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  IDENTIFY STRONGHOLDS AND CLEAN HOUSE (VIDEO)
  by Shane Idleman
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of keeping the fire of
the Holy Spirit burning in our hearts, drawing parallels to the
perpetual fire on the altar in Leviticus. It highlights the need for
boldness, passion, and a righteous indignation fueled by the Holy
Spirit. The speaker encourages seeking more of God's Spirit, confessing
sin, identifying strongholds, and cleaning house to experience true
freedom and revival.
Scripture References: Leviticus 6:12, Matthew 3:11, Psalm 139:23, 1 John 1:9, James 5:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Galatians 5:16, Ephesians 4:26, 1 Peter 5:8

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of keeping the fire of the Holy
Spirit burning in our hearts, drawing parallels to the perpetual fire on
the altar in Leviticus. It highlights the need for boldness, passion,
and a righteous indignation fueled by the Holy Spirit. The speaker
encourages seeking more of God's Spirit, confessing sin, identifying
strongholds, and cleaning house to experience true freedom and revival.

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CONTENT
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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 burning. Isn't 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
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, a 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 gonna baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire. There's that fire of God.

So conviction alert, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Here it 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 them just as much as scripture does. It's 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 gonna start when the stadium is over. I'm gonna
go through the whole Bible.

I wanna encourage you to be here. I'm excited about that. We're gonna
learn about the Old Testament, minor prophets, major prophets, Levitical
priesthood and the sacrificial system.

What does that mean for us today? It's gonna be very relevant. We're
gonna 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 how does that fit into scripture? Now, I'm already in Facebook jail,
so I'm not gonna be sure how long we can put that out there. People,
their YouTube channels are just shut down. Eric Metaxas, I don't know if
you follow him, his YouTube channel is just shut down.

A friend of mine knows him. They're going after people. But we cannot
capitulate and back away just because they're gonna take down videos.

So, 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 to be able to sing and feel 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? You know, your baby's born,
here's 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 on a 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 Identifying
Strongholds and Cleaning House. Okay, identify strongholds and clean
house.

This is do not demonize the demonized. We're talking about the demonic
realm, 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're gonna 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 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 gonna be a different, come
on, let's be honest.

You guys don't play church with me this morning. You all have that
little, I mean, you can put, honestly, you could fill our pantry with
Oreos, and donuts, and Captain Crunch, all kinds, you'll 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 gonna get tough.

And so the enemy knows, and that's why when we talk about maybe 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 not
give the enemy a foothold into that area of life. And that's why 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 has
embraced transgenderism, and we often wonder, where did that come from?
I mean, it was never, people struggled when I was younger, but this huge
push, and I believe we can open a door to that demonic realm. We start
to watch Hollywood and these superstars, and the kids, if they don't
have the spirit of God in them, they're gonna be drawn to, oh, this is
cool, this is the next thing, this is kind of rebellious, I like it, and
they begin to open 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 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 decided 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 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 balcony or over here or over there that
has not been set free? Confession. It's often confession and repentance
that sets them free.

And the scripture I wanna look at this morning, before we take a
spiritual assessment that's gonna 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 it.

They call it practical application. And if you ever go to churches that
seem dead sometimes, or that you say, oh, I'm not getting much out of
that, it's often because they don't give you practical application. I've
heard pastors spend a month in Leviticus, and I leave there going, boy,
that's great that the 12 tribes were camped out here, and this happened,
and the holies of holies was this, and the brazen altar, and ah, that's
wonderful, but how's it gonna help me get through my marriage issues?
Uh-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 ready for, I don't know, divorce court. That first
year, because I'm single, she's single, like, oh, we're just so humble,
and you get married, and all that is throwing out the door.

You realize just how sinful you actually are. I like to go to bed early.
Well, I 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 men at early morning worship. You see men getting
so distracted by other things because they're called to be that
spiritual leader, so he's gonna go after them many times. He's also
gonna go after those who are in ministry, 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 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
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
ultimately to build back up. But we shifted, well, who's gonna get
offended? 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 the strongholds, we're gonna look at
Psalm 32 very quickly.

Psalm 32, beginning in verse one. I usually use the New King James
Version, and I put the bullet points here I'll look at. Blessed, 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 money, blessed, oh, I'm gonna be blessed. But
really, the Bible says that you are happy, you are favored, you are
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 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 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, 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 deceit in your heart, because those sins
have been forgiven. But here's the contrast. But when I kept silent,
moving on 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
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 in such a pain
where your body hurts? It's like you feel it in your bones, or there's a
groaning, there's a desperation, 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, and instead of 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 burden you aren't designed to carry. It's a
very 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 excitement about the things of God, because you're
carrying that burden and pride tells us to just keep it in, and God
says, let it go, bring it to me. My vitality was turned into the drought
of summer.

Vitality is energy. There's energy and there's an enthusiasm about the
things of God. And all that, though, 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 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 gonna start replacing your grass with decomposed
granite. You're gonna start draining your pools and making them look
like flower gardens.

