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If My Pastors - Silence Is Not an Option
Shane Idleman

Shane Idleman (1972 - ). American pastor, author, and speaker born in Southern California. Raised in a Christian home, he drifted from faith in his youth, pursuing a career as a corporate executive in the fitness industry before a dramatic conversion in his late 20s. Leaving business in 1999, he began studying theology independently and entered full-time ministry. In 2009, he founded Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, relocating it to Leona Valley in 2018, where he remains lead pastor. Idleman has authored 12 books, including Desperate for More of God (2011) and Help! I’m Addicted (2022), focusing on spiritual revival and overcoming sin. He launched the Westside Christian Radio Network (WCFRadio.org) in 2019 and hosts Regaining Lost Ground, a program addressing faith and culture. His ministry emphasizes biblical truth, repentance, and engagement with issues like abortion and religious liberty. Married to Morgan since 1997, they have four children. In 2020, he organized the Stadium Revival in California, drawing thousands, and his sermons reach millions online via platforms like YouTube and Rumble.
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Sermon Summary
Shane Idleman addresses the divide within the church regarding different callings and passions, emphasizing that pastors must not remain silent on critical issues like abortion and social justice. He argues that the primary role of pastors is to preach the gospel boldly and to be watchmen for their communities, rather than seeking popularity. Idleman stresses the importance of being filled with the Spirit and returning to biblical preaching that convicts and restores, rather than avoiding difficult truths. He calls for pastors to humble themselves, seek God's face, and lead their congregations in repentance to bring about national change. Ultimately, he reminds the audience that God plus one is a majority, and true change begins with a heart aligned with God's will.
Sermon Transcription
Why is there a divide? Many of us in this room are frustrated. Reminds me of when you send out an invitation to 1,000 people for a morning prayer service where we seek the heart of God and 20 people show up. And you're like, what's going on? Why don't they share my passion? In the first point here, I just wanna throw out there, I think it's gonna help some people. There is a divide because God gives us different callings. And he's not called some people to political things or abortion topics. And some he's given a passion for the homeless. Some he's given the passion for addicts. Some he's given a passion. And what happens is we follow that passion and we say, why isn't everybody else following my passion? And then this person's, because in my area, it's very diverse, but the sex slave trafficking, for example, is horrific, what's going on in Los Angeles County. Actually trafficking, 12, 13, it's unbelievable. And there's ministries supporting that. But Shane, why don't you come over and help us more? And then abortion, why don't you come over and help us more? We've got a homeless community. Why don't you come over and help us more? And you can get frustrated. And we start to, the enemy will use that against us because that's where the root of bitterness takes place. That's where we start to get disgruntled and complain. And that's why, what we referenced earlier in the prayer this morning, that you plus God is the majority. You plus God is the majority. And the problem, I'm gonna get to in a minute, I think there is a solution. But that sets the framework because you're not gonna have John MacArthur very political, but try to tell him to tell Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, or Dobson, not to get involved politically, or J. Secular. You have all, and they're like, and then this group is upset at this group. Why aren't you more political? Now, there's valid points in all of that. I think our primary goal as pastors is to preach the gospel. That's the primary focus. But if you look at the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, you know it, you preach from it. They were statesmen. They were reformers. They were authors. They shook their culture. And that's the role, I believe, as a pastor is to be a watchman and to let the people know what the heart of God is. That's why it cracks me up when they say churches can't talk about, I mean, I get emails all the time writing for the Christian Post and different, you can't talk about religion and politics. I mean, they're not, you know, separation of church and state, Shane. Well, just do a little research, separation of church and state's not in the Constitution. Many of you know, for 150 years, our nation didn't know anything about that. Spurgeon would preach against slavery. It was common for the pulpit to be the voice of the nation. That's where the nation