This sermon emphasizes the need for a fully surrendered life to God, highlighting the importance of breaking free from sin, arrogance, and fear. It challenges individuals to seek God with all their hearts, to be broken and humbled, and to experience true revival in their hearts and in the church.

Lord, I would pray that you would have your way in this place. Lord, redirect my sermon if necessary. Redirect the service. Lord, we give you all the honor. We give you all the glory. Lord, I pray a dangerous prayer, but I pray that you would break this church. Lord, humble this nation, break this arrogance out of us. Lord, but we also thank you. We thank you for what you've done. We thank you for the cross. We thank you for Calvary. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Lord, I thank you that you'd use this fragile, weak vessel to proclaim your truth. Lord, I pray a special anointing over the service tonight. Lord, that people would see with clarity the power in obeying your word and submitting all to you. Lord, the surrendered life is the life you call us to do. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't know how many of you realize it, but there's power in that last song. There's power in all the songs, but there's, when you put the blood on something, and a lot of people don't understand that, they might walk in and say, the blood of the lamb, it doesn't make sense. But of course, if you go back to the Old Testament, it wasn't until they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, on the lentil. So when the death angel passed over, that's where we get our word, Passover. When he saw the blood, he could do nothing. And if we would just begin applying the power of the blood, the power is in the blood of Christ because it covers all sin. It eradicated sin, death, and the grave. And as Christians, we can walk in that newness of life if we apply that to our lives. It doesn't mean that sin is gone. The influence is there. The influence of sin is in our lives, but the power of it's been eradicated at the cross. I would just encourage you to look to that. Look to Christ and Him alone, no matter what you're going through, because you'll go through things. I'll go through things, and that's a solid rock on which our lives must be built. A couple quick things before I get started. You'll see that the bulletin is packed. That was kind of by design. That message has turned out to be the most popular message since the church began two years ago. We made 500 copies of that CD, and we're down to the last 100 or so. So we put them in the bulletins to just help get that message out, because it's really not a message attacking same-sex attraction. It's a message offering God's love and forgiveness, and His grace and mercy, and how we should look at it from a biblical perspective. I also want to include in there an article I wrote in the Antelope Valley Press last week on the fully surrendered life, because that's what we're talking about tonight, this week. So that's why you'll see those things in there. I also want to remind everyone of the potluck tomorrow. 11 a.m., Lane Park. If I don't know you, I'd love to meet you there. And it's just so funny. After a few years, I run into people, and they say, oh yeah, I go there, but we don't know each other. I'll say, you know, somebody, he does ushering, or somebody, oh no, I don't think I've met him. We've been coming a year. There's a problem with that. We've got to get to know each other. We don't even know our names. We don't know anything. We come, and we leave. We come, and we leave. That's not fellowshipping. Fellowshipping is getting to know the body of Christ. And I think Saturday nights, of course, make it difficult when we have things, but I would encourage you to come tomorrow at 11 o'clock at Lane Park. And there's signups in the back. We'll announce more about that later. And we are in the study of Proverbs, but I would be remiss right now at the two-year anniversary if I didn't take some time and thank the core group, and thank those who serve here. It does not go unnoticed. It's because of you the church is here. It's because of those who give, and give faithfully. It's because I'm able to come up here. So I do not take any of that for granted. The ushering, and the janitorial, and the videos, and the prayer team, all these things that make West Side Christian Fellowship possible. And I also don't want to forget to thank Hope Chapel for letting us use this building. A lot of people don't realize that... I remember sitting over in Sean's office two years and two months ago, and said, well, I think God's closed all the doors for a building. Well, that was a close call. I'll just stay in secular work. Whoo, that was a close one. And he said, the words I'll never forget. Why don't you use our building Saturday nights? I don't know about that. Free? Yeah, free. And you see, that just doesn't happen unless God is in it. So I definitely want to thank them as well. I don't know if he made it tonight. I invited him to the service. Also, Pastor Hank is here. He's been a tremendous blessing in my life for the past few years. And of course, I want to thank my family, my mom, who's handled the majority of the counseling here since we started two years ago. Thank you for that and all your input. My brother and my sister are here, and truly an honor to have them looking up to and helping the church, and being a part of that. And of course, Morgan, my wife. I have to thank her. You're blessed, huh? But a lot of people don't realize what happens on the back end of this. Preaching is just an hour. What happens in her encouragement, and when I come home ready to throw in the towel, I know that sounds like, you know, that happens? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. You know, just forget it. You know, and she encourages me. And then when you come home with a big head, she humbles you and says, there's a whole bunch of trash by the door. We're going to have baby diapers to change. And come on. It wasn't that great of a sermon, you know. So it's a great balance, but it takes a special person to be a pastor's wife. Let me tell you. Oh, my Lord. I mean, she read the negative editorial in the paper today and got a little upset at that lady. And I just planted that seed so you can go get the Valley Press and see. And I told her, just get used to it. Just get used to it because darkness does not like the light. If there's no negative press, I got to wonder, am I writing articles? I mean, or am I just telling people what they want to hear? But anyway, hoping I can get through this. But on the two year anniversary, as funny as it might sound, I have to take the time and just thank God for what He's done. People don't realize He takes nothing, literally