This sermon emphasizes the importance of heeding God's voice and applying His word to our lives. It highlights the dangers of ignoring God's voice, leading to various societal issues like suicide, broken marriages, and family discord. The need for genuine repentance, submission to godly counsel, and turning back to God's will is emphasized to avoid the consequences of rebellion and sin.

Here we are on Godcast part three, like podcast, right? Godcast part three. We've been in Matthew for a while. We're gonna be in Matthew a long time. I'm still just in Matthew 10. And somebody reminded me that we, you know, been in Matthew quite a while. And I reminded them that D. Martin Lloyd-Jones spent 12 years in the Book of Romans. So I'm not feeling too bad right now. But I wanted to take a break because in all seriousness, let's get this sermon back to seriousness, okay? No more laughing, everybody's, we started off laughing a lot, which is okay. But the seriousness now, hearing God's voice. I just said, okay, hold on the breaks, hold on the breaks. We're losing too many kids to suicide. We're losing too many kids to this. We're losing too many marriages to this, too many family. Marriages are falling apart. Hold on, we're not hearing God's voice. We're not hearing his voice. And James 1.22 kept leaping out from the pages. Be doers of the word and not just hearers only or you are deceiving yourself. So if all we do is hear the word of God and don't apply it to our lives, we are living in deception. We're, as Christians, yeah. Because if we don't, we hear it, we hear it, we hear it. We've got podcasts, we've got everything. I'm on oneplace.com now. They told me there's an app and now I'm on their app. And you know, the Bible's everywhere. I was like, we're inundated. So what's going on? What's the problem? We've got so much of the knowledge of the word of God but very little application. And we're not hearing. We're not hearing. Well, we're hearing God's voice but we're not obeying it. So that's why I stopped. I wanted to do a series on hearing his voice. Part one was hearing his voice through worship. Part two was hearing his voice through the word of God. And worship and the word of God open our eyes and they saturate our spiritual life. Do you ever have a piece of grass dying in your front or backyard and everything's green around it but not that piece of grass? Well, I had that in the front yard. And you know what I did? I fixed it real quick. I turned the water hose on real light and let it just sit there for a week. Now it's the greenest spot of grass in the entire lawn. It's greener than everything. What happened? I saturated it with water. The same thing with us spiritually. Well, you have to saturate your life with the word of God and with worship because if not, you'll become dead and decaying just like the grass. You'll grow dry. You'll be dead. I talk to people all the time. Shane, the word of God is lost its savor. Worship is me. I'm just coming in, going through the motions. What's wrong? God seems distant. Christianity is boring. What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. You've got to saturate your life in the word of God and worship. That's how you hear the still small voice of God. You hear the still small voice of God as you're singing amazing grace, how sweet the sound, or you're singing the Apostles' Creed, whatever it is. You're hearing the voice of God through worship. And then you look to his word and it confirms the worship and it teaches and it instructs and it guides us. So if you're dying on the vine spiritually, I would encourage you, restructure your entire life so that worship and the word of God becomes priority front and center. And if you don't want to hear this, it's because you need to hear it. If you don't like what I'm saying right now, guess what? It's because you need to hear what I'm saying. Conviction is a wonderful gift from God. And sometimes what happens, what needs to take place, often deep plowing needs to take place. My family coming from the farms of Oklahoma, knowing not a lot about farming, but I know that you've got to plow up that land in order for something to grow. And what deep plowing would be, you can almost picture a dozer, right? A D10, big old dozer. On the back, they've got four, almost this tall, they've got big, big teeth that grind into the dirt and that thing goes and there's no stopping it. It goes down four or five feet deep and it pulls up all that earth and it just plows it deep and that's deep plowing so that growth can take place, so that the dirt can be shaped. Same thing sometimes needs to happen in our hearts. Listen, little 20 minute inspirational sermons aren't gonna cut it in our culture today. You've gotta be hit to the heart and you've gotta change. The deep plowing has got to take place and that's what the worship does and the word of God. Deep plowing, what I mean by deep is it goes in and it goes down deep and it stirs up the heart so that change takes place and we get out of that monotonous, kind of, I'm in this little funk that I can't get out of, it fixes all of that. And sometimes I wonder when Chelsea and Ronnie, when they say, sing your own song, people are like, what the heck are you talking about? I used to sing that. Well, it's not being some artist, it's that deep plowing taking place. Lord, help me be a better husband. Lord, help me be a better father. Lord, thank you for dying for me. Thank you for saving me. Lord, mighty is your name. Holy and high and lift it up. Lord, you are magnified. You are glorified. Lord, if it wasn't for you, I would not be here. If it wasn't for you, this church would not be here. Lord, if it wasn't for you, three car accidents ago, I should have lost my life. Lord, I love you. You saved me. You redeemed me. You've conquered hell, death, and the grave. That's your own song in your heart. And the reason you can't sing it is because you haven't experienced it. That's why when they say these things, we're like, I don't know what they're talking about. That's why deep plowing needs