Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: That’s why the Bible says take every thought what? Captive. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They’re mighty through God for what? For the pulling down of strongholds, something that’s built in our life, a stronghold. Pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

So you can command the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, the decadence in our society. We can pull those down how? By taking our thoughts captive and remembering that you plus God is the majority.

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 return for the conclusion of the message titled, You Plus God Equals a Majority.

The late Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "If we start with such ideas as God's omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, we will never arrive at a true knowledge of God. However, if we participate by faith in Jesus Christ as the one who is there for others, we are liberated from self and experience the transcendence that is truly the God of the Bible."

Today, Pastor Shane proclaims the truth of God's living word, asserting that in Christ, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 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: Church of the living God, when people are being transformed and saved and set free, and part of the problem is this: we don’t abhor sin. The Bible says that. Shane, that kind of word? Yeah, abhorred. Abhor sin. View it as something terrible. We kind of minimize it, don’t we? Well, I’ve got a hang-up. I love this one; it’s my one little vice. And Greg was sharing a story with me that I think his wife, Jennifer, told from someone. It’s so true, but it would be like this.

Here’s how you have to view sin; this has helped me so much in the past. I haven’t used this example, but I’ve thought of other things. If someone you loved was killed by a knife in your home, say somebody broke in and killed somebody, and when the police investigation was done, they gave you back that knife, would you clean it and put it back with the other knives and use it? Of course not. It would go in the trash. Get this thing away from me. Get this out of my house. Why? Because it killed a family member. It destroyed something I loved.

See, if you approach sin that way, oh, there’s power in that. No, this is going to destroy my family. This click, this computer, this watching this, this doing this, this addiction. It’s going to take me down. It’s going to take my family down. I abhor it and I remove it. God, this sin is an abomination. This sin put Christ on the cross as he stood there dying for the sins of the world and my sin. I’m not going to mock that. I’m going to embrace God’s wonderful gift of salvation and turn from the sin.

That's old-time preaching. That right there you would hear everywhere a hundred years ago. But then the universities get liberal, the churches get soft, and we start to do surveys. Do you know marketing companies have sent me information to send out to all the people in the valley and find out what’s on their heart? What do they want to hear at church? What are the seven steps to financial freedom and how can we relate to them? That’s wonderful. I’d love to relate to the community.

But if you begin to gauge church and your sermons by the felt needs of the world and not discuss what they really need, you’ll miss helping them. They need the gospel truth of the Bible. God’s word says I honor the prayers of a person who honors my word. Remember he told the prophet Isaiah, "My ear's not heavy," meaning I can hear you. "My hand's not short that I cannot save." But what? Your one little vice has separated me. Your bad habit.

He said your sins, your iniquities have separated me from you so that I won't even hear you. Is it possible that God does this? He doesn’t want to, but is it possible? Listen, I hear your prayers. I want to answer, but your sins, your iniquities have turned my face from you. I can’t hear until you repent of those sins and do business with God. He says I honor the prayers of the person who prays according to my will but who also lives according to my will. Woe be to the church that peddles cheap grace, that softens the gospel. To pastors who are cowards. Woe be to the church. I know that’s hard, but it’s true. It’s true. When did we get away from saying the hard things that need to be said?

So we look at the place. We have the power and obviously purity is so important. But if you’re discouraged this evening, remember the encouragement from God’s word as well. God just says cry out to me like David did. Oh God, have mercy on my soul. God have mercy. Wash me. Wash me and I’ll be as white as snow. God cleanse me, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. See, it’s a humble broken sinner crying out to God. God, I’ve been distant, God I’ve drifted from you. Fill me again with your spirit.

That was probably the most requested prayer we had this morning was people saying I want that fire back. I want to be filled with the spirit of God again. I want the love I used to have. Have you ever had true love for people and then you lose it? You’re miserable. And you say, "Lord, where have I become so hard and callous and cold? How did that slip in?" Jesus says come back, come back to your first love.

And the point I really wanted to get to that the message is tied with is this: the perseverance, the need for perseverance. Amen? This is where the rubber really meets the road. This is what separates true prayer warriors from those who grow faint. It’s this element of perseverance. From 1st John: and this is the confidence. Did you know you have confidence as a believer that we have toward God? That if we ask anything according to his will, what? He might hear you. He’ll think about it. He’ll consider it. It says if you pray anything according to his will, he hears us.

Now, it doesn't say he answers right away, but as long as I know God's hearing me, that’s good enough for me. I can hold on to that for a little bit. If I know he’s hearing, he’s listening, he’s sovereign, it’s in his time, I can hold on to that. So what is perseverance? It’s this: persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. And I would say this is one of the great tactics of the enemy.

He fights against perseverance all the time. He wants to discourage. He wants to bring in delays. He wants to get you off your knees. He wants you to stop praying. And that discouragement comes in. Have you ever been there? Of course. That’s what stops real fervent praying: discouragement. That’s why people don’t come to prayer meetings. They don’t see prayers being answered. They’re discouraged, they’re in a rut.

