Shane Idleman emphasizes the importance of maintaining a humble attitude towards God, warning against pride and jealousy that can hinder our relationship with Him and others. He illustrates how our attitudes towards God often reflect in our interactions with people, and how pride can be a significant barrier to experiencing God's power and presence. Idleman encourages believers to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance and to be prepared for the challenges that come with following God, including the potential for jealousy from others. He reminds the congregation that true success is measured by our relationship with God and our ability to lead our families spiritually, rather than by worldly standards. Ultimately, he calls for humility and a return to God for restoration and healing.

Hope is yours to take. Peace is found in grace. Don't have an attitude with God. Do you ever tell your spouse that? Don't leave me hanging. I think I've said that a few times, right? Why do you have an attitude? Why do you have an attitude? An attitude with God. And if you have mixed families, sometimes you deal with baby mama drama. If you don't know what that is, ask me later. But there's an attitude sometimes that it's easy to have a relationship with God, but it's people that mess us up. But often they're connected. Having an attitude with God is reflected in our relationship with others. And then when we have an attitude with others, it messes up our relationship with God. Don't have an attitude with God. And the attitude really is condescending, or it's prideful, or it's arrogant. And let me tell you, dealing with tons of issues in church over the last decade, I will tell you without a shadow of a doubt that pride is often the catalyst. Pride is the main contributor towards issues in our lives. Don't have an attitude with God. And it comes from Matthew 13. I'm gonna put it up on the screen for you, but we encourage you to bring your Bible, turn to your Bible, highlight your Bible, write notes in your Bible. If God is speaking to you in a profound way, something jumps out, you wanna write it down, I think it's okay to write in your Bible. You should see mine. And if your Bible's falling apart, that's okay. As the old saying goes, if your Bible's falling apart, it's usually owned by someone whose life is not falling apart. It's okay to use that Bible. Now, it came to pass. So what's happening here is Jesus just finished teaching parables. If we could go back in Matthew, we'd see the parables. He's teaching parables. So he's leaving that certain area where people were very receptive. They're very receptive what Jesus is doing. And now it says when he went to his own country, basically his own relatives, his friends, everyone he knew, he taught them in their synagogues. And so they were astonished. And that word is not, that word astonished is, we would say maybe freaked out today or overwhelmed with how is he teaching with this spiritual power? How is he speaking with this spiritual authority? Understand something. In Jesus' day, there wasn't a lot of spiritual authority in this sense. Gamaliel or the other Pharisees, they would speak and they'd say, well now this is what we think. And the other school of thought would say, well now this is what we think. And they would have conversations. And that's why Jesus said, you have heard, but I tell this to you. You have heard it here, but let me tell you what the truth is. And it records, the Bible records elsewhere that no one ever spoke like this man. No one ever spoke with the authority and the power and the passion like Jesus did. Why? Because their spiritual authority, there is something when you carry the weight of God's word and you can proclaim it and the power of the spirit, it hits like a right hook and it comes like an undercut and it just hits the heart because it's spiritual authority. It's truth encountering darkness. And no man ever spoke like this man. So they were astonished. And they said, where did this man get his wisdom and these mighty works? Where did he get this? Because they're hearing the power of his words. They're seeing his ministry. Eyes are being opened, blind eyes, deaf people are hearing, lame are walking, leopards are being cleansed. He's raising people from the dead. Where did he get this power? And I don't want to forget about this important point. Did you know that you are, as a believer, you are also given the power of the Holy Spirit? That's why Jesus said, greater works that you'll do, you'll do than me. Now it doesn't mean greater as far as better. Nobody can out top Jesus. He knew the perfect will of God. He never prayed and said, oh I'm sorry you weren't healed. I prayed that this one would be raised from the dead, but that didn't happen. He knew the perfect will of God. He has sinless perfection. Every word he said carried weight. The word of God will not return void. When he spoke it, it happened. And thank God he said, Lazarus, come forth. Because had he not clarified, every dead body in that graveyard would have stood up under the command of Jesus Christ. And there was power and there was authority. But we are given that promise of the Father. We are given the Holy Spirit to also speak mightily into the lives of others. And I believe when he said that you'll do greater works, in my opinion, it meant of broader scope. China, the Middle East, South America, where we're at today. Broader scope of the same thing. And that's where churches sometimes have a hard time finding that middle ground. And you've heard me talk about it a lot, so I'm not gonna really talk about it here as much. But you have that side where you know, just not a lot of discernment. You think if you just pray loud enough, the demons will flee. If you just whoop the crowd up, that's really spirit-filled preaching. No, it's not. But then you have the other side I call a cemetery that is dead. And if you don't see God moving in your church, find a new church. Because a living, vibrant church. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said that living children need rules, dead children don't. And that's why much of the Bible, for example, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, on how to allow the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate effectively in the church. Living children need rules. A church that is vibrant and growing. Whenever God is moving, so is Satan. And so many people have commented recently, God is doing amazing things at West Side Christian Fellowship. There are healings taking place. One girl last night, she came to the stadium, and they asked her, how can we help you? She said, I was told I could find Jesus here. She was the first one to get baptized. And I'll never forget, we got up and she's just walking down. She's ready. And people are being healed. They're being set free. And do we truly believe that that is the same Jesus today, yesterday, and forevermore? There are people coming hungry from other churches saying God is moving, I must hear from God. And that's why I say often, we didn't come here to play church, and neither did you. You came to hear from God. You came to receive from God. You are desperate for more of God. If God doesn't move in your home, if God doesn't move in the lives of your children, you realize that you are lost without His touch and without His power. And so I want to encourage you in this. We are promised the Holy Spirit. But I'm well aware of my frailty and my inability to live perfectly. And so many times we pray for people and we might not see things that we thought, and we have ulterior motives. You'd be amazed at how many people just want to pray for healing and somebody be healed so they can be elevated. God knows our hearts. But I believe that same power, the Holy Spirit. I truly believe if I was somewhere and a little child had drowned, I'm going to pray that God would raise that child up out of death and give that child, why not? Did you know Jesus said that? He said, my disciples will cast out demons. They will pray for the sick. They will raise those who are dead. They will speak in other tongues. And I don't believe that that has ceased because the Bible is here. And I talked to people who believed that and they said, well, Shane, the poor, poor, poor, poor early church, they needed that. But we don't today. We've got the Word. Last time I checked, people are still broken. They're still hurting. I love the Word, but it's not the Father, the Son, the Holy Word. It's the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And some of the things that my kids say to me, or your kids, or the youth, God loves the little children. Oh, if you have just childlike faith. God used Mary, a teenager, a teenager to bring Jesus into the world. He told the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah, don't say you're too young because you will go to who I send you. You will speak what I speak and put into your heart. You will pull down. You will root out. You will speak the words of the living God and you will have that fire burning because you haven't been conditioned enough to be led astray by all these different thought processes out there. That happened to me. I came back to the Lord. I'm loving the Lord. I'll never forget this. And look at what the Bible says and we can cast out demons. We can raise people from the dead now and then we can, either Jesus said it or he didn't. Look what Paul says. You can prophesy. You can have words of wisdom, words of knowledge. I don't understand this tongues thing, but Paul said it and wow, the word of God is alive and then you start to read theology. Or people say, Shane, that's not for us today. I'll never forget that. Well, that doesn't happen anymore today, Shane. Oh, where's your verse for that? Well, let's sit down and talk about it. And the continuation of Scripture ceased because now we have the canonization of Scripture and when that which is perfect comes, now is the Scripture and that doesn't really happen anymore. The poor early church needed that back then, but we don't need that today. We've got the same demons. We've got the same issues and you start to, oh, and it really affects you. I'll never forget too when I first heard about different theologies out there and some of you know, let's say Calvinism or Arminianism and I would read books. I would read books on Martin Luther with his debate against Erasmus on the bondage of the will. I would read St. Augustine and his dialogue with Pelagian and on free will. And I would... Sometimes we can try to fit God into this perfect box and it begins to quench and grieve the spirit and the more knowledge you get, the more puffed up you become too. The more I'd read the Bible and read these theological books and study the Greek and study the Hebrew and study pneumatology on the work of the Holy Spirit and eschatology and be able to quote the Puritans and look at all this knowledge. And it puffs up and it becomes prideful. And we become jealous. They've only been a Christian six months. Look at me. I can quote this and I can do this. What's going... And we become jealous because of God moving the lives of other Christians. So deal with that today if you need to. Leave it at the foot of the cross. Maybe in the prayer meeting after or the prayer time afterwards. Maybe at the