to take place. Deep plowing, where the finger goes in and just plows up, because the heart had become rigid and hard, and things just bounce off us, right? We have a form of godliness, but we deny the power thereof. We have ministry, but we're not filled with the spirit of God. We're doing things, but there's no passion for the things of God. Deep plowing needs to take place. It can happen very easily when you get out of here. You find a good, quiet place, a chair. You bury your face in that chair with worship, and you pray and you cry out to God. That's how deep plowing takes place. That's how we're gonna hear the voice of God. Listen, our culture is screaming, screaming, feed me more. I mean, during NASCAR commercials, I have to get up and leave the room. I mean, it's just unbelievable. They're feeding it. Why don't you spend $2 million for 30 seconds? Why? The culture is bombarding us. Guess what you have to do? You have to offset that. Well, how much time, Shane? The same amount of time you give Cinemark. You better give the Holy Spirit the same amount of time as Hollywood. That's how deep plowing takes place, and I can only say this because I've experienced it. Listen, I'm not coming up here going, well, let me just, you guys might wanna try this, and you think about it, and I don't know, maybe it works. I mean, God has radically changed my life through these ways. That's where the passion comes from, saying, listen, wake up, wake up. Deep plowing needs to take place. You can change your heart if you sit underneath the fountain of life and allow him to pour into your spirit and pour into your soul. That's how you build yourself up. You don't need more counseling appointments. You don't need more therapy. You don't need more prescription. You need to go sit into the prayer closet and spend time with Almighty God, and let him counsel you. Let him heal you. Let him restore you. Let him build you up. That's how change takes place, and again, if you don't like what I'm saying, you need to hear what I'm saying. You need to hear what I'm saying. Listen, the last 10 minutes wasn't even in my notes. I don't know who that's for, but God's obviously wanting to get that point across, that deep, deep plowing needs to take place. If you wanna see the mighty hand of God move in your life, deep repentance, deep plowing needs to take place, even in your pastor. Do you know pastors have to be pastored? You realize that? The same needs that you have, guess who has them? Everybody. You think I just fly home like Superman, land in my driveway, and I don't need any of that. My wife knows I'm grumpy if I don't get up by 5, 5.30 tomorrow morning and start to prepare next week's sermon. You think I just grab the Greek and interlinear Hebrew Bible and study these translations? You think that's where the sermon begins? It begins on my face, in my chair, weeping, crying, saying, Lord, if you don't move, if you don't energize me, if you don't fill me with your Spirit, this is gonna fall, a dead sermon's gonna fall on dead ears and nothing's gonna change. That fallow ground, being a better husband, you don't think I work on that? Better father? Lord, I need it. I got three, four little guys that just wanna, or hell, bent on rebellion. You're kitching, yeah? Yeah? Hate to break the bad news to you, but they like to sin just like everybody else. I pray they don't, but it doesn't work that way all the time. So that's why when they sing, sing your own heart or sing your own song, it means, Lord, allow your heart to express things of God. Holy is His name. If you just focus on the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and just His holiness and His purity and allowing that to penetrate our lives, oh, you would live differently. You would sing differently. That's why I'm not ashamed to worship God for long amounts of time and raise my hand because He saved me. Listen, He didn't just give me up a parking spot at Trader Joe's. He didn't just fix something for me. He saved my life. The Bible says that we are born into sin. I have the condemnation of God on my life when I was breathing my first breath. People have left this church because I've said that, thinking we're good when we're born and then we become bad. Bible says the wages of sin is death, but then God saved me. He redeemed me. He's doing the same thing to every person at the hear of His voice, whosoever. It's not, you might, if you're lucky, if you live on this side of the west side of town, whosoever hears my voice, whosoever hears this call, whosoever turns to me, whosoever cries out to me, whoever seeks me with all their heart. Whosoever means whosoever. The call is to everybody. A factual call of God to everybody. Now with that said, let's talk about this topic, hearing His voice through godly counsel. And I came across this great thing from the NIV Study Bible, it's in your bulletins, on Satan's plan to distance us from God. This is Satan's plan also to remove God's voice from our hearts and so we follow the wrong path. Number one, Satan plants doubt into your heart, into your mind. He makes you question God and His goodness. So the enemy wants us to doubt God because when I doubt God and His goodness, guess what my choices reflect? They reflect doubting God. And I begin to make poor choices. And then also the enemy brings in discouragement. He makes you look at your problems rather than God. Anytime we say, look at what I'm going through, this stinks, I'm out of here. And we get mad at God, we get bitter. God says sometimes, God says listen, I have you right where I want you, right in the palm of my hands. I'm shaping you, I'm molding you, I'm directing you, I'm guiding you. All things work together for those who love God who are called according to His purpose. Keep reading the verse, to be conformed into the image of Christ. See that's why all things don't work together according to my plan. Because he's trying to develop me into Christ, I'm trying to develop me into shame. He says, oh no, to look like Christ, you're gonna have to go through some things. Let