In this sermon, the speaker expresses his concern about the lack of readiness in the American church for judgment. He emphasizes the need for true change and transformation, rather than just attending conferences without any lasting impact. The speaker discusses the issue of pride and how it hinders obedience to God's word and a genuine relationship with Him. He also highlights the importance of waiting on God and seeking Him diligently, as well as the need to discern false prophets by their fruits. The speaker shares personal experiences and encourages a passionate and grateful worship of God.

First thing I like to do is make sure my mic's on. It is. It's definitely a pleasure to be here with you guys. But a small confession, I do come up here with a heavy heart, just watching the direction of our nation, watching the direction of the church, watching truth be trampled on, watch pastors more concerned about pleasing their audience than pleasing God. And I was told to mention this, and I'll just mention it briefly, but I did bring some books, and I'm hesitant a lot on promoting the books. I don't come here for that. I actually almost forgot about them. My wife reminded me to load them up. But God called me to preach many years ago, and a lot of the sermons I began to put into the books. I wrote a book for young adults. I wrote a book for men. I wrote a book for desperate for more of God and being desperate for more of Him. And also the one that really got a lot of momentum was Answers for a Confused Church. And the church seems to be confused on all these issues that it doesn't need to be confused on. The word of God is crystal clear. And once we go back to that, actually really the only hope for the church is to go back to soul-searching, grace-filled, spirit-inspired preaching, and let that change the hearts of men and women. And I put all that into the books, and then God ultimately called me to pastor the church, West Side Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, just about four hours from here. And I want to talk to you, the whole theme really of the weekend is going to be desperate for more of God. And I don't think you came here to play church. I sure didn't. We came here to seek God for most of us, and if you don't know Him, I want to just encourage you to just open your heart and say, Lord, if you're real, if you're there, I want to know you in a powerful way. In the verse, I actually shared this with John, you and your wife. I don't know if you remember this, but last year I already knew the verse when they asked me to speak, and it was from Luke 10, 27. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And that's really the commandment of God. If we can grasp what that means, you can see lives being transformed. And the first session then, obviously, is tonight, does God have your heart? Does God have your heart? And the heart throughout the Bible is the center of things. The heart and mind in the Hebrew often were interchangeable, the heart and the mind. But the heart, the center of things. And before I get into that, I just want to briefly share my story. I was in a pastor who came up and leave it to beaver home and didn't graduate from this nice seminary down there. I've got quite a few down in Southern California. God took me through the school of hard knocks. I've been through life has chewed me up and spit me out. And through that pain, through that brokenness, God called me to pastor. And I pastored a broken people because that's what I am. And just a brief background. I know there's not a lot of time, but I think it's important to share so you can get an idea of who I am and what really maybe my heart is towards. And I was born actually in Lancaster, California, 1969. Not too far from where I preach. My dad was from the farms of Oklahoma, and my mom was from Southern California. As you know, that's a really interesting lifestyle there. You've got hard work on one hand. These guys were working the farms 12 hours a day. And I could remember even as a young boy being hurt. And my dad would say things like, Boy, you don't cry. Boy, you don't cry. Pick yourself back up. And that's wonderful as a little boy. But as you grow older, you start to hold that pain in. And I came from a broken home. It was an angry home, walking on eggshells. You didn't know if that volcano was ever going to erupt. And I actually took that into my young adult years, getting involved in the party lifestyle. Vegas, Bakersfield, all different drinking, country music, all that stuff. Barely graduated high school with a 1.8. And then, of course, as a man, you've got to worship something. And I got into fitness and eventually got on steroids. I've lost about 70 pounds since then. That was many, many years ago. I thought a man who could bench press 400 pounds went all the fights that he was in, drank a 12-pack of beer. And that mindset, I took it into my marriage in my early 20s. And it's a