Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: I mean, there's certain things, but most of the time you're not 100% certain. I think that pleases God because without faith it's impossible to please God. So when you say, "Lord, I'm trusting you," it's according to your word. I know you'll stop me if I'm going too far. I'm going to walk in faith because I trust you. That pleases God.

Because if we're not doing anything because we're in fear, fear prevents us from trusting God. And so there will be some peace there. It is hard, though, because sometimes you feel anxiety in the will of God. Like, oh, I have peace, but I don't want to do this. Anybody been there? There are some hard things that happen.

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 part of this liberating message titled, "How the Spirit Leads Us."

Theologian and evangelist Oswald Chambers once said, "If you are going to be used by God, he will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in his hands and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others."

Join us today in this message of conviction, repentance, and freedom as Pastor Shane brings the gospel message of Christ in a vibrant, active, life-changing, spirit-filled way. 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: And that's why you'll hear people sometimes say, "Well, yeah, that was the Old Testament time. That was Paul's time. But today, be careful. Run for cover. Run for cover from those teachers because the moral laws don't change." Why? Because they are universal, they're moral. The dietary and ceremonial laws had a purpose at a particular time in history, but the moral laws are forever.

So we're going to get controversial. You guys ready? Buckle up, put on that rollercoaster ride seatbelt. Let me see you guys buckling up. Joe, you buckled? Okay, here we go. Then the Spirit told me. Isn't that controversial? As soon as I put stuff like this on social media, I get the "Negative Nellies." God doesn't do that anymore. We have the Bible. We have the Bible.

And I know what they're saying because you see so much damage in the church from crazy Karens. No Karens here today, right? Is there any Karens here? Okay. Sorry about that. I'm trying to think of names. I'm going to try to think of something that rhymes with Olga since I know there's no Olgas here, I don't think.

But the Spirit of the Lord told me to go with them. How do you know if God is leading you? How do you know if God still does that today? The Spirit told me to go with them, and so I doubted nothing. Moreover, there were six friends accompanying me and we entered the man's house. And so once he explains what happened, and I was already there, but then I thought of all these points I want to share with you because it's important on the Spirit leading us. That's the title this morning, "When the Spirit Leads Us."

And once they hear everything that happened, they're like, "Oh, wow, that's incredible. God has definitely visited the Gentiles as well." So there are obviously more ways that you can list that I'm going to go over. But John 16:13 says, "When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth."

Isn't that interesting? Now, how many of you know who said those words? How many do not know who said that? John wrote it, but John didn't say it. Jesus said it. And what he's talking about is very interesting. He said, "I'm here with you, but when I go, the Father is going to send the helper, and that's him. And when he comes, after I'm gone, when he comes, he will guide you into all truth."

And that's why I truly believe a solid believer, grounded in God's Word, following these principles, I've never seen them really led astray. Now, of course, we make wrong decisions now and then. Anybody else? Okay, a few of you are honest. But I mean led astray by the wrong direction. It's impossible when you follow God's principles.

So the Holy Spirit, just a quick overview on pneumatology, which is the systematic study of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to give you the one-minute version instead of the five-hour course on it. It's when you repent and believe. You're an unbeliever, you repent and believe. The Spirit of God comes and resides in you. And now you have this internal witness that you are children of God.

You have this internal umpire blowing the whistle when you're not going in a good direction. You have this conviction, you have this leading, this guiding, you have the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, contentment, long-suffering. The key is not to quench and grieve him. That's our life's journey. My life's journey is to not quench and grieve the Holy Spirit. Yours is too, so don't look at me that way.

So there are seven ways he leads us according to God's Word, not Shane's opinion. Praise God for that. And I will tell you this is an interesting topic on the Holy Spirit, is it not? For those of you who don't know, I use the MacArthur Study Bible, so I love sound doctrine, I love sound teaching.

But they've been very vocal. This is one area I would disagree with that Study Bible on the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. I also read Sam Storms, an incredible theologian, Norm Geisler. There are incredible people out there who have really unpacked this topic. Like, there's volumes written on pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit.

The Puritans have incredible works on the Holy Spirit. John Owen's book, thick book on the Holy Spirit. And they're all kind of saying the same thing, but there are different camps. Some believe that now that we have the Bible, and again, I want to reiterate, I did last week, now that we have the Bible, we don't need to be led of the Holy Spirit like the early church was.

And if you read their writings, you can see where they're coming from. But I think here's a few things we're definitely missing. Because the big thing really is if God is still speaking to people and leading people, then he's still speaking and we have the Bible, we don't need that anymore. No, no, no. He's not speaking absolute truth. We have that. But sometimes individually, we need a little help. The helper needs to help me. And so he might lead me.

But how many of you have met the person that is just, I don't have a better word, but has gone wacko? And the Holy Spirit's leading them and they're just, "No, no, no." Spend time in the Word. Let that lead you because it can be a great excuse. Well, the Holy Spirit told me to do that. Well, it actually goes against the scriptures. Wow, I don't know what to say to that. Well, I do. That's the wrong spirit. That might be your flesh.