nothing, and makes something. And that's just encouragement for you guys. He can take no matter what you're going through, no matter what is happening, no matter how depressed you feel, disparate of life, He can take nothing and make something. But the key lies in the power of the fully surrendered life. I teach on that often. I'm going to teach on that till the day I die because that is how God breaks us and we turn our life over to Him. And then now He is in control. So now He rebuilds our life. But I have to thank Him because as many of you know, I've shared my testimony a year and a half ago, you know, with barely graduating high school, you know, with a 1.8 average. And I think I cheated my way through most of high school and couldn't get out. I couldn't read very well. I couldn't write very well, learning disability and had a speech therapist for a little while. And He just took, literally took nothing and made something. Because what happens then, He says, see what I've done. And I can look, I go home and people say, thank you, the service was so great. The message, I just laugh because it's what God has done. I couldn't come up here 10 years ago. I would be shaking and saying, hi, my name is Shane and here's announcements and go sit down. I mean, that's what He does. So I thank Him. I give Him all the credit, all the glory for what He has done here tonight. Not only that, He took nothing and made something into West Side Christian Fellowship. All the church books I was reading, everybody was telling me, you don't plan a church with no resources, with no core group. You don't do that, Shane. I said, I don't know. God's calling me to do it. I'm just going to step out and do it. And there was no core team initially. There wasn't Bible studies. There was nothing, no resources, no money set aside, no church affiliation, no church help, nothing. But I said, God's in it. It doesn't matter. So I told a few people, they joined up. We started with about 12 people sitting in these rows for the first few weeks before we launched. Opened an account with $100 in it, and God has just blessed her tremendously. What I usually don't do, and there's a reason why I don't do it, is kind of tell people what God has done because it can kind of sound like tooting your own horn and look at, you know. So that's why I want to clarify that He gets all the credit. But people don't realize in two years, these messages are reaching thousands of people a week. That's more than most churches touch in the nation in their services because God is getting the message out there. See, He gets all the glory, all the credit. We get emails from the UK, New Zealand, Australia. I was invited to go to these Muslim nations, and they're listening there. And we've got Canada and all over the U.S. People are listening. It's getting out there with the radio. So God is using that. See, that doesn't just happen. So the next time people, they always say, Westside should do this, or you should do this. Well, look what He's done in two years. I don't know, call me silly, but that's what He's doing because it's His work. And it goes back to what has He called me to do? You see, a lot of that boils down, what has He called me to do? What is Westside? People ask that a lot. What is your calling? What is He? You know, and I thought about that, and there's nice little things we can pull off other churches and to glorify Christ and make disciples and, you know, all the things. It's on all the websites. But I truly believe with all my heart that He has called me to bring America to her knees. So that is why the church aligns with that calling. And I tell people, we welcome everybody, but we are not the church for everybody. I understand that. It doesn't hurt my feelings. I know that because it's a distinct and separate calling, and people aren't going to gravitate towards that necessarily, everybody. But that's what the quote I put on your bulletin from William Booth. I consider that the chief danger, which will confront the 20th century. We're now in the 21st. Will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without regeneration, and morality without God, and heaven without hell. You see, the American church is in crisis. We're wanting to feel good instead of be good. So I feel that calling that God has called me for such a time as this to preach the difficult truths, to bring America to her knees. I'm trying to fulfill that calling while at the same time understanding the dynamics of a local church and ministering to the people here. So trying, so that's, and you might say, why share all that? Because it's important to paint the picture and the direction, the clarity of why we do what we do. That's why there's not a lot of programs and this and that. We want to concentrate on worship, the word, and prayer. That's the focus, the worship, word, and prayer. If I try to take everybody's opinions, I would be a basket case, and we should do this, and we should do that. We need to be here. And I'm like, go do it. My job is to preach and to equip the saints. You start the homeless ministry. You paint the neighborhood. You open up the house for those abused. You open up the halfway houses. You go into the prisons. That is what I'm equipping you to do, to equip the saints, to fulfill the ministry. So that is the goal and the agenda of West Side Christian Fellowship. That is the direction I see it heading. And it's hard for me to paint pictures a year from now or two years from now. Here's where I want to be in three, because I didn't think we'd be doing this. I didn't think the messages would reach to the magnitude they are. I didn't even want to set up a camera. I didn't want to get on the radio. I didn't want to do all these, but God began prompting and moving. So as you surrender your life to Him, let Him move in the direction that He wants to take you. And we basically get out of the way. And I was reading yesterday, Oswald Chambers wrote, you may often see that God will wreck a life before He saves it. Let me say that again. You may often see that God will wreck a life before He saves it. The problem is many of us were too complacent. And until God begins to shatter and break, we don't turn to Him. We don't fully surrender our life. I've never met anybody that's fully surrendered their life and followed hard after Him that has not went through something difficult and challenging. Because He has to break us so that we turn to Him. So with that said, that's kind of what I wanted to relay in regard to our two year anniversary and kind of help paint that picture because people wonder, what's the direction? Where are we going? And I have to be honest with you, I really don't know. I came with a corporation. I have a corporation background where we have to have a mission