When it starts to get, the drought, and he said here that all of 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 acknowledge
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 back biters 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 wronged, probably maybe your spouse or someone. 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's like an agreement with
God, 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 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 a 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 gonna confess this. It's their problem.

It's their problem. Or unconfessed sexual sin. You talk to people like,
oh, 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
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 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 excitement about life. Now, see, now you're gonna wanna
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, God, would you return to me the joy of my salvation? My bones
have been broken, and God, create in 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, where he's living in darkness, and
depravity, and the full weight of his sin is on him. It's like, oh, even
the bones are hurting, and the tears, my tears on my bed have not
stopped. They're like a river, 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 being defeated on a stronghold time and time
again. Well, let's just say marijuana, throw it out there, because
that's very 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 demolisher, and you just demolish 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 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 fail to receive
anything. Their 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 me and you, and I cannot
hear. He said my arm is not too long that I cannot save, and my ear not
too heavy that I cannot hear, but your sins, your iniquities have
separated me from you so that 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, and 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 gonna let
that go.

Isn't it interesting? The living water is just a step away, and people
don't wanna drink of it, and so I wanna 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 you to be in his
clutches, as it were, or gripped by fear, gripped 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 a big deal.

Who are we to say, no, I'm not gonna forgive? And then he gives that
parable of 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 gonna throw him in jail because he owed him a
little, and that master said, you foolish, you wicked servant. I'm going
to send you to the torturers because you didn't forgive in your own
heart. And so that unforgiveness can stifle prayer like nothing else
that we know of because it's a wrong heart.

It's holding animosity in. So 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 and where you actually
enjoy these things or these things are a mark of who you are and you're
not gonna repent of it. And I've talked to, over the years, it was one
of the most shocking things to me.

I would talk to men at conferences, let's say about anger. Instead of
repenting, the excuses were endless. Well, you don't know my spouse.

No, I don't. You don't know my situation. Well, 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 fighting Irish shame, it'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 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
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 people. Everything offends them.

And are we offended easily? Because what that is, is they don't wanna 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 any shenanigans going on in
finances? Are we dishonest in this area? Number six, have we been
gossiping about people? Gossip, slander, 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
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 severe in our tone? Basically a fault
finder. Boy, I've never heard it this quiet in this church in a long
time. Where's a pen? But guys, be encouraged, 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 dig deep to get to the water.

I don't know what it is out here, but when I used to be in construction,
you can find water maybe at 30, 40, 50 feet, sometimes 300 feet, because
you have to dig down to find that. The golden things that God wants for
us sometimes take a lot of digging. So 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.

What exactly would that look like? Maybe because if God calls us to be a
good steward and we're not stewarding ourselves or our resources wisely,
we could be robbing God. And Malachi the prophet talked about that. How
have we robbed you, God? They said, how 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 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 gonna mention it.

The true givers will give. But what I struggle with, I'll just tell you,
here's one of 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'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 that, just maybe growing up, the money aspect of church,
it's every service. Come on, I know there's 10 of you that can give
$1,000 today. Come on, we gotta 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 gonna do another collection.

And we're gonna do a giving fund. And we're gonna have a big thermometer
or whatever they call it, big thing here. Here, we're gonna 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 to what?
Yeah, we do. Oh yeah, we do have air conditioning, by the way.

But 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
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. I might get to heaven and God say,
Shane, you really missed it on the passing plate thing. But it's just
the way it makes people feel and things like that.

But giving can also be a form of worship to God. So 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, it is, you know,
10% is where that number comes from. And I love how the people who are
convicted about this topic always come up and say, Pastor, you know we
don't live under that anymore.

Ha ha ha ha. Well, God loves a cheerful giver. It actually might be more
than 10%.

How do you know? But see, they use it as an excuse because most people,
generally speaking, will give about 1%. That doesn't hurt too much. But
you start talking about 10%, that's a car payment.

See, that's where it hurts. 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, would 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 10%, right off the top, before even taxes, or take home,
however you wanna 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. What it is, it's a
gauge to the heart.

Because if we have a tight pocketbook, that means we have a tight heart.
We don't, and what it boils down to also is, oh, I can't give God that
much because I don't trust that he's gonna see me through. Doesn't boil
down to trust issue.

We went through this, Morgan, I remember 2009, I stopped paying tithe
for about, I don't know, a month, till I was convicted and realized
that's not gonna help, because it was a very low point in construction.
We were pulling out of savings every month, all the time. And I
realized, oh, wait a minute, I'm just not trusting God.

Thinking, oh, Shane, you gotta hold this, you gotta keep some, because 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 wanna get technical, if you go back even in
the Old Testament, it was more than 10%. It's probably upwards of, what,
30%, I think, by the time they gave us certain things, and first fruits,
and 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 church, 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, and they'll say, I just don't feel good
about giving to the church.

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 would cost 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 now. But just to be open with you, that's why we don't
talk about it.

Now, I don't think we're gonna change much as far as we love the box in
the back. It's encouraging, we're not gonna 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 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 costs 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.