bad combination when you have arrogance, addiction, and anger. And that marriage ultimately ended in divorce in the 1990s, 1998 or so. But God used that to break me, to finally break me. And many of you who were there this morning heard Eric talk about brokenness and humility. And he was absolutely spot on. Without brokenness and humility, you will not truly know God. You will not be broken before Him. The Word of God will be boring. Church will be irrelevant. Because pride comes in there. Like the Puritans used to say, I love to read Puritans. I love to read systematic theology. And just because I didn't go to seminary, trust me, my library's very big, from everybody from John MacArthur to John Piper to Jack Hayford to Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, and lots of books on pneumatology and soteriology and hermeneutics and homiletics. And try to follow those things when I prepare my sermon. But I also want to let the Spirit of God speak through me through that brokenness. Because that's where lives are really changed. But back to that, a lot of the guys I like to read are the Puritans. And they would say something interesting, that pride is often the last sin to leave and the first sin to return. And that the same sun that melts the wax will harden the clay. Why? Because of pride. See, the same Word of God can go out and affect people in different ways. Some can melt and change and be transformed, but others can leave hard and rigid in one ear and out the next. The only difference there is pride. Pride. I like what A.W. Tozer said, It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. And I know I'm speaking a lot of times primarily to men, but I know there's a lot of women here as well, more than I thought, actually, which is a good thing. I'm married. I've got four kids, all under 10. So I love seeing all the little babies out there. We've actually been praying about a fifth one or not. And I think we're leaning towards no, but, you know, it's difficult. It's challenging. But my heart is for men because when I address, and I'm going to, I better just give you the disclaimer right now up front that God has not called me to be popular. He's called me to be confrontational. And I think the pulpits need to get back to challenging and contending for the faith. And I look at this as God goes after your heart. Throughout scripture, Genesis to Revelation, God goes after your heart. So should I. And when you go back home, you can tell people, How was it? You say, Well, I had heart surgery. So what are you talking about? Well, God changed my heart. I had to have heart surgery. Not the physical heart, but the spiritual aspect of humbling ourselves and coming before God. And I've seen it many times before that as the man goes, so goes the family. When the man can begin to pray with his wife, when the man can begin to love his wife like Christ loved the church, when the man can, and I haven't perfected this yet, by the way. This sermon is applicable for me as well. But when the man can lead, the family often follows. And I'm tired of women leading Bible study. I'm tired of women enjoying worship. I want the man to lead. And don't get me wrong, I love that. I love women being involved. But where's the man? Where's the leadership? We wonder why we're a nation at drift. We wonder why now porn is an epidemic between 12 and 17 year olds. We wonder why abuse is rising. We wonder why, why, why. I'll tell you why. Men have largely forsaken their God-given role of spiritual leaders in their homes. And this is the fruit from the seeds that have been planted for many years. And if you don't like what I'm saying, it's because you need to hear what I'm saying. I have people sometimes when I speak, I don't like what you said. I say, well, it's because you need to hear what I'm saying. Open your heart. Don't let the pride of our heart deceive us. So loving God with all your heart requires humility. Loving God with all of your heart. And one of the problems with being in church and talking to people who've been in church all their life is, or they've been raised in a Christian home, unfortunately, it can be in one ear and out the next, can't it? Yeah, Shane, I've heard that verse, la la la, hurry up, let's get out of here, I'm hungry. But we can't, listen, the times of scurrying through worship and getting through the sermon and having a quick little time of prayer are gone, folks. If you want to see change, where's that hunger for God that used to exist? I remember when there'd be all night prayer meetings. I remember when the church wasn't in a hurry. I remember when you could just sit and worship God for an hour or two and fire would fall and lives would be changed and people would be weeping. Where is that now? We've lost that zeal. We've lost that passion. Why? Because of pride and arrogance. The humble, he teaches his way. Throughout scripture, throughout scripture, it is crystal clear