Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: He's calling wake up time. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this.

But the bottom line is do not follow the practices of the pagan worship. Let's look at this word, "from things polluted by idols." Polluted means something on the outside gets on the inside.

I love this quote: all the water in the world, however hard it tried, could never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside. You can add to that all the sin in the world, no matter how hard it tried, could never get in the Christian soul unless it gets inside. So we're around pollutants, aren't we?

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 chain-breaking message titled "The Subtlety of Idolatry." John Calvin once said, "The human heart is an idol factory." For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the giver himself?

Do you find yourself spending more time with things and less time with God? Do you seek holiness but don't know where to begin? Break off the chains and strongholds that have kept you from all that Jesus offers you today in this powerful sermon from Pastor Shane, loaded with truth, packed powder keg of Holy Spirit fire. Take a listen.

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: The title today is "The Subtlety of Idolatry." The subtlety of idolatry, the deception of false gods. That really stands out, doesn't it? Louise did it and he said, "I'm not sure about the hand if you want to keep it." I said, "Let's keep it. Let's keep it a little dramatic." The subtlety of idolatry, the deception of false gods.

But let me tell you upfront what idolatry is. It's anything that we put before God that grabs our affections. It drains our time, it affects our habits, and it refashions our passions. Take a picture of that. You're going to need to remember it.

One of the questions I get a lot, whether it's on social media or email or from people here, is "Shane, I do this. Is it idolatry?" I've got a friend of mine who has season tickets to the Angels or Padres, and I say that is fine. Bring your family.

But if you're putting that before church every time... now, if the World Series is on a Sunday morning and you've been going, do not feel guilt. But if it's coming before God, if that's the priority... you can fill in the blank with anything else.

If your job becomes idolatry... one of the things I saw wasn't when I was growing up, and many of you if you're older know this as well, but when I started coaching Little League many years ago. By the way, you have to have some tough skin to umpire Little League. Parents, my goodness. I did one game and I said, "No more. I'm hiring them."

But travel ball came into existence and that became the god. It really was. No more church on weekends. Our son was nine and he was a really good pitcher for All-Stars. I had a pitching mound at our house, and we had people telling us to sign him up for this travel ball team.

I said, "We have church." They said, "That's fine. We'll take him for the weekend, don't worry about it." You'll take my son for the weekend for travel ball? But that was the focus, and we would never see those families at church.

Now, I get it. You can't always have one or the other. I know it's challenging, and I think we need to do sports. I love sports; it's very healthy. But when that's your god... by the way, do you know the percentage of kids who make it to the big leagues? But did you know that every single one of them will stand before Jesus?

We get so focused on these things. You fill in the blank. Is there anything that comes before God? That is your priority. Making the money, building the career, the portfolio, the passions. It is true. I saw it a lot more growing up. Church attendance was pretty regular. Now I think it's 1.5 Sundays a month that people come on average. It's thinned down to where now it's only if it fits in the calendar.

What is taking the place of your time with the Lord and church? Of course summer comes. We've got Havasu, we've got the beach, we've got the ocean. I encourage people to take breaks. Please, take a break. Susie's on break, Maddie's on break. You have to. It's very healthy.

But if that's your passion all the time, saying, "I've got to go here and do this, and we'll get to church sometime. I'll get to God's word sometime. I'm too busy," it becomes idolatry. It's what takes the place of God. Anything can slip in there. Family can slip in there. Ever heard that term "helicopter parents"? It's always about their kids, always about the family, and they are putting that first.

Anything that grabs our affections, drains our time, affects our habits, and refashions our passions. I saw this a lot, of course, in the fitness industry. That can become very idolatrous if you're focused on the external and not the internal.

Again, all these things can be good as long as they have their proper perspective in your life. The pull of idolatry is subtle, isn't it? If you saw the end result, you wouldn't take the plunge. But it's a subtlety. What happens is less time pursuing God and more time pursuing the idol. It creeps in slowly. You think you're okay with this, or you'll miss that, or you don't have time for God's word this morning. It begins to creep in.

Before you know it, you're way far away from God. Where did the drift begin? A long time ago. It's subtle; that's how it pulls. Who is going to begin to walk away from God by choice?

We are in Acts 15 verse 6. The apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter. How many of you remember what the matter is? Hopefully some of you if you were here last Sunday. Some of the religious leaders were saying, "Okay, you believe in Jesus, but you also have to be circumcised." Basically, you have to follow the customs of Moses. "Yes, Jesus, thank you for the cross, but you also have to do this and do this and do this."

