChristianFellowship.org. Again, download it for free at WestsideChristianFellowship.org. It is on Amazon, but we're encouraging people to go to our church website where they can actually download the booklet, the PDF, and share it with friends and family at WestsideChristianFellowship.org.

Guest (Male): 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.