discerned truth. The pulpit would be that voice. The pulpit would not be ashamed. They would declare what is right and wrong. Now, we've come to such a point that we don't want to offend anybody. And actually, the gospel is offensive. And I get criticized for this, and I prayed about saying this or not, but in these dire times, Joel Osteen's sermons are not gonna cut it. This is, it's not gonna cut it. You're not gonna see a national awakening and repentance without avoiding anything difficult. You can't, so a pastor should be able to lovingly fill with the Spirit of God, speak boldly to our culture. That's the role of the pastor. So they silence it. You can't talk about those things, really. Says who? God's Word is very clear on this. And it's interesting, the book I wrote there, D. James Kennedy endorsed it right before he passed away, and we had a little bit of dialogue. But he exposed me to a lot of history about our nation and reading about our nation. And I love early revivals, Welsh revivals, and awakenings, and just that passion for that. But reading some of that material, I came across, I can't pronounce his name, Alex something, de Tocqueville, I think it is, who wrote or authored Democracy in America. And they can't quite attribute the quote, I couldn't find the exact reference, but he said something like this, that he had to study why America was so great. So he sought for her greatness in her fertile fields and in her boundless prairies that wasn't there, in her vast world commerce, and in her gold mines that wasn't there. He sought for it, but he said, it wasn't until I went to the churches in America and I heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, then I understood the greatness to her success. She is great because she is good, and if she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. See, A.W. Tozer said the same word of God that encourages us must convict us, it must. Conviction is biblical preaching, and we've drifted from that. I mean, you better, I'm gonna move this case, it's too loud. But you might as well get it over with, you're not gonna be popular. And I often, when I talk to pastors, sometimes there's a message I have, the price of popularity. And we've, wanting to be popular with people, you're not gonna be popular with God. It is absolutely impossible. So that's the foundation, don't get disgruntled. I get disgruntled all the time. Why aren't we seeing revival? Why aren't we seeing if my people who are called by my name will simply humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked way and pray, there's your answer. Not Trump, not Clinton, not new legislation. I'm all for good legislation, godly leaders. But if my people would just humble themselves, the same people upset at our candidates are putting 50 Shades of Grey in the top 10 list of books. Come on, wake up, church. No wonder, no wonder. The call is to us, not Hollywood. It's to us, not Washington. If my people. So back to the video, this topic is very relevant. One in three, one in four. More people will be facing this issue. And I hear this often, you know, we don't, we gotta be careful with those who are in our audience. And if, absolutely. I have people struggling with homosexuality, as do you. I have people struggling with, caught in adultery, pornography, transgender, had an abortion, considering. You know, we have all that, but, not saying anything so we don't offend is like not saying anything about sin, so we don't offend. See, we never come to the pulpit. At least, I never come to the pulpit saying, that prayer, I can't offend. I come to the pulpit saying, God, I wanna speak your word through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the problem is, many of us, and I'm including myself in here, pastors, it's time to get back to the prayer closet. That's how you're gonna change this nation. You're gonna be broken before God. You're gonna come up out of that prayer closet, broken and humbled, and preach your heart out because now you have the heart of God. That's how you change a nation. Now we're looking at fads and pop psychology to prepare our sermons. A sermon comes from the prayer closet, where God prepares the messenger before he prepares the message. Biblical preaching convicts and it restores. And what I'm trying to do is give you practical application because we can all come here and say, okay, that was wonderful, now what? Biblical preaching, we've gotta get back to biblical preaching, biblical teaching, where God has our heart. And there are two extremes. You have this extreme, where they're just gonna throw scripture on you, and they're gonna pound abortion, and then hell in a handbasket, America, America, America. You know, it's going to hell, and you gotta repent, and you gotta, and I love those types of sermons. But it better be underscored with grace and love, or it's not, it's gonna fall on deaf ears. But then now, which is actually more alarming, and I've