me chisel out that pride and arrogance. Let me take off that bitterness and let me take that self esteem. Let me just reshape that and show you your esteem is only in me. And he starts to build and shape us. But the enemy comes in and brings discouragement. He makes you look at your problems. Anytime, you should try this sometime. Have a fake scale, put your problems here and put the blessings of God here. Guess what's gonna outweigh the other? You wanna start with clothing, your vehicle, air conditioning? The majority of the world, I don't know what the, I mean it was like, I don't even wanna say a wrong number. But it was up there, like 90%. Don't even know what air conditioning is. Go home, put on your little swamp cooler, got your little TV, little ice maker. Blessing, hot water? And there's a hot water heater? There's a little thing this tall and this big that holds hot water. I mean, if you just think about how blessed you are, comfortable seats, we can keep it right, I don't know, what are we running, 78 degrees in here? If it gets too hot, guess what? It's like, oh gosh, you turn on those air conditionings, we're getting too hot in here. Put the blessings here. Anytime your kids are giving you challenges, here's what I have to do. Discouragement, the blessings. That's why God says, focus on my blessings. I'll go through this storm with you. Don't give it, because here's what happens. We're walking in the wills and ways of God. Right here, right here, I get discouraged, here's where I go. And then what happens? Wrong direction, wrong direction. God says, get back, discouragement. How many people make poor choices when discouraged? Think about it. Go back to the pill, go back to the bottle, go back to that relationship. When people are on fire for God, nope, doesn't work that way. It's when we're discouraged. And God wants to eradicate that from our lives. We'll always go through challenging situations, but it's what you do with it. I remember Chuck Swindoll said something, I don't even want to attempt to quote it, but a lot has to do with not what you're going through, but how you go through what you're going through, what's happening up here, and counteracting the attack of the enemy. And then he also brings in diversion. He makes the wrong things seem attractive so that we want them more than the right things. And this happens all the time. Young adults out there, guess what? This happens in dating all the time. He comes in and he brings the wrong thing with the diversion. Oh, look at this. Look at this. Doesn't this look good? Trophy wife, trophy husband, lots of money, this, this, bling, bling, bling. Thousand friends on Facebook. That's who I want, right? But what happens over here? This is what God wants. Proverbs 31, woman, a man of character. Listen, don't divert from the truth. The enemy always puts out their eye candy. You know what the eye candy is, right? Whatever looks good to the eye. When Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eye, good for food and desirable to make one wise, she took of it and ate. You think he stopped that trick? Look at how good that looks. So he brings diversion in all the time. Anytime you're wondering, I've noticed this. Anytime you're at a crossroads, or even if you're not, but you've gotta make a difficult decision. There's, you know God's lead. You think there's not gonna be a diversion over here? Diversion over here, you don't think that? When God was calling me to the ministry, that my big diversion was I was one of the top real estate agents in our office. And the paychecks were not small. Diversion, I can't give that up, could I? Diversion, diversion. And we go to do something, I gotta make the, oh, but diversion, look at this looks better. This looks better, this looks better. And he keeps diverting. God's truth, truth, truth is truth. But he'll bring, the enemy will bring in diversions to draw you away from that truth every time. How do you think he's gonna get you off the right path? To make the wrong path look wrong? Of course not. That's why C.S. Lewis said that the road to hell, there's no signposts, there's no abrupt turnings. It's soft under your foot. Very cozy, slow, easy descent. When he leads people away from God, he doesn't show them the end result. He entices with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And then he comes in with defeat. He makes you feel like a failure so that you don't even try. This is big time in the church. And even unbelievers defeat, they're so defeated. I mean, people say, I can't step, I couldn't put one foot in church. Really? Like we're all perfect and you're not. But the enemy loves to have you feel defeated. God says, listen, I'll take the broken, I'll take the sick, I'll take the maimed, I'll take those who've been abused, I'll take, actually I want those because they recognize their need for me. Those who've been forgiven much love much. So he draws those hurting people to himself. And the enemy will come in with defeat. Oh, I've heard this a lot. You've heard it too when people say, I've done too much damage, God can't use me now. Shane, I've done too much in my past, God can't use me. I can't go into church, you don't know what I've done. Do you realize that no matter what we've done, Christ paid that debt on the cross? Now, that's not a license to go do more. That's a loving call from a father saying, come home. Come home, eradicate defeat in your life. And then also, that was a Joelstein kind of sermon right there. Little positive, right? He just won't finish the rest of it, he'll leave it right there. Delay, delay, the enemy will make you put off doing something that God wants you to do so that it never gets done. You know you've gotta do something, I'll start tomorrow. I'll start next week, talk to most addicts. That's why they go back to the pill, they go back to the line, they go back to shooting up, they go back to drinking. Because discouragement, defeat, divergence comes in, I'll start next week, man, this week's hard, I've been through a lot, I'll start tomorrow. And they