Identify Strongholds and Clean House | Pastor Shane Idleman

[Applause] [Music] i'm ready to speak if you're ready to listen you sound good before i get to this message though it was interesting last night i spoke about the topic of keep the fire from heaven burning keep the fire from heaven burning and it comes from leviticus 6 12 and the fire on the altar shall never go out it shall always keep keep burning is that interesting in the tabernacle there of the holies of holies and where they would make a sacrifice for the sins of the people that fire could never go out and it was started by god god came down and consumed the sacrifice and said keep that fire of my spirit going basically i'm paraphrasing there but the fire on the altar was to keep going and our application i believe today can be that fire of the holy spirit to keep that going in our hearts and you know people comment even on facebook or they'll tell me but shane fire always had to do with judgment no when you have the fire of god it has to do with a very good thing for the believer if you're not a believer yeah be worried about the fire but if you're a believer the fire of god can be very good because that's where boldness comes from that's where passion comes from that's where wanting to do i have a holy righteous indignation of fire of the holy spirit in my heart that's why we sing songs holy spirit fill me that's actually biblical paul said be filled with the holy spirit it's biblical to say god i want more of you more of your spirit i need that fire john said when he comes he's going to baptize you with the holy spirit and fire there's that fire of god so conviction alert here comes the people who have a problem with that have never experienced it if you don't like talking about the fire of god and the holy spirit that's because you've never experienced it because once you've experienced that you can never go back you can never go back and people say well you talk about the holy spirit too much well we talk about him just as much as scripture does is god the father the holy spirit his son the triune nature of god sometimes there are times to talk about when i'm going through the bible in genesis that's going to start when the stadium is over i'm going to go through the whole bible i want to encourage you to be here i'm excited about that we're going to learn about the old testament minor prophets major prophets levitical priesthood in the in the sacrificial system what does that mean for us today it's going to be very relevant we're going to talk about it we can probably talk about all kinds of things from critical race theory to creation to all types of political hot buttons gay pride month and lgbt agendas and what how does that fit into scripture now i'm already in faith facebook jail so i'm not going to sure be sure how long you know we can put that out there uh you people are their youtube channels are just shut down eric mataxis i don't know if you follow him his youtube channel was just shut down a friend of mine knows him they're going after people and but we cannot uh we cannot capitulate and back away just because they're gonna take down videos so um and god is doing something here but keep that fire burning if you don't have that fire ask god for it lord i want that fire i want i want to be able to sing and fill it people say well shane you can't trust feelings no you don't you can't but god-given feelings are good and god given thank god for feelings can you imagine just having no feelings your baby's born here's your yours your your new baby boy oh thank you put him there what's for dinner i pronounce you husband and wife well all right big deal i don't want to go to honeymoon let's just go home and watch sports there's no feeling so we just come in here it's like a cemetery you're created to experience god as long as those feelings line up with scripture you're on very good ground so what i'm doing now this morning the title is i identifying strongholds and cleaning house okay identify strongholds and clean house this is do not demonize the do not demonize the demonized we're talking about the demonic realm and uh that what they call an aspect of theology is studying the demonic realm and you don't want to put too much emphasis in it but you also don't want to ignore it so this is part two what does it look like if you didn't hear part one please do because this will make a lot more sense if you listen to last week's message where i talked about how demonic influence works and we believe in a demonic realm because jesus did when you believe on me jesus said you will cast out demons how does that work shane well you have to grab a cd on the way out because we talked about that a little bit last week and i'll talk about it more probably uh today of course but identifying strongholds and cleaning house has to do with the demonic realm as well because how demons will work is they will look for open doors in your life and once you open that door now they have a stronghold into your heart so what might be an issue for you might not be an issue for me i've always told people this you can line up marijuana xanax whatever on my kitchen sink and i'll throw in the trash in a month but don't put a cold six-pack of ipa in my refrigerator where i have to look at it every single day right that's going to be a different come on let's be honest you guys don't play church with me this morning you all have you all have that little i mean you can put or honestly you could fill our pantry with oreos and donuts and captain crunch all kind of never even touch it but you put a nice big dark chocolate on the sink with a little thing of peanut butter by it that's going to get tough and so the enemy knows and that's why when we talk about maybe what is what is in your family history it's because there could be that same type of predisposition so if you ever hear that my dad struggled with and my grandpa struggled with and you can look at where there might be strongholds in your life that you have to identify and pull down and and not give the enemy a foothold into your that area of life and that's why with with young kids even as they get older we want to guard them in the area of sexual purity and what they're exposed to at a young age because you can open that door and that door is ugly especially where things are going and i talked to someone as well this week who knows somebody that is has embraced you know transgenderism and we often wonder where did that come from i mean