Shane Idleman addresses the misconception that 'God helps those who help themselves,' emphasizing that true help from God comes when we reach the end of our own strength and humbly seek Him. He explains the importance of being weepers, warriors, and worshippers, highlighting that God is drawn to those who are broken and sincere in their faith. Idleman encourages believers to balance action with trust in God, recognizing that spiritual battles require prayer and vigilance. He calls for a deeper commitment to prayer and worship, asserting that these practices are essential for spiritual growth and effectiveness in the Christian life.

The message this morning is the final part of a series we've been in for 4 or 5 weeks entitled the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible doesn't say that. And here's one thing that the Bible does not say. God helps those who help themselves. I even heard some local officials here in our city at one of the council meetings say that. God helps those who help themselves and let me just answer the question up front. He doesn't help those who help themselves. He waits till you get to the end of yourself. Or he waits till you get to the end of your rope. Because what that really means is God helps those who help themselves. Meaning, God I got this. I can handle this. And you'll help me in this endeavor, but I got this. Don't worry. Let me handle it. Now here's why it's difficult. And by the way, I'm praying about starting the book of 1 Corinthians next week. And working through that book of Corinthians, a message to the church. There's so much in there that is so valuable to us as believers. So be in prayer about that. Because that's a daunting project or daunting task. Months, months, months and months of preaching in that book and studying and really looking to what God has to say to the church today. But what we have to do is balance the commands in Scripture to obey and God calls us to action. But He also calls us to trust in Him. So you see this healthy tension. Okay, I'm called to do certain things, but I'm also called to fully trust in God. And we also have to find the balance between the Scripture that says, I'm dead in sin. I'm dead to it. Thank God for that. I'm dead to sin. Thank you for the cross. But according to Romans, in my flesh dwells no good thing. So how have I been set free, but still there's this taskmaster calling me back to obey. So it is a balancing act. God calls us to do certain things. And there are certain conditions that need to be met. For example, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you in this room hire employees? Or if you're an employee, imagine this, you own a business, would you just hire anyone? If you're filling out a certain position, would you just hire anyone off the street? Of course not. You're looking for what? Certain qualities, certain abilities, certain character traits. Same thing when it comes to God. He goes to and fro throughout the whole earth to what? To show himself strong, loyal on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. So thank God he has given us tools, which I'm going to talk about. He has given us trust, which we trust in him. And he has given us time. Time is your friend. And we think, oh, if God would just hurry. No, that's not always good. Just like one of the best dinners I've ever had, I'll brag on my wife, was when Al and Brian were here last Sunday. We actually went to her house and Morgan cooked dinner. And God knows how to humble you. Because as soon as I walk in the house, she says, the toilet's plugged. So I'm walking through my house with the plunger, coming off a wonderful service. Thank you, Lord. But anyway, we let this chicken and potatoes turned on the crockpot early in the morning. For hours, hours, just roasting in there and, and seasoning and, and honey, Manuka honey. Barbecues, it's just, it's just, it's in, it's like the chicken was made of it. Why? Because it was soaking into that. It was absorbing that. The vegetables, everything just tasted wonderful. That wouldn't, that wouldn't happen in a minute or two, you probably get sick because the chicken's not done. So don't worry about so much the time factor. But worry about the God factor. God, what are you doing in my life? And I think you need to be reminded, I was so reminded this week, and it brings me to tears sometimes during worship. But as a child of God, you are accepted. You have worth, you have value. You don't have to do all these things. Daddy, do you see me? Did I gain more favor, more approval? And we have this image of God as a hard taskmaster, demanding and demanding and demanding, do this, do this. And we sometimes think about like in our earthly fathers, I know I've shared this before that I was trying so much to gain his attention by excelling in baseball and by doing all these things. Dad, look, look, look. And we can sometimes move that into our view of God. But as a child of God, you're already