Shane Idleman emphasizes the critical importance of holiness in the life of a believer, asserting that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. He explains that holiness means being set apart for God's use and highlights the struggle between the desire for holiness and the temptations of unholiness in today's culture. Idleman discusses the concepts of positional and progressive sanctification, urging believers to grow closer to God and reject sin. He encourages the congregation to pursue holiness actively, as it is essential for experiencing God's presence and power in their lives. Ultimately, he calls for humility and a contrite heart, reminding listeners that true strength comes from within through the Holy Spirit.

When you talk about the holiness of God, and if you take God seriously, that word, it's weighty, is it not? I want to talk to you this morning on the topic of without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. The topic of holiness, I don't know what you think of. Do you think of maybe a gown, and oh, they look holy? The Bible definition of holy is something being set apart for God to use. Bottom line. So the utensils in the tabernacle were holy. Certain things were holy. Take off your sandals for you're standing on holy ground. Something that was set apart for God to use. And there had to be a distinction. There's a difference. There's something about the holiness of God. It's interesting why he uses us and calls us holy. To me, it's just amazing that he calls you to be holy. To be set apart, to be used by him. But there's something, there's a fascination because inside of us, we want the holiness of God. If you're a believer, you're fighting for holiness until the day you die. Amen? You say, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to be holy. I want to be drawn towards Christ. I want to be filled with his spirit. But then you have this little devil on this side, right? I don't like the holiness of God. There's a fatuation even now with holiness or a lack of holiness or ungodliness. What about those new sneakers that were coming out that I'm sure glad Nike put a stop to? They satanic sneakers, worshipping Satan. I mean, we've just lost our mind. You're mocking God. But there's a fascination with unholiness. These TikTok videos that kids do. There's tons of millions of views on these ungodly demonic. I don't know why there's a fascination with unholiness. Of course, there is when a person is not a believer because it's that darkness. And there's something darkness likes, darkness. And even Christians sometimes there's this struggle within. I was at a place a couple of weeks ago, and this commercial came on. I was listening. And it said something unholy under the hood that your whole family will enjoy. And Dodge was promoting their Hellcat car. Now, I'll just tell you as a guy, 800 horsepower of a Hemi motor, Hemi motors, hemispherical heads on the motor, a lot of power. I would drive that Hellcat maybe I want to try it on the freeway, you know, 800 horsepower. So as a guy, you can kind of, you know, your flesh pulls you in that direction. That's interesting, putting your foot on that gas pedal and feeling that but the commercial stood out something unholy under the hood that your whole family will enjoy. There's just something wrong about that statement, you know, unholy your family will enjoy. And so as Christians as believers living in this culture, the fight for holiness, the contending for holiness, keeping our kids holy and pure and set apart for God, but the same time not lording over them and not being dictators in the home. And how do you find that balance? And that's where we want to end up today. I don't know if I'll help you find the exact balance. But we can talk about what the Bible says about holiness. But you do need to know two things on this topic. Theologians when they talk about holiness, they talk about positional sanctification and progressive sanctification. And sanctification is basically another can be another word for holy. So positional sanctification is don't worry, I'm going somewhere is you are holy before God positionally, because of what Jesus did on the cross. So because of the cross, and when Jesus paid the price for your sin, and your penalty, he absorbed God's wrath on the cross, we embrace that by faith and belief in Jesus Christ. Now positionally, I can stand before God. And boy, did I wish it ended there. But then we have something known as progressive sanctification. Did you know that you should be getting closer to God and living more living holier lives, the farther you get in your Christian walk. It's progressing your your and I don't teach we don't ever believed in perfectionism with the old Methodist used to teach that you can become perfect at some point in your life. I don't know when that would ever happen. But the reason they do is because there's some truth in the fact that we can say no to sin, that we can grow in Christ that we can reject the deeds of the flesh. But there's that sinful nature that's always warring within us. So as a believer, you are growing in the likeness of Jesus Christ. And what you will notice is people if they're not growing, if they're not where they need to be, they've been a Christian many years, it's often because of this area of holiness, they are not willing to give up certain things and grow in the image of Jesus Christ looking more like Christ, they