God Can Use You Pastor Shane Idleman Shares His Story

you thank you good evening I might say good morning a few times so forgive me thank you again you know I just have to brag on your church a minute you guys are so welcoming and loving it was just a pleasure to speak here this morning and to meet a lot of you and you don't see that all the time you can tell a church spiritually you know if they're healthy by the love by the love they have by the unity they have and I'm just gonna share with you a struggle I've been having the last few hours I told my wife about it she's here again tonight my daughter Aubrey so let's give them a hand thank you for coming long day 15 our day on Sunday we're not used to that too much and then I think my mom snuck in somewhere back there and my sister so they're here this evening as well that we only have the hour and half drive but my challenge was I know there's people here that weren't here this morning and I just encourage you to listen to the second service if you can because I wanted I felt the desire to preach that message again but also knowing that a lot of people are coming and bringing friends and wanting to hear a little bit about my story so I want to share that as well so I'm hoping if I can try to tie in both of them but I would encourage you listen to the messages are gonna post from this Sunday morning and when I share my testimony I want to be careful because it's not really about me or when you share your testimony about you it's really about what God has done in your life isn't that true it's about how he's working his glory he gets the credit everything he's done it's amazing and I'm just gonna pull up a quick verse for you I think we have it up on the screen Revelation 12:10 if not I'll read it it's it's a familiar for especially the last half then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down this is how you defeat the enemy and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love lives to the death a couple things we can pull from here they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb that's the only way we can truly overcome in this time that we live in is by the blood of the Lamb which is Jesus Christ and confessing him as Savior and Lord but the point I want to concentrate on is by the word of our testimony the reason testimony is so important is it bears witness to what God has done and I've noticed that your life is a better testimony than your mouth right I can I can say a lot of things with the mouth but it's the life there's a poem I often read on Father's Day it goes something like this dad the lessons you deliver may be very wise and very true but I'd rather get my lesson by observing what you do for I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give but there's no misunderstanding dad how you act and how you live and our testimony speaks volumes about our character and about what God has done and I believe this is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions I actually don't think Christianity is a religion I know it's labeled that way religion really is man trying to reach up to God relationship Christianity is God reaching down to man and that's what separates it that there's a radical experience that the Bible talks about being born again now I think being born is a radical experience correct being born again is the same thing spiritually that happens when we're made alive in Christ and we the God we used to curse now we love the Bible we used to disdain now we can't get enough of the worship music we just turn that off now we want to worship God because there's a rebirth the spirit has been born again and we give testimony to that so what I'm going to try to do is get 48 years down in 35 minutes you ready now here's why I'm doing this this is often why I do this is I want to give you hope and encouragement one of the last people that should be up here right now is me I remember 20 years ago was at the rock and rodeo Sammy told me about you know and closing down those places and driving on the 58 at 4:00 in the morning with the Sun coming up not even knowing how I got home let God's gonna say I'm gonna call you to preach there and I was so far down that I didn't know how I was gonna get back up and you need to be encouraged because sometimes we allow the Word of God to beat us up and that's okay and we need a right hook from the Word of God now and then but we also need the encouragement to be built up and say you are more than conquerors in Christ you can get back up you can fight this you can win with Christ on your side who the Sun sets free is free indeed and we often think well if I'm free why do I feel bound if I'm if I'm dead to sin why is this still alive in me even Paul said o wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of sin and death and so there's a struggle in Christianity we have to build people up and encourage them and get back up and fight this fight so let me just briefly share a little bit about my life and I can't I and I hope some of the points which I mentioned my mom is here and what happened when she got married is Oklahoma married Southern California she came from the the beaches of Southern California my dad came from the farms of Oklahoma and that's a very interesting combination in case you were wondering you have the Southern California look right in the ethics of Southern California and then you have the the working man on the farm and in Oklahoma so that came together in our household and I'm wanting to obviously go quickly here but