accepted. The reason I say that is there's a lot of freedom in resting in that versus I have to do this and I have to be good and I can't go there and I have to do this. Now as you rest in God, you don't want to do those things. That loving relationship pulls you to holiness and abiding in Christ. And there are some conditions I hinted at last week. It was so funny, I had things to say last weekend. But every time I came up here, I said, I don't need to say anything. We just need to go into a time of prayer. And I was struggling this week. Because I know God wants me to talk about these things. But I feel sometimes we talk about them enough, or maybe we last weekend was enough. And I can just get on to a different topic. But this is and I've been praying all week, God, just show me. And he waits to the last minute often. The conditions are and what I'm going to talk about, God will help you. God wants to help us. But we have to become a weeper, a warrior and a worshiper. And in the early morning prayer this morning, Marilyn, I think you prayed those exact things that the church needs. And it's like, Oh, you ever that boost of you go from I'm not sure to Oh, yeah, now I know. Now I know now I can walk up there. And I have that assurance that God wants to move in our hearts. Because the sad reality for Westside Christian fellowship is not everyone is a weeper. Not everyone is a worshiper, not everyone's a warrior. We have a mix in here. We have a mix of Pharisee and a person who wants to be drawn closer to God. We have a mix of those who will never touch a morning worship at 6am. And we have those who are desperate for more of God in the morning. We have those who are lukewarm and carnal and they don't want to come here too often or they'll be too convicted. And we have those who want to be convicted by God. And it's so interesting to watch those different dynamics taking place. I can run into somebody at the same store. They heard the same message. And they can say, Oh, that moved me to tears. Praise God, I was set free. And I ran to someone else. Where's your wife been? Oh, she doesn't like your messages. Last week, you really upset her. Same message. Same service maybe they were at. What's the difference? Remember the same sun that melts the wax also will harden the clay. The heart has to be open. There's even people that come here Sunday after Sunday after Sunday as a mere routine. Well, we go to church on Sunday. That's what we do. Kind of bored in here and just going through the motions and I want God's word to speak to all of us. So here's how you could say this God helps those who are humble. God helps those who humble themselves. So let's talk first about the warrior. You'll hear that song sometimes this is how I fight my battles. This is how I fight my battles. It's it's a warrior. It's a person who who recognizes that there is a battle going on. And I like what Elisha prayed that open the eyes of my servant Lord so that he can see what's going on in the spiritual realm. I'm convinced that if God would open your eyes to the spiritual realm, you would fall on your knees and begin to pray. Prayer would be your daily staple before breakfast, before Starbucks, before 300 milligrams of caffeine brewing. You would be you'd be praying because God would open your eyes, you see the demonic realm. That's what's after my family. That's what's after my marriage. That's what's after my children. Oh, God. But then you'd also open your eyes like you did in Elijah's case, and you see the angels of the Lord encamped about you holding fiery swords, I'm sure and they're there. There's this battle. And it's so ironic, because this battle we can't fight like we think we fight Navy SEALs and the Marines and let's fight. It doesn't work that way. This battle, you're calling down heaven, you're pulling down strongholds. It's like prayer and worship are the only thing that engage the spiritual host of heavenlies against the spiritual host of wickedness. That's why the Bible says pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, bringing every thought into captivity. And there's a spiritual battle going on. So we are called to be warriors. And you can see this from Mark 1437. There's a whole bunch I could have taught on this whole opening, where Jesus is in the garden and different things, but I just want to get to the point here. Then he which is Jesus came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? And Jesus says what watch and watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. There's so much here. And Jesus goes on to again to say watch, watch, that term watch is throughout the Bible, watching. The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. What does willing mean? Well, the Spirit of God is a willing participant. What does that mean? Well, he will willingly participate with you. See, the Holy Spirit participates, Lord, I want to go in this direction. The flesh is weak. I don't want to listen to the