Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: The principle behind salvation, maybe a few of you need to hear that this morning or watching online, there is a conditional call on salvation. God says if you do this, if you repent, if you believe, if you confess that Christ is Lord and savior. God's not going to lift you up, drag you to the altar, make you. He says, "If, if, if, if, call out to me," and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and God will fill your heart with his Spirit, mightily fill you with the Spirit, and love and peace and joy will flow out.

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 final part of the message titled, "We Plan But God Directs." The best direction we can find in our life is through God's living word, and one of the best verses that demonstrates this can be found in Proverbs 3:5-6, which tells us: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths."

Please join us today for this illuminating message from Pastor Shane as he sheds light on the confusion that can come through the trials and storms of life, encouraging us to fully trust God as he continues to direct your steps in his sovereign plan. 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: And there are such-and-such who hate when I get political. But is that not what this is? He says, "Jeremiah, you better not. I double-dog-dare you. Do not diminish one word." You tell the people they are backslidden. You tell the people they are sinners. You tell the people they are spiritual adulterers, and they have embraced idolatry and harlotry. Jeremiah, you call them to repentance. I don't care what they say. I don't care if they want to kill you, but my word is in you like a burning fire, and you let it out and you let it fall where it may. I have to rely on that every single week. Do not diminish a word.

And you think I'm joking, but I'm not. I do that. "Oh, they're not going to like this part." I just had a conversation with somebody who left because I am too political. I don't know what to tell you. Do not diminish a word. It's what God puts on my heart. You're not going to find the perfect church. And I do it. "Oh, there's the big givers. Oh my gosh." Now we don't know that because I don't see offering records at all. But sometimes people will say, "Here's a $10,000 check. Here's a $20,000 check. Put it toward children's ministry, whatever you guys want." And then I wonder if this is going to offend or upset them.

And then they don't want me to talk about certain things. And if there are new people... we love all ethnicities. But I have to be careful with what I say. People get the Hispanic community upset at the immigration issue when we're saying the same thing: we love all groups, how can we help do it the right way? And back when I used to just mention five letters, I've had some African-Americans leave the church because I mentioned Trump too much. I understand what they're feeling. I understand it once I talk to them. So I'm just trying to tell you, I understand.

And I ask, "Am I talking about this too much? Am I upsetting people?" Ask him. Ask him. Every other week or so, I'll ask people. I'm open for feedback, but it has to come from the right heart. I don't want to hear from Negative Nelly or Judgmental Jerry. I want to hear from people who love the church and will speak the truth in love. And I go to dozens of core team members. And when they all say, "No, we need to hear this," then I'm just going to set my course and let the chips fall where they may.

So that's what he's saying here. That's why I did like COVID. I just had a camera. Here's what I've got to say. I can't see anybody. I'm just going to preach and I'll see you next week. But he's saying, "Do not diminish a word," which tells me he might want to diminish a word because there's cowardliness and weakness coming in. When the flesh comes up, the Holy Spirit may be quenched. He's saying, "Jeremiah, do not diminish a word." Why? This is amazing. God said it, not me. "Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way."

So that's why I still have hope for America. They might not listen, but the hope is there that we call them to repentance. Oh, wayward nation, would you come back to God again and drink deeply of the fountain of living water? Would you repent of your sin and embrace the one true and living God? They might not listen. Hollywood might want to strip me of my license even though I don't have one. They might want to kill me. But God says they might listen.

So again, I love my Calvinist brothers, but this brings that doctrine into question. They might listen and repent. The Bible often says, "You were not willing. You did not repent." It never says you could not repent. It never says you could not. It always says you would not. The choice goes back on them. I just upset a lot of people today. Funny for you guys, not for me. My poor wife, we have conversations, and she says, "I don't know that many people don't get upset." I say, "I just don't share it with you. I need to guard you."

Amend your ways. This is God. Amend your ways, change your ways, repent and obey the voice of the Lord. Then the Lord will relent concerning the doom he has pronounced against you. So if you read scripture, if you believe scripture, do you believe that? Because that tells me, inside God's permissive will, his conditional will, that God can change his plans within his permissive and conditional will. I don't know what else to do with that. Jonah, in 40 days I'm going to destroy Nineveh. Well, what happened? They repented. Revival. And it was 150 years later that Nahum came and pronounced judgment. It bought them 150 years.

