Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: Today, when you hear His heart, harden not your heart. By the way, it doesn't say just once in Hebrews, not just twice in Hebrews, but three times in the book of Hebrews, quoting the Psalms. When you hear His voice, harden not your heart. That tells me the time is coming, the time is limited. We're not even guaranteed tomorrow. You're worried about me, I'm worried about you.

Where is your heart at? Do you truly know God or do you only know about Him? If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.

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 soul-jarring message titled "The Final Call Before The Final Fall Part 2."

Revivalist John Wesley once said, "Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn." Do you desire a life surrendered to Jesus? Listen now to Pastor Shane as he tells us why the passionate, fully surrendered Christian life is second to none. Learn how God's Spirit may move passionately through you today 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.

Pastor Shane Idleman: He was unworthy to perform the lowest office for the Messiah. I'm not even a servant. I can't even take off His shoes. And then Paul, if he's in first gear, he's going to put it in fifth gear. He might even hit the nitrous oxide pretty soon. Did I ever tell you the story? I took off with my friend's Mustang from Schooners in the 1990s and I hit his nitrous button. 120 miles an hour down Avenue J heading towards 50th. Had I went off the road on that one, I would not be here. Thank You, Lord.

Maybe some in the prison can relate. I don't know. But here we go. It scared me. That's serious stuff. So he's going to put it in fifth gear and he says, "Men and brethren, you are the family of Abraham and those who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem as well and the rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the prophets."

You're telling the leaders and the rulers you didn't know God and you didn't listen to the voice of His prophets. Talk about controversial. Can you imagine the temperature in there? He goes, "The prophets are read every Sabbath just like we're reading them here, and they've actually fulfilled what the prophets said by condemning Jesus. The man you're rejecting is the man that scripture said would be coming, they would fulfill the scriptures."

So I'm not going to go into all the different ones, but I want to show just a few of these because Isaiah said He would be born of a virgin. Isaiah talked about that; they knew that. There's a King from Bethlehem in Micah 5:2. In Micah 5:2, they said out of Bethlehem is going to come one of my rulers. Isaiah 40, this is the voice in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Isaiah 9 said He'll be a light in Galilee. Those who walk in darkness have seen a great light. He is the light of the world.

I have to remind you on this. Do you remember months ago I did a study on the definition of light? And it's like NASA and astronomy and all these things of what light is. My head was going to explode. And then I said, "I wonder what they have to say about darkness." One sentence: "The absence of light." That's it. That's what darkness is: the absence of light.

What a great parallel. Christ in all of our hearts and our lives is the light of the world, the joy of our salvation. When you have that, there's the absence of darkness. It works both ways. And then this is a great one too. Zechariah wrote an interesting time, probably 600 years before Jesus. He said your King is going to come on a donkey. Why didn't they remember this when He came in on a donkey? It's like everywhere.

What about this one? This is incredible. Jesus is going to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. The prophets wrote about it. Think about this. This has a double whammy. So they weighed out my wages, 30 pieces of silver. 600 years before Jesus, talking about the Messiah. So they weighed out, they paid 30 pieces of silver basically to betray Me.

And then here's the kicker. "And then the Lord said, 'Throw it to the potter, this magnificent price at which they valued Me.'" Interesting. Judas Iscariot gets 30 pieces of silver. Did you know he gave it back? And they said, "We can't take this back, this is blood money, so let's buy the potter's field." Pride blinds. It's so clear. And I'm wondering if God was prompting these people, like it says in Zechariah, and they ignored that conviction. They ignored that conviction.

And then of course the crucifixion. "They divide my garments and they cast lots for my clothing." Wonder if the Pharisees are seeing what the Roman soldiers are doing to Jesus and all these things are coming up. There's many, many more prophecies. I had to take off pages of it. But for those who are really interested, you can look into it.

Acts continues. Here goes Paul. Paul's wound up, he doesn't care. Here's the key, here's why these people are so bold. They experienced God, and many people in churches have never experienced God at a very deep, heartfelt level. Paul was knocked off his horse or camel and experienced the Lord. "I'm blind, what do you want me to do, Lord?" He goes and fasts and prays for three days. He's a changed man.