don't want to give up certain things. They can hold roots of bitterness in animosity, anger, pride, jealousy. And that's a problem a lot of times with church hopping. Have you heard that term before? Like bunny rabbits, church hopping. Now, obviously, sometimes you have to find a different church if things are not going in a good direction. But a lot of times when someone is, let's say confronted, and it's difficult to go to church, I know it's difficult to come to church sometimes, if it's difficult to go, and they just don't want to go anymore, they'll find this other church. And guess what, that problem usually follows them. And then they go to this other church. And then after a half dozen churches, they eventually look in the mirror. Because we were not designed to just leave and flee, we were designed to grow and be united as a family. Iron sharpens iron. We apologize, we grow, we stay together and you mature. That's a sign of maturity. The church hoppers never mature. They are stuck on five years old, even though they're 25. Because they never mature, they never walk in the things of God. Or they can go to a church or maybe not go to church and remain carnal. They don't give up things that pull them down. Does anyone have any things that pull you down, that you do not grow spiritually, you actually go, they call it digression. It's funny how everybody is for progressiveness. Now, have you heard this in our nation? It's a big term, progressives, and we're progressing, you're actually digressing. You're going backwards when you're going away from God. So we are not progressing as a nation, we are digressing, we're going backwards, we are leaving him and his holy standard. And so you have to fight for holiness, like you fight against an enemy who's trying to take the soil of a land, your heart. And it is a battle. And that's the difference between we're positionally good with God, but we also now have to walk in holiness. So four takeaways I want you to get from today is holiness is desiring what God desires. Holiness is desiring what God desires. And this is where that term legalism comes in often. Have you ever been called legalistic or judgmental because you want to live a certain way? Get used to it. Now, that doesn't mean we should be judgmental, it doesn't mean we should be legalistic. But when you say, listen, I don't want to go there anymore. I don't want to watch that anymore. I don't want to do that anymore. It hurts my walk with the Lord. Well, you're legalistic, you're judgmental. No, I just want to be close to God. I just want to be close with God. But if you're saying in your heart, well, if I don't do these things, God will love me more. Or you're doing it out of obligation, not relationship, that's where it can turn into legalism. And there are people who will, who will, you know, be very judgmental. You know, say, well, I don't own a TV. I don't do this. I don't do this. Why do you do that? And they're very, they're very legalistic and judgmental. See, it's all a condition of the heart. The right heart says, I don't want to watch that junk on TV, or Netflix or wherever. I know I'm calling it out today, but that's okay. I don't want to, I don't want to do these things. I don't want to hang around with these people. I don't want to go to those places, because I want to draw closer to God. The heart is right. So holiness is simply desiring what God desires. And I don't know if you knew this, but although God is love, how often have we heard that? You're gonna hear it more and more, especially when they want us to embrace sin in our culture. Well, God is love. He just loves everyone that can do whatever they want. That's not love. God is love. The Bible talks about God is love. But did you know His name is holy? He was referred to as the Holy One of Israel, 30 sometimes. The Holy One of Israel. The Holy One of Israel. And that's why that holiness is so important. I believe it's the attribute of God, all attributes are equal, but it's the attribute of God that stands out more than them all. I mean, don't misunderstand. It is the love of God, correct, that compels us to share the truth. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, that's why we're all here. If it wasn't for the grace of God, there go I down the path of destruction. The love of God. But when we begin to just focus on the love of God, ignore the holiness of God, you can become very unbalanced. And that's actually what's happening in many churches today. They excuse sin, they allow whatever, and they avoid the holiness of God. Why? Because this part hurts. This is discipleship. This is spiritual disciplines. This is where the rubber meets the road. But it is so important. The church has power also, when they tremble at His Word and they walk in holiness. That's something about, and when I say spiritual power, I hope you know I'm not talking about political power. Okay? Now I think we should be an influence, but when I talk about the church has power, it's not political power and name recognition. It is walking in spiritual power. So you look back, especially throughout the book of Acts, they had spiritual power. Why? Because they walked, it tells us they walked in the fear of the Lord. They walked in holiness. They said, no, others may, you cannot. Others can do that. You cannot if you want to walk in the holiness of God. And I will tell you that there is no better spot that there