statement and our purpose lined out and our points. And we got to make sure the staff, everybody is in line with our goal because we're going in the common direction. You know, all these things. But a church sometimes isn't ran the same way as a business. In some regards it is, in some regards it's not. Because I can't paint a picture of what God is going to do. I know we're going to be here a little while. We haven't found a building yet. We're not looking real aggressively. I really can't beat this place in the rent, you know, so I'm probably a little spoiled. But we're going to let God open that door. We're not going to force that door open. And when it opens, we're looking to go to Saturdays and Sundays. We're looking to, I'd like to see just worship nights. Thursday nights was coming and we're going to worship. We're going to pray. We're going to seek God. Because that's, I feel, the direction of the church. It doesn't mean churches that are doing other things are out of God's will. It just means what he's called West Side Christian Fellowship to do. I think it's important for me to add clarity and direction and purpose so people can either get on board or not get on board. And it's not, it's not a bad thing. It's just, it's just not, it's not the church for everybody. And I recognize that. Without exaggerating, I would say we've had, since we've opened our doors, about a thousand people come in, but not that many stick because of it's hard to hear. It's difficult. A lot of people do, their expectation of church is to come and make me feel good. I don't want to change. I sure don't want to repent. I don't want to talk about the cross. I don't want to talk about the blood. I don't want to talk about full surrender. And I don't want to talk about judgment. I sure don't want to talk about hell. So please don't talk about these things or I'm not going to come again. You see what happens is, so you have to be, you have to know what your calling is. Here's what he's called me to do. Doesn't mean I bring in, you know, Hank speaks into my life on a monthly basis. Sean, other people, the direction of the church and where's your heart at and getting constructive criticism and using that and building from. So I'm open for that, but I'm also very careful of who I allow speak into that area of my life because it has to be somebody without bias, without goals and agendas. It wants to see us truly go in that direction. So that's the introduction to the two year anniversary. But I want to stay consistent with Proverbs 2. Because that's where we are in the book of Proverbs. And I didn't see any reason to not stay in that. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Proverbs 2. And the title of the message, as you can see, is the fully surrendered life. And you might say, how in the world did you come up with that title out of this? Well, you'll see, hopefully. Proverbs 2. I want to say something though, before I read, that God guides those who are willing to follow. So that might sound a little weird or awkward, but it's true. He only guides those who are willing to follow. He doesn't necessarily force. Now, He will orchestrate situations. He will do certain things. But He guides those who are willing to follow. So often when we're reading the Bible, you'll see the word if. Especially in Proverbs. If you do this, if you do that. What about in Deuteronomy and the children of Israel going into the promised land? Moses said, if you do this, blessings, but if you do that, cursings. What about the famous verse, if my people? See, we love to quote it, but we don't like to obey it. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, which is basically break. In the Hebrew, that word broken means to shatter, to completely abase. It's like taking expensive vase and just throwing as hard as I can on the concrete to break, to shatter. If my people will shatter, will break and seek my face and pray and turn from their wicked way, turn from those besetting sins that is holding us back. If they do those things, if conditional, I will heal their land, heal, hear their prayers and forgive their sins. If it's conditional. So I want you to notice that throughout Proverbs, because a lot of people, we can quote Proverbs. If this, this, this, this, but it's in the power lies in the application, not in the knowledge of it. So let's with that said, let's read the first if. And this is again, Solomon writing, I believe my son, if, if you receive my words and if you treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom, but basically means you're opening up your ear. Jesus would often say, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. That just didn't mean to hear that meant to apply. Listen, tell me Jesus, what you're going to say. I want to hear it and I want to apply it to my life. So they're saying, incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and if you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasure, then and only then will you understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Now we're going to break this down more on the Monday study in two more days, because we don't have a lot of time right now, but it is crystal clear here. There's a seeking after God. There's a crying out saying, I mean, this isn't an accident of language. They didn't just throw in a whole bunch of words for no reason. We have to value wisdom and treasure wisdom and wisdom simply put is doing what we know to be right according to God's word. If we value that, if we treasure that above all else, if we seek that as fine treasure and seek God as if not, as if we lost Him, but that we want to know Him even more, more intimately, more closely. If we seek Him with all of our heart, with wisdom, you will find Him and that is the knowledge of the holy and then you will understand the fear of God. So he's setting that in context. Knowledge, let me tell you this as well. Knowledge is found in continually seeking God. So is wisdom. Knowledge is knowing what to do. Wisdom is applying the knowledge you possess and it's in continual seeking. There's a lot of people who have sought God years ago, but they're just, they're dead, they're cold. Where's the passion gone? That's why Jesus would call out to the churches, return to me, you've left your first love. And that same call goes out today. If you want to know God more intimately, you've got to seek Him with all your heart and you've got to constantly apply wisdom to your life because wisdom allows us to make right choices. As we're making right choices, we're emptied of ourself, we're filled with the Spirit of God, then we understand the nature and character of God. Verse 6, For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the ways of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity in every good path. When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, I want to stop there for a minute. When wisdom enters your heart, what He means there is when you allow wisdom to enter your heart, in other words, the heart is open saying, Lord, I need you. Let me apply wisdom to the situation. I want a wisdom to come into my heart. Now that it's here and knowledge and wisdom is pleasant to me, it means I like it. A lot of people don't like this. They don't like it. Sometimes I'm counseling people and say, what does God's Word say? I know what God's Word says. What are we going to talk about then? I know what the Bible says. I just want to know what your opinion is. Let me tell you what my opinion. No, they're not open to wisdom. They're not open to knowledge. Even though they'll know scripture, the heart has to be able to say, Lord, I'll obey no matter what the cost. I'll obey you no matter what the cost. And that's a high price to pay because He will test you on that. He will tempt you on that. No matter what the cost, I want to obey Your Word and I want to do it. Verse 11, discretion will preserve you and understanding will keep you. And at this junction, I think it's important to throw out there James 1.22 that we've talked about months ago. Many times, and many of you know what that verse is, be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. So it fits right in with Proverbs because many people know the Word but they don't do it and they are deceived. And that's a long word in the Greek. It's paralogizamoy. Try saying that one. Paralogizamoy. And what that means is, it's very interesting, to believe something that's not even true. So this amazed me. Christians can say, I know the Word of God, but I don't apply it to my life. So I'm paralogizamoy. I am believing something that's not even true. I think I'm on the right path because I know it, but I'm not obeying it. So I'm self-deceived. And I would say that the majority of counseling appointments, I'm just throwing that out there because when I do that, hopefully that'll lower counseling appointments because people begin to apply the Word of God. But the most people do not want to apply the Word of God to their life. You see a husband and spouse fighting, going back. Listen, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Stop bickering. Stop complaining. And you need to humble yourself. Forgive. Stop being so bitter and stubborn and rich. Just be tender and broken. I don't want to do these things. Well, then we have no platform for change because you're not applying the Word of God. You are self-deceived. You know what to do, but because you're not doing it, you are believing something that's not true. So many Christians go through life believing something that's not true. James says you'll be deceived. I'll be deceived, myself included. Many fingers are pointing right back at me. If I'm not doing the Word, but just hearing it, I'm deceiving myself. I'm walking around in deception because knowledge alone is not enough. The power lies in the application. Even the demons believe. They know about Jesus. They know the Word of God and they tremble at His name. But that knowledge is not enough. That knowledge is not enough. You might say, well, how do I know? How do I know, Shane, if I'm being deceived? Well, it's very simple. Does your lifestyle align with the Word of God? I'm not talking about make, you know, I make mistakes daily too. I'm not talking about that, but does your lifestyle, is it following hard after God? Does it align with God's Word? I mean, we can give tons of practical examples here, but I won't go into that. Just fill in the blank, really. Does it align with God's Word? How do I know I'm being deceived? And this isn't even my notes. I just thought of it now because it happens a lot. I'll be talking with somebody whose maybe their marriage is on the rocks and especially on the radio when that marriage series came out. I got a lot of emails on how to handle this and what should I do with this? And, you know, my advice always find your local pastor so they can meet with you and help you in these areas. But it's funny how many people probably separated, praying for they want direction, whatever the case may be, they're upset at each other. Nine times out of 10, they're dating somebody. Well, I'm separated. Well, you're not released. Paragogesis, I couldn't get it. Let's just say deceived. They are deceived. Think about that. All the time, like, you've got to be kidding me. You got plan B? Yeah, well, plan A sure isn't going to work then, buddy. There's no plan B with God. That's not full surrender. That's self-deception. Partial obedience is not obedience. It's rebellion. Well, I just don't love them anymore and we're not sure what we're going to do and I'm separated. You are not released. You're living in sin. No wonder you have no direction. It's because you're not applying the Word of God to your life. You're deceived because you think you're in the will of God and that He's going to direct you. He's not directing anything. Your hormones are directing you. Your insecurity, because you might not find somebody else, is directing you. God's Word sure is not directing you, but they live in this self-deception. Okay, pastor, thanks for telling me that. Yeah, I know I need to do it, but nothing changes. Nothing changes because there's too worried about what might be or what might not happen. What about if it doesn't work out? I need plan B. I can guarantee you plan B, the grass is not greener. The grass is not greener. So I just encourage you, many Christians, I think that's one of the problems with the churches today. Many people know the Word of God, but they're not being challenged to obey the Word of God. And when I use that word obedience, I'm labeled legalistic, rigid, fundamentalist, Pharisee, crazy, extreme, radical, just by using the word obedience. Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the disciples obeyed Christ's teaching. John said, if you do not obey His teaching, you're a liar and the truth is not in you. We actually need to go back to not rigid, fundamentalist, obedience out of anger and obligation and a checklist, and I'm so spiritual, but obedience out of a broken heart wanting to please God. Because somebody who's truly broken over their sin, truly seeking after God, they want to obey His Word. Trust me, they're miserable when they're not. They want to seek all of Him. They want that obedience because obedience releases me now from that depression, that anxiety, and that you feel that Holy Spirit being quenched and being grieved because heart is the way of the transgressor, the Bible says. Nothing comes out of a disobedient life style. A.W. Tozer said many years ago that the idea that God will pardon a rebel who has not given up his rebellion runs contrary to Scriptures and to common sense. I'm just throwing that out there because it's applicable. In Proverbs, he's saying you must obey if you want to truly understand wisdom because once you begin to obey it, now you understand it. You see that? I know what God's Word, now it becomes living and vibrant because you're obeying it and you're understanding it. Now I know what He means. Now I know what it means to forgive unconditionally. Now I know what it means to love and to remove bitterness and anger and let all bitterness and wrath and anger and gossip and slander be put away from me. Now I know, now I'm filled with the Spirit of God. Now I'm happy and joyful because I'm obeying His Word. Many people walk around rigid and upset all the time and just telling people off and I can't believe and I can't believe this because they're not obeying the Word of God. They're not humbly submitting to Him and allowing it to change them. And that's a whole nother sermon. But let me before I go on, let's go to the next verse. I wasn't going to tell you what happened, but I will. I left half my notes at home. So let's see how well I remember it. Is that where we're at? Verse 12. Oh yes, I do remember this. The two tempters. The immoral woman and greed or the immoral man. Sexual immorality and greed will come at you every single time. Those are the two tempters you'll see throughout Proverbs. The love of money. Love of greed. Such is the fate of all those who are greedy for gain. It robs them of life. So is the adulterer because the Proverbs says later that stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. That's some strong warnings and he just turns right from understanding. Let wisdom enter your heart and now he's going to give us some practical application. Why? To deliver you. Verse 12. To deliver you. That's powerful right there. The whole point of wisdom often is to deliver us because we're walking into traps. Our flesh loves the lust of the flesh. Our flesh wants to feed on sex and perversion and food and addiction and give me, give me, give me, feed me, feed me, feed me so I can destroy you. Remember that sermon on that? On temptation. I taught on this. The flesh says feed me so I can destroy you. That's the goal. So the Proverbs is warning here. Listen, I'm going to deliver you from the way of evil. From the man who speaks perverse things. So when you're applying wisdom to your life, you can avoid those people that speak perverse things. From those who leave the paths of the unrighteous to walk in the ways of darkness. Who rejoice in doing evil and they delight in the perversity of the wicked whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths. So basically wisdom, without going into a lot of detail, helps us avoid those people who will pull us down. Those destructive people who have, you know, let me tell you, I can make $5,000 this week and get you hooked up on this little scheme thing and let's go do this and let's do this and if we just cook the books here, we just alter the numbers here or we just do this. That wisdom helps us to avoid those types of people and those situations that are going to pull us down. So from greed and the wrong application of finances. Verse 16. Again, to deliver you from the immoral woman. That's the, let me add man here too because there's, it's not just an immoral woman, it's the immoral man that we've got to be warned about. Single women out there, be very careful. Our society is so sex saturated and perverted that it's on every corner. I'm so worried about my little girls growing up in this society. Be careful because there are guys out there and there are women out there too as well who they're nothing. They'll say, oh yes, I'm a Christian. Check the fruit. Watch over time because many people say that there's something in order to get something. We see it all the time. Oh, I go to church. Yeah, I'm a Christian. But that's not their, their ultimate goal is not following Christ. There's a little side note for dating. You need to follow wholeheartedly after Christ 100% and just see who keeps up. That's it. Follow Him and see who keeps up. If they're pulling you down or they're not as excited or they're, you need to follow hard after Him and see who keeps up with you. It must be done because our society is getting so perverted in this porn industry and all this stuff. It doesn't help anything. It hurts. That's why guys are walking around with images in their head. They're taking off clothes and women all day long. They come to church, do the same thing. They need to repent of that and they need to cleanse their heart. You need to find a guy who wants to love and cherish you for who you are, not just to, you know, well, we'll leave it at that. I did a sermon on that. It's online. Sex, good, God or gross. I borrowed that title from Mark Driscoll. So, verse 16, to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words. See, that's why Paul tells us to flee sexual immorality. Don't fight it. Don't, oh, willpower. Oh, I know willpower. Let me just, let me just hang in there. No, no, no. It says flee, get out of there. Don't even entertain. Flee, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. Flee sexual immorality because it is a, it is a enemy that you cannot beat. I cannot beat if you try to sit there and fight it. The Bible says don't fight it. Flee it. Get your thoughts out there and flee. And on that note, men, you need to start protecting your homes more as well. From your kids, looking at things, and just your spouse. You need to be protecting your house because the enemy is coming in, in these areas, these areas we think are no big deal. And he's pulling apart family slowly, slowly. I'm seeing that more than ever before. Sexual addiction and perversion and pornography. Boy, Shane, you're making a big deal of it. Yeah, I am. Number one, it's applicable because it's contextually in Proverbs. Number two is, it's pulling apart the family because we're giving our hearts to someone else other than our spouse, and it's destroying that union. That's why God says wisdom will deliver you from the immoral woman and the seductress man as well, if I can throw that in there. Verse 17, this person who is seductress, they forsake the companion of their youth. It means they have no covenant. They don't care what they gave their word. They don't care that they're married, they just want to forsake that. They want to pursue other things. They want to pursue others. I don't care what I said. I don't care about my commitment to you. Let me say up front right now that God is more concerned about commitment than if you're still in love. Uh-oh, I'm going to get some emails on that one. I committed to you. See, what happens is