altar. Leave that jealousy at the foot of the cross because it will consume you. It will consume you. It's from the pit of hell wanting what God has not given you. I love the Word. I study the Word. The Word means everything to me. It's inerrant. It's inspired. But when you begin to elevate theology above everything... It's supposed to point you to the Savior. You elevate Christ. And any time you begin to elevate the Word, pride begins to follow that type of elevation. But the encouragement on this point was I'm getting way off track, but I think it's okay, is that you are given the power of the Holy Spirit. But what we see here, this is the first attitude adjustment. Be prepared for jealousy when you do things for God. Many of you can relate. When you start to do anything for God, what happens? Is your family supportive and your friends are supportive? Sometimes your spouse isn't even supportive. That's when you know you're in trouble. But there's a jealousy. Why is God using you and not me? Well, I can tell you right there that's a pride problem. That's an attitude problem. Don't have an attitude with God. But be prepared for jealousy. Or maybe some of you are jealous of others. Why isn't God moving in my life? Why isn't He doing that here? You know, pastors get very jealous. There's nothing that will upset a dead church more than a living church down the street. The books I've read on revival, when revival would break out and the church is packed and services every night of the week sometimes, and Welsh revival, Scotland, New Hebrides, and even in America. Do you know the people who came against those revivals the most were conservative dead churches. They would write pamphlets. They would write scathing rebukes. They would put things in the paper. They would send out things. Don't go to that church. It's weird. No, you're dead so it looks weird to you. Life looks weird to a corpse. And jealousy, there cannot be jealousy in the church. If you want to be used of God, you've got to remove that. You've got to repent of it. Even if warranted, apologize to the person. It's hard but it's healing. In order to get healed, you have to remove the cancer that is growing. Don't let your relationship with God be hindered by jealousy. If you're jealous of others or if you're not wanting to do much for God because you don't want to hear it from others. Others are going to get jealous. They're going to put you down so I just stay quiet. Don't end up on either side of that broad spectrum. I was reading this morning. I want to share it with you. Psalm 15, this passage. It basically asks the question, who may dwell with God? Who may abide in his presence? Now some of these you can apply to later for heaven, of course, and dealing with salvation, only those who know Jesus Christ. But often in the Old Testament, they were talking about the manifest presence of God. Who may dwell with God and abide in his presence? Wouldn't you want that? Wouldn't you want to feel the power and presence of God more than anything else? Wouldn't you want to experience that peace that surpasses all understanding? That joy unspeakable that David talked about. Return to me the joy of my salvation or an act. Times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. There's an abiding in God's presence. There's a walking in victory. There's a praying for the sick and praying for healing. The joy of the Lord is my strength and you can get through the day because you have the peace and assurance of God. But you'd be amazed at how many Christians do not walk in that. It's foreign to them. And I wish I had time to really teach on this whole psalm and I might do that soon. But God says this type of person will not experience my presence. The backbiter who talks maliciously about others. Who isn't guilty of that? I should put you on the spot. Who isn't guilty of that? Would you raise your hand so I can talk to you after the service and let me know how you've never put anyone down. Because here's what we do. If I can put them down, I look better. Spouses do that. They put down their spouse to elevate themselves. They put down other ministries or they put down others. And I hear it a lot. It breaks my heart in this church even. People talk, you know, Shane, it's such and such. Man, they're so involved in ministry, homeless ministry, worship team, whatever it is, and they're so involved. God's answering their prayers. I see them on fire and then here comes Negative Nelly. But did you hear about their marriage issues? What do you mean? Did you? I don't want to say anything. Oh, please, give me a break. Put them down to elevate me. I don't want people to think, you know, think certain things, but anytime somebody goes, well, have you heard they've got marriage issues? I want to say, honey, who doesn't have marriage issues? Wake up, grow up. You just want to be Negative Nelly or Critical Kathy or Judgmental Jerry. I can think of some more if you give me time. Stupid Steve. Vicious Veronica. Manipulating Mary. They're out there. They're in the church and we need to repent to that if you truly want to experience the power of God. Poor live stream team is not going to know what video to choose for our website because all three services have been different. But he's not a back biter. Think about that. What is a back biter? Bites the back. You're not looking. Throwing darts at those. And that can be demonic actually. There's a demonic root there because he is the prince of lies. Jesus, the prince of peace, you have the prince of destruction and he plants lies. That's why that verse, taking your thoughts captive is so important. Here it comes. Here comes that thought to put down