Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: Just where the priest goes once a year, it's where everything, that time with God and sins of the people. Outside of that are items, then there's outside what they call the outer court where the Gentiles were. I believe that they used to sell these things even outside of that before people would even get in the temple.

It was actually something that had to happen because they would come and they would have coins and they'd have to give them different coins in exchange. You're not going to give with Caesar's image on it and things like that. So that exchange had to take place. There's nothing wrong with it.

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 igniting message titled, "He Set His Face Like A Flint, So Should You."

In Luke 12:49, Jesus said, "I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled." Do you seek to be on fire for Jesus? Overflowing with his spirit, the spirit of the living God? Listen now as Pastor Shane sparks a firestorm of holiness.

What will it take for God's people to be burning for more of Christ? To have a thirst for truth and a hunger to see the lost found? Buckle up and catch fire right now here on Regaining Lost Ground.

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: The title this morning, "He Set His Face Like A Flint." I like the subtitle: "So Should You." What's very interesting is the verse comes from Isaiah. It's actually Isaiah 50:7 and it says, "I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed." Isaiah, seven hundred years before Jesus.

Now, what we celebrate today is what they call Palm Sunday, where Jesus rides in as the king, this king on a donkey. But that sets his face toward Jerusalem for the journey to the cross, to Calvary. So he set his face like a flint. He knew what he was called to do. He didn't waver. He didn't back out. And of course, back then and even now, flint is a very strong type of rock and metal. It's very strong. And it's almost this idea of unmoving, unyielding, unbending.

And by the way, that's what truth is for us, is it not? It's unyielding. It doesn't bend. It's not flexible. And we are in a war with our culture with that very thing right now, aren't we? The truth, yes, there is a truth about a lot of things, moral things. It can't bend. It can't yield. We can't say we're developing now and there's probably three or four genders, I think we missed it. But you see all this trying to give and take a little bit. Supreme Court justices saying, "I'm not sure what a female is, I'm not a biologist." Exactly. I think I'm in the Twilight Zone.

So truth is unyielding. It does not move. And because it's a whole new crowd and it's been many years, I just thought of it, I'll tell you a good story. There are two lights quickly approaching in the ocean off the Atlantic. And as they get closer, this one says, "Change your course, 10 degrees starboard." And they signal back, "No, you change your course." And this one signals back, "We are not changing course, you need to change your course immediately."

They're getting closer. And this one says, "Sir, please change your course." And he finally responds, "If you do not change your course, I'm going to blow you out of the water. We are a battleship." And this guy said, "Sir, with all due respect, you need to change your course. I am a lighthouse." Guys, never forget that. We cannot change the course of truth. We will end up running our vessel onto the shore and destroying ourselves, our family. And that's exactly what we're seeing. All the chaos, all the confusion is because we thought we could tell truth to move.

But what are we celebrating today? It's called the Triumphal Entry. Jesus comes in to Jerusalem, knows he's going to be executed, murdered in a matter of days. Talk about composure. And gotquestions.org gives a great breakdown and I thought, I'll just borrow theirs. It says the story of the king who came as a lowly servant on a donkey, not a prancing steed, not in a royal robe but on the clothes of the poor and the humble.

And that's why this is so relevant because no king would ride on a donkey. It's that big, powerful horse you can find that represents strength. And that's why it is interesting, I think, that when the Bible talks about Jesus coming back, he's not on a donkey. His eyes are like flames of fire. On his head are many crowns and no one knows his name except him. His name is the Word of God and he rode the white horse and the armies of heaven followed after him. And that sword goes out to judge the nations and rule the nations with a rod of iron. That's powerful.

I can imagine, because we're confused in life, we get bad news, we think worst-case scenario. I can imagine him knowing what's coming and just the trepidation but also knowing, Friday is going to be tough but Sunday is coming. And I know how this story plays out. What confidence he must have had. And we're supposed to have that same confidence as well. Jesus Christ comes not as a conqueror by force or as an earthly king, but by love, grace, mercy, and his own sacrifice for his people.

