Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: I can hear the perseverance that I need to begin embracing and I can feel, Lord, that I need to just keep moving forward. I can see it. Although I can't feel it, although I still feel bound and I still have these lusts or temptations or addictions or these issues in my life, I have faith in You. I can hear those chains falling. It all begins with thanksgiving, setting your face like a flint, trusting Him though He slay you, praise Him in the storm, follow Him no matter where He takes you, and worship Him while you wait.

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 the stronghold-breaking message titled, "I Hear the Chains Falling."

The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, once said, "I had rather pass through seven years of the most wearisome pain and the most languishing sickness than I would ever again pass through the terrible discovery of the evil of sin." Have you felt anxious lately? Do you feel on edge with life? Are you weighed down? Get the answer to these questions right now as Pastor Shane points us to Jesus and how there is absolutely no substitute. Find hope and deliverance today with this powerful message of hope, "I Hear the Chains Falling." 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: "Like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, and who are cut off from Your hand. He's in a bad spot. You laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves." Now, I'm going to get to this in a minute, but I want to talk about it briefly. Sometimes when you read these things, the Bible is not clear on exactly what they're going through. It doesn't say, "A psalm of the sons of Korah after God afflicted him because he was disobedient or because he rebelled."

Sometimes we don't know. For example, a messenger of Satan was given to Paul to buffet his flesh—a thorn—and we don't know what that is because you can apply it to whatever you're struggling with as well. And that's why sometimes the Bible is not being vague because it doesn't want to know or it's concealing; it's so the application, I believe, can be universal. But when he says, "Your wrath lies heavy upon me," an unbeliever feels the wrath of God. That's why they get upset. That's why they don't like you talking about the light. That's why they don't want the light of the Gospel shined in their face. They feel that wrath. That's why these atheists are so upset, especially these famous atheists. They know that God's not happy with them.

However, if you're a believer—and I believe this is probably again, believers were different in the Old Testament because what they had to do is they had to believe. Noah believed; Abraham believed in the Lord; He counted it to him as righteousness and put it into his account because he believed in God. They were waiting for the Messiah, where we look back and embrace the Messiah and have faith in what He did. They had faith in what God was going to do. And so, although they didn't receive the Holy Spirit unless God poured His Spirit on them—did you know that? They believe in God, but they didn't necessarily have the Holy Spirit.

That's why the Bible says, "And the Holy Spirit came upon Samson." And then the Holy Spirit actually withdrew. Remember, he got up to fight the Philistines and, I love the King James, "he wist not." He knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. And the Spirit came upon such and such and withdrew. And the Spirit came upon—it was just a time. But for believers, you have the Holy Spirit until the day you die. And how that works when we're spiritual beings, I don't really know. The Bible is not real clear, but don't worry about it because it's a good thing.

But even with the Holy Spirit, certain things can quench and grieve. And when you're grieving the Holy Spirit, you yourself are not happy. Have you ever noticed that? So not only is the Holy Spirit grieving and you're having fun—it doesn't work that way. As a believer, when He's grieving, you're grieving because you know that there's something not right. And when you're quenching the Spirit, quenching the fire, your fire is quenched. It affects all of your being. And so when he says—my point is, it took me five minutes—"Your wrath lies heavy upon me," it could be he's experiencing the consequences of sin.

We don't know. But a lot of—how many of you know sin can have consequences? And I don't know if you've ever been deep down some sinful rabbit trails, but the deeper you go, the more pain there is. Or he could have experienced sickness and he feels—sometimes if you talk to people who are very sick, and I have in the hospital, we have to be careful sometimes because they actually believe it's God's judgment. "Why is God doing this to me? I feel His wrath." Or, "I feel He's not happy with my decision, not happy with my life." And they feel this wrath of God upon them. And as a believer, I don't believe you'll feel God's wrath; you'll feel conviction.

The more you run from that conviction, the harder it gets. It's like you're doing pretty good and you're carrying a backpack with ten pounds, and the more you run from it, the backpack becomes 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds. And the more that sin will weigh down on you, the more you run from it and don't confess it. It begins to harden you. "And You have afflicted me with all Your waves." In other words, this sense of coming over the person. "You have put away my acquaintances far from me." Have you ever been there where not even your friends are around?

And that's hard because we were designed for fellowship. Even those of us who are more introvert, we still want fellowship from time to time. Usually it's on our terms, right? We want to run back to the man cave sometimes, want to have a place to go where it's quiet. That's why it's so funny in my house. They don't really understand that. It's hard to have that quiet time with five kids and my wife, and social butterflies, and people stopping by and coming over. It's a different type of life where we're at right now. But it's good; I love to hear the kids running through the house, and many of you remember those sounds.

