Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: Let’s see, hopefully I’m wrong, but I want to read something from Dan Ditzel. He put this out in 2014. The title is "Google Executive's Tragic Death Sends Sober Warning." How do you go from being a devoted father of five, a successful Silicon Valley executive, into a 51-year-old man convulsing from a fatal dose of heroin on your 50-foot yacht with a prostitute walking over your dying body to take a final sip of wine before leaving you to die?

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 part one 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's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: Choose your hard. Choose your hard. And you begin to realize that a life void of God, or let’s just say a life where we’re quenching and grieving the Spirit, is hard, isn’t it? So is pressing in and worshipping. It is hard. Choose your hard. Having a home that’s out of control, marriage issues, and there’s a lot of pride there, that’s hard, isn’t it? And seeking God with all your heart, with all your strength, and building that marriage is hard. Choose your hard.

I did this on purpose because I want to encourage you. We sent out a text and we’re letting people know that we’re offering what we call a "Call to Fall," a call to fall at the altar, pray for your family, pray for your marriage, your spouse, your kids. We’ve got to be shaken out of that comfort zone. Tomorrow morning at 6:30 AM, the doors open at 6:00 but 6:30, inviting whoever wants to come. We’re going to have worship on and we’re just going to worship. There’s no message, there’s nothing, and then we’re going to go right into prayer right after that.

Based on last Sunday, many of you were here and you know if you haven't watched the message, God has been doing something pretty profound in my heart and it was a powerful service. I’m still getting text messages from Nebraska and Texas, people emailing. God was doing something, but first He had to do something in here at 6:30 Sunday morning. I got here actually a little early, but it took an hour of just worshipping God.

It took an hour just pressing in because you know the thoughts. I have a busy day, what’s going to break today, what’s not going to work, I have issues and struggles. It took an hour of just worshipping God and then I began to just sense His presence like never before. I know some people are uncomfortable with that term, but if you look at the Bible, Moses experienced His presence. Joshua didn’t want to leave because he was lingering in the presence of God.

We can start in Genesis if you’d like. The prophets said, "My eyes have seen the King of Glory," and they’ve been forever changed. Jeremiah said, "His word is in my heart like a burning fire." Paul was just filled mightily with the Holy Spirit. So was Peter. What about David? Where do those psalms come from? We can just keep going down the list of those who’ve experienced the power and presence of God. The difficulty is it’s not like an on and off switch.

Sometimes there’s pushback. I get pushback a lot and I understand it, but I think people have never experienced it, so they have to push back. You notice that in Christianity? You start to go down a road that they’re not comfortable with and they say, "We can’t trust our feelings." Right, but if feelings come as a result of pursuing God, I don't know, that could be a good thing. We get feelings about everything else: porn, sports, MMA, race cars, NASCAR. Sorry, Richard, I know he helps NASCAR with work and he gets to talk to the guys. I’m jealous. He gets to lead them in worship. How cool is that?

There’s pushback that comes when you want to go deeper. Not everybody is with you and I’ve noticed that. In 25 years of ministry, 15 years pastoring, it’s kind of sad because the very thing we need is the very thing we’re running from. Choose your hard. I’m just not a worshipper. Neither was I. I was bench pressing weight, drinking beer, getting in arguments and fights, punching holes in my house. Worship? Give me a break. That’s for women. But when God breaks you and you encounter Him, it’s a natural response. It cries out, "Abba, Father."

If you have a problem with worship, there’s a problem in your heart. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to come to the altar or raise your hands. It’s all different for individuals. Worship is not necessarily a posture because that can just become formalism. But aren’t you ever excited about something? That excitement usually for some men, they’re really talkative and emotional. Other men are more constrained. I remember when I was coming back to the Lord, I would just be at some of the conferences and my tears were falling down and I was just sitting in my chair. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound." I could just hit repeat and repeat and repeat.

How it transpires is really up to your unique design, how God made you, but there should be a heart for worship, a heart to press in. That’s really the problem I think with a lot of people is they don’t want to choose that hard. That’s a little too hard. "It’s been 20 minutes, I’m bored." Whenever you listen to your flesh, it’s not a good thing. Think about that. What’s too tired? Not your pursuit of God; the flesh is controlling you. This will help you later on. For men’s breakfast, it’s okay because it’s called a men’s breakfast.

I was praying and I can’t think of any time where I’ve experienced the power and presence of God during worship and pressing in on a full stomach. The fullness of the flesh and the fullness of the Spirit do not go hand in hand. Now, there’s nothing wrong with eating because it’s good, God commands it, thank God for it. But there has to be a withdrawing of one appetite to seek a greater appetite. There’s no secret that most of the profound movements of the Holy Spirit throughout church history have been when people have been praying and fasting.

I could read account after account after account. Wales, Welsh, the New Hebrides Islands, Scotland. Scotland has had the most awakenings ever in the history of the world that we know of. America. That’s good about corporate revival, but what needs to happen is a spiritual awakening in your own heart. That’s what needs to happen. I know as a man, I’ve been there. We can get in the Word and I’m about the Word and studying the Word, and that begins to take precedence over worship. I don’t think it was designed to be that way. I think they all go together. The Word keeps us grounded, teaches us what we need to obey, the principles, how to live it out. But then as a result of that life, it’s a life of worship and pressing in and praying.

