Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: Those who wait on God will renew their strength. What happens is the rain begins to fall and the downpour is inevitable because here is the thing about waiting: you're also building an appetite for the Lord. You're not just sitting there twiddling your fingers. You're pursuing. You're waiting on God. There's an appetite that is being formed. There is a desperation that's being sought after. It's in that time that you are strengthened. You can never take away hope.

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 resurrection message titled, "From the Pit to the Promise."

Evangelist A.W. Tozer once said, "Most Christians are satisfied living as common Christians without an insatiable hunger for the deeper things of God." Do you truly love Jesus? Today, Pastor Shane gives us the litmus test of what makes a true follower of Jesus and who is just dead bones playing church. 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: Don't you know your pride needs to be weakened and broken down? There's a lot of pride in when I know things are going a certain way, things are falling in line, look at what I've done. When God says wait, all your dreams, all your admirations, all your goals, the waiting time begins to weaken pride and develop humility. You start to rely more on God. You start to trust more on God when things aren't happening like you thought, and then, as a result, it begins to strengthen your faith.

It also builds trust and deals squarely with fear. The waiting time is what shapes you. The waiting time is like the weight room, spiritually speaking. It's what shapes your character. It's what develops your spiritual muscle. Psalm 46:10 is one of my favorite verses. It says, "Be still and know that I am God. That I am the Lord." It's almost like, sit down, be quiet, turn off your phone, be still, listen, take some time.

Be still and know that I am God. If you look up "be still" in a Hebrew concordance where you can see what these words mean in Hebrew, it's a very interesting word. It can mean relax or let go, but it can also mean drop your weapons. Relax, be still, drop your weapons, drop your front, drop your fighting. Be still and know, and you will know that I am God. That's how you know who God is. Drop your weapons, drop your pride, cease from all this activity, and then you will know who God truly is.

It's basically a call to stop frantically trying to control outcomes and instead trust God to act. On Saturday night, they couldn't do anything. I don't think they slept very well. Talk about confusion. We think we have it tough sometimes, but you don't give up everything and follow the Messiah, and then the Messiah dies. The Bible is silent on this, but many of these men probably could have been charged with some type of insurrection at some point, or brought charges against them, or they had to be very careful with their families and maybe shunned in the community.

This Saturday was a very dark season. Second Corinthians says, "My strength, God's strength, is made perfect in your weakness." Did you know that God's power is most effective in you when human strength fails? That's when God works the most, when human strength fails, when you say, "I don't have the answer. I can't handle this. I don't know what to do." When all hope is gone and your Word is all I've got, I still believe. I still believe that you can bring water from that rock. God, I trust in you.

God's power and our strength actually compete because our strength is really rooted in pride. "I can handle this. I got this. I can take care of this." But when we understand how weak and damaged we are and in desperate need of Him, as you lower yourself, the filling of the Holy Spirit begins to strengthen you. That's why you can walk in the boldness of Christ and strength because of your weakness. It's those people that are puffed up that are not very strong in the Lord.

Psalm 121: "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth." Personally, I think when he says, "I look to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the maker of heaven and earth," it shows a shift from the physical. I look to the hills where normally armies would be coming down to help me, where I would get some reinforcements. Have you ever watched those old cowboy movies or those old military movies where, "Oh, look who's coming"? Or Mel Gibson's Braveheart? "Here they come! The cavalry! I look, here they come! Here comes my help!"

It's a shift from the physical to the spiritual. I look to the hills. There's nothing there that can help me. So my eyes are fixed upon God. I begin to look at Him. That's where my help comes from. The help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. What army can come against me when I position my eyes in the right direction? I look to His strength and His strength alone. There's a song I just heard a couple of days ago. It said, "He met me there on the floor when I had nothing, nothing more. No strength to stand, no prayer prepared, just empty hands. And Lord, you met me there."

Have you ever had Him meet you at those deep moments? That's special when He meets you. I feel for people that don't have that deep, intimate relationship with the Lord. Often that comes through pain. I wish it was the opposite, but pain is often that mechanism that drops us to our knees. I know not everybody can relate, but for those who can, I think it was last night we sang that song, "Not For A Moment Was I Forsaken." The Lord is in this place. Come, Holy Spirit, dry bones awaken.

You get to that spot where you say, "Not for a minute was I forsaken." Even in the darkest hour, even in the deepest trenches, even when God seems silent, when nobody is on my side, when all hell is breaking loose and you don't get the news you want, not for a minute was I forsaken. There is a Saturday, but don't forget about Sunday morning. Don't forget about the resurrection. You strengthen yourself in the Lord. You become strong spiritually when weeping meets worship.

That's how you fight back. Did you know that's how you fight your spiritual battles? God help us. Our gun safes are full, but our prayer closets are empty. We think we can fight this battle with pride and money. We get through these dark nights through weeping and through worship. We fight back. God gets His best soldiers in the highlands of affliction. We talk about revival often. We want it, we desperately desire it, we need it. But that often happens when men and women weep over the condition of their cold and callous hearts.

That's when revival really hits a church. That's when people are awakened spiritually. I've seen this more times than I can count with so many people coming through our doors over sixteen years now. Today is almost ten years here at this location, and six years before that, and all the different prayer requests and all the different things. You see that people don't experience a mighty work of God's Spirit without that brokenness and humility. They need to weep over the condition of their cold and callous hearts.