is. Young adults or even maybe older adults, you're hearing probably that old little voice in your head saying, oh, that sounds boring. That's dry. That's dull. That's dead. No, it's not. When you walk in the fear and holiness of God, you're in the center of His will. You feel the comfort of Christ. You feel the peace that surpasses all understanding. There's an anointing. There's a boldness. There's a joy for life. You want to get to church. You want more of God. You're just filled with God's power and presence. That's a bad thing. See, the devil's got you tricked. It's funny. So many people that feel this way are turning towards Xanax or Vicodin or pills or alcohol to take that place of what God wants to fill. God abides with those who have a humble and holy spirit. Here's what I'm excited about on this topic. God abides with those. In other words, there's a deeper relationship, a deeper type of walk with those who are humble and they're filled with the Holy Spirit. When we think of prayer, we think of fasting, we think of worship, we must think of holiness because there's a way of living that has to match when we sing songs, when we come to church. We can't be double-minded and live a certain way but then act a different way at church. It's a complete package. One mark of genuine salvation to know is somebody is genuinely saved. I should do a whole sermon on this sometime. There are certain marks where you say there's clear fruit that a person is genuinely saved. One of those fruits, if I can use it plural, is holiness. Not acting a certain way, but their heart yearns for the things of God. They want what God wants. There's a desire. Why? Because it's the Holy Spirit now wanting and drawing them to the things of God. So genuine faith has genuine fruit. If somebody is genuinely saved, there is sincere humility. They're humble. There's repentance that takes place. There's a desire to live holy and worship God. There is fruit. That's why many of you have thought, you see others and you're like, I don't even know if they're saved. Think about it. What is the number one reason why we would say that? Because of how they live. Correct? A lack of holiness. But again, it's not about following rules because we can raise our kids to act a certain way and never know the Lord. I go to church with mom and dad. I do all these good things. I read the Bible, but they do not know who Jesus is. That's why you have to emphasize relationship, relationship, relationship. You have rules, rules, rules, but they don't take precedence over the relationship aspect. Because when you have the relationship with Jesus, you want to follow the rules. Amen? John Piper said, the evidence of being a Christian, this is going to help someone today. I was excited to give you this quote. The evidence of being a Christian is not that there are no tactical defeats in the war. Anybody feeling defeated this morning? You just want to throw in the towel. You've been losing a certain battle. This habit has been taking you down. You just can't seem to get this. Am I even saved? Lord, what's going on? I am in warfare with what is going on in my heart. What is going on? Well, like he said, the evidence of being a Christian is not that there is no warfare, but the evidence is that you keep fighting until the promise, victory is given. See, that's a true sign of a believer. That's a true, yes, I've been defeated. Yes, Satan, you knocked me down. You hit me with a hard right hook. If it wasn't for the Lord on my side, I would have been dead. I would have been destroyed. But I get back up and I fight again because Christ has called us to be a conquering kingdom of people, to get back up and to keep fighting. And the enemy is taking our joy. He is destroying our families. He is fueling fear. He is causing division. But Jesus Christ says, keep fighting. The Lord is my strength. Who will I fear if God is on my side? Though he falls seven times, he will be raised up again. God will raise him up. Though the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, if he falls, God will pull him back up again out of the miry clay, out of the pit. Oh, if you're waiting for me to preach, it's already started because God is going to raise people back up. Man, he's like, the enemy's almost, he's tried to take me out many times by defeats. But then God reminds me, I've called you to finish strong. Get back up and fight again. Keep going. But you don't know my situation. I don't. But I know the Word of God. And that I believe is one of the greatest hindrances to walking closely with God is shame and failure and defeat. The reason most people are in probably not prayer meetings and at church is because they have fallen into sin recently. They fall into sin. You fill in the blank, whatever that is. I don't want to go tomorrow. I don't want to go Wednesday nights. I don't. The shame, the guilt is too great. And he keeps you right there. Keeps you right there. See, I don't believe a person can lose their salvation, but I believe the enemy can take away your zeal for life. He can take away your testimony. He can make you unproductive. What's that certificate the DMV used to issue? A certificate of non-operational. My car is going to be parked out in the dirt for the next five years. I'm not paying these fees. I need a certificate of non-operation. So the enemy wants the same thing, I believe, in the lives of believers. Here's your certificate of