Shane Idleman delivers a powerful sermon titled 'The Cure for Spiritual Cancer,' emphasizing the urgent need for spiritual awakening in the church and society. He draws parallels between the current state of America and historical periods of moral decline, urging listeners to confront their spiritual complacency and return to their first love for God. Idleman stresses that true hope lies in repentance and a desperate pursuit of God, as he calls for a revival of genuine faith and bold preaching. He warns against the dangers of a silent pulpit and the need for the church to reclaim its role as the foundation of truth in culture. Ultimately, he encourages believers to seek God with all their hearts, reminding them that only through humility and brokenness can true healing occur.

The brother who's about to share is a man who has been contending from day one. I went and spoke at that church. It was packed to capacity. They're having growth issues. Pastor Shane Eidelman has been standing strong, not just that, but across the nation. He is a prolific writer. His articles have been picked up all across the country. And he is meticulous in his research. He loves revival. He's autodidactic, self-taught. It's not seminary education. This is all practical. And he is a man of history who has dug into the great leaders of the church and where we need to go. And God has given him this message. And I can testify that he's been burdened with it because when he was invited to come, I love seeing a man labor over and saying, four o'clock this morning God put this on my heart. I'm like, yes, somebody else has to struggle with that, not me. But he's here and God has a special word for all of you. And take heart because, yeah, it's going to seem like it's a bit ominous what we're up against, but God's greater than all of it. And we've read the end of the book and he wins. And because he wins, we win. And we're not afraid. We are anti-fragile. We keep getting stronger. And that's so exciting. So without further ado, this is a brave man who I absolutely love. Please welcome Pastor Shane Eidelman. Good morning. God speak. It was a privilege to be here. I think it was May. Me and my wife came and visited. I was on sabbatical and I just spoke for just a few minutes. And I've got a message, as Pastor Rob said, burning on my heart. And I am, believe it or not, in one sense, like all of you, concerned with where things are going. But people ask, Shane, is there hope? And without a shadow of a doubt, as God is my witness, I believe that there is hope. But apart from a spiritual awakening, there is no hope. Because the church, the church of Jesus Christ, is God's agent in this world to make a difference. And just be encouraged, 1700, 1740, 1750s, by the preaching of people like John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, the great first awakening, that actually set the tone for the conception of America and her independence. But even what it did, what we don't realize, is if you read their journals, they talk about how drunkenness was at a high and decadence and the churches were losing people and there was no concern for religion and no concern for God and the depravity. And you read that and you say, but look what God did in the midst of that darkness. So I have tremendous hope in that area. But believe it or not, we're going to have to look in the mirror. So the title this morning is The Cure for Spiritual Cancer. We have to prepare physically, but more importantly, we have to prepare spiritually. And I'm going to read an excerpt from a book that I've been reading. Let me just share briefly with you. This is how we diagnose what's going on. With cancer, you obviously have a diagnostic interpretation, or they call it a diagnosis, where you look at what is going on, what is happening, and then you come up with a conclusion. It says this, a very prosperous and divided nation is about to implode. Many hold on to a form of godliness, but deny the true God. As drunkenness and addiction spiral out of control, sexual sin and perversion have captivated the minds of millions. Marriages are crumbling, families are deteriorating, and children are suffering. There is little hope for justice as oppression, violence, and abuse run rampant. The cry goes out, is there any hope? That book is the Bible. And I'm Jeremiah and Isaiah. Isaiah wrote about 700 BC, Jeremiah about 80 to 150 years after that, and there was the same type of decadence and depravity. And God has a formula that is timeless. His truth, times change, but truth does not. That's actually the motto of our church there in West Palmdale. Maybe you'll know where that is. It's a little bit more recognizable than Leona Valley, but times change, truth does not. And when I was here about six months ago or so, I mentioned that America has stage four spiritual cancer. It has metastasized into all areas of life, the school system, the government, and it's actually getting in and really changing a lot of things in the church. I don't know if you're aware of that, but the church is also in stage four cancer. And people ask, and they get frustrated sometimes, it's almost like, you know, we're waiting on God. Have you ever been there? We're waiting on God. What's going on? Look around, Lord, what is going on? We're waiting on you, but could it be that he is waiting on us? And so I want to just talk about three areas to properly diagnose this problem. It has spread now into the