flesh. I want to go to morning worship. But did you know we have a third service? Okay, 6am, 630 in the morning, whenever you want to get here, there's a third service going on. No preaching, just the Word of God, just music and God's preaching. But anyway, Holy Spirit, I want to go. So he's a willing participant. He's willing, but the flesh is weak. So who prevails? The flesh. And that's in all areas of life. I'm not just you know, people say the sheep, stop beating up the sheep. Well, the sheep needs spanking sometime. Right? Come on, guys motivated. So I'm not just gonna hang my hat on that early morning worship has to do with all forms of worship, all types of seeking God with all of our heart with all of our strength. So the Spirit is willing, Lord, I want to do that. So does the Holy Spirit, but the flesh is weak and the flesh pulls us back. It's interesting, though, he said here, watch and pray. And it doesn't say he will keep you away from temptation. He will let watching and praying allows you not to enter into it. And I'll explain that in a minute. So watching is this, it's prepared, it's armed, you're cautious, you're alert. That's how you need to be as a Christian. I have this wonderful analogy. Now you see all the spring flowers and all the green grass. And when I go running out in the desert, you know what I'm looking for? rattlesnake. Right now I'm looking for the next few months like this. I'm walking circumspectly, Paul says, I'm guarded, I'm alert. And what is my if I bring my five year old in there, chasing butterflies and just throwing things going all over? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Watch out. Watch out. That thing bites you. I'm going to claim the promise that no serpent, no, no, no snake biting you is going to harm you. I'm going to claim that. But I still don't want to step on a rattlesnake. But see, that's how most people, Christians live their Christian life, chasing butterflies, watching out, they don't watch out for the lion who's set to kill to steal and to destroy the thief, the lion that comes after them. You will never see in the Bible, this image of a lazy, lackadaisical, aloof Christian. Because that plays right into the ends and the plans of the enemy. So watching Jesus says be prepared, be armed, be cautious, be alert about what's going on. And then he says praying, what is praying do? Well, praying gives me strength, it gives me discernment. And I say, Lord, what is your will? So see, it's this image of being prepared and cautious and alert and saying, God, give me strength. God, give me discernment. God, what is your will? Anybody need those prayers answered? Hello? Lord, what is your will for my children? What is your will for my life? What are you doing here? Give me discernment. Is this business deal something you want me to do? Is this mission trip something you want me to go on? Is this something you want me to purchase? Is this something and there's this praying and discernment of, of what God's will is? I guess I'm going to go forward. But there's a portion of this sermon I've been considering exiting. And usually when that happens, I'm not supposed to exit. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And let me just shoot you straight. We're not watching, we're not praying, this is what's not happening in our homes. Parents wake up, what is coming into your homes? Sarah doesn't need a cell phone, Mikey doesn't need to be addicted to Minecraft, and Frankie doesn't need to pick his own friends. We are allowing the enemy to rule and reign in our homes, remove the ungodly influences, remove the ungodly influences in your home. If you're able to, remove that. Well, Shane, that's a little hardcore. You're the watchman. You're the dad, not the friend. You're the mom, not the shopping partner. You're to be prepared and discerning and watching. We have our, we have many people have their, their kids picking their own friends. Well, I don't really know them. Oh, they're fine, mom. No, they're not. They're probably having them look at pornography and tasting alcohol at 12 years old. Be careful. You're called to be the watchman in your home. That's exactly what's happening in our culture. And people often say, I don't know what to pray. I don't know what to pray. You don't know what to pray. Pray over them. God, guard them from lust. God, guard them from fear. Guard them from anxiety, depression, addiction, eating disorders, you name it. God, and begin to pray over the children, over your grandchildren, even, even if they're not in your home. Take that position. Listen, if the Bible is not what prayer says it is, we might as well just step out of here and go eat lunch. My house should be called a house of preaching. My house should be called a house of worship. No, my house should be called a house of prayer. That's how you're going to defeat the onslaught of what going is going on our culture. Do you see the news? Now some airline is saying you can