Shane Idleman emphasizes the urgent need for God to rend the heavens and come down, igniting a spiritual awakening in the hearts of believers. He calls for a deep desire and desperation for God's presence, urging Christians to move beyond complacency and engage in fervent prayer and intercession. Idleman highlights that true encounters with God can transform lives, revealing our spiritual barrenness and igniting a passion for holiness. He challenges the church to seek God's manifest presence actively, reminding them that God acts for those who wait on Him with expectation. Ultimately, he encourages believers to return to God, embrace repentance, and experience the life-changing power of His presence.

Hope is yours to take. Peace is found in grace. Because God, I believe, and this is what we need, the dire need of our day, is that you would rend the heavens. Oh God, would you rend the heavens and come down. Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down. That the mountains might shake at your presence. As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries. That the nations may tremble at your presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen, any God besides you, look at this, who acts for the one who waits for him. Now, if you believe God's word, you also believe his promises. And I believe that God can still rend the heavens. And one principle we get from this, and I've just been, I told my wife, people are going to think my eyes are bloodshot, I've just been all morning, just, God was just pouring into my heart about the condition of our nation, the condition of our children, and that heart of intercession, that heart of intercession. Folks, Christianity, that got us through the last 10, 20 years, isn't going to cut it anymore. Quick sermons, quick church services, a quick little prayer on my way to work is not going to cut it anymore. We need to fight with spiritual weapons. And that takes perseverance, and fortitude, and strength, and commitment, all these words we don't like to hear. But there's intercession, he's pleading. Isaiah is saying, oh God, would you rip open heaven? That's what it means, would you rip open heaven? There's a desire, there's a desperation. And I can see it in the faces of even many of you. This sermon might hurt a little bit today, but that's okay. There's not a desire or a desperation, there's a boredom over the things of God. And for God to rend the heavens and wake us up, there's got to be a desire and a desperation. Oh God, I must hear from you. And I see so many people especially posting things that they can't wait till summer, right? To get out of this house and go do things. I wish we were saying, I must get to God. I must get to God. I must get to church services, I must get to prayer meetings. If we had the same passion for finding God as we do for finding fun, we could see some major breakthroughs. I'm not against having fun. We need to have fun and get out there and enjoy God's creation. But this word is interesting, rend. It's burst, blow out, explode. Lord, would you rip open the heavens and come down? Now here's a question maybe you have, that I had. But isn't God already here? You know, if you're really conservative, you don't like to talk about the Holy Spirit much. Rend the heavens and come down. Gosh, the Holy Spirit's always here. Yeah, they call that the omnipresence. But let me tell you, there's a big difference when God's manifest presence is revealed. Wasn't the Holy Spirit already there in the upper room? But when he came down upon his people, they experienced God like never before. Let me give you an example. Electricity is already in your home, but try touching it. Right? Well, electricity's already in my home. Okay, well go undo the electrical outlet and put your finger in it. See, now you're experiencing it. What's the difference? That's this type of experience you can have with God. God can rend the heavens. You feel his power, you feel his presence, and you are forever changed. There's a ripping open of our hearts. It's barren, laid before God. When God moves, you will know it. When God is moving in your heart, you will know it. The disciples knew it. Early church fathers knew it. Early recordings of Christian history, they knew it. God was here. God revealed himself. Boring prayer meetings were set on fire, and they couldn't stay on their faces long enough to feel the power and the weight of God's glory. D.L. Moody was hit by the spirit of God. Adrian Rogers was hit by the spirit of God. John Bunyan, John Wesley, George Whitefield. Where do you want to start? Everyone you read. Oswald Chambers was hit by the power and presence of Almighty God when he ripped open heaven and came down. Now I've experienced God. So there is a difference. Yes, he's everywhere. But like Moses, oh God, show me your glory. Why shouldn't we feel God? Feel his power, feel his presence. When God moves, you will know it. That's what we just read, that the mountains might shake at your presence as the fire burns and as water is heated up to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble at your presence. Isn't this interesting? He says at your presence. The presence of God. See, he's