there's so much in here I'm going to try to pull out the main points one of the main points that I remember is I grew up in a partially Christian home my mom was a believer my dad wasn't and we were actually initially raised Catholic anybody else in here yeah a lot of people right Roman Catholicism an altar boy in different things and when when we had this my mom had this born-again experience and and began to follow Christ so the home was divided and it was an angry home anyone from an angry home they know that that's hard oh there's a lot more than but it's hard isn't it hard because you feel like you're walking on eggshells and you feel the anger about ready to explode like a volcano a home should be a safe haven a sanctuary for our children not a raging volcano not rage and and it should be where kids grow and are nourished and and nurtured and and as I love my dad and I'm it's just hard for me to talk about these things sometimes but he was hard it was a hard home and I don't recall him ever saying I love you and and growing up and that my mom assures me that he did so I feel I feel good with knowing that but because of this being overweight as a child and growing up as I got older and a little heavier and being made fun of and it still to this day of a junior high yearbook and I'm being rolled around in a wet rat wet room a wet red red there we go red wagon I'll tell you why this is challenging in a minute a wagon and I broke my leg and they put an apple in my mouth and they and the title and the yearbook said stuffed pig and that really you know it hurt and it still hurts a little maybe but I said okay I'm gonna get these guys back I'm gonna get big and I got into bodybuilding and steroid use and bench-pressing 400 pounds and winning fights and you know that whole lifestyle of I'll show you but the pain of that in the pain I think that's why men are so important in their homes that's why God has called you to be the spiritual leader of your home I don't care about your past I want to know about what you're going to do today you you go home you go home and you start to rebuild that family and say son daughter I've messed up but I'm gonna change things and the men are called to be that spiritual leader in the homes and when that's absent that's apps you should look at the statistics on absentee father's what that causes I believe that with the current situation we're seeing in our nation is a direct result of the family and so the absentee father and many men say well I'm not at home but let me remind you you don't I'm not leaving home I'm there but you don't have to leave our home to be an absentee father you can be absent emotionally spiritually relationally and that absent presence the presence of a godly man in the home has dramatic results so long story short first exposed alcohol at 12 still remember the street I still remember the house and I said this feels good this I can check out for a while anybody been there the problem with addiction though is it doesn't stop there it wants to draw you in doesn't it doesn't it it wants to make you think that well that's no big deal and that takes you in farther and farther and farther and I just pulled up a poem on my truck or my my phone and I want to read it to you just briefly because I want it on one hand I want to encourage you but on the other hand I want to show you how serious addiction is and our nation is in a crisis right now for opiate addiction I don't know if you've seen the statistics but it's skyrocketing they're prescribing it like candy xanax vicodin all the different things alcohol abuse skyrocketing marriages and family and I think this was a from a girl who overdosed on heroin she wrote a poem I destroy homes and tear families apart I'll take your children and that's not that's just a start I'm more costly than diamonds more costly than gold the sorrow I bring is a sight to behold just try me once and I might let you go but try me twice and I'll own your soul you knew this would happen many times you were told that you challenge my power and chose to be bold you could have said no and just walked away if you could live that day over now what would you say I'll be your master you'll be my slave I'll even go with you when you go to your grave now that you've met me what will you do will you try me or not it's all up to you I can bring more misery than words can tell come take my hand let me lead you to hell see that's on one hand people need to be encouraged but on the other hand they need a wake-up call they need to wake up because the ultimate path of addiction is destruction that's what the goal is the enemy is sent to kill still and to destroy in case you're wondering what the devil's plans are that's his plans to kill to steal and to destroy so I was exposed to that at 12 and that began to be where I would find comfort and many things and as I was growing up I realized that I was a little bit different than other kids because I couldn't read very well I didn't want to go up in public so my mom I believe had her at a speech therapist and now now looking back it's dyslexia where words like math don't even ask me to memorize a phone number I'll memorize Scripture but it's just math and things it's very hard it's very hard your eyes play different games on you and you read different words you you quote things so it's it's hard and God used that though so now looking back he gets all the glory all the credit to write books to me is an absolute joke because that should have never happened the last person on the planet