pulpit. We're going to put up there 2 Timothy, and I put the sin of the silent pulpit. For the time will come when they will not endure, put up with, want to hear sound doctrine. In other ways, shut your mouth if you're truthful. Be quiet. We don't want to hear the truth. We want to look for those who tell us what we want to hear. That is a sure sign of spiritual cancer, is looking for those who tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to hear. And according to their own desires, because they have itching ears. In other words, they're looking for those who tell them what they want to hear. They look for teachers who will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. And the big movement out there right now is progressivism. Has anyone heard of that? Let me tell you, when you're digressing from God's word, it's not progression. It's called digression. You're leaving the truth. That is, we should call it digression. Don't say progressive. We're not being progressive and open-minded, and we're actually digressing from God and his word and his truth and his principles. That's why we're in the decadence that we are in and the depravity that we are in. There's a drifting from God. And I find it interesting that doctors, many of you know doctors, some of you here are doctors or nurses, you could lose your license for not telling someone the truth. Someone comes to you, you got stage four cancer, I see the tumors, I ran the blood, the oncology says this, report. Hey, but you know what? Everything's fine. Everything's fine. I'll see you next year for your next physical. That person will lose their license. How much more so from the pulpits of America when we do not diagnose what is going on? Listen, I know it's hard to hear, and I don't apologize anymore. I used to apologize many years ago because I came out from, I was a district manager, I might talk about with 24-hour fitness, and so I was a motivational speaker. I talked about fitness and surveys at the end. People would leave and how did you like the speaker? Was his presentation fine? Now I just want to go home and say, God, did I do what you've called me to do? Because we can no longer worry about tickling the ears. We've got to challenge the heart. Driving home saying, Lord, did I do what you've called me to do? Because without challenging the heart, there is no change. And what we're seeing is cowardliness, is capitulation. The churches that are caving in, and they're men that are not filled with the Spirit of God. And I don't say that arrogantly because I can drift just as far as anyone else, but there's got to be a brokenness. You see, a true genuine, when true genuine preaching takes forth from the pulpit, it comes from the prayer closet, not pop psychology. God breaks the man, and then from that brokenness comes the treasures of God's Word through the spirit of humility and the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine if the church would preach under the anointing of power of the Spirit again? That's when you would see lives radically change. That's when you might see people healed and set free and demonic influences rebuked and God taking authority again. Unless I'm incorrect, Jesus said, he who believes on me, you'll do these same works. Where is the church of the living God? In Jeremiah 7, 28, I'm paralleling the new and the old testament. So you shall say to them, this is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord, their God, nor do they see receive correction. Truth has perished, has become cut off from their mouths. One aspect we forget about false teachers, and you can look, start in Jeremiah 23 this evening. God said, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I've not spoken to them, yet they spoke. But had they truly stood in my council, they would have turned the nation back to me. Is not my word like a fire? Is not my word like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? But you have perverted the words of the living God. False teachers will say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And that's what just breaks my heart over the whole transgender and LGBTQ and things. When did love speech become hate speech? We love people enough to tell them the truth. That's not hate. If you follow that same line of reasoning, then parents hate their children because they tell them the truth. I'm talking about sin in all areas of the church. Here's why this is so important that many people are not aware of and why they're trying to silence the church. And that's what they tried to do, right? In many places in California, I know, with your church, it stayed open, we stayed open. What a lot of people don't recognize is, or understand, is they were going to go hard after the churches. And the Department of Justice, I was able to see a portion of the letter he sent, the Department of Justice, when Trump was in office, sent a letter to our current governor and said, you will not mess with the churches. And they were going to dig in deeper and stranglehold the churches. Why? Because according to how God designed the church, it is to be the pillar and foundation of truth in the culture. So you remove the pillar, you remove the foundation, the whole structure keeps crumbling down. And when I came back to the Lord, and it's a prodigal son story for sure, God gave me a desire for spiritual awakenings. And what that is, you hear the word revival, right? And you think, I don't