It's like, I don't think it's anybody here, so don't worry, but so, and
I told, when we first moved out here, I told Susie in the office, let's
just stop drop-offs for a while because people would drop off what they
don't want to take to the dump. At the church, like, hey, I've got this
TV, it works great, I mean, it's from 1982, but it's, you know, 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've got a new couch, could a family use it? It reminds me
of that story of that farmer. Boat, 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 obese, I know how to abound. 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 poorer you are, the more
spiritual you are. Now, poverty has its challenges, but so does riches.
And as I said, in the other countries, in third world countries, they
are living at very impoverished 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 gonna get through all these questions, am I? Well,
it makes part two easy. But anyway, are these questions helping a little
bit to gauge what's in our hearts? So are you worldly? And let's say, go
real quick.

Do you love the glitter of this life? So 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 this, they love, but they'll go to church
now and then, but they're enamored by the things of the 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 something 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, the word harbor.

You can picture the ocean, parking a vessel in a harbor. So do we
harbor, do we stay in port, do we hold on to it? Are we gonna camp out
here? That's where that term can come from too. I'm gonna 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. Oh, such and such isn't there today.

Oh, it's gonna be so difficult. Don't worry, there's nobody here, right?
Look, you're off the hook. But coming in and saying, Lord, just take
these thoughts captive.

I love that person, let me pray for them, let me pray with them. God,
change 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
gonna deal with that, I'm gonna 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. Lord, take your thoughts captive.

And confession takes place. And then when that confession takes place,
now you just love everyone. There's no, I can truly say, let me think
about it before I say it, but I can truly say 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. Wait, 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 they
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% 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 have you noticed when you talk about it, it's hard, but you
talk about it, you come out stronger? Like, I truly love that person,
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 paper from Revival.

And the reason I did that, this book on Revival is so interesting
because it talks about all the different revivals that were taking place
in the early 1900s in Russia. And this guy just traveled. It was like
they would fill these auditoriums, 3,000, 4,000 people, no
advertisement, just the 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 highlight it.

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 horse and
their buggy, whatever they, you're talking a hundred 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 eat together. And there was a
hunger for, I have to find God.

Now, hey, if I don't get done by an hour and a half, whew, I'm hungry.
Tell King's 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. A hundred 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 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 we have it all down in
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? To you, 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? A pastor, you gotta know what's going on. You gotta 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 and there and there and 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? Repent of 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 out? 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
churches. In America, 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 it 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
this area of pride and numbers, is it's amazing how when you just shout
up about those things, humble yourself, most churches are taking away
services. And we're gonna 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 lives that are being changed.
People talking about it in different counties about what God is doing
here.

And 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 loud mouth. 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 the whole body of Christ coming together and being
united.

Do you murmur and complain? That is a hard one, especially when we have
certain leaders in office that might be removed here shortly. Praise
God. I have a guy that's still on me thinking, 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 know, I don't think so.

I think you missed it. I don't know where that came from, but it just
seemed to flow. Could you imagine the assault? I mean, it's not only
that, but there's different callings and we have to pray for this next
person.

And there's a possibility, there's a possibility that Bruce Jenner could
be your next governor. He's conservative. And now this video is gonna be
banned because I didn't say she in the right name.

But folks, we need to be in prayer. 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 failed 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 gonna 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 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 an unworthy manner. And
Annias 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 Achan, 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 Achan was? He took of the spoils of Jericho, I believe
it was, and he hid these. What's wrong with this great robe and this
gold or silver? And he hid these things. One sin in the camp caused
defeat 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, 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 a half dozen times today, because when you get that, you
realize that I am no longer bound under 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. Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
There's freedom in the confession of sin.

God Almighty says, I will not 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 newest? 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 gotta break.

And that's where you're gonna see the flames of revival coming up in
your own heart again. The passion for God, the desire for God, the fire
for God, more of God. I have 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. But I also
wanna 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 confessed Him as Lord and Savior.

And we hear that term a lot. I've used it, you know, accept Christ. Have
you not heard that before? Accept, would you not accept Christ? But I
think we need to start crying out, oh Christ, accept me.

Oh Christ, accept me. See, that was the difference from old preachers
100, 200 years ago. They would preach that hard and tell people, 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, accept me and my
brokenness and depravity.

Without you, I will not be set free. Christ, please accept me. See, now
you come as a broken, undone sinner whose only hope is a justifying
Savior instead of some person who 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 put, would you just accept Jesus?
Please, just come and accept Jesus. Please, He's over here.

He's all by Himself. That's not the Bible. The Bible 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
gonna try to find out. But 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 I deal with pride, you could
say, or I'm dealing with this. I need prayer for this.

Or the altar's gonna 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 wanna be in a hurry. Like Akin, we wanna identify that sin.

If there's sin in the camp, 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 don't have to pray with
someone necessarily. You can go straight 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 10. As soon as somebody starts to
deal with something, the enemy comes in and latches on and wants you to
take you deeper into it.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/-OS5ADnePz0.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/shane-idleman/identify-strongholds-and-clean-house-video/
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