Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: The TULIP: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. It was the response to Roman Catholicism and things in the 1500s or so. I do believe a true believer will persevere, but I do believe that the Holy Spirit is convicting a true believer even if they're not walking with the Lord or they feel...

I've seen people deny the faith, but they're so convicted about it. They go home and cry. "I wish I would have been stronger. I wish I..." See, that's the Holy Spirit convicting them. So, there's that genuineness that is so important.

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 impacting message titled "This Is Only a Test: The Pressure Test."

Theologian preacher Henry Ironside once said, "God is looking for broken men who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men who have come to the end of themselves, whose confidence is not in themselves, but in God."

Right now, do you feel overwhelmed, as if life has a stranglehold on you? Is the pressure overwhelming and just too much? Join us as Pastor Shane brings the relief you need through this powerful sermon to refuel and equip you today 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: I'll try to be quiet, but I don't know if that's possible. I get excited. My kids and I were just talking about that with Morgan. It's like, "Dad, how do you get loud?" I don't plan it. It's not like in my sermon notes to get loud here. It's just when the Word comes alive, you get excited, and it just comes upon me. So, that's usually what happens.

The title this morning is "This Is Only a Test: The Pressure Test." Anybody have pressure tests in your life? I can preach this one this morning. Let me tell you, it is hard in that pressure, isn't it? Last week, I talked about building a God and summoning a demon, so I want you to listen to that so you can figure out where we're at now because we're going through the Book of Acts systematically, verse by verse.

The key verse today that really stands out is from Acts, where we're at. We're in Acts chapter 14 still, but the verse that I'm really focusing on is: "We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God." I'm not a fan of that verse. Don't you wish when you came to know the Lord, it was like heaven now? That would be pretty glorious, but it's warfare now.

Life is a battleground, not a playground, A.W. Tozer said in the 1960s, and boy did we learn that lesson. But what I like is to be forewarned is to be forearmed. When you know what to expect... that's the problem I have with a lot of messages that go out, these books that are best sellers. It doesn't prepare Christians for the warfare, for what it really means to be a Christian. You might not have your best life now.

You might not have ease and comfort. Come to Jesus, He'll fix everything. Sometimes He messes up a lot of things too to conform our character to His image. I think just letting people know that helps prepare them because the road to following Jesus is not only narrow, it's also difficult. It's challenging.

Well, then why would I choose it? Because it's better to be inside of God's arms and His will than to be outside of His will and experience an abundant, fun life and be on a collision course to judgment. God's got you. He's holding you. It's hard to explain, even in the midst of adversity and testing, when the Holy Spirit really grips your heart in that relationship with God. You wouldn't trade that in. It's what I've told you before, like, "Lord, take this from me, but don't take this from me." It's that dichotomy of the Christian faith.

And the Greek word for tribulations does mean pressure. Anybody feeling that? Pressure, compression, or a feeling of being squeezed. It refers to being burdened by crushing circumstances, anguish, or severe trouble. The context that we're going to read about here in just a minute is persecution. But any type of tribulation can knock us off track.

Even though it's dealing with persecution, I almost prefer persecution because in America, it's a lot different. But you know, "Hey, I'm getting persecuted for the Gospel." That's kind of... but when other things happen—the diagnosis that you might get, the adversity, the marriage that's breaking—those things are a little harder to deal with. You're like, "Lord, hey, what's going on here? Am I outside of Your will?"

But with persecution, you know it comes with the territory. As Christians—and there's nothing wrong with this—we want to undo the squeeze. We want to ease the pain, and we want to relieve the pressure. The reason, I think, for the pressure test is what's really inside comes out because when there's pressure, do you hold the line? Is your faith genuine?

I actually used to do pressure testing in construction. Many of you in construction know that. You have to pressure test. We pressure test our lines. I'm putting in fire hydrants. Can it hold 180 PSI under pressure, or is it going to start leaking? We would pressure test tanks and different things. Can it hold the weight? Can it hold the pressure of what's going to come upon it?

God often will use these pressure tests in our lives. Usually, it's a little bit easier when you're a new believer and younger, and then that pressure seems to increase. It's really forming and building and shaping your character. Because as you're squeezed, what's inside comes out, and then that's an opportunity to say, "Lord, help me in this area. I didn't realize I had so much pride. I didn't realize I had so much anger and frustration and fear, anxiety."

When that's coming out of me, it allows you to fix those areas. It really refines your character. It defines who you are, and it aligns you with God's will. It's a very important test. So, that's the backdrop as we open Acts 14:19: "Then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out into the city, supposing that he was dead."

