Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: I said, "Oh God, if you give me a voice, I will not shut up. I will cry out from the rooftops. I will be that voice crying in the wilderness, weeping." From that, there's a righteous indignation where not even the enemy himself can stop you because you're filled with the Spirit of God. But it had to be broken. Many of you need to be broken. There's too much arrogance in this room. There's too much pride. You haven't shed a tear in years.

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."

In 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: Here's an illustration by Colin Smith. 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 the salesman in. He sits down, makes his presentation, shows you the product, and 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, whether it’s the solar company coming to my door, the vacuum, or a set of knives I don't need.

Come on in. Once I let them in, I think, "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 Hebrews said that he was tested and 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 and what we allow to come in. We begin to entertain it. "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 if it's a relationship." You begin to entertain that guest. As your mind goes, your feet soon follow, and we open the door to temptation.

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. 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.

With the supercharger adding tons of horsepower, what's the supercharger doing? All it's doing is allowing more oxygen to go in and combust in the engine. It pulls in more oxygen. 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. 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 and 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 out and we have to say, "Now we're doing damage. Now I'm going to take down and pull down those strongholds in my home and in my own personal life."

You are called to fight. This is not popular. You are called to fight. Passivity is not an option. We don't want to tell Christians that you are in a battle and you're called to fight. Joel Osteen is not going to say this. Andy Stanley is not going to say this. Many big megachurches are not going to say this. They have to well-construct a sermon so it doesn't pierce the heart too much with too much conviction and too much sin, or they'll run to the front doors.

But you have to get before God and say, "What does your Word say?" Show me one scripture after the service that says we are going to be passive Christians from here on out. Are you following the news on what's going on in Africa? Christians by the dozens are being slaughtered right now. Last week, they were raping their children and killing them in front of them, killing them for their faith. Our blessing has become our curse. We are so comfortable it's led to complacency.

The next group here is, "God helps those who become worshippers." A.W. Tozer said that we make new converts into workers rather than worshippers. Somebody asked me, "Wait a minute, you missed one. Weeper, warrior, worshipper, and worker." Ironically, they're a worker. Isn't that funny? But when you're a weeper, a warrior, and a worshipper, you will become a worker by default. It's part of you.

There are so many workers that are not worshippers. They're not weepers. They're not filled with the Spirit of God. One of the policies we have here is that we want those who work here and those who serve here to be in the services, to be involved and be built up, because you can be a worker and slide away from God, becoming rigid and going through the motions. We're not called to be workers primarily. We're called to be worshippers.

Oh Martha, Martha, you are worried about much to do, but your sister's worshipping me. As you worship God, you become a worker. We need more workers. Don't get me wrong. I actually visited a hospice home in East Lancaster. A friend of mine I've known many years ago is dying of congestive heart failure. He knew my father. I talked with him and I talked to the owner of that home and said, "We'd love to bring the church in and add it to the list."

Once I contacted Rihanna, who helps oversee the scheduling, she said, "We don't have enough." Can you believe that? I just tell this lady we've got a church that can come by and minister to you. She says, "Oh, that would be so good. That would be incredible." But we don't have enough workers. Basically, I have to tell her we can't. A church this size cannot go and invest a little bit.

Many people do. Please don't misunderstand my heart. This is why these kinds of messages are so hard for me, because on one hand, I want to build up and encourage, but on the other hand, sometimes you’ve got to rally the troops. Even if you can go once a month, we need people to work and help in these areas. So back to the worshipper. I shared with you one of my greatest burdens, which is dying spiritually with living water right here.

Another great burden I have is so many people, especially over the years now that aren't here anymore, they say, "I attended Westside." They attended Westside but they never experienced God. Can you imagine that? The famous verse for this is Matthew 15:22: "And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, 'Have mercy on me. Have mercy on me.'" Can you picture this woman? "Oh Lord, Son of David." Have you ever had a daughter or son demon-possessed?

It's horrific. They're not who they were. Little Sally was playing with dolls at five, and at 15 she's tormented. You lose sleep over it. What's going on? So she comes to Jesus and says, "Have mercy on me, Son of David." But what? He answered her not a word. This is where many people go south instead of the right direction. "Well, fine then. I knew you couldn't help anyway. God has it out for me."

Listen, there's a time in everyone's life, including mine, quite often where God answers not a word. Not a word. But we can learn from her. His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us." It was so true that not only did Jesus not answer her, now His disciples are belittling her and telling her to leave. Have you ever had others come against you when you're seeking God? That just adds icing to the cake.

