Shane Idleman emphasizes the transformative power of worship in his sermon 'The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness.' He draws from Isaiah 61, highlighting how God offers beauty for ashes and joy for mourning, encouraging believers to replace their heaviness with a garment of praise. Idleman discusses the importance of humility and prayer in experiencing God's anointing, which empowers believers to overcome life's challenges and minister to others. He warns against the distractions of the enemy that seek to stifle worship and urges the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with God through praise and prayer. Ultimately, he reassures that God can lift the spirit of heaviness and bring about healing and freedom.

I really didn't want to interrupt worship, but I feel this message that God put on my heart is so relevant tonight. And so let's read the Word while you're standing and then we can sit down for a minute. Isaiah 61. I want you to just listen to this. This is so profound with what we're talking about tonight. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of the vengeance of our God. To comfort all who are mourned. To console those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. So go ahead and be seated. What I'm gonna just share with you tonight, the title is the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness. And I don't know if you could sense, but there is a lot of heaviness tonight. There is a lot of heaviness in the prayer room. And actually, somebody made that exact comment to me. And even in here, and there's a heaviness. And what the demonic realm will try to do is try to stifle praise and worship. He wants us to not worship. He wants us to get sidetracked. And we're gonna go right back into worship, but there are some things I want to share with you. Heaviness is when you're broken and bitter. Frustrated and frightened. Fearful and unfocused. And you're worried and you are weak. Can anyone relate? Could it be that God is pushing you down and deeper instead of up and elevated? God can move mountains, but humility moves God. We often say God can move mountains, yes, but humility is what moves God. Prayer is what moves God. I've heard a lot recently even, and it's good to say this, and here's what they say. Brother, Shane, I want the full measure of the Spirit, but to go up, you must go down. Heaviness is often the test of faith. And as many of you know, prayer from pain is powerful. Your pain can drive you to the cross. Your pain and what you're going through can drive you to the cross. And so let me just pray real quick. Lord, we pray that You would lift the spirit of heaviness from this room, from our state, from our county, Los Angeles County. Lord, it doesn't have to be the meth capital of the world. It can be the place where we praise You more than any other place. Lord, where there's darkness, there is also light. Lord, we just rebuke that spirit of heaviness and bitterness, God, and frustration, and fear, and worry, and being offended. Lord, the spirit of offense. God, lift it tonight as we begin to seek You with all of our heart and all of our strength. Lord, we need You in this place. Folks, are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you desperate for more of God? I mean, think about that for a minute. The Bible asks, are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you desperate for more of God? And this is ask, ask, ask, and you shall receive. Seek Me with all of your heart, with all of your strength, and you will find Me. In Isaiah 61 that we just read, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me. Now what's very interesting, and you've heard me talk about it before, this is one of those events I would have loved to been at. They're having temple, the synagogue, and Jesus Himself walks up. He opens the scroll. He turns to Isaiah, and He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. And then He goes on to read, and then He sits down. And He says, this verse, this Scripture has now been fulfilled in your hearing. What a powerful moment, and I can attest to you that without the Spirit of God upon you, the Christian walk is challenging. It's challenging enough. But the Spirit of the Lord upon you, and the Spirit of the Lord comes. And I believe as believers, this is applicable to us. Obviously, the verse is about Jesus, and Jesus quotes it, and it's the coming Messiah, the Anointed One. But as believers, filled with the Spirit of God, we can do the same things. We can release those who are bound through the Word of God. We can pray for those who are demonically oppressed. We can begin to set the captives free, and the strongholds of addiction can be broken. And so many testimonies have been coming in all week of what God has been doing. It's been amazing. He's been breaking the shackles of bondage. And it's interesting, before this passage in Luke, it says, Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And then it records in Luke 4.13, and when the devil had ended all temptation, He departed from Him for a season. So Jesus had to go through this temptation and had to overcome it. The Bible says He was tempted in all points like you are, but was without sin. He didn't fold. He didn't crumble. He didn't cave in. And then as a result, after this is, I don't know, it could be just coincidence, but I don't think so. But after He goes through the buffeting of the flesh, after He fasts, after He submits to God, after He surrenders Himself and is baptized by John the Baptist and goes into the wilderness and is led by the Spirit, tempted by the devil, the Bible says, then He came out in the fullness of the Spirit. And then He read this in the temple and He said, now the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Now His earthly ministry