Be careful of those religions. If you dig deep enough in most religions and you research it, you will get to where it talks about how you really have to do these things. You have to do these works. That was one of the big points of the Reformation: saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Martin Luther got upset at the Book of James because it says "faith without works is dead." But the scripture in context makes perfect sense. If you don't have works, obviously you don't have genuine faith. It wasn't promoting works-based religion; it was showing the true condition of the heart.

So they said you have to also follow the law of Moses. There was a big dispute, as you can imagine. Peter rose up and he got bold. He said, "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose from among us that by the mouth of the Gentiles they should hear the word of the gospel and believe."

If we had time, we would go to the Old Testament where God said he will bring a light to the Gentiles. Peter felt his calling as well. Paul primarily went to the Gentiles. They said, "So God, who knows the heart, he acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did us."

Here is the defining mark of Christianity: as believers, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. How awesome is that? But you might say, "I sure don't feel like that." Well, that's the hard part because we can quench and grieve the Spirit. Look at those two words: quench the fire of the Spirit and grieve, which means to make sad. When you do that, you're pretty miserable in that state.

That is why he said here that God gave them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. How did the apostles know that the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit? You can't look at someone and see it. It was the outflow. They had the Holy Spirit. As we get through the book of Acts, you're going to see more of when the Holy Spirit would come upon people. It's incredible.

That's where they get that controversial term "tongues." Anybody hear that term, "speaking in tongues"? What does the church believe? Well, we believe the Bible. I love just believing the Bible. You have a much harder time saying that doesn't happen anymore than I do saying it does because I have scripture.

Paul dedicates a chapter or two to it. He actually says when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with. The perfect is Christ. We see dimly now, but then when Christ comes, we will see face to face and we won't need the gifts. Love will never fail, but prophecy will fail and tongues will cease. These things will be done away with because you don't need them anymore.

But it wasn't just tongues; that's not the only evidence. It's the overflow of the Holy Spirit. They were worshipping. They were singing the praises of God. They had been changed. They were repenting. So they saw the fruit. If there is no fruit, do you truly know the Savior? Because that really is the litmus test. There is fruit.

Now, it could be one little apple on an apple tree and somebody else has lots of apples, but there is some fruit there. One fruit is the conviction that you're not where you need to be. The prodigal son was convicted.

But they said, "We saw them experience the Holy Spirit just like God did to us." What God did to them was in the upper room. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples waiting for him. Jesus actually said, "Go and wait. I will send the promise of my Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit."

The Holy Spirit came upon them in the upper room, and then they went out and preached the gospel. Every time they preached, the Holy Spirit would come upon the believers. They call it being baptized in the Holy Spirit. We're all baptized into the body of Christ with the Holy Spirit.

As you're living out your faith, there are subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit when you get filled with the Spirit. We need that. Paul actually said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He contrasted it: do not be drunk with wine, which is debauchery—something you put in and you act a certain way—but be filled with the Spirit.

So there is a choice involved and it happens primarily as you're pursuing God, as you repent, as you get your heart right, as you fuel the fire of the Spirit versus quench it. That's how it's really evident in our lives.

God made no distinction between us and them. There was no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. I'm happy for that, aren't you? Purifying their hearts. I'm a Gentile, as Gentile as they get. I did my DNA testing on one of those places. I think it was 90% English, German, and Irish. No Jewish in me; I was thinking there would be a little bit.

Between us and them, he is purifying their hearts by faith. By the way, I think that is why there is so much hatred for the Jewish community in our nation: because there is a spiritual ramification to that. We know that Israel isn't saved. We know that the government is corrupt just like any government. We know there are many Jews who do not believe, who reject God and reject the Messiah. But God's word says a lot still about the land and about what he wants to do in the people.

My boss is a Jewish carpenter, as is yours. There is something special about that. They said, "Now therefore, why do you test God?" I almost had a whole sermon for this because did you know that God actually a few times says "test me in this"?

Wait a minute. Don't test God, but God says to test him? I remember I had a debate at the college back in 2018, and I said to put God to the test. Some people got bent out of shape and they used these kind of verses, but I said to look at these other ones.

To put God to the test the right way is when God says, "Test me in this. My word says this, and if you do this, you'll see the results. Just test me." Testing in the wrong way is doing what we know we shouldn't be doing. Don't test God. There's a big difference, isn't there?

