Shane Idleman emphasizes the critical importance of truth in his sermon 'Truth: A Hill on Which to Die,' likening it to a military hill that must be defended at all costs. He calls for a return to absolute truth as found in God's Word, urging believers to anchor their lives in Scripture amidst a culture of confusion and moral decline. Idleman illustrates the unwavering nature of truth through a lighthouse analogy, stressing that it cannot be compromised or negotiated. He encourages the congregation to conduct themselves according to biblical principles and to actively engage with God's Word to combat the falsehoods prevalent in society. Ultimately, he reminds listeners that truth, embodied in Jesus, is the only path to salvation and restoration.

The title is Truth, a hill on which to die. Truth is a hill on which to die. And how many of you were in the military? You might know, reading military history, that there would be certain hills that they would say, we must take that hill. That is a hill on which to die. If we do not take that hill, we will cease to exist. And let me submit to you, tonight the truth is a hill on which to die. You see what's coming out on Netflix with this perversion and what our governor just signed. And there has to be a righteous voice of indignation that says we must get back to the truth. It is a hill on which to die. It must be defended. It must be guarded. It must be built up and strengthened and passed on to our children. And God says, this is a hill on which to die. It has to be truth that we look to. Did you know that there is truth? We don't know what to believe on the media anymore, and Facebook and news outlets, but there is a place you can look where you can spend time, broken before God in the morning, and look to the word, open up the Psalms and be encouraged and built up. Look to the minor prophets and the major prophets and look at God's heart on a nation drifting from Him and go into the principles of the Old Testament and into the new birth of the New Testament and be built up and strengthened. That truth will never change. There is a story about truth that I've been going back and forth on all week, and I don't want to tell you it because many of you have heard it because I love to share it about once a year. But many of you are new, so I'm going to break my rule and I'm going to share it again. It's a story of a battleship way out in the, I think it's up by Alaska, a battleship, and what it's doing, it's running what they call deep water exercises. And what they do is they're preparing for battle and they're launching missiles and they're doing things. They're in deep waters and they're preparing for battle. And they see a light quickly approaching the battleship. And so he signals on there. I don't know how they do it. I can't tell you exactly, but you know, they signal, I'm a battle, or he doesn't say that just yet. He says, change your course 20 degrees. We're going to hit. And the signal came back. No, you need to change your course 20 degrees. And the captain said, who does this vessel think they are? Signal them back and let them know that I am the highest ranking officer in the United States military and they need to change course immediately. And the signal came back. Captain, with all due respect, change your course. And by now he's getting ready to arm the missiles. I don't know if they have missiles on a battleship, but you know, the big 50 millimeter he's upset now because now this vessel is threatening his whole crew. And he says, we are a battleship. And if you do not change your course, I will have to shoot you out of the water. I'll have to take you out. And the signal came back again and said, captain, captain, with all due respect, change your course immediately. I am a lighthouse. You might get that driving home, but isn't that what's happening now? Is it not what's happening now? Our elected officials, these Netflix and different things, they say, no truth. You move, but true stands as a lighthouse stand. There's a beacon of light saying I cannot move. And if you do not move, the collision course is not going to be pretty. True stands as a light at a lighthouse chain, warning the sailors, warning those, and it cannot be moved. It cannot be negotiated with. It cannot be bargained. It cannot be compromised. God says, I have set my absolute truth in which I cannot change. I am the Lord by God. I change not when absolute truth is set into motion. Nothing can change that. And we need to get back to that point of looking at God. Remember when we used to fear God's word? I was packing and I found an old, probably Bible nobody needs. I couldn't even throw it away. There's a reverence, there's a respect and getting back. And the word of God says, if you would just fear me again, if you would fear God and walk in that fear, it would change our political course. It would change our national course. And a verse I love on this topic is found in 1 Timothy 3.15. Let me remind you, if you're not sure who Timothy is, Paul was writing to young Timothy on how churches need to conduct themselves. And he said, I write to you, Timothy, that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. See, there's problem number one, when we remove truth, we forget to how to act. We forget how to conduct ourselves. We forget how to treat people. We forget the seriousness of sin. And so he