Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: He's going to get stoned here at some point, but check this out. "You're unworthy of everlasting life, and we're turning to the Gentiles, for God has commanded us: 'I set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Boldness was the response to those filled with envy.

So when people are filled with envy or people attack you, it's—if you need to, "Hey, you know, God really just wants me to be quiet right now," that's okay, I've been there too. Sometimes you got to lovingly confront. I mean, you look at most examples in the Bible, they lovingly confronted.

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 part of this hard-hitting message titled "When A Vessel Is Struck." Second Corinthians 4:7 tells us, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."

Do you ever wonder why you struggle in your Christian walk? Are you living every day feeling helpless, like life is against you? Get those answers and more in this uplifting message from Pastor Shane as he shares a message of truth and hope, a sermon meant for you right now, 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: When we came up here 10 years ago, not everybody was excited that we were bringing so many people. That was hard to swallow. We don't want these city people up here. We like our small little group. And I get it, I like a small—so I get it, but the heart's wrong. The heart's wrong. Because you shouldn't be filled with envy, you should be filled with excitement. Look at what the Lord is doing. Look at what the Lord is doing.

I'll never forget, Dave and Donna, you remember, but Jim Davis and Wendy Toughton were guys who helped bring us up here. Old elders. I mean, they'd be in their 80s by now or so. And I think both of them, at least one, had tears in their eyes like, "Wow." Like, "We haven't opened the balcony in years. We have no children's ministry." And to see it full of kids, it was like, "Man, I'll never forget that day." Like God just honored their prayers through the church.

But then not everybody's happy. What it does, when a vessel's struck, what's inside spills out. Are you excited for the success of others? I hope so. Because not everybody is. "Why isn't God doing that in my life?" It's okay to want what others have and pray for it, as long as the heart's right. "I want what happened with Susan, right Lord? Hey, remember me down here?" But He's trying to do a different thing in my heart and my walk. Not yet, son.

By the way, ministry opportunity. Where I'm going, 85 percent of all the people there are Stage 4, and they're on their—this is it. So I'm thinking, "Lord, you're going to put me—this is—I'm ready to go. Let's get some into the kingdom." And so you look, how'd that not happen? Right? You don't know, God's a chess player. You submit to His will. Don't fight it. Pray like you want to pray. Hope like you want to hope, but ultimately, like, "Lord, you're the chess player."

And there's peace in that. And that's why He doesn't do things the same way for everybody. Because we usually want the comfort. "I'm ready to get—Lord, pull me out of the pit. I want life back to where it was." And it's different for all of us. You just got to trust God's sovereignty. That truly is your sanity. I mean, I don't know how people get through life without God. Do you?

And so they all came together, the whole town. And the Jews saw it, they were filled with envy. Envy's deadly. Envy just eats you up. Is that what they call the green monster? Envy or jealousy? It just—(growling sound). And it will happen in Christians too, guys. You got to take your thoughts captive, repent, and just be thankful. Did you know what happened to you too? Just spent 30 minutes on Instagram. "Lord, why aren't I in Cancun sipping a virgin margarita on the beach?"

"Why aren't I up on the Kern River fishing for the next week? They're having so much fun at Malibu. Lord, what's..." Let me tell you, most of that's fake. They'll show you the highlight but not the darkness and depression. Now, I'm all for posting positive things, right? Don't get me wrong. But don't judge others. You see, "Oh, they're always on date nights. Cheesecake Factory or some other good place." I don't know, just Venice? No, that's not good right now, homeless problem.

But they're always just like—"Why can't we?" And we begin to envy and get jealous, don't we? It can happen with all of us. All of us. And you just take those thoughts captive and you're like, "Lord, whatever. You know where do you want us? Where do you want us at?" And they blasphemed. They blasphemed. And they opposed things spoken by Paul because envy doesn't just stay in the heart, it comes out in our words and our actions. We've got to pull others down so I look better. And that's what they do.

How do you act when others are promoted, healed, or married? I've talked to people, I've prayed with people that they're getting older and they just—they're getting jealous that other people are getting married and starting their families and they're not. I mean, these are real things. What about blessings? You see God blessing people and you have to—because that will just grow in your heart as you—because it's envy and bitterness. They're either growing or they're withering. Are you feeding it or are you starving it?

Because let me tell you, once you start to get thankful, gratitude, there's tons of peace. There's tons of peace. I mean, I go through things too, just like everybody, and I know it's hard to take those thoughts captive. Many of you, we've been praying for, maybe does God want a larger location, more central? We've been praying that for 10 years. I got friends, Jeremy at Highlands, they're expanding the Highlands. Caleb at Faith Community, they're expanding the church. Peter at New Life, getting a church building. A friend of mine at South Valley, going to buy a building. The church is growing.