And so that's why there's a big, and then you go to different churches where some are more conservative, and there's some I know in this valley that actually believe kind of what we do, but they're more conservative so you wouldn't know that they do because they keep it on the down low. And then there's other churches that are just hyper-charismatic. So it's like there's two ends of this spectrum getting wild.

It's almost like people come every Sunday for a word from the Lord. You know you can go a while without a word from the Lord. Do what he told you to do a couple of years ago and just stay in his Word. You don't need a word every week because then you can become actually very unhealthy because you're looking for people each week to give me a word, give me a word. Jesus has spoken to you. The word is clear.

Now if you need a little help along the way, he will do that in his time. And we don't need to know everything every week. The Christian walk isn't like that. Faith is a journey. Sometimes he doesn't say anything for a while. Does that bother anybody else? Just me? Abraham had to go ten years on one word from the Lord.

The book of Acts is written over thirty years. So it's not like they knew what to do. They were following the Lord. Now, I will say they didn't have the Word back then, so the leading of the Holy Spirit would definitely take on some different nuances. But they can look at the Old Testament, the character of God's character. They actually had some of the writings were starting to come out. And that's how they canonized the Bible.

How we got our Bible is it's not some council met in 300 AD and said, "Oh, I think these books are good." They just said, "Here are the books the early church has been using since day one, since Paul began writing these letters." They called them canonical. They called them authoritative. And that's where our Bible came from.

And then Roman Catholicism added the Apocrypha later and all these other Bibles that are non-authoritative. And they actually go against some of the scripture. So that's why we do not even include those because we include the Old Testament that Jesus used. And then you can get into the Septuagint, the Greek translation of it. So we have the Old Testament and then we just have the letters that those who followed Christ, saw Christ, walked with Christ, the letters they wrote. That's authoritative. That's the scriptures.

It's actually pretty simple. It's beautiful. And so be careful, there's a lot of lies going around on how we got our Bible. Men wanted power and authority, so they put the Bible together to control people. Give me a break. So, number one, seatbelt is on, tighten, fastened. Obedience must be a priority. That's the best way to know God's will, bar none. That's the best way to be led of the Spirit, is it not?

When you're obeying his Word, you can walk in confidence knowing that's his will. The Bible actually says a couple of different times, "This is God's will for your life." Did you know it says to worship him, to make disciples, to be saved? This is the will of God for you, that you're not be deceived. And there's a few things, and you can walk in that.

So obedience must be a priority. Making choices that align with his Word is the best way to know you are being led of the Spirit. That has to be the foundation. Because if we don't have a foundation, let's say in this church, if we don't have a gauge of truth and a foundation we're building on, what's to stop all of us from saying, "Well, I think this. I feel this way." Ever hear that one?

Well, I think God's leading this way. Well, I think he's leading this way. Now there's gray area, of course. But we have, you don't just show up to any contractors here? Do you ever just have your guy who digs your footings show up and then the concrete guy in the cement truck just, I don't know, just put it wherever you want? Just start digging over there, pour over there. Electrician, have at it. Plumber, I don't care where you put the toilets. No, that's never happened.

There's always a plan. I've seen this so many times. You go to those little trailers on the construction site, they roll out the plans. Let's see. Oh, yeah, it's three feet off the property line. And you have that standard to work off of. Without that, it's not going to work. Same thing with God's Word. That is always the standard.

Now within that, though, there are what we would call non-essentials. Things that the Bible doesn't say exactly how to conduct a church service. And you'd be amazed at how many people, there's arguments over the years that we're not doing things right. Our church does it this way. Like, communion should be at the front. The whole service should be about communion and the Eucharist. Anybody see that?

Now, that's a good point because communion, the fellowship with Christ, that's awesome. If the communion is up front, it's focused. Okay, but the Bible doesn't say to do that. It says, "When you come together, do this in remembrance of me." It also says the teaching of the word of God, singing psalms or hymns. And so it gives you four things, and then you kind of have to put those pieces together based on how God leads certain individuals to do things differently.

And so there's a lot of freedom in that. I love that Christian churches are different. That's normal. If we all looked the same exact way, that's the marks of a cult. They do that to control you. You go here, you go to one in Utah, you go to one in New York, they're all going to look the same. That's not free-flowing from the Spirit. That's man's attempt to control and it can become a cult.

Now sometimes churches should look similar on the essentials. We all should be doing the same thing on the essentials. For understanding in spiritual matters, the golden rule is not intellect, but obedience. Let the consequences of your obedience be left up to God. Spiritual maturity is not reached by passing of the years, but by obedience to the will of God. Oswald Chambers.

So that's the first step on the ladder. This is so important because maybe some of you this morning, you're trying to figure out God's will, but you're in disobedience to the known will of God. You want to know, "Should I work here, should I..." but you're in disobedience to the known will of God. For example, this is why we tell couples praying about marriage, "First move out, stop fornicating, get on the right path, then you can see clearly."