non-operation. Go to church once a month. Put on worship music as you're driving. Say a quick little prayer, but you will never do anything for the kingdom of God because he keeps you bound in shame and guilt because of failure. This truth has revolutionized my life in helping people get back up again. Get back up again. You know how many people, I mean, it's all over. Shane, I've succumbed to pills again and medication and marijuana. I can't stop drinking. You fill in the blank. I'm hooked to porn. And they just stay at home. They just stay beat up. When God says that's where you're at, but that isn't where you need to end up. Get back up and fight again. Now, I'm not excusing anything. I hope you understand that. Can you imagine if we could get the fight back again? If you could get the fight back again, we'd have to open the balcony even for early morning prayer. Because you'd say, I know I did that Saturday night, but I'm coming and God is my witness. I'm going to get on that altar and I'm going to pray. God created me like David. You did it for David. Created me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. Oh, that the bones you have broken may rejoice and I may cry out to you. Oh, God, get my face on the altar again. And I need to see you radically change my life. See, that's fighting. This is how I fight my battles. Anybody disgusted at what's going on in our nation? Absolutely disgusted. If you've got little kids, you're like, I don't, what are we leaving them? That's exactly where he wants us because then we get fearful, correct? Then we get fearful. And we start making wrong decisions. The irony is, and this might be encouragement for some of you, if you need discernment, you need to know God's will. A lot of these notes, I've got post-it notes, I've got things written. God's just downloading into my heart and on the altar at six in the morning. Stuff to say today. Well, where's that going to go? How's that going to fit? That ruins my work. But those are the things that people say, that really changed my life. That really stood out. But it's waiting on God. Lord, I want to hear from you. See, we need to silence the other voice at some point. God's not going to, God doesn't compete with other voices. Hey, listen, I'm over here. The still small voice. How do I find that still small voice? You turn off the phone. You get rid of the TV. You might take a drive or come before God and say, God, I need to hear from you. Let that still small voice of God minister to a dry and barren soul. And I say, Lord, just like the soil that cries for the rain, just like a deer that pants for the living brook, the living water, my soul pants after thee. And I must hear from the living God. You come with that passion, that desire. He will answer. Folks, where Christianity is going, it's getting dark and you better be built up. You know, when all hell breaks loose, are you prepared? Casual Christianity is not going to cut it. You've got to be prepared from the inside out. I don't know if you heard about that submarine in April that sunk and all. I don't know if it sunk. It was crushed. Something happened. All the sailors, 53 of them died in the Indonesian Ocean, I believe it was, or Indonesia in the Pacific. I don't know. I'm not good with world history. Anyway, they're not sure what happened. But it's interesting. I was reading and they have something called the crush depth. They said when the pressure on the outside is greater than the strength on the inside, the submarine will crush. When the pressure on the outside that's going on is greater than the strength in you, you will crush. You will break. That's why you have to be filled up with God's Spirit because nothing can crush that. Nothing can break that. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. So when the pressure comes, but Shane, they might make you get vaccinated. They might take this. They might do that. You might go to jail for saying that gay marriage is wrong. Oh, but the strength on the inside is greater on the pressure than the outside. Because when I can stand before God and preach his truth, let the chips fall where they may because eternity, eternity is a vapor. That's it. That that is your whole life in the midst of eternity. And you get strength enough from the inside out. So the pressure comes and it comes and you stand there and though he slay me yet why trust him like job and Moses was saying was it was saying I will just stand here having done all stand and I will watch the salvation of the Lord. There's a positioning. There's a strength because the inside is greater than the outside. So if you are overcome with fear and anxiety and doubt and what's going on in the world, it's because the strength on the inside is not greater than the pressure on the outside. Hebrews 1010 says God's will for us. How many want to know God's will? I think that's the number one prayer that we receive that I pray with people. What's your will in this area? God's will for you is to be made holy by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So that tells us the number one will of God is for a person to be saved, to worship him. And then the will of God is to live out the holiness in your life. And then Hebrews 1214 pursue peace, pursue peace with all people. Let me stop right there for a minute. That's interesting. I just felt this preparing the sermon. Some of you maybe are struggling for peace, wanting peace in