just keep going back into this. I'll start later, I'll start when I get this together, I'll start when my, and they just never, and then 12 years go by, and they go, what happened? So he'll use delays. Now, you might have said, number one, why did I bring up these points, or why did I bring up these points? Number one is because I thought they were powerful. This is how the enemy comes in. Number two is, the counsel of others can offset these things. The counsel of godly people can offset these things in your life. Let me read some scriptures on this. Plans fell for a lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. Proverbs 15, 22, did you catch that? Plans fell for a lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. We make God-given plans, but the flesh begins to guide us. See, here's what happens. For example, I had a God-given plan when we planted this church, God-given plan, I gotta get to that pulpit, that's the plan. God-given plan. But guess what, the flesh gets in the way. Go this way, I wanna do things my way. My way, this is my plan. I know God wanted this, but here's what I want. And the godly counsel helps bring us back over, that's what the scripture says. Plans fell for a lack of counsel. Plan, what plans? Even God-given plans. We can have good God-given plans, but selfishness gets in the way. Bitterness gets in the way. Something called comfortable gets in the way. We just wanna make all our choices based on what I think. This is what I thought. And godly counsel comes back, come back over, come back, here you go, here's what God's word says, here's what we think. And God uses that to balance out the flesh. Plans fell for lack of counsel. But with many advisors, they succeed. That's why God says iron sharpens iron. You ever seen a big sword getting sharpened? Or a knife sparks, it's hard, it doesn't feel good to either party? That's what iron sharpens iron does, is that godly counsel can sharpen us. Let me just give you, I actually wrote these down when I got here at about 2.30. I wanna just give you a few examples of my own life to kind of help bring this in, and then maybe you can kind of figure out in your life where they will fit. Plans fell for lack of counsel. Well, when we wanted to plant this church, I found out that, you guys listen to Chip Ingram on the radio, I don't know if you're living on the edge, they're gonna plant a church here, right here in Lancaster. So I went up there, I met with them, and they're gonna finance everything. Oh, this is a done deal, this is God's will if I've ever seen it. This has God's will written all over it. And then I got back and I tried to sell it to everybody. Just one little catch. What's that, Shane? Well, I'm gonna play his video most of the time. Just push play on a DVD player. Easy for me. That's church, that's easy church right there, right? Just gonna come in and sit with you guys and watch you on the big screen. Guess what all the counselors said? Mm-mm-mm, that's not a good idea. Darn it. But you see why I needed that? God-given plan, good plan, sounded like his will. But when I analyzed it, yeah, I just wanna be, I didn't wanna prepare every week. Come and push play and great, they'll finance it, great. God, we don't have to trust on you for the money, God? You see how that works? And so Godly counsel brings you back over. Another thing is back in that office behind this church, I sat with that pastor, actually exactly four years ago and said, listen, I think we're planning on starting a church, just a few of us, mainly me and Morgan, a couple other people might come alongside. Can I just try it for three months and see if it works? And he said, he went to the board, they said, nope, either you're gonna do it or you're not gonna do it, you're not gonna try a church for three months. Oh, man. And then the next thing, Morgan, remember this too, I love doing this, I would have a guest speaker every single month, every single month. So I preached three times, guest speaker, three times, guest speaker, guest speaker, guest speaker, guest speaker, guest speaker, guest speaker, guest speaker. And Godly counsel started to say, Shane, listen, people wanna come and hear the messages. God's put something on your heart. You need to preach more. Okay, okay. So I think September will be a year since I haven't left yet. No, it doesn't mean I don't take trips now that I need to. I got it. But I was trying to run from that calling. You see that? And people were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You've been called to do this. You need to function in that gift. So you see how the flesh works? Comfortable, convenient, non-threatening, easier. This is my plan. This is my plan. We don't have to trust in God as much. We just have to do these things. Another thing, these few are actually more recently. I was thinking of having a young adult service just for young adults. Louder, you know, band, different things, young adults, reach young adults in the valley after this service. But the leadership team, everybody in church said, mm-mm, mm-mm. We're all too, we're all pulling too far. That's a long day. We think it'll be too much, the church is too late. It's just not right now. It's not a good idea. So you think I said, I don't care what you say. We're gonna do it. No. Say, well, okay, that's probably a good idea. Also, just right now tonight on this class, grades four to seven, guess who wasn't the fan of it? Moi. Guess who's been holding it back? Moi. More hassle, more worry, more photocopies, more curriculums, more headaches, more parental complaints, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. That's all I see. But after a dozen, not a dozen, but a lot of different people, we need this age group. We need it probably for a year now. Elders, what do you think? Yeah, we need this age group. So the opinion of shame must bow at the foot of public opinion if it's biblical because God will use it. You see how that works? Now, the question comes up, but what if I feel that God is leading me to do something? So I just