Awesome! Because we need more churches in this valley. So Lord, are we just—are we here? This is—that's fine. I'm good with that. That's fine. I've learned a long time ago not to rate my success by numbers. Because a lot of the numbers don't necessarily reflect true preaching coming from the pulpit. For sure. I've seen enough over the years and you just trust God. "Lord, what do you want to do? What do you want to do?"

And you have to let those—and be thankful for others. We send people to those churches all the time. We pray for those churches. We get together every few months. We're on the same team, are we not? We have to remember that. We're on the same team. All on the same team.

So again, when a vessel is struck, what's inside spills out. I just read yesterday, I didn't have time to put it up here, in James. I said I have to share this. I didn't write the reference, I just put James real quick. You guys have Google now, you can find this easier than me. He's writing to believers. If you have bitter envy, it is demonic. I think he goes on to say jealousy, bitter envy, these things. It's a verse. But if there's bitterness and envy growing in your heart and you're just—you're fueling it, it's demonic.

You are in—there's a—let me explain that. "Everything's demonic!" Here's what we mean by that is not there's a demon under every rock, right? Not everybody has a demon, needs deliverance and all these things. I believe it's true that some people can open up a door. I've never taught Christians can be possessed, but they can be oppressed, depending on what doors they open. So we know that. So demonic is, when we say something's demonic, it means that the fiery darts that the enemy is shooting at you, instead of putting up the shield, you welcome them.

So you are demonically influenced because you allowed that demon thought to keep growing and you act out on it. And so you can say, "Hey, that's demonic." That's demonic. The enemy—and you can call it out, I believe. Now, of course, our own flesh gets in there and sometimes we say things we shouldn't. And we don't want to overanalyze like everything's demonic. But there is a choice to make. Do we choose God's path? Or do we choose the demonic path?

And I know I've seen things recently where it's clearly the devil's trying to depress, discourage me, our family, you guys know. That's what demonic is, so you know. Hopefully we say, "Man, that's..." You know that somebody has caved in to allowing the demonic influence into their heart and they are being—you can be led by that too. This is why people lash out. They don't repent. They act a certain way.

That's why homes sometimes, even Christian homes, are very intense. Anybody? Volcano waiting to erupt. Walking on eggshells. It's because demonic influence has penetrated the hearts often of the parents. And instead of repenting and praying, they bow up, pride up, and then things come out. It's demonically influenced. So be careful in this area. Because that's what fiery darts are. You're allowing things to come into your heart and cause fear.

So Paul and Barnabas, I love this part. So Paul and Barnabas got scared and they left the city. Okay, in case you're listening on the radio later, let me read this better. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold. Grew bold. This, guys, let me tell you, this is exactly what happens when you're full of the Holy Spirit. You grow bold. And you know you can confront stuff with the right heart. Or you say, "No, that's not right," versus, "Oh, okay. Passive Christianity. Just take it. I'm a doormat. Jesus said turn the other cheek."

Didn't He? Jesus said turn the other cheek. Guess what? What did Jesus do when He was slapped? He didn't turn the other cheek. He said, "What evil have I done? Why have you hit me?" Whoa! Bold! Bold! Bold in the face of adversity. Bold when being confronted by demonic influences. They grew bold. Why? Because it's a holy righteousness. Jesus grew bold because He was full of the Spirit and you want—you can't just say, "Oh, okay," and cower back.

You grow bold in things, don't you? You watch Disney 40 years ago to Disney now. And you grow bold, like, "This is not right. This is not right." And I have people say, "Well Shane, you can't boycott them, it's fine." Like, I don't know if you can or not, but I don't have to allow garbage into my home. I don't know about you, but you get bold about these things. How dare you! How dare you do that!

When we were in Arizona last year, I was walking by a church, it was a beautiful church, and here's this huge rainbow flag. And I did an Instagram thing and it went kind of viral and ran into people who were like, "That was kind of mean of you." You have the audacity to put that on God's church and that's mean of me? What do you think Jesus would do if He walked by? "Oh, that's cute." He would have ripped that sucker down! I didn't even do that!

And see, we have to be bold enough to confront this. We love you. We love. But I will not allow the house of God to be desecrated. And there's a righteous zeal that you want to flip over money tables sometimes. You want to just, "God, this is not right. You have to do something." People protest the abortion clinic or they do this. They've got to do something. They grow bold. And they said it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you. But since you rejected it, judge for yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.

Boy, he's going to get stoned here at some point. Not with marijuana. With actual stones. But check this out. "You are unworthy of everlasting life, and we're turning to the Gentiles, for God has commanded us: 'I set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'" Boldness was the response to those filled with envy. So when people are filled with envy or people attack you, it's—if you need to, "Hey, you know, God really just wants me to be quiet right now," that's okay, I've been there too.