His is not a kingdom of armies and splendor but of lowliness and servanthood. He conquers not nations but hearts and minds. His message is one of peace with God, not of temporal peace. And that's our message as well. That's what we live for, that's what we know. That message that I just read, that was for them, it's for us, it's for now. We live in the present. But a reminder that later on is quite different. This right here is true temporarily, but when he returns, he's not coming as a lowly servant.

He's coming as a judge. He's not coming to conquer by force but by love. The love has already run its course for God so loved the world. Now he's coming back as a conquering king with his armies. So don't be confused. This is not going to be forever. It's a reminder to get our hearts and lives right with the Lord now. I don't know if this is correct, but there's been upwards of seven billion copies of the Bible since 1500 and the printing press. I don't know how they come up with numbers but that's a lot of Bibles. Seven billion?

What's my point in saying that? Well, God wanted to get his word out and this is the other side of the coin. That's how he came but this is how he's coming back. He will tread the winepress and the wrath of Almighty God. That's the verse I said earlier. He's coming back and he's going to tread the winepress in the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And Isaiah, he will come with fire and he will come with rebuke. Revelation, the great day of his wrath. And that's why I know it's not popular.

I know if you're going to take a class on growing a big church, you're not going to mention those things. You're going to hit a felt need and you're only going to be an encouragement. But the Bible is full of both. I need some encouragement and boy, do I need some conviction because without the conviction, you don't get right with the Lord. I'll tell you that right now. I've seen enough over the years to know if a person's never convicted, they rarely change. That's why the Bible comforts and it divides.

It pierces with the sword and it soothes our heart. It's incredible because when you're right with God, everything else falls into place. And so that's where we're at, going into Easter week. Matthew 21, the disciples were told to find a donkey to fulfill what was spoken in the scriptures by Zechariah, specifically chapter 9. And I'm going to go through Matthew today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and can't get through all there's tons of scriptures but going to pull out the main points. And so this is actually to fulfill the scripture.

It says Zechariah, writing I think Israel was already in exile, they were judged already and he's writing this: "Say to the daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey." And I wonder, there's this scripture and many others, didn't the Pharisees and the religious leaders, I mean wouldn't you think they knew the scriptures? And you see this guy coming on a donkey, everything it talks about, you see the miracles, you see all these things, but they were so blinded by what they call religiosity. Having religion and not relationship.

And so what happened is most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and they spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed were shouting, shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." Can you imagine that scene? Because they truly believed at this point that their king was coming. This was their king. They could not believe it. Probably surprised again he's not on a horse with armies.

And so he entered Jerusalem and the whole city, everybody was stirred saying, "Who is this? Who is this?" And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee." And I just put this in yesterday actually, remember, God gave us emotions. And I thought of them, they're excited. They're excited, they're worshiping and Hosanna, God is here or their king is here. Maybe they didn't know quite the dynamics but there was an emotional stirring because God was there. And sometimes many Christians we think that emotions are bad, emotions will lead me astray.

And they can, if they're the engine of your train and not the caboose. But they follow. They follow a genuine pursuit of God. They follow God working in our heart. Or maybe when he fails in our mind not to be working. We get the emotions on the opposite side, the depression, the negativity. And that's why when we do worship, if you really, many times people have what do I got to get done later today, what I got to do tomorrow. And their mind is not focused on what they're doing because if it was, you'd realize you are worshiping.

You are worshiping God, creator of heaven and earth. There's an excitement that should be there. There's an adoration, there's a thankfulness. That worship is reflected in our heart. And if we're pursuing other things and that's kind of boring, I'm not really there, worship is happening it's just not with God. We've got our minds focused on other things. So remember, it's okay to get emotional. It's okay to get emotional if God is doing the deep work of the spirit. After all, that's how we experience him. That's how we experience life.