But think about this. According to the Bible, perseverance is a fruit of the spirit. Godly people filled with God's spirit persevere. Love, joy, peace, goodness, long-suffering. They suffer long. They continue to persevere even in the midst of challenges. It’s also a mark of genuine faith. Somebody who has genuine faith has perseverance. Those who persevere to the end shall be saved. There’s a perseverance, there’s a fighting. I don’t like it any more than you do. I would love that the Bible said sit at home and eat ice cream and watch Netflix all day and that is how you succeed in the Christian life. I would be fine with that. The flesh would love it.

But we know that’s not true. There’s a perseverance and it’s essential for spiritual warfare. We read a lot about spiritual warfare, but one of the greatest weapons you'll ever have, of course, is the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, all these things. But to persevere, to keep fighting, to keep moving forward, to not give ground. It's interesting when God would call people to fight such as Moses. He said, "Moses, having done all, having done all, continue moving around and fighting and running." He said, "No, having done all, just stand."

Stand there with your loins girt about with truth. Guard your family. Fight. Raise up the banner. Fight for victory and persevere. And the enemy can’t knock you back. He can’t take you out. He’s a defeated foe. He’s the enemy of God, but he is not equal with God. All you have to say is the name of Jesus and you hold your ground. Greater is he that is within me than he that’s in the world. And you persevere and you hold that ground. It’s perseverance.

Something I’ll admit to you, it’s pretty interesting. That’s why I didn’t disconnect Netflix. I probably watch it too much. But there’s something called—and you can Google it—the fittest man on earth. And these guys are crazy. Right now, it's a guy named Froning versus Mat Fraser, and they’re closing in on this. These guys, you would get sick how they train. I mean, it’s amazing: swimming miles, jogging miles, lifting boulders, 50 pull-ups, and they’re running for this contest of being the fittest person on earth.

And I looked at some of their routines. The sleep, the daily routine, the clean diet, core stabilization training, cellular adaption, oxygen increase training, and lots and lots of different things. Proprioception neuromuscular facilitation. Mike, you know what that is, don't you? It’s flexibility as you’re training a muscle. You’re also flexible. And these guys, and it’s a crown that perishes. Why shouldn't we be training for this warfare, training for this battle, and being fit in the spiritual realm?

They’re lifting tires, big huge tires. When are we lifting our families up? They’re swimming and jogging, not giving in. Are we persevering and not giving in for a crown that never perishes? For something that’s far more valuable? The hearts and souls of men and women, our children? And my heart breaks because these guys, you can be the fittest in the world and still be on the way to hell. Priorities are misaligned.

I’d like to read this once every year because it’s a great reminder on perseverance. It’s a couple different prayer warriors. E.M. Bounds was born in 1835. He began his three-hour prayer routine at 4:00 AM. To him, prayer was not a short prelude; it was an overpowering priority. Edward Payson, who ministered during the Second Great Awakening, was said to have worn grooves into his hardwood floors as a result of prayer. It was said of John Hyde, who left for the mission field in 1892, that he would stay on his face before God until the answer came.

It was not uncommon for the great Scottish preacher John Welch, who died in 1622, to spend four to six hours in prayer. John Fletcher, one of the leaders of the Methodist movement, stained the walls of his room with the breath of his prayers until his death in 1785. And I can see the emails coming now. "Oh, Shane, nobody has that much time. Nobody can do that." Stop complaining. Get on your face and spend 30 minutes. It’s not always the time factor; it’s the God factor. Make God a priority. Let him open up the day. I don’t have seven hours either, but I’ve got some time. I’ve got some time to seek God.

And according to the media, if you turn off your TV and internet, you do have seven hours a day. How's that for you? See, it has nothing to do with time; it has everything to do with prioritizing the time we have. That’s really the key. And I believe in this day and age where our state is, I’ve got this burden. Brian's got this burden. Many of you have this burden of interceding.

There’s something very powerful about interceding. You don’t even know the prayers that are being answered when we intercede for our nation, when we intercede for our state, our local officials. God hears the prayers of intercession. In Isaiah, he said he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Ezekiel breaks my heart. God says, "I look for a man from among my people. Can you imagine the heart of God even today saying, I look for among my people. I looked. Was there anyone here that would stand in the gap all night and pray for the land? Build up a wall, build up a bulwark, stand in the gap before my people? But I found no one." God's eyes go to and fro to look for those who are interceding.

And perseverance is about pressing in and pressing in. And I’ve noticed more than anything, it’s a heart cry. It’s a heart cry. You don’t set a timer and go, "Okay, there’s an hour. All right, let me know when that hour's up." It’s pressing in and praying, "Oh God, wilt thou not revive us again? Oh God, will you not revive us again?"

Think about this. I know in my case, he didn’t pull me up out of the cesspool and give me boldness to quit. He didn’t save you and call you and redeem you and put the spirit of the living God in you for you to quit. He equipped us to persevere and to move forward. I love that song, I think it’s Iron Bell, said, "You called me out of darkness / You silenced every lie / And no other voice will define me / I belong to you."