that the humble, he teaches his way. And I'm gonna, actually, I brought an excerpt from the marriage conference I spoke a few months ago at the marriage conference. And I would encourage you guys to sign up for the next one that's coming up. I heard the messages were okay, but the worship was really good. And you want to go there. And actually, the worship was so good, we've asked them to, they're leading at our church next week, Ivy and her husband, Eugene. But I want to read just a few things. For some reason, it was stuck on my heart to put it in with this conference for the Firefighters for Christ. And I'm gonna quote here again Tozer. I quote him a lot. But he said, a man came to a Welsh preacher and confessed that he was having trouble at home. The Welsh preacher summed it up pretty well and advised this man, I don't know your home, and I don't know you, and I don't know your wife. I only know one side of your story, but I do know one thing, when there's trouble in the home, always, always, always, or almost always, humility will take care of it. Always. The best protection your family can have is a humble father. God will not allow anyone to destroy a humble house. And I like Isaiah 66 too. This is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. When was the last time somebody trembled at his word? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord, the church actually began and acts in the power and fear of the Lord. And I get in trouble for saying this sometimes but I'm going to say it here. Joel Osteen type sermons aren't going to cut it in this day and age, folks. We need more than just positive thinking. We need the power of God in our lives again. We need to preach the fear of the Lord from the pulpits in the spirit of love and gentleness and humility. Don't get me wrong. I'm not angry, I'm passionate. Don't confuse the two. I'm not angry about anything. I actually wept for you guys. I've been fasting for you guys. I'm praying. There's no anger. There's passion. Because judgment is going to start in the house of God and the church I'm looking at in America is not ready. We resemble Hollywood more than the Holy Spirit. How do you know, Shane? Just look at our video choices. Look at our Facebook posts. Look at how we spend our time and how we spend our money. That's how you know what and who you worship. If you truly want to benefit from this conference, if you truly, I'm talking about those who truly want to change. I think a lot of us, we're done with conferences. We're done of just coming up here or going to different places and not changing, not leaving here different than when we arrived. But I'm talking to those who really want to change. You say, I'm tired of this. I've got this addiction. Trust me, I've seen it all. In one week, I've counseled porn addiction. I've counseled abuse. I've counseled incest. I've counseled a 14-year-old girl running away from home, two suicides and a heroin overdose. How do you do it? I can't do it without the power of God in my life, without that brokenness and that humility. I'm still a work in progress, trust me. I'm not, don't look at me, oh, he's such a prideful man. No, I'm actually, I'll borrow a quote from C.J. Mahaney, I'm a prideful man working on humility by the grace of God. But if you truly want to benefit from this conference, your heart has to change. Men and women, your heart has to change. Something has to change. Church is normal. Church as normal isn't gonna cut it anymore. I remember I shared this at the marriage conference as well. When I was working for the water district, I ran a heavy equipment, and we put in fire hydrants. And you know what that meant, right? When you put the black bag over the hydrant, it's not working. And one time we forgot, and they were testing hydrants. One guy almost lost his job. But that's what you're doing with pride. You're hooked up to a dead hydrant. You're going through the motions. Church is boring. The Bible's boring. Worship, can these guys get through it? Somebody asked me, or I thought about this the other day, would I rather worship like that for two hours or three hours or go to the Super Bowl? Honestly, I think I'd rather worship. Oh, come on, you gotta get over, no, you don't understand. Christ saved me. I should be partying tonight. I should be heading to Vegas, or I should be dead, or on my sixth marriage, or drunk in the curb. But God reached down, He saved me. I've got to worship Him. The problem is, many people have not experienced the power of God in their lives because once you experience that, there's no going back, folks. There's no going, how many of you can say like Jeremiah, that His word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's shut up in my bones. I'm weary of holding it back. But I cannot, can you say that? What about when Jesus says, He who believes in me, as the scriptures say, out of His belly will flow rivers of living water. Where's that