says, how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. He said it there, that the word of God is the pillar and it's the ground of the truth. Now, if you're in construction, you probably know the difference. Most people won't know, but a pillar supports the building. The ground, the foundation supports the pillar. So you have to have both. He's basically saying it supports everything. So we look at the pillar and ground of truth first. And that's why our slogan, I believe that God gave us 10 years ago that we're coming up, we're actually celebrating 10 years. I forgot to tell you that in the announcement, see how fired up I am about this message. We're celebrating 10 years on September 27th, and we are going to be in our building. We have had enough. The church has to be that voice of truth again. Yes, that might offend it, but I'm not worried about offending people. I'm worried about offending God almighty. That's where we need to start fearing God and not man. Yes, we're respectful. Yes, we're submit when we need to, but there comes a time when God says, I will raise up voices who will speak my truth again. They will not be afraid of men, but they will fear almighty God and they will go to where I send them. They will speak to what I tell them to speak. That's why Paul said, Timothy, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will look for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear. The good news about it being dark right now is I can't see anyone's faces. So that's, I don't know if you're upset or happy or sad or what. And we would love to turn the lights on, but we found out it's $3,000 just to flip the switch. So we said, we'll stick with the security lighting for now. Thank you very much. So the slogan is that God gave us 10 years ago, times change, truth does not. And I never knew the impact that that would make. I had no idea how many people would thank West Side Christian Fellowship for that and for standing for that and to just have the privilege of standing for God's word. Times change, truth does not. It's the only truth we can know for certain. And I was going to take you to so many scriptures, but I just wanted to narrow it down because we see in the beginning is the truth. Jesus said, I will tell you the truth. In Revelation, he says, I sent my truth and it healed them. Truth is consistent throughout all of scripture. It is the ground. It is the pillar. It is the support of everything. And if it's not the support and ground and pillar of your life, I want to encourage you tonight to make that decision differently and begin to look at what does God's word say about issues? And did you know that, you know what, I promised myself, I made it eight weeks without getting political. But most of the political hot buttons that are out there, did you know the Bible has something to say about it? The Bible has something to say about our borders. The Bible has something to say about murdering children at nine months. The Bible has something to say about putting on women's clothing if you're a man and wanting to switch sexes. The Bible has something to say about this ungodly legislation of allowing a 25-year-old man to manipulate a 15-year-old boy, and that's okay. The Bible is crystal clear. And if you do, and if you can continue to mock God, the judgment hand of God will fall upon a nation that continues to mock him. The Bible has something to say about every issue from racism and what's going on in our country. And then he says here, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. How do we act in the house of God? I want to share three areas with you. This is not new. Most of you have been coming to Westside. I've talked about these extensively, but it rings true with this topic. How should we conduct ourselves in the house of God when truth is our gauge? Number one, young adults, this is going to be so critical for you as well. Older adults, we've got to get our mind back on the word of God. We've got to get our mind back on truth. What's happening is we're being polarized and driven and pulled away from truth. And God says, get your mind back on the truth. Well, what does that look like, Shane? Well, spending more time in God's word, more time listening to thought-provoking sermons, more time to listening to heartfelt worship, more time fellowshipping with believers that are like-minded. So you have to strengthen yourself in the Lord and you have to combat the false truth that is out there with the real truth of God. And don't you have to live in God's word a lot more than the media? Because there's so much out there. We don't know what to believe. All these different views and all these different conspiracy theories and some things are true. Some things are not. Some things are fabricated. Some things are manipulated. So it's just people are left confused. They don't know who or what to believe, but you have to anchor your mind. If you're spending time in Facebook, you better have a lot more time in God's book. That's what's going to change your heart. I like Kay Arthur. I don't know if you know who she is, a good Bible teacher. She said, if you don't plan to live the Christian life totally committed to knowing your God and to walking in obedience to him, then don't even begin. For this is what Christianity is all about. It's a change of citizenship, a change of government, a change