listen to everybody's advice and don't do anything. Oh, oh, just cower down. Okay, okay. No, if I think God's leading, if I thought he was leading us not to having the youngsters in here, I would say, listen, guys, we need to pray about this. We need to wait on God. I'm not feeling this. I don't think it's a good decision to do this right now or the young adult service. I feel strongly about this. I believe God's called us to do this. It makes sense. It actually did make sense. There's nobody gonna help. Nobody wanted to do it. It's not gonna work. But I look at like, and they would probably say, yes, let's wait on God. If you wait on God, that's not a bad thing. But I'm not talking about people who say, well, let's pray about it, brother, and they should have made a decision three and a half years ago. I'm talking about those who truly, truly wanna wait on God and seek him. So that's what I would do. If you don't know something, if God is truly like, like these counselors say this, and Godly counselor, but Lord, you're leading me in this. Godly counsel isn't the absolute. They're not the truth. That becomes a shepherding movement of the early 70s and 80s, right? Where shepherding movement was, you couldn't even buy a car, you couldn't buy a house, you couldn't, unless the shepherd told you. You're under this domination, this control. You couldn't even date a person or get married without, they're okay. That's unhealthy. And some of the leaders that admitted it later, I've read some of their biographies. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about counsel being supplemental to our plans. I mean, me and my wife used a lot in pre-marriage counseling back in 2001. We were like meeting with people. Can you find some red flags, please? Please find some red flags. We're not in everything. No, this seems good. No, come on. You know, we're so worried about being outside of God's will. So when you look at Godly counsel from friends, family members, pastors, they say, no, this looks, guys, this looks good. I would move forward. You know? Now, I didn't tell this at the first service, but Morgan will remember this. Actually, back in that office also in 2001, I think it was, I had a bad pass and my whole, my just, everything fell apart. I was very, you know, like a dog that's been hit, kicked. Like, uh, uh, uh. So we moved into marriage. I probably broke off the relationship at least three or four times. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't go there again. And I just kept back and just kept, and Morgan was getting to a point of saying, this, I'm done with this guy. I mean, I'm not playing games. And the pastor here, he said, listen, I need to speak with you in my office. He said, you need to make a decision or you're gonna lose her. And I made that decision. Thank God today, right? But had he not spoke through all these things, the discouragement, the doubt, the fear, Godly counsel said, listen, you need to make this decision or you'll lose her. You're wishy-washy, you're too scared, you're too worried because of your past. And I'll never forget that, because it was like, hello. And it wasn't some nice conversation. It was like, listen, almost like, listen, stupid. You know, you're being really stupid right now. You need to listen and you need to make, you know, everything's fine. And so that was, that kind of sealed the deal. And so that Godly counsel works in that way. And here's how it works. Well, don't listen to my opinion. Let's look at scriptures. Proverbs 12, 15. The funny thing is when I just Google scriptures on godly counsel or something like that, it's like, all these, I'm like, wow, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. Godly counsel is everywhere. I mean, you look at Moses. When his father-in-law said, listen, you need more elders to lead these people. Was Moses gonna do it without that advice? Probably not, he was gonna try to wing it. So God brings the advice of others. Now you have to be very careful who you listen to. Don't listen to the person caught in sin with you. Don't listen to the person who's gonna tell you what you wanna hear and not what you need to hear. And people say, oh, I've been talking to Tracy at work. She told me this. Well, Tracy has three boyfriends and gets drunk on a nightly basis. Don't listen to Tracy. This is common sense stuff. Be very careful where you get godly counsel from. Proverbs 12, 15. The way of a fool. Basically a person who is unteachable. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. You wanna show me if you're really wise? How do you handle constructive criticism? How do you handle advice? People don't think I'm watching, but I watch big time on this area. I just casually say, have you guys considered this? And I watch how they handle that because it reveals the heart. When you tell a person no, not right now, do they get all huffy and puffy? Or, oh, no problem. Oh, see, that's the person I want. See, they just answered it for me. It listens to advice. And when I give somebody advice, guess what? Many times they, but, this, and they just want, hold on, you want my advice? It's funny how they ask your advice and then they wanna challenge your advice. Oh, you wanna get, oh, you wanna debate. That's what you want. You don't want advice. Give me, shoot me straight next time. You want advice. You're sleeping with your girlfriend and living together. You can't determine God's will if you should get married. Let me give you some advice. This is not a debate. Yeah, but Shane, we got a downscale. We're trying it out first. You know, you try the vehicle out before you buy it. We, you know, we condensed our bills into one. It's a lot better now. We can see if we can work with each other. What? Why'd you ask me for advice then? Because you're convicted and you don't like what I'm saying. That's what godly counsel does. It's supposed to offer advice. