Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: It's already difficult as it is, but that keeps you tender and pliable and teachable. It doesn't mean you're weak. Was Jesus weak? What's the word they use for Jesus? Opposite of weak. It rhymes with weak. One person has it so far: meek. It means you have strength, but it's under control. You have strength, but it's under control. You control that strength. Meek. They could lash out, they could yell and get angry, but they're meek. They choose to keep it in control.

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 illuminating Father's Day message titled "The Prodigal and the Promise."

Puritan John Wesley once quoted, "The creation encourages us to imitate Him whose mercy is over all His works. It may enlarge our hearts toward these poor creatures, men and women alike, to reflect that not one of them is forgotten in the sight of our heavenly Father."

Do you feel distant from God? Do you yearn to have a deeper life with Jesus? Dive deep into the Father's love in this powerful uplift by Pastor Shane to look to the work paid on Calvary's cross. The Father is calling the prodigals home right now, anticipating to say, "Welcome home." 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 Prodigal and the Promise," probably one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Many of you can probably agree with that on the prodigal son and how many of you can relate to that? Very powerful story. It's a fact, I believe. Jesus would give parables, but then this He gave a very important message.

I won't have time to get to the second half about the eldest son and things like that, but it is important to look at this. Luke 15, beginning actually in verse 11. Jesus is talking, and anytime Jesus is talking, we need to listen. A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood.

Which is interesting because normally the inheritance comes later, but this son pretty much demanded it. The father could have said no, but he gave him his portion. It looks like he divided it with the other brother as well.

But stopping here for a minute, it reminds us that pride and entitlement always demand, don't they? "Give me. Give me. Give me. I deserve this." And that's one big concern I have for America is this sense of entitlement. My goodness, it is never—it's like the free-handout nation. Entitled? No, we're not entitled.

And pride and entitlement always go together. So women, you can listen too—Father's Day—but men, we've got to watch these areas in our own lives. The opposite of that is humble and teachable and appreciative. Those will fix a lot of problems. Pride and entitlement: "I demand this. I'm the man of this house." If you've ever said that, I will pray for you. Because actually you don't need to say that. When you say that, it actually weakens the role.

And a message to the youth while we're here: be careful. You don't know what you don't know. He's asking for something that will ultimately destroy him. And the father knew what was best. Wait until the right time. That's with God; right time is important. The timing, instead of demanding and wanting things and pushing ahead of God.

Also, a good reminder: who are you trusting in? "Give me the portions of good that falls on me. I'm trusting in this. This is what I'm going to do." And we have to be very careful who we're trusting in. Isn't it interesting how we're fearful of God and we question, but we'll trust airplanes?

I'm going to read this story to you. When I first saw it, I thought for sure it's AI, but it got picked up everywhere on June 13th, not too long ago. A 21-year-old tragically died after falling approximately 130 feet during a bungee jump rope swing event in Brazil. They forgot to attach the bungee cord. And they're holding her up like this and they throw her off. Be careful who you trust.

That's immediate what I thought: who are these guys? Number one, I'm not doing that. But number two, if you decide to do something, trust. Who are you trusting in? There's so many men trusting in the wrong things, and women too, of course. Trusting in the economy. Trusting if this takes off. So many people are biting their nails on cryptocurrency. When the Equality Act passes or whatever, "This is going to be my..." How do you know?

Trusting my job will be here in 20 years. Trusting. It's okay to hope for and to pray about, but we ultimately have to trust in God and rest in His sovereignty. Because as you're trusting in these things, you often pursue them in an unhealthy way, too much. What does it profit you to gain the whole world, yet lose your soul?

And we see it in every area. People are pursuing, they're trusting in these things. "If this'll make me happy." Instagram. Social media. Women wanting to be this way and men wanting to be this way and trusting in certain things that really, they do not pay you well spiritually speaking; they drain you.

And so once he was given his portion of the inheritance, he had some Las Vegas money and that's where he headed. Not many days after, the younger son gathered everything and journeyed to a far country. Isn't that interesting? Wants to get away. Get away from his parents. The farther you go, the deeper sin goes and the more you can hide. We want to get away from people that can convict us.

And there he wasted his possessions with prodigal living. Different versions have different words. Remember what the King James was, but one is riotous living. Prodigal, riotous, debauchery, lasciviousness—all these words that mean sin has a price. It feels good for a season, but it will rob you of everything that you think you're going to gain.