of allegiance. If you have no intention of letting Christ rule your life, then forget Christianity. It's not for you. And that is so true because to truly understand the truth, you have to fully submit to it. You have to fully submit to God working your life. It can't be like, well, maybe today, but then tomorrow I'm going to, you know, and that's why we vacillate. James says a double-minded man is what? Unstable in all his ways. That's why so many people, even Christians are unstable today because they are double-minded. They're believing this and not God's word. They're forgetting about God's word, embracing this. So get your mind anchored in God's word. Yes, that means minimizing entertainment. Yes, that means minimizing what you're putting into your mind because as a man thinketh, so is he. Jesus said that as a man thinketh, so is he. Be not conformed to this world, but be what? Transformed by the renewing of your mind. Well, here's another area of conduct. Our attitude. Our attitude. Thomas Watson, I believe he's a famous Puritan. He said, our murmuring is the devil's music. Our murmuring is the devil's music. I've never seen so many people bash our nation, bash our state, bash our city, and it becomes murmuring and complaining. And one way to embrace truth is to get our attitudes right, and our actions right, and our mind right. And those are areas of conduct in the church. So when Paul says the truth is given, so you know how you should conduct yourself in the house of God. Get your mind focused, your actions in order, and your attitude straight, and you can do wonderful things for God. But it's interesting, if one of those things are off-kilter, what happens? We become off-balanced. And then I love this part. He said, which is the church of the living God. Do you know we don't serve a dead God? Amen. You should look up all the atheists, all the famous agnostics from, I don't even want to pronounce their names because I'll probably mess up. But you go back and you research history, and how many of them say, oh, Christianity will come to an end. Christianity will come to an end. There's no God. There's no God. And now, now I think it's Voltaire. They're actually making Bibles in his house. He said, within 100 years, I'll bring the Word of God to nothing. These people cannot stand and fight against a living God. We serve a living Savior who was raised from the dead, and he is coming back for his church, and you can take comfort in that. Our God is not dead. He is living, and his Word is powerful and active. Hebrews 4, for the Word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any double-edged sword. It pierces even to the joint and mortal, means it goes deep, and it discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It's active and living. And I want to share just a few things. I was going to make a quick video or two on how to let the Bible speak to you and how to study the Bible, and I do quick videos like that on YouTube under my page. They're like five, six, seven, eight minutes, but I want to just share a couple things because I think it will help. How do you let the living Word of God speak to you? Well, number one, instead of you studying the Word, which is good, let the Word study you. Because pastors can make a big mistake. If I open the Word of God, let me prepare a sermon for you before I say, let it study me. Let it rip me apart. Let it break me. Let it encourage me. Let it humble me. Because hearing from God is all about positioning, correct? If I want somebody to hear me 10 miles away from here, that's not going to work. You have to be right here or over here on the side, or you have to be, you have to position yourself to hear. Same thing with God's Word. Listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And when it begins to, what I've noticed, when God begins to convict you about certain areas, the Word of God is living, it's powerful, it's coming, it's coming alive, and it's convicting about attitude or actions or your mind. The more you begin to obey that conviction, the more you feel the Spirit of God, and you begin to see His will and sense His will, but the more you ignore that conviction, what happens? You quench and you grieve the Spirit of God. Do you know how many prideful, arrogant men I've talked to, and they always defend themselves by saying, I know what the Word of God says. I know what the Word of God says. I've been a Christian 30 years of my life. I know what it says. But the power serves in the application. The power is in the humility. And so what you need to do is find a quiet place, a quiet hour, and a quiet heart if you want God's Word to speak to you again. I believe it can speak to us clearly. Folks, especially in these dire times, let's be honest, is the civil unrest going to decrease and we're going to go back to normal? I got some oceanfront property in Arizona, if you believe that. I don't like it. I've got kids. I liked it when things were back to normal or would be back to normal, but there's a huge evil undercurrent that's working, and I believe there's going to continue to be civil unrest. I believe no matter how the election goes in November, it's going to be difficult. I believe when flu season is here again, guess what's here again? COVID, right? Mass. They're going to shut down. No, no. At some point, we've got to say enough is enough. But you have to