go on and get your your flying tickets and you don't have to be a he or she, you can be an ex. So if I'm sitting next to them on the plane, I can't refer to he or she, but gender neutral. School districts, airlines, what is the world we have lost our mind. We've lost our moral compass. And all of this much of this starts in the home. People parents are allowing the internet to raise their children. They're allowing ungodly neighbors to raise their children or high school. They're allowing all these things to raise their children, raise their kids. And I don't know if you saw recent statistics, but now 50% of the younger generation thinks that socialism is a good thing. Well, don't get political. I'm not political. That's biblical. There's not free handouts. That's not biblical. Cradle to grave entitlements is not biblical. You work or you don't eat. And if you work, you work hard. You work, you work hard and God blesses that he doesn't bless laziness and slothfulness. That doesn't lead to anything. If you if people that leave their kids millions of dollars destroy their kids. See, there's got to be hard work and integrity and God blesses that. Where are they learning this from the educational system? The parents aren't involved. What about praying over your kids? Be filled with the Spirit of God. Be set free. Take away things if you need to. Who rules your house? Who leads your house? You're called to be the watchman, not the little one. Take that little device and you'll watch them scream and throw fit because that addiction is coming out. It's no addiction that withdrawing no different than withdrawing an addictive substance from an adult. We have to watch our homes. Pray over them. Pray for safety, Lord set them free, give them strength and boldness. I remember hearing a man who at home he would do this. He would sit up two chairs facing each other and he would sit in the one and he would say, devil, now you sit in the other. You're going to listen to me pray over my family, pray over my marriage. And he would pray the promises of God over his children. The enemy can't do anything with that. What does the devil do with that? What he does is he gets you out of the closet. He gets you out of watching and being prepared and being alert. And he dumbs us down. But God calls us to that higher standard. There is a difference, right? I brought this analogy again. I used this last night. My daughter let me use her little hammer. Put up some pictures. Worked pretty well. But sometimes it's sometimes you this isn't going to work. This isn't going to work. Sometimes you got to get out the big 25 pound sledgehammer. And you have to say not in my house devil, not in my house here. You got to go through me before you get to it. See this this works great on little nails. It works great on little nails. But if I'm going to break my concrete driveway, that's not going to do anything that's actually going to break under the pressure. And what you're facing the onslaught we are seeing today in our nation is going to require this where you pound the enemy and it might take 20,000 hits. I don't know. But you come in you're ready for warfare. This is how I fight my battles. And the enemy says, Oh, he came prepared. He came prepared. This is going to this analogy has to shift your focus. Because there's so much there's so little praying. So little praying in the church. You can actually gauge a church by its prayer meeting. I've had one person for many of our large churches in our area. One person maybe two. They say there's no prayer meeting. But and what are the what are the leadership say? But look how we're growing. Look how big we are. God must be moving. No, not necessarily. You don't challenge people, they'll come. There's a form of godliness many times. Interesting, though the Bible doesn't say watch and pray so you won't be tempted. When Jesus said here, lest you enter into temptation, what is enter? Entered is fall into. I fall into temptation. Here's an illustration by Colin Smith. This will help a lot of people here. If you're dealing with temptation, and you just can't overcome it. Listen to this. Imagine a salesman knocking at your door. You open the door and he tells you what he is selling. At that point, if you're not interested, it's not hard to say sorry, I'm not interested. Try the nice folks next door. But suppose you let the salesman in and he sits down, makes his presentation, he shows you the product, he talks to you about how much you need this and how much better your life will be if you have it. Some relationship begins to form in your mind and your heart become engaged. Now it's harder to say no, is it not? Have you ever done this? You let them in? Whatever it is, the solar company is coming to my door, the vacuum, a set of knives I don't need. Oh, come on in. Once I let them in, that sounds good. Now I feel bad. Now I have to buy something because I feel bad. Versus just stopping them at the door. This is what