begins. Connect the dots. The Spirit of God is upon Him. And you know, I preach this often and it's my heart's desire is for the Spirit of the living God to be upon you as well. The Holy Spirit is alongside of you. He's in you. But there's a wonderful preposition. Epi. The Holy Spirit can come upon you. And I can tell you if He didn't come upon me, I would not be up here. Because He was in me, but I was quenching and grieving the Spirit for many years. And it wasn't until that full surrender took place, that dunamis power, that dynamite, that explosion, that unction, that anointing. I don't care what you call it, but you better have it. And that's why I pray for people, but they're not healed. I can't take authority over the demonic realm. My house is a mess and I don't see breakthrough. And could it be that the Spirit of God is not upon you? And of course, it's not a magic pill. And you'll walk around like Jesus. Life is difficult. Life is challenging, amen? I've had one of those challenging days I've had in a while today. The Spirit of heaviness was heavy. But getting my heart back to God, and that's why what Jake said was so important, and a spirit of thankfulness, and not coming here bitter and resentful and upset. And you've got to just break those shackles. And it goes on to say, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. And a lot of times that's what we do from the pulpit. Those who are truly called by God. Anointing is not a weird word. I mean, sometimes charismatics exaggerate it a little bit. But conservatives dumb it down. There's something special when God anoints a person. Basically, the Messiah was actually the anointed one, if I'm not mistaken. Anointed, called by God, commissioned. Put His mark, His seal of approval. That man, that woman, I'm going to anoint and here's what they're going to do for me. There's a calling of God upon your life and as a result, God comes upon you in a powerful way. Doesn't mean you won't yell at the kids from time to time or have a bad day, but there's something, there's an unction line. And you say like the prophet, His word is in my heart like a burning fire. And you can say, when I read that passage where Jesus said, if you believe on me as the Scriptures say, out of your belly's going to flow rivers of living water. It leaped into my heart and I said, amen, that's what's wrong with me. Nothing's wrong with me. The Bible is coming alive in my heart. And because this anointing is on a believer, they're able to preach good tidings to the poor. In other words, the poor in spirit, the brokenness and preach the wonderful message of the cross. And He's also sent me to heal the broken hearted. This is something, I think till the day I die, that amazes me about the ministry here. And when I preach, often, it's hard sometimes, amen? And I get people, in the same service, they get convicted and upset, but yet the single mom is crying at the altar saying she was so encouraged. How did that happen? Judgmental Jerry's running for the door. He's upset, but this person is encouraged. Because the Spirit of the living God has anointed the words of His Word. And that Word goes and it heals the broken hearted. And that's why, when he mentioned, how can you have conviction and comfort? Because when you're convicted and you repent, it leads to comfort. Believe and repent. In the book of Acts, it talks about repentance and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. Now, of course, that's dealing with new believers, but I believe as believers, once we repent and the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord, I was convicted and now I'm comforted. Now, if you take that conviction and you run from it, you're going to be miserable. Conviction has to be responded to. So don't view the anointing as some weird word. Oh, this guy, this is weird. No, it's actually very biblical. And I believe as believers, we receive an anointing from the Holy One. 1 John 2.20. As a believer in Jesus Christ, unless this Scripture's wrong, which we know it's not, an anointing from the Holy Spirit is given to believers. So if you believe in Jesus Christ, I'm serving notice on you tonight, you have anointing upon your life. Now, you could be quenching and grieving the Spirit, and it's not internalizing. It's there. It's like the fire is there. Have you ever went and built a fire and there's a little bit left? You can't feel anything. But it's there. What happens when you pour a little gas on it? Some of you need to pour a little gas on it tonight via repentance and humility and brokenness and getting rid of judgmentalism or critical spirit or wrong motives. Do you know a lot of people, the reason they aren't succeeding in ministry is because it's all about them? I want to be up there. I want to be on the stage. I want to be my name in the bulletin. I want this. I want this. And God says, no, humble yourself and then I will exalt you. If you exalt yourself, I will abase you. And as soon as you go down, God might bring you up because the humble He teaches His ways. He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And as you humble yourself, and as you break and you say, God, I don't want anything but You, the Holy Spirit comes upon you and He anoints you for what God has called you to do. But it's hard to be anointed if you're going to do your own thing. I've talked to people, oh, man, if I could just have the anointing of God, I could pray for people and heal the sick and then I can put Apostle such and such on my business card. I can put prophet on my book cover. Oh, the success syndrome of ministry. Jealousy hinders. Jealousy hinders, prevents, minimizes, quenches, and restrains the anointing of God upon your life. I don't know if I shared this story recently, but it's the one of D.L. Moody. Of course, we hear of