written another book, Answers for a Confused Church, talking about what was back a while ago, the emergent church movement, where you have this whole movement as not to offend. Replace the pulpit with a couch, replace preaching with conversation, and let's just dialogue and converse, and let's just come alongside in love, and not convict and hurt and all these things, shame, just love. Well, the problem with that is nobody changes when they're not convicted. See, the heart of God is to bring conviction and restoration. Very first, very first sermon ever preached, you all know it, church was born, Peter comes out and says, they're not drunk, this is that, which the prophet Joel spoke of, that in the last days, and then he goes on to say, but you stiff-necked people, you put Christ on the cross. That's not gonna win him a very, if you're starting to chart a religion, that's not a good idea. And then what happened? What must we do to be saved? Brought the comfort. So if we can, that's my heart, if we can get pastors back to that broken, humble state, want to be servants of God, not popularity contest, and Lord, what do you wanna see? You will see a nation change, because the nation changes from the inside out. And I run across people, I'm sure to you, the end is coming, there's not much we can do. Well, all I know is I'm supposed to do business until he returns. I've got four little kids, all under 11, I'm leading as a father. I've got a church I'm leading. There's a revival type that's taking place in our nation. I'm not giving up. God plus you plus one is a majority. So now that we've identified, we should be preaching the totality of God's word. The totality, what I mean by that is the full counsel of God. So here's, when you teach through God's word, you will hit on abortion. And you will hit on gay marriage. And it's not that we don't love, we love those people. But God's word is crystal clear on this issue. And if we don't believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, not to offend, but I have a tendency to do that, you're in the wrong position. You cannot lovingly challenge people with God's word and not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, that all truth is given by God, that these are difficult truths given to save man. That's preaching the totality of God's word. God, Jesus was full of grace and truth. And finding that balance is difficult. You know, you're either all truth and no grace, or you can be all grace and no truth, but you have to find that middle ground. That's the totality of Scripture, working through the word of God, lead of the Spirit, lead of the Spirit. When I say that, some people go, oh no, here he goes. And other people say, praise God. Why is that? Well, we could talk about right charismatics on one side and conservatives on the other, and people, where are you at, Shane? I like to find the middle ground. I need the power of the Holy Spirit. I need him daily. It's the part of the triune nature of God that works through man. Even Jesus began his ministry in the power of the Spirit. So as we're led of the Spirit, and I'm preaching this Sunday on not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And that is a tremendous verse, because we look at God allowing a pagan king, Cyrus, to let the children of Israel go back and rebuild the temple under Zerubbabel. And it's how am I going to do this? Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. I will move that mountain and make it a plain. So when we go through, in God's Spirit, he moves the mountain, and that requires humility and brokenness and being led by the Spirit. And there's a book I wanna recommend. If you've ever read it, I would pick it up. It's called They Found the Secret. And it's not some weird Hollywood thing about the secret. It's short biographies of Oswald Chambers, John Bunyan, George Whitefield, D.L. Moody. All of them, most of them, were dying in their ministry until they were mightily filled with the Spirit of God. So my pneumatology on this, which is the study of the Holy Spirit, is we have all of the Holy Spirit at conversion, but does he have all of you? See, that's the missing link. Pastors should be the most broken, humble people before God. They should be fasting and praying, and then from that, they are mightily filled with the Spirit, and they are the voice of truth redirecting the culture, maybe one person at a time. It doesn't matter. We want these big movements. We wanna fill these places. God just says, I just want a few people submitted to me, and I'll move mountains. So being led by the Spirit is vitally important. Again, most pastors wanna be popular, but we will never know the heart of God if we're worried about being popular, and it was hard because talking to pastors, it used to be intimidating for me, but it's not too intimidating, but if we're honest, we're sometimes the hardest to sit and allow a message to penetrate our hearts. It didn't happen