be prepared for this. See, so many people are not going to be prepared because they're not built up in God's Word. They're watching too many YouTube videos about the earth being flat or the Illuminati or conspiracy theories about the Twin Towers that George Bush did it, or look, the one world government, Bill Gates is tied in with this, and the deep state is doing this, and they're trying to do this. Now, some of that, I think, is going in that direction. Not the flat earth. Don't put me in that category. But I see so many people watching these things, but no time in God's Word, and they're unstable. They're fearful. They're scared. They're shooting off. They're angry. They're back into God's Word, and let that change your heart, and be humble before Him. Say, I don't know, Lord. I don't know what's going on, but I know that you know. So to hear that voice, you have to have a quiet place. Find that quiet place, and I know some of you moms are saying, but I can't find that quiet place. I've got some little guys and gals running around me. Tell that husband of yours to watch the kids and go seek God for an hour. Find somebody to help husbands do your job in this area. You've got to let people find a quiet place, because God says, be busy, and you'll know that I am God. No? No? Come on, theologians. Wake up. Here. Be still, and know that I am God. What that means is to get your heart quiet. Find that quiet place, and say, God, I'm scheduling you on the calendar, and if you get antsy during that quiet place, that's okay. That's the flesh wanting you to get out of here, and I guarantee if I teach on fasting next Saturday, that line in Albuquerque is going to be down to Avenue G, because the flesh is working overtime to try to stop us. So you have to find that quiet place. Be still, and know that I am God. And then number two, find a quiet hour. Find a quiet hour. Find some time. Not exactly 60 minutes, but there has to be a prioritizing. Those who wait upon the Lord, what? Shall renew their strength. This is how you're going to hear from God in these dire times, and not the media, not Fox and CNN and Drudge Report and Huffington Post, and all these things. You've got to be buried in God's word. Have that quiet place, that quiet hour, and then here's a biggie, a quiet heart. A quiet heart. Steal your heart. Deal with sin. Clean the connection so you can hear God clearly. Boy, that's not a popular topic these days, is it? Did you know that sin used to be preached often? Repentance. They would preach hell hot and heaven sweet. They would preach the gravity of sin. Why? Because Jesus did. We want to avoid talking about the very thing that put Him on the cross. And actually, to really appreciate the cross, you have to know what put Him there. To really appreciate the good news, you have to know the bad news. We have to know the bad news that without God, we are under the wrath and condemnation and judgment of God. That's very bad news. That's why it's called very good news. That's why the gospel is called the good news. Jesus bore and took on the wrath of God on the cross, paid the price they call propitiation, absorbed God's wrath so that you can stand before God cleansed and without fault because of what Jesus did. I say that's some good news, so I have no problem talking about sin because Jesus said, go and preach what? Repentance. Call people to repentance. Call them away from the sinful lifestyle. Call the sin out and call them to the love of Christ via repentance. And because God's word is living, did you know that it is authoritative? Did you know that it is the final authority? It's the final authority. That's one big difference that happened in the Reformation 1517, Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany, nailing his 95 thesis to the Roman Catholic Church is they would put the papacy and papal decrees above the word of God. That was one of the big things, sola scriptura, scripture alone, scripture alone, the authoritative word of God. Second Peter, for prophecy did not come by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirits. That's why I love what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, even if an angel came to me and said, Charles Spurgeon, you are pardoned. He would say, I would not listen to him because I have a greater authority. And that greater authority is the word of God that tells me I'm already pardoned. My sins are washed away. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's authoritative. And because it is authoritative, it stands above our Supreme Court. It stands above the United States of America and the Supreme Court justices need to look at the authoritative word of God. I've got an 1828 dictionary by Webster. Guess what? They defined words with the word of God. When they wrote the constitution, they looked to the Bible four times more than any other source. When they use William Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of England for our Supreme Court, they would look at scripture. How does scripture say to handle rape or sex trafficking? Actually, a person would be given the death penalty for sex trafficking a child. Because, see, God knew the penalty. John MacArthur broke it down great. We only have four areas of restraint in our culture. One is the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That conviction of the Spirit. Then you have the