him now, but you probably wouldn't hear of him at all. I don't think any of us would know him if it wasn't for the special day in New York when he's walking down the street and God showed him it's all about him. He wanted to build his ministry. He was worried about numbers. It's all about building D.L. Moody's ministry and the power of God hit him like nothing he's ever felt before. And he had to run to a place and the power of God was upon him and he was breaking. He was humbling himself and he repented and God filled him mightily with the Holy Spirit. It's when maybe he's seeing five conversions every now and then to 50 every time he speaks. The crowds can't be restrained. Why? Because the anointing of God is upon him. Now, most of you aren't preachers. That's okay. But how much more do you need the anointing as a parent? Oh, a few of you, okay. Well, good luck with that one. And this gift from God, you can't buy it. You can't take it. You can't steal it. The presence of God falls upon a broken, humble vessel. And we read the anointing breaks the yoke. Have you heard that before? The anointing breaks the yoke. It heals. It releases. It breaks. And as I read in the book from John Hyde, it was called The Life of Praying John Hyde. I'm not sure actually who said it, but it was so profound. Prayer closets are deserted. Family altars are broken down. And pulpit prayers are formal and dead. You want to know what's going on in America? There you go. We're seeing a direct result of the crumbling of the family. The crushing of the family. Prayer closets are deserted. Family altars are broken down. And pulpit prayers are formal and dead. In a nutshell, there's no fire in the pulpit. Isaiah 10.27, this is where it comes from. It shall come to pass in that day that His burden will be taken away from your shoulders and His yoke from your neck. And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil. Now, I love context. The Assyrians have judged Israel for their wickedness. And God says, now I'm going to judge you, Assyria, for judging My people. Wow! God doesn't mess around. And that's why it says here, it's going to come to pass that the burden of the Assyrians will be taken away from your shoulders. And this yoke that you have on your neck, being in slavery, being in oppression by the Assyrians, and you would carry this yoke or oxenwood and they would pull it and behind it would be this big plow. And they're always under this bondage, under this heavy burden. And God says that yoke is being lifted. Actually, another translation says that your shoulders and everything, your neck is getting so fat from success and provision and food that the yoke actually breaks off of you because of God's blessing. The yoke is broken. Benson's commentary, the yoke shall be destroyed because of the unction, because of the anointing. Guys, the Lord gets all the glory in this place. Everything that is doing, every single bit of ministry, every single success story, every single email, every single backslider coming home is because God is anointing His work and doing it. We're just vessels. The children's ministry that watches the kids so the parents can come in and find Christ. The greeters, the ushers that seat them or that welcome them and point them in the right direction. Every part of the body is leading people to the Lord to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now this is very interesting for you critics who say, I don't sometimes use the whole sentence. Jesus didn't. He actually ended at the comma. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has called me to set the captives free, to preach to the poor, to break yokes of bondage and to set the captives free. And then He goes to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and He sat down. Why? Because the day of the vengeance is not yet here. It wasn't there. He was coming to save, not to judge. And if you've been coming here a while, you know I like to say that they were waiting for this lion to come and save them from Rome. But they got a lamb. Now everyone's waiting for a lamb and they're gonna get a lion. They're waiting for this passive, mild, meek Jesus. Let me tell you, when He returns, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. He's not coming back as a lamb. The blood was shed already. The lamb's blood was already shed and that was such a beautiful picture. I mean, I've thought about it before. Millions of gallons of blood that couldn't cover anything. It was just a temporary covering. And then one man's blood, the sinless blemish, the man without blemish, the sacrifice, just that blood is so powerful that it's able to go back and save those who came before. It's able to go forward and save us in the future. Oh, nothing but the blood covers us and it is the blood that saves us and sets us free. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And John even said that Jesus is coming back not as a mild, meek little lamb either. He's coming back what? As a warrior riding a horse and his eyes are like flames of fire and on his head are many crowns as a conquering king. He's gonna tread the winepress and the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. That's in the Bible. That's how he's coming back. So prepare. Prepare America. Prepare to meet your Maker, oh America. Because this wasn't happening yet. He wasn't coming. The day of vengeance was not yet here. But He would comfort all who mourn. He would console those who are broken and He's gonna give them beauty for ashes. I don't understand how this works, but I could have this microphone up here till tomorrow morning with most of you coming up and talking about beauty, ashes to beauty. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was broken and look what God rebuilt. And God had to break me before He could put me back up. He had to break me before He could rebuild me. He had to get rid of me and out of this life of misery and depression, despair, He took me up and out of the ashes I arise. I arose. The oil of joy for mourning. And the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And as we close in worship later on, we have to remember this, and the word, the garment, of course, is something you cover yourself with. I'm gonna cover myself with the garment of praise. There's a heaviness coming, but it's not gonna get me because I'm gonna cover myself with the garment of praise. Because so many people say, I can, do you ever say this? Okay, moms, I can only handle so much or I can't handle anymore. I'm done. It's too heavy. Life is too difficult. The garment of praise will cover you. Here's why. Heaviness disconnects you, but worship connects you. Heaviness distracts you, but worship leads you back. Heaviness depresses you, but worship releases you. Heaviness binds you, but worship frees you. Leonard Ravenhill once lamented that the Cinderella of the church was the prayer meeting. Sadly, not much has changed. The prayer meeting, think about this, the prayer meeting, if there is one at all, is put back in a dark corner somewhere in the church. Hey, let's go over there in the janitor's closet on Tuesday night. Let's just put it back there in the corner. Oh, the church, that's the powerhouse of the prayer closet. Charles Spurgeon used to have 100 people in the basement praying during the services. Prayer is what moves the hand of God. And when faith ceases to pray, faith ceases to live. The praying church, the heartbeat of prayer. She goes about unnoticed, unloved, and uncelebrated, yet she is the one who keeps the house clean. And as I've said before, I'll say it again, it's time for Cinderella to get dressed for our King. The dry, dead, lethargic condition of the church simply reflects a life void of prayer. But we talk about the power of prayer, don't we? We know the power of prayer. We know it's in the Bible. We agree with it. Nothing we disagree with. But folks, you have to put it into application. Let me prove this point. Prayer is more powerful than preaching. Or Jesus would have said, my house wouldn't have called the house of preaching. God's house is a house of prayer, and that's why He was upset at the money changers. So if prayer is the catalyst to breakthrough and revival and different things, if prayer is so important, then why is not the prayer room just as full as this room? I came out of the prayer room, I see many people walking from their cars, I'm like, guys, just an hour earlier, you could have been in prayer. Now I know people work, I'm not naive. Things, schedules, I'm not, come on. But let's be honest. If it was important, many people would be here. So either prayer is boring, or they don't think it works, it's meaningless. You've got to get the unction, the fire of God in your spirit. I love 2 Chronicles 5.13. The trumpeters, for all those people I get emails that you're not supposed to have instruments on stage. There's a lot of verses. You ever get those? Yeah, you guys are unbiblical. You just need to just sing with nothing on the stage. Okay, that's good for you, but the trumpeters and the musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord, accompanied by trumpets. Is a trumpet quiet? Cymbals and other instruments. The singers were very, very quiet as they praised the Lord. Why does the Bible say these things? The singers, they raised their voices. If it's not your thing, that's okay, but you've got to allow preference. They raised their voice and praised to the Lord and they sang, he is good. His love endures forever. Can you imagine that in the temple of God? They're singing praises and the trumpet is loud. I mean, you're gonna hear it about a half mile away. And they're singing this song, he is good and his love endures forever. In 2 Chronicles, it's probably there right before, 2 Chronicles 7, where he told Solomon, when I bring pestilence, when I bring famine, when I bring drought, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. So right now, they're celebrating. It's this great celebration. They understand that God is good and his mercy endures forever. And then what happened? It says, then the temple was filled with the presence of God. God says, I inhabit the praises of my people. That's something I can't turn away. My eye looks for those who are praising me. It's a sweet smelling aroma in the nostrils of God. The praises of his people. Because what's opposite of praising? We're stifled. We're stifled. And I've noticed over the years, those people that are so focused on the Word and theology are not filled with praise. And you know I'm not mocking that. Theology is important. It's the study of God. But how many of us are straight as a gun barrel, but empty? I don't know why it is, but those who are just so... maybe they don't have that deep relationship with God. And so that's making up for it, but there's no praise in their heart. It's all about the book, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Word. Not the Holy Spirit. There's no praise in their mouth. There's no praise in their hearts. And as we know, holy consecration, I've talked about this a few days ago, holy consecration brings down holy fire. You know what? You pray as good as you live, Ian Bounds would say. You pray well when you live well. So don't tell me the physical doesn't affect the spiritual. They're interwoven. There's something about holy consecration that brings down holy fire. And like others, you too can say, I never knew that worship could spark a fire within me. I just heard that this week from somebody and I had to write that down. Think about this. This is what they took away from Ren the Heavens Week. I never knew. I never knew that worship could spark a fire within me. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. I was dark and depressed and going through the motions. And I might have had a master's degree in theology, but did you have a degree from the master? You see, that's the difference when the fire of God comes upon you and consumes you. And you have to say, I'm a lover of your presence. I'm a lover of your presence. Your presence is welcome here, Holy Spirit. I'm not afraid of you. I want more of you. What was that song right before I came up? What's that called, Jake? Do you really love His presence? Because it will cost you. It will cost you to be a lover of His presence. You'll look a little weird to the vast majority of Christians. Yeah, correct? I don't know about those guys. Those holy rollers. It will cost you the love of the world. You cannot serve two masters. You have to keep short a count of sins. You have to be broken and humble often. Pastor Abram did awesome last night, didn't he? If you were here. Wow. You need to check it out if you didn't. The title is A Fundamentalist Receives the Fire. And he came out of that fundamentalist background and the fire of God just hit him. I know, Yvette, you can tell too the difference in his preaching from three years ago. There's a change. You can tell when there's an intimacy and a relationship and the fire's burning versus just mere... Because see, the letter kills. Did you know the church down the street's going to open the Bible Sunday? They're going to open the Bible. A different book's going to be higher up. But where's the power? The letter kills without the Spirit of God. The Pharisees had the Word. That's why Jesus said do what they say, but don't do what they do. The powers and the power of God and the Word of God coming together, that's life. But it will cost you. And I'll never forget, I didn't know what to do with it for a while. And it was good though, but when he first started coming here, three years ago now? And the worship just broke him. He's never experienced that before. And he goes, I've never seen a pastor at the altar. Like, don't do that. It's a sign of weakness. And I chewed on that. I'm like, well, I don't... But in order to go up, you've got to go down. You've got to humble yourself before God Almighty. You've got to lead by example. You've got to keep a short account with sin. You've got to deal with it quickly and get rid of it. Delete it. Short account. It costs you something. I just sent it to my wife at 5.30 this morning. I went on Instagram and I got this message from somebody in lingerie. I'm like, oh, delete. Look at this, because the anointing's too precious. The enemy's looking for it. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't slumber. Short account of sin. A repentant heart, a broken heart, a humble heart. Full transparency. No ulterior motives in your heart. No critical spirit. No spirit of offense. Jealousy, backbiting. Bitterness. You have to put on the garment of praise for that spirit of heaviness. And the day of vengeance of our God, because it's in the Bible. And that's what's going to happen as we draw near to Christ's coming. The day of vengeance of our God. Remember that. Vengeance is God's. Mine thus saith the Lord. Thank God for that. To avenge, to settle the score, to judge. And that day of vengeance is coming. And that's why I told you earlier, He came as a lamb, but He's returning as a lion. I love what A.W. Tozer said. I love Him because He's my Savior, but I fear Him because He is my judge. This is something interesting. I want you to be very in tune right here to this. You might need to share it with somebody. When the Bible talks about the day of vengeance of our God, or the wrath of God, or the condemnation, people, they don't understand that the goal of the Gospel and me saying that is not to condemn you, it's actually to release you. Think about that. I'm not condemning or doing a sentence on you. I'm saying you need to avoid the wrath that is to come. See, the Gospel locks you up before it releases you. It condemns you before it sets you free. So it isn't to come down with a condemning, hard-headed fist. Ah, the Word of God condemns you. It does, but that is to release you so that deep repentance takes place. You say, oh, my Lord, I don't know You. I'm condemned under the wrath of Almighty God. The wages of my sin is death. I need to be set free. I need to embrace the wonderful sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And as it's condemning, repentance takes place, and then it releases you in the joy of your salvation. That's where all these great hymns come from. Who else but a slave trader in the darkest of misery could come and know the Lord and then write amazing grace? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Oh, but only a prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to lure, to leave the God I love. Only a prodigal son could write that. Only the great hymns of the past, a wondrous cross, when I behold the wondrous cross and I see my sin upon that cross and out of that emotion, out of that condemnation, I've been set free. There's an excitement. So you might see some people at the altar. You might see them get a little excited because they've been set free from the wrath of God. The enemy says, I'm gonna shut down churches. God says, I'm gonna grow Westside and some other churches. Never, never put God in a box. Oh, how many times my prodigal is so lost. Oh, bring it to the altar. And then a couple of weeks, you see them beaming. Just a big smile. What happened? They came home. They came home. God woke them up in a dream and convicted them. Oh, don't put God in a box. Don't let doubt and unbelief stop you from the miracle. Oh, he could not do many works in there because of their unbelief.