Shane Idleman emphasizes that when God builds a church, it will thrive on the right foundation, which includes upholding truth, fostering unity, and prioritizing prayer. He discusses the importance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as faith, miracles, and healing, asserting that these gifts are still relevant today and essential for a vibrant church. Idleman highlights that love must be the motive behind all actions within the church, and he encourages believers to seek a deeper relationship with God to experience the fullness of the Spirit's power. He concludes with a call to readiness for Christ's return, urging listeners to open their hearts to God's truth and grace.

The title of the message is, when God builds a church, when God builds a church, and I was trying to tie it in with the sabbatical, it just didn't kind of work, but when God builds a church it will succeed, as long as you keep building on the right foundation. And that's what we find in 1 Corinthians 12, is where we're at. I left you hanging with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What's miracles? What is faith? What are all these things? And that's what I want to talk to you about, Sunday, today, and then Wednesday I want to close with 1 Corinthians as well. But before we get into chapter 12, I didn't really want to put chapter 14 together and teach on it, because it's all about tongues, the gift of tongues, and prophecy, and how that works in the church. And I spent over an hour on just that topic, and it's on our website, so if you put in just tongues on the church website, Westside Christian Fellowship, you can listen to the whole hour and five minute teaching on 1 Corinthians 14. So I really saw no point in repeating everything from the summer, I don't know when I did it now, it's probably been maybe almost a year or so. And then chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is the one I've talked about often, where Paul says it doesn't matter if you have great faith, it doesn't matter if you have faith to move mountains, it doesn't matter if you're burned at the stake for being a martyr, it doesn't matter if you give all your goods, it doesn't matter if you speak eloquently and can preach wonderfully, if you have not love it profits you nothing. And then he goes on to say love is patient, love is kind, doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not rude, it's not proud, it's not self-seeking, it keeps no record of wrong done against it, always hopes, always perseveres, and always trusts. And I'm going to pull from that in just a minute. So 13, 14, and 12, I'm kind of going through, they all fit together. When God builds a church, and actually I'm going to talk about more of this in September, September is our big 10 year anniversary. I cannot believe it's been 10 years. And just in your head, guess how many people are still here from 10 years ago? Three, not including my family. I think if I missed anyone, let me know. Yvette and Ron, and Randy McMillan, from day one. Dory Graham too. And David, okay, that's good, I was feeling a little bad there for a while. That's five that are still here from 10 years ago, of the core group. Many people move, many people, I know it's hard to believe, but I don't like this preaching. My mother-in-law is here, she says, Shane, let me tell you, you either love him or you'll hate him. There's no middle ground, there's no middle option. So anyway, we're going to celebrate our 10 year reunion, our 10 year anniversary, and I think I want to talk about the seven things that we initially built the church on, and that's still our goal. Number one, the truth must be upheld, amen? We must elevate the truth, we must keep the truth. In the culture that we live in, we have to fight for the truth, elevate the truth, proclaim the truth, preach the truth, and live the truth. We love those caught in sin, but we do not compromise the truth. That's one of the pillars of this church. Unity must be fought for. That's exhausting. One of the hardest things I have to do is fight for unity, even among people. Even this morning, I said, Lord, help me with this certain individual. God, give me a soft heart, a gentle heart. I don't want to have any animosity. And then next week, it'll be somebody else. Right? Come on, you know, don't act spiritual. You know that unity is hard, but it has to be fought for, and we will die trying. We will kill gossip when it starts. We will encourage people to be united. This church is really good at that, actually. We are a very good church in regard to minimizing gossip. I am very honored to lead this type of church. And prayer is the heartbeat of the church, bottom line. Our strength is directly related to our prayer life, and holiness must be sought. Holiness, you've got to be holy and set apart. Come out from among them. You live differently. What you watch, what you view, who you associate with, how you act, there's a different standard. Paul says, come out and be different. Why? Because there's power in holiness. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Spirit-filled believers are always holy. You will never see a carnal spirit-filled believer. If you think you're one, let me know. I'd love to meet you, because it's not possible. You're serving one or two masters there. And then love is always our motive. Love is always our motive. There's people here, as hard as I preach, I talk to people every week that struggle with same-sex attraction. They're living with their partner. They're struggling with transgenderism. They're hooked on pornography, or they're abusing this type of drug, or alcohol, different things. We love those, but we still stand for the truth. If you don't underscore it with love, people know it, and you'll just be a mean Pharisee. Look at the life of Jesus. Incredible, incredible love, and humility, and compassion. The woman caught in the act of adultery. What would many of us say? You harlot, get out of here. He said, woman, I don't condemn you, but go and sin no more. See, we forget that. Jesus called it out. He told the man he healed, don't go and sin, or a worse thing is going to fall upon you. He was constantly reminding the people of sin, and turning to God. And in a healthy church, when God builds a church, discipleship is flourishing. We were not operating on the cylinder many years ago, but now with the Tuesday night men's, the Saturday morning men's, the Thursday, three things on Thursday for the women. Donna leads a group Thursday morning, we have Titus on Thursday night, Christine Ramsey, and Lindy, and so we have a men's group, discipleship, people are getting plugged in. God is working in a powerful way. And then finally, my favorite topic, the power of the spirit is always present when God builds his church. Always present. You will see the power of the spirit. That's why there's an upheaval. That's why there's a spiritual battle. That's why there's demonic oppression, demonic attack, because God's spirit is working. Wherever God's spirit is working, the enemy hates it. When God's spirit is not working, the enemy will just leave that church alone. It's already dead. It's doing nothing for God. Why do I need to go there and do anything? So we see that the power of the Holy Spirit is present in a healthy church. So that's where I want to, I want to pick up where I left off. In chapter 12, verse 1, Paul said, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I don't want you to be ignorant, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. So this topic is interesting because Paul says the gifts of the Holy Spirit, prophecy, speaking in tongues. Uh-oh. Don't talk about that chain. That's weird. I know, but it's biblical. Discernment, healing, faith, miracle, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. These were all gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the church to edify the body. And anytime somebody says, well, Shane, I don't believe in those gifts today. I just say, I praise God, I do. I don't know what you would do with not seeing how the Holy Spirit moves in these areas. You should take a trip to the mission field for a week. And they have to have these gifts. They can't put something on visa. They can't go to the doctor and put it on their healthcare plan. If God doesn't heal, they die. That's how desperate they are. If God doesn't cast out the witchcraft and the things in Africa and come against this demonic influence, the people will be overcome. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are so valid today. And he said, I'm not going to list them. All we did a few weeks ago, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and then verse 11, but one in the same spirit works all these things distributing to each individually as he wills. Now, something I didn't talk about that I don't want to forget. Okay, Lord, help that cough. The main scripture used to support that these gifts have ceased is found in first Corinthians 13. I think we there's a group of the church who believes that all of these gifts of the spirit are available today. There's another group that believes that they are no longer available in the scripture. They often use is right there. And what, what Paul is saying is love never fails. Amen. Love is eternal. Love is eternal. I was just reading last night, actually. Abraham Lincoln, his biography, when he, so you can read a lot of books if you don't watch TV. I mean, just a little tip for you. When he married his wife, Mary, he had inscribed in the ring, love is eternal. And it's true because the love of God, that is one thing, one gift that will be forever, eternal love. But these other gifts that we need now, you don't need in heaven. When that which is perfect comes, when Jesus comes, you won't need all these other gifts. So Paul says, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail, right? We won't need prophecy anymore. Whether there are tongues, they will cease. And where there is knowledge, it will be, it will vanish