that should be writing books that are grammatically correct right and biblically correct as somebody who had disabilities in these areas but see that's what God wanna do he'll take the least likely some of you here tonight I believe our future preachers I believe your future worship leaders I believe God's gonna use you in a powerful way and actually your weakness is going to be your greatest strength your weakness will be your greatest strength because then you rely upon God I mean I'm in that back room going Lord unless you move this morning unless you move I am lost unless that the power of the Holy Spirit descends upon this place God you fill me with your power I cannot go up there I cannot preach and I mean it Oh trust me I mean it I'm not just saying that I'm gods please God don't leave me hanging out there with this many people move in this place and when God takes over you can cut the atmosphere with the knife the Spirit of God is convicting and drawing because in the weakness you say in my weakness God you are strong I'm trusting fully in you and sometimes it takes out weakness it takes out weakness to crush the pride out of you let's be honest what are the three main things specially for men anger addiction and arrogance right anger addiction and arrogance they will take you down so doing this by the way graduate high school with the 1.8 I still I still barely squeeze by and so just just looking at what God has done and that's my encouragement you don't have to have a master's degree I'd rather have a degree from the master than a master's degree now a big disclaimer because I'm gonna get emails on that one I encourage education I read more books and most people who have master's degrees you're all we should be learning and growing education is very important but you trust on God and in God if I'm gonna trust on my ability and you're gonna trust in your own ability we're already in trouble because pride is at the heart of that God says I hate pride I hate pride I hate the look of pride I hate arrogance because it's self promotion and self-glorification so from that graduating high school then I got into construction amen Bakersfield can be anyone to relate in this room to construction okay hands up just so I know oh okay that's not bad heavy equipment operator backhoe ran a John Deere case count all the backhoes I was a heavy equipment operator and God used that in many different ways as well but then work slowdown construction you remember the crash of the nineteen eighty eighty nine 90s and I went and I worked for 24-hour fitness I think there's some here in town and I worked my way up the corporate ladder money became my god success and built a custom home at twenty four and just it just had all you know just you start to think more highly of yourself than you should and so from that I became a manager in the district manager over areas Victorville Palmdale Lancaster I was down in Santa Clarita and and and I was able to God was able to use that though because looking back I'm like what a waste of time but God used that so I could understand numbers payroll profit loss we had a hundred and fifty employees within those clubs and so now things that are very relevant in the church God will use your pass from that see so don't discard your past but what a waste God can't no God will actually use your through your past he knows what he's doing he's not gonna go boy a but just blew the last ten years I don't know what I'm gonna do it Blueprint no he'll use it he'll turn it whatever you went through whatever you went through God will use that for his glory and to build you up into strengthen you so don't let regret beat you up because that's how you stay an addiction isn't it regret shame disappointment back to the addiction regret shame disappointment back to the addiction third recovery home I can't quit this back to the addiction shame guilt I can't back you see how it's it's an endless cycle and you have to break that cycle and you say God with your help you're going to use me and I'm gonna trust you so something I don't open up too much about but that finally led to a pretty bad divorce I was in my 20s we got married and didn't know the Lord and you know that goes it wasn't good an anger alcohol and addiction to finally took their toll and scripturally I was released so there's no issues there but it brought me to a point of utter despair and God things were falling apart God knows how to orchestrate something doesn't he and I know it was the prayers of my mom partially a great deal of those prayers the same mom that would put the Bible on the ac/dc albums and Judas Priest and metalic I don't know if there but she would put that Bible on them saying you know I'm claiming the blood over this darkness in my house you're not going to you're not going to have that and then that's when I would say I'm gonna have fun tonight don't you dare don't you dare pray I'm gonna have fun tonight I've already got six back at Mickey's big mouth don't you dare pray I want to have fun and isn't it fun I mean is it funny how the devil presents this wonderful wonderful bait but once you take the bait then you see the hook he always shows you all that was so fun for an hour and then you've got three days of misery why is it he show you the jail sentence or the or the sleeping and vomit or waking up it's you didn't know where you woke why doesn't he show you the depression and the anxiety and the just and the destruction because you always present you with the bait just one more hit just one more