If your heart is cold and callous, that's not a good thing. If you're lacking compassion and you're indifferent, that's not a good thing. There should be a passionate desire for God. Isaiah 64:4 says, "For from the days of old no one has heard nor ear has heard, and the eye has not seen a God besides you, Lord." Here is what God does: He works and He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. God works and He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

How many people waited in the Bible? That's when they were developed. That's when God's sovereignty took shape. That's when their character was developed. That's when they were able to change course. Abraham waited, Moses waited, Joshua waited. David? What a story. Hey, sixteen-year-old, come in from the field. By the way, you're anointed king of Israel! Yeah, next month? No. Next year? No. You're going to have to fight some giants. You're going to have to go against Saul. You're going to have to work and worry and fear and run and develop courage and trust in the Lord your God. Then, when that character is developed, you'll be able to take that office that I've called you to.

What about Joseph? He had these incredible dreams and decided to share them with some jealous brothers. Be careful who you share your dreams with. There are a lot of dream killers. Did it happen right away? No, he was sold into slavery. That's God's will? And then he goes into jail because of Potiphar's wife. Now he's in jail for a couple of years and interprets dreams and then finally gets out. He tells his brothers, "Don't worry. What you intended for evil, God made for good."

Did Ezra have to wait for anything? Zerubbabel in the rebuilding of Jerusalem? How about Nehemiah? Was there some waiting going on? Isaiah? If you're going to write, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength," you might tell a little bit about their waiting time. That waiting time is so important. That's where character is developed. That's actually where your relationship with the Lord is strengthened. Because if you go from the promise to the reward or the dream being fulfilled and there is no waiting time, there is no character being built.

It would be like taking a little baby and holding them up and then letting them go; they would just fall because they didn't learn how to build those leg muscles during that waiting time before they could finally jog. It takes time in the same way, spiritually speaking. Psalm 27: "Wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." I made the mistake, and I know some of you have done this before, of clicking on some news sites. I turned into a negative Nelly in about ten minutes.

The world is falling apart. You can get so down. "This poor girl tried to commit suicide and she couldn't, and then she went to court to try to get assisted suicide and her dad had to go to court to try to keep her alive and the dad lost." Why did I just read this? Now you know. But then you see this is happening and this is going on. You have to balance it out with God's Word. I don't think we were meant to absorb all that negativity.

Isaiah: "But those who hope in the Lord," another translation says, "those who wait in the Lord will renew their strength." This is how you renew your strength. Are you dying spiritually? Here is how you renew your strength: wait on the Lord. When you wait, you worship. You don't just sit there and look at TikTok. That's not waiting. Waiting is actually removing all the distractions that pull me away from the Lord and I focus on Him. Picture a waiter bringing the things. Those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength.

James says, "Be patient therefore, brothers, just like the farmer waits." Wait, wait, be patient. Hebrews: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for. It's assurance about what we do not see." Psalm 37: "Commit your ways to the Lord." Commit your ways to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. I believe God can actually change your thoughts and you begin to think more like the Lord. What you begin to read and listen to and watch begins to shape your mind. You don't think like the Lord; that's why you snap at people. That's why you're rude. That's why you can't control your tongue, because you're feeding on those things that pull you away from God.

When you commit your works to the Lord, you trust in Him and He establishes your thoughts. Philippians, of course, we know: "Be not anxious for anything, but in every situation, with thanksgiving." And God will guard your heart. Isaiah: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you." Perfect peace because his mind is set on you. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

On this topic of from pit to promise, it means when you're in that pit, like Joseph was, or like Jesus was, there's usually a pit before the promise. Because it's that pit, it's that difficulty, that begins to build you and begins to shape you and begins to form you. That's when it gets rid of all those things you used to trust in, all the idolatry and the false things. It begins to clean your heart. It's hard, but you get to a point where you begin to thank God. Have you ever thanked God for the struggle? Lord, thank you for the pit. Thank you for that dark night of the soul, because now my eyes have been opened. I have a passion for you. As I wait on you, you will begin to renew my strength.

Leonard Ravenhill once said, "There is no such thing as a painless Pentecost." For those of you who don't know, Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit fell upon the church. The church was born. The believers go from just trying to be Christians—they don't even know what that means—and now they have the Holy Spirit. Many people talk the same way today, that there is a powerful experience that a person can have with the Holy Spirit. Yes, you have the Holy Spirit as a believer, but does He have all of you?

I can tell you as a pastor, the vast majority of Christians do not have the fullness of the Spirit. How do you know? Just watch what comes out. Watch what comes out in their actions and their attitude. But there is no such thing as a painless Pentecost. It cost something. The disciples waited days in an upper room before they received that downpour. Jesus fasted forty days and began His ministry in the power of the Spirit.

Those who wait on God will renew their strength. What happens is the rain begins to fall and the downpour is inevitable because here is the thing about waiting: you're also building an appetite for the Lord. You're not just sitting there twiddling your fingers. You're pursuing. You're waiting on God. There is an appetite that's being formed. There's a desperation that is being sought after. It's in that time that you are strengthened. You can never take away hope.

That was the point of tonight: just encourage the church, encourage believers that waiting time is not wasted time. As a believer, those dark moments don't last forever. I love how he said, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." The point is he is getting through the valley. He is getting through the valley. "But pastor, that's not true. What about if you die?" Well, yeah! Like with the thief on the cross: "Today you will be with me in paradise." I am not sure that's a bad thing either way. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is there. He comforts me." You can never take away hope. That's why we love that song.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see.

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 sixty 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.