everywhere. Omnipotent, omnipotent, omnipotent, all-powerful, all-knowing. And everywhere. He's got all these attributes. But there's a clear distinction when they would ask for his presence. Moses, if your presence, or Joshua, if your presence doesn't go with me. The disciples felt his presence and his power. And he says here, may tremble at your presence. And let me just tell you something that's been on my heart preparing this sermon, and I know it's going to be somewhat offensive. But sadly, many in the church are offended by the presence of God. Imagine, imagine if God hit this place like the upper room and the altar's full, you hear people crying out to God, how many of you would never come back? Let's be honest. Because you cannot handle a mighty move of God's presence. Hey, I'm Mr. Conservative. I'm well balanced. I don't want, don't get too carried away. But you can't stop God's presence. And it's not weirdness, he's breaking hearts. And rebuilding, and mending, and securing, and delivering. How do you contain that? How do you contain that? If someone has been for 20 years living with the spirit of regret, blew their life, and God begins to reveal himself to them and shows them, oh, the years that the enemy has taken away, I will restore those years. I will build you back up. That person might get a little excited. They might come to the altar, and when the prodigal son who says, oh my God, I'm eating with the swine, and I come home, Father, he might get a little excited. The problem is many of you have never experienced the power and presence of God. You don't want God to rend open heavens. It might ruin your schedule. You're not going to hit the buffet line. Charles Spurgeon, you don't get much more conservative than this, said, real believers are filled with divine enthusiasm, which was once rejected as fanatical. Think about that. A real, genuine believer filled with the spirit of God, excited to worship, filling the power and presence of God, there's a natural enthusiasm. You're not a corpse. There should be that there. So if that's lacking, take it to God and say, Lord, rend the heavens. But it does beg the question, do you really want God to rend the heavens? Because when he rends the heavens, he reveals. What this type of sermon does, it reveals the lack of spiritual fire in many of your hearts. Let's just be honest. I'm not saying this with anger. I've cried over this sermon many times. I'm not trying to put anyone down. I'm not trying to be judgmental. I'm not looking at you, down on you, and I'm better than you. I need the presence of God. Don't you understand, if I don't have the presence of God, I will fall on my face. It's God who sustains me, God who holds me together. That presence, that power, that anointing, that unction. It's the dire need in the church today. So when God rends the heavens, it exposes our lack of spiritual fire. There's no fervency. About a year and a half ago, two years ago, I allowed the opinions of men to quench what I believe God was doing here. What I would do is I would talk a lot about the 6 a.m. service. You need to be here. Why aren't you here? Why isn't that packed? I'd rather see that packed than this packed. You want the truth. And I would let these modern day arrogant Pharisees tell me I shouldn't be telling people that. And I had to deal with that for a year and a half, knowing that I let these people, the fear of man, I don't want to offend people. Maybe I'm being too overbearing. And then Phil, you'll never remember, he came to me and he said, we need it. We need it. I'm sorry, guys, I don't, just this power of God is so real. And my heart's desire is for people to experience it. And it's funny, I begin to think, you know, my mom was never at 6 a.m. worship. Never. But she never got mad at me for saying that. See, people who know they would be here if it wasn't for situations in life don't get upset. It's those who are convicted that do. I remember another time in Lancaster that the worship was not unlike this today. And I couldn't even preach the second service. I don't know if you've ever felt that, but just the weight, I just had to get on my face on the altar. And worship was just continuing. And I said, I said, I'm not gonna preach. We just gotta keep worshiping. And I'll never forget the angry Pharisee who got up, left, and told the usher, I came to hear a message. The very thing he needs is the very thing he's running from. When are we gonna wake up and realize that God, when God runs to heavens, it's messy. It's messy. You think I wanna be on the altar and embarrass a pastor? What's a pastor doing up there? Well, I wouldn't follow any man who's not broken, humble before God. And so what my whole point was, when God rends or desire rending the heavens, it reveals a lack of spiritual fire. And the reason I'm wanting to shake you up and sift you and run you through the filter of God's word is because this can change you. Once you cry out to God and say, God, that's what I need. I need your manifest presence in my life. I need to humble myself before you. I need to get to that altar. I need to put on worship. And you begin to experience, God, you will never go back. You will never go back. There