Shane Idleman emphasizes the seven critical elements that believers may be missing in their spiritual lives, based on Mark chapter two. He highlights the importance of spiritual power, the power of God's Word, desperation for Jesus, the gift of faith, the incredible gift of intercession, humility, and the joy of being set free. Idleman passionately calls for a return to fervent prayer and a deeper relationship with God, urging the congregation to seek a vibrant faith that transforms lives. He encourages believers to remove distractions and prioritize their relationship with Christ, ultimately leading to a powerful experience of God's presence.

The title is Seven Things You May Be Missing, from Mark chapter two. On Sundays, we're going through the entire Bible. Not verse by verse, but chapter by chapter, principle by principle, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, what did it stand for? What does it mean? How is it relevant? How is it applicable today? And I'm glad Revelation is at the end, because that's a tough one. But we're going through the entire Bible on Sunday mornings, but tonight I want to focus on Mark two. This is very relevant, especially for this hunger. I don't know about you, but there's a hunger, there's an intensity for God, unlike I've seen in a long time. Last night, just people poured to the altar without any prompting, really, from me, and just God moving in the hearts of people. And our theme, of course, as you know, has been Isaiah 64. Oh God, that you would what? Rend the heavens, rip open the heavens, and what? Would you come down? And the old timers used to say, God heard our cries and he showed up today. God heard our cries and he showed up today. He rend the heavens. And something I was wanting to preach on as well, I'm not going to, I don't think this weekend, obviously, but in Leviticus, it's very interesting. Leviticus nine, and I don't know why, it's been on my heart for a couple weeks, and I just want to share this with you. Maybe there's a principle we can gleam. But when God lit the fire, God, did you know the sacrificial system? God lit the fire. They didn't go out and get some fire, and make some fire, and light the sacrifice, the wood for that. God actually came down from heaven, lit that fire on the altar of the sacrifice. And then he said, you keep it burning. Boy, there's a sermon right there. Because the fire that he gives, there's a responsibility for us to keep it going. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt offering. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. You see, after God had started this fire, it burned continuously for 116 years, until the nation was conquered. And the priests were called to remove the waste, but not the fuel. It's another sermon right there. Think about that. God says, I'll give you the fire, but you keep it going. You remove the waste, and keep the fuel of the fire going. That's so relevant to what we're experiencing this week. And it also represented the uninterrupted worship of God. That fire represented the uninterrupted worship. That fire was always burning. Can you imagine that? Morning, noon, and night. That was a fire that God set, came down upon the sacrifice, and he said, you keep that fire going. And that was their job for 116 years. I'm gonna read Mark chapter two in just a minute, but before that, I think we have John 14, verse 12. And this has been, this is challenging. It really is. Think about this. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. Now, does that interest anyone? Does that, that to me really resonates, because Jesus said, if you believe on me, and out of your belly comes those rivers of living water, you will do the works that I have been doing, and they will go, they will do even greater things than these. Obviously, he's not talking about greater than what Jesus is doing, but greater in volume, because he was localized in that area. And he said, here's why you will do that. I am going to the Father. And many people, if you're not familiar with the Bible, what that simply means, Jesus said earlier that I have to go to the Father. It's good for you that I leave, because I will send the Helper. I will send the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful gift. I don't know how people get through it without the Holy Spirit. And so that those 10 days in the upper room, the Spirit of God fell upon those disciples. The fire of God fell, and they went out and did works like Jesus was doing. So it begs the question, where are these works today? Now, we can write it off. We can say, well, they needed that. The early church needed that. I think we need it just as much. And I've got books for missionaries in different countries. And when there's a desperation for God, when there's no medical service, when there's no Visa, when there's no Medicare, when there's no PayPal, all they have is God. Either God moves or they die. There's a desperation. You see these things happen a lot more than we do in America. So we don't discount God's Word. The problem's not with God. The problem's with us. And the closer you draw to Christ, more filled you are with this Holy