drink I can relax I know what I'm doing now he plays into that we have to be very careful in this area so that led to my life crumbling falling apart and 1999 was the turning point 1999 was the turning point I was hungover a sermon hit me right between the eyes and God woke me up and the prodigal son began to realize how far he's drifted and I cried out to God I was filled with his spirit I started to read the Bible I turned off country music station and put on worship because this is it funny hell what you put in your mind affects you you know you start to listen to those country songs I was drunk that day my momma got out of prison and you started I just want to grab a 12-pack of beer and hop on a train you know George Jones he stopped loving her today and I'm just all Oh Lord this is back into the pit right back into that misery and and and it was a time where God was just just working in my life so I want to encourage you even though I turned me back in 1999 there were times I slipped up I fell back into the addiction then I fell back into that and you need to be encouraged because it is a struggle is a battle not too many people perfectly end their struggle struggle one day freedom the next it's happened I pray for that people have been set free thank God for that but sometimes there's a struggle sometimes there's a battle for your soul so from this point 1999 came back to the Lord 2000 I realized I can't stay in this business and in the corporate world and God was working in my heart so I wrote the first book and and that kind of took off and I wrote more books and the reason really for the books is to get the message out that's why if you didn't bring money you want to give some to friends you can take some I don't care it's about getting the message out to those who need to hear it and many people with people are reading them in prisons different states sometimes different countries and trying to get that message out to people so God used use of ministry to do that I would mainly speak at Men's conferences I would travel and speak different the rings and church conferences and God many times God was saying well people are saying have you considered being a pastor I said no I don't want it I don't want to that is that for guys who wear glasses and just smile all the time and nice guys right nope no no pun intended here right but you have this view I had this view of a pastor it didn't I mean it's just mild meek you know just smiling all the time and just weddings and you don't know the hell I've been through how am I gonna but actually God calls us sometimes to minister to those that we've come out of so we can actually relate to them we can understand them and through this studying his word there started burn something inside of me I didn't know what it was initially until I came across an interesting verse Jeremias and I'm not going to preach for you anymore and he said but your word was in my heart like a burning fire it was shut up in my bones I was weary of holding it back and I said that's my problem I've got this fire of God burning that's why I have a desire like a preach this morning to get the church back into prayer and fasting in the fear of God in the holiness you got that's new chest New Testament Christianity if you want a New Testament power you need a New Testament holiness we've got to get back to the basics and and and and starve the flesh I remember when we used to talk a hundred years ago the church used to talk about fasting a lot now we don't see how quiet it is nobody wants to talk about that it was interesting story pulled up a month ago or so and dropped off some books while I was in Tehachapi and Hector Hector um al met me and he's helping me out Lo and he goes all fasting I'm like oh Lord did I bring this is not gonna go over good he goes this is exactly what people need to hear so I was so encouraged by that in a nutshell fasting starves the flesh stars the fleshly appetites you're starving the thing that's getting you in trouble fast new when Nehemiah fasted he got Direction when Ezra fasted when Moses fasted when Elisha fasted when Paul fast it when Jehoshaphat fasted when Esther fasted you see where this is going see it's in all great men and women of God starving the flesh to be filled with the Spirit of God and somebody got radical they went on a forty day you know who that is right Jesus it's interesting it's interesting you don't even hear of this of him for 30 years he's 12 years old he's gay he stays in Jerusalem and his parents lose him and they go back and find it but you never hear this guy for 30 years and then he walked up to John the Baptist he says I need to be baptized by you can you imagine baptizing can you imagine John the Baptist well what would you say no I need to be baptized by you and jesus said suffer it so that all righteousness would be fulfilled and he was baptized he came up out of the water the Spirit of God descended upon upon him as a dove and he was led into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights too fast and starved the flesh at the Bible says something very interesting it says he came out and the power of the Holy Spirit now you hear about Jesus he goes from obscurity to notoriety you don't hear anything of it now he walks into the temple he opens Isaiah and he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he's called me to preach the gospel to to mend the brokenhearted to cure those who are sick to lead the poor to the gospel he's called me he's anointed he said see I believe that unction that