living water that Christ spoke of? Everybody's in a hurry. Everybody's jockeying for a position. Now the thing that God, to be a godly man, a manly man, let me buy a big truck, jack it up six inches, put big tires on it. Let me get a ski boat and head to Vegas on a three-day drunken binge. That's a man? No, sir. A man is a man who can worship God, go home and treat his wife with respect, not rule his house with a rod of iron where your children are afraid. And wives, same applies to you. Our homes look more like desperate housewives than the house of God. And come, trust me, I didn't come here to hurt or beat up, but often you've got to hurt before you can help. You look at a surgeon, it hurts before it helps. In the word of God, I don't think people realize that because we're so used to the TV preachers or we're so used to pump them up, Holy Spirit pep rally, just cheer. But as people are dying, there's people dying in our churches. One lady's about ready to leave her husband, another guy's addicted to porn, this one's addicted. Everybody's dying spiritually and it's going to take the power of the word of God to go in and change and transform that heart. Without conviction, there's no change. This message is for the Hume staff, for me, for anybody in this room. Christians, we can be lulled back into sleep. The enemy loves it when we get lulled back to sleep. Shh, shh, shh. Go back to sleep. Shh, shh, shh. That guy's too loud up there. Don't listen to him. Shh, shh, shh. Go back to sleep. Go back to sleep. Shh, shh, shh. Don't receive any of it. Trust me, you know how the devil badgers me? They're not going to, man, you better take a lot of that stuff out of that sermon. They're going to hate you. Chuck's going to take you off the speaking list really quick. But when I go home and I lay in my bed and I look up at the black ceiling, I have to say, God, did I do what you called me to do? Because I didn't come here not to offend. I came here to preach the word of God so that lives are changed. And that will offend. The message of the gospel is offensive. I read this and I go, wow, that's pretty offensive. That's pretty offensive. And I like what Oswald Chambers said in his devotional classic, Upmost for My Highest, that the word of Christ hurt and they offend until there's nothing left to hurt and to offend, until he brings us to a point of full surrender. And I love to use that word, and people don't like to use it, but I love to use that word, until full surrender takes place. Until full surrender takes place, it's hard to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering. Why can some people worship like this with tears coming down their eyes and other people are like this? What's the difference? One difference, that person knows God. They've experienced God. They have to worship him. The heartbeat, my heart cries, Abba, Father. And trust me, I'm a broken man coming from a broken family, but God. And pride blinds us spiritually. A funny story, it's not really funny, but I spoke, I think I told this at the marriage retreat as well, and I want to remind myself, I put it in the notes. It was the story of Muhammad Ali back in the 70s when he was pretty popular, and he got on an airplane, and he wasn't going to put a seatbelt on. And the hostess or the whatever, stewardess came by, and she said, Mr. Ali, you need to put your seatbelt on. And he said, Superman don't need no seatbelt? And she said, Superman don't need no airplane. What is that? Pride. Pride. Pride. The pride of our heart has deceived us. That's why we don't want to obey God's word. That's why we don't have time for church. That's why we don't have time for God. Everybody's in a hurry now. But you will not know God powerfully, desperate for more of God unless you wait on God. I think it says somewhere in some book, those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up like wings, like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. This isn't a waiting where it's a five-minute devotional. This is a waiting, a travailing of the soul of Lord. Unless you move in this place, I'm not going to leave. Unless you bring my prodigal son home, I'm not going to leave here, Lord. You've got to answer. You've got to take this addiction away. You've got to repair my marriage, Lord. I want it that bad. I'm going to sit here. I'm going to wait upon you. I'm going to worship you. And I'm going to trust you. I don't want to do that. Right. It takes a great deal of humility. And there's pride. It's blocking what God wants to do. I like what Andrew Murray said as well. He's a great devotional writer. Pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you. I found it. This is true. Firemen are more concerned about seeking overtime than seeking time with God. This is where the rubber meets the road, folks. If you want God to change you, it's got to hurt. You can ask. I grew up in Lancaster. I know there's about four of my friends