Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: I'm convinced that if God would open your eyes to the spiritual realm, you would fall on your knees and begin to pray. Prayer would be your daily staple. This battle, you're calling down heaven, you're pulling down strongholds. That's why the Bible says pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, bringing every thought into captivity.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today's message on regaining lost ground is titled "Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?" and is the final part of the sermon series, "The Bible Doesn't Say That."

This powerful two-piece sermon, Pastor Shane concludes this series with strong words of exhortation to the Christian family. Be encouraged today to protect yourself with the whole armor of God so you may stand firm and to wield the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.

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: The message this morning is the final part of a series titled "The Bible Doesn't Say That." And here's one thing that the Bible does not say: "God helps those who help themselves." I even heard some local officials here in our city at one of the council meetings say that.

God helps those who help themselves, and let me just answer the question upfront: He doesn't help those who help themselves. He waits until you get to the end of yourself, or He waits until you get to the end of your rope. Because what "God helps those who help themselves" really means is, "God, I got this. I can handle this, and You'll help me in this endeavor, but I got this. Don't worry, let me handle it."

Now, here's why it's so difficult. And by the way, I'm praying about starting the book of 1 Corinthians next week and working through that book of Corinthians. A message to the church, there's so much in there that is so valuable to us as believers. So be in prayer about that because that's a daunting task. Months and months of preaching in that book and studying and really looking to what God has to say to the church today.

But what we have to do is balance the commands in scripture to obey and God calls us to action, but He also calls us to trust in Him. So you see this healthy tension. I am called to do certain things, but I'm also called to fully trust in God. And we also have to find the balance between the scripture that says I'm dead in sin. I'm dead to it. Thank God for that. I'm dead to sin. Thank You for the cross.

But according to Romans, in my flesh dwells no good thing. So how have I been set free, but still there's this taskmaster calling me back to obey? So it is a balancing act. God calls us to do certain things, and there are certain conditions that need to be met. For example, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you in this room hire employees? Or if you're an employee, imagine this. You own a business. Would you just hire anyone? If you're filling out a certain position, would you just hire anyone off the street?

Of course not. You're looking for certain qualities, certain abilities, certain character traits. Same thing when it comes to God. He goes to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong, loyal on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him. So thank God He has given us tools, which I'm going to talk about. He has given us trust, which we trust in Him, and He has given us time.

Time is your friend. And we think, "Oh, if God would just hurry." No, that's not always good. Just like one of the best dinners I've ever had was when Al and Brian were here last Sunday. We actually went to our house and Morgan cooked dinner. And God knows how to humble you, because as soon as I walk in the house, she says the toilet's plugged. So I'm walking through my house with a plunger coming off a wonderful service. Thank You, Lord.

But anyway, we let this chicken and potatoes turn on the crock pot early in the morning for hours just roasting in there and seasoning and honey, Manuka honey, barbecue. It's just in it. It's like the chicken was made of it. Why? Because it was soaking into that. It was absorbing that. The vegetables, everything just tasted wonderful. That wouldn't happen in a minute or two. You'd probably get sick because the chicken's not done. So don't worry about so much the time factor, but worry about the God factor.

God, what are You doing in my life? And I think you need to be reminded. I was so reminded this week, and it brings me to tears sometimes during worship, but as a child of God, you are accepted. You have worth. You have value. You don't have to do all these things. "Daddy, do you see me? Did I gain more favor, more approval?" And we have this image of God as a hard taskmaster demanding and demanding and demanding, "Do this, do this, do this."

And we sometimes think about like in our earthly fathers. I know I've shared this before, that I was trying so much to gain his attention by excelling in baseball and by doing all these things. "Dad, look, look, look." And we can sometimes move that into our view of God. But as a child of God, you're already accepted. The reason I say that is there's a lot of freedom in resting in that versus "I have to do this, and I have to be good, and I can't go there, and I have to do this." Now, as you rest in God, you don't want to do those things. That loving relationship pulls you to holiness and abiding in Christ.