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. You know that, right? Proverbs 18, 21. Remember that, parents. Death and life are in the power of your tongue. You can kill your children with your tongue. Not physically, obviously, but spiritually. The tongue can restore and bring healing, but it can also damage and destroy. Counsel can bring life to the discouraged and death to the sin in our lives. See, the word of God is powerful. You read it and you're convicted. Worship's powerful, but when somebody comes to you and says, listen, Nick, you're living in sin. That is destructive. You better stop. Oh, that carries a little more weight, doesn't it? David committed adultery, had a man killed, and was not convicted for probably a year until somebody said, oh, hey, Nathan, come on in. Hey, David. Hey, David, there's a man down there with a whole bunch of pigs, and he has a rich neighbor coming into town, and his neighbor with only one little ewe lamb. It's almost like a family pet. They allow the lamb into the house. That neighbor took that little lamb, and he's gonna sacrifice and kill that lamb and feed this family. David said, who is that man? He ought to die. And Nathan said, David, you're the man. Brought him to his knees. Now you know Psalm 51, created me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. Oh, Lord, you seem so distant. Wash me in white as hyssop. Fill me with your spirit. Lord, don't take your spirit from me from that confrontation of godly counsel. I'm convinced that as much as important as encouragement is in godly counsel, so is a Nathan. So is a swift rebuke that's ordained by God. That's what I said last week, but I'll repeat it for some people who aren't here. Sin is deceptive. Okay, when we're caught in a sinful lifestyle, when we're caught, I prayed for a person earlier, they're caught in a sinful lifestyle. They're caught in a very sinful lifestyle, and they're saying, Shane, we can't determine God's will. It's cloudy. I don't know if this is right. And what sin does, it blinds us. It leads us away from God. It deceives us. It justifies our behavior. It excuses our decision, and it prevents us from being in the will of God. Listen, this is why I preach against sin so passionately is because it's destroying. It's destroying lives. It's destroying marriages. It's destroying families. He's sent to kill, to steal, and to destroy. How? Through sin. He's not just a lion that takes a bite out of your shoulder. It's sin that he puts in your heart, and that permeates, and it grows, and it destroys. Think about it. All the brokenness in our lives, or that we're seeing in the news, or in the lives of other people, what does it have to do with? Sin. Sin is because, sin, as I often say, you've heard me say many times, sin put Christ on the cross. I mean, you can't mock the resurrection. Even secular historians say that Jesus came. He came to this earth. They don't say he was God, but they say he died a shameful death. He was crucified naked. He was stripped. He was beaten. He was bloody. He carried his own cross. As the wood, the splinters went into that cross, and then they had to get another man, Simon, to carry that cross. And then all of that, Golgotha, the place of the skull, all of this, the wrath of God poured out on humanity, and that one second on the cross, and all of that is just a casual inconvenience. That's sin. It's deceptive. And as soon as it starts to sprout up in my life, I've got to eradicate it. You go to Home Depot and buy a little weed killer, you need some, we need sin killer. You know what we have in? The worship, the word of God, prayer, godly counsel. He eradicates. See, I've noticed when sin starts, it's real easy to get rid of that little guy right then. Just get rid of that sucker right then. But then it starts to get a root system going, an excuse system going, and it just, remember the defender attorney, the defense attorney with Ann, likes to defend everything, and you get that sin gaining root, and it builds and it grows. It leads to death. So you've got to eradicate those things. It's very healthy for a husband to say, listen, or tell my wife, listen, that was a prideful thing I said. That was prideful. I'm sorry, I apologize. And vice versa. You eradicate it, you remove it. Go to your kids. Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was not good what Daddy did. I didn't listen to you guys. I stopped you. It's very, you get rid of it. You repent of it. You get rid of that sin as soon as you can. If not, you just keep building and building and building and building and building until it takes over. That's why James says sin, our desires lead to sin. And when it's conceived, I'm sorry, our desires, when they are conceived, they bring forth sin. And sin, as it grows, as it grows, brings forth death. So this isn't some just, eh, you guys might want to think about this over lunch, over dinner. This is what's destroying people, destroying lives. But people want to throw away the truth, don't they? I'm not going to listen. I'm not going to use this anymore. They want to throw away the truth. And you guys, I told you last week, I got this little app on my phone that my wife installed. It's a little jogging. It says how far I've jogged. I leave it at home now most of the time because it lies. I'm telling you, it lies. I was going to go jogging a couple days ago, two miles. And I'm like, a mile and a quarter. Wow, this is hard, it's hard. How did the people go 26 miles? I have no idea. But I want to just, can you just take the app off my phone now? Really, I want to go a mile and a quarter and feel like two miles. I'm going to go home and say, I made it two and a half miles. I did it, yes. I don't know how. I don't think it's two. I didn't regulate it, but I'm guessing it's two by how I feel. Throw it out, throw truth away, but that's what we want to do, right? Take the app off. Get rid of this. Get rid of God and the council. I don't want to hear the truth. I want to run from the truth so I can live in sin and I can live in deception. So get that truth stuff out of my face. That's why the culture in the church wants to remove it. The app to the heart. Halfway done, it's seven o'clock almost. You second service