from high school are firemen now. Dan Drogado, Mike Mueller, Chase Coleman, David Baker. If you guys know them, you asked them who I was 25 years ago. That guy. There's no way he's up there preaching, right? But God, God changed me through this fully surrendered life. So you might say, okay, Shane, what are you getting? Here's the point I'm getting to. To truly find God. I mean, to have a passion for Him, a relationship for Him, what we're yearning for. To find it, to seek God, finding Him involves seeking. You have to seek God. There's a seeking there. And I wrote down some scriptures. And it's interesting on this word seek. The more you seek me, the more you find me, the more you find me, the more you love me. We've got worship songs like that. Seek the Lord with all your strength. But it's interesting. We can just gloss over that. But if you look at that word in the Hebrew language, Hebrew is the Old Testament, Greek would be the new. In the Hebrew, it's bakash. And it's like losing a child. And how would you look for that child? Hey, your child's lost. Okay, let me eat lunch and I'll go deal with that later. You wouldn't even be hungry. You wouldn't care what time it was. You would seek that child. One of our families, four months ago, lost their 14-year-old. One day, two days. What do you tell parents like that? Where's she at? I don't know. Where's she at? We're up at 3, 3 in the morning. We've got to find her. We've got to find her. Three days, prayer, fasting on the third day, they get a call. One in the morning, somebody found her in Hollywood. How do you think they sought her? Let's get dinner. That's the same. It parallels with us seeking God. It has to be an all-consuming passion, an all-consuming fire, not perfectly. Nobody does it perfectly, but our hearts need to be focused in that direction. Here are some scriptures that might warm you up to that. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually. There's a continuation there. It's a morning. It's an afternoon. It's an evening. Most people just go to church on the Sunday, and they forget about God on Monday. But seeking Him is a continual aspect. And let me tell you up front, right now, it'll require discipline. It requires discipline to seek God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your soul, because the enemy wants to come in and rob you of that joy, rob you of that relationship. Another verse, 1 Chronicles, now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord. Set your heart. It's like setting a broken bone. Set your heart. And that's what I'm trying to do today. Set your heart to seek the Lord. Because if I can get your heart right, if I can get people leaving here saying, man, Lord, I've been distant from You. I've been going through the motions, even in ministry. You can just go through the motions. You can just get up and let me do my devotional. I have to. I've got to go through ministry. That's not seeking God. Seeking God is scheduling time and planning for it, setting your heart towards Him. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. You will seek Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart. Jeremiah. Isn't that interesting? Many people don't realize this. You will seek Me. God says, you will seek Me and you will find Me when you seek with Me with all of your heart. Not some of it. So many times, just a little bit. I want to compromise in this area. I don't want to seek God with all of my heart. Luke 12. But seek His kingdom and these things shall be added unto you. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you. And just to shoot you guys straight, the reason is we have a relationship problem because we have a seeking problem. The reason worship is boring to many, the reason the Bible is boring, the reason they don't read it on their own, the reason they just go through the motions is there's a relationship problem. Like I referred to that worship song before, the more I seek you, the more I find you. And the more I find you, the more I have to seek you. That's how it works. The wonderful thing about God is you can never get to a point where you say okay, I'm done seeking Him. It's a continual, it's a hunger. It's a hunger. Actually, I also have a, I managed 24-hour fitness centers back in the 90s. District manager of 24-hour fitness centers and I learned a great deal about fitness and one of the things many of you will know as well that hunger is often a sign of health. If somebody's not hungry, they're usually dying of cancer or something, right? They can't eat, they're not hungry. Same thing now. Think about that spiritually. If there's no hunger for the things of God, you are dying spiritually. I don't like that. Well, it needs to be said. It's the truth. If there's no hunger for God, we are dying spiritually. A.W. Tozer said, I want the presence of God Himself or I don't want anything at all to do with religion. Last month, I preached a sermon