was an old man. I don't even know where I'm at in the notes. But there was this old man. And I love, I was reading a lot about revivals in Welsh and Scotland in 1700s and 1800s and for these books and get my own heart right. And this old man, he experienced, I think it was in the Welsh revivals in 1904, 1905. Revivals are, I would love to just tell you about the, I mean, it saturates the very heart of the whole community. Bars are shut down. People are just, they feel conviction and they get down on their knees in meadows and pray and sing. What is that? It's God manifest presence rending heaven. But they asked the old man, they asked him, well, why did it end? And the book records, you could see the holy fire rising up in his eyes. And he said, oh, young man, when you lay hold of God, when you lay hold of God, never, never, never, never let go. When you lay hold of the presence and power of God, never let go. It's Christ holding on to me. Thank God for that. But there is a joint effort where I say, you are my sustainer. You are my provider. You are everything. I fully surrender my life to you and I'm holding on for dear life. You are the anchor of my soul, the captain of my ship. Christ, without you, I am lost. And there's a yearning, there's a heart's desire for the things of God. And when God rends the heavens, it also reveals our lack of holiness. Sin is brought to the surface. Did you know the closer you get to God, the more depraved you look to yourself? I mean, the closer I draw to God, I get embarrassed. That's just prideful. That's arrogant. In my 20s, I thought I was like the nicest guy. You know, man, I'm a pretty good guy. I don't do nothing wrong. Because you see the resemblance of Christ as who we're trying to model and follow after. And you see totally falling on her face with pride and arrogance and bitterness and anger. Come on, you all struggle, you know. And the closer you draw to that holy flame, the more you feel the heat. And when you talk about these topics, it's going to expose our lack of holiness and sin is brought to the surface. I would almost guess that the reason most people do not come to morning worship or prayer meetings or worship nights. Hey, we have worship nights if you can't make mornings. It's because of sin. Besetting sin that they're holding on to. Let me encourage you. I've been that prodigal. I ate with the pigs. And the more we give in to that, the less we want of God. And then what happens is shame and guilt comes in. I don't want to do anything for God. I don't want to pray. And it's an endless cycle. And that's where the enemy wants to keep you. But at some point you have to say, break out of that. Like the prodigal son say, I came to myself. I'm coming to myself. I realize that I'm lost without God. Paul said, What can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Height nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Alas yourself, yourself and your mindset. Come back to God. Draw back to God. Draw near to me, he says. And I might draw near to you. No, no. Come on. Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. Return to me, and I will return to you. Seek me, bakash. I love that word, right? I'm not going to tell you, I love this story too much about the mall, losing my kid in the mall, or the fair, I don't remember where it was. But you know, everything changes. I've got to find that child. I've got to find God. I've got to seek him like it matters. That's why fasting is very significant in this area. Because you're giving up one appetite for a better appetite. You're saying, God, I'm so desperate. Fasting was always tied to, look at Ezra, look at Nehemiah, look at Esther, look at Moses. We can just keep going. You want a conviction alert? David, fasting. Joel, call a sacred assembly, call a fast, and you have the people come into my house and cry out to me, because I'm exchanging this appetite. I am so desperate to hear from God that I'm going to give up that appetite, the good for the best. And God begins to honor, because that's a form of seeking. Seeking. Can you imagine, now I've failed a hundred times in this area. Don't look at me as a fasting expert. I think I've failed more times than I've succeeded. But the flesh gets the best of us, doesn't it? God, I'm going to seek you all day today. This is how I should tell you guys. I was doing good on one of my fasting days, and my wife bought home a big bag of barks. Have you seen those things? They're chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered almonds. Leaves it on the kitchen table. And that thing called my name for three hours, and then they decided to have Krispy Kreme donuts at one of my kids' parties. And I looked at those things for six hours, and they called my name. Oh, come on. The struggle is real. I succeeded a lot, but I did not succeed perfectly, because God's not looking for perfection. He's looking for direction, the direction of our heart. Now, I'm not giving you permission to blow it. I'm just saying... Actually, I think, because I know it might be hard to believe, but I've kind of become a perfectionist, right? And want these things done a certain way. And so God will use the failings to keep me