it means to enter into temptation. Here's how temptation works in all of our lives. It knocks on the door. It knocked on the door of Jesus. Oh, Shane, now you're getting blasphemous. No, the writer to the Hebrews said that he was tested, he was tempted in all points as we are, but was without sin. He closed the door on the salesman. That's how temptation works. It will knock at the door. That's why the thought life is so important, what we entertain, what we allow to come in. And we begin to entertain it. Well, is that you good friend? Well, I can just entertain it. It's not dangerous yet, is it? Remember how good I felt? Hmm. That relieves some pressure. Maybe the person has changed now. Maybe if it's a relationship and you begin to entertain that guest. And as your mind goes, your feet soon follow. And we open the door to temptation. So prayer is the brick and the mortar to building a safeguard. Prayer is the armed guard, always alert. Prayer is the roadblock preventing an accident. So he's saying here, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. Now add fasting to this. And you just supercharge the engine. Come on, guys, you know, a supercharger is you all want one. You have to cut out a hole in your hood of your vehicle. And you have this big blower sticking out with a supercharger adding tons of horsepower, what's the supercharger doing? All it's doing is allowing more oxygen to go in and combustion, the engine explode, pulling in more oxygen. So that's a prayer and fasting. That's what you're doing. You're pulling down more of heaven, you're filled with the Spirit of God. And when you go into somebody's life, you can cast out that demon, you can say out of my child out of my house, you have no authority here. Why? Because now you're filled with the Spirit of the living God. You didn't just get off four hours of Netflix, watch a lot of junk, wondering why your house is falling apart, wondering why your marriage is going down the toilet, because you're not filled with the Spirit of God. That's a difference maker. See, oh, yeah, you know, now, this is this has to be grabbed. Sometimes this has to be pulled out and say, well, now we're doing damage. Now I'm going to take down, I'm going to pull down those strongholds in my home, and in my own personal life. You are called to fight. See, this is not popular. You are called to fight. Passivity is not an option. Passivity is not an option. We don't want to tell Christians that you are in a battle, you're called to fight. Joel Steen's not going to say this. And Lee Stanley's not going to say this. Many big mega churches are not going to say this. They have to well construct a sermon so it doesn't pierce the heart too much, too much conviction, too much sin, or they'll run to the front doors. But you have to get before God and say, what does your word say? Show me one scripture after the service that says we are going to be passive Christians from here on out. Are you following the news on what's going on in Africa? Christians by the dozens are being slaughtered right now, right now, last week. Raping their children, killing them in front of them, killing them for their faith, right now. Oh, our blessing has become our curse. We are so comfortable it's led to complacency. And then the next group here is God helps those who become worshippers. A.W. Tozer said that we make new converts into workers rather than worshippers. And somebody asked me, wait a minute, wait a minute, you missed one. Weeper, warrior, worshipper, and worker, come on. Ironically, they're a worker. Isn't that funny? But when you're a weeper, a warrior, and a worshipper, you will become a worker by default. It's part of you. And there's so many workers that are not worshippers. They're not weepers. They're not filled with the Spirit of God. One of the policies we have here, it doesn't work as, you know, all the time. But we want those who work here, those who serve here to be in the services, to be involved and be built up because you can be a worker and slide away from God. Rigid, going through the motions. We're not called to be workers primarily. We're called to be worshippers. Oh, Martha, Martha. Worried about much to do, but your sister's worshipping me. And then as you worship God, you become a worker. And we need more workers, don't get me wrong. I actually visited a hospital home in East Lancaster Saturday or Friday. A friend of mine I've known many years ago is dying of congestive heart failure. He knew my father and I talked with him and I talked to the owner of that home and said, hey, we'd love to bring the church in and add it to the list. And then once I contacted Rihanna, who helps oversee the scheduling, guess what she said? She's right on. We don't have enough. Can you believe that? I just tell this lady, we've got a church that can come by and minister to you. She's like, oh, that would be so great. That would be incredible. But we don't have enough workers. So basically I have