on the problem with compassion, the problem with compassion, the problem with humility and when I got down to it, the real problem was that very few people have it. Very few people are compassionate and humble and what really jumped out at me is when I looked at the words of opposite of humble, opposite of compassion. What's the opposite? Because a lot of times if you look at the opposite, you can see what the real meaning of a word is. Look at this, unkind. I'm not just shooting them in now. Women as well too. This is for all of us in this room. In our homes, are we unkind? Are we harsh? Are we mean? Are we callous, unfeeling, disagreeable, cruel, unloving, unfriendly, tough, spiteful? When I look these up, they cut to the heart. Unsympathetic, uninterested, heavy-handed, hostile, insensitive, abusive, cold-hearted and hard-hearted and that describes the majority of the church, the majority of us as Christians and that's my passion is for the church, the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ, the church. Not everybody that claims to be Christian is. Did you know that? Okay, it's not a secret, right? I think it was Chuck Swindoll said probably 15 years ago that at church if you look to your left, look to your right, one of those people will not be with you in heaven and I would have to, I'd have to agree with him because when you don't see any fruit, you have to wonder if they're truly connected to the vine. If there's no fruit, if there's no fruit at all, you have to wonder have I truly been converted? Am I truly following Christ? I was gonna share this tomorrow but I guess, I don't know, it's been coming to my heart last five minutes or so but one of the scriptures when I came back to the Lord in 1998, 99 really, when he broke me completely and I like what Eric said this morning, I'll borrow what he said, the only time that you really weep is when you lose somebody close to you or when you're truly broken over your sin and when I finally realized that I just destroyed my family, I chased the almighty dollar, $100,000 a year custom home in my 20s, played the game, bought the big truck, raised it up six inches, made a few trips to Laughlin, don't remember how I got home, I'm preaching to myself, I'm preaching from that life but when I turn back to God and begin, when I wept over my sin, when God broke me, this came alive, the word of God came alive like nothing I've ever experienced before, I couldn't put it down, I haven't canceled my cable, canceled the TV, I could not put it down and as I got to Matthew, Matthew 1, Matthew 2, Matthew 3, Matthew 4, 5, 6, 7, I'll never forget, it's a famous chapter where it opens with judge not, lest you be judged, that's what everybody says in church and you better not judge, well you need to keep reading, if I can remove the plank out of my eye, then I can humbly critique you, so you put scripture in context, judge not, and it talks about asking and praying and seeking and God's a good God, he'll give you good gifts and then he goes, ah, beware of false prophets for they will come to you as sheep in wolves clothing, but you'll know them by their fruits and here's where it got very interesting because I was raised in a Christian home, I owned a Bible and people ask, yeah, I've been a Christian all my life, yeah, of course, I'm an American, of course I'm a Christian, but it says, many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name, prophesy, all these things and he says, depart from me, I never knew you, and I said, wait a minute, is it possible to know about Christ but not know him? Many will come to me in that day and he'll say, depart from me, I don't know you, this isn't an angry God saying, depart from me, I don't know you, it's like, son, daughter, I don't know you, I've never had a relationship with you, there's no relationship there, I don't even know you, and then it goes on to, those who hear my word and they do them, do them, I will liken him to a man who built his house upon the rock, and when the storms of life came, it did not fall because it was founded upon the rock. Obedience to God's word is the fruit. Now, I don't get legalistic on this, I'm very compassionate and gracious with people who are struggling, I struggle, but to remove obedience from God's word is to remove the power of God's word from your life. Do you realize that you can know the word of God and if you don't apply it, you actually live in deception? Do you want a verse for that? James 1.22, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. And I see so many people, so many people deceived, and again, I'm sharing this tomorrow morning, but it's coming to me now and I'm hoping it's for somebody tonight, but this is, this is absolutely vital in the churches, especially where I'm at, different churches I speak, conferences I speak, we have a doing problem. Everybody quotes scripture. I'm talking to a guy quoting scripture who will yell and abuse his