that person. No, I'm taking that thought to the obedience of Christ and instead, I'm going to build that person up. See, that's how you take your thoughts captive rather than your thoughts taking you captive. Here comes that thought to tell off your spouse. Oh, it's quiet. But I take that thought captive into the obedience of Christ. So they are not a back biter. They do not talk maliciously. They do not bite in the back. And really what it is, when we go behind others' backs and we put them down, we are insecure. We are insecure. And I'll just tell you as someone on the leadership team here, we can spot that a mile away. We can spot pride a mile away. You think you're putting them down, elevating you, you look ugly. When we consider future deacons or future elders or future leadership team, we watch for those who are not back biters. If they're constantly putting people down, there's an issue there that needs to be dealt with. Often they've been wounded themselves. Amen? Often they've been hurt themselves. And we want to pray for you after the service. And I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching to all of us. I've been here. I've been there. Who hasn't? I remember when we were a small church and you want to be a big church, so you put down big churches. Oh, those big churches, you know, they can't fellowship like the small little churches. And then we're a medium-sized church sometime and then we're putting down this and now we're a large church. And so now you put down, well, the small churches, they must not be really experiencing. It's, where does it end? But it's something in our sinful nature to point out flaws in others and put people down. And it has to be, if you really want the experience, that's why humility is taking the lower road. Name one person Jesus put down like in this sense. He would call them out. Thank God for that, you brood of vipers. You whitewashed tombs. You son of Satan. That's just calling it out. And he would say to their face, do not listen to these Pharisees for they say and do not do. It's okay to do that. Well, I'm going to pray about that because it has to come from the right attitude at the right time. And that's why, like, if you see the article I wrote, Still Silent Shepherds, if you haven't got one, get one on the way out. It hit the national media this week. Generate a lot of positive emails, some negative emails. But I waited a year, one year, one year to get my heart right, fasting before releasing this. It broke my heart to see pastors not equipping their people, wearing masks and more afraid of the virus than God Almighty, closing the church because Governor Newsom. There's a higher authority. There's a higher authority, and that is God Almighty. We don't have a spirit of rebellion. It's not out of a spirit of rebellion. And I love, even in our valley, I've lost some friendships because I would consider that cowardly pastoring in many cases. We all backed off, but once you see the skewed numbers, the ulterior motives, the jacked up program to give everyone $16,000 who has COVID in the hospital, and now there's no flu. Now there's no pneumonia. Oh, come on. And you see that now the church has to be the voice of truth. And your mask is barely hanging on. There's gaps everywhere, and that's going to save you from the plexiglass, from the cashier's touch, and every single item that's ever came down the row, and the credit card machine. Where do we use common sense? But see, it doesn't come from rebellious. It comes from brokenness. Families are dying. Suicide rate is up. People need hope, not fearful people and shepherds holding back. They need boldness in the midst of adversity. And so releasing this, I waited for a year, but the more time I spend with God, the bolder I become. And you have to weep before you whip, like Jesus did. But it also says, He doesn't take up reproach against a friend. And this word reproach is interesting because He doesn't blame or discredit anyone else. That's also how we try to look good, right? Especially if you're in the same profession. Do you ever talk highly of the other person? Doing the same thing as you or close to you, and you discredit them. You reproach them. You blame them. I want to see men again taking responsibility. For the love of God, can we get rid of excuses? We think excuses make us look better. Often it makes us look worse. But when we own it, and our kids even see that, you begin to build integrity into your life. And then they said, Is this not the carpenter's son? Who's this guy doing all these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? We know his mother. We know his father. We know his brother, his sisters. We know all these things. So where did this man get all these things? Apparently you can't be used of God if you live in the same community as other people. You have to be like outside the community. They say, well we know him. So what? See they were offended because of him. And this word offense is where we get our word scandal. There's a great scandal in the news. And it causes shock. They were shocked. We know this man. It can't be of God because we know him. Look at all the things he's doing. And they were offended at him. And let me tell you, I've seen this many times before. When God is moving in a church, in people's lives, does it offend you or do you embrace it? Are you offended by a mighty move of God's Spirit? So let me ask you that. Does the work of God's Spirit offend you? Because you would think it wouldn't. Right? When God is moving, everyone recognizes it. No, they don't. They often don't. The judgmental Jerry's do not recognize a move of God's Spirit. People think it