I know God wants me to talk about these things, but I feel sometimes we talk about them enough. Or maybe last weekend was enough and I can just get on to a different topic. But this is, and I've been praying all week. God, just show me. And He waits till the last minute often. The conditions are, and what I'm going to talk about, God will help you. God wants to help us, but we have to become a weeper, a warrior, and a worshiper.

And in the early morning prayer this morning, Marilyn, I think you prayed those exact things that the church needs. And it's like, oh, you ever feel that boost of you go from "I'm not sure" to "Oh yeah, now I know. Now I know. Now I can walk up there and I have that assurance that God wants to move in our hearts." Because the sad reality for Westside Christian Fellowship is not everyone is a weeper. Not everyone is a worshiper. Not everyone's a warrior. We have a mix in here. We have a mix of Pharisee and a person who wants to be drawn closer to God.

We have a mix of those who will never touch a morning worship at 6:00 AM, and we have those who are desperate for more of God in the morning. We have those who are lukewarm and carnal and they don't want to come here too often or they'll be too convicted, and we have those who want to be convicted by God. And it's so interesting to watch those different dynamics taking place. I can run into somebody at the same store that heard the same message, and they can say, "Oh, that moved me to tears. Praise God, I was set free." And I run to someone else, "Where's your wife been? Oh, she doesn't like your messages. Last week you really upset her." Same message, same service, maybe they were at. What's the difference?

Remember the same sun that melts the wax also will harden the clay. The heart has to be open. There's even people that come here Sunday after Sunday after Sunday as a mere routine. Well, we go to church on Sunday, that's what we do. Kind of bored in here and just going through the motions. And I want God's word to speak to all of us. So here's how you could say this: God helps those who are humble. God helps those who humble themselves.

So let's talk first about the warrior. You'll hear that song sometimes: "This is how I fight my battles. This is how I fight my battles." It's a warrior. It's a person who recognizes that there is a battle going on. And I like what Elisha prayed: "Open the eyes of my servant, Lord, so that he can see what's going on in the spiritual realm." I'm convinced that if God would open your eyes to the spiritual realm, you would fall on your knees and begin to pray. Prayer would be your daily staple before breakfast, before Starbucks, before 300 milligrams of caffeine brewing.

You would be praying because God would open your eyes. You see the demonic realm. That's what's after my family. That's what's after my marriage. That's what's after my children. Oh, God. But then you'd also open your eyes like he did in Elisha's case, and you see the angels of the Lord encamped about you, holding fiery swords, I'm sure. And they're there. There's this battle. And it's so ironic because this battle we can't fight like we think we fight, Navy SEALs and the Marines and "Let's fight." It doesn't work that way.

This battle you're calling down heaven, you're pulling down strongholds. Prayer and worship are the only thing that engage this spiritual host of heavenlies against the spiritual host of wickedness. That's why the Bible says: "Pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, bringing every thought into captivity." And there's this spiritual battle going on, so we are called to be warriors.

And you can see this from Mark 14:37. There's a whole bunch I could have taught on this whole opening where Jesus is in the garden and different things, but I just want to get to the point here. Then He, which is Jesus, came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour?" And Jesus says: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." There's so much here. And Jesus goes on to again say, "Watch." That term "watch" is throughout the Bible. Watching. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.

Well, what does willing mean? Well, the spirit of God is a willing participant. What does that mean? Well, He will willingly participate with you. See, the Holy Spirit participates. "Lord, I want to go in this direction, the flesh is weak. I don't want to listen to the flesh. I want to go to morning worship, but did you know we have a third service? Okay, 6:00 AM, 6:30 in the morning, whenever you get here, there's a third service going on. No preaching, just the word of God, just music and God's preaching." But anyway, Holy Spirit, I want to go. So He's a willing participant. He's willing. But the flesh is weak.

So who prevails? The flesh. People say, "Stop beating up the sheep." Well, the sheep need spanking sometime, right? Come on guys, motivated. So I'm not just going to hang my hat on that early morning worship. It has to do with all forms of worship, all types of seeking God with all of our heart, with all of our strength. So the spirit is willing. "Lord, I want to do that." So does the Holy Spirit. But the flesh is weak and the flesh pulls us back.