away. Paul says, for we know in part right now, and we prophesy in part. In other words, we don't see things fully right now. We don't see things perfectly. We're looking through kind of a glass that's broken and we don't, we don't have full knowledge of things. So we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But then he says, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with. So the argument goes like this, that which is perfect is the word of God. So now we don't need prophecy, wisdom, all these things. We don't need these sign gifts because we have the word of God. But actually what is meant here, when that which is perfect comes, comes from the word teleos in the Greek. It's the same word that when Jesus said, go tell Herod that fox, that on the third day I will be perfected. I will be teleos. That means Jesus coming. So when Jesus is here, when that which is perfect comes, then we won't need all these other things. So those who say that which is perfect is the Bible. We just don't find that in scripture. Not only that, Paul spends chapter 14 talking and 13 talking about that exercise, the gifts. So why would we not need that anymore? We have the word of God for godliness, for truth. We do not need anything more in regard to the truth. Nothing is above it. Nothing is equal to it. We have the truth, but sometimes we need the power of the Holy Spirit to perform some miracles. I need to hear from God through a prophetic word or word of wisdom. I need to hear from God through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And Paul says, when I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mere dimly, but then when Jesus is here face to face, now I know in part, but then I will know just as I am known. Paul's saying this is so profound because he's saying when Jesus comes, when the perfect comes, I will know fully. So here's what happens. If we think this applies to scripture, then we now see better than Paul did. Correct? That which is perfect has come. Now I don't see dimly. Now I don't see imperfectly. Now I see perfectly because that which is perfect has come. Now I have better spiritual vision than Paul. See this whole thing does not work. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are valid today. It's evident throughout scripture. You actually have to move things around to say they don't exist versus just what does the Bible say? I mean, I know this is kind of a silly example, but if you were Tom Hanks and you ended up on an island because your UPS airplane crashed and all you have was the Bible, there's no way in the world you're going to read it and think that this no longer applies. It's very evident and clear that it does. So when God builds a church, the gifts of the Holy Spirit will not cease. Okay, Shane, what about faith and healing and miracles and discernment? The gifts we didn't talk about. Well, that's where I'm going to go right now. You ready? Buckle up, put on your seatbelt, turn your phones off. You see the faith healers, you see the guys on TV, you see this weird stuff, but what does the Bible say? Faith. Here's what faith is. So if you're given the gift of faith, because God, it says right here, we read earlier in chapter 12 that God gives the gift of faith. Faith is an overwhelming assurance that God will answer a prayer or He will intervene. So I don't know if you've ever experienced this. I wouldn't say I have the gift of faith, but sometimes I've experienced it. When you know that you know that you know that you know that God is going to answer, God's going to intervene, you have assurance assurance the sun's coming up. That's a gift of the Holy Spirit, and we need that more today than ever before. Now, it doesn't mean we don't struggle sometimes, we don't waver, doubt doesn't come up, but on certain things, I think things that are just foundational that we need to know that God will, that Holy Spirit will give a gift of faith. And I love meeting those people who have that gift because they encourage, don't they? They'll shoot you straight, but they'll build you up, they'll encourage you because they have that faith. And when a person has faith and they pray in that faith, it's powerful. You know, those prayers like, well, Lord, if it's your will, if you think, if you want, I don't know, I'm beginning to doubt. But when the person with faith prays, Lord, you will answer according to your word. Lord, we're trusting in what you're going to, we're going to rest in that. And that prayer rises up to heaven because that person is filled with the faith and knowledge of God. It's a wonderful gift. Many who pray clear through experience this gift. Many who pray clear through, what does that mean? Praying clear through. There's a book actually titled that, Praying Clear Through. And I've, this is a challenge for me sometimes. Sometimes I need to spend time with God, but many times our prayers aren't answered or there's not assurance because we stop just short. We get discouraged, but praying through