your homes, relationships, and you're maybe going overboard. You don't know what's going on. Pursue peace as it much depends upon you. You pursue peace and let it go. You pursue it. Don't know the other person's not doing this. This isn't happening, but they're not reciprocating. I'm trying. I'm trying. You've done all you can do. Let it go. You pursue the peace. And you can actually cross the line when you start to manipulate. We start to force things. God says, you just pursue peace and leave it at that. And so he says here, pursue peace with all people. In other words, the pursuit of peace is interesting. One thing I don't know if I should tell you confession. One thing that's hard about pastoring is I have to apologize a lot. I have to reach out. You know, hey, sorry about that. Or how are you doing? And hey, let's fix this relationship. And you're pursuing peace. Bridge builders. You know, you don't want to. You know those people. I'm not talking to them. They're not talking to me. As a Christian, that's just, that's not, can't do it. You're pursuing peace as much as it depends upon you. And you pursue holiness. Look at it here. Pursue peace and basically pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now this is interesting. The words there, we'll see. We'll see. I'm just going to tell the theologian Bible students will like this. But what they consider that is a future indicative third person. Meaning something in the future for us, third person, you, we, he, she, you will see in the future. In other words, you're not going to see in the future, but this is what will happen. No one without which no one will see the Lord. Future action word there. There's a pursuing of God, you will see the Lord. And that word means to stare at, to discern, to experience. And that's what I've been really writing on and releasing the book soon on and last weekend was on is to experience God. It's okay to experience God. Actually, that's how you thrive in ministry. That's how you experience the power and presence of God. That's how you get through life and live the victorious Christian living is by experiencing God. And that is very, that is very apparent that it's very apparent that many people are not experiencing Him. Because when we experience God, there's a boldness, there's a there's a joy to the things of God. So Hebrews tells us right here, you will not experience, discern, stare at, unless there is a pursuit of holiness, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Now, of course, we could put that into an application as well, that no one will see the Lord in regard to when they die. If they don't know Jesus Christ, there's no without holiness, without Christ holiness, without that atoning sacrifice, no one will see the Lord, which is absolutely true. But in Hebrews, we don't know exactly who the writer was, he's writing to Christian Hebrews and encouraging the people in this area of holiness. And then the Old Testament is something that this is one of the scriptures. Remember, I told you there's two scriptures I've just been meditating on for the last couple months. The one was the one I preached on last week. If you didn't hear that one message, go ahead and listen to that. But this one has been the other one. Isaiah 57, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. Think about this. This is God speaking. This is the prophet Isaiah speaking on behalf of God, something that God is putting into his heart. Would you think you would listen more if you heard, especially from heaven, a voice is sounding from heaven, for thus says the high and lofty one who habits eternity. And that just so sentences, so grab me all the last few months, because he is the high and lofty one who will reach to God, who will send to God. There's no word that can describe him, no army that can defeat him, no government that can overthrow him. Thus says the high and lofty one who sits up on the circle of the earth, and I'm up in eternity, gazing down to man, whose name is love. Oh, now we got everyone looking at the screen, whose name is holy. And this is so interesting. I dwell in the high and holy place. I dwell in high and holy place. I'm exalted. I am lifted up. I am above and not beneath. I dwell in a high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. Oh, could it be that the power and presence of God would dwell with me, would dwell with you? He says, I will meet those who are contrite. I will meet those who are broken, and I will dwell with them. Come up to me and experience the power and presence of my spirit. I dwell with him with a broken and contrite and humble heart. Unless you can tell me what else that means. Did you look at some commentary, Shane? Oh, yeah, about a half dozen. And that's something very interesting. How many of you are feeling weak this morning? Don't raise your hands. Or distant from God? Dead to the things of God? Bored with church? You come down then, but your love is for your business. Your love is for sports. You're just kind of getting through things. I dwell in a high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. And to revive, folks, this is the essence of revival, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Not God, not will he only dwell with us, but he will revive you. He will revive you again. Listen, there is nothing on planet earth, like watching someone be revived in their faith, renewed in their faith. Or coming to