it was never you know people struggle when i was younger but this huge push and i believe we've we can open a door to that demonic realm we start to watch hollywood and these superstars and the kids they if they don't have the spirit of god in them they're going to be drawn to oh this is cool this is the next thing this is kind of rebellious i like it and we they begin to open the their door by their mind thinking well what is this about maybe i should consider it maybe and that's how the demonic realm works is there are strongholds in our life so if you struggle with anger guess where he's gonna fight shoot some fiery darts in this area of anger and upsetting that area if you struggle with you name it i mean i could sit up here for the next 10 minutes and fill in the blank of different types of sins that are out there and what i decide to do this week is list some questions and i'm hoping i can get through it where if we answer them correctly it can identify strongholds in our life and i went to the top 10 questions and i said oh we need to talk about the top 15 and now i'm at the top 22. so i'm hoping hoping i can get to these because when we can identify these areas and confess and repent you'll see tremendous healing take place do you know what's often the difference between you see let's say someone at the altar weeping over their sin and being set free rather than someone in the back or the p or the balcony or over here over there that has not been set free confession it's often confession and repentance it sets them free and the scripture i want to look at this morning before we take a spiritual assessment that's going to be very helpful really a spiritual assessment is this here's what went wrong here's how we fix it here's what went wrong and here's how we fix it and as a pastor that should be a goal of every sermon is to point people back to christ of course spurgeon was a master at this and at the same time here's what went wrong here's how to fix fix it they call practical application and if you ever go to churches that seem dead sometimes or that you're you say oh i'm not getting much out of that it's often i because they don't give you practical application you know i've heard pastors spend a month in leviticus and i leave they're going boy that's great that the 12 tribes were camped out here and this happened and the the holies of holies was this and the brazen altar and that's wonderful but how is it going to help me get through my marriage issues oh dead silent shane you have marriage issues who doesn't who doesn't you have two sinners trying to get together praise god we're doing great but the first year we were gonna we were we were ready for i don't know divorce court that first year because you know you i'm single she's single like oh we're just so humble and you get married and all that is thrown out the door you realize just how sinful you actually are i like to go to bed early why don't oh well how's this gonna work she makes a big thing of birthdays i never did and so it's just this trying to work together and the enemy will use those things also in your life he wants the marriage to fall apart so if you understand his tactics that he wants he's going after the man often in the family that's why you don't see a lot of men leading in the prayer meetings or men at the altar or early morning worship you see men getting so distracted by other things because they're called to be that spiritual leader so he's going to go after them many times he's also going to go after those who are in ministry and knowing and then he wants to go after your marriage can you imagine if i can get the men not following god if i can get the marriages falling apart you might have a nation like we see today the condition we're in now is directly related to the health of the family that's why we're we're experiencing everything we're experiencing is because the family unit was destroyed long ago and that's why his attack is still on there i mean it was amazing to see some of the things that came out in father's day people were offended because we can't call it father's day why not some binary name that's not offensive i'm starting to get a pretty offended myself so if this is about being offended then we need to change some things and get back to what god's word says oh i'm offended i'm offended get over it the gospel will offend you it will cut to the heart god says my word is like a hammer it's like a fire it's like a sword all of those things are meant to destroy something and hurt and then all ultimately to build back up and but we shifted well who's going to get offended when have we when we need to stop and say am i offending god because once you can align that up and fix that problem everything else will fall into place and so identifying these strongholds we're going to look at psalm 32 very quickly psalm 32 beginning in verse 1. i usually use the new king james version and i put the bullet points here i'll look at blessed now here's what you need to maybe retrain your mind because we hear that word we think of bling bling for the young adults the older ones you're like what's he talking about bread dough you know if you're older the the money bless oh i'm going to be blessed but really the bible says that you are happy you're favored you're filled with joy when you're blessed of god so some of you let me encourage you this morning you might not ever have a big savings account and you can still be blessed of god because if you take a survey of most christians in let's say underground church in china the middle east they're not wealthy but they are blessed and so we have to remember blessed is favored filled with joy so blessed is that person filled with joy whose transgression is forgiven as far as the east is from the west god forgives those sins and what not only is it forgiven whose sin is covered we have to remember this when god covers our sin why do we keep bringing it up meaning our past and that happens a lot in marriage well remember five years ago this and this and and god has covered up our sin blessed is the man whom the lord does not impute iniquity that word means guilty god does not call you guilty anymore if you know jesus christ you've confessed him as lord and savior truly have and not just trusting in your parents or you go to a good school or you own a bible but have truly confessed him as lord and savior and he has saved you you are no longer guilty before god because of what jesus christ did it's very