is holding on to God, holding on to the altar, so to speak, until God listens, until God hears, until he gives you assurance or there's peace to discontinue the prayer. See, the problem with many people is they don't spend enough time with God. I'm just being honest with you. They don't spend enough time with God to hear from God because I found the more time I spend with God, the more I hear. But when I try to get through, come, I got five chapters to read this morning. I've got a quick prayer list. I've got things to do. It's dead. It's unfruitful many times. You have to spend that time with God. And I've seen, and I know, and you, the scripture attests to this, that the gifts are the Holy Spirit. If you're beginning to doubt the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or maybe you don't have those gifts or you want those gifts, the gifts are often released as we draw closer to God. If I compare the underground church in China, now, did you know there's a huge movement now in Iran? Underground church talking to me. And if you, if you compare that Christian with the American Christian, and we wonder why they're operating the gifts, they are, they are so close to God. It's like they feel his heartbeat. And when those people are drawn close to God, the gifts are revealed. The gifts are manifest. The gifts are in them. The closer you get to God, the more you'll reflect his character. So many, if people say, man, I want to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. I say, well, number one, turn off that three hours of junk on Netflix. Stop going online and looking at things you shouldn't. Get rid of that prideful, arrogant attitude. Wipe off the dust from your Bible and start reading it and living it and applying it and asking God to reveal himself to you. Put on worship. Make your home a holy sanctuary. Make God a priority. And then you watch the gifts follow. That's how it works. We want the gifts, but not the gift giver. The Bible says, seek the gift giver. So are you empowered this morning? Do you need this empowerment? I'm going to ask a question I asked, I think a month ago. Are you broken? Are you open? Are you teachable for the move of the Holy Spirit? Are you broken? What does broken mean? God, I'm broken. I need you to fill me. I need you. If you're full of yourself, God will not fill you. God, I'm humbled before you. I'm teachable, but I didn't say you're gullible. Watch out for some of these guys, some of these churches. They think the louder you get, the more God hears. They take off their jacket and they start to whip it around, right? Why didn't that row fall over? And it's just, just, you know, some in the South have the rattlesnake on the stage. That's, that's testing God. That is blasphemy. From the scripture, it says, if you're bitten by a serpent, you will not die. That's, that's, that's a person who's walking in the power and presence of God and calamity befalls them. They can trust in God. You don't bring a rattlesnake up on the stage and, and taunt God. Some of those guys have died from doing that. This, this ridiculous, this ridiculous thing that happens in the church really pushes people away from the church, doesn't it? I wonder how many, how many more of you would be open to the gifts of the spirit if you didn't see a lot of weirdness? I have, but I'm always reminded, God, they're weird. You're not. People abuse the Bible. They abuse the gifts, but you don't. Wherever there's an original, there's a counterfeit. What would the enemy want to counterfeit more than the work and the power of the Holy Spirit? You don't know it, but there's people that come in this church on a monthly basis, and I know their intent is to harass. Their intent is to stir up. Their intent is to bring division in the church because the enemy's trying to stop those things. Work, God working in the heart of people. So when God builds a church, you will be empowered. Okay, Shane, I got it. What about the gift of miracles? Well, I would love to see that gift more often, and I'm going to read what Wayne Grudem said. Miracles. Miracles. Although many of the miracles in the New Testament were specifically miracles of healing, Paul here lists healing as a separate gift. Isn't that interesting? Because some are given the gift of healings. Some of the gift are given the gift of miracles. Therefore, in this context, he must have something other than physical healing in view. Since the Greek word is simply the plural form of the word dynamis, which is power, it's where we get the power of the Holy Spirit. So that word, some will be given the gift of miracles, of power, of spiritual power, of God moving powerfully and proclaiming. Is it not a miracle when even preaching goes forth and hardened, rock-hard sinners walk in, hell-bent on rejecting God, and they're brought to their knees in forgiveness and repentance? That, my friends, is a miracle of God changing a heart. The dynamis, the power, the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit. That's