And that's why I put up here: sin loves to disconnect. Watch out, men, when you start to disconnect. You're not truthful, you're not transparent; you disconnect. And I've seen it, I can't tell you how many times over the years, when eventually you don't see them anymore at church, Wednesday studies, or the men's events, or the men's breakfast. "Oh, I've just been busy, man."

And they disconnect. They don't want you to follow up either. They're disconnecting. What are they disconnecting from? Conviction. "I know what I need to be doing, but I'm disconnected." And that's usually where it starts. You don't see people as much, they're too busy, and they start to fall away. Maybe it's not happening because people do get busy, but even at home. You start to get too busy for God. Sleeping in. "I'll get to the Bible later. I don't have time right now." And you begin to disconnect.

And it's a slow drift. That's how he gets you. The devil doesn't show you where these choices are going to end up in a year from now. He didn't show the prodigal, "Hey, this is what it's going to cost you." He probably would have run home. And so be careful when you want to disconnect from accountability.

And I can even usually tell when I talk to people. Let's say they don't know I know something, and I'll ask about how's your marriage, why are you guys separated, why... and he'll kind of blame-shift and won't be upfront about things. You know there's no transparency there. There's not a teachable spirit. He's trying to hide and disconnect from the sin.

And it's very good news is all you have to do is own it this morning. See, there's good news to every point. Repentance: jump out of the gray—come on, you guys know, we just sang it. I can't do it well, but the Maranatha! Singers—remember them?—they used to jump up and down and turn around.

By the way, it's okay to get excited during worship. The Bible talks about joy, "Make a joyful sound unto the Lord." Not being fake, but you can be expressive. I'm not that expressive usually. I'm more of a just on the ground face, but there's nothing wrong with being excited about worshipping the Lord. That's just a rabbit trail, but it's okay.

And by the way, you are prone to wander. So much so that they decided to write a song about it many years ago too, isn't it? "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." But here's the solution: "Here's my heart, take and seal it, seal it in thy courts above." Repentance back to the Savior. That fixes most problems. Realignment back.

And that's the promise. You have the prodigal, but you also have the promise. The promise is return to Me and I will return to you. We also see the power of influence: his surroundings, his atmosphere, and engagement. Who did he engage? Who was influencing him? What were his surroundings?

And I put in there Lot and Abraham just to remind myself. Abraham did not go toward Sodom. Lot did. And he was actually supposed to go to the plains outside of Sodom, but eventually he ended up inside there. And so this prodigal went and was influenced in the wrong areas. He surrounded himself, the atmosphere, who he was engaging with. It does affect you. Atmosphere affects you.

Guys, come on, you know. You're the doctor. How does that feel compared to a worship service? Atmosphere matters. Go drive down to North Hollywood and take a walk down the street, minister to the homeless people. Atmosphere matters. What about what we have on in our homes? Doesn't that matter?

How do you feel with your spirit if you have on "Breaking Bad" versus worship? Oh, you guys don't want me to go there, do you? Yellowstone? Or Pure Flix? Oh, I can keep going. I don't watch those, I just had to go, what are the most popular?

But it affects our attitude and who are we hanging around with? Who are we associating with, men? And they do affect you because you don't want to play church on Monday. You look like the world because you're worried about their opinion. They affect us, they influence us. It's got to be a very strong person grounded in the word, a worshipper, filled with the Spirit of God to really make a difference in the workplace. Because if not, they're the one usually that's being influenced.

Prodigal living is the opposite of God-driven living, isn't it? Prodigal living is self-focused, meeting my needs now, impulsive and lust-driven. That's what drove him. Young man working in the field, "Give me my money now. I need to go out and do what I need to do."

But God will eventually get your attention, will He not? But when he had spent all—everything is gone—there arose a severe famine in the land and he began to be in want. That word "want" is a powerful Greek word. It means to be destitute, to lack or to suffer in need. And of course, we think of the opposite: the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Hebrew word for that is very similar.

And so with God, we won't be destitute. We won't lack what we need. We may lack what we want. Did you ever lack what you want? Wanting fulfills a desire. A need is a genuine God-given desire.