power you want the Holy Spirit of God in your life I'm not talking about weirdness I'm talking about the Holy Spirit we read about in the New Testament Holy Spirit power recalls it requires you a Holy Spirit humility where you humble yourself so you can be filled with God's Spirit so after all of that many many years of speaking finally we were able to plan a church in the lancaster palmdale area and God began to open many doors radio and internet and Fox News you mentioned and so many things that God has just allowed me to speak the same message you heard this morning to get this out and I've noticed it's funny I don't remember who said this quote but it said that people are mortally offended when they come under the sound of Holy Ghost preaching because they've never been exposed to the white light of the gospel so many in the church today they don't hear words like repentance and and the judgment of God and the fear of the Lord and it's foreign to them but it's biblical Christianity and I want my encouragement is to return back to those basics return back to the old past the Bible says choose the old path not the new path cherry choose the old path go back to that so that's really what happened with the church in 2010 we planted that Lancaster California with about 10 people and then just it just continued to grow from there and and then speaking engagements and different things so that's that's everything in a nutshell but here's really one really where I want to get to a few lessons number one I don't know we might have these on the screen actually you don't have to have a testimony I want to really get that point across you don't have to have a testimony so many people say oh if I had a testimony you don't need to actually the Bible encourages you not to the Bible encourages you to live for the Lord for from 12 years old 13 4 to live for God to be on fire for God I'd much rather not have a testimony because we all know the consequences come with it don't we so many people they risk it and they go I'm just gonna keep sinning and they'll have a powerful testimony that's not good you don't have to have that but on the flip side you're never you're never too far gone you're never too far gone I don't know where you're at this evening I don't know if you're if you just got high today if you're coming off of something if you've ruined you've lost it you might go to jail you've lost your kids you don't shame everything's falling apart you're not too far for God you're not too far for God and then the second point God is never to blame God is never to blame the reason I bring this up is we can get on our pity parties myself included I remember many years well if God loved me he would take this away from me if God truly loved me he wouldn't allow me to go through that Amen you we start to blame God and that's a trick of the enemy because the more we blame God the less we can be filled with God's Spirit the less we can do for him because we're always an excuse mode blaming God blaming him when the Bible puts full responsibility back on us as believers and then the third point that I've gleamed from my life is that God will never leave you nor forsake you so you have to start taking God at some of these promises in the Bible the Bible says I will never leave you I will never forsake you you can call on God at 2:00 in the morning who else can you call it 2:00 in the morning not very many people you can call on God you can cry out to God say god I'm dying here I'm losing it here I need you call on him he will answer he says my ear is not heavy my hand is not short I I can save you I can save you but then it goes on to say but your sins have hid my face from you that I cannot see you turn back to me repent and believe and then number four is huge I would say this is one of my top themes when I preach is humble yourself humble yourself under the mighty hand of God you know why humility is so hard because it's supernatural pride is natural pride forget anybody struggle with pride hope everybody puts up their hand right pray it's in all of us it's in all of us pride has to be crushed we have to humble ourselves and it involve saying things like I was wrong just try saying that sometime I was wrong I shared this morning that would end most of the marriage problems I was wrong I take responsibility I shouldn't have done that I humble myself I don't need to get the last word in I don't need to get the last text message in I don't need to be that loud nagging can just humble myself Lord would you use me because the Bible says the humble he teaches his ways I will guide the humble humble yourself under the mighty hand of God in due time he will exalt you it's interesting I love quoting second chronicles as well 7:14 if my people what humble themselves and pray and seek my face I will hear from see your humility sweet smelling aroma to God it's the flesh burning on the altar God says you provide the sacrifice I'll provide the fire put that body on the on the on the on the altar like Romans 12 giving your body a living sacrifice humbling ourselves and it's so hard sometimes we don't spot it the most prideful people think they're humble I remember a story about Muhammad Ali he was on the airplane and he wasn't gonna bet he wasn't gonna put a seatbelt on and the lady said the stewardess mr. Ali you need you need to put that seatbelt on I'm not even put the seatbelt on say no really we're getting ready to take off you need to put that seatbelt on he said I'm not putting this seatbelt on he said Superman don't