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A Message to the Pulpits of America
Shane Idleman

Shane Idleman (1972 - ). American pastor, author, and speaker born in Southern California. Raised in a Christian home, he drifted from faith in his youth, pursuing a career as a corporate executive in the fitness industry before a dramatic conversion in his late 20s. Leaving business in 1999, he began studying theology independently and entered full-time ministry. In 2009, he founded Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, relocating it to Leona Valley in 2018, where he remains lead pastor. Idleman has authored 12 books, including Desperate for More of God (2011) and Help! I’m Addicted (2022), focusing on spiritual revival and overcoming sin. He launched the Westside Christian Radio Network (WCFRadio.org) in 2019 and hosts Regaining Lost Ground, a program addressing faith and culture. His ministry emphasizes biblical truth, repentance, and engagement with issues like abortion and religious liberty. Married to Morgan since 1997, they have four children. In 2020, he organized the Stadium Revival in California, drawing thousands, and his sermons reach millions online via platforms like YouTube and Rumble.
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Sermon Summary
This sermon emphasizes the paramount importance of holiness as the key attribute of God, even above His love. It highlights how leaders, prophets, and the church have fallen short in recognizing and upholding the holy standard set by God. The message calls for a return to holiness, not weirdness, as seen in the example of Jeremiah being sanctified and called to convict and bring God's people back to Him.
Sermon Transcription
Holiness stands above all the other attributes of God, even more so than God is love. Holiness stands out more than any other attribute. The angels fell down in the holy presence of God. Leaders, kings, priests, prophets fell down in the holy presence of God. This holiness of God, there's a holy standard that can't be compromised. It can't be debated. It can't be missed. And that's what's happening in the church. The problem isn't that we raise our standard and miss it. It's that we lower it and we hit it. Let me say that again. We do not raise our standard of holiness and we miss it. We lower it and we hit it. It's burning. His word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's shut up in my bones. I'm weary of holding it back. And I cannot. This message of holiness. I believe God is calling the church to a place of holiness. Not weirdness. Holiness. He often called his people. That was the whole role of the prophet. Do you realize that? The whole role of the prophet, and of course the prophets I foretell all these different things, but was to go and call the people back to God. Jeremiah. God says, before I even formed you in the womb, Jeremiah, I called you and I sanctified you to be a prophet among my people. He said, oh, but I am too young. God said, you're not too young, Jeremiah. You will go to who I send you. You will preach what I tell you to preach. You will do what I command you to do. And the Bible records that God touched the mouth of Jeremiah. And he said, you will pull down. You will root out. You will destroy the unfruitful works of darkness, Jeremiah. That's your job to convict the people. Because without conviction, there's no turning to God. He was called to do that. He was created to do that. Yet in our modern, comfortable churches today, in our society, we don't need that anymore. We're good. No, we're not good. We need that more now than ever before. And halfway through Jeremiah's ministry, he's pushing forward. And God says, listen, Jeremiah, go tell the people that they're listening to prophets who are prophesying of their own vision, of their own heart. Don't even listen to them. They're telling the people, peace, peace, when there is no peace. There's no safety. Tell the people, don't listen to these guys because what are they doing? They're causing the people to walk according to the dictates of their own heart. And God says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not prophesied to them, yet they spoke. But have they truly stood in my counsel. Have these teachers truly stood in my counsel. They would have turned the entire nation back to God. Is not my word like a fire, like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? He told Jeremiah, tell my people they have perverted the words of a living God by not warning and instructing and encouraging and calling the people back. That was the role of that prophetic element in the Old Testament, is to call the people back. And sadly, we read in 2 Chronicles, that God said, I sent my messengers. God said, I sent my messengers, rising them up early and sending them. Because why? I had compassion on my people. That's why I sent these difficult messages. See, it's not that God's angry, He's calling a church back to Him. But He called, He said, I sent messengers to my people. What happened? Did they listen? No, it says, they mocked my messengers, despised at my word, and scoffed at my prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against His own people until there was no remedy. What do you do when God says, you want it, you got it?
A Message to the Pulpits of America
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Shane Idleman (1972 - ). American pastor, author, and speaker born in Southern California. Raised in a Christian home, he drifted from faith in his youth, pursuing a career as a corporate executive in the fitness industry before a dramatic conversion in his late 20s. Leaving business in 1999, he began studying theology independently and entered full-time ministry. In 2009, he founded Westside Christian Fellowship in Lancaster, California, relocating it to Leona Valley in 2018, where he remains lead pastor. Idleman has authored 12 books, including Desperate for More of God (2011) and Help! I’m Addicted (2022), focusing on spiritual revival and overcoming sin. He launched the Westside Christian Radio Network (WCFRadio.org) in 2019 and hosts Regaining Lost Ground, a program addressing faith and culture. His ministry emphasizes biblical truth, repentance, and engagement with issues like abortion and religious liberty. Married to Morgan since 1997, they have four children. In 2020, he organized the Stadium Revival in California, drawing thousands, and his sermons reach millions online via platforms like YouTube and Rumble.