And so God got him to a place of brokenness, and thank God for that. Sometimes I look at people and I wonder if God never breaks them, they're not going to repent. Because as riches increase and life—I mean look at these multi—Elon Musk and Bezos and all these guys, CEO of BlackRock and State Street. Unless—man, it's hard for a rich man to enter heaven.

And God usually—praise God for that brokenness. There's a song I used to listen to all the time many years ago, "God Bless the Broken Road." It's a country song, but it's got biblical application too, doesn't it? God bless the broken road that led me straight to you. Now they're talking about relationships, but I'm talking about the Lord. Thank God for that broken road. Because pride has to be broken out of us often.

So if God is breaking you, embrace it. Don't become bitter and fight it. Embrace that brokenness. Brokenness is a very sweet quality in a person. And you've heard me quote many times A.W. Tozer: "Before God uses a man greatly, He often hurts him deeply." Because what brokenness will do, it'll give you a compassion for others. It will soften your words. It will make you a better father or leader.

It's already difficult as it is, but that keeps you tender and pliable and teachable. It doesn't mean you're weak. Was Jesus weak? What's the word they use for Jesus? Opposite of weak. It rhymes with weak. One person has it so far: meek. And it's actually incredible word. It means you have strength, but it's under control. You have strength, but it's under control. You control that strength. Meek. They could lash out, they could yell and get angry, but they're meek. They choose to keep it in control.

And he spent everything, and it's funny at the same time there arose a famine. So that makes life more difficult. Sometimes I've found that God will maybe use a few things to get our attention. Not just draining financially, but also now there's a relational challenge. Or not only financially, but now there's a health challenge. Or you get to the point of, "Lord, there's no other hope but You."

And God uses that to wake us up. Thank God for that. And if you're here this morning and haven't been broken by God, first praise Him, thank Him, but say, "I need to be broken in a good way. I need to be humbled." Because hard is the way of the transgressor.

What that actually means in Proverbs 13 is the way of a person who chooses sin is hard. Now it feels good, that's why they do it. And you guys see prodigals right now, you know prodigals. It's like, what is it going to take? You see the devastation that this lifestyle—why do people return to the very thing that's destroying them?

Often the devil will plant those thoughts: just one more time. This time will be different. "I know I'm an addict, but this time I'll be able to handle it." Hey, if you've never been able to handle it, you're not going to handle it now. You're going to actually open up a deeper stronghold in your life.

It's hard. It's a hard life and we fight it. Why? Pride. That way, the way of the transgressor is hard. I look back over my 20s, I don't know how in the world—wow, that was hard.

Now don't mistake: life is hard now too, right? But now you know the Shepherd. When the prodigal comes, you know the Shepherd. So it's not hard in the same way. It's hard because of sin and folly and God's not on your side and things are challenging. But when it's hard now, you rest in His sovereignty. It's a different type of difficulty. One is hardness as a result of sin; the other is just life being difficult because it's challenging and we need the Lord. Again, when the Lord is your shepherd, you shall not be in want.

And one thing—I don't know, I've done it quite a bit at funerals though, when I read Psalm 23, it kind of shocks people. But it's actually one of the most abused scriptures I believe in all of the Bible. Because most funerals I go to, most places, they'll read it: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want and lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. My cup runneth over. He makes a table in front of my enemies."

And people are like, "Oh that's right, oh that's so good." And they're actually encouraging people who don't know the Shepherd. Because the point is to challenge them: do you truly know the Shepherd? Because if you don't, you can't say that Psalm. And I'll tell people that. I say, "But you can't say that Psalm, you can't embrace that for me if you're not saved because He's not your shepherd."

Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. Hey, I wanted to let our listeners know that due to budgeting issues, we will be removing Regaining Lost Ground from some of the radio stations that we currently air on. Therefore, to continue listening to the sermons, I want to encourage you to follow me and Westside Christian Fellowship on YouTube and Rumble today, as well as other social media platforms. Again, due to budgeting issues, we will be removing Regaining Lost Ground from some of the stations that we currently air our program on.

Therefore, to continue listening to the sermons, I want to encourage you to follow me as well as Westside Christian Fellowship on YouTube and Rumble, and also follow us on all other social media platforms as well. If you have questions, please reach out to us at westsidechristianfellowship.org. Again, that's westsidechristianfellowship.org. 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.