Spirit, the more you will see these works that Jesus did. I believe you can still pray for people and they can be healed and set free. Now, does it happen every time we pray? No, because then that would make me in charge of God's sovereignty. He would just be a butler or a genie in a bottle waiting for my every whim and command. No, I have to line up my heart and my mind with the wills and ways of God, and He directs us according to His sovereignty with that gift of faith and that gift of healing. Unless you wanna throw this verse in the trash, you will do the very things that I do. And so the first thing of number seven, of seven things you're missing, are you missing spiritual power? Are you missing spiritual power? This is a difference between dry and dead versus living and vibrant. That's the difference. Are you missing spiritual power? Because I will tell you, many times I preach passionately and people think I'm angry, I'm not angry. I'm just, I'm excited to understand. Listen, there's a big difference between dead and dry and living and vibrant. Big difference, and that's actually one of the biggest difference in the churches. So many people are just dead to the things of God. Dry, there's no hunger. And Jesus said, if you believe on me as the scriptures say, what, out of your innermost being will flow dry dead. Stagnant, smelly water. Rivers of living water. And there's a life source. We bring a life source to people. And Jesus said, if you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. There's something when you have Jesus, you just can't get enough of him. Oh, give me Jesus and nothing else. And there's a hunger, there's a thirst, there's a desire. That's why some of us just have to put on the videos and hit rewind and rewind and rewind. That's why we're not in a hurry when the worship team goes a little long like they did the other night. That's why we want more of Jesus and that fire, that thirst for more of God. Oh God, would you rend the heavens, why? And fill us with your power and your presence and your spirit. Oh God, break down and get us out of mediocrity. Get us out of dry, dead formalism. I want the power of God on my life or I don't want anything to do with religion. You see, the filling of the Holy Spirit is meant to be a continuous experience through submission to his work. Listen, this is the secret to the victorious Christian life. Submitting, surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Mark two, one through four. Jesus is just beginning his ministry. I don't quote me on this, but I don't think he's even chosen Levi yet, the tax collector. He's just starting in his ministry. What happened right before he started? He was baptized and the spirit of God came upon him, went into the wilderness and he came out a man on fire for God. There's something to that as well, I believe. So Jesus enters Capernaum. Immediately, many gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them. So this huge gathering, and what did he do? Right there, underlined. And he had a conversation. He had a dialogue, he had counseling appointments. He preached to them. He preached to them. See, there's something about the word of God going forth in those chosen, those called, those filled with the spirit. Even if you say, I'm not chosen, I'm not called, I'm not a pastor, it doesn't matter. There's something powerful when you preach, when you, the word is actually a proclamation, a herald, a declaration. When you declare the goodness of God and you preach what his word says, and that's what Jesus did. He said, it says he preached the word to them. So number two, are you missing the power of the word of God? Are you missing the power of the word of God? And there's not a week that goes by now that I'm not doing, whether answering calls or people out of state or different things. They're saying, Shane, what in the world is going on in the churches? There's a clear line in the sand being drawn right now. Those who are conservative and fund, they were called fundamentalists, right? But the fundamentals of the Christian faith, that God's word is the standard, God's word is inerrant, and those who believe that it's not, and they bring in destructive teachings that we'll get into later as we go through Genesis. And so this line is being drawn in the sand and the power to proclaim God's word. And that's why we believe so much too in the power that God has given us, spiritual power to proclaim God's truth, even from the pulpit. And there was a big movement, I don't know, about 20 years ago now, 15 years ago, called the Emergent Church Movement. Any of you remember that or heard about that? I won't get into all the details, but they talked about replacing the pulpit with a couch so we can have conversation and community and not hurt feelings and not offend people. I guess they threw out 2,000 years of church history. They threw out what Jesus did. There's something about the power of God's word being released. And I know I've mentioned this quite often, actually, but so many people are coming from different areas. Many of you are new. But there was a person by the name of Alex de Tocqueville from France in the 