What about Isaiah? "My eyes have seen the King of glory." Did Isaiah go to heaven and see God the Father? No. It talks about the presence of God. The presence of God is in his home. It was the year when King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the entire temple. And I heard the angels cried, "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Can you imagine as this place shakes with the holiness of God? Holy, Holy, Holy is our God. And the place shook and then Isaiah said, "I'm a sinner. Lord, my lips are unclean and I dwell among people that are unclean." And the angel came and they touched his lips with the coal and they said, "My eyes have seen the King of glory. My eyes have seen the King of glory."

And you go down, why did the disciples so passionately follow Jesus? Because they saw the Risen Savior. And we have no excuse because they say, "Yeah, if I saw Him like he did, then sure." Blessed are those who believe without seeing. Once you get in your prayer closet, you fast, you pray, you seek the heart of God, you begin to seek Him like never before, the more you seek Him, the more you find Him.

And then you can say that deer that panteth after that living water, I have found it. Jesus, I drink deeply of Your living water and God begins to pour into your heart. You've experienced the living God. You think you're going to be a little bit different? Do you think? Over the years I've had people tell me, "I bet witches are hexing you." I don't care.

You say, "Bring it." My light is greater than your darkness. You're deceived, you're living in darkness. The light of the world has called me to preach and I will do it until He says no. He is my strength, He is my rock, He is my shield, in Him I will trust. Church, you've got to get that boldness back, and that only comes from spending time with God. Some of you act like you're in a cemetery because you haven't met the Risen Savior. You have no passion because you're quenching and grieving the Spirit.

Why would you say that? Repent. Repent. Can we all, let's just talk about the elephant in the room. You guys ready? I know this might be hard to believe. You ready? You okay? I know what people say about me. That guy, "Oh my goodness, he's too loud, he's too in your face, he's too this." Why? Ask yourself that, why? Because I want to upset people? I want to help people.

And the only way you heal spiritual cancer is by removing it. You don't play around with it. You don't patty-cake with the devil. You don't appease sin. You don't comfort those who don't want to repent all the time; you also have to convict. The Bible is very convicting. Many of us have come to the Lord through the love of others; praise God for that. But how many of us also need a little swift kick? Wake us up to repent. It's in the Bible.

Remember God's Word. God says, "My Word is like a soft pillow from the pillow guy." You know the pillow guy on TV? "Aren't you glad My Word is like a soft, gentle breeze, a little flower?" You cannot get stronger terms in the Bible and even today. My Word is like a fire that devours. He actually, Jeremiah, I believe 23, He's coming against the false prophets who did not speak God's Word and convict the people. He said, "Jeremiah, if they had stood in My counsel and preached My Word with the fire of the Spirit, they would have turned this entire nation back to Me. Is not My Word like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Like a sword that devours and cuts?" It cuts, doesn't it cut?

We need more cutting, don't we? Iron sharpens iron. Be prepared to bleed, church. We've got to get back to that place of brokenness and humility and being touched by the Spirit of God and crying out and saying, "God, cut me, break me, refine me. I need the Spirit's fire in my heart."

So yes, for every person that complains, there's 11 others that are encouraged. You'll get the numbers when you drive home. But you can ask our office, we have to have extra office people to handle the people being radically changed across the nation because of the truth. And that's what God does. He uses the hard things.

I mean, you look at the things I respect the most about my dad or my coaches. They weren't nice. I remember my coaches at Paraclete known for baseball; I was on their baseball team. These guys, they didn't mess around. Or you get to all these famous coaches. They can be loving, some of them, but it's man, they try to pull out of you what's already inside of you.

And you have to grab their helmet sometimes. What do they always just encourage? "It's okay, you'll get them better next time." They'll grab that helmet and say, "You know better. Get back up. You take him out, don't let him take you out. You get back, fight." That's what we need sometimes.

Acts 13:28, I'm closing. You guys glad I'm closing? Okay, that's what my point was: if you're glad I'm closing, it's because you need to hear this message. Anytime you say, "Oh, I wish he would be quiet," it's because you need to hear what I'm saying. I know I go sit in the back of the row at church and I want to get the heck out of Dodge. I don't want to hear this stuff. I want to continue in my sin. I don't want to repent.