here, but most of the time, where'd you go to school? Where'd you go to seminary? You reformed? You Calvinistic? You charismatic? You Pentecostal? You this, you that, and they wanna size you up. They wanna, what's his sermon, homiletically and hermeneutically correct? Did he have three points in this? Did he, and we're come in already judging, closing a deaf ear to what God wants to say, and God wants to convict us just as much as anybody else. That's why he'll use a country boy from Lancaster who has no formal education to rattle some cages because he gets all the glory and all the credit. It's him working through us, so the prayer closet is where we get answers. The problem is we're not broken before the Lord. Now, I just came to shoot you straight this morning. This might not apply to everybody in this room, but overall, pastors are not truly broken before the Lord. We are not being humble vessels used by God, and I remember a story. I think I told it Sunday, and it's been a few years about this young preacher, many of you can relate, who just graduated seminary. He's 24 years old. He had it down. He had everything was polished. It was perfect. The Strong's Concordance reference, the Greek, the Hebrew, the nuances, the verb tense, he was just unbelievably impressed with his sermon. By all measures, I mean, any seminary professor would have said, this is a good outline, this is great, but he got up to the pulpit, and he stuttered, he stammered, he couldn't quite make it work. The people weren't receptive, looking at their clocks, or the watches, and the phones, and just an utter humility, an utter brokenness. He just, he walked down and left the pulpit. Some tears a little bit were coming out of the eyes. Just couldn't believe it, and the old deacon next to him said, young man, if you would have ascended to that pulpit the same way you descended, you would have succeeded. You'll get that on the drive home. The point was, if you would have went up into that pulpit, broken and humble before the Lord, and this is really my message, because God has to change the heart, and you seek the heart of the Father. And pastors say to me, Shane, God's Word isn't relevant anymore. Hogwash, hogwash, that's not true. It's the same yesterday, today, forevermore. The problem is, you want to be relevant, not powerful. You want to be popular among men, and not popular among God. We have to get rid of this popularity, and I'm dying to sell. You are going to offend the big tither. You're going to offend that family. But for the love of God, let us not offend God. When have you ever asked that? Lord, am I offending you? Because the flesh in me, once every, oh, that was wonderful, and I was coming up here. You're the head, not the tail, just go and succeed. You guys are doing a great job. We'll do it, team, come on, and just cheerlead. But when was the last time you were a coach? Coaches aren't necessarily popular. Vince Lombardi for some of you? I mean, the best coaches are those who pull out of you what's already inside of you. That's what we're called to do with our people. And the power of compassion, here's what's happening. This is why I talk so much about being filled with the Spirit. And I just had a dramatic experience in my younger years where God completely, He broke me, and now I'm loving worship music instead of mocking it. This filling of the Spirit, but it's ongoing because as D.L. Moody said, I'm a leaky vessel. I'm a leaky vessel, I've gotta sit underneath the fountain of life every day. I've gotta come to Lord in brokenness and humility led by the Spirit. And here's why. What happens when we're filled with the Spirit, not only do our sermons pierce the heart and change people, it changes me. And this is a hard topic for me because I feel, and some of you can relate, there's tremendous sadness, but there's also anger. How can we remain silent when silent screams go unheard? When you can begin to pull out portions of a child and throw it in the trash can, folks, we have a problem. Our consciences have been seared. How dare the pulpits say, we cannot talk about that, then you, sir, are not filled with the Spirit of God. You do not have the compassion of God. The littlest of all people, and I'm not gonna say a thing, that's called being a coward, and that's meant to offend. That is meant to offend. Hopefully there's none in this room. But that is what is happening. You look at saline abortions. I don't even know if they do them anymore, but they would shoot saline solution into the womb and the baby is fighting for its life, slowly dying, and they tell the mother it's just contractions. I have a problem with that. Why doesn't that bring tears? Why doesn't that bring tears? Because something is wrong with our heart. When you seek the Father, how can you come out of the prayer closet, not be concerned about abortion, not be concerned about the direction of our nation? And people say, America is bad. No, America is