It's interesting though, He said here "watch and pray." And it doesn't say He will keep you away from temptation. Watching and praying allows you not to enter into it, and I'll explain that in a minute. So watching is this: It's prepared, it's armed, you're cautious, you're alert. That's how you need to be as a Christian. I have this wonderful analogy. Now you see all the spring flowers and all the green grass. When I go running out in the desert, you know what I'm looking for? Rattlesnake. Right now, I am looking for the next few months like this. I'm walking circumspectly, Paul says. I'm guarded, I'm alert.

And if I bring my five-year-old in there, chase butterflies and just throwing things going all over—no, no, no, no, watch out. Watch out. That thing bites you. I'm going to claim the promise that no serpent, no snake biting you is going to harm you. I'm going to claim that, but I still don't want her stepping on a rattlesnake. But see, that's how most Christians live their Christian life: chasing butterflies. They don't watch out for the lion who's sent to kill, to steal, and to destroy, the thief, the lion that comes after them.

You will never see in the Bible this image of a lazy, lackadaisical, aloof Christian because that plays right into the ends and the plans of the enemy. So watching, Jesus says, be prepared, be armed, be cautious, be alert about what's going on. And then He says, "praying." What does praying do? Well, praying gives me strength, it gives me discernment, and I say, "Lord, what is Your will?" So see, it's this image of being prepared and cautious and alert and saying, "God, give me strength. God, give me discernment. God, what is Your will?" Anybody need those prayers answered? Hello?

"Lord, what is Your will for my children? What is Your will for my life? What are You doing here? Give me discernment. Is this business deal something You want me to do? Is this mission trip something You want me to go on? Is this something You want me to purchase? Is this something You want me to..." And there's this praying and discernment of what God's will is. Parents, wake up. What is coming into your homes? Sarah doesn't need a cell phone, Mikey doesn't need to be addicted to Minecraft, and Frankie doesn't need to pick his own friends.

We are allowing the enemy to rule and reign in our homes. Remove the ungodly influences. Remove the ungodly influences in your homes. If you're able to, remove that. You're the watchman. You're the dad, not the friend. You're the mom, not the shopping partner. You're to be prepared and discerning and watching. We have many people have their kids picking their own friends. "I don't really know them. Oh, they're fine, Mom." No, they're not. They're probably having them look at pornography and tasting alcohol at twelve years old. Be careful. You're called to be the watchman in your home. That's exactly what's happening in our culture.

And people often say, "I don't know what to pray." You don't know what to pray? Pray over them. God, guard them from lust, guard them from fear, guard them from anxiety, depression, addiction, eating disorders, you name it. God, and begin to pray over their children, over your grandchildren even, even if they're not in your home. Take that position. Listen, if the Bible's not what prayer says it is, we might as well just step out of here and go eat lunch. "My house shall be called a house of preaching. My house shall be called a house of worship." No, "My house shall be called a house of prayer." That's how you're going to defeat the onslaught of what's going on in our culture.

Do you see the news? Now some airline is saying you can go on and get your flying tickets and you don't have to be a he or she, you can be an X. So if I'm sitting next to them on the plane, I can't refer to he or she, but gender neutral. School districts, airlines, we have lost our mind. We've lost our moral compass. And much of this starts in the home. Parents are allowing the internet to raise their children. They're allowing ungodly neighbors to raise their children, or high school kids, they're allowing all these things to raise their kids.

And I don't know if you saw recent statistics, but now 50 percent of the younger generation thinks that socialism is a good thing. I'm not political, that's biblical. There's not free handouts. That's not biblical. Cradle-to-grave entitlements is not biblical. You work or you don't eat. And if you work, you work hard. You work, you work hard, and God blesses that. He doesn't bless laziness and slothfulness. That doesn't lead to anything. If you leave your kids millions of dollars, you destroy your kids. See, there's got to be hard work and integrity and God blesses that.