freeing it's very um you get very emotional when you sing those worship songs understanding what he has done for you and in whose spirit there is no deceit meaning once that confession takes place there's no area of of of deceit in your heart because those those sins have been forgiven but here's the contrast but when i kept silent moving on in the in the chapter but when i kept silent isn't that interesting when i kept silent about my sin silent about my transgression when i didn't deal with it and what the enemy wants to do is often keep that sin covered up but when you bring it to the light when you expose it it loses its its power in a very significant way when i have kept silent my bones grew old through my groanings all day long have you ever been such a pain where your body hurts it's like you feel it in your bones or there's a there's a groaning and there's a there's a a a desperation there's a there's a pain that is hard to explain because we're keeping silent with our sin for day and night your hand was heavy upon me so sometimes people feel the heaviness of god instead of running running to him they run from him they can't get away from that heaviness as they live in disobedience and you know friends and family member as they're living in that disobedience they feel the heaviness of god they feel the pressure of life that sin just it's a it's a burden you aren't designed to carry it's a very heaviness a heaviness that rests on your shoulders and that's why you're not joy-filled filled with joy that's why there's not that that excitement about the things of god because you're carrying that burden and and pride tells us to just keep an eye and god says let it go bring it to me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer vitality is energy uh there's there's energy and there's enthusiasm about the things of god and and all that though is is turned into a drought and we're actually going through a very big drought right now i don't know if you've been um watching what's going on in the different dams and the different lakes and you realize we are so reliant on god that people have no idea i mean if you have another dry winter is what they call it you're going to start replacing your grass with decomposed granite you're going to start draining your pools and making them look like flower gardens when it starts to get the drought and and he said here that all of my my passion my energy my zeal feels like i'm in a drought thirsty and don't know how to satisfy that thirst but he said here i acknowledged my sin i acknowledge my sin to you god and my iniquity i have not hidden so i'm not necessarily telling you to go tell everyone sometimes you have to be careful you have to be strategic because you don't want the gossipers and the backbiters to take that and then to hurt you with it or to use that against you but there has to be a confession of sin to god and even to those who you have wrong probably maybe your spouse or someone and and when that confession is acknowledged and it's no longer hidden he said i will confess my transgressions to the lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin and then he puts on there say la that that's like an agreement with god that let this be done and so there's a tremendous burden that is lifted when that confession takes place and you bring something to the light you say hey i'm struggling with this would you pray for me and there's something lifted because that demonic realm no longer has that power on you because it's keeping the dark hidden things in secret and it grows it strengthens something about sin is it never remains static you know what that word means it's not never neutral sin is never neutral in your life did you know that it's either growing or it's withering depending on whether you're feeding or starving it and so if a person is dealing with the sin and they keep it hidden and they keep it hidden it'll just keep growing and growing and that's why the bible talks about removing even a root of bitterness because that root what happens when a root starts and that's where i believe a lot of things come from problems in churches and marriages and relationships is that root of bitterness and it's not confessed because pride won't let us confess it because we're bitter and if we're bitter i'm not going to confess this it's their problem it's their problem or unconfess sexual sin you talk to people like i'll just you know at some point i'll just get over this god will set me free well you also have to do something on your end or other types of sins if they're constantly pushed down and not brought to the surface it will eventually cause a very very dark thing to happen in your life because sin grows in darkness and repentance leads to freedom freedom and so i wanted you to know this morning how we open up the the side room often the prayer team would love to pray for you even if you're a child a teenager a young adult we want to and you don't have to confess that specifically you can just say i need to confess something in my heart to god would you pray for me and i believe we can just set people free this morning because once confession takes place you leave here and there's a new joy there's a new there's a new uh excitement about life now now see now you're going to want to come to wednesday nights or sunday mornings or whenever we do things and there's a passion i've got to get to the house of god i've got to experience god because i've been cleansed i've been set free and like david said after a year can you imagine committing adultery and then killing the spouse that's what david lived under that guilt for theologians are somewhat divided but probably a year probably a year and he was confronted and he finally confessed and he said oh did god would you return to me the joy of my salvation my bones have been broken and god created me a clean heart renew a right spirit within me god i am broken before you and i confess before almighty god and now some beautiful words come out in the psalms that david is now writing from a broken contrite heart that has confessed its sin and you compare that with the other psalms he's where he's living in darkness and depravity and the full weight of his sin is on him it's like oh my even the bones are are hurting and the tears my tears on my on my on my bed have not stopped they're like a river and and you see the contrast from being set free from the bondage of sin now it doesn't mean that now you will live perfectly but it does