part of the miracle working of God in many areas. This means that the term may refer to any kind of activity where God's mighty power is evident. Miraculous power to triumph demonic opposition is what is in mind here. Now, I could spend, honestly, the sermon on this. I've got books on this. I think there's one, Before We Kill and Eat You, was written by a missionary where cannibalism was present. And the miracles they talk about, it's unbelievable. And there's other books, there's other missionaries. See, we don't see the miraculous because we don't really need the miraculous. But when you're fighting witch doctors, and when you're coming against people you raised from the dead, little kids, three, four, five years old, and in Africa, and Uganda, and the mission, I mean, you see the miraculous power of God working many times outside of America. I've heard of people, people that have been trusted. I mean, unless all these people are lying, and we're been hoodwinked, unless they're lying, they've had food for kids, they can orphanage, and the food just keeps going. And they feed 100 kids, 200 kids, they only had enough for 50. And so you see God working and doing these things. I don't remember the book we passed out a year or so ago of the man who was in the Chinese prison, Brother Yan, I think. He was in a Chinese prison, and God would actually, in a couple cases, remove him from a location and put him somewhere else when the police were coming for him in China. Now again, either all these people are just making up fables, or there's a gift of miracles. And I've noticed the more I trust God, the more I trust God, the more we'll see him move, correct? For example, let me just give you a struggle. I mean, a struggle I've had. For example, with my daughter being sick, the little one, any parent hates to see that. What's going on in my mind? Doctor on Monday, probably diagnosis, probably recommend amoxicillin antibiotic. How long am I going to go before I don't give her that and just let her body healers? See, going to the doctor, going to that source. Now there's nothing, I'm not against that. Please don't misunderstand. I think we need physicians, we need nurses, we need those people. They're gifts from God. But where does my mind go? Not to God's healing power first, or a financial need. Financially, where does our, put on the charge card, or if I can move this, if I can move that. It's rarely, see in other places, they have to go to God. There's no plan B. There's no health care. There's no charge cards. There's no amoxicillin and antibiotics. There's none of that. You have to trust in God. Now what I think we should do in America is not discount these things, but to trust in God first and see what he does. For example, for my bronchitis, he prescribed two hard antibiotics. I said, make sure it's not ciprofloxacin, because black box warnings on that. But I still have it in my refrigerator. I've never took it. And I told my doctor, let me give it a day, body heal myself, I'm going to fast, drink a lot of water. And that's the body's meant to heal itself. A lot of things aren't necessarily good. I don't want to get on a topic. I don't want to get people upset at me. But be careful. Be careful with vaccines, antibiotics, big pharma. Just saying, now these people are not always on your side in regard to health. Let God be the director of your health care. Again, I walk carefully there. Not discounting, but also not encouraging. So what about healings? What about healings? Oh, is this controversial or what? Very controversial. Healings. Again, Wayne Grudem, in his book, Systematic Theology, Christ redeemed us from the curse when he died on the cross. Surely he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows. By his wounds, we are healed. Now, if we had time, we could look at, again, all these could take a whole sermon. You can look up different scriptures where we are healed spiritually by the cross. But other passages talk about where we are healed physically because of the cross. And this is a very interesting dynamic. First, it functions as a sign to authenticate the gospel message. Healings did that in the New Testament, did they not? They still do that today. Many, I mean, you watch a lot of the crusades in Africa or different things and people are genuine healings. I'm talking about genuine healings. The gospel is elevated. People begin to believe in this God because blind eyes are being opened and the deaf are hearing, and God is moving among His people. So it does function as authenticating the gospel. Second, healing brings comfort to those who are ill. Amen? Third, healing equips people for service. A physical disablement is removed and they can do ministry. Fourth, healing provides opportunity for God to be glorified as people see physical evidence of His goodness, love, power, wisdom, and presence. And I actually started, I was going to start a book of all the healings at the church many years ago, and I just got convicted about, you