to tell her we can't. We can't. A church this size cannot go and invest a little bit. Now many people do. Please don't misunderstand my heart. This is why these kind of messages are so hard for me. Because on one hand, I want to build up and encourage. But on the other hand, sometimes you've got to rally the troops. Even if you can go once a month, we need people to work and help in these areas. So the worshipper, back to the worshipper. I shared with you, if you were here last weekend, one of my greatest burdens. One of my greatest burdens, let me tell you. You know some of them. One is to see people dying spiritually with living water right here. But another great burden I have is so many people, especially over the years now that aren't here anymore. They say, I attended Westside. Oh, I attended Westside, but they never experienced God. Can you imagine that? I attended church, but I never experienced God. And of course, the famous verse for this is Matthew 15, 22. What's going on? So she comes to Jesus and says, have mercy on me, son of David. But what? He answered her, not a word. And this is where many people go south instead of the right direction. Well fine then. I knew you couldn't help anyway. God has it out for me. Listen, there's a time in everyone's life, including mine, quite often where God answers not a word. Not a word. But we can learn from her. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away, for she cries out after us. I think it was Brian or Alex playing last weekend. It was so true that not only did Jesus not answer her, now his disciples are belittling her and telling her to leave. Have you ever had others come against you when you're seeking God? That just adds icing to the cake. Like Job's wife. Job's wife said, curse God and die. What kind of spouse is that? So God's not answering. Now the world's against you. You think she would run away and cry and get bitter at God? But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So Jesus is saying, I was not sent to you, woman. You're a Samaritan. You're a Gentile. I know she's a Samaritan. Don't quote me on it. But she was a Gentile. Canaanite. Possibly from the land of Canaan. And I'm not, I wasn't sent to you. I was sent for my people. Did she give up? Then she came and what? Worship him, saying, Lord, help me. Lord, help me. See, that needs to be our motto. God's just not listening, but you still come to him and say, God, Lord, help me. God's attracted to worshippers. That's a cry God will not pass by. He listens for the praises of his people. He listens for the worshippers when they stand, even in the midst of a storm. And they stand there as the thunder is thundering and the rain is pouring down on their heads. And they stand there and they say, even in this storm, I will praise you. I will worship you. And God says, I hear that person, that worshipper. I will help. It might not be yes right away, but I will help. I will listen. And maybe in that storm, I'm teaching you. I'm breaking you. I'm molding you. I'm shaping you. It's so ironic. I'm just going to brag on the worship team for a minute. But so many people comment on our worship team. And Brian even said, how do you have so many talented voices? And boy, they're anointed. And I always think, do you want to go through what they went through? You want to fight what they fought? From cancer to demonic influence to different things? See, often the anointing comes from tremendous pain. A pastor just can't anoint himself with his degree? That's not anointing. Anointing comes from this brokenness where God breaks a person. And out of that, God says, okay, now the clay pot is now back in the hands of the potter. You want to be a vase? Or a vase if you're in France? You want to be a vase? No. I've called you to be this. And God begins to reconstruct. And she came and worshipped him. God is attracted to worshippers. And I'm preparing for an Easter message. I like to get something in my heart weeks prior. And I said, oh God, this is incredible. I just read, I think it was Friday. I'm ending one of the Gospels. I try to just keep going through the Gospels. So I'm always in the Gospels. I just want to hear what Jesus is saying. And he gets to this, and the Bible says, who did he appear to the first time? Did Jesus appear to these men? Mary, in whom he cast out seven demons. So this woman who he cast out seven demons, she sets free. Jesus comes back to her. He appears to her first after the resurrection. And she was a worshipper. See, God is attracted to worshippers. He's attracted to those where there's no deceit in them, where they're not double-faced, where they're not hypocrites, where they're worshipping. So do you need God's mercy this morning? Then worship him. Worship him. There's so many hymns and songs that have come out of pain. One is a new song right now. Many churches sing Miracles. You're the God of miracles. Do you know he wrote that after his baby died? I've told you about