mean that you expose what is going on that work of satan and now healing can take place and i have to encourage people once a week on this sometimes there's so many different varieties of how this could apply but let's say somebody is is is being defeated on a stronghold time and time again let's just say marijuana throw it out there because that's very relevant prevalent today as soon as they legalized it i knew watch out here we go and now you see what they're dealing with the valley removing cartels and different things but let's just take that for example and but i talked to another person who's been set free said i've never had a desire i've never touched it again i can't believe this is amazing this person hears it and they get discouraged and i don't know how this works i just know that god doesn't always set people free sometimes he does but sometimes that stronghold has to come down one brick at a time that wall has to come down one brick at a time sometimes god brings the the demolisher and you just demolish that that brick wall but sometimes it's one brick at a time one right choice at a time and you begin to remove that stronghold by prayer and fasting this kind cometh not out except by prayer and fasting and petitioning god and pressuring the demonic realm and pressuring and working it and then the whole thing begins to come down and unravel but he keeps you discouraged because you can't you can't relate to the other person who's just been set free but sometimes it's a fight for some people it's a struggle god wouldn't you deliver me from this but sometimes through that journey god becomes even more real to you and that relationship becomes deeper and stronger i'm reading a small booklet actually i just finished it's called hunger for revival by oswald j smith he said it's a very common experience to find souls kneeling at the altar and calling upon god with great anguish but who failed to receive anything the prayer is not answered so he says what is the trouble the trouble is what the prophets used to say your iniquities have separated you and me god is saying your iniquities your sin has separated you from from me and you and i cannot hear he said my arm is not too long that i cannot save my ear not too heavy that i cannot hear but your sins your iniquities have separated me from you so that i i cannot hear because of that separation and it's an interesting concept but when we hold unconfessed sin in it blocks that line of communication with god and i've seen so many people over the years that's why it breaks my heart they're coming in and they're even sometimes at the altar they're praying god please set me free what is going on what is going on their prayers are not being answered it's because they're not going to let that go it's interesting the living water is just a step away and people don't want to drink of it and so i want to just give you some questions to think about i can even post these or share them but these are areas where the enemy will come in and gain access and allow and allow you to be in his clutches if you as it were or gripped by fear grip by anxiety not seeing god move in your life because of these areas so number one have we forgiven have we forgiven do we cherish grudges in our heart and refuse reconciliation and so many christians hear that in one ear out the next but if you really study forgiveness it's an amazing concept because god says you forgive others as christ i've forgiven you in christ jesus it's it's pretty it's a big deal who are we to say no i'm not going to forgive and then he gives that parable of the the person who was forgiven a little bit and then he went and got this actually forgiven a lot and then he went and got this guy rang his throat was going to throw him in jail because he owed him a little and that master said you foolish you wicked servant i'm going to to send you to the torturers because you didn't forgive in your own heart and so that unforgiveness can ah can stifle prayer like nothing nothing else that we know of because it's it's a wrong heart it's holding animosity in so are there are there any grudges that you cherish are you refusing to reconcile with someone that can be a stronghold number two if you're saying praise god for number two let's get off number one you fill in the blank do we get angry and impatient and irritated with others are these uprisings happening often within us now who doesn't struggle with these things from time to time and i hope you realize that if you're struggling with something that's a lot different than a lifestyle of unconfessed sin and unrepentant sin where you actually enjoy these things or these things are a mark of who you are and you're not going to repent of it and i've talked over the years it was one of the most shocking things to me i would talk to men at conferences you know let's say about anger instead of repenting you the excuses were endless well you don't know my spouse no i don't you don't know my situation what you're angry you don't know what i'm going through you don't know what i put up with you don't know what i give you don't know and always the excuse always the excuse that's what the lifestyle of anger is or my favorite i'm just german it's in my blood i'm just irish the frightener is shame that's in me and they're proud of it they're proud of it and there's nothing to be proud of when it comes to anger the wrong type of anger it is something that will destroy your family it will destroy your marriages and it has to be confessed of and saying i'm an angry man or i'm an angry woman i i struggle with anger i lash out i hurt people with my tone or with my and once that confession takes place there's a cleansing that also takes place number three are there any feelings of jealousy are there any feelings of jealousy when another person is preferred before you and that can often turn into a bitterness animosity and jealousy comes in often in many different forms many different ways we can start to become jealous of other people and then number four are we offended easily there's a spirit of offense happening in our culture especially among young young people everything offends them and are we offended easily because what that is is they don't want to be convicted i'm offended by that i'm offended by this i'm offended it's all about them number five have you been dishonest have we been dishonest is your business above reproach how you handle things is it above reproach is there is there any shenanigans going