know, those kinds of things. Keeping track of numbers, salvations, and you just, you know, you don't want to, you want to be careful and let God just do what He's doing. We don't even know how many people. We do know that there's like been 300 or so people saved just through the hospital homes ministry. Can you believe that? God is working, the miracle is taking, but people being healed right there. It's amazing what God does. But doubt comes in, doesn't it? Even as I'm saying that, I'm wondering how many people think I'm joking? How many people are not open to this because they haven't experienced it? We also see in the Bible that most healing includes the laying on of hands. Most healing. Now, I don't understand it completely. We're not saying it's transferring. You know, here comes this into you. But there's something about Jesus with touch. The woman, if she could just touch the hem of His garment. There's something about a laying on of hands. It's an agreeing. It's an anointing that comes upon people agreeing. And I think it has a lot to do also with love and caring for that person, touching a leper. I've prayed for people before that it's hard to touch in the hospital homes with cancer, with tumors, with things. And they've told me, Shane, wear a mask, put on this. And you know, I'm just going to trust God. Prayed for difficult situations. It's hard. And I think, and people, they would cry once you hold their hand. Once you hold their hand. Some people didn't have half a hand. I remember one day, the first time God just broke me. The first time I went into one of the hospital homes, this door shut. The nurse said, she's really struggling with depression. Like, can't pray with her. And I walked in. I could not believe what I saw. Yeah, it was an attempted suicide. She took a gun in her and she removed half of her jaw, her nose and her eye was missing and her skull was missing half of her portion of her skull. And she's blind. And she didn't see me. But man, my tears, I'm just sitting there. I'm praying. As soon as I grabbed her hand and she just started crying, I'm praying, I'm crying. I'm like, oh, I'm glad she's blind because I'm a mess right now. And we built a relationship with that person. And she would love the church. She came to the church a few times, had to wear the helmet and stuff. But God breaks you and breaks you. And you pray for healing and you lay. There's something I think too, what about if I did this? I'll pray for you. Do you think that prayer would be answered? Or when you say, Lord, I care for this person like you care for this person. And I laid my hands, I held her hand, come to find out she was sexually abused by her father. So many things, I was just broken. That was one pivotal moment in my ministry where God broke me. You go from preaching like this on Sunday to talking. You need to get involved in these ministries. You really do. It'll keep you so humble and grateful and filled with God's spirit. And we've seen people being healed, people being set free. I remember one man I went to, I had the privilege of baptizing him in the hospital just a couple hours before he died. He was actually dead and they revived him. And I get there, I'm like, what are you doing? I thought he died. And then he just wanted to be baptized. And he died later that night, but he was a quadriplegic. And the first time I went in, and Mike Thomas actually made him a thing to use for his mouth to use his iPad. We got him an iPad. He was able to go on Facebook and stuff with his mouth. But anyway, I went in and he said, can I have a drink of water? I'm like, yeah, here you go. And so I realized I had to hold it for him and put the straw in his mouth. I'm about ready to cry again. It's like, oh my Lord, we are so thankful. Long story short, I said, hey, here's what I talked about at church. It was, I don't know, six years ago, Matthew seven. Many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, he asked what I talked about. So many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, we don't know you. And I talked about a false prophet. Just read in the Bible and talk to him. Got a text that, hey, remember that guy? He's ready to accept Jesus. I'm like, what? He goes, yeah, you read to him. He's ready to pray. And I'm like, I'll be there in an hour. You know, I'll get there. And just, you see so many miracles of God working, but you have to step out from your comfortable to being very uncomfortable. You have to step out of that faith that's exercising. Comfortable Christianity does not exist. Amen. There's no such, so you will start to see the miracle touch of God as you step out. So again, most healings include the laying on of hands. He laid his hands on them and they healed each one of them in Luke. So how should we pray for healing? Well, when Wayne Grudem said this, when we, so when we pray, it seems right that our first assumption, unless we have specific reason to think otherwise, should be that God is pleased to heal that person we're praying