"Although they found no cause for death in Him," Paul said, "they asked Pilate that He should be put to death." Wait a minute. They found no cause for death in Jesus and then when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, all the scriptures are fulfilled, they took Him down from the tree and they laid Him in a tomb, but God raised Him from the dead. And I want to keep going, but that's for next Sunday. You'll want to be here for next Sunday.

But I have to talk about this and then I'll close: "No cause for death." Why did He die if there's no cause for death? Well, let's put up the other prophecy by Isaiah that apparently these guys did not read. "But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities." He was pierced and crushed for us. Here's the thing: there was no cause for death in Him. His death was because of us.

That's Christianity encapsulated. If you want to ever answer why Jesus had to die, because of you and because of me. There's no other price. Who's going to pay that price? Who's going to absorb the wrath of God? It was a perfect sacrifice. Perfect sacrifice absorbed the wrath of God.

And I just want to do God's Word some honor this morning real quick. I want to read more of Isaiah 53. Let this just sink in. "Who believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant," they're talking about Jesus by the way, "and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." He looked like an average guy.

"He is despised and he is rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from Him, and we despised Him. Surely He has borne our griefs, He has carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him, esteemed Him and stricken, smitten by God and afflicted." In other words, we were thinking why is God punishing Him? "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all."

And if you ever get this, "I don't understand why God would kill Jesus." You know what? I don't know exactly other than what scripture says. I'm not worried about what I don't know; I'm worried about what I do know. And without Him you're lost. That's what I do know. Without repentance, you are on what they call a highway to hell, the broad road of destruction. That's not me, that's Bible.

Listen, the more time I spend with God, the bolder I become. You think I'm going to step off the gas? This is serious times we're living in. We've got to get our hearts straight. You think as things are going, you think Islam's going to live comfortably with us? Hello. You've got to be prepared, not physically, spiritually. Be prepared spiritually. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity.

So I'll leave you with this thought: "The Final Call Before The Final Fall." Maybe it's nobody here. I don't know. Maybe it's people listening later. And I realize this could be the final call that some people will ever hear. If you think about it, everybody listening on radio, in different, we don't know across, this could be the final call for them that God is drawing them. Why wait? Here's a test, your homework: go find a Bible verse that encourages procrastination.

Today, today, today when you hear His heart, harden not your heart. By the way, it doesn't say just once in Hebrews, not just twice in Hebrews, but three times in the book of Hebrews, quoting the Psalms. When you hear His voice, harden not your heart. That tells me the time is coming, the time is limited. We're not even guaranteed tomorrow. You're worried about me, I'm worried about you.

Where is your heart at? Do you truly know God or do you only know about Him? If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead. We're going to read next Sunday, here's an interesting thing: some believed what Paul said, but guess what else? Some mocked. That word mocking is interesting. If you, Acts is written in Greek, the Hebrew word will be different. The Greek word, it's a court jesting, you know what that is from the old, it's like a poking fun at.

"How could you believe that? You God people, how can you believe that? You are just silly, you need religion, it's your crutch." You know what I say to that? Come on. You missed it. It's not the crutch, it's the whole hospital, the intensive care unit, the critical care unit, oncology unit, it's everything. That's what it is.

So you believe that a little tiny single cell just evolved and then a little heart and a little kidney and then evolution? And just this little tiny person hides in the dirt and then just evolved and now into a man? Okay, it evolved into a woman, and then how did it know to evolve into a man? Give me a break. If you reject God, you mock God, you lack the knowledge. You are suppressing the truth. And the Bible says if you suppress the truth, God will give you over to wickedness. Repent and turn to Him today.

The same sun that melts the wax will harden the clay. So the same word I preach, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in all of my life, I didn't see it until I started preaching. I say the exact same thing, obviously you're all here. Some are so receptive, they melt like wax, their marriage is restored, they see God like never before, they're on fire for God. Or others become hard and bitter and critical. What happened? The heart. Pride versus humility, hardness versus repentance. That really is the key.

So if you need to make that decision this morning, do it. Maybe some of you have been playing church. You've been coming to church a long time but do you truly know Him or do you know about 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.