on in finances are we dishonest in this area number six have we been gossiping about people gossip slander the en the devil loves it god hates it and maybe to give you the definition gossip is telling someone something that's true they just don't need to know slander is saying something that's not true and you're slandering them and hurting them to usually to put them down to elevate you and some of you might be saying i'm dealing with a lot of stuff on this list and who doesn't struggle with a lot of these things do we criticize others are we unloving harsh and in and severe in our tone basically a fault finder well i've never heard of this quite in this church in a long time where's the pen but guys we encourage we're digging deep we're digging deep to experience the wells of revival and change we've got to dig deep you've got to get you got to dig deep to get to the water i don't know what it is out here but when i used to be in in construction though you can find water maybe at 30 40 50 feet sometimes 300 feet because you have to dig down to find that the jewel the the golden things that god wants for us sometimes take a lot of digging so are are we unloving are we harsh in our tones number eight do we rob god have we stolen time or things that belong to him have we robbed god and i thought about that a lot this week like what exactly would that look like maybe because if we're god calls us to be a good steward and we're not stewarding ourselves or our resource resources wisely we could be robbing god and malachi the prophet talked about that how have we robbed you god they said have we robbed you and god says with giving not giving of yourself but also your money and if you've been coming here even at a short amount of time you know we don't talk about this topic often it's usually because of what people think with the money in church so we said from the get-go we're not even going to mention it the true givers will give but what i struggle with i'll just tell you here's one of my my faults as a pastor you guys ready for this is because i don't like this subject so much in the church i don't talk about it much and it it it's doing you a disservice it is actually doing you a disservice because when you start to give back to god what they call tithe when you start to give back to god it really is a heart check we see what really owns us by our pocketbook by our checkbook and our calendar you look at those two things so i've had to struggle with that over the years to make sure i'm talking enough about this and that's why i'm glad when i go through the bible i'll be able to bring it up more but because of the just maybe growing up the money aspect of church you know it's every service come on there's i know there's 10 of you that give a thousand dollars today come on we got to get those kids some air conditioning those little sneakers are all hot over there and if you could just find it in your heart to give a little bit oh and then after the service i'm going to do another collection and we're going to do a giving fund and we're going to have a big thermometer or whatever they call a big thing here here we're going to hit our goal up here every week what can you commit to before you leave could you fill out our commitment card and they spend 30 minutes you want me what yeah we do oh yeah we do have air conditioning by the way but the iron the funny thing about that is it's a swamp cooler that doesn't work too good in the summer so we are getting quotes on putting a good air conditioning unit in that building next door so if anyone's convicted i you know just sharing that with you and i i i personally never like passing the plate it's kind of you know some churches do it i'm not saying it's not good to do my i might get to heaven and god say saying you really miss it on the passing plate thing but it's just the way it feels people makes people feel and and and the things like that but giving can also be a form of worship to god so when you when you when you give to god giving is a form of worship time money resources energy all those things and if we never talk about it you miss a very important biblical principle about giving back to god and even the tithe that is you know 10 percent is where that number comes from and i love how the the people who are convicted about this topic i always come up and say pastor you know we don't live under that anymore well god loves a cheerful giver it actually might be 10 more than 10 percent how do you know but see they use it as an excuse because most people generally speaking will give about one percent that doesn't hurt too much but you start talking about 10 that's a car payment see that's where it hurts and but i think we should structure our life in such a way that god's bill is the first bill if i can't pay god if i can't pay god if i can't pay god what i pay my car payment we have a problem there so we've always from the day we got married to make sure we live in such a way that the 10 right off the top before even taxes or would take home however you want to do it but that is to god and if we can't make it based on that then we need to live below our means even more so and it's been hard it's not easy so i feel like there's so many people that could be helped in the area of finances if they would put god first and they would begin to give back to god and it's not that the church needs it it what it is it's a gauge to the heart because if we have a type pocketbook that means we have a tight heart we don't what it boils down to also is i can't i can't give god that much because i don't trust that he's going to see me through it doesn't boil down to trust issue we we went through this morgan remember 2009 i stopped paying tithe for about i don't know a month until i was convicted and realized that's not going to help because it was it was a very low point in construction we were pulling out a savings every month all the time and i realized oh wait a minute i'm i'm just not trusting god thinking oh shane you got it you got to hold this you got to keep some because i i can't help you now and i don't trust you god to provide so it has to do with the trust issue financial issue what's really got our heart because we should be able to give back to god and so i'm not a person who teaches you have to give the tithe but i think it's a good place to start the only thing you'll find in the new testament is that god loves a cheerful giver and if you want to get technical if you go back even in the