1800s. He came to America and he wanted to know, by that time, we are shining light on the hill. The Puritans wrote about that, the Mayflower Compact, the pilgrims came over, and they wanted to be that shining light on the hill. Of course, there's bad things going on, but there was a good element to God creating and forming this nation. He came here and he wrote specifically why it was so prosperous, why it had the strongest military, why did it have the financial resources, abundance of food and everything. Because when God's hand is on that, God will bless what he builds. He will bless what he builds. That's why, don't build your house without God. You'll labor in vain. He blesses what he builds. And so he came over and he wrote this work. At least it's attributed to him. I don't know if we can find exactly where he wrote it down, but he said he looked throughout all of America's boundless prairies and fertile fields, and he says it wasn't there, it wasn't in the gold mines or in the vast world commerce. It wasn't there. He said something very interesting. It was not until I went to the churches of America and I heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, then I understood why America is good. America is great because she is good, and if she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. He noticed, and what does he mean by the pulpits aflame with righteousness? There was a call to holiness. There was a call to purity. And sometimes I actually literally put down the book and I begin to pray and sometimes well up with tears when I read books or sermons of 100 years ago or 150 years ago or 200 years ago when the Puritans would preach the sovereignty of God and the power of God, and then you get people like Wesley and Whitefield calling down heaven and God's word was not minimized. Holiness was preached. It wasn't feared. They would talk about the judgment of God, the blood of Christ. Oh, nothing but the blood of Jesus will save me. And they would talk about how deep the Father's love for us, how wide, how vast, beyond all measure that God would send his only son to make a wretch his treasure. And there was something about honoring all of God's word, not picking out and sugarcoating and just pulling out things here and there. All of it was proclaimed, the good, the bad, the ugly, the hell and the heaven, the grace and the holiness and the proclaiming of God's word. There's power in the proclamation of God's word. Oh God, would you fill us again with your word? You see, because the foundation matters. The foundation is everything. What are you building on? The centrality of the word of God that points to the cross, points to the road of salvation. So if that's not the foundation, it will fall apart. Now you might have a large church and lots of programs and different things, but you'll miss the power of God. You can get 1,000 people somewhere, just put up a whole bunch of bouncy houses and put a lot of pumpkins around it. I didn't realize how expensive those places were. Just enough tickets for my girls to do something. He's like, sir, that'll be $95. $95? $8 to go down a slide? Verse three, then they came to him. So here's the setting. The house is full. The area is actually full where he's at. He's preaching the word to him. Whoa, I would have loved to been in that meeting. Could you even talk about spellbound and captivated. And then they came to him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near him because of the crowd. Are you one of those people where the crowd will turn you off? I've been running into people that say, Shane, I want to come to church. Well, the parking lot was full. I just went and ate lunch. But if we're really desperate, we park down by the school and walk. Desperate people do desperate things. I don't want to convict us anymore than we already convicted, but there are in third world countries or China, underground church in China, India, they'll walk half a day to get to church. Walk half a day to get to church. There's a desperation there. And even they didn't care. And here's what I love about this group. Okay, there's a crowd. We need to find Jesus. We need to uncover the roof and get to Jesus. So they got up on this building. Normally in Israel, it's flat. And so they uncovered the roof where he was. And so when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. And then what do we keep reading there? I'm gonna stop right there, I believe. So number three, are you missing, are you missing desperation? Are you missing desperation? Seven things that you're missing. This is huge. There has to be a desperation for Jesus. Now I know some days are difficult and others, but there's the yearning of our heart. There's a desperation for Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit. That word is actually beggar. Blessed are the beggars. Are you begging for more of God? God, would you rend the heavens? Would you come down? Would you transform my life, transform my marriage? God, I need to get to Jesus. I don't care if there's a crowd. I don't care if the service is at 7 a.m. I don't care if I have to do this. I don't care if I have to turn off the media for a month. I don't care if my kids are gonna be a little grumpy. God, I've got to find Jesus. I've gotta get worship on in my home and let it saturate the atmosphere of my home. I need to spend time with the master. I need to remove these lesser priorities and oh God, I'm desperate for you. Lord, would you help me? Help this beggar. I'm begging you. God, would you help me? And he hears that crying. That's my child crying. That's my child begging. Have you ever had your kids beg daddy, mommy? No, please, please, please. And so when Jesus saw their faith, don't miss this. He saw their faith. He said to that man, son, your sins are forgiven you. And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts and to them this would be blasphemy. Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? So here's your Bible trivia question. This proves people say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Well, here's just one example. Nobody but God can forgive sins. Man can't forgive sins. Created being can't forgive sins. Only God and God alone can forgive sins. But while we're hanging out here, let's talk about this number four. Are you missing the gift of faith? Now, I'm not talking about faith when we believe. I'm talking about faith to keep going forward. I'm really tempted to talk sometime about finishing strong. It's gonna be pivotal as the weeks, months and years progress. Finishing strong. In the Christian walk, it's wonderful to start strong, but you have to finish strong. The fiery darts of the enemy, discouragement, discord, doubt, fear. Are you missing this gift of faith? And if you are tonight, we would love to pray with you in that prayer room. We want you to be energized with faith. And what is faith exactly, Shane? Well, I can read the biblical definition. Basically, it's putting trust into God, but also it's unwavering in the spite of difficulties. It's unwavering. In other words, no matter what I'm going through, I am standing on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Here comes a wind, it's not gonna blow me off. Here comes a storm, it's not gonna consume me. Here comes the rain and the flood, and it's not going to overwhelm me. Because even God said, when you walk through the waters, I will be with you. They will not overtake you. When you walk through the flames, it will not scorch you. The fire will not burn you because I am the Lord thy God. But it does say you might walk through the fire. It does say you might walk through the water and go through the storms, but he is there. He is an ever-present help in time of need. It's an anchor to his promises. Faith is secure in his sovereignty, dependent on his deliverance and fixed on his face. In case you didn't get it, I'm gonna repeat it. Unwavering in spite of difficulties. This kind of faith is you are anchored to his promises. Anchored, do you know what that means? Of course, the boat throwing out the anchor, but I don't know about you, but sometimes those anchors slip and you end up 100 yards out. But this anchor will never slip. This is an anchor that is actually secure to the promises. The promises that I just said, I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you. If you seek me, you will find me. If you intercede on behalf, I will hear the prayers of my people interceding for the land, interceding for their children. I'm anchored that God says, I am a child of God. I cannot walk away. What will separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? What will separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Neither height, nor depth, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any created thing will ever be able to separate me from God Almighty. You take that promise to the bank and you get anchored in God's word. And then also faith is secure in his sovereignty. I feel sorry for those who don't believe in God's sovereignty because that means no matter what happens, God's got your back. That job that you might lose, God's got your back. That health issue, that thing that makes no sense, the spouse that walked away says they're never coming back. See, too many of us are dependent. We put our faith in people. People will hurt you. People will let you down. Never look to a man, look at the Messiah. Keep your eyes fixed on him. Isn't that true? I mean, I just ran into somebody today. You know, the church hurt me. Yeah. The church hurts us. Does it not? And I even told them, if we've been hurt so much, I would have left this church 100 times, but I can't. My point is this, so you're in his sovereignty and you're trusting in his security and you're resting in what he wants to do in you and through you. It's difficult and we're looking at people all day. They did this, I'm leaving this. They did this, I'm leaving, or this, or this. And we look at people and people get, God, they let me down, or this person, and then they begin to drift from God. They get mad at God. Stop looking at people and keep your eyes focused on Christ. They will let you down. And then secure in his sovereignty, dependent upon his deliverance. I am dependent upon his deliverance. Now that might mean I don't make it to a ripe old