nothing. It's a resemblance and reflection of her people. And they say, oh, slavery. Read the book, I've got four pages of founding fathers who abhorred the practice of slavery. Read the Mayflower Compact, the advancement of the Christian faith. Read all the legislation. You couldn't even run for office unless you profess a faith in God the Father, Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Oh, my Lord, how far have we drifted? The Ten Commandments, or actually, the whole judicial system was built on Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of England that reference Bible scriptures. And with the law, we have drifted so far from the truth that we're calling good evil and evil good, and pastors are too scared to say anything. That's why I think we might have offended God at this point. And what I'm saying, if you don't like it, here's what I often say, if you don't like what I'm saying, it's probably because you need to hear what I'm saying. Everything that was just said is biblical. Look at Isaiah, look at Jeremiah, look at Hosea and Joel and Amos, Obadiah, look at those people. Yes, we have tremendous grace, but we have tremendous passion for what is right, that to be that voice, that's how you stop this. It's not a physical battle, it's a spiritual battle. We know this, preaching to the choir, but sometimes the choir needs a little preaching too. We need to remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. Where is our battleground? In the prayer closet, through brokenness and humility, filled, you are a watchman. And our silence is deafening, our silence is deafening. Most pastors, and I'll close with this point, and what I'm trying to do is hear my heart. I didn't come to beat up anybody. These are hard things to hear. But I've found that we don't change until we're confronted. Until we're lovingly confronted, we don't change. How many marriage, if you've finally seen the husband come to your office, okay, I'm ready to change. Once she says, here's the divorce papers, I'm outta here. When do you, you don't see it until we are confronted. And as leaders, we need to be confronted. Again, tozer, the same word of God that encourages us, we must allow it to convict us. Here is the final thing. Most pastors are not filled with the fire of God, with the passion of God, they don't have the heart of God because they're not filled with that spirit. And I know, I've traveled, I've talked to many of them, and they're so concerned about having a conversation with their culture instead of convicting it. Now, point of clarification, I do not talk to you the same way I talk to the single mom in the front row who's struggling over her abortion and having an abortion. I offer hope and say, well, you just heard it, there's hope at the foot of the cross, there's restoration, there's repentance. God can renew and restore and you can have a, and you build up, but you have to tear down. Jeremiah, I have called you from the womb to go, Jeremiah. Oh, but I am just a youth. No, you're not a youth. You say what I put in your mouth. You will build up and you will tear down. You will root out and you will destroy. Jeremiah, warn my people. Right before the fall of Jerusalem, God said, I sent my messengers to warn my people. But they mocked my messengers, despised my word, and scoffed at my prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against his own people. Not very popular. You're not gonna hear it on Sunday morning TV. But that's the truth. Because I believe the truth of God's word is in the application, the powers in the application. When you avoid the difficult truth, there's no power in that. How can you avoid the cross, repentance, judgment, and the blood? And expect to witness effectively. Those are very offensive truths. Just took a week, actually three days with my wife in Palm Springs for our anniversary. At the pool, I made the mistake of asking who the person's voting for in Palm Springs. But it turned into a discussion about I'm a good person and being able to present the gospel. We're not gonna be able to stand before God with good works and explain the cross and explain the blood of Christ. The gospel, repentance, these things that people don't wanna hear. She said, well, I don't have to hear this anymore. And she gets up. What was so offensive? The truth. So here's what we do. Oh, I'm sorry, let me, oops, sorry. Let me, that was a distraction. Let me shift gears. That's what's happening as pastors. Oh, I'm offending? Let me shift gears. The religious right has embarrassed people? Let me shift gears. We can't talk about politics? Let me shift gears. Fox News, CNN's gonna, we gotta shift gears. No, what does God say? What does God say? Let him be truth and every man a liar. It's back to being filled with the fire of God. And it's interesting. I love reading books over 100 years old, which I'm sure some of you do. Many of the greats who've came before us. And that's one benefit of not