So, one minute they're praising him. If you remember from last week: "Oh, look at the gods have come down." And now the Jews are stirring up because of jealousy, and they're persuading the multitude. Now they actually stone Paul. Isn't that... being in the center of God's will isn't always easy. You can imagine Paul and Barnabas, and they're like, "No, no, no, we're not gods. Please, men."

And now the next issue is being stoned and persecuted. That really is the Christian faith sometimes. Jesus, they cried "Hosanna" one day and "crucify Him" the next. They worked up the crowd, and not much has changed. "However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe."

Commentators are divided on how jacked up he was. He probably didn't look too well, having big stones thrown on you. This is amazing that he actually got up. Some people believe that God healed him or gave him supernatural strength to persevere. That's one thing I do know about being in the center of God's will: that God will sustain you as long as you trust in Him, as long as you rely on Him and turn to Him and wait upon Him.

That's where the sustaining power comes from. It doesn't come from you or me inside. It comes from relying on the Spirit, and then He sustains us as believers. And so, when they had preached the Gospel—we're going to see that a lot here and in the New Testament, of course—when they had preached the Gospel, okay, this is important because that's what we should be doing.

One mark of a true church is they preach the Gospel. They tell you the truth about truth. That's a good mark. It's not about money and motivation and being cool and all this. It's about... that's why we're here, aren't we? That's why I'm here. My job until the day I die is to preach the Gospel. And the same with you as believers. You don't have to preach... the word actually means "herald," heralding the good news.

That doesn't have to be like what I'm doing. It can be individually. You're heralding, you're telling people the good news. And when they did that, they made many disciples because when you preach the Gospel in its totality, it means you're not embarrassed about it. You don't water it down. You just... here's what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit then begins to work in that and begins to convict hearts.

If you are embarrassed about God's Word and you dumb it down, you're void of the Spirit's power in that message because you're not telling people how they can really be saved. You're not telling them the truth. Did you know Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven? He said go and preach repentance. Repentance is a turning from sin and a turning to God. What we're basically saying is, "I'm embarrassed about the cross." Correct? I'm not going to go there.

I've told you before I knew of churches who would tell their worship team, "Don't sing about the blood. People get a little offended, new visitors." Hello? Maybe they need to be convicted. Nothing but the blood, the blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but... and maybe that will convict them. Maybe that will change them. Maybe that will challenge them to repent and believe.

When we honor God's Word, He does something amazing. That's why we built this church. One of the foundational pillars was the desperate need for absolute truth. There is an absolute truth. So, after they made many disciples because they preached the truth, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples. How did they strengthen their souls?

They exhorted them. In other words, they encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of Heaven." And you guys, this church has been a great encouragement to us these last four or five months. It's been encouraging to hear people just encouraged in the faith and to say just keep walking that path.

Because words carry weight, don't they? They carry a lot of weight. They either motivate or discourage. They either instill fear, or they take away that fear and anxiety. A couple of reminders: Persecution doesn't disprove our faith. It actually confirms it. If you're not getting persecuted anywhere, if your family members aren't upset at you that aren't believers... don't go upset them on purpose.

But you just might live a certain way and say no to certain things, and they don't like how you live. People at work, they'll make fun of you, or they'll mock you. If there's no persecution, you have to wonder what side of the fence are you on. Again, don't go look for it, please. "But I'm not going to the office party, you all get drunk." Okay, so that just came to me. So, that's one, right? It's just the way you live.

"I'm not going to look at that stuff." I was in construction. Guys would bring porn magazines to the job site. And they'd say, "Oh, don't show Shane." Yeah, exactly. Don't show Shane. Just the way you live. No matter where, in your family, unbelievers... when you have Thanksgiving dinner together, you have to be careful with what you say, what you believe, who you voted for. Be careful. Don't get me started.

Stephen was stoned, the very first disciple. James was killed, and now Paul is assaulted. Yet we think we're going to have this glorious, wonderful, carefree life. But it does beg the question: Why do Christians persevere? Why do they? Number one, genuine Christians persevere because they're not fake.

A genuine believer... here's how this works. A genuine believer genuinely has the Holy Spirit, correct? We can all agree on that. So, you have the Holy Spirit. You have this internal witness. You have the Spirit of God in you. So, that keeps you anchored to the faith. Now, the more you submit to His work, the more you follow Him, the more you seek Him, the more filled you will be and the more bold you will be in the face of persecution.

But if you're living a carnal, lukewarm lifestyle, you're quenching and grieving the Spirit, you might not stand up for your faith as boldly as you should. Now, of course, there's fake Christians that aren't Christians. But it is a sign that true believers will persevere in their faith. The Bible talks about that as well.