But sometimes you got to lovingly confront. I mean, you look at most examples in the Bible, they lovingly confronted. Isaiah and Jeremiah wouldn't just go run back to their house. They confronted the people lovingly. What about Elijah? Guys, read the Bible! But again, it has to be from the right spirit. It can't come from pride and "let me confront." Because I see those guys too on YouTube, you can tell when some are prideful, some are loving. The prideful ones are just mean and nasty. It's like, that's not good.

But you see those ones who... and really what you do is you're quick to listen. You're not forming your comeback right now. "Yeah, yeah, but, but, but, yeah..." You're listening. "Okay. All right. But have you thought about this?" When warranted, right? When you're bold, you challenge. And words are so powerful that people get upset. See, the truth loses its power and effectiveness when we're silent on it. Did you see the new law that was passed in Canada about preaching the truth? You don't think we're too far away?

You get the wrong people in office... Are you going to be bold enough? Are you going to be bold enough when it's against the law? Because I'll tell you right now, the majority of the Christian church will not be bold enough. "I'll lose my 401(k) and my job and..." And I get it, you don't want to do that on purpose. But if you have to live fearing preaching God's word and sharing God's word, we need to pray for our nation.

Boldness also arises when Christians become carnal and lukewarm and lack holiness. What I mean by that is Paul and Barnabas, they're talking to unbelieving Jews, believe it or not. These Jews thought they were saved. Isn't that amazing? Most of the Jews, Pharisees, are not in heaven, guys. That should cause us to wake up. But we'll see throughout the Pauline epistles and other letters that he was also bold when it came to lukewarmness and carnality in the church.

He would call the church to holiness. He would call out compromise. He would call out carnality. There's a boldness there to say, "Church, we can't do that." Why? Because a church loses spiritual power when it compromises. And I've seen so many—you have in the videos I've shared this before, you know, churches that'll play AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" in their lobby on Easter just to think it's cool. Or they'll play Justin Bieber in the lobby and this because people like that. Or Taylor Swift and this and they'll just—you know, it's just—and then, I'm going to come up here, I'm just, you know, I got a lot of unsaved people here so I'm going to just tread lightly.

What does that mean? "Well, I'm not going to talk about the blood." Ooh, boy. The judgment of God? No way. Repentance? People already feel bad enough. Should they be in the pulpit? Their job is... What about if a doctor said, "Everything's fine, bro. You're okay"? They would lose their license. Why aren't pastors losing that position if they're weak and woke and not telling people what they need to hear? That's just the truth.

And that's where that boldness comes from. You know all the pastors we have on the radio network, one of the things we're certain of is they have to have boldness in the day and age that we live in. They've got to share. And there might be different ways of doing it. You know, Greg Laurie preaches a lot different than me. Different callings. John Randall, a guy I know well, and he does great on teaching and we're just different. But we're all bold for the truth. Because I've found when you tell the truth, that's what changes lives.

Let me ask you this question: How would anybody ever get saved if I never talked about the things that save them? No, really. I'm being honest. I'd love to hear your answer in the prayer room. Come and tell me, "Oh, this is how." And I'll tell you what I heard from a pastor. Buckle your seatbelt. "Shane, it's not my job to convict them, it's the Holy Spirit's." Okay, let's rewind a little. How's He going to convict them if you don't talk about it? And they don't open their Bible.

How's He going to just—(makes sound). You're telling them all these pleasantries. You're not a watchman, you're a coward. And the Holy Spirit's going to still convict them of something they're not hearing? No, actually, you're encouraging sin by being silent. As did the false prophet in Jeremiah 23. These people, these prophets tell my people, "Peace, peace." God says judgment is coming, Jeremiah. Cry out to my people! Return to me, O backsliding Israel, and I will return to you.

God's judgment is going to fall, and you need to get right with Him. You need to repent. You need to turn to Him. The righteous indignation of God is in my heart, and you're calling the people to repentance. The false prophets would say, "No, no, hey, no, no, don't get excited. Hey guys, everything's okay." Who cares if we butcher children in the womb? Who cares if the rainbow... Guys, God is for you! And if He's for you, who can be against you? Just stay positive. Just stay positive. Can you do that for me, guys? That's all. He loves you.

And He does, but it also says: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to be hung on a cross, that whoever repents and believes He shall be saved. So don't tell them that part? What it is, it's cowardliness inside the heart. They've quenched and grieved the Spirit to such a degree that there's no longer the fire of God. Maybe there wasn't ever there to begin with. Do you know a lot of people get into the ministry who aren't even saved? Are you aware of that?

Oh, I could go down a rabbit trail here, but I'll probably not. Real preaching will cause people to either hate their sin or hate the preacher. Ask my wife. Ask my kids. This is probably the number one reason I am hated by a lot of people. That's it, right there. That's it. Can I be a jerk sometimes? Of course. Prideful? Of course. Hello, anybody else? But the main reason is I call it out. And it has consequences.

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.