Jesus for the first time. It's kind of the same type of one is they're dead in their sins and trespasses. And they're revived in this burden is taken when they come to know Jesus and they're like, they're a new creation, correct. But then there's this Christian who's walking around defeat, disgusted with their life, have drifted from God, when God begins to breathe in them again. And that life, that could it be that God is speaking to me again? Could it be that God is reviving me? They get excited about the things of God. It's beautiful to see. That's how you overcome anxiety. That's how you overcome addiction. Remember, the pressure on the inside must be greater than the pressure on the outside. So let's break these down for a minute. For thus says the high and lofty one, the God of the universe is speaking, the God of the universe is speaking. And that's why we put so much value on his word. And so should you at home, we believe and so should you that God speaks to us through his word. His word is like a double edged sword. It pierces, it divides the soul from the spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the human heart. The word of God comes alive. That's why I love that song that when the lyrics it says, when all hope is gone, and your word is all I've got, I still believe that you're the God who brings water from the rock. Have you ever been there when all hope is gone? Many of us have we've seen there all hope is gone without God. I am. I have nothing to anchor my soul to I have no rest, no peace. What is going on? Just just attempt to look at the news for five minutes and stay in a good mood. When all hope is gone. When all hope is gone. I still remember. I've got your word that you've given to me. So when God says something, embrace it, hold to it. But Shane, I don't know what he's speaking to me. I don't know what he's saying. If you're in his word. If you're in his word, he'll begin to give you Scripture and things you can just hold on to. Promises. Those are promises of God. Especially when your spirit, the Holy Spirit in you and the Holy Spirit in the word of God, it's just, ah, that's for me. That's for me. I want to teach hopefully in the next week or two on a passage that talks about the person holding on to the word that God gave them. It's so important. And then he says high and lofty who habits inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. His dwelling is eternal. He has no beginning and end. He fears no man. He fears no government. He fears no army or dictator. He stands alone. I don't remember who said this, a famous preacher probably 30 years ago, and I've always remembered it. God's not here saying, let's make a deal. He's saying, this is the deal. Sometimes we come to church thinking, oh God, let's make a deal. And you ever make a deal in your mind? Give up that habit. Okay, how about just on the weekend? Or how about this? Or how about, let's make a deal. He says, no, this is the deal. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite one. I want you to know the difference here before I close out. The International Bible Encyclopedia says a contrite heart is when the natural pride and self-sufficiency have been completely humbled by the consciousness of guilt. In other words, when you stand before a holy God and you realize how far we've fallen, how far we've missed the mark, and we bow our knee to Jesus Christ, we see how sinful and depraved we are. That leads to a contrite spirit. It's basically crushed and crippled and broken. So here's the difference. A contrite spirit is the condition of the heart. Whereas humility walks it out. So if you're contrite in heart, then you'll be humble and you walk it out. They go together. So God says, I dwell with those of a contrite heart and a humble heart. I dwell with those who know Christ. I'm praying, Lord, do you want me to say this or not? Of course you want me to. Something I did that I said probably six months ago with articles and different things that I actually feel more strongly about than ever before. I believe one of the reasons that Trump was not elected was to humble the church. The amount of pride and arrogance. Listen, I was on conference calls with evangelicals that are on his council team. I know behind the scenes. I know all the junk. I know all the stuff. But I believe that God used it to humble the church. One reason, I don't know the complete sovereign plans of God, but can you imagine the pride and the bombastic attitude of many of us? The glaring victory, the Facebook posts of in your face, but got stripped away. Those weren't got people want godly policies. I got it. But there was a breaking in the church. There was a break in believers say, Oh, our hope is in God almighty at this point in him alone. Listen, I have concerns with any person in office who doesn't know the Lord. I'm not being political, even though I have been before. I think it's okay. I think pastors should talk about political hot buttons. Why can we not talk about abortion? Why can we not talk about? And when I get into the book of Genesis, we've got to talk about a race, critical race theory, what's going on with the racism in our country and the hatred for authority, the hatred. Where's this coming from? We got to talk about we can talk about the border. Did you know that God's word says a lot about borders that we can love? We can love the foreigner. We can love the immigrant. But at the same time, we can secure our families. I mean, well, we've lost our mind. Anyway, my whole point was, I've never seen so much brokenness out of the election in a good way. So much just the air let out of the tires, the hope that we thought. And I think we're putting so much hope in policy and procedure. And we need it. God, we need it. But I was worried. I was worried about what another victory would look like. The church already wasn't having prayer meetings, right? We were already loud and bombastic worship nights. Yeah, right. What for? Stock is up. Cryptocurrency is doing great. 