age. That might mean trials and tribulations. That might, and people do come, they say, Shane, you know where this world is going? I'm concerned for the way you preach. Well, I'm concerned for going home as a coward. You could get killed for doing, I absolutely could, but I am dependent upon his deliverance. I'm secure in his sovereignty. We get a lot of negative emails that go to Levy now, so I don't even have to read them. But he goes, oh man, I don't want to send you this one. I mean, I didn't realize how many people hate me. Literally, I mean, it's just anger because of the boldness of God's word. Anytime you stand up for what is right, somebody, let me think. Let me try and remember who said this. They hated me, they will hate you. Well, hold on, I was reading a book last night. They hated me. Jesus said, if they hate me, they're gonna hate you. So many churches are focused on, I hope the world loves us. See, you can be welcoming, but not affirming. We welcome, we have all kinds of struggles here. I'm not gonna name them, it's across the board. All are welcome. But we don't affirm sinful lifestyles. And that's what the darkness hates. The darkness says, affirm my lifestyle. And that's what the big thing out there right now, what I'm about ready to say, it could be illegal in a few years, so let me just get out. What the big push is, we can love those who struggle with same-sex attraction, but go against the agenda and say, that is wrong. We're not gonna allow that to be pushed on our children. And you take a stand, and the darkness doesn't like that. They don't like to, shut your mouth, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet. And sometimes I get fired up because I'm in Genesis, and I think we should take back the rainbow, because that is a sign of God. And he says, yes, I will go to him. That is my sign, that is my sign of judgment. I have my sign to the people. That's hatred, no, that's love, that's a love for God's word. Zeal for his house has consumed me. And when I see his word mocked, and I see it ridiculed, and perversion, and blasphemy, you gotta sound the alarm and get a little fired up. A lot of rabbit trails on this one, a lot of rabbit trails. But isn't that true? Here's a sign in the sky. It says, I will never judge you like that again. It's my love. And that's what people don't understand. We love those struggling. We mentor those struggling. We help. I struggle with something. They struggle with something. If you don't struggle with anything, I'd love to meet you after the service, because I've never found, met that Christian yet, unless they're very prideful. And they believe in perfectionism. But you have to go after the agenda that is destroying our children, it's destroying our nation. Where is the outcry? The problem is we don't want to upset, we don't want to offend. I don't either, but the truth offends. Get over it. The truth will offend. When you speak the truth in love, it's offensive. And many people do not want to hear it. And this is just, if you heard me last night, my passion for intercession, because God really showed me how important it is for intercession. You know what intercession is? When you intercede on behalf of another person. Pastor Abin, you don't even know how much you blessed me today, when you told me about, God is finally, finally rewarding all the years of interceding, and He'll answer the cry of one child of His. Throughout the Bible, I can give you so many examples. He didn't say, go grab me an army. He said, go grab me one man, one woman on fire for me, and watch what I do. Think about it, He raised up a Moses to defeat an entire army. And when He said, Moses, my servant is dead, Joshua, be strong and of good courage, He raised up a Joshua. He raised up an Ezra and a Nehemiah to rebuild. He raised up a Ruth to save that nation. He raised up, you fill in the blank, your name. And that's where we have to be very, very confident in this one fact, that you plus God is the majority. Now, don't get me wrong, I love majority. When they say, new poll shows that 80% of Americans believe God's word is inerrant. Oh, praise God. New poll shows that we got, yeah, I'm not gonna go there. It might get political for a minute, I'm not gonna go there. I promise, I promise, no, none of that tonight. But number five, are you missing the incredible gift of intercession? See, here's what stood out with me. Jesus saw the man's faith? No, He saw their faith. The whole group, He saw these people saying, we've got to get to Jesus. I don't care that there's a crowd. We're gonna get up on the roof. We're gonna let, Jesus saw their faith. Basically, did they not, unless I'm mistaken, did they not intercede on behalf of this man who could not get access to Jesus? How many of you, if you knew the power of intercession, you would not leave this altar till midnight, pulling down heaven and saying, God, don't let my children go to hell. Don't let my grandchildren drift away. We break that in the name of Jesus. We pull down heaven. God is not up there going, I'm not listening. He says, I'm listening. That's a sweet smelling sound of cries of my children. Interceding, God, our nation has the blood of innocent children on our hand. We have mocked everything that you've called precious and we've turned purity into perversion. Oh God, help us. I know intercession works because God says, if you intercede, Nehemiah interceded. We have sinned. Ezra interceded. We have sinned, us and our forefathers. We have married pagan wives. Ezekiel would intercede. Moses would intercede. God, did you know God was gonna wipe out the nation of Israel until one man interceded? I think we need to get back that fire of God again on interceding and saying, God, now you might not see immediate results. Don't give up, look up. That is faith again. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, but the hope of glory, the hope of him moving, the hope of interceding. God says, that's faith. He believes me even when he doesn't see it. I'm gonna answer that prayer someday because that boy's on fire for me. He sees it and he believes that he doesn't even see it. That's interceding, God, I believe it. I believe I see California on fire again for God. Oh, no. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about utopia. I'm talking about a spiritual battle. The darkness is not giving up easily or at all, but we keep fighting. We keep fighting. It's interesting when Jesus came here to earth, darkness did not give up and surrender. It kept fighting. It kept demonizing people. It kept stopping, trying to stop God's plans. The New Testament says, had they known what they were doing, they would never have crucified the Prince of glory. Had they really knew what they were doing. So are you missing this gift of intercession? I really believe that's what we're missing, that element of faith and prayer. Faith and prayer, that's the engine. Just like your car engine, why do you never see the powerhouse of something? The big diesel motor in the Kenworth, you don't see it unless you pop the hood. The big, the huge motors that are, the diesel motors that are driving those cargo ships, enormous, the size of this building just about. You don't see any of that. You don't see the powerhouse. Prayer is the powerhouse. And that's why I often say our gun safes are full, but our prayer closets are empty. It's okay in California, but if I preach this in the Midwest, I'm in trouble. People don't like that. All right, we need to protect ourselves. I didn't say that. I'm just saying your gun safe is full, but your prayer closet is empty. You're convicted. This isn't my first rodeo. Conviction. You see, guys, I remember, I remember because of reading books and things, and I want to say to you, I remember when the church prayed. I remember when the prayer meeting was the highlight. Did you know most churches don't have prayer meetings or prayer teams? Maybe, well, let's give a prayer night on a Tuesday at midnight. Let's see who shows up. Leonard Ravenhill said very succinctly that the prayer meeting is the Cinderella of the church. She goes unnoticed, mocked, ridiculed. He says, put on that dress and come to the party. It's time to make prayer the forefront of the church again. And that's why we're doing these things. Sunday, last Sunday, we had a seven-hour service that did not end. It started with worship, message, worship prayer, worship message, worship prayer. People just continual prayer and worship. It was amazing. That went up from six in the morning to 1.30 in the afternoon. This mic, this stage was not silent. And that, and God is honoring those types of prayers. Remember that. You don't need to be here to pray. You can pray in your home, pray on your knees, pray in your car, pray in front of the children in school, pray at work, but do something. Pray, pull down heaven. And then number eight, but immediately Jesus, I'm sorry, verse eight. But immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said, why do you reason about these things in your hearts? And then number six, it just really stuck out this week. Are you missing humility? Are you missing humility? And if you've been coming here for a while, you say, you know, I talk about this a lot and I'll make you a deal. I'll stop as soon as everyone is humble. Fair enough? Preaching to myself, go look in the mirror because pride is part of that Adamic nature, that fleshly nature. It rises up. There's just no way around it. The more filled you are with the spirit, the less that pride comes out. The more filled you're with pride, the more, the less, the actually out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is going to speak. So what are you filled with? That's what comes out. And I was having, I even want to write a book on this at some point or preach a sermon on the blessing of brokenness. The blessing of brokenness. You realize how valuable brokenness is? Because when you're broken, then God can rebuild you and use you. Brokenness is incredible. Moses spent years on the backside of the desert until God broke him. Joshua's brokenness came from lingering in the presence of the Lord. Samuel replied and shouted out, speak Lord for your servant listens. After spending years with Eli the priest and through a brokenness, he began to hear from God and from Jehoshaphat