the song before, the well-known hymn, It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. As he's going back over the ocean, and there's the spot his daughters drowned. And you're going to write a hymn? A sea billows, what, roll. And they come over, keep me as well. It is well with my soul. What a friend we have in Jesus. Remember that one? What a friend we have in Jesus. The guy who wrote that was on horseback, I think in the 1800s. Came on to a creek, and he was behind his soon-to-be fiance, and she fell off the horse, hit her head on a rock or something, and died. She's laying right there in the creek. Meet someone else, that fiance dies before their wedding day of an illness. And he writes, what a friend we have in Jesus. Have you heard the hymns, To God be the glory, or All the way my Savior leads me? All the way my Savior leads me. That's one that many churches do. That was put together by Fannie Crosby. She was blind. So was John Milton, and George Matheson. Oh, love that will not let me go, and William Walford, sweet hour of prayer. Blind? I don't know if you have problems, but that would be a big challenge. What about, you have a baby, you can never see your child. You can never see your child, the features. You can only hold them, you can't see what they look like. But out of that pain can come tremendous anointing, can come from a tremendous love of God. That's why you'll see many people worshipping with tears coming down their face, sometimes at the altar, because they know God is the one who set them free. They know God is the one, although I cannot see, God you set me free. I was blind spiritually, but now I see. And from that becomes a powerful worshipper. What about Amy Johnson Flynn? He giveth more grace. God hath not promised many hymns. She was confined to her room with crippling arthritis for most of her life. Oh, the great privilege of being a worshipper. The great privilege. Guys, it's a privilege. It's a privilege to worship God. So why are many people bored? If there's something you'd rather go do other than worshipping, something is wrong. If it's the changes, say another song. Doesn't he know what time it is? I'd rather go. I have to go. Shooting. That movie starts in an hour. King's stomach is calling my name. Don't get me started when football season starts. So many, oh, the baseball game. But see, there's something wrong in the heart. A worshipper wants to work. Sure, of course, we've got other things to do. But the worshipper, there's something in your heart that wants to worship. God helps the worshipper. He helps the warrior, those who want to fight God's battle. And warring is, Lord, I'm on the same side as you. What's going on in our culture, I'm going to fight these battles. What's going on in our culture, in our nation, is a spiritual battle. Don't give up. Don't give up. We say, but Shane, look what's happening. It's everywhere. It's everywhere, right? That's where God will often take an army of tens of thousands. God says, get rid of them. Get rid of them. Give me 300 men. Why? So there's no flesh and glory in my presence. Nobody will get credit. We look back and say, but God, but God, he'll use the least likely. How does he raise up possibly the greatest preacher to reach more people than the world has ever seen through Billy Graham, through a farm boy with no education in the Carolinas? He uses the foolish things to confound the wise. And I've read his stories. I've read the movies. It's one thing that is certain. He doesn't even know how he got there. God decided to use me. And then finally, oh, God help us in this area. God helps those who are weepers. Luke 23, 27. And a great multitude of the people followed him and the woman who also mourned and lamented. It's this incredible image. And when you think about what's coming up Resurrection Day in a month or so, and you think about the cross and the path to the cross, and as Jesus is carrying this cross, beaten, bloodied, and these women are weeping for him. And mourning and lamenting. But Jesus said, what did he say? He turned to them and said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Now, I don't want to take this text in a direction it's not meant to be taken. But the whole point is Jesus is saying there's coming a time where the judgment is going to fall, God is going to fall upon Jerusalem. Don't weep for me, be weeping for you and for your children because you have disobeyed God. You have drifted from the Messiah. You rejected me. Here is the Prince of Life coming to his own people and they've rejected the Messiah. But there's a wonderful principle there because the condition of our nation, the condition of the family, the condition of everything that's going on should turn us into weepers. We don't walk around crying. It's interesting parallel here because we're called to be weepers, but also joy-filled. So on one hand, we're weeping for the atrocities that are taking place and oh God, and we're getting our