There's another verse. I see it somewhere every time I come to church. "If my people will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will heal their land." So there are a lot of things within the conditional will of God. If that nation against whom I spoke turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. Change of plans. "And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart." Could it be that some of you are distant from God and not finding God because you're not searching for him with all of your heart? You say, "Lord, why aren't you doing this?" Well, this is conditional.

When you search for me with all of your heart. This might change the way some of you live because how we live is how this scripture is lived out. Searching for God, fasting, praying, 6:00 AM morning worship on Sundays, Wednesday nights, worship nights, Rend the Heavens, devotional time in your own home, worship in your own home, getting rid of the junk that pulls you down and getting excited about God. Men especially, do you know it's okay to get excited about God? You guys get all excited when your favorite fighter won last night. UFC guys, remember? Nate Diaz wins again, his final contract with the UFC. "Oh my God, I can't believe it!" You're jumping up and down.

But when you come into the house of the living God and shout for LeBron James and have that 24-ounce in your hand and get all excited... the problem is the devil has got you bound for your excitement and your joy of the Lord. You love the things of the world but hate the things of God. You need a spiritual rebirth or a mighty baptism of God's Spirit in your heart and in your life. But see, that's the conditional will of God. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. And could it be that as we seek the heart of God during Rend the Heavens... Oh, God, rend the heavens and come down and visit your people.

God says, "If you do this, if you cry out to me, if you meet together, if you make me your all-consuming passion and I become your priority, that is a deal I cannot break because my permissive will says if you do these things, I will do this." God's bound by his word. He is bound by his word to honor the actions of his people. And then finally, the will of God that's based on principles. When you get an idea, don't immediately assume that it's from God. If you are ignorant of God's word, you will always be ignorant of God's will. Billy Graham. So the whole point of God's will is based on principles.

Do you know the Bible has principles? Do you know you don't know the person's name you need to marry, but you do have principles you should look for? People are so confused. I don't know who to marry. Well, look at the principles. The Bible says God's will is for you to be saved. See, that's his will. His will is for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. His will is for you to make disciples, to live holy and blameless before him. His principles are outlined there. So instead of "I don't know what God's will is," are you in his word? Because the older I get, the more I realize God's will is not as hard as I used to make it. It's not some great mystery, like you're putting together those thousand-piece puzzles.

It's basically: live your life based on God's word. You're not going to be perfect, but you get back on track. You stay repentant, you stay broken, you stay humble, you stay prayed up, you stay in obedience to his word, and you just say, "Lord, I trust you, I trust your sovereignty," and you allow God to open doors, close doors, and then you make decisions based on his word. There's a lot of trust in that sovereignty. The reason we're so worried about getting outside of his will is because we're often not living in his word. Our decisions are not that smart, and we're worried about that. We know why we're in this pickle because God's word has to be the standard.

And that's why churches get into trouble, especially churches that they call emotionalism, touchy-feely, hyper-charismatic. It's just about loud weirdness going on, and they don't have any grounding in the word of God. That's where your grounding is. Theology doesn't say if it's odd, it's God. Actually, quite the contrary. It needs to make sense according to God's word. Now, things will happen that you might not agree with, but it's in God's word. For example, I've thrown this out there many times over the 12 years. I have a feeling not everyone would be sticking around if what happened in the Bible after waiting in an upper room happened in this place.

Many of you would be out of here. But it's in the Bible, though. Correct? Tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit baptizes 120 believers, and they are on fire for God. That's too much heat for a lot of Christians. Am I not just being honest and real? I'm telling you. It's in the Bible. So things might happen that you might not be comfortable with, but it's thoroughly biblical. Because I've noticed when God moves, really moves, and you're on fire for him, it's not comfortable. The proud and arrogant and judgmental, they will judge you. The carnal Christians will say, "I'm never coming back to that church. I'm too convicted." And it's really just the word of God coming alive.

Think about that. Could you handle that many people speaking in tongues? Now Paul then gives us edification and encouragement in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. If you come together, don't speak in tongues. An uninformed person's going to think you're out of your mind. I'd rather speak five words in a known tongue than 10,000 words because prophecy edifies and all things should be done decently and in order. Things must have got a little chaotic. So that doesn't tell you the church is wrong; it tells you the church needs some rules. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, "Living children need rules, dead children don't." So if you're a church where nothing in 1 Corinthians applies, you could be dead spiritually. Absolutely true. You need no rules because you're spiritually dead.