Like Job's wife. Job's wife said, "Curse God and die." What kind of spouse is that? So God's not answering, and now the world's against you. You think she would run away and cry and get bitter at God? But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." So Jesus is saying, "I was not sent to you, woman. You're a Gentile, a Canaanite possibly from the land of Canaan, and I wasn't sent to you. I was sent for My people."

Did she give up? Then she came and worshipped Him, saying, "Lord, help me. Lord, help me." See, that needs to be our motto. God's not listening, and but you still come to Him and say, "God, Lord, help me." God's attracted to worshippers. That's a cry God will not pass by. He listens for the praises of His people. He listens for the worshippers when they stand even in the midst of a storm.

They stand there as the thunder is thundering and the rain is pouring down on their heads, and they stand there and they say, "Even in this storm, I will praise You. I will worship You." God says, "I hear that person. That worshipper, I will help." It might not be yes right away, but I will help. I will listen. And maybe in that storm, I'm teaching you. I'm breaking you. I'm molding you. I'm shaping you.

I'm just going to brag on the worship team for a minute. So many people comment on our worship team and ask, "How do you have so many talented voices? Boy, they're anointed." I always think, "Do you want to go through what they went through? Do you want to fight what they've fought from cancer to demonic influence to different things?" Often the anointing comes from tremendous pain.

A pastor just can't anoint himself with his degree. That's not anointing. Anointing comes from this brokenness where God breaks a person, and out of that, God says, "Okay, now the clay pot is back in the hands of the potter. You want to be a vase? I've called you to be this." God begins to reconstruct, and she came and worshipped Him. God is attracted to worshippers. I'm preparing for an Easter message. I like to get something in my heart weeks prior.

I said, "Oh God, this is incredible." I just read one of the Gospels and I try to just keep going through the Gospels so I'm always in the Gospels. I just want to hear what Jesus is saying. He gets to this, and the Bible says, "Who did He appear to the first time?" Did Jesus appear to these men? He appeared to Mary, in whom He cast out seven demons. So this woman who He cast out seven demons, she's set free. Jesus comes back to her.

He appears to her first after the resurrection. She was a worshipper. God is attracted to worshippers. He's attracted to those where there's no deceit in them, where they're not double-faced, where they're not hypocrites, where they're worshipping. Do you need God's mercy this morning? Then worship Him. Worship Him. There are so many hymns and songs that have come out of pain. One is a new song right now many churches sing called "Miracles."

"You're the God of miracles." Do you know he wrote that after his baby died? I've told you about the song before, the well-known hymn "It Is Well With My Soul." As he's going back over the ocean and there's the spot his daughters drowned, he’s going to write a hymn? As sea billows roll, he says, "It is well, it is well with my soul." "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Remember that one?

The guy who wrote that was on horseback in the 1800s. He came onto a creek and he was behind his soon-to-be fiancée, and she fell off the horse, hit her head on a rock or something, and died. She's laying right there in the creek. He meets someone else, and that fiancée dies before their wedding day of an illness. And he writes, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Have you heard the hymns "To God Be the Glory" or "All the Way My Savior Leads Me"?

That was put together by Fanny Crosby. She was blind. So was John Milton and George Matheson, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." And William Walford, "Sweet Hour of Prayer." All blind? I don't know if you have problems, but that would be a big challenge. What about having a baby and you can never see your child? You can never see your child's features. You can only hold them. You can't see what they look like.

But out of that pain can come tremendous anointing, can come from a tremendous love of God. That's why you'll see many people worshipping with tears coming down their face, sometimes at the altar, because they know God is the one who set them free. They know God is the one who, although I cannot see, God, You've set me free. I was blind spiritually, but now I see. From that, they become a powerful worshipper.

What about Annie Johnson Flint? "He Giveth More Grace." "God Hath Not Promised." Many hymns. She was confined to her room with crippling arthritis for most of her life. Oh, the great privilege of being a worshipper. It's a privilege to worship God. So why are many people bored? If there's something you'd rather go do other than worshipping, something is wrong. "Oh, the baseball game, the..." See, there's something wrong in the heart.

A worshipper wants to worship. Sure, of course, we've got other things to do. But for the worshipper, there's something in your heart that wants to worship. So God helps the worshipper. He helps the warrior, those who want to fight God's battle. Warrior-ing is, "Lord, I'm on the same side as You. What's going on in our culture, I'm going to fight these battles. What's going on in our culture and in our nation is a spiritual battle."