love comes and goes. I'm not in love with you anymore. Well, did you leave love or did love leave you? What happened there? If I made a commitment, now, of course, there's biblical rounds. I understand that. I've fully exhausted this before in other areas. But God looks at the covenant you made or the covenant that the husband made and he looks at that and that's why he says here, do not forsake the companion of your youth and watch out for those people who do. If you're dating somebody and they're still separated and they're forsaking the companion of their youth, big red flag, big red flag. We shouldn't even date anybody that's, oh, I'm separated right now. It's moving towards a divorce. That's big flag, huge red flag, number one. We have to guard those areas. Verse 18, for her house, the house of the adulterous, leads down to death and her paths to the dead. None who go by her return, nor do they regain the path of life. So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep the path of righteousness. Let me just say that with sexual purity and wisdom go hand in hand. Righteousness, sexual purity, morality, they go hand in hand. And on that note, I just want to encourage to the women with this issue of modesty that's really big right now with, you know, of course, young adults and stuff, but you've got to be careful. Women, especially younger women with what you wear, you can't just say, well, that's his problem then. Yeah, it's his problem number one, but it's also your problem number two because you can't be that seductress that entices by what you're wearing. That's not biblical either. So he needs to control and he needs to gather his thoughts, but also you need to be very careful and not being that allurement as well by too tight to that, you know, I don't have to go into detail. We have to be very careful on that issue of modesty because that is pulling people away. They're looking, they're seeing, they're being flattered, not by words only, but by certain things. So you have to be very careful in this area just because it's wisdom. Back to wisdom. If you do these things, you will guard yourself. You can call me old fashioned or Puritan or whatever, but it's just biblical. We have to guard our minds. We have to guard our hearts. The Bible is very clear on that. Verse 20, so that you may walk in the way of goodness and keep to the paths of the righteous, for the upright will dwell in the land. You might say, what does that mean? Well, God would often use dwelling in the land and remaining in the land as a sign of His blessing. I will put you in the land and you shall rule over this land. You shall reap from this land. The land is yours. You shall go in and possess it. You will remain in the land is what he's saying here in verses 21 and 22. For the upright will dwell in the land and the blameless will remain in it. There's a blessing there by applying God's word to your life. And again, it's not just financial blessings. It's spiritual blessings, intimacy with Him, being closer walk. It's relational with people. It's of course financial, but it's also your health, all these different things. You're blessed of God when you begin to apply wisdom to your life. And then it shifts. Verse 22, many people don't want to read the rest of this, but we need to because I promise we get through every verse. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it. See what's funny is the Bible started with if you do this, if you apply wisdom. Now it's saying if you don't do this, if you've never surrendered your life to Him and look to Him, if you don't do this, He's saying the wicked will not inherit the earth. It's not possible. The wicked will be cut off from the earth and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it. And that's why I put there in one of the articles, I said one of my great concerns is for the pulpits of America. Many are exchanging truth for tolerance, boldness for balance, and conviction for cowardliness. But we have to preach all of God's Word and we have to challenge people by these difficult truths. I know it's not pleasant, but Proverbs says, if you do this, you'll be blessed, but if you do this, you won't be. And it's almost like, because God cannot be a liar. You realize that God, people say God can do whatever He wants. He can't lie because it goes against His nature and who He is. So He sets these things in course. He gives us wisdom and discernment and it's up to us to apply it to our lives. So that's chapter two in a nutshell. And we're going to start chapter three next week as well. But while I'm closing, I want to go back to verses one through five. And again, we're going to go through this more in the Monday night study. But let me read this again. This is crucial. My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and if you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure, then and only then will you understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Do those verses resonate with you? Are you seeking after Him? Are you treasuring as gold? Because as I said before, half-hearted seeking is not seeking, it's hypocrisy. And partial surrender is not surrender, it's compromise. And partial obedience is not obedience, it's rebellion. And I want to share something with you as I close here shortly. Anytime a pastor tells you he's closing, you just got to be careful. But Monday night, I kind of opened up to the group that was here and I said I was kind of going to say this tonight, but I kind of spoke to them as well. But I'm turning 43 in a few days and I've preached my heart out here for two years. I just bought a binder at Staples. It's three inches tall. It's all the last two years worth of sermons. It would just be cool to collect those and put them aside. I've preached for over a decade at different conferences and venues and in different places nationally. And I've seen enough religion to last me a lifetime. I've seen enough religion. I've seen enough hypocrisy. I've seen enough people coming in fooling everybody but not God. And sometimes I feel like that Puritan Richard Baxter who said I preach as a dying man to dying men. And it's all I can do to not just... I don't go upset, go home, oh, I messed up on the sermon. I go home because lives aren't breaking. I'll just be honest with you. I've seen it all. I've been to, you can name it, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, full gospel, no gospel, charismatic, Calvinist, men's conference, women's, you name it. And this right here, this right here is the majority of why many people never experience everything that God wants to do in their life. The title of this message, The Fully Surrendered Life. I'm just being honest with you. I've seen it everywhere. Many, many will say the right thing, but