to Hezekiah, the hammer of God would often crush their pride until he got them to look at God and begin to turn back to him. Isaiah was completely broken before God. All the people we love to read in the Bible, do you know they were completely just broken by God? Do you know that? Isaiah said, woe is me for I'm a ruined man. Woe is me for I'm a ruined man. What has he done? For my eyes have seen the King of glory. Oh, I bet you're ruined. I bet if God just exposed himself and revealed himself to our hearts for one brief second, you would fall on your face before almighty God and be broken before him. The blessing of brokenness. Jeremiah collapsed and cried out, my soul, my soul, I weep in the secret place because of your pride, the pride of my people. The brokenness came from these prophetic voices. Amos declared his total dependence on God and his brokenness. Amos, one of the books of the Bible, guess what he did? He was a shepherd. A shepherd has a book in the Bible because of his brokenness. See, when you say I'm just a shepherd and you mean it, you realize that you're just an unprofitable servant used by the master. But what I love about Amos is after he was broken, he could rebuke the entire worship team. He said, take away from me the noise of your instruments and your clanging cymbals, but let justice run down like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream. Through that broken, see, when broken people break people, no one should be allowed to pastor unless they've been broken because it takes broken people to break people in the good sense of the word. The good sense of the word is you break that pride, you break that arrogance out of the heart. How do you get the perfume from the flower? You destroy that petal, destroy that olive for the oil, destroy that grape for the juice because without the brokenness, the fruit of the potential doesn't come out. Oh, what about Hosea? The brokenness of Hosea, how about God telling you, go marry a prostitute? Be a living example of Israel's harlotry towards me. And he had to take on this prostitute, this unloving, unequally yoked wife, and he took that on to represent how Israel was drifting from God. What about the Psalms? The Psalms are saturated by brokenness. David said, oh God, have mercy on me. Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin, my mother conceived me that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Let the joy of my salvation be returned to me. And there's that brokenness, there's tears, there's weeping, the disciples were crushed until the anointing oil could flow. Can you imagine Peter realizing that you denied the Savior? And then Paul, of course, had to be knocked off his beast and his eyes blinded by the glory of God. And they said, master, what must I do? Who are you? I am Jesus. Paul, why are you kicking against the goats? Why are you fighting me? Paul, why are you fighting me? You're persecuting the Christians. You're rejecting me. Lord, who are you? I am Jesus Christ. And he bowed his knee. And the world then heard of the apostle Paul. So of course, it begs the question, what about you? What about you? What's it gonna take for full submission, full surrender? Shane and I have to give up my income and I love my marijuana, I love my alcohol, I love my this, I love my sex, I love, you fill in the blank. What's it gonna take to fully surrender your life? And then verse nine, Jesus said, well, what's easier to say? That your sins are forgiven you or to say arise and take up your bed and walk? Of course, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven. But Jesus said, so that you might know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, I say to you, take up your bed and walk. And the man got up and he was healed from that very day. And then I love that last verse. We never saw anything like this. We never saw anything like this. Listen, when God truly moves, you will say the same thing. How often have we been saying that very thing this week? Half a dozen, we've never seen anything like this. God moving on such a big scale. Drive people just driving from hours away. I saw something, I had to be there, I have to experience. What's God doing? I don't know, what is God doing? I mean, I don't wanna go into a lot of detail, but I know there's been people on their way to divorce court and then we see them at the altar. What is that? People being hooked on drugs and alcohol. There was a man I baptized last night, Peter. How many of you saw him? Just a big biker tattooed and he's like driving by the church, he's, a couple months ago, he's like, why are those people so happy? I'm gonna go check this out. And he's now a Christian. But there's story after story after story of just people just being hit by the power of God, being saved by the power of God. So when God moves, you too will say, we have never seen anything like this before. Shouldn't we as Christians be saying that? Have we become so comfortable that we don't see the mighty works of God anymore? We don't hear the mighty works of God? Hey, we've got our study, we've got our Bible teaching, we've got a few songs of worship, we've got our