government. You have the family. You have the church. Those areas of authoritative, they all fall under. They all submit to the final authority of God's word. And we have to get back to that, folks. You have to remember God's word is authoritative. It is the final authority. In the school districts, in our homes, in the government, in the Supreme Court, that is what we look to. And then it's authentic. Praise God it's authentic. What does that mean? Genuine, real, unquestionable. It's authentic. The word of God is authentic. And I began to just ponder this this week. And I got a little excited because I realized there's no close second. What is, well, you know, that this book is pretty close to the word of God. No, there's no close second. If you look at all the millions and millions and millions of copies sold, you look at all the changed lives, you look at all the consistency, archaeologically, scientifically, prophetically, historically, there is nothing that even can hold a candle to the word of God. It is the only authentic work out there. It has stood the test of time. It was written over 1,500 years on three different continents by 40 different authors saying the same thing, that God is God and I am not, and that God will redeem mankind from the fall and from the curse, and he will defeat Satan, the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ has conquered hell, death, sin, and the grave. That is authoritative and it's authentic. We should get excited about the word of God. I don't know, I do. People ask, why do you get so excited? Well, we're not talking about just stupid stuff. We're talking about the word of God that's authoritative, that changes, that says when you pray, you pull down heaven. When you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved. God hears your prayers. He holds your tears. He anchors your soul. He lifts you up. He builds you up. He will never be defeated. What enemy has ever defeated God and won? What enemy has ever triumphed and won? No one has ever beat God. Yeah, that's a little exciting. That's a little, I might get a little excited. You know, the more I'm in God's word, the more exciting it becomes. There's an old saying, sin will keep you from the word of God or the word of God will keep you from sin. And the more you start to read God's word and those promises come true, they hold that cancer patient until she takes her last breath. They hold that mom or that dad that's lost their son or daughter. And that's why in the Hebrew language, they would give many names to God. El Shaddai, Jehovah Nisi, My Provider, Sick Canoe. All these names because they knew God is healer and redeemer. They had all these names for God because they experienced God. And I want to tell you, you can't experience God. And that's why after being authoritative, authentic, it is available. God's word is available. Psalm 34. Psalm 34 says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is him who takes refuge in him. Isn't that what that verse sometimes I get so passionate, taste and see that God is good. That's all it takes. And when you see a world dying, you see a nation dying. Maybe some of you in the audience are dying or dead to the things of God. God doesn't say, well, follow this checklist in six months. I'll see if you've been a good boy or a good girl. And I'm going to make it really hard. He just says, taste and see. Come to the living water, come to the fountain of life and drink freely. Just taste and see the goodness of God. That's a promise you can hold God to. God said, test him in certain areas. It's okay to test God in certain areas. Well, he said, test me in this. Giving is another great one. Test me in this. Will I not pour down the windows of heaven? Test me in these areas. I am good. I am God. I am your God. Taste and see how good the Lord is. That's why I believe Jesus said, come to me all you're weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And I'll close with this point. Truth. This is amazing. I wish I had time. This would take a whole sermon. Truth died on a hill called Calvary. I can't quite understand all the dynamics of it, but I knew that Jesus left his throne. He became a child. Virgin birth. He died on the cross on Calvary. And truth, what I mean by truth died on the hill. He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Nobody can come to the father except through me. You want to talk about being inclusive. That's pretty narrow, Shane. Yeah, it sure is. So is gravity. Have you ever tried jumping off a 20-story building? Things are absolute. They are narrow. They are focused. God will not change. Truth died on a hill. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father except through me. And a couple statements on that that he said. He said, I am the truth. So we have to acknowledge that. He said, I tell you the truth. So you have to believe. He said, the truth will set you free and you do experience God. Isn't that wonderful that you can actually experience God? I love what A.W. Tozer said. I want to experience. Here goes my voice again. I'm going to have to keep down with this crowd next time. A.W. Tozer said, I want to experience God or I don't want to have anything to do with religion. I want to experience God. You can experience him. And Jesus said, whoever the Bible talks about, I don't know if it's Jesus. I didn't wrote this down this morning, actually. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be what? Saved. So he's the truth. You acknowledge it. I tell you the truth. You believe it. The truth sets you free. You experience God and you call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved. I want you to think about this every year. I've got to do this pretty soon as well. I go to my contacts. I believe I begin deleting people that have passed away. Two or three already this year. And it's sad. I see their name. I see the text message, my last text message. And you begin to realize the brevity of life. Guys, this is not a joke. This is not playing games with God. That's why I believe Jesus said often, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying, let him hear. And what he would cry out, the Bible would say, and Jesus cried out. Do you think he was quiet? Timid? He would cry out. I can picture him. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And a crying out is a deep shout, a deep shout of emotion. Oh, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And even if Jesus would preach to us, he's not going to make you do something and come out of your seat like a puppet. He pleads, and that's why I believe Paul pleaded, and Jesus pleaded, and George Whitefield, and all the famous preachers would plead, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Turn to God while it is still day, because when night cometh, no man can work. The way, the truth, and the life is calling you, is pleading with you to turn back to him. So I don't know if you've never made that decision, or I don't know if you've drifted so far off course, you don't know how to get back on, let me tell you that God still says, taste and see that I'm good. I don't care if you blew it last night. I don't care if you blew it this morning. God's call is always to repent and return to the God who can rebuild your life, who can take away that addiction, who can restore that marriage, who can restore that relationship, who can bring back the joy of the Lord again. Do you remember that joy? I think I talked about that last week, the joy of the Lord, and David said, oh, that the bones you have broken, that you would begin to repair those again. God, I want the joy of the Lord again, the joy of my salvation, creating me a clean heart, renewing me a right spirit. Oh God, I've drifted from you. David was in deep remorse and anxiety, and God began to work in his heart and call him, and the same call goes out to us. So there's two different people I'm talking to. If you need to make that decision, stop playing games with God. Young adults, teenagers, husbands, wives, the time is getting near. We cannot keep playing these games with God. Repent and believe in the gospel. And then also I know in a group this size, there's a lot of people here, I know many of you have probably drifted from God. You've quenched and you've grieved the Spirit of God. Maybe you've never been baptized. Did you know that baptism, being baptized, is obeying the truth? Jesus didn't say, well, if you feel like it. He said, he who believes in me and is baptized. Baptism is what? It's an outer profession. I'm baptizing myself before friends and relatives and whoever. I'm saying, I don't care if it's embarrassing. I don't care what people think of me, because I'm going to serve God Almighty, and I'm making a public declaration of my death, burial, and resurrection in Christ, and Christ giving me that new life. And it's something that should be very exciting. So we want to do baptisms tonight, whatever group you're in. I would love to meet you over there. I'm gonna have the worship team come up right now. They're gonna conclude with a few songs. But if God's put that on your heart, it's not cold out. We've got towels, and sometimes I believe God wants to know how bad do you want it. Make that commitment. And people say, I've heard this before, but Shane, you don't know what I've done. It doesn't, baptism doesn't say get your life right first. Actually, God cleans you up. Thank God. He cleans you up. He makes that difference. So I would love to meet you over there. So as the worship team begins, let's go ahead and stand for worship if you would like. You can kneel at your chair, the bench there, or make your way over to the prayer tent. We're also gonna have a prayer tent over there. But there's a prayer team, and I believe that God hears the prayers of people. The whole idea of a message is not to say, okay, well, that was good. Let's go home and eat. The whole idea is to spark the heart to go to prayer. Go to someone and say, pray for my prodigal son. Pray for my prodigal daughter. How many of us, how many of us are gonna pray for the filth that is on Netflix, that they get busted by the Department of Justice, and they get that pull? We gotta pray. Let's pray down heaven. Sometimes I don't think we care enough. Sometimes I don't think we care enough. We'll post something on Facebook, but that's about it. God says, when you travail, when you get on your face on the grass, when you say, I'm not gonna eat all day, and I'm gonna seek your heart. God, I want to pull down heaven. Those are the kind of prayers that God will hear. So I want to challenge you. Make your way to the prayer tent and pray with those individuals. Make your way to the baptismal, and let's get baptized. Let's get back on track with God.