What you're doing is putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples. Do you know what a yoke is? Ever seen the oxen? Back in the day, they would have these big yokes around their neck, like these wooden things. The yoke is long and one ox's head is in it, and so is the other ox's head in this big yoke. It keeps them straight and pulling together. He is saying, why put a yoke on them that they won't be able to carry?

On that note, that's why the Bible says do not be unequally yoked. A lot of people use that for marriage, and it's true, but actually the context applies to anything. Business. I see a lot of people really mess up their lives when they get unequally yoked with an unbeliever, even in business. Partnerships. Marriage, of course, is the big one.

He said, "Why are you putting a yoke on the disciples? We couldn't even bear it. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they were saved." Really, that's the message of the gospel: saved by grace through faith alone, through Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It really is that simple.

In verses 12 through 18, Barnabas and Paul declared how many miracles God did through them among the Gentiles. They listed the miracles and they talked about how great things were.

They said, "Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God." In other words, we decided don't add all these to-do lists. You accept Christ, but now you've got to do this and do this and do this. Be careful with kids, too. You don't want to tell them they've got to do this. You want to encourage them. This is how you build your faith. This is how you walk in the power of the Spirit. This is how you please God. This is how you live a life of repentance.

But it's not, "You have to do this, God's going to be really mad at you. You've got Jesus, but you've got to do this." You're putting a yoke on them. Who can carry that yoke, that burden, for the rest of their lives? We encourage them in the scriptures, we teach the scriptures, but ultimately they need to be led by God.

So he said, "Let's boil down to this. Write to them and tell the Gentiles to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and from things strangled and from the blood." I could have shown you the commentaries. They would get deep.

Here is what it boils down to: all of these are connected to pagan worship. I made it simple. All of these things are connected. You think, "What in the world, I'm not supposed to eat things strangled?" Practically speaking, that's a good idea because when an animal dies, all the toxins are stored and released in the way you slaughter an animal. Again, we could get into all kinds of things. The life of the flesh is in the blood.

But the bottom line is: do not follow the practices of the pagan worship because they lived among the pagan worshippers. The whole empire was surrounded by pagan worship. But let's look at this word, "from things polluted by idols." Polluted means something on the outside gets on the inside.

I love this quote: all the water in the world, however hard it tried, could never sink the smallest ship unless it gets inside. You can add to that: all the sin in the world, no matter how hard it tried, could never get in the Christian soul unless it gets inside.

We're around pollutants, aren't we? That's why it says be in the world but not of the world. When you allow those sins, those pollutants, to come in, they will derail you spiritually speaking. That's what he's talking about: avoid things polluted by idols.

What they would even do to avoid these things... they would kill this calf and they'd say, "This cow is sacrificed to Molech." "Hey, let's have a tri-tip." Their conscience should be, "No, if it's dedicated to Molech, I don't feel good about that."

What would happen is they'd say, "Okay, that's no big deal, whatever," and then they'd do that and then, "Hey, why don't you drink some of this?" or "Why don't you go into this type of party?" They would slowly, with subtlety, draw them away from God. So the apostles just said to avoid all that.

If we had time, we could go into the verse where Paul said don't worry about eating meat, and don't let somebody judge you. Basically, don't ask where the meat came from. If somebody feels compelled to eat it, that's fine. Leave them alone. Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls.

But if I knew something like, "Hey, we just sacrificed this to..." can you imagine being at a barbecue with your atheist friend and he says, "Hey, this came from a cult up north and we sacrificed this meat to Satanism"? Boy, yeah, I'm probably going to pass. Do you have any chicken? Wouldn't you? I wouldn't eat that thing.

I've never even drunk that water that is called "dead water." What's it called? Liquid Death? For someone with a marketing background, that's the worst marketing I've ever heard in my life. Yet it takes off. I see all these clips like they cast spells over it. I don't know, but why drink water that is called Liquid Death? I'm not picking up that water, I'll tell you that much. Again, don't judge me. It's my choice.

And then number two, the big one: sexual immorality. Avoid being polluted by idols, and avoid sexual immorality. Anything outside of marriage between a man and a woman, that is sexual immorality.

I shared an article on Facebook, I don't know the title now, something like "Consider this for Pride month," and it has like 1500 shares and almost 1000 comments. I haven't read one comment yet because I don't want to. What's the point? You post the truth and you leave it there. Who am I going to go and debate in their basement in Connecticut?

He's calling wake up time. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this.

Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. 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.

Guest (Male): 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.

I want you to follow me when he calls my name. He's calling wake up time. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. He's calling wake up time. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this. Such a time as this. He's calling wake up time. It's your turn to shine. You were born for such a time as this.