wife. I say, sir, you have the audacity to sit here and quote that scripture to me about submission? Can I take you to 12 other scriptures you aren't following? Or what about the young mom emails us, hey, I'm leaving my husband and two small kids. God knows my heart. He just wants me to be happy. No, you're living in deception. Just two months ago, another lady, they're praying, they're broke, they're separated. One of the worst things you can do when you're separated is to find somebody else. It's called adultery. It's wrong. That, I've seen that prevent more restorations in marriage than anything else, bar none. Oh, we're separated. Now I'm free to date. No, you're not. You're free to see God. But as soon as they're separated, she heads to Vegas with her boyfriend and tells me, I'm praying about God's will for my marriage. I don't even know what to say. I prepare an email. My wife says, don't you dare send that. Sleep on it. And you guys might, you know, and maybe it's perspective, but, you know, if you say, you know, Shane, you're being too hard on the guys. You're being too hard on us. And I have to say I'm not. Listen, the time for passive, the time for just wanting to please the audience, the time for popular sermons that don't cut the heart, it's over. If we want to see God bring revival and change our nation, change the church, it's going to have to start coming from humble, broken men and women of God. If you think it's too hard, let me read an email I recently got, actually it'd be last year now, three or four months ago. I'm at a loss. My Christian husband is verbally and physically abusive. Ironically, he thinks that I'm the problem. He sees no need to change. He'll quote scripture about submission while yelling and cursing. His anger is also destroying our children. A home once filled with laughter and joy is now filled with fear and depression. We walk on eggshells and we cherish the times when he is gone. He also loves his porn more than his family. I can no longer bear it. I have never thought of divorce, but now it's a daily struggle. I shared also at the marriage conference four, five, six months ago doing funerals for heroin overdoses for kids in their 20s. What do you tell the parents? I also got a call early in the morning. You guys get the same calls. I kind of go to some of the same calls but then deal with the aftermath and the pain of that family and not having answers. A mom in her 20s, it was actually a homeless couple and we helped them out financially. We got them a vehicle and helped them get back on their feet, but I got the call that she OD'd in their hotel room with their little three-year-old girl next to her. And if we could come and keep the girl out in the grass area while the coroner's on their way and the husband's frantic. He's just in his 20s. He's just, you know, it's just, what do you... Folks, life is a battleground, not a playground. I didn't come here to tickle the ears. I came here to challenge your heart because unless the heart is challenged and changed, we will not see change. People come to church, they go through the motions and that's not gonna cut it. We need that brokenness and that humility to take place. And people often do say, Shane, this hurts. And I say, good, sometimes it's healthy to mourn and weep over our sin. It's true, but if you don't like what I'm saying, it's because you need to hear what I'm saying. We have this view of God as a cosmic bottle of love and a doting grandfather who would just wink and look the other way, but the Bible I read paints a whole different story and we need to get back to the totality of God's word. Jesus is a lamb, yes, but he's also a lion. He's a savior, but he's also a judge. A.W. Tozer said, I love Christ because he's my savior, but I fear him because he's my judge. That's a healthy respect. We've gotta get the fear of the Lord back in our churches again, back in our lives again. This isn't a fear of some stepfather who's gonna come and beat me. This is a healthy respect. We used to come into the house of God and there was respect, there was awe, there was thus sayeth the Lord, the worship would come down, it would break the heart and God would move among his people because the totality of God's word was being preached. We talked about the difficult truths not so long ago. We don't have to run from the word repentance. We should embrace it. Jesus said, when I send you out, go and preach love. No! Go and preach repentance because it's the love of God that leads me to repentance. Don't talk about sin. Don't talk about the cross. Don't talk about the blood. Don't talk about any of those controversial things. As we're avoiding these controversial things, people are being led astray. And we're not seeing change in our lives, in our nation, and in the church because we're avoiding the very thing that Christ died for. There's pastors told me they take out, out of all their worship songs, they take