somehow there's a disconnect there. And I can't quite put my finger on it. And this kind of came from the 10 minutes I spoke at Grace Fest last week. It was kind of on this whole point of the fully surrendered life. And I asked this question and I ask it tonight. How many of you, let's be honest, let's be completely honest right now. Let's be transparent. Nobody here except you and God and listen to what I'm saying. How many of you in this room can truly say like Jeremiah, that his heart, his word is in your heart like a burning fire. It's shut up in your bones. You're weary of holding it back. Everything about you, it bleeds Christ. His word is so thick in your heart. It's burning. How can you, his word is in your heart like a burning fire shut up in your bones. Can you truly say that? Do you know what John the Baptist, let's be honest. Do you know what John the Baptist was talking about? When he said, I baptize you with water but there's coming one mightier than me whose sandal I don't even, I can't even loosen. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Listen, this is biblical. Jesus said, if you believe on me as the scriptures say out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Where's this rivers of living water that Christ spoke about? Where is it? Can you truly say that? Times of refreshing, times of revival. Can you truly say it? Or are you going through life? What I call pre-recorded Christianity. We know when to sit. We know when to stand. We know when to say amen. We know when to say praise your brother. We know when to, you know, we all know all the jargon. We know all the cliches. We got it down. We've been playing church for a long time. But we leave here no different than when we arrived. Ungodly entertainment fills our minds. Destructive friendships continue. We yell at our spouse. We yell at our kids. Filth comes out of our mouth. We have pre-recorded Christianity. And God wants so much more by the fully surrendered life. He wants you and all these things receive and treasure. Incline your ear, apply. Seek me with all of your heart. Search for me. And I asked that question many, many weeks ago. Where did the passion go? Why does the Christianity seem so lifeless and cold when it's supposed to be this vibrant life full of the Spirit of God? God turning the whole world upside down with 120 people in a prayer room. And they waited and they prayed and they're united. And God just met them. He baptized them. He filled them mightily with the Holy Spirit of God. So then they understood. I guarantee they understood Jeremiah. His word is in their heart like a burning fire. They were killed for it. Absolutely. So we know nothing of this fully surrendered life. And my concern is that we talk about God is love and he has thanked God for that. We talk about God is forgiveness. We talk about God's mercy. We talk about all these things, but we forget about the hammer of God. So what are you talking about, Shane? The hammer of God breaks and it crushes. And that is the only time revival can come out of your heart. Remember when I, remember months ago, I said that the oil cannot flow from the olives until they are crushed. The perfume cannot come from the flowers until they are crushed. The oil cannot come, anything can tell it's crushed and broken. And back again in the Hebrew, that word broken there is a shattering. It's a crushing. It's a smashing. Yeah, life, you have to come to your end like the prodigal son. When he came to himself, he gave up all. And that is my biggest concern for the church today. I go home upset because many people, I watch how you worship. I've said this before. I'm not trying to be mean, but there's no heart in that. You're not worshiping God. You're trying to get through it until I can get up here and then go to dinner. I'm just being honest. I'm not talking about being crazy. I'm just talking about a heart fully broken and surrendered to God, the hammer of God. And you've heard me say this before, but I'll say it again. Before God can use a man mightily, He must first break him. And you have to be broken. It's not until Christ, the blood didn't come out of His body until He was broken and beaten, then the remission of our sin. That life, it's that fully surrendered life. I want to read something here, but it's three things that are going to prevent revival in your heart. And you have to remember, what grows in the dark dies in the light. I heard Steve Schell say that recently. What grows in the dark will die in the light. And many of us are holding on to these besetting sins and besetting habits. And oh, there goes Shane again. That's right. Here goes Shane again. Because I just explained what my calling is 20 minutes ago is to crush and to break so that the Holy Spirit can flow out. You see, it's not a bad thing. It's a very good thing. In this book, I was reading entitled Seasons of Revival. It says this, and I had to quote it. Many people live lives of quiet, habit, and sin that annihilates their spiritual walk in power. Revival comes to reveal this carnality and break these people from their sin so that they might become broken vessels. Renewal is a moving of the Holy Spirit upon people who know the brokenness of sin, who wish to be deeply changed and who wish to have a clean heart. So number one, you have to say, I need this that Shane's talking about. I need to turn from this sin. I'm bringing it to the light so it cannot continue to grow in my life. This is a time of revival, a time of brokenness and fully surrendering your life because this is when a person radically changes. This is when you go from lukewarm Christianity to on fire for God. This is when you don't want to put on junk on your television every night. You want to put it on worship. You want to throw out all the garbage that's distracting you and start getting into the Word of God. That's the spirit-filled life that few know about. The next thing is arrogance. Arrogance. And I took these notes real quick from that book. Let's take a quick test. These are true signs of brokenness. A broken spirit is quick to admit that they've sinned. A broken spirit is a sensitive spirit. It discerns what is amiss, just like your body discerns a broken bone. A broken spirit is teachable, never reactionary. It's never close-minded or stubborn. In other words, it says, Lord, is it I? Instead of blaming and blaming and blaming others. That's not a broken, humble spirit. That's a critical spirit. God cannot work with that until it breaks. Tonight is my hope. A broken spirit is soft and easily penetrated while a hard heart cannot be penetrated at all. A broken spirit has deep sincerity. A prayer for a broken heart has, well, let me just read exactly. A prayer from a broken heart is a real prayer, deeply felt. It's a hymn