need no seat belt and she said Superman don't need no airplane but see that's isn't that that's that's see that's a heart of pride that's pride in the Christian walk in the Christian a Christian life I don't I don't need that I don't need God I don't need to repent I don't need to say I'm sorry and God says I love humility the whole verse this morning if you seek me with all of your heart you will find me God that's a promise see you guys need to start taking God at His Word God's Word will not return void his word is absolute truth it's a hill on which to die in a culture that thinks everything is relative God's word stands as a beacon stands as a lighthouse to guide and to direct and even on that note I just I have another story hope you guys are ready for stories tonight it's a story of a battleship that's off the coast of Alaska and they're doing deepwater exercises it's pitch black out and this big battleship sees this light coming at it so signals turn your course 20 degrees starboard and the signal comes back no you turn your course 20 degrees to hold wait a minute here you challenging me I'm the highest-ranking officer in the United States Navy change your course immediately and the signal came back you see the lights he said captain with all due respect change your course this guy is mad as can be he throws down his coffee he says give me that signal and he says I am a battleship and if you do not change your course I'm gonna blow you out of the water and the signal came back again captain with all due respect change your course I'm a lighthouse but see get the significance here you cannot change God's word you cannot alter God's word it's going to sit as a lighthouse it's going to be a beacon of life I don't care what the Supreme Court says I don't care what the school district say I don't care what God God's Word says here I can't change I can't change you change course I can't change course you can't conform it to what you want to say it says my word is like a hammer like a rock like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces it's a it's the fire of God the Word of God the authority of God that's why they said to Jesus no man ever spoke like this man we've never seen anybody speak like this man why because he had authority he had the Word of God and as believer take that and say god your word says you will never leave me you will never forsake me if I humble myself if I empty myself I will be filled with your spirit see humility I God get two houses it isn't so ironic that we have to get to rock bottom before only fine before we finally build our house on the rock at the bottom and jesus said if you hear my word he who hears my word and does it I will liken it to a man who built his house upon the rock and when the rains came when the wind beat upon that house it did not fall because it was built on the rock the solid rock of Jesus Christ you need to stop listening to the media stop listening to friendships that are pulling you in the wrong direction why do we call them friends if they're pulling us back why do we call them oh these are friends if they're pulling us back away from God is the relationship in is your friendship the friendships you're in are they pulling you closer to Christ or drawing you away from them are they building you up or are they pulling you down hard decisions have to be made God says how bad do you want it do you want it bad enough to get rid of that relationship that is destroying you do you want it bad enough to get rid if you want it bad enough to get rid of that addiction that is harming you do you want it bad enough to remove everything out of your life and seek me with all of your heart because that prayer I will hear that heart I will answer that heart cry I will answer Oh God if we could just get the church back on the altars again you remember when we would come and weep at the altar and say God if you don't move if you don't take and this away from me I cannot make it if you don't save my daughter my grandchild Lord I cannot make it I'm crying out to you and God says I hear your cries I will not leave I will not forsake you and I talked about this this morning as well the beautiful word the beautiful word is repentance repentance is ironic I hated this word 20 years ago I hated that repent repentance is changing your mind about sin changing your mind about how you view sin and repenting changing your mind and changing your actions to to seek at heart after God repentance is all throughout the Bible Jesus preached repentance is interesting he said okay disciples go and preach God's love no I love God's love I love God's grace I love God's mercy but before real do you want real lasting change I'm talking to those who want real lasting change it must be preceded by repentance repentance changing the mind about ourselves and how we see ourselves and our lifestyles and saying god this does not honor you I repent and like David David had to be warned by the Prophet David said that he cried out to God and God heard his prayer God know that the heart that the bones you would have broken would rejoice create in me a clean heart renew a right spirit within me read the Psalms look at the heart cry of the people so you must repent you must repent and believe in the gospel no more excuses no more excuses and this was probably the hardest for me because this is what I fought the most because pride comes in and we don't want to admit that we might have been wrong we don't want to admit that there might be a god that is right and I've been