hurts my feelings, but I actually laugh when they say, well, you didn't go to seminary. You didn't go to seminary. You can't preach. You didn't go to our seminary. And I remember there's a church in town. Some of you might know. I've told you this personally, but I won't mention it. But before we planted this church, I applied for the pastor position because I believe God was... This is still funny. It doesn't matter. We don't want to hear you preach. They just, well, Shane, you didn't go to school. We can't consider you. Well, I went to the school of hard knocks. I mean, I study more than you do. God's moving in my life. None of that mattered. Why? Because that's how men view things. We want our pastor with a PhD in church history and another one, a master's degree in hermeneutics and homiletics, and then a degree in theological and deep biblical studies. And that's our pastor. Why don't care? Does he know the word of God? Does he know God? Leonard Ravenhill said you can have 32 degrees and still be frozen. About a year ago, I mentioned to some of you, reading books, I read old books. Of course, you know that. But often, they wouldn't ask where a pastor went to seminary. They would ask, has he received his baptism of fire? Has he been touched by the power of God? Does he know God in the fellowship and the suffering? He says, this is what my spirit does. It heals. It sets free. Jesus opened the scroll of the prophet, and he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to speak the truth, the good news to the poor, to set the captives free, to break every bondage, to remove every stronghold, to open the eyes of the blind. The spirit of God is beyond me. Either get on the same page, get on the same path, or get out of my way, basically. So if God moving shocks you, you need to check your heart. Because it does offend our comfortable standards many times. Would you have said that? Is this not the carpenter's son? And I wonder how many people would have been embarrassed in the upper room when the Holy Spirit fell that great day of Pentecost. Think about this for a minute. We're waiting on God. We're asking for a revival. And they hear this rushing wind. Maybe the lights move a little bit. And God just descends upon his people. He breaks them. He humbles them. We're crying out to God. Oh God, we need you. And you might start singing and praising the glorious things of God. And uh-oh, here come some tongues. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, now you lost me. Now you lost me. You know, if it wasn't in the Bible, you'd lose me too. But it's in the Bible that they were praising the glorious things of God in an unknown language. And they were praising God in this unknown language. And it cracks me up when people say, Shane, that doesn't seem, I don't know if that could happen. Okay, so God hung the sun over here. He put the moon over here. He spoke the earth into existence. But God forbid, he can't allow someone to praise him by the power of the Holy Spirit through something they don't understand. No, you're just offended. It's a scandalous thing. It's a scandalous thing. And that's why many people who don't believe in the gifts cannot go here. They do not go to this church because they are offended. God help us. It's very interesting. Jesus said when they were attributing the works of God to Satan, Jesus said you're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Look at the context. I thought it was about rejecting Jesus. Yeah, that's an overlapping principle for sure. But the context is, you are doing that by the authority of Beelzebub, by Satan. They were attributing Christ's work, the Holy Spirit, to Satan. And they were blaspheming the Holy Spirit. That's the context. I'm a context guy. Because you can pick out any scripture you want to say whatever you want. But think about that. I know without a shadow of a doubt, I don't even have to ask the question, if the Holy Spirit did that in the service, same thing, same exact thing, the rushing wind, half of this room would be out of here and never come back. Did you catch what I just said? If God were to do that same thing right here, half of you would leave and never come back. You are offended by a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. Shane, that upsets me. Good, I hope it does. I hope you go home and get so upset, you say, God, show me if that's true. Show me if that's true. Because everything I read about in the New Testament, God breaking, God filling, God confirming, God leading, God delivering, speaking in this, words of wisdom, words of prophecy, healings, discerning of the spirits. When you experience those things and it confirms Scripture, you're on good ground. There's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing to worry about. I'm not worried about a false prophet when I know the truth. So many people are offended when God moves. Maybe I'll just open up a little bit here. I've seen God move to a degree in those kind of settings. In our church service, we don't really, for example, tongues, we don't believe that it should be in a corporate setting where people are misinformed, misunderstood. Paul said if somebody comes in, they're going to think you're out of your mind. But it's hard to balance what the Scripture says, do not forbade tongues and have an interpreter and things like that. But overall, I want to be conservative. I want to be conservative. I'd rather err on the side of being conservative. And that's something God's been working in my own heart over the years. But I've seen, I've seen God move and people get offended by things that aren't even close to the upper room. And because of that, I