humble. And that's one of the beautiful things about God, is He knows how to keep us humble. When God rends, it reveals. When God rends the heavens, it will ruin your schedule. It will expose complacency. Will it not expose complacency? What I've been talking about for 20 minutes has been exposing a lot of complacency. We're too bored to pray. We don't have time for God, and it reveals that. So here's where the practical application comes in that's very important. We have to respond to God's call. Rending the heavens, what He's talking about, often, if you look at the Old Testament, they would... We rely on things... We're not as dependent, I guess, sometimes. We should be. But if it didn't rain, they weren't going to eat, basically. They didn't have the aqueduct. So there's no rain for a month. What's going to happen? Lord, rend the heavens. Come down. And God would say, you prepare the soil. You till the soil. Break up the fallow ground of your heart, and then I will rein down the heavens. See, so you have to prepare the soil. You prepare the sacrifice, but God brings the fire. There's a mutual working there. How truly sad it is. It's like a man dying on a boat in a beautiful lake, too scared to touch the water. He's dying of thirst, and he just has to touch the water. Christ is the living water. I hope this makes sense, because I don't know where I'm... Just things are coming to me. A lot of rabbit trails. But I've asked a question before on this topic many years ago. I might have even done it here at this location, but I want you to... I want to just listen to this for a minute. How many of you can say... How many of you can relate to Jesus' words? Don't put up your hand. Just internally. If you believe on me, as the scriptures say, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Why is the living water not flowing out of many people? Can you relate to John's words when he said, I can't even... I'm not even worthy to take off Jesus' sandals. When he comes, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Listen, you can say, well, that's too charismatic. I'm just quoting scripture. You need to get rid of these labels and start getting back to what the Bible says. Because we try to avoid labels. We're not charismatic. We're not conservative. What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Because you can be charismatic and be a circus environment and nothing happens because you're weird. Well, don't laugh yet. This side. You can be the cemetery. You're just as dead. You just sing a few hymns and go to the buffet line. Nothing happens. You haven't baptized anyone in eight months. What's the difference? Circus or cemetery, we can't have either. There's a man, I don't remember his name. He said you can be straight as a gun barrel theologically but just as empty. Isn't that true? I've shared this before but a lot of you, I don't know. But probably the most amount of negative emails we get, I don't see them anymore so if anybody's listening. We have people filtering those and letters without names and address in the trash. Don't even open it. But anyway, I'm just being real and these people either upset carnal Christians who don't want to be challenged. Who is this guy? I don't want to be challenged to live holy. I don't want you to name my movies and my Netflix and I love my sin. This person just calls me a Pharisee and legalistic and mean-spirited. But then the other negative emails decide from the Pharisee, you talk too much about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is already here. We have the Father, the Son and the Holy Word. That's all we need. We don't talk about the things of God. We don't talk about revival. Come to the altar? That's too weird. Just be calm, cool, collect. Revival, Shane, that's weird. The Bible talks about reviving, being revived. God reviving his people. Come down and reign upon us. Reign the heavens. This is all biblical language if it's used in its historical context and theological context, it's fine. The problem is this group of people is convicted because they don't like to see people on fire for God and they're not. I've lived long enough to see. I know many people in conservative churches. They don't get emotional during worship. They don't have all-night prayer meetings. They don't fast. They don't talk about the deeper things of God. And some 25-year-old gets filled with the Spirit of God. They want to get to that altar. They want to have all-night prayer meetings. Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't get carried away. Me and Bertha have been coming here 50 years and we don't do things like that. Just read your Bible. That's all you need. The Holy Spirit doesn't do that anymore. I'm sure glad I don't believe that. It's so funny, though. The irony is when I would receive emails like that on talking too much about the Holy Spirit, right? We'd email back and say, did you happen to just kind of put two and two together that I'm in a six-week series on the Holy Spirit? Could it be? Just could it be? No, of course not because it's convicting. And when people are convicted, they'll lash out at you if their heart isn't right. Instead of saying like the disciples, when Jesus said, one of you will betray me, they all said, Lord, is it I? They didn't say, it's he. We need a lot more people saying, Lord, is it I? Do you want to rend my heart? Oh, God, rend the heavens, rip apart sin, tear down strongholds. And Isaiah again said, when you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came down, the mountains shook at your presence. I'm guessing he was thinking about Exodus when the Spirit, when God's manifest presence, whatever you want to call that, God put a cloud around the mountaintop, the fire came down and it actually shook in the presence of the people and they were just so fearful of God and His awesomeness. But isn't that great? Because when you get the right perspective of God, nothing can defeat you. When you get the right perspective of God, nothing can defeat you. And I'll tell you what, nothing, on either camp, I'm not worried of falling into extremes. I'm not worried about becoming too charismatic and weird or too conservative because you just line up with Scripture. What does the Bible teach? So when you have the right perspective of God, you can say like Joshua and Caleb, oh, we are well able to take this land. We can say like David, who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God. Think about who can stop God Almighty. That's what we need right now in our nation, in the church. Who can stop God Almighty? If God before you, who's going to be against you? We need to get back and remind ourselves of those truths. And on this idea of shaking, God often shakes the physical to get us to respond in the spiritual. Amen. We see all this shaking going on. Look what, I don't know why I started looking at the news again. Can it get any worse? And this shaking. And so you see the calamity, correct? The decadence, the perversion. Do you see everything going on or is it just me and a few others? Do you see the outright mockery of God's word? Do you know they're trying to pass laws to where if your little Johnny or little Sarah wanted to get a sex change, they didn't have to tell the parent? That's child abuse. And we see so much perversion. So my question is, my big question is, then why are so many Christians stagnant? Why are they inactive? Why are they lifeless? There's no passion for prayer meetings or worship mornings or getting to church every Sunday. And there's a desire and a desire for God. There's that hunger for God. It's an all-consuming passion because when you meet the risen savior and the Holy Spirit baptizes you in fire, I don't care what you call it, but you better have it. Do you have the presence and power of God? I want worship leaders. I don't care what school they went to. I want to know have they been broken before God? Have they been filled with God's spirit? Are they allowing God's spirit to move through them? I don't want a master's degree. I want a degree from the master. Spending time with him, broken before him, humble before him and out of that reservoir of anointing comes a mighty move of God's spirit. Shane, you're stepping on toes this morning. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then I love the ending of Isaiah. God acts. Think about this. God acts for the one who waits for him. God acts. Technically, it would be like the power of attorney. You know what that is? You give someone power of attorney, they act on behalf of you. So the way to get God to act on your behalf is to wait. That doesn't mean kick up your feet and put Netflix on for six hours. That's probably gonna be counterproductive. Waiting on God means to expect. Well, the word is kava in the Hebrew language, kava. And it has a lot of different meanings, but at the heart of it is to expect, to look for patiently, to tarry. Isn't it funny? They're in an upper room. The disciples, tarrying, waiting, expecting God to move. So this is not a passive type of watch TV, go do. This is expecting God to move. And I hope you come to church. I sure do. I hope it's not a waste of energy. I expect God is going to move. I expect we're gonna pray for people in that prayer room and they're gonna be healed. They're gonna be set free. They're gonna be delivered. Why should we not believe that? You tell me why. You tell me why. Well, God doesn't do that anymore. Really? Prove it. You have a harder case of proving that than I do proving scripture. We come expecting God to move. And I actually say, God, if you don't move, I don't wanna preach. I don't wanna show up. I don't wanna give people my opinion. I need God to break my heart every morning. And from that reservoir of brokenness and humility, it comes forth because God is building me up at the same time and his word builds you up as well. It's saturating with the power and presence of God. When you wait on God, anger doesn't influence you. Impatience doesn't drive you. Impulse doesn't derail you. Fear doesn't paralyze you. And sin doesn't stop you. Because what I've noticed, waiting on God, it's active participation. We're waiting on God to answer. That's why the sabbatical was so challenging because I'm not a waiter. Let's do something, right? We got stuff to do. I'm type A plus personality. There's things to do. Okay, I'll just be honest. I probably shouldn't have written