401k. I know you guys smiling. You're watching XRP and XLM and dodgy coin, whatever they call it, and Bitcoin. Look at that. Everything's great. God could wipe all of that away. I personally believe it's all going to be connected if we have that one world system where they can just you can't buy or sell. You're right. You can't even operate your cell phone. It's all connected. It's where everything's going. Come on. I mean, my 12 year old knows that. So why isn't the church at prayer meetings? A church this I mean, we easily a thousand people easily call this their home church. We can have a full service every single night of the week seeking the heart of God if people are hungry. Did you know that the reason our services are mainly dictated on your level of hunger? I would open this church every night, take one night off a week if people are that hungry for it without a shadow of a doubt. Reading last night, a guy walking 13 miles to church service when revival is breaking out the underground church in China, what they do is you would just you would I'm embarrassed for me, not you. I'm embarrassed for me when I read how blessed we are. But how we take it for granted. Technically, shouldn't we be the most joy filled, praise filled church on fire, full prayer meetings, full worship nights than any other group of people on the planet? Technically, if we're thankful for the blessings of God, pride, pride, pride. The Word of God is living and it speaks to the single mom at the first service who maybe need to hear something different and the dad who's about ready to leave his marriage and the Holy Spirit just lets loose with the Word of God is preached and you're open, Lord, show me what do you want me to say? How do you want me to say it? And you come, honestly, I come up here a little bit of fear and trepidation. If you really ponder, here's what God you were saying, here's what God's Word says. I better be pretty convinced. Because if not, you're speaking falsehood. You're misrepresenting God. And that is a weight many of you do not want to carry. Because it is it is it is the preciousness of God's Word. And that's why services are often different. There's rabbit trails, because I've told God, these are these are notes that I would like to stick by. But I don't have to. So we're going to open the prayer room just a minute, the worship team will come in just a minute. But I just kind of sense there might be some hard hearts here this morning. If you have never bowed your knee to Jesus Christ, you've never repented and said, Lord, I need you. You know, the reason why you're not it's because of pride. Pride is what keeps people out of heaven. Bottom line, straight up. Pride keeps people out of heaven. And I hear it all the time. But Shane, I'm a good person. I was raised in a Christian home. I went to church till I was 12. So when did you come to know God and repent of yourself? Well, I've always known God. Oh, come on, pride. There's never been a point in your life where you've had to repent of your humble, humble yourself. Isn't that humility? I remember God had to strip me of everything, everything. I was the highest grossing district manager in all 24 hour fitness. And God just ripped it away from me. In my 20s, on my face demoted, demoted, demoted, lose it, demoted, humbling and humbling and breaking and breaking and breaking. Finally, finally, I was a fight. I never shed more tears all my life. It's okay. God, I'm sorry. 29 years old. I'm sorry. I'm not going to keep running. God, I need you. I need you to move in my life. I can't end up like this. Oh, God, in the filling of the Holy Spirit came upon me and the Word of God became alive. And now that's who I want others to have. It's genuine. It's real. This is not a fictitious God that somebody made up. This is the real, true and living God who governs the affairs of men. He says, if you want me, seek me with all of your heart. I'll draw near to me and I will draw near to you. I will turn away nobody who is broken and humble. Oh, the cries go out to all. God says, whoever, whoever comes to me, I will not turn you away. Call upon the name of the Lord while you should while you while he still hears. No, he hears now. Call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. Some of you need to do that this morning. You've been playing church too long and I want to pray with you in the prayer room. Some of you need to humble yourself. Some of you need to humble yourself of pride. There's a religious spirit that is very prevalent in the church today, especially conservative Bible believing truth preaching churches. That spirit of pride sometimes finds its way so easily here that we have to humble ourselves of that pride. Do you know why? Maybe I shouldn't tell you one of my, not secrets, but the reason why I do things. The reason I open up the altar