guys. Well, let me pick out the top ones here. Some things I don't want to forget to say. We often make decisions with bias, with what's best for us. Did you realize that? You make decisions. I can point everybody in this room. You will make decisions because I will. Which most comfortable for us, right? The reason we don't have everybody in this church who can serving at that ministry tomorrow is because it's not comfortable. Let's be honest. The sooner we can be honest, the sooner we can make change. So that's why we need godly counsel because we have bias, what's best for us. And the top three deceivers in this area are toxic relationships. When you see a couple that's in a toxic relationship, sexual sin, all these things, they need godly counsel more than anybody, but they don't want to hear it. They reject it. So those who need counsel the most reject it. Same thing with addiction, sexual sin, pornography, and addiction, addiction to anything. Those are the top three areas where people need godly counsel more than ever because they don't want to read the word of God. They're in sin. You think they're worshiping? They're not worshiping. They're worshiping themselves. They're worshiping idolatry. So godly counsel comes in and lovingly challenges them with the word of God, saying, listen, guys, you've got to wake up. But here's the key. You have to find counselors who will tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. Also, do not listen to those who are caught in the sin with you. I see all the time, boyfriend will ask his girlfriend, what do you think? No, no, no, we're talking about you two together right now. Don't go ask your girlfriend. Don't ask those caught in the same sin with you. Go to those outside that can look and give you honest feedback. God uses that to turn you back. That's how he turned me back. People speaking boldly into my life. Proverbs 11, where there is no guidance, a people falls. But in abundance of counselors, there is safety. Proverbs 19, listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future. Think about that. Listen to advice and accept instruction. We do the opposite. I don't want your advice and I'm not going to listen to your instruction. Many of the problems we get into, I'm convinced, are because of this area. We don't want to follow instruction, godly counsel. Proverbs 28, whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. How many more scriptures do you want? Whoever trusts, what, what? Shane, you can't even trust in your own mind? No, remember this? God says, I want to get you there. Where does my own mind take me? Or there? Because, oh, this is what I think God wants. God wants me to help him. God wants it to be comfortable. God wants it to be easy. This is what I think, no, no, I'm not going over there. Heck no, I just want to stay here in this comfortable area. So godly counsel pulls us back over to where we need to be. They want what's best for you, if you're asking the right people. What about parents? Oh, if we would just listen to the counsel of our parents. Your parents love you more than anybody on the planet, in most cases. I'm not talking about absentee fathers and abusive type relationships, but parents love you more than anybody else. I look back, I was looking back at all my parents' counsel. I can't think of anything that was wrong. I share with the first congregation, like don't play with the chlorine by the pool. Don't stick that knife in the electrical outlet. Don't play with that bug, you know, killer, poison. Don't do everything, everything. Why, why, why? Because I said so. They love it, it's godly counsel speaking into our lives. But counsel is not always about discouraging us away from something. They can also encourage us towards something. See, godly counsel isn't just always discouraging, it's also very encouraging. They can encourage you. See, once you turn from something bad, they can encourage you into something good. Godly counsel. So I want to get this point across too. Godly counsel is not controlling. It usually does not have the final say. Godly counsel usually doesn't have the final say. You ultimately have to make the decision. But sometimes it does have the final say. Your 12-year-old comes home with a boy you don't like, guess what? I got the final say. You're not dating until you're 18. Hit the road, Jack, don't ever come back. Make sure he comes over when I'm cleaning my 357, right? That type of counsel will stand because they're under your covering. They're under your covering as parents. So as parents, how much more of a responsibility do we have to do the right thing? Not perfectly, but biblically. And last, I just want to bring this up. We have free copies of this available, or you can leave a donation if you want, but I bought 100 copies. It's called Touching Godliness, and it talks about this area of submission and submitting to others. It won't be an easy read, but it will be a powerful read to those who are open because submission is a wonderful gift from God. Submitting to God's will, submitting to the advice of others, submitting to those over us is very healthy and good. But when we get into that state of rebellion, it's very bad. So if you want a copy and you'll read it, not go in the trash, not just sit up there, put a copy on it, but if you actually read it, grab a copy on your way out, it will make some, you'll make some definite, huge changes in your life. It affected my life in many different ways because realizing we are bent on rebellion. We are bent on not submitting to certain things. And this book is just biblical perspective on this area of God uses submission to guide us. As I submit to things, God guides me. Pastor, who do you submit to? I have a board to submit to and I have an elder board to submit to. There's certain things I can't even vote on. I submit to those things and they submit to those things. We're all submitting to this, so we're in submission. That's healthy. Because anytime you just get just me in my way, it's not going to work out. That God has not designed us like