Don't give up. "But Shane, look what's happening. It's everywhere." That's where God will often take an army of tens of thousands and God says, "Get rid of them. Get rid of them. Give me 300 men." Why? So no flesh will glory in my presence. Nobody will get credit. We look back and say, "But God, but God." He'll use the least likely. How does He raise up possibly the greatest preacher to reach more people than the world has ever seen through Billy Graham, a farm boy with no education in the Carolinas?

He uses a foolish thing to confound the wise. I've read his stories, I've seen the movies, and one thing that is certain: he doesn't even know how he got there. God decided to use me. And then finally, oh God help us in this area. God helps those who are weepers. Luke 23:27: "And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and the women who also mourned and lamented." It's this incredible image.

When you think about the cross and the path to the cross, as Jesus is carrying this cross, beaten, bloodied, these women are weeping for Him and mourning and lamenting. But Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." Now, I don't want to take this text in a direction it's not meant to be taken, but the whole point is Jesus is saying there's coming a time where the judgment of God is going to fall upon Jerusalem.

"Don't weep for Me. Be weeping for you and for your children because you have disobeyed God. You have drifted from the Messiah. You rejected Me. Here is the Prince of Life coming to His own people, and they've rejected the Messiah." But there's a wonderful principle there because the condition of our nation, the condition of the family, the condition of everything that's going on should turn us into weepers.

We don't walk around crying. It's an interesting parallel here because we're called to be weepers but also joy-filled. So on one hand, we're weeping for the atrocities that are taking place, and we're getting our hearts broken before Him, but then when we get up, we're to be joy-filled, filled with joy. It's not a dichotomy. It's not Jekyll and Hyde. It's the fruit of the Spirit operating in a position of brokenness.

Why is weeping so important? Because weeping breaks up the stagnant fountains of the soul. You have to feel the pain that we've caused, maybe we've caused our children, our families, or what's going on in our nation. How can we allow these things? Look how ugly it's getting on this whole issue of abortion, for example. Now you have abortion doctors explaining how they do it and proud of how they do it.

There's people on the news, on clips, saying, "If it's born alive, I'll just break its neck." Doctors! Where's the weeping? Where's the travail? Where's the righteous indignation that says, "Oh my God, use us to stop this evil"? Instead, what do we do? "That's not too appealing. Next YouTube video." And we become calloused. Things that should break us and cause us to weep, look at the condition of the family, we've just become calloused.

You don't think Christians become calloused? Look at our entertainment choices. What would have never been allowed in our homes 50 years ago is now welcomed and accepted. Calloused. Weeping is the only thing that sets us right back up on the right pedestal, meaning Christ on the pedestal, but it sets us right back up where we need to be in a position of spiritual authority.

Psalm 42:3: "My tears have been my food day and night." Psalm 30: "Sing praises to the Lord, you saints, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." And it's interesting, you can't just work this up. "Okay, Shane wants me to cry. Let me try to be a weeper. How does that look?"

It has to take place in your heart. You say, "God, break my heart for the things that break Yours." Sorrow is so important to our Christian faith, not to live in it. I look at sorrow as a springboard into what God's called us to do. What happens when you're sorry or mad at something? You want to make a difference. I told you, down by the LAX Hilton many years ago, I heard about partial-birth abortion.

I heard about what's going on in the nation. I heard about ungodly legislation. I wasn't even a pastor yet, and I went back to my hotel room and I prayed. I cried myself to sleep. I said, "Oh God, if You give me a voice, I will not shut up. I will cry out from the rooftops. I will be that voice crying in the wilderness." But where did it start? It had to start with prayer-stained pillows and sheets and weeping and going, "Lord, how is this happening? This is not right."

From that, there's a righteous indignation where not even the enemy himself can stop you because you're filled with the Spirit of God. But it had to be broken in the prayer closet where weeping may endure, but joy cometh in the morning. There's pain and sorrow, but there's a wonderful advantage of being broken before God. The church needs to be broken. Many of you need to be broken.

There's too much arrogance in this room. There's too much pride. You haven't shed a tear in years. "I walked a mile with pleasure. She chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and never a word said she, but oh the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me." If we're so filled with pleasure and the things of this world, we will be void of the Spirit of God.

We will quench and grieve the Spirit of God. "Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." If you're saying, "Praise God," that means you need to hear this message. I don't know how else to wake the sleeping church. We are being lulled to sleep. I also want to encourage people that don't know the Lord. You can't call God Father if you don't call His Son your Savior.

Many people say, "The man upstairs, I know who God is. I've been in the church. I know about God." But has His Son saved you and set you free? Has God redeemed you? Do you truly know Him or do you only know about Him? Because you will never be a worshipper, a weeper, or a warrior for the things of God if you don't have a relationship with Him.

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.