I know there's negative emotions and I try to get rid of those, how about you? But thank God for the positive emotions, the mountaintop experiences, the birth of a child, when you get married, maybe when you get to your vacation spot or for many of us when we worship. When we worship in the morning, there's a yearning, there's a desire, there's an emotional response. It's an engagement with God and there's nothing wrong with that. We should want that. Again, they don't control us.

That's the problem when you make emotional decisions or if you get emotional for the sake of emotions, but it should be a byproduct. I mean, how should you act when you're worshiping the living God? Balcony can chime in. Why are we more excited about MMA, guys, sports? Why just you take that to the Lord. You're really emotional on some stuff. You can't wait for that next hunting trip, that next fishing trip, NASCAR, this, that, that. Very emotional, very excited. But when it comes to worshiping the living God...

Guys, I'm just challenging you, check your heart. Check your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. What is in you is flowing out of you. And my job is to comfort but also to convict. It's to encourage but also to challenge. If I wish I started keeping a journal 16 years ago. It usually goes like this, I don't know if I've heard it for a while, in the prayer room let me think recently. Goes like this: "You know, when I first started coming, I don't like what you had to say. And I wouldn't come back, I wouldn't come very often."

"But now, oh but now." You see the tears, you see them at the altar, you see them in the prayer room. What happened? That heart of stone was broken by the spirit of the living God. That's what happened. I see it all the time because normally when we hear something and we're convicted, are you like me? You're not very teachable at first. Anybody else? Very rarely do you say, "Oh, thank you for that constructive criticism, I will begin working on that immediately." But what happens is you hear that, like, who's he think he is?

And guess what keeps eating at you all week? Because it's conviction from the word. And God will start bringing scriptures to your mind: you cannot love both God and this world; choose you today who you will obey; as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord; seek me and you will find me if you search for me with all your heart. And they start to get convicted. And so what happens is you see an incredible change or you don't see them again. That's kind of where the rubber meets the road.

And it's a beautiful thing when we listen to the conviction of the spirit. I have that conviction as well for certain things that God will convict me about. And so he gets off the donkey and he enters the temple. First order of business. Is this so cool? Jesus cleans up worship. Oh my goodness, that just tied in with what I was just saying. Jesus cleans house. I love this part of scripture because so many people just use the "turn the other cheek" verses. They forget about him being filled with indignation.

Jesus, did you know he got upset? If you never get upset about the godlessness going on but you get upset when your 401k drops, you get upset at other things, but there should be an anger when God's word is mocked and when you look around and what's going on in our world. There's a holy of holies just where the priest goes once a year, it's where everything, that time with God and sins of the people. Outside of that are items, then there's outside what they call the outer court where the Gentiles were.

I believe that they used to sell these things even outside of that before people would even get in the temple. And it was actually something that had to happen because they would come and they would have coins and they'd have to give them different coins in exchange. You're not going to give with Caesar's image on it and things like that. So that exchange had to take place. There's nothing wrong with it. But it's what they did with it. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

And they would start to charge a lot of interest because they could. Boy, don't get me started on that one. Just for fun someday look up your charge card interest rate. And I don't think they should have been in where they were. I think they started but compromise began. They wanted to be right where the people were at, where the Gentiles were actually allowed. And he drove them out. How does this guy by himself drive out these merchants? Wouldn't they fight back? Wouldn't they say, "What are you doing?"

Well, not when you make a whip. He made a whip. Zeal for my father's house has consumed me. I don't know if he's making it on the way like, get off the donkey and grab me some rope and let's and just whip to drive them out of the temple. What passion for God's house. Oh, can you imagine if we got that back again today? Don't bring things like that but bring a heart that wants to fear God again. And that's why many churches aren't experiencing what we experience here and what other churches experience is there's no fear of God in that place.

There's a manipulation, there's a compromise. This isn't your house, it's God's house. We don't come in here acting like this is our house. I want new believers to be welcomed, so do I, but I'm not going to compromise for them. They're coming into God's house. I mean, I could spend some time on this. I think he's I don't know if he resigned a while back but this is like I think even when we started. I think they still do it, you'll probably see it come out during Easter, all these weird stunts. Have you ever seen those?