holding onto denominational lines is I'm able to read MacArthur and Hayford. I have Calvin and Hodge as my systematic theology, but I also have Wayne Grudem and Norman Geisler and reading the deep wells of theological truths that have come before us. But it's interesting. I'm reading a lot of these books. Do you know people fasted? Wesley fasted, Whitfield fasted, Spurgeon fasted, Welsh revival, 1700s, Hal Griffin, Griffin Jones, Hal Harris, Daniel Rollins, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones talks about them often when he's talking about revival. They fasted. You get up to the Methodist circuit writers coming in and causing revival. They fasted. They fasted, they fasted, prayer and fasting. See, we've lost that element. What is fasting? It's starving the flesh so you can be filled with the Spirit. That's what fasting does. And old saints, I'm 100 years ago, when they would call a pastor, and I crack up every time I see this. When they would call a pastor, they would rarely ask where he went to seminary. His hermeneutics, his homiletics, is he well-versed in pneumatology and theatology and eschatology, and what is his theological persuasion when it comes to free will and sovereignty and all these different things? They would actually ask one question. Has he received his baptism of fire? See, that's not a weird thing. Don't let charismatics or people on TV distract us. The very thing we need is the very thing we are afraid of, being filled with the fire of God. The Spirit's power. As I submit and surrender to the work of the Spirit, I'm filled with that same Spirit. The same Spirit that inspired the Scriptures. The same Spirit that sent Christ forth. The same Spirit that works in the world to convict and to challenge. The same Spirit that built the church of Jesus Christ. That same Spirit, that power, a person, I have correct theology in the area of Trinity, it's a person, the person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, to be filled with that fire. You see, that's the problem. If we have pastors on fire for God, they're praying, they're fasting, they're removing all these things that are pulling them away. We've got so much media, so much this, and we come up to the pulpit and our people leave starving because we're not sitting in the prayer closet asking God, what do you wanna say to your people? And Tozer would say, who you are a week is who you when you come up to this pulpit. If I've got 50 Shades of Grey and Desperate Housewives and CNN and this and ISIS is coming and Facebook and I'm gonna come up here and I'm gonna expect God to speak boldly through me after filling my mind with all this garbage, that's what I mean by being filled with the fire of God. And another book I'd recommend, I don't know the title, I don't remember, but Samuel Chadwick. He was mightily used of God, but he threw all of his sermons in the fire and said, God, I just want your fire, I want your presence, I want your power. And don't mistake, I don't know, there's different theological persuasions in here, but I'm just trying to get to the heart of God, the heart of Christianity. See, I remember when the church prayed. I remember when the church prayed and fire fell in the upper room. I remember when we weren't trying to get our sermons down to 25 minutes, a quick worship song so we can get the next group of people in. We've got everything, I remember when the church prayed, I remember when the church waited on God, I remember when the church was powerful, that's how you make a difference. So as much as I'd love to give you three points in a poem, the key is within the heart, the heart has to change. We have to come broken before, if my people, we should just call this if my pastors, if my pastors will humble themselves. You know what humility is? Saying, Lord, I'm desperate for more, I need more of you. I don't like what this guy's saying, but I need more of you. I'm broken before you, if my people humble myself and pray, when was the last time you wept over the condition of our nation, wept over the abortion industry or the sex trafficking or the heart of compassion, praying and pulling down heaven? Another thing about the old books is they used to say after hours of prayer, God finally answered, he broke through, what are you talking about? Who has two hours for time for prayer? Well, they used to before the media, before Facebook, before the phones. If my people pray, this isn't a quick minute prayer on your way to work, I love those. But in these dire times, you have to pull out the AR-15, which is prayer, the little 22 isn't gonna work. I talked to a group of gun people, they were upset at me too because I said your gun safes are full, but your prayer closets are empty. Our gun safes are full, but our prayer closets are empty. If my pastors humble themselves and pray and seek my face, God, I could spend an hour and seek my face. You know, again, fortunately pastors, hopefully you know