But so there's something profoundly meaningful that happens in our heart when the friendships and the fellowships have even gone. "You have made me an abomination to them." So something happened to where this person, like in Job's case, these friends, they didn't want to be around this person. And it's sad, but in the church we've seen this a lot. Do you know when somebody falls into sin, that's the time you should actually encourage them and embrace them? It's not the time to put up your nose and say, "I told you so."

Now, there are times when somebody is in unrepentant sin. You've talked to them, we've talked to them, others—it's like, man, you're not wanting to change. You're happy in your sin, you're happy in this lifestyle, and you're kind of mocking God because of that. Matthew 18: I've got to treat you as if you're not a friend and I can't have fellowship with you right now. But the goal is restoration. The goal is not to point my finger at them and make them feel less than and I'm arrogant towards them. It's like, because of this lifestyle, because of your unrepentant sin as a believer, I can't have fellowship with you.

Because what happens then is you act like nothing's wrong, correct? "All right, let's go to dinner. Let's go to the movie." Or, "Let's hang out." And they don't feel the weight, the gravity of what they have done or are doing. But he feels this way in verse eight: "You've put away my friends and You've made me an abomination to them, and I am shut up and I cannot get out. My eyes wasted away because of affliction." So that could be the meaning, again, these Hebrew words are very interesting. "My eyes wasted away." It could be like tears; it could be just the pain and the anguish through that.

And so he says again, "Lord, I have called daily upon You. Lord, I have called daily upon You. I have stretched out my hands to You." So you have this image here of him calling on the Lord. "Lord, help me." Anybody else been there? "I'm stretching out my hands to You. Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?" In other words, he's saying, "Lord, if You want me to praise You, I need to live. I can't praise You if I'm destroyed, if my body is gone. Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?" "No, I need to see the light. I need to have that energy, Lord, so I can glorify You and Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness."

Verse 13: "But." How many times have I told you at some point you've got to get yourself a "but"? No matter what's going on, "but I will praise the Lord." No matter what's going on, "but I will strengthen myself." "But," no matter what, "to You I have cried out, O Lord." Even though I'm going through this, I found my strength, I found my encouragement. "But to You, Lord, I've cried out." Life doesn't make sense. Life is confusing. Have you ever been in those spots where, "What is going on? Lord, this is not supposed to happen to me or you."

Why these trials, why these situations, why these financial situations? Have you ever been there? And you have to remember God's not concerned about money; He's concerned with your heart. So many times when we go through things, we look at the wrong thing. We should be saying, "Okay, Lord, what are You doing? What are You doing in my life?" "But Lord, I have cried out to You, and in the morning my prayer comes before You. In the morning my prayer comes before You." That might be a good reminder for us to start our mornings with prayer. Put prayer back on the calendar.

And even through that prayer, he fought through it. He said, "Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me? I've been afflicted and ready to die from my youth. I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off. They came around me all day like water; they engulfed me all together." It's like he was in water and the water represented the terror and the things he was going through. This is a difficult psalm, isn't it? Pretty powerful. And then verse 18, the final verse: "Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness."

My goodness, what are we supposed to do with this one? Well, let's break down a few things. Internal struggles are common as we fight back feelings and hurt and expectations and plans and deal with our own health issues. As anyone as you get older, get used to it; the body doesn't operate like it used to. Family struggles—even though, have you ever done everything you know to be right and still things come out wrong? So we learn here the internal struggles even for the writers of the Bible.

They wrote the Bible. God said, "I want the Psalms in there." This psalm, Lord? This one? Why didn't You kick this one out? Give me the happy ones. But see, that's also not realistic. Because if all you have is the fluff, you're never prepared for the fight. So like when Paul said, "Preach the word in and out seasons, exhort, rebuke, long suffering," in other words, preach the difficulties, preach the easy stuff, preach the hard truths. It prepares a believer for all facets of life. So as you go through the difficult times, these help to build the foundation.

And again, this may indicate the consequences of sinful actions. Verses six and seven: he might be experiencing results of his sin. But what's interesting, though, we don't see him repenting. So it could be an affliction. I mean, I looked at different Barnes' Commentary, Pulpit Commentary, Matthew Henry, and they're kind of all over the place. Because when it's vague, we just don't know. But if somebody is going through this as the result of sin, the best way to get out of this is repentance that I talked about Sunday.

Is it not? You acknowledge, "Lord, this is wrong. I was wrong. I repent, and I want those tears of joy to come back. I want those feelings of expressing my love to You to come back, Lord." And like David, where I read, "That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me." And he goes, "And I will lead transgressors to You. Return the joy of salvation." David was in a really low spot. And many Christians, let me tell you, when I used to do men's conferences all over, and the main thing was men were living—Christian men were living in depression and guilt and shame, and they stayed there.