disobeying him and God will use situations some of you it's financial some of you it's relational some of you might be health related issues some of you are so far from God you don't even know what to do let me encourage you you don't have to do anything except cry out say God help me help me God please we do you know the heart of the prodigal sons story it's so important because the prodigal son said let me go and spend everything he was a modern parallel would be here he had Vegas he lived it as a high roller in Vegas and then the Bible says when he came to himself he eating with the pigs the only food he could get it was with the swine and he said my father has room enough for me I'll just go back and be a servant see he humbled himself he humbled himself and I love reading the story because you can see the son and the father's waiting for him far off see it's not this view of a father I knew you finally come home it's a father running to him and grabbing his son and saying my son that was dead is now alive you know I think we have a song about that he what I was blind but now I see Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me god I was bit for hell I was going away from you and you reach down in your love and your forgiveness and you said son come home you don't belong here come home daughter you don't belong here but deep repentance has to take place that's a beautiful story with the prodigal son because God you have this image of God the Father waiting for the Sun waiting and that I shared it the second service I'll share with you in case you weren't there but the hardest job the hardest part about pastoring BarNone without anything without anything second is watching people die spiritually with living water just steps away watching them die spiritually with just it's right here would you take Christ would you fully surrender your life I mean god there's so many things I can't even I wish I had more time but when I remember I was praying for a girl to overcome marijuana she was struggling with it and praying for and I said you got to turn from this you got to stop this is not going to lead to a good thing and and and she didn't want to fully surrender I said living waters just steps away marijuana Lisa heroin heroin which leads to a heroin overdose which leads to me doing her funeral in her 20s another lady I was called I'm a young mom to a hotel and not a good part of town she od'd on pain meds and we had to take her little three-year-old out in the and play with the little three although we waited for the corner listen life is real these are real stories God is real God's here to redeem and to set free but you have to come to that point of read of repentance you have to come to that point of repentance so I'm going to do something simple tonight I'm gonna ask those who need to come home those who need to repent need to get their life back on track those who need to maybe come to Christ for the first time I'm gonna be up here with the prayer team and we want to pray for you I'm not in a hurry and we have to remember that no one's gonna stand next to us on the day of judgment no one's gonna stand next to us we're gonna go before God and God's gonna say what did you do with my son because knowing about Jesus is not knowing him correct for example if Billy Graham was sitting right there he's gone now but if he was sitting right there I'd say dr. Graham I know all about you I know your story I know I've read read many biographies I know when you walk down the sawdust trail under the preaching of Mordecai ham I think in the 1940s I know all about you oh this is wonderful you know he would tell me I don't know you see relationship and here's my concern for the church in America as we have religion without relationship I go to church I own a Bible my mom's a Christian I'm good no you're not good I was born in America or not a Christian no have you truly been born again have you repented and believed in the gospel that's the only way Jesus said I am the only way the only truth no one comes to the Father except through me well that's pretty narrow yeah so is gravity tries to plus two still four yes narrow is the road broad is the road of destruction there are a few who go by it and I want to encourage you tonight to repent and believe get back on track God can do you'll be amazed of what God can do with humility the years that the enemy has taken from you God can rebuild the years you've wasted the tears you've lost with your children Tunde who doesn't have tons of regret going oh Lord what have I done God can switch that he can begin to prosper you again he could begin to bless you again not some prosperity preacher auntie I'm not talking about that but I believe in the prosperity of God the blessings of God that God will watch over your family who want heal ready build relationships heal renew relationships with your children he'll give you your position back you'll begin to bless you and honor you but you have to humble yourself humble yourself and come to faith and belief in Christ or rededicate prodigal son come home that I could just get straight to the point Gooding high prodigal son wayward daughter you must come home you must say I'm eating with pigs I'm in a low spot I can't continue to do this I need help and I need prayer and I need God

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 5,616

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Shane Idleman

Id: pZj1j6xBYOA

Length: 42min 13sec (2533 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 05 2018