think sometimes we shy away from what God really wants to do. Unbelief comes in and worry comes in. Pastors start to think, oh God, don't wreck this service. Don't wreck this service. Don't come in and just break us. And we allow fear or unbelief to come in. But on the flip side, I think we do need to have decency and order. Because those people sometimes, they do get carried away emotionally. We have broad spectrum of people. And you have to have that discerning of spirits. The shepherd has to steward a move of God correctly and to rebuke those who need to be rebuked in both sides of the camp. So another attitude adjustment, prepare to shock others when you follow God. The Bible says the Spirit leads. He directs. He convicts. He restores. He can be quenched. He can be grieved. He can confirm. It's the triune nature of God and something we would be greatly remiss if we fail to see the power of the Spirit. Don't let your age stop you. And also, knowledge. Many of us feel unworthy because we don't have enough knowledge. And I'll talk to people. And I'll say, God's using them. They say, well, I need to go to Bible school for four more years. Then God can use me. Like, well, first, be careful what school, because you might come out of there in a worse state than when you went in. Depending on, and I get emails from different students and things. A lot of seminaries are not going in a good direction whatsoever. And so that can stop you. I don't have enough knowledge. And as long as you're studying God's Word and you're burying your head into God's Word and learning God's Word. I'm reminded often of that scripture when they were surprised at how well these people knew the scripture, these fishermen. They're untrained and unlearned men. They're untrained and they're unlearned. How do they know this? They know more than the Pharisees. And that dawned on them, oh, they've been with Jesus. Oh, they've been with Jesus. So we let our knowledge, lack of knowledge stop us. And now let me throw a disclaimer. I'm all for knowledge. Get it, study it, learn and grow. Anybody who says I'm dismissing knowledge has got a prideful heart and they don't like what I'm saying. That's just the bottom line. They want to make an excuse. Oh, see, Shane doesn't think knowledge is important or theology is important. It's all about the Holy Spirit. See, I knew they were too charismatic and weird. Oh, no, sir. You just twisted everything I said because you're convicted. We need knowledge. But if you rest in knowledge, you will fall flat on your face. And really what preaching is, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, preaching is theology, knowledge coming through a man who is on fire with the Spirit. That's preaching. You can't have one without the other. For true biblical preaching, where lives are changed. And then, of course, how many of us are stopped because of our past? We'll get volunteers sometimes, go, Shane, I want to help. I want to volunteer, but my past. I don't think God can use me because of my past. You don't know what my past is. Hey, actually, sometimes that can be a badge of honor. God can actually use you more if your past broke you, if your past humbled you. And as I'm on my way to the JetHawk Stadium last night, when I drove by that prison, a thought instantly came to me. If it wasn't for the grace of God, I would be on that side of 60th Street, not on this side of 60th Street. So sometimes we need to get off our high horse and realize if it wasn't for the grace of God, come on, you all know, some of you could be on that side of the wall. The only difference is you didn't get caught. You just didn't get caught. You have one too many glasses of wine, you hit somebody that's injured, you're now a felon. And now you're gonna go spend some time. So don't get all high and mighty on me. If it wasn't for the grace of God, and then you talk to those who knew you then, they can't believe who you are now. And that would discourage me and say, well, Lord, I feel unworthy now. They knew who I used to be. And often you have to just think, well, that's good because now they know that God pulled me up out of the clay, out of the miry pit, and he set me up on a pedestal. And the only reason I'm here is because of the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ has set me free. God gets all the glory, all the credit. No degree, no pedigree, no prominence, no promotion, but God alone raises men and women up and puts them up. Another adjustment we need to make is to please God, not man. There's a scripture that 20 years ago I read and I highlighted, I never forgot. And it talks about things that are esteemed, that we look up to. And the Bible says, whatever is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Think about it. What is most highly esteemed in our culture? The Oscars and all these things. Whatever is esteemed in our culture is an abomination on the side of God. And so you need to please God not man. And you can think it up here and say, oh, that sounds great, but unless your heart changes. Because the more time you spend, the more time they spent with Jesus, the less concerned they were of the Pharisees and of the religious leaders and of the distractions. The less time with Jesus, the more distracted they got. Same with us. The less time we spend with Jesus, time in his work, the more distracted we'll become of the things of the world. Especially as men. We love our Monday. We want to make sure our Monday image doesn't interfere with our Sunday image. Now, God killed that me becoming a pastor because it doesn't matter. But a lot of guys, they come in on Sunday, you look at their Facebook page, you