often or talk about the altar, there's not a special power in it or anything. What it is, it's a step of humility. And I can, I can call it out nine times out of 10. That man will never be up there. That man will never be up there. That man will never be up there. That man will never be up there. That man will, I can, I know who's not coming to the altar. Pride and arrogance is in our demeanor. And I open it up to give you an opportunity to humble yourself. It's not for me, it's for you. I've lived it guys. I've lived this. I've talked about before, if coming back to the Lord, I would always sit in the back and I would come in late to worship. I don't want that worship. Worship is boring. Either give me Metallica or George Strait. That was my, that was my, I know it's a little weird. I know it's a little weird, but I wanted either Metallica or country music so I could wash my tears away. I was drunk the day my mama got out of prison. And you just, you know, you're just, and it was like a pressure. It's like a pressure. It was like in the back, you know, it's like, what is it's like this, this pressure to go. I'm like, I'm not going up there. You guys can Google it. You can see picture. I was like a big steroid weightlifting guy. It's what I did. I was strong and lifted weights and gotten fights. I'm not going to the altar. And just, just, just pressure. It's why? Because it was a step of humility. It's all it was. I don't want people to see my desperate need for Christ. That's why I do it 90% of the time is to give you the opportunity to humble yourself. Isn't that hard? Correct. If you're, if you're all the way in the back or half row, I hope the mic works. I've never tried this, but if you have to get up and people are going to say, I've been coming to this church for years or people know me, I'm, I've got to get up and go down and say, God, I need you. That's humility. That's humbling. You better believe it is. That's why we do that. That would have been humbling, but just, just think about that. I believe one of the things God has called me to do is to break the prideful heart of men, break the prideful heart of men. Why? Because the direction of our nation, what you're seeing in our families is a direct reflection of our nation is a direct reflection of the family and often a direct reflection of the leadership in the home. I can give you statistics on fatherless homes, the suicide rate in fatherless homes, the girls that are promiscuous in fatherless homes, those incarcerated 80, 75, 80% in fatherless homes, alcoholism, drug abuse, counseling centers, fatherless homes. People say, well, Shane, I'm not an absentee father. And I remind them, you don't have to leave home to be absent. Oh man, God's downloading it today. I'm telling you, he's, he's what he wants. He is, he is breaking some. Wow. Did you know the 11 a.m. service is always the hardest? I'm just telling you straight. And I don't want to hurt feelings, but it's usually those who don't want to come to morning worship. Their fit got in their schedule and when they get here, I can feel the hardness. Same thing with you when you preach. There's a hardness. It's not as vibrant. It's not as free flowing. The worship is, you can tell that the hardness here at the 11 a.m. Not for everyone. I take it up to God. I'm just, I'm just the messenger. But that, that, that hardness, that pride. And I, and I have told you before, I didn't come to play church. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. But if half a dozen of you said, I'm never coming back because of what he said, I said, okay, go. I'm God's messenger. I know it's going to be the hound of heaven's not going to let loose on you for a while. The Holy Spirit's not going to give up humbling you. I have to answer to God, not a man who I heard his feelings. And we, we, we actually, we actually need to, we actually start needing our feelings to be hurt. Don't we? Let's be honest. You do not change. I do not change until our feelings are hurt and crushed. The pride is thick. Pride is thick. I believe once I've submitted, I still have a picture I should share on Facebook and submitted. That's when, that's when my life really began to change because there wasn't that rebellion in my spirit of fighting God. I said, I am all yours, Christ Jesus. I want the whole world to see. I've been living a prodigal life. I'm coming back to my Lord and Savior. That's why I could care less who sees me at the altar. And it doesn't hurt at all. I just feel bad for the people. But they say, oh, Pastor Shane, he goes up to the altar and raises his hand. They don't understand that I have to. They have to. I need to publicly acknowledge Jesus Christ and worship him. I don't care if the world sees. If you could see my heart, you would be, you would, you would know it's not because of show. I'm not trying to show off. I'm embarrassed by it, to be honest with you. As a guy, you know, you think you never cry. Tough guy was raised in the tough guy home. My dad said, boy, you don't cry. Get up. Well, my legs broke. You don't cry. You don't show emotion. We showed anger real well. I could punch holes in walls. Guys, you got to be crushed, got to be broken. I can't use you unless you're broken. I don't know what's wrong with me. You don't see you're going all of your life not being used by God because of pride. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God today. Let him exalt you.