And I already told you some of this last week, I got so excited about this message I shared a little bit. But prayer is not something to take lightly. It’s actually warfare. Did you know that? Above everything else, it’s not, "Oh God, please open this job opportunity." That’s good. "Give me direction on selling my house." It's okay. Praying for it's all good. But at the heart of prayer is warfare. Warfare. Taking thoughts captive, doing battle. This is how I fight my battle: on my face and on my knees calling down heaven. Heaven listens.

Prayer is warfare. It’s also this: it’s the trumpet call to battle. It’s the battering ram that knocks down strongholds. It’s the hammer that crushes Satan. It’s the fire that ignites the infilling of the spirit. It’s the sword that strikes down fear. It’s the weapon that decimates demonic activity. Prayer is what covers your family, what saves your children, and it restores marriages.

And every time I preach about the power of prayer, I hear just a holy rumbling. Just heaven waiting at that name. We sing that song, "That name, that name of Jesus." And I think we need to bring back heart-searching, soul-saving, prevailing prayer. We need to crush our pride. We need to kill our boredom and pray, "God, give us a passionate desire for prayer." Just speak the name.

Another song I like, it says that: "Speak the name / Heaven is waiting for the mention of his name / The spirit is moving / Burning like a flame / Healing the broken by the one we proclaim." And it goes on to say, "Raise it up, raise up that name / Speak that name." Do we remember how powerful that name is? Powerful that name, that name of Jesus.

What other name can tell the Atlantic and the Pacific to stop? Open blind eyes? Open deaf ears? Allow the mute to speak? Cast out the demonic realm? Tell a little girl, "Talitha koum, I say get up and arise, little girl." Go to Lazarus, "I speak life into that dead body." Everywhere he went, he was not challenged. He was not cornered. He was not beaten down. He was not put back. He went in the boldness of the power of the Holy Spirit and in the power of who he was.

He was the son of the living God. So when Jesus says, "Call on me and I will hear / Listen and I will hear your prayers / Call on the only name that saves / If the devil is harassing you, call on my name / If the government, if the IRS, whoever is harassing, call on the only name that saves / That name is Jesus." And he will see you through persevering prayer, heart-wrenching prayer where you're holding on to the cross and saying, "God, no matter what happens, no matter what happens in our nation, no matter what happens to our families, we’re holding on to the cross. No matter when they start to call good evil and evil good."

By the way, it’s happening. You call on that name of Jesus. I’m amazed at the city council meetings, the places in Washington D.C., Sacramento. You can pray all kinds of prayers, but don’t pray in Buddha, Allah, Confucius. Those names, there’s no power. But when you say Jesus, when you say Jesus, "I’ve surrendered my life. He is Lord of my life." Even demons have to tremble at that name. How precious the power, the power you hold in your heart and in your mind to persevere and allow Christ to fight your battles.

Shane, what does that look like? I’m going through a lot. Give it to God. Call on me. Cast your cares upon me. He who is weak and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. Believe on me as the scripture said and out of your belly will what? Flow rivers of living water. And I believe when Jesus walked to that pulpit, I would have loved to see that sermon. It was short but so powerful.

Can you imagine? He’s just standing there looking at the synagogue and said, "The spirit of the living God is upon me. And he has anointed me, he’s called me to set the captives free. He’s called me to open blind eyes. He’s called me to preach the gospel to the poor." And he does it through us. The same call, that same anointing, that same unction. We use those words sometimes haphazardly. That means the power of God resting in your heart. The power of God.

Wasn't sure if I wanted to share some of this, but sometimes I feel really defeated in prayer. Instead of prayers being answered, they look like they’re going backward. You ever been there? You’re praying for someone, it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse. You’re praying for situations, they’re not getting better. I’ve spent, to the best of my recollection, probably 18 years praying for revival. Being discouraged.

And then God started to just remind me of all the lives that are being changed. All the lives that are being changed across the United States, even other countries, because he doesn’t follow our plans exactly. He’s got his own purposes and plans. And I’ve just been praying for revival, been praying for the churches. God, where’s the power? Where’s the anointing? Where’s the unction? And it gets hard.

It gets hard to continue in that because every time you pray, you go on the news, it looks like a new law's been passed. A new perversion has been okayed. A new something to get rid of Christianity and all these things and parental rights. You’re bombarded. It's like, what do you do? And the only hope I have is to hang on to the cross. The only hope I have is to hold on to Jesus Christ. And the more I get into his word, the more I begin to remember who he is and what he has done, the stronger I become spiritually.

Ten feet tall and bulletproof is an understatement because you feel the power and glory of God and the enemy begins to attack us in our minds. "You’re not doing anything. That doesn't matter. God doesn't see. Why you wasting your time?" That’s why the Bible says take every thought what? Captive. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. The weapons of our warfare, weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

They’re mighty through God for what? For the pulling down of strongholds, something that’s built in our life, a stronghold. Pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. So you can command the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, the decadence in our society. We can pull those down how? By taking our thoughts captive and remembering that you plus God is the majority.

Thank you. I just wanted to open up to you about that frustration. It's a frustration I have about revival, about just seeing things in our nation. But God's been dealing with me this week to keep persevering. Without that word, without perseverance, what would happen? We would fall apart. We would give up. And I think God hears the prayers of his people.

Pastor Shane Idleman: 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.