wouldn't even know they're a Christian. They got NASCAR and sports and all this stuff and nothing about God, nothing about religion because they are embarrassed. What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination of God. They're worried about their status and the reputation of tough guy. Oh, I'm preaching. Isn't that true? Most men rate success by what they accomplish. Or their status, recognition, money. There's people who start a corporation just so they can put CEO on their business card. Profit such and such on their business card. Apostle such and such on their business card. What's highly esteemed among men is an abomination inside of God. You want to go up in the kingdom of God, go low. You want to go up, go low. Dads, how do you rate success? You should rate success by your relationship with your children if you have younger ones. You can make changes. You rate success by how they're growing biblically. None of us has perfected it. So, myself included. It's a work in progress. But we have to make sure we're rating success by the right standard. In an article entitled What Little Girls Wish Their Daddies Knew, she said, How you love me is how I will love myself. I learned how I should be treated by how you treat mom. Ooh. Did you know that, men? How you treat your spouse, your kids are watching. And often, young women will gravitate towards abusive men because it's what they saw modeled. And we don't realize the damage we create down the line. If you're angry with me, I feel it, so please talk to me. Every time you show grace to me or someone else, I learn to trust God more. How you talk about the female body when you're joking is what I believe about myself. And you can ask my daughter. She's here this morning. I sent her this article. I said, Is this true? She said, Absolutely. And you have to learn from that. Where am I dropping the ball in these areas? Ask them. There's nothing more beautiful than a parent repenting and apologizing. Beautiful, because your kids see. They see that's the Christ I want. They don't want some arrogant Christ that they see in you where you never apologize. You're always right because they know you're wrong. The kids can read through it. They can sense pride. Because I believe that scripture that talks about it's better for a millstone to be hung around your neck and thrown into the sea than to lead one of these little ones astray. And the responsibility of leading the family, leading others, is an enormous weight of responsibility. And if you're saying, I've messed up, I've blown it, then get to this altar. Get to the prayer room. Let us pray for you. Because I know a God who can reverse things. I know a God who can bring back the years that the canker worm and the locusts has taken away. God says, what the enemy has intended for evil, I can make for good. What he has taken from you, I can bring back. What he is destroying, the devourer, I can renew. What the enemy is trying to crush, I can restore and redeem. If we turn back to him. Because I don't understand it, but whenever a man turns back to God, God begins to rebuild and reshape and rebuild that life. But Shane, my kids are 30 years old. Give God humility and you'd be amazed at what he does with it. He can restore and rebuild that. Never leave here. Never. I don't want anyone leaving here, getting in their car, leaving in defeat. I want you to leave convicted but not defeated. Because you can give that burden to the Lord and he will rebuild your life. One in every three children in the United States does not have access to their father. The very gift that God has given the family, one in three, doesn't even have access to their father. 85% of youth who are in prison, 85% of youth in prison grew up in fatherless homes. 75% of rapists, 75% of rapists motivated by displaced anger grew up in fatherless homes. Because if you have no one there to teach you how to be a man, it's hard to be a man. You'll get it from the internet and we all know that is not a good spot to get it. Children who live in fatherless homes are nearly 300% more likely to deal drugs or get involved with firearms. This one is shocking. 92%, 92% of parents who are currently in prison are fathers. 92% of parents who are in prison are fathers. Now in a setting like this, I know what most of you are thinking, well praise God I'm not an absentee father. Well guess what, you don't have to leave home to be absent. Your family could be dying with you just down the hallway. You can be absent emotionally, spiritually and physically, but more important, spiritually and emotionally. Men, this is why it's so hard. This is why it's so hard to father and to lead is because the enemy is coming up after this area. How hard is it to kick your feet up and watch three hours of sports? Very easy. There's no resistance, why? Why is there no spiritual resistance to that? Because it's leading us in the direction we don't need to be going. The enemy's already got, hey, he's already going downstream, I don't need to do anything. But you try swimming upstream against the resistance, but let me tell you, God will honor that. No matter how far you've drifted, you've never done a devotional, you've never led in this area, get before God today, get on this altar again, get to the prayer room, tell your wife, let's pray together. I need God to change my heart and that cry of that father, God will hear. It was the role of John the Baptist to bring back the heart of the father with the son. The same call goes out to Jesus, the same call goes out to us. General Douglas MacArthur wrote a quick poem, Build Me a Son, I'll read a quick excerpt. Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid. One who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat and humble and gentle in victory. Oh, build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone needs to be. Amen? We need, the feminine side of man is coming out too much. Where's the World War II generation? Where's the generation that used to work hard all day and come home, a little bit of blisters on their hands and feet, and they would work hard and not complain. Give me a man who will lead their family, fight the good fight of faith, and take a stance in cowardliness is not becoming of a man. Grow a backbone. He didn't say that, I added some of that. Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high. A son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men. Who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep. One who will reach into the future, but never forget the past. Oh Lord, build me a son. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, I have not lived in vain. And that really hit home when those words stuck out. I have not lived in vain. Can you imagine fathers living all of their lives seeking the fleeting pleasures of this world and crushing and crippling their family and not leading their family. They get to the end of their life and they live in that life that they lay on their deathbed with that regrets. That's a life in vain. Do you want to know what a life lived in vain is? It's going your entire life not knowing about the power and presence of God Almighty. Not living a life abandoned to Jesus Christ and going through fulfilling all of your own desires and all of your own goals. You get to the end of the race and you say, what is that trophy for? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his very soul? There's nothing worse than a man leading his family to hell. Let that reality sink in. You are either leading them to heaven or you're pointing them to hell. There is no middle ground because if there's a middle ground, it's on the broad road to destruction. Oh, you won't give me any claps on that one. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and his own house. Now, he did not do many mighty works there because of their... How sad is that last sentence? Here comes Jesus Christ healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, taking authority, taking complete authority. I believe that the enemy was crushed when Christ was anointed by the baptism of John the Baptist and came out of that wilderness filled with the spirit. The enemy was crushed and defeated. John the Baptist, the kingdom suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. There is a spiritual upheaval that took place when Jesus began his ministry. And as a result, he could not do... Now, people say, well, couldn't he do things, Shane? Well, of course, if he wanted to. But this word here, this phrasing is I wanted to, I could because of this, but your unbelief, your disobedience and disregard for who I am, not thinking I can do these things prevented me from moving in your life. Is that not applicable today? I want to heal your family, dads. Could it be that God is not doing mighty works in your family because of your unbelief and disobeying God? I want to do these things. I want to restore. I want to give you that wholeness and that happiness. But there's unbelief. There's doubt. There's fear. Would you come at the foot of the cross and give that to Christ and let the faith of Abraham overcame you who Abraham believed in God and he went to a place that he knew not of. The faith of Joseph who said, when I die, take my bones back. When the faith of Moses who forsook Egypt for the fleeting pleasures and began to follow God and at the Red Sea, he said, this Red Sea must part. That is faith. What about the faith of David? He's just standing there with a slingshot. He said, who is this Philistine? This uncircumcised Philistine who is going to defy the armies of the living God. You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin but I come to you in the name of God almighty. That is faith. God is looking for a few men and women who will stand up and bring the faith back into this culture. Let me close with this. As I said earlier, to go up, you must first go down. For Christians, if you want to go up, meaning you want to be closer to God, the power, the presence of God, you first must go down and humble yourself. We get so excited because look what I'm doing for God in the ministry. Do you know that God doesn't look at that first? What does he look at first? I see your heart. Especially when they went to anoint the next king. Samuel went to anoint the next king. The oil's not flowing. The oil's not flowing. Well, I must have missed it. And God said, oh no, you're looking at the outward appearance. I look at the heart. Go grab David, that shepherd boy. Grab him. He's a man after my own heart. And when David walked in, the oil flowed. And he said, that is God's man. God doesn't care the looks. He doesn't care the status. He doesn't care the rank. As a matter of fact, the lower you get, the more God might raise you up. The more you're not concerned about degrees and the accolades of men, and the more you just want to die to self and elevate, watch out, because God will use that man or woman. He'll say, that's a vessel I can use. They are broken. They are humble. The teachable, I will lead and I will guide. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due time, He will exalt you. And if you're starting to sweat, you're starting to get convicted, then you better find your way either to the altar, the prayer room, or the exit door, because God is not messing around anymore. Amen. Amen.