You cut 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 out of your Bible as if that doesn't happen anymore. I can't do that because I've experienced all of that in profound and powerful ways. I'm very conservative. Sometimes maybe I lean towards that too much. Finding that balance is hard, right? We don't want to be like the weird stuff you see on TV, but I want more of God. Anytime you try to put controls around God, it's not fun. He'll just bust you or bust open. But then inside of that atmosphere, the only reason I'm telling you this is I feel big things for this church with Rend the Heavens and God moving.

How do you steward that environment? How do you steward the environment where God is moving but so is the enemy? Welcome to our world. It's challenging. But again, if we look to God's word, what does the word say? Can people get healed? Why isn't it happening? Does God still give words of wisdom, words of knowledge? Where are they? Now granted, that's what our prayer room is for. We see a lot of spiritual fruit there. I would encourage you to go there for prayer sometime and just be open to what God wants to do in your heart and in your life. But the danger of the inner light without the outer light is not good. The outer light of the word of God.

The danger of the leading of the Spirit without the leading of the word. The danger of listening to voices instead of the voice of the one who already spoke. Be careful, those who call yourself charismatic. Don't be on "God told me, God told me." What's the Bible say first and foremost? Because my inner voices need an anchor. Yours do, too. Don't act all spiritual. Over the years, I have spiritually mature people I have looked up to. I would say they are up there just so on fire for God, gifts of the Holy Spirit... there are times they miss it. They're not always walking on clouds and everything they say is perfect.

That's why you can't be led astray by every wind of doctrine, every prophetic word, what the prophets are saying, what this ministry is doing. We're led astray instead of grounded in God's word. It's so important. But then on the flip side, if all you've got is the word and you're legalistic, hard, overbearing, controlling, and filled with anger and frustration, that word is lifeless. The letter kills. It's the Spirit that gives life. We are not a perfect church. We make mistakes. I own it. I'm open for constructive criticism. But I tell you we are a church committed to the truth of God's word and the power of the Spirit. That's our commitment.

And the irony is that's where most of the disputes are at. You either have this group that beats me up with the truth, which stinks, or the Holy Spirit side where we don't care, Lord, just do whatever you want right now. Just do cartwheels. "Can't you see that's like an angel up there in the corner?" No, it's the light's reflection off the thing. I'm not poking fun to poke fun; I'm telling you that's the truth. You've got to find the middle. That's just not healthy. 20 years of ministry, I know people that are like this and they are not grounded in scripture. They are very unhealthy and very unstable.

And I know arrogant Pharisees who are demeaning, and their kids can't wait to get out of the house. They are mean-spirited, and it hurts. We just need the power of the Spirit and the truth of God's word. We have to have both. I don't want to pastor a church that doesn't have both because there's a lot of stiff-neck stuffiness on this side. "What Bible translation do you use? Where did you go to seminary? Your theological persuasion on pneumatology doesn't line up with my eschatological view." Don't get happy, weird side. You know you guys. You're talking to someone and you say, "Shh, God is downloading. Hold on, God is downloading. I'm going to tell you just a minute what he said."

When you say that, I'm going to say, when was the last time you spent a lot of time in God's word? "Brother, I did when I was a child, but now I've got..." No, that's not healthy. Boy, this is an interesting message because it's all helpful and needed because you need to know what the church is about. And then finally, the principle behind salvation. I'm going to talk about this and I'll close out. 2 Peter: the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. In other words, the Lord is not lazy. He is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance.

1 John: if we confess... Acts: if we repent. See, there's the principle behind salvation. Maybe some of you need to hear that this morning or watching online. There is a conditional call on salvation. God says if you do this, if you repent, if you believe, if you confess that Christ is Lord and savior. God's not going to lift you up, drag you to the altar, and make you. He says, "If, if, if, if, call out to me," and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and God will fill your heart with his Spirit, mightily fill you with the Spirit, and love and peace and joy will flow out.

God's not slack. He's waiting on people. He's waiting on people to repent and believe and experience these times of refreshing. Communion is a solemn event where we have to examine our hearts. We have to look at our hearts before taking communion. We want to make sure we don't take it in an unworthy manner. Number one, it's for believers: you've repented, you've believed. And number two, it's for those who get their heart right beforehand. Because in 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote about the church coming together and they were just taking it with a lot of gluttony, a lot of not caring for others, and they were actually bringing sickness and death to their own bodies.

And Paul said, "If you rightly judge your own character, God will not have to judge you." So examine your heart. Do you need to repent? Do you need to get rid of a critical spirit, an angry spirit, a frustration, jealousy, backbiting, anger, addiction? These things that you've been holding onto, don't leave here still holding onto those things.

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.