for. I agree wholeheartedly. That should be our first assumption. God, you're a good God. You heal. You want people to be healed. I'm believing, Lord, that you will heal this person. But what happens when God chooses not to heal? Because we do know that not everyone is healed. Some churches teach that they are, and I don't see that. I don't see that because then we would be God. Everybody's healed. Everybody's healed. Everybody's healed on our command. And God uses sometimes sickness. God uses sickness. I like what I believe was David said. I didn't put the references. It was good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. And before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. So God sometimes uses sickness, uses illness to draw him back. Also, when in regard to healing, sometimes it takes time. I know maybe you've heard of Ravi Zacharias. God healed his lower back after many, many years of praying. Sometimes it takes time. It's just a pressing in. I noticed Ralph doesn't have his walking sticks anymore. He used to come in here with his walking sticks. And one day God set him free, left those things at home. We've talked about, we testified to it. God is moving among his people. But how, but how, but are we closed minded? But how closed minded are we be? Let me tell you, I struggle with that. I'm not a charismatic fanatic thinking, I actually struggle with the opposite. No, because of that doubt comes in that, that flesh comes in and begins to doubt who God is. But I do think we have a health need to have a healthy balance because I know groups that believe God's always going to heal. God's always going to raise from the dead. And there's recently a story of a lady worship leader who lost her little daughter, and they kept praying that God would raise her from the dead for days and a week. I'm like, okay, at some point, you know, you gotta, you gotta give that to God. Now, I can't relate to what they went through. I would probably be doing the same thing. But there's a healthy balance you have to understand. We're like the three Hebrew boys in the fire. God will deliver us, but even if he doesn't, I'm going to worship you. Even if he doesn't heal, I'm going to worship you. Even if he doesn't set me free, even if my prayers aren't answered, I'm going to worship you. And often, when healing doesn't take place, sometimes our faith is quenched by a wrong attitude. See, I'm not a faith healer. I'm not a name it and claim it. But I also can't discount the wonderful role that faith plays in healing. Jesus didn't do many miracles there because of their unbelief. I believe, but help my unbelief. If you have enough faith and believe, you can cast this mountain into the sea. Isn't it interesting? Jesus never cast a mountain into the sea. That never happened. It's talking about this mountain, this problem, any issue. Nothing is so big for God not to remove out of your life. But you have to have the faith for that. So see, faith does play a role. Faith does play a role. But then they take the scripture and say, man, just have enough faith. Just have enough faith and that Lamborghini will be parked in your driveway up on the house on the hill. It was funny. There's a guy who does plumbing. I'd recommend he came to my house yesterday. I don't think he's here this morning. And I was going to tease him. I say, okay, here's my address. It's the highest house up on that hill by the water tank, 7,000 square feet. Here's the gate code. You know, I was going to tease him. But I didn't end up doing that. I've done that before in the past just to kind of make people go, oh, wow. You know, because of this, this, this, the faith healing and the name and claim it. And they, they got jets and they, now I do know, I do know Christians. I won't name them. You might know if I mentioned them that do own used jets and they're very good stewards with it. They, they're different places. I don't know. I don't want to say this. I don't know how Franklin Graham flies, but when he came into a men's conference, then he had to be in North Carolina three hours later. And then he's speaking in Sacramento capital. See, that's good stewards. I don't have a really an issue with that because it's not flaunted. They're not saying they actually need things like that. Amen. Who wouldn't want, I do sometimes I have three layovers and I'm I want to just get there. I don't want to lay over for 20 hours. I want to get to the destination, you know? So there, there are times that where God can bless people like that. As long as it's not flaunted, as long as things are steward wisely, don't worry. We have no plans of doing that. I'm just, I'm just telling you. What about discerning of spirits, discerning of spirits? What is that? Well, the word and don't worry, I'm going, I'm going quickly here. The word means in Greek lookalikes. So when God gives someone a gift of discerning of spirits, you can tell I've, I've felt I've had this sometimes in the past where God, and I'll tell my wife, I'll