And of course, you get into the whole debate. This is actually one point that I do agree with on Calvinism: the TULIP. Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. It was the response to Roman Catholicism in the 1500s or so. I do believe a true believer will persevere. Now, falling away... that's a whole another topic.

But I do believe that the Holy Spirit is convicting a true believer even if they're not walking with the Lord. I've seen people deny the faith, but they're so convicted about it. They go home and cry. "I wish I would have been stronger." See, that's the Holy Spirit convicting them. So, there's that genuineness that is so important.

I like what Paul said: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, and I have kept the faith." That should be the motto of every believer. I just watched last night for an hour... I'm going to send it to all the pastors I know... Chuck Swindoll on "Finishing Strong." At 91 years old, what a... he was a great Bible teacher when I came back to the Lord. One of them... Charles Stanley, of course MacArthur, and David Jeremiah.

And just to hear him talk about how to finish well, how to keep the faith. It's so important because that's the measure of our life as a Christian. Can you imagine living for Christ and then decades later rejecting or at least bringing tarnish to the name? What's another reason or how do they persevere? They trust in the lordship of Jesus Christ.

They trust in the lordship of Jesus Christ. He is Lord, this world is not. I will not bow to Caesar; I will follow Christ. In doing that, because He's your Lord, you can't bow to another god. Polycarp, before he was murdered, martyred... I think he was stabbed and put on the... lit up and all on the... they burned him at the stake.

He said, "86 years have I served Him, and He has never done me wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?" Genuine faith. And then finally, the Holy Spirit, as I said earlier, the Holy Spirit strengthens us as we submit. You have to submit to be strengthened. You have to say, "Lord, come in and do this deep work in my heart.

I'm fearful, I'm anxious, I don't know how to handle this at work, but I'm submitting to what You want me to say, what You want me to do. I am Your vessel. Lord, You use me how You want." And then that's where that empowering from the Spirit comes from because you have to fight those thoughts all day long, don't you? Against fear and anxiety.

I had so many case studies: Fanny Crosby—have you guys heard that name before?—blind at a young age and wrote all these incredible hymns. Horatio Spafford—I've talked about him before—lost his four daughters at sea and wrote the amazing hymn "It Is Well With My Soul." How do you write that?

E.M. Bounds—what a great books on prayer—did you know he lost a few children too, I believe? George Whitefield—a lot of adversity in his life. Wesley. And you read about these people: Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot who lost her husband to that tribe that killed him, and then she went back and ministered to them with one of her children.

These people that we look to, we read about, they've been to hell and back. They passed the pressure test. That's really the key. I shared this on a Wednesday night, but I want to share it here: Psalm 105:19. "Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him." Now, this is, of course, of Joseph.

God said you'll be a ruler. Can you imagine Joseph, this young man, probably a teenager? "I got this great word from the Lord, I had these dreams, and yeah, man, this is going to be great. A couple months from now, maybe this time next year..." Boy, did he go through it. And that's what God will take you through.

And that's why it says until the time that God's word came to pass, it actually tested him. Because when you have that promise from God or you're just having faith in God, it doesn't happen right away. It's part of the testing. And you get to the point where—and that's why I love quoting Job—"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."

You get to the point like those three Hebrew boys: "Our God will deliver us, but even if He doesn't, we will not bow." To me, that's sanity. That's how I keep my sanity because you don't know what God's going to do. "Shane, that's unbelief, it's not true." No, I believe in God, I trust Him, but He's God, I'm not. I want the easy way out.

I like the verses on healing. I don't like the verses on Paul, three times I prayed, but God said no, it's going to stay, My grace is sufficient. Wait a minute, I like these ones. I want these verses. And because that's our desire, that's our hope, that's our goal, but when it doesn't happen, does it test your faith? Yes, it will test your faith because that scripture is just as valid as those.

"Lord, take this away." God said, "I won't because it's going to keep you humble and My grace is going to be sufficient." You have to believe both. That's why these name-it-and-claim-it guys on TV drive me nuts. "If you just have enough faith and send me a thousand dollars..." I saw one clip this week of this lady, some false prophetess down in LA, and this kid's having a demonic...

And she's like, "This is why you got to sow a big seed for this type of deliverance." I wanted to kick her. Like that's just... that's beyond... "sow into my... sow into..." Healing is never related to giving to a false prophet. Be careful. It's on seeking God. So, you might be asking: How do I pass this test? Good question.

I thought of some things this week that just in my own journey. Will you hold the line when the race seems uncertain? Will you trust God even when life is falling apart? Here's the thing about belief in God: it has to be tested.