hearts broken before him. But then when we get up, we're to be joy-filled. Filled with joy. It's not a dichotomy. It's not Jekyll and Hyde. It's the fruit of the Spirit operating in a position of brokenness and weeping. Why is weeping so important? Because weeping breaks up the stagnant fountains of the soul. You have to feel the pain that we've caused. Maybe we've caused our children, to our families or what's going on in our nation. How can we allow these things? And look how ugly it's getting on this whole issue of abortion, for example. Look how ugly it's getting. Now you have abortion doctors explaining how they do it and proud how they do it. There's people on the news, on clips saying, if it's born alive, I'll just break its neck. Doctors, where's the weeping? Where's the righteous indignation that says, oh my God, use us to stop this evil. Instead, what do we do? Oh, that's not too appealing. Next YouTube video? Next YouTube? Oh yeah, and we've become callous. We've become things that should break us and cause us to weep and look at the condition of the family. We've just become callous. You don't think Christians become callous? Look at our entertainment choices. What would have never been allowed in our homes 50 years ago is now welcome and accepted. Callous and weeping is the only thing that sets us right back up on the right pedestal. Meaning Christ on the pedestal, but it sets us right back up where we need to be a position of spiritual authority. Psalm 42.3, my tears have been my food day and night. My tears have been my food day and night. Psalm 30, sing praises to the Lord, you saints. And give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name for his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for life. Weeping what? Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. And it's interesting, you can't just work this up. Okay, Shane wants me to cry. Let me try to be a weeper. How does that look? It has to take place in your heart. And you say, God, break my heart for the things that break yours. God, break me. I want to weep. I want to worship you. And God begins to do a work in your heart. Sorrow is so important to our Christian faith, not to live in it. I look at sorrow as a springboard into what God's called us to do often. Okay, you get up because what happens when you're sorry, or mad at something? Right? You want to make a difference. And I told you in down by the LAX Hilton, I think it was LAX Hilton. LAX, many years ago, 12, I don't even know how many years ago now. I think I told you in a different sermon. But I went and I heard about partial birth abortion. I heard about what's going on in the nation. I heard about ungodly legislation. I wasn't even a pastor yet. And I went back to my hotel room and I prayed. I prayed. I cried myself to sleep. And I said, Oh, God, if you give me a voice, I will not shut up. I will cry out from the rooftops. I will be that voice crying in the wilderness. But where did it start? It had to start with prayer stained pillows and sheets and weeping and getting good. Lord, why? How is this happening? This is not right. And from that, there's a righteous indignation where not even the enemy himself can stop you because you're filled with the spirit of God. But it had to be broken in the prayer closet where weeping may endure, but joy cometh in the morning. There's pain and sorrow, but there's wonderful advantage of being broken before God. The church needs to be broken. You, many of you need to be broken. There's too much arrogance in this room. There's too much pride. You haven't shed a tear in years. No wonder we're not seeing powerful moves of God. I walked a mile with pleasure. I walked a mile with pleasure. She chatted all the way, but let me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and never a word said she, but all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me. If we're so filled with pleasure in the things of this world, we will be void of the spirit of God. We will quench and grieve the spirit of God. Watch and pray lest you enter in temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. So I'm going to end on that note. If you're saying praise God, that means you need to hear this message. Guys, I don't know how else to wake the sleeping church. We are being lulled to sleep. So I'll have the worship team come up. I'm just going to close in just a minute. I talk a lot of this as for believers, but I also want to encourage people that don't know the Lord. You can't call God Father if you don't call His Son your Savior. Many of your people say, the man upstairs, oh, I know who God is. You've been in the church. I know about God, but has His Son saved you and set you free? Has God redeemed you? Do you truly know Him or do you only know about Him? Because you will never be a worshiper, a weeper, or a warrior for the things of God if you don't have a relationship with Him. 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