You're wanting to know God's will while you stay in disobedience in this area. God's not going to go, "Oh, shucks. They're not going to change. I might as well just lead them." You have to start with what we know to be right. What we know to be right.

Number two: wisdom is the way. Proverbs says, "Wisdom is the main thing. Therefore, make sure to get wisdom, and in everything you get, get understanding, and she will exalt you, she will promote you, she will bring you honor when you embrace wisdom." And we've seen this over the years, I'm sure you have too, where God just says, "Make a wise choice."

You can't afford that house. You don't have to be praying about it. Just make the wise choice. You can't afford that, just make the wise choice. "What should I do about my health?" Hello? Make the wise choice. Choose almond butter instead of Captain Crunch. It's not difficult. You guys want me to stay there a while, don't you? But I'm not going to today.

But I can't tell you how many times, even making decisions in the church when we meet with the elders, sometimes we don't know. It's like, "What is wise? What's the best choice knowing our staffing needs, time off, our location?" I mean, what's the best... and every time we make wise choices, there's a lot of security there. I mean, I could give you many examples. You guys know in your own personal life.

What school should we put our kids in? What college should my kids go to? Well, nowadays, be careful, right? What is wisdom? God has actually given us wisdom. We're not called to just float around like we're floating around on clouds and being led of the Spirit the way he blows the cloud. He gives us wisdom to make wise choices.

So here's the thing, though. Knowledge knows to make the right choice, wisdom actually does it. So a lot of people think they're wise, but they're not. They're knowledgeable, but they're not making the wise choices. And then the next way to make sure you're being led of the Spirit, I've seen this, I'm sure many of you have, it's biblical for sure: peace acts like a compass.

You guys know, don't you, when you're not going the right direction and you're like, "I don't have a lot of peace, but..." you know, and you keep... there's no peace there. And you can actually be doing something hard and still have peace when God directs you. Most times God directs you to a hard thing. But there's still peace. "Okay, God's in this. I have peace about it. I feel good about it."

Nobody can knock you off track because that peace... why is there a peace? Because it's like a compass keeping you in the right direction. One of the things the Holy Spirit, as a helper, is also that internal alarm clock. Like, "Eh, eh, eh, you're going the wrong way. Be careful. You're going the wrong way." And so peace does that.

Although difficult, the Spirit's leading is often backed by peace and assurance. It's that verse: "Deep calling unto deep." And God's leading is usually subtle. You know, we think there's these big, you know, "If God... he'll just like, he'll just like take me physically and turn me the other way." No, the leading's... you guys know, I'm preaching to the choir I feel like today, but sometimes the choir needs a little preaching too.

Right? You feel that peace. It doesn't mean it's easy, but there's that peace, there's assurance, and God's leading is kind of subtle. Sometimes he'll put on the brakes and this, but it's a subtle leading. There's peace there. And how many times do you guys realize that you never quite know for certain? I mean, there's certain things, but most of the time you're not 100% certain if this is the right direction.

But that pleases God because without faith it's impossible to please God. So when you say, "Lord, I'm trusting you," it's according to your Word. "I know you'll stop me if I'm going too far. I'm going to walk in faith because I trust you." That pleases God. Because if we're not doing anything because we're in fear, fear prevents us from trusting God.

And so there is, there will be some peace there. It is hard, though, because sometimes you feel anxiety in the will of God. Like, "Oh, I have peace, but I don't want to do this." Anybody been there? There are some hard things that happen. And I do need to tell you this: walking in the will of God often doesn't make sense to others.

Is everybody on your side when you're walking in the will of God? I've got notes here to pray about this before talking about it. How can I be gracious but have it a good teaching experience? Well, okay, I can say this. It doesn't usually happen from anybody at our church, so that's good. But most of the time, like if I try to when I'm fasting, people get worried. Like, "Pastor, you've got to eat."

But if you eat ten McFlurrys a week, nobody's worried. You know what a McFlurry is? Like why that... but if you're fasting, they get worried, like, "Oh, Pastor, I don't know. You need to eat. You're going to..." people's opinions, people's opinions. Now, just for fun this morning, I had a lot of time on my hands getting up at 2:00. How much sugar is in a McFlurry?

You've got to be... I triple-checked this. You're worried about my fasting? One McFlurry... I can keep going to different... I can go into an In-N-Out burger shake if you want. What? Are you kidding me? So I wrote: choose "McFasting," not "McFlurry." And you guys can pass this around. I want everybody to see. Isn't that amazing? Like that in one drink. You were not designed to consume that at once.

Another research this morning: a 13-foot tall sugar cane has half that amount of sugar. God designed it, you're chewing on it, you're getting the fiber, the phytochemicals, the nutrients, just like he designed it. When you pervert things, that's the problem in our nation: we're addicted like a drug addict to these things. And so when you try to live better, people aren't going to agree with you. I get this: "Oh, Shane's just a health freak. Oh my goodness." Not really.

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.