that because pride in the human heart. I know myself well enough that I'm not worried as much about the enemy without as the enemy within. So that's got to be constantly humbled and put under the submission so God can work and teach us. So I'm going to close with this, the parable of the two sons, Matthew 21. Jesus said this, this story, I told the first service, I guess I told the first service everything I'm telling you, so I don't need to say that anymore. But this really stuck out because every time I read this story, it's just amazing on seeing the heart of God. Jesus said, what do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered. That sounds like my house. Right? He said, I will not. And then, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir. But he did not go. So Jesus said, which one of these did the father's will? And I always thought, the father's will? The father, see it wasn't God's will that the first one rebelled and said, I will not. But he repositioned himself and got himself back in the will of God. He said, Jesus said the first man did the will of God. Wait, he just told him no. Yeah, but he changed his mind. He had a change of heart, repentance, a change of heart that leads to a change of action. I'm walking that way, now I'm walking this way. So now he's once again in the will of the father. This is about repentance, getting reestablished and reaffirmed in God's will. So some of you need to do what the father wants you to do. Some of you have been rejecting counsel for many years. Some of you need to turn back to the truth. Many of you, it's almost like, yeah, I'll do that, God. Sure, I'll do that. Nope, nothing's happened. Some of you need to do that. I'm convinced that we need to turn back to him. But let's not ignore the context of the verse of salvation. Which of the two did the father's will, Jesus said? The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe in him. But tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe. This is amazing. If I had a group of a whole bunch of people said, I'm good, I'm a good person, I'm a good guy. And I said, listen, listen, prostitutes on Sierra Highway are getting into heaven before you. Tax collectors, sinners, people who are doing time are going to heaven instead of you. What would they say? You're out of your mind. Jesus called them on the carpet and said, listen, they answered John's call to repentance. He was down at the chilly Jordan River, murky, dirty, baptizing people in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, we baptize you. He probably didn't say that, but that's what we're saying. He just baptized them into this repentance of forgiveness of their sin, remission of their sin. But they rejected it, the Pharisees rejected it. And Jesus is saying, listen, other people are going to enter heaven before you, and you're not gonna enter heaven at all because you rejected the call of God. And some of you need to repent tonight and accept God's gracious gift of salvation. Are you sure, Shane? Absolutely. I know, I guarantee there's some in this room that you need to repent of your sin. You need to accept God's gracious gift of forgiveness. You've been ignoring, rejecting, and running from God too long. It's time to come home and turn to Him. And if you keep reading, actually, if you back up a little bit, Matthew 13, Jesus said, this is how it will be at the end of age. Listen, guys, this is a wake-up call. This isn't some just pastor reading some words up here. This is truth, this is truth. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said that. Yeah. You know, gnashing of teeth, we think, what is that? It's somebody, have you ever had something go, oh, I missed that. I missed that opportunity. I missed, how could I miss it? Man, I'm so upset. But this will pale in comparison. This is a turning separated from God. They're saying, I wish, I wish, I wish. Standing before God, oh God, I wish. Can you imagine the self-pity they'll be given? I wish, oh God, please, another chance. And if I had only known, if you had only known, I brought preachers, I brought the word of God, I brought godly counsel, I brought the conviction of your own soul, there's no excuses. That's gnashing of teeth. That person will gnash their teeth for the rest of eternity. And that's what I don't want to happen to people who hear these sermons. I don't want you to say, I wish I had only known. You know, you know. Instead of falling asleep in church, you need to wake up and repent of your sin and turn to him. Let me just close. Payne, you can get the lights, Chelsea's gonna come up. Lord, I just ask, Lord, that you would begin to save people, Lord, even tonight, as we pray for the prodigal son, the wayward daughter, Lord, save them. Lord, save them and redeem them. Lord, convict them, draw them to you. And as your heads are still bowed, I just want to ask if there's anybody in here tonight that wants to make that call, that wants to repent of your sin, that you'll just put up your hand and acknowledge that and I can see, you don't have to come up, thank you, thank you. Anybody else, thank you. Anybody else that want, thank you, thank you. Thank you, too, I see you guys. Just cry out to God tonight, just repent and turn to him, that's all you have to do. Just look to him and say, Lord, I need you. I'm a sinner and I need you, Lord, I need your saving grace, I need your saving mercy, I've been miserable all my life, Lord, I'm coming home tonight. Lord, I'm coming home, Lord, save me. I'm done playing games. I want all of you or I want none of you. I'm repenting of my sin. Lord, change my heart, change my life tonight. I ask that the Holy Spirit come in and reside in my heart and clean me from the inside out. Lord, take away these thoughts of suicide and depression and cutting and of wanting to just anger that's ruling and reigning in my heart. Lord, come and fill that gap, fill that hole. Lord, sanctify me and save me and seal me for the day of redemption. Lord, I turn to you tonight. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.