sung with deep and real feelings. And a broken spirit does not react. It does not react, but a prideful one strikes back and defends itself. We have to ask ourselves, do we have this prideful spirit? Because it's got to be broken. It's got to be broken. And the last thing that prevents this fully surrendered life, and I'll be honest with you guys, it weighs on me sometimes too, is fear. The very thing we need is the very thing we're afraid of. I've had people leave this church when I start talking about revival and prayer and brokenness and petitioning God and what that might look like. It might be messy. People don't like messy. They like nice, neat and order. You're done by seven. I could be at Claim Jumper by 7.30. We like that. We're scared of the fully surrendered life. I don't want to be like you. You won't be like me. And I just want to open up again. I read this exactly probably a year ago. I know I read at Grace Fest. Many of you weren't there, but it bears repeating tonight. And this was a turning point in my life about a year ago because I was praying for revival. And a lot of you guys are saying, Lord, I want revival of my heart. Lord, break my heart. Lord, give us revival to this church. Bring revival to our nation. And I was deeply impressed with these words. And I had to keep writing and writing and writing. Took about five minutes. I wrote them all down. And it was as if God was saying, and I'm just being open. I'm being transparent because I hope many people can relate to this because the very thing we need is the very thing we're afraid of. We need revival of heart. And God was, I felt saying to me strongly, Shane, you don't want revival. You talk about it, but you don't want it. You don't truly want it. Let me read what I wrote that morning. You don't want revival. It will ruin your schedule, your dignity, your image, and your reputation as a person who is well balanced. Men will weep throughout the congregation. Women will wail because of the travail of their own souls. Young adults will cry like children at the magnitude of their sin. My presence will be so strong that the worship team will cease playing. Time will seem to stand still. You won't be able to preach because of the flood of emotions entering your own soul. You'll struggle to find words, but only find tears. Even the most dignified and reserved among you will be broken and humbled as little children. The proud and self-righteous will not be able to stand in my presence. The doubter and unbeliever will either run for fear or fall on their knees and worship me. There can be no middle ground. The church will never be the same again. You don't want revival. And you know what? I had, he was, of course, he's God, but he's right. The very thing we're afraid of is the very thing we need more than anything else. We need people to break and that might be messy. It might not look good. And then the word will get out. Oh, that's phenomenal. You know, chains not controlling the plate. It's out of order. I don't care at this point. I want God to break people and revive the heart of this nation, revive the heart of this church. The problem is we don't want it bad enough. Because God says, if you seek me with all of your heart, you'll find me. It doesn't say maybe I might consider. He says, if you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me. As Ashton and Chelsea come up, we're just going to go into a time of worship as we usually do. But I want you to think about that. Do you truly, are you scared of that fully surrendered life? I can't hang out the same crowd. I won't be able to go to Vegas. I won't be able to do this. You better get all that junk out of your mind and just saying, Lord, I want all of you. The very thing we need is the very thing we're afraid of. And Leonard Ravenhill said right before he died, he said, when the church, the church needs to break, then the world will break. When the church begins to weep, then the altar will be filled with weeping sinners. It starts here. It starts in the church in our own hearts. If I could just get people to fully surrender their life, and I can't do it, it has to be a mighty work of the spirit of God to come and fill you and break you. Because without that, without that breaking, God cannot fully fill you with this spirit. You go through life, not truly knowing him. You have a form of Christianity. You'll, you'll, you'll, you'll play, you'll play church. We have everybody fooled because you're saying the right things, but you do not have God fooled. So we're just going to go to time of worship. And you guys can hit the lights back there. You guys can go ahead and stand with us. But we're actually going to have people up here to pray for you. Yvette, I see you here and Morgan. My mom, they'll be over in that corner. I'll be over in this corner. Pastor Hank will be over here with me. Householders, if you want to be over there with us. But listen, we're going to be up in the sides. We're going to be praying for you guys. This is the time. If you want that fully surrendered life, there's no better time than now. If you don't know Christ, come forward. We want to pray with you. Say, Shane, I need Christ. I need him. I need to surrender everything because God's going to reward that obedience. See, if I was on the back row, if I was on the back row and I was convicted, I wouldn't allow what are people going to think about me. I wouldn't care. I want to leave here different than when I arrived. So we're going to be here with two songs. Whatever it takes, you need to come forward. You need to come to the altar on your own. That's fine. You need to go to the prayer team. We'll be there to pray with you and to lead you to the throne room of grace. But don't, you don't need us, but we are there if you need that. But just come to him during worship and let the heart break and seek him with all of your heart. Lord, I just ask right now during this time of refreshing that you will bring, Lord, repentance to our heart and just thankfulness, Lord, that we will leave here uplifted and encouraged because we are right relationship with you. Lord, I pray that you would begin to convict those people that need to come forward, that need to pray, that need to cry out to you, Lord. No more half-hearted Christianity, Lord. We want the fully surrendered life because that is the life that we surrender on. We give it all to Christ. Your word says if we want to be your disciples, we've got to take up our cross and follow your son. Lord, thank you for the cross. Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for Golgotha. I pray that that would just impact our lives greatly tonight so that we turn from all these things that are destroying us and we finally turn to you. And I just give you this in Jesus' name, amen.