old testament it was more than 10 it's probably upwards of what 30 percent i think by the time they gave us certain things and first fruits and all these all these different things so back to this point that wasn't supposed to take so long do we rob god because if a person i believe and i do believe this if a person is coming to church let's say this is your chur whatever the church and they're not tithing they're not giving there's some type of issue there there's something going on in the heart and i've asked people and they'll be honest with me they'll say i i just i just don't feel good about giving to the church i or you know i'm in a tight spot financially right now or which is valid in our mind shane i'm serving a lot of my time at the church but that doesn't override monetary giving to god and who's supposed to pay for the lights in the air you know it costs money to run a facility that we all enjoy so that's why we all invest into it fortunately for this church we have really good givers as far as people that give from their heart the church from day one when we first started the church we've never ever been in a financial crisis even through covid we actually went up not down and we've it's been god's blessing that but just to be open with you that's why we don't talk about it too now i don't think we're going to change much as far as we love the box in the back it's it's encouraging we're not going to change a lot but when i get to portions of scripture about tithing about giving i'll definitely dial in on that a little bit because i think many of you are missing the blessings of god because of this area and it's it's not a it's not a at least what god is talking to people over the years often those who are hurting financially now this is a broad statement so don't take this the wrong way often those who are always going through financial difficulties and things are often not givers but we do know that god will bless those who blesses others who give financially and 10 is a good number it hurts a little bit like david said i will not give god nothing which cost me nothing it was so you read the old testament all these people here you can take my lamb for the sacrifice but the lamb has like two legs and is about ready to die well it's like i don't think it's anybody here so don't worry but so and i i told when we first moved out here i told susie in the office let's just stop stop drop-offs for a while because people would drop off what they don't want to take to the dump that's a church hey i've got this this tv it works great i mean it's from 1982 but it's you know you would you take it no it's okay i've got this couch and i really think you would work great for the church i mean it's 28 years old but you know but see why don't we ever want to drop off i got a new couch could a family use it it reminds me of that story of that farmer boat this his cow had two baby calves and he told his wife this one still makes me laugh he says hey honey we're giving one to the lord one cow is the lord's and one is ours and she's oh that is so spiritual thank you bless thank you lord for my husband's decision and about a year later one of the cows died unexpectedly and the husband came home he said honey i've got some bad news the lord's cow died the lord's cow died i don't think poverty is a curse i think that some people you know god blesses either way paul says i know how to obey i know how to bound i know in all states god wants us to be content no matter where we have but i do believe that financial blessings can come on those who are good stewards of his resources that we shouldn't think that well just the poor you are the more spiritual you are now poverty has its challenges but so does riches and as i said in the other countries and third world countries they are living at very poverty levels christians and so we can never gauge it on that however i believe that part of god blessing a person can deal how much less stress do you have when finances are better than worse come on it really affects us it really affects how we live all right i'll get off that one number nine are we worldly are we worldly oh i'm not going to get through all these questions am i well it makes part two easy but anyway are these questions helping a little bit to gauge you know what's in our heart so are you worldly unless i go real quick do you love the glitter of this life so what what he means by worldly and what the bible means is do i love the things of the world more than the things of god am i enamored by the things of the world and like young adults their music they love their this they love but they'll go to church now and then but they're enamored by the things world or if you're older they will call this carnal if you're carnal it will kill your relationship with god do we take little things that do not belong to us how many times have i left the church with some in my pocket you know you feel convicted about things that don't belong to us and we have to be careful in this area as well do we harbor a spirit of bitterness towards others that word is interesting if you if you the word harbor you can picture the the ocean parking a vessel in a harbor so do we harbor do we stay in port do we do we hold on to it are we going to camp out here that's where that term can come from too i'm going to i'm going to hold this bitterness in my heart now most of us struggle with this don't you do you struggle with bitterness i mean if i were to be honest i'd say weekly i struggle with bitterness weekly but what do you do with it even coming here i was dealing with it a little bit i hope such and such isn't there today oh it's so difficult don't worry it's nobody here right you're off the hook but coming there and saying lord just take these thoughts captive i love that person let me pray for them let me pray with them god changed my heart i just confess that that is wrong and then the spirit of god begins to move my heart again but if i hold that in and try to avoid them or try to this and i'm going to deal with that i'm going to live that way for the rest of my life if i don't deal with that now and so these things we all struggle with but what do we do with them that's why that verse last week was so important take your thoughts captive and confession takes place and then when that confession takes place now now you just love everyone there's no i can i can truly say let me think about it before i say but i can truly say i know i don't have a bitterness or