tell somebody that guy's not right. Well, what's wrong with that? Oh, there's something. I don't have a good feeling about that. And nine times out of 10, I don't do it very often, but you can sense what maybe sometimes others can't because they give you that spiritual discernment. And I've told Morgan, it hasn't happened in a while, but you know, people come up and, Oh, we love you're preaching the truth. You're so hard. You're preaching the truth. And I, I, I said, they're not gonna make it six months. Guess what? They don't. Cause usually they come over with that wrong attitude. If you come to a new church with the wrong attitude, you'll be gone at some point. Your attitude has to get right. So that discerning of spirits, God gives us to discern what's right and what's almost right. That's what it's really about. And then tongues, he gets into an interpretation of tongues. Again, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to give you our website for that. You can listen to my whole message on this gifts of the whole of the Holy Spirit through giving the gift of tongues and actual language. What's it really for? But I like what Paul said. Paul said, for he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but he speaks to God. So do you not need that anymore? However, in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. I wish you all spoken tongues, but even more that you prophesy for he who prophesies is greater. Meaning it's a greater benefit to the body. Prophecy is proclaiming God's word. That's a greater benefit to the body. But the gift of tongues is for edifying the believer. It's one area. Obviously we see in the book of Acts that people recognize that they were speaking in tongues, speaking in language that they didn't understand. They're glorifying God. It's a language that they don't understand that God, the Holy Spirit empowers a person for. So again, our website on that one, because it's this to do it justice, you really have to unpack the scriptures. Let me close with this. We talked about earlier when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part will be done away with that which is perfect is Jesus Christ. The perfect is coming. Are you ready? Listen, I know we're hungry. I know we're looking at our clocks. I know we're yawning, but some of you need to ask this question. Are you ready? The perfect is coming. Jesus first came as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world for the sins of the people as a lamb, but now he's coming back as a lion. He came as a savior. Now he's coming back as a judge. It's interesting in the gospels. He says, I did not come to condemn the world. I came to save the world. But when he comes again, he's coming to judge the world. Do you truly know him? Are you playing church? When that which is perfect comes, there will be no second chance. There's no plan B. It's a crying out to God. Now the Bible is clear. When you hear his voice, wait till next month when you have everything in order. Three times in Hebrews, when you hear his voice, harden not your heart. When you hear the call of God, the conviction of God, the drawing of God, the wooing of God, the compassion of God. When you hear that conviction, harden not your heart. Open up your heart to the softness and grace of God. Let not pride damn you to hell. Open your heart and receive this wonderful gift of salvation. The perfect is coming. The perfect is coming. Are you ready? And I know people's hearts are great, but they're way off. And they say, Shane, if you preach like that, people aren't going to come back. They're not going to come back anyway. They need to hear the truth. They need to be shocked. Isn't that the problem in our culture? We've been lulled to sleep. We need to be shocked again. There's a God coming that requires repentance. There's a judgment coming. Jesus spoke about the judgment. Paul spoke about the judgment. All the New Testament writers speak about the judgment of God. Why? Because they hate people? No, because they love people. Is it not a call of love? Adam sinned. Humanity fell. There is something in me that is at war with God. It says the carnal mind is at enmity with God. Your carnal mind, your life without Christ is at enmity with God. You're at war with God. There's nothing you can do about it except for the cross of Jesus Christ. If you think this is mockery, if you think this is a fable, you need to wake up because God is trying to draw you back to him. You need to wake up out of your sleep and out of your comfort. Are you ready? Well, Shane, how do I know? Well, it's actually very easy. Are you excited for Christ's return? Do you know when he returns, when you stand before God, that you know him? Yes, it's a little intimidating. Don't get me wrong. But you know, I know I'm ready for the sun. I'm ready for that day. But if you're saying, I don't know, I want to encourage you this morning to make that decision. Repent. The Bible says repent and believe in the gospel and you will be saved.