You have to choose your hard because in order for a Christian to get breakthrough, they have to really press through. I wish the Bible said, "Do this, do that. I prayed for 30 minutes yesterday, I put on worship for an hour. This is great." Again, I want to clarify, I’m not after feelings because I’ve got to be honest, I don’t feel anything this morning compared to last Sunday. Not even on the radar, not even close. I’ve got cottonmouth, I don’t feel that great. I'm trying to fast for tomorrow, too. But you press through and God honors that. I know the principles are going to help a lot of people. I’m not searching for feelings, but there is something special when God touches your heart. You’ll never be the same.

When you drink of that living water that Christ spoke of, no other well will satisfy. You might drift a little to other people's water, but you’ll want to come back to that living water and you go, "Lord, I remember that time. Take me back to that time when I was younger and I was seeking after You and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon my life. Lord, take me back to that time. I want to recapture that zeal, I want to recapture that passion for You. Lord, I’ve drifted. I’m kind of bored in church, I’m bored in worship, there’s nothing profound taking place in my life anymore."

You can change that. You’ve got to choose your hard. I try to be so careful. I’m not apologizing, but you can gauge the spiritual temperature. I’ve been to conferences and other churches, and there’s a lot of support for what I’m about to say. You can tell the health of a church by attendance at the prayer meeting. If we said, "Next time we do this, there’s no message, it’s just worship," I guarantee we wouldn’t have half this amount of people. Maybe one guy would be here. No breakfast. It’s not called a men’s breakfast, it’s called a men’s worship morning. What, 20 or 25 people? Do you see where I’m going with this?

Oh, it’s Chris Carrera. I think Richard’s gone, but Chris Carrera will be here in June. I think it’s the Saturday right before Father’s Day. Let’s pray about that. I’m game if you guys are. Let’s see. There are over 100 guys now. Let’s just see. I don’t say that to try to tick you off. If I wasn’t pastoring, do you think I’d be at morning worship a lot or prayer meetings? Probably not. I’d be just like you, maybe coming twice a month. The game’s on. Sunday was always my to-do day. Sunday’s when I get stuff done. It’s not the Lord’s day, I’ll give Him an hour, but it’s my day.

I don’t admit this a lot, but I actually thank God He called me to do this because I’d probably not be in a good spot because I have to lead. I was a construction worker when He called me. God knows how to break you, doesn't He? And I was at my last. Everything’s falling apart: marriage, health. I don’t know how many of you know, but I ended up in a hospital for four days with myocarditis in my 20s. It was mainly steroid use, growth hormone, and all those things. That was my identity. I was the strongest guy in the gym in the valley for a while and that’s who I was, so I’ve got to keep this preserved.

Then God begins to take the health, God begins to take the marriage, God begins to take the job. He knows how to humble those. I know it was because my mom was down the street praying, "Break this boy, whatever it takes." I would say I was a Christian, I truly believe, because I would be convicted the next morning. I would be praying once a month when I needed something. "Lord, let this deal go through." It was a genuine Prodigal Son, lukewarm kind of believer. I remember I was in Quartzsite on a Sunday afternoon not feeling well. You can fill in the blanks.

I just heard a message that really shook me and that minute I began to cry and began to weep like the Prodigal, thinking about how far I’d drifted. Then something happened as I was doing that. It’s hard to explain. In the midst of sorrow, there’s tremendous joy because when you come home, it’s life-changing. Now, Shane, I’m going to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Through worship, I began putting on worship and pursuing Him and now the Bible just comes alive. I told my mom, "I didn’t know this was in the Bible." That verse just made me close it and cry.

I’ll never forget that day. To pursue the world, it costs you your soul. What profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? There are so many verses in the Old Testament: "Return to me and I will return to you." This could have resulted in something really bad. Earlier, I remember the old location. I took my friend’s keys for his Mustang, just hooked up nitrous oxide. I hit that switch on Avenue I. I don't even know how I did it. You’re talking 120, 130. There were some close calls there: rolling my truck, totaling my vehicle, no seatbelt on.

That’s why some of us want to worship is because we know how close we’ve been to hell. Our clothes still smell like smoke. That should produce worshippers, shouldn't it? We might not like certain songs or we have preferences, but there should be a heart of worship. There should be something that cries "Abba, Father," not "Get away from me, Father." So maybe we’ll try that in two months. No men’s breakfast, just a worship morning. Let’s just see. Hopefully I’m wrong.

But I want to read something from Dan Ditzel. He put this out in 2014. The title is "Google Executive's Tragic Death Sends Sober Warning." How do you go from being a devoted father of five, a successful Silicon Valley executive, into a 51-year-old man convulsing from a fatal dose of heroin on your 50-foot yacht with a prostitute walking over your dying body to take a final sip of wine before leaving you to die?

How do tragedies like this take place? Proverbs 4:25-27: "Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you." Often our downfall starts right here. We were created for order. When you take creation out of its natural order, it becomes disorder. That’s actually where the word perversion comes from. Perversion is when I took something straight and I perverted it. As men, that’s the biggest struggle: what our eyes see. That’s why especially with lust, you’re supposed to be drawn to your wife. But because there can be the bad type, it says, "Let your eyes look straight ahead." It’s tough. In summertime, you’re walking by, you just look that way. You don’t need to know.

Shane Idleman: Hello, Regaining Lost Ground listeners. This is Pastor Shane Idleman. I want to let you know that my new booklet titled "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer" is now available. You can download it for free right now at shaneidleman.com. The reason I did this is because there’s so much negativity and fear that encompasses that word, and especially in the medical industry, there’s not a lot of hope. I wanted to release this booklet to give people hope and perspective and let them know with God all things are possible and His sovereignty can be your sanity. Again, get this to anybody struggling with their health, especially cancer. The title of the booklet is "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer" and it’s available right now at shaneidleman.com.

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.