out the blood of Christ. They take out the judgment. We've got to get rid of all these difficult truths. And I say, no sir, you actually need to put them back in. Because that's where the power of God's word comes from. It comes from the totality of the word of God, the truth. Because the good news, that's the gospel. The good news can only be appreciated with the bad news as a backdrop. How can I truly understand grace unless I understand hell? How can I understand mercy unless I truly understand Christ's substitutionary death on the cross, he took my place. Do you understand that? Christ took my place. In that point of history, he's dying on a cross. Singing that song just reminded me again of what I spoke about Easter. He's in the garden. He's saying, Father, take this cup. Father, take this cup that I'm about to endure. It's not some little cup, it's the cup, the wrath and indignation of almighty God. When Christ was on the cross, he said, Eli, Eli, lama zabatchini, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And in that point in history, Christ absorbed the wrath and judgment of God. That's why the Bible calls it propitiation. Big theological term, all it means is that Christ absorbed the wrath of God. He took my spot. If that doesn't cause you to worship, I don't know, I should retire. That in and of itself, that God came down, he died for me. And then he calls me to follow him through obedience to the word of God. But it must start in the heart, humble, broken hearts. I'll go back to what I said earlier. Pride is the last sin to leave and it'll be the first to return. We have to crush pride tonight. If we're gonna move forward in the next few days, humble hearts have to prevail tonight. Brokenness and humility, those are very healthy terms to be broken before the Lord and humble before the Lord. You know why this is so important? Because I go home then, a broken, humble husband, and respect my wife instead of yell at her. I come and treat others with gentleness and respect because I've been broken, I've been humbled. I seek God with all my heart because Lord, I need you on this side of the cross as much as I need him on that. You don't think the enemy has his sights right here and right here? He's coming after our families. He's coming after. This is real. This is truth. The devil is very patient. He's very patient. He waits for an opportune time and he loves pride because pride is self-exaltation. God says, I resist the proud, but I'll give grace to the humble. So I'm just going to leave you with that tonight. I know we're kind of hurried on time as well, but I would just encourage you as a final note, at this point, some people often say, man, I've done too much damage, Shane. You just nailed me. No. Actually, God nailed you and there's hope because anytime you get to the end of that sentence, I've done too much damage. Just put this in here. But God, that's what he does. He rebuilds broken lives. Actually, you have to get to a point of brokenness and humility before God will fully use you and use you in a mighty powerful way. Before God uses a man, he must hurt him deeply or a woman. It takes broken people to break people. So it's very healthy to say, Lord, I'm prideful. I'm arrogant. I'm all these things. I need to come back to you. I need to know you in a powerful way. God says, good, now I can use you. Now you're a humble, broken vessel because that's really all we are. We empty ourselves and then you're filled with the spirit of God and then he can move through that because humility is guiding you. Gentleness is guiding you. Brokenness is guiding you so God can take that and reframe it and rebuild it. So it's a very good thing. Don't lose hope. Actually, this is very hopeful. I don't know why people get so down. Oh, gosh, that was so difficult. No, it's not. It's only difficult when you're fighting God and you continue to fight him. That's when it's difficult. That's when you leave here upset and mad is because you're fighting God and you will not win. You cannot win. So I just encourage you tonight, wherever you're at, wherever your heart's at, submit and humble yourself. Let me close in prayer. Lord, I thank you so much for your word and for this time. Lord, I am a prideful man working on humility. Lord, I pray that you give me grace and mercy as well. Speak through me this weekend. Lord, give me precision. Give me clarity. Build this group up. Lord, ultimately, we want to be built up but sometimes that hurts. Lord, I pray that you'd use this tonight, that men and women would cry out to you tonight, that their devotional life would be multiplied. They would get up and they would have a hunger for the word of God again. They would have a hunger for worship. They would have a hunger for your presence. Many of us have left our first love and it's time to come home. It's time to come home. Draw us back to you, Lord. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.