root of bitterness with anybody at this church i can praise god i can say that even the difficult people hold on i can be difficult i'm not naive i can be difficult we all have cracks in the armor we all have little inconsistencies we all can get on each other's nerves and that's why even when people leave the church sometimes say why are you leaving well this well welcome to the family grow up and stay and work through it so you're supposed to work through the issues now if a church is dying or they're going liberal or they're not filled with the spirit of god and you need to get out get out and run for cover i agree but most of the times we can work through issues i would say easily 80 percent of the people who have left this church because of issues with other people didn't have to go because that's how you grow and if you notice when you talk about it it's hard but you talk about you come out stronger like i truly love that personality but what was that all about but the enemy allows that root of bitterness to continue to grow into your heart and you never experience freedom so some type of forgiveness needs to take place this morning i would encourage you to do so and don't get mad at me i just pulled this off a piece of of paper from revival and the reason i did that this book on revival so interesting because it talks about all the different revivals that were taking place in the early 1900s in russia and um uh he just this guy just traveled it was like they would feel they would fill these auditoriums three four thousand people no advertisement just a word of mouth getting out and he came back to america he's american they asked him why isn't this happening here and i know i i highlighted i might use it in a sermon sometime so oh well here he goes now but he said there's no hunger he said there are people walking 20 miles or taking their their horse and their their buggy whatever they you know you're talking 100 years ago 200 miles from here to bishop and they would come and they would just be at the service all day they'd stay for both services their kids would be there they would they would eat together and there was there's a hunger for i have to find god now hey if i don't get done by an hour and a half i'm hungry toking stomach to be quiet and focus on the things of god but there wasn't hunger but he also said there wasn't confession the american church is very prideful 100 years ago hopefully it doesn't happen today as much right of course it still does but he said nobody wants to confess anything they think they've got it all all done right they're doing church right oh that other church is the problem we're the right denomination we're very smart we're very intelligent and and we we we have it all down and this this knowledge puffs up have we wronged anyone and failed to make it right that's a biggie guys what i'm trying to do is help you i'm trying to help you experience the power of a cleansed heart i've had to deal with most of these things are you worried or anxious do we fail to trust god who's had to repent during that of covid wow you look at cnn you think the world is falling apart and it is but who's your anchor see the more i haven't looked i haven't watched any of that stuff in months i haven't followed any of that and i feel 10 times better and then you know what the critical heart tells me but pastor you got to know what's going on got to know what's going on to some degree yes but not three hours a day what's going on in here and here and here and here and here there there there the things that don't even apply to us here and we get all worked up about things so are you worried are you anxious repented that this morning are you guilty of immorality do we allow our minds to harbor sin immorality take thoughts captive or do we entertain the thoughts and act it are we true in our statements or do we exaggerate and convey false impressions have we lied the exaggerator doesn't think they're lying and that is lying exaggerating things and god's really worked in our hearts even in my heart too with with churches you know in america how how do we rate churches what do they all the number one question i get asked no matter where i go without a doubt here comes i'm just waiting for the question oh how big is your church what size how many members go there what's your annual budget and we wonder why we're not experiencing revival and so we try to actually downplay numbers and downplay things and that's why i prayed this morning god don't let me preach from pride or anger this morning because i've got a lot of those that can work against me and something i feel released to tell you because i prayed about it with god is in in this area of pride in numbers is it's amazing how when you just shut up about those things humble yourself most churches are are taking away services and we're going to be adding them because of what god is doing and i think we can take pride in what god is doing because that's all him paul said if i boast let me boast in what jesus christ has done we can boast in what god is doing this is amazing what god is doing the lies that are being changed people talking about in different counties about what god is doing here and he just it's just amazing what he is doing as a group of people who submit and surrender to him this is why i know it can't just be me because god looks at all of our hearts this is a joint effort remember i'm just the loudmouth we still need the hands and the feet and the heart to do it the body of christ it's not the mouth it's not the ears it's not it's it's the whole body of christ coming together and being united do you murmur and complain [Music] that is a hard one especially when we have certain leaders in office that might be removed here shortly praise god [Applause] [Music] i have a guy that's still on me thinking he he told me a year ago i need to run for governor and i'm like that is not in my wheelhouse and he said i'm disobeying god because it's a prophetic word i don't think so i think you missed it i don't know where that came from but it was just seemed to flow could you imagine the assault i mean it's not only that but the different there's different callings and we have to pray for this next person and we can there's a possibility there's a possibility that that that bruce jenner could be your next governor he's conservative and now this video is going to be banned because i didn't say she in the right name but folks we need to be in prayer these are these