But where are they learning this? From the educational system. The parents aren't involved. What about praying over your kids? Be filled with the spirit of God. Be set free. Take away things if you need to. Who rules your house? Who leads your house? You're called to be the watchman, not the little one. Take that little device, and you'll watch them scream and throw a fit because that addiction is coming out. It's no addiction then withdrawing an addictive substance from an adult. And we have to watch our homes. Pray over them. Pray for safety. "Lord, set them free, give them strength and boldness."

I remember hearing a man who at home he would do this: He would set up two chairs facing each other and he would sit in the one and he would say, "Devil, now you sit in the other and you're going to listen to me pray over my family, pray over my marriage." And he would pray the promises of God over his children. The enemy can't do anything with that. What does the devil do with that? What he does is he gets you out of the prayer closet. He gets you out of watching and being prepared and being alert, and he dumbs us down. But God calls us to that higher standard.

There is a difference, right? I brought this analogy again, I used this last night. My daughter let me use her little hammer. Put up some pictures. Worked pretty well. But sometimes this isn't going to work. Sometimes you got to get out the big 25-pound sledgehammer and you have to say, "Not in my house, devil. Not in my house. You got to go through me before you get to it." See, this works great on little nails. But if I'm going to break my concrete driveway, that's not going to do anything. That's actually going to break under the pressure. And what you are facing, the onslaught we are seeing today in our nation, is going to require this where you pound the enemy and it might take 20,000 hits, I don't know. But you come in, you're ready for warfare. "This is how I fight my battles." And the enemy says, "Oh, he came prepared. He came prepared."

Interesting though, the Bible doesn't say "watch and pray so you won't be tempted." When Jesus said here "lest you enter into temptation," what is "enter"? "Enter" is "fall into." I fall into temptation. Here's an illustration by Colin Smith. This will help a lot of people here. If you're dealing with temptation and you just can't overcome it, imagine a salesman knocking at your door. You open the door and he tells you what he is selling. At that point, if you're not interested, it's not hard to say, "Sorry, I'm not interested. Try the nice folks next door."

But suppose you let this salesman in and he sits down, makes his presentation, he shows you the product, he talks to you about how much you need this and how much better your life will be if you have it. Some relationship begins to form and your mind and your heart become engaged. Now it's harder to say no, is it not? Have you ever done this? You let them in, whatever it is. The solar company's coming to my door. The vacuum. A set of knives I don't need. Once I let them in, that sounds good. Now I feel bad, now I have to buy something because I feel bad. Versus just stopping them at the door.

This is what it means to enter into temptation. Here's how temptation works in all of our lives. It knocks on the door. It knocked on the door of Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews said that He was tested, He was tempted in all points as we are, but was without sin. He closed the door on the salesman. That's how temptation works. It will knock at the door. That's why the thought life is so important, what we entertain, what we allow to come in. And we begin to entertain it.

"Well, is that you, good friend? I can just entertain it. It's not dangerous yet, is it? Remember how good I felt? That relieved some pressure. Maybe the person has changed now, maybe if it's a relationship." And you begin to entertain that guest. And as your mind goes, your feet soon follow. And we open the door to temptation. So prayer is the brick and the mortar to building a safeguard. Prayer is the armed guard always alert. Prayer is the roadblock preventing an accident. So He's saying here, "watch and pray lest you enter into temptation."

Now add fasting to this and you just supercharge the engine. Come on guys, you know what a supercharger is, you all want one. You have to cut out a hole in your hood of your vehicle and you have this big blower sticking out. So that's prayer and fasting, that's what you're doing. You're pulling down more of heaven. You are filled with the spirit of God and when you go into somebody's life, you can cast out that demon. You can say, "Out of my child, out of my house, you have no authority here."

Why? Because now you're filled with the spirit of the living God. You didn't just get off four hours of Netflix watching a lot of junk wondering why your house is falling apart, wondering why your marriage is going down the toilet because you're not filled with the spirit of God. That's the difference maker. See, oh yeah, you know now. This has to be grabbed sometimes. This has to be pulled down and say, "Now we're doing damage. Now I'm going to take down, I'm going to pull down those strongholds in my home and in my own personal life." You are called to fight.

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.