fellowship. Great, that's church, that's not church. Actually, the real blood-bought church of Jesus Christ is outdoing things in the power of the Holy Spirit. Lives are being transformed, the demonic realm is being crushed because the light is penetrating the darkness. This isn't called a social club to come and be comfortable. It's actually to go out and be that light of the world. We need to start saying, I have never seen things like this before. And the more you come, I believe God will begin to show you as well. The more you go out and minister for him. And then finally, number seven, are you missing the joy of being set free? Are you missing the joy of being set free? This man, I'm sure, could not contain his experience. Do you think he just got up and said, thanks, man? That was pretty cool. I would have loved to see that. Weeping and crying. And see, when you truly experience God, you have to share it. There's not only a desperation, but there's an excitement because there's a renewed energy. And so those, I know there's those listening or possibly here tonight, what we consider and we call that word unbeliever, means that they do not, they have not yet believed in Jesus Christ. Like these Pharisees, these doubters, these naysayers, these people who ridiculed. And I just wanna encourage you tonight that Jesus says your sins are forgiven if you look to the cross. If you confess that I am Lord and Savior, believe that I have died and rose again. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And you can be set free. And you will experience the joy of being set free. The joy of being set free. We had another testimony the other night. The man began to break down a little bit and being set free. You don't know where God brought me from. You don't know when he brings a prodigal son home and you used to be eating with pigs. And now you're back in the master's presence. There's an excitement. There's a zeal. Shouldn't we be excited for what God is doing? Yes, we have bad moods. We have bad days. But overall, this all-consuming passion for God should drive us. I just have that song on my heart because I know we're doing it tomorrow. I took a peek at the sound set. How deep the Father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss the Father turns his face as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory. Behold the man upon a cross my sin upon his shoulders ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. How deep the Father's love for us. Turn your life completely over to him. The greatest hindrance to you knowing God is within not without. The greatest hindrance to you knowing God is within and the cure is repentance. Repentance. Good old Phil De La Tova, he goes, hey, we should have baptisms every night. I'm like, yeah, you're not the one getting wet. So I said, let's just do it Sunday night. We'll push it. We'll get a signup sheet. We'll do it Sunday night. And then all day, the day before I'm like, let's just fill it up. And then I think we're like 20 some baptisms now because of people wanting to get baptized. And it's always called the believer's baptism. You make a public declaration that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I had to get baptized again at 30 because I didn't mean it at 12. I just wanted to go swimming. And so you have to let God examine your heart because sometimes that pride of not wanting to get baptized will hinder the work of God in our hearts. God says, do this. I command it. Publicly profess me as Lord and Savior. No, I did that when I was little. I don't want people to think I'm not really a Christian. Nobody's gonna think you're not really a Christian. We're gonna think that it's time to do business with God. And finally, make that decision tonight. And so yes, I will get wet. If there's somebody out there who'd like to get baptized. And then finally, I actually added this one. Are you missing the joy of experiencing God? I'm talking to believers. Are you missing the joy of experiencing God? One thing that I've loved more than anything else over these last six days, the messages on Facebook, Twitter, emails, text, people coming in, people driving in. The prodigal sons and daughters are coming home. They're saying the joy of my salvation has returned to me. That's what really stinks about being a prodigal is you know God and you desire God, but you're eating with the pigs. And God says, come back to me. And again, experience like David. Oh, that the joy of my salvation would return to me because my heart is right. So prodigal sons, wayward daughters come home tonight. Fully confess Christ as Lord and Savior. He doesn't just save you and then leave you. He cleans you up and he becomes the Lord of your life. And I like what Hosea said. It is time to break up the fallowed ground and seek the Lord while he still may be found. You provide the sacrifice and God will provide the fire. And that's my prayer. God, as we put our bodies on the living altar and we say, God, we provide the sacrifice. You provide the fire. God, would you rend the heavens? That word means rip open the heavens and come down and fill your people with your peace and with your presence.