that word seek in the Hebrew, bakash I think it is, it's seeking something until you find it. Imagine losing your grandchild or your child at Disneyland. Are you gonna say, well, wait till they close, we'll look for them then? Everything in your life would change. You're not hungry anymore, you don't have to use a restroom, you don't care about the rides, you don't care what time you're getting home. I have to find that child. I have to find that child. I have to, nothing else matters. I don't care about you or anybody else. I've got to find that child. Now parallel that to what the word seek means. If you seek me with all of your heart, we think we get out of our five minute devotional, we put on Air One and we come to church, we're filled. That's not seeking God. Seeking God is an all-consuming passion that drives everything. Yes, we have to work, yes, we have to counsel, yes, we have to preach, we have to prepare. But the sermon comes from that prepared heart. If my pastors seek my face. I mean, think, soul searching, when was the last time we really sought God's face? I mean, breakfast is probably not a good idea to talk about fasting, but we have to starve our flesh to be filled with the Spirit of God. Jesus fasted, Paul fasted, Peter fasted. It's this starving of the flesh and seeking God. And every time I do it, I hate to fast, but I love when the worship comes alive. I love when the word of God comes alive. If they humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and the one we all want to avoid, they just leave it there, right, on TV. If my people turn from their wicked ways. See, there's nothing wrong with preaching repentance from our pulpits. Jesus preached repentance. John the Baptist preached repentance. So the point I'm getting at as pastors, I don't know what your influence is, I don't know where you're at or what you do, but repentance is the only hope for our nation. Repentance is the only hope for the church. Talk about an abortion, repentance is one of the answers because we encourage the person who has the abortion to repent. That's a good thing. Repentance means change the way you think, and then ultimately you're gonna change the way you act according to God's word. Repentance brings restoration. Peter, the second sermon, repent and be converted so the times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. That's revival. That's how you help the person who has an abortion. You encourage and you love and you support and you meet them where they're at, but you also preach repentance. You preach repentance from our pulpits. It's okay to say the direction of our nation is not healthy. Senate, Congress, candidates, current president, repentance needs to take place. We are not heading in good direction. When we call good evil and evil good, we are not going in a good direction. If the pulpit isn't the voice of truth, who is? That was the whole point. That's one of the points of the pulpit is to preach the gospel, to preach the truth, and to lead people to the heart of God. So that's my encouragement to you this morning. If we wanna make a difference, number one, don't worry about the majority. The majority is not coming with you. The majority is not coming with you. But you plus God is the majority. I mean, God, just see, all these famous people I just mentioned, Oswald Chambers, D.O. Moody, they start as one person and God bless their ministry. God plus you surrender to Him as a majority. Don't let the enemy come in and we start bickering and complaining, more people aren't helping, more aren't doing this. God doesn't care about that. He cares about where your heart is. And as pastors, if we really wanna make a difference, then we have to internalize everything I just said.
If My Pastors - Silence Is Not an Option
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Shane Idleman (1972 - ). American pastor, author, and speaker born in Southern California. Raised in a Christian home, he drifted from faith in his youth, pursuing a career as a corporate executive in the fitness industry before a dramatic conversion in his late 20s. Leaving business in 1999, he began studying theology independently and entered full-time ministry. In 2009, he founded Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, relocating it to Leona Valley in 2018, where he remains lead pastor. Idleman has authored 12 books, including Desperate for More of God (2011) and Help! I’m Addicted (2022), focusing on spiritual revival and overcoming sin. He launched the Westside Christian Radio Network (WCFRadio.org) in 2019 and hosts Regaining Lost Ground, a program addressing faith and culture. His ministry emphasizes biblical truth, repentance, and engagement with issues like abortion and religious liberty. Married to Morgan since 1997, they have four children. In 2020, he organized the Stadium Revival in California, drawing thousands, and his sermons reach millions online via platforms like YouTube and Rumble.