They needed to break out via repentance and say, "Lord, I want the joy of my salvation, that joy I used to have, that joy when I used to open the Bible and it came alive, and the joy of wanting to pray." And when you're caught in sin, you don't want to do any of that; you want to run from that. You don't want to get into the Word; you want to get out of the Word. You don't want to go to church; you want to avoid church. And the key is, if this applies to you, simply repent. Say, "God, I'm sorry. The prodigal son's ready to come home."

And then we also learn it's okay to question God as long as it leads you to a place of trust. He was questioning God, wasn't he? And I have before, but the key is that questioning doesn't lead you to a dark, bitter place of discouragement. Because that's not good. The questioning—that's why I said you become better, not bitter. The questioning, though, when I'm questioning, my hope is even though I don't get the answers, I draw closer to God. And because of that, "You know what, Lord, I don't know the answers, but I know the One who created me." And those questions, you kind of have to struggle through questions and ask God for more direction from time to time.

But ultimately, I have found He doesn't always answer. Anybody else find that out? Anybody else realize that I don't always get an answer to my prayers? Sometimes they're difficult and they're challenging. "Why is this happening?" But then we also find his attitude—he didn't leave here in a very good spot—but his attitude determines altitude. You've heard that before; business models use it and leadership training. Our attitude determines our altitude. That's why I love Psalm 116: "I will offer to the Lord the sacrifice of thanksgiving."

And most believe that that offer of thanksgiving is in spite of how they feel. It's actually not hard to give an offering—remember, an offering has to cost you something—it's not hard to give an offering if it feels good. It's not called an offering then. The point is I'm going to give You this offering of thanksgiving even when I don't feel like it. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," right? Sacrifice hurts. "So I will offer to You, Lord, the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the Lord."

That's the key, folks. And then the final thing we learn here: resistance. He faced a great deal of resistance. Resistance must motivate persistence. In other words, the more resistance that comes against the Christian, you persevere even more. The enemy wants to bring resistance to knock you back, to knock you down, to knock you out of the game. So that resistance, when you feel as a believer, that's my signal, your signal, your motivation to push against that, to resist against that, and to keep persisting in your walk. And like I said before, though David walked through the valley of the shadow of death, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me."

Let me tell you, this is one of the most challenging psalms to teach, but it's wonderful to preach. You want to know why? Because the Psalms did not have chapters and verses. They actually had books. And actually, if you go back to the Dead Sea Scrolls is where they kind of discovered this. So there's Book One, Book Two, Book Three, Book Four, Book Five, I believe. So it really didn't end here. The verses were added about 500 years ago. So 88, you have Psalm 88, but really there wasn't 88. You following here?

The book is still going, but in our Bible, it says Psalm 89. So let's put the last verse up there, and I came up with a little thing to help you remember: everything will be fine, just look at 89. Okay? So you get through chapter 88 and you're like, "My goodness, this is depressing." No, no, no, no, no. It's wonderful to preach this verse. Everything will be fine, just look at chapter 89. "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, 'Mercy shall be built forever. Your faithfulness shall establish My heavens, the very heavens.'"

So he went from the lowest pits of hell to now he's saying, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. I will make known Your faithfulness." Some of you need to—you need to get a little "I will" inside of you. You need to get motivated, get some "I will" inside of you. I will set my face like a flint. I will trust in Him though He slay me. I will praise Him in the storm. I will follow Him no matter where He takes me. I will worship Him even when the circumstances scream defeat.

And while you're getting "I wills," why don't you get some "I will nots"? I will not bow down to the false idols of today. I will not defile my sanctuary, my temple. I will not follow false idols and false voices. And that's why you can say, "I hear the chains falling. I hear the chains falling in my life because I'm going to hold on to God." And even Job, he said even a tree has hope. Did you know that? A tree that's been cut down, even a stump has hope if it can just smell the scent of water. Even a tree has hope, how much more a believer looking to God and God alone?

And I love that verse, "O come, let us worship, let us bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." We need to get our hearts right before God. And if you're bound in any type of sin or demonic strongholds—you know addictions can take over—and you've got to say, "Lord, I don't feel it, but I can hear the chains falling. I can hear the perseverance that I need to begin embracing, and I can feel, Lord, that I need to just keep moving forward. I can see it. Although I can't feel it, although I still feel bound and I still have these lusts or temptations or addictions or these issues in my life, I have faith in You. I can hear those chains falling. It all begins with thanksgiving, setting your face like a flint, trusting Him though He slay you, praise Him in the storm, follow Him no matter where He takes you, and worship Him while you wait."

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.