are big decisions big issues are we neglecting reading and applying god's word are you neglecting reading and applying god's word have you failed to confess christ openly have you felt to confess christ openly have we lost our first love are we no longer on fire for god are we committing the sin of prayerlessness oh see here's the key i'm going to end here real shortly if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged did you know that the bible talks about and i'll get to that maybe at some point but judgment starts in the house of god so if we judge ourselves if we come clean god would not have to judge us and this is not in the sense of of hell but this is a type of judgment that god has to do on a disobedient people where paul said actually they took communion in an unworthy manner and many of them were sick and dead from among them because they did things in a worthy manner and ananias and sapphira were christians were believers but god struck them dead there was a judgment on their lying heart and god will not put up with sin in the camp often often like aiken it's generally one sin in our life that is hindering things one major thing that we are not confessing that is hindering things and you know who aiken was he took of these of the spoils of jericho i believe it was and he hid these what's wrong with this great robe and this gold and or silver and he hid these things one sin in the camp caused defeat in in israel's army there is sin in the camp god said and we have to deal with that we have to look at that we have to confess it matthew henry said if god turns away our prayers we have reason to suspect it is for some sin we are harboring in our hearts now this is not always the case i know that but you know and i know that often it is the case did you know that god says he i won't even answer your prayers husbands if you're not treating your wives correctly who the son sets free is free indeed i might say that half dozen times today because when you get that you realize that i am no longer bound under the the sin of shame and guilt i don't have to walk defeated yes there is warfare yes there is a battle but i can strengthen myself in the lord and get back up and fight again and get back up and fight again in the who the sun sets free is free indeed there's freedom in the confession of sin [Music] god almighty says i will not enter answer your prayers unless you are right before your wife so we have to say like david search me oh god search me and see is there any wicked way in me and that's why i love that song we sing sometimes something has to break have you been hearing the news something has to break i don't know what it is but something has to break it says holy spirit move when you have your way something has to break so tear down every lie set the wrong thing right and when you have your way something's got to break and that's where you're going to see the flames of revival coming up in your own heart again the passion for god the desire for god the fire forgot more of god i've got to have more of god because i've been set free of the bondage of sin in my life that's been holding me captive when you confess that before god almighty god sets you free [Applause] [Music] but i also want to throw that out there to those this morning who you don't truly know jesus you've never repented of your sin and confessed him as christ and confess him as lord and savior and we hear that term a lot i've used it you know except christ have you not heard that before except would you not accept christ but i think we need to start crying out oh christ except me oh christ accept me see that was the difference from old old preachers 100 200 years ago they would preach that hard and tell people he's you don't accept christ like oh would you please accept him christ accept me a sinner i need to be saved by grace i need to be broken before you oh christ would you accept me i come to you with all my guilt with all my shame i lay them bare at the altar christ except me and my brokenness and depravity without you you will not i will not be set free christ please accept me see now you come as a broken undone sinner whose only whose only hope is a justifying savior instead of some person says oh i guess i'll accept him whatever i'll try poor little jesus sitting on the corner you can be on my team i guess see how the heart is different it's a heart and we've got away from that in the church and they start to would you just accept jesus please just come and accept jesus please over here he's all by himself that's not the bible picks depicts a whole different scenario that we cry out to him if the devil can talk the angels out of heaven he can talk you into hell so be careful who you listen to i don't know who i borrowed that from someone i don't recall who i'm going to try to find out if the devil can talk the angels out of heaven he can talk you into hell be careful who or what you listen to but you know i deal with pride you could say or i'm dealing with this i need i need prayer for this or the altar is going to be open as well you can come up to the altar if you need to exit you can exit quietly out the back exit i know we've got the other service here starting here shortly but we don't want to be in a hurry like aiken we want to identify that sin there's if there's sin in the camp it will it will hurt your marriage it will hurt you especially if there's unconfessed let's say pornography in the home that will destroy begin to tear apart brick by brick the relationship and confession needs to take place and you and you don't have to pray with someone necessarily you can go straight to to the throne room of grace you can find yourself at this altar you can stay in your pew whatever it takes i think it's important to get our hearts right before god i'm confessing these things in my life that are not right and you watch when you expose it two things will happen you'll have the joy of the lord again but watch out here comes the enemy we've seen it nine times out of ten as soon as somebody starts to deal with something the enemy comes in and latches on and wants you to to take you deeper into it [Music] pieces

Channel: Westside Christian Fellowship

Views: 1,972

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Westside Christian Fellowship, Westside Christian Fellowship Leona Valley, Leona Valley, Shane Idleman, Pastor Shane Idleman, WCF

Id: 3LCvOd7d4Rc

Length: 57min 20sec (3440 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021