two books. But it was just, and actually it wasn't hard. People said, you shouldn't do that. I'm just journaling. I'm just writing down and pouring. To me, it's very edifying. It's very, I don't know what the right word is. So just pouring all this stuff out. Just the heart of God is so relevant in these dire times because here's my hope. The darker it gets, the more the light of the gospel is going to shine. I'm not just saying that. I'm not just saying that. That is the truth. That God often rends the heavens when we need it the most. You don't see people crying out to God like this when everything's great. The stock market's great. Your man is in office. Everything's going great. But when God begins to shake things up and begins to, you pray, oh God, rend the heavens. And he calls us back to him. His call is to the prodigal. I wrote this down this morning. His call is to the prodigal. If you're that person this morning, he says, return to me and I will return to you. His call is to the exhausted, amen. Come to me all your weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me or take my yoke upon you for it is easy. And I am lowly in spirit. I will strengthen you. I will encourage you. And his call goes out to the fearful. Anybody dealing with fear? The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind. His call is to the barren. He who believes in me, as the scriptures say, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. Guess what? If you're barren today, I am on a mission. I am a sniper from God to shoot right at the heart and to take out that pride and that callousness and that anger and say, wake up. Wake up, oh barren. When sons and daughters, when Zion travails, sons and daughters are born. There's a travailing. There's a persevering that must take place in our hearts. Did you know his call is to the broken, the sick, the lost? I love the verse in Ezekiel. He said, I will, God will, I will bring back what was driven away. I will bind up the broken. I will strengthen the sick. But the fat, the proud, the arrogant, I will feed in judgment. Thus saith the Lord. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro to find those hearts of those who are loyal to him. Listen, I know many of you are feeling defeated. You can never measure up. Welcome to the club. If it was based on performance, I should not be preaching. Nobody should. Correct? Who is going to measure up to God? Say, I am worthy to deliver his word this morning. Lightning bolt. I know with those listening or even here, I also want to give you the opportunity to choose the cross. Jesus chose the cross. You choose surrender. Jesus chose the cross. You have to choose surrender. He who believes on me as the scriptures say, as the scriptures say, out of his belly will flow those rivers of living water. If you confess that Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. There's a lot of casual Christianity out there. And if you listen right now to the top four or five pastors on the internet, three, four, five, six, 700,000 views, you will rarely ever hear the call to repentance. The mention of sin, it's not popular, but it's powerful. Jesus said, go and preach repentance. So I don't know where you're at this morning, but as always, I want to focus on the first group. If you're not where you'd like to be, anybody out there? Balcony, you're good? I mean, ideally 99% of us should have our hands up. But even if you're not where you'd like to be, God's love and mercy is continually calling you back to him. Even if you're not where you'd be, even if you're somewhere where you're, I'm sorry, let me read that. Even if you're not where you'd like to be, God's love and mercy is continually calling you back to him. So what I want to do is we're going to have the worship team come up and start again with worship. And we're going to open the prayer room. I don't know how many of you have been here before. Some of you may be new, but right through these doors we have a prayer room. And we don't believe that the service is over now. If King's stomach is growling, remember, tell him who's still on the throne. It's Jesus Christ. And this is not a time to where we begin to check out, okay, the service is over. Actually, this is where we press in. Do you realize the power of prayer? I think sometimes we forget about the power of prayer is just as powerful as preaching, if not more so. Jesus said, my house will be called a house of preaching, worship, prayer. It's when God's people come together. If you need prayer for anything, prodigal sons, daughters, health issues, meet us in the prayer room. We would love to pray with you. And we're also going to have communion up here. So you can kind of come at your leisure. I'm not going to come back up. What we do for communion is it's those who are believers. When we take communion, we take the elements, the bread that represents the broken body that Jesus Christ gave on the cross. The juice is a reminder of the shed blood that was shed for the remission of our sin. The Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there is no removal. There's no remission of sin. And we take those and we remember that wonderful sacrifice of the cross.