want to be those weird people on TV. Well, neither do I. But I want the power of God in my life, or I don't want anything to do with religion, A.W. Tozer said. I want to experience the presence of God. I don't know about you, but I didn't come to play church. I came to experience the powerful presence of God, when God heals and sets free and his word goes forth and the altar is full, and people are praying and pulling down heaven. It's amazing when the church of Jesus Christ wakes up. But there would be seasons of God reviving throughout Scotland in the 1700s, and people like Griffin-Jones and Hal Harris and Daniel Rowlands, and then the Welsh revivals of the 1904-1905, Welsh revivals of 1950s, or New Hebrides revivals, Duncan Campbell, the first great awakening. I don't know why, I just poured into those. And I know why, because God will often give you desire for something he's calling you to do, and to preach those difficult messages and to prepare the hearts for revival. And in all of that reading, I came to find out that they all started with prayer meetings. They all started with a burden for the lost, and they would be up till midnight, or they'd be up till all night prayer meetings, and there was this passion, this yearning. But even going back, I started to look into the history of America, and many countries were wondering why America was so great. Because you know that God has blessed us beyond anything any other country has ever experienced. We're simply enjoying the fruit of the seeds that were planted decades ago, not hundreds of years ago. And this Frenchman, they say it's attributed to him because they can't find it in his writings, but Alex de Tocqueville, he said from France, he came and he said, I'm going to write about and find out why America is so blessed. And he said, I looked for her greatness in her vast world commerce, and in her gold mines, and her boundless prairies, and her fertile fields, and in her harbors, and her shorelines. He says, it wasn't there. He says, it was not until I went to the churches of America, and I heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, then I understood why America is great. America is great because she is good. If she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. But that is so powerful. It wasn't well until I went to the churches, and the pulpits were flamed with righteousness. Not anger, not arrogance, but a boldness for the love of the gospel, a boldness for truth, a boldness to preach about hell, sin, and judgment, and to call the church back to him. According to Barna, nearly 72 percent of churches do not look to the Bible as their final source of authority and direction in the United States of America. I don't know what we're doing, but we're not having church. That's not church. That's an irrelevant social club. The true church of Jesus Christ is those filled with the Spirit of God. Those filled with boldness, and truth, and a love for others, and brokenness, and humility. And out of that comes the filling of the Holy Spirit, where they can do things for God. Jeremiah 10.21, the shepherds have become dull-hearted, means they've lost their way. I mean, if you want me to be honest, I will. I wasn't with the first service, but they use the word idiot in some translations. The shepherds have become idiots and have not sought the Lord. This is why I don't say this arrogantly, because I can go in that same direction. Anyone been there? You might be there right now. You're not seeking the Lord. You've drifted from the Lord, and it's a miserable spot to be. That's why the old Saint Jesus sang that song, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Lord, here's my heart. Here's my heart. I want to sit in thy courts above, because I know there's a wonder within. Lord, it needs to be restrained. I want to drift from you. Oh God, would you pull me back? There's nothing more miserable than being in that state of wandering. It's interesting, the man who wrote that song, that hymn, I think his name was Robbie Robertson. He was converted. He went to mock George Whitefield. Not a good idea. And he was converted, and he penned those famous words. Then many years later, he drifted. Again, it's hard to find the exact account, because I like to reference things right where you find them. But it's said by tradition that he was on a stagecoach. He was in a miserable state. He drifted back. He drifted back to that place of, have you been there, eating with the pigs? Just me? No? Okay. Maybe the one o'clock service will be a little bit more real. But you're eating with the pigs. It's a prodigal son story. And he was sitting on the stagecoach, and this lady started to quote these words. And he said, ma'am, I'm the miserable wretch who wrote those words. Oh, if I could just get back. If I could just get back to my Savior. It was said, hopefully that sparked something in him, prone to wander, to get back. Many of you have heard of Billy Graham, but not too many of you have heard of Chuck Templeton. He was more gifted than Billy Graham, they said. Better preacher. He started to drift into liberalism. Started to entertain thoughts that the Bible is not accurate. Lee Strobel, I believe it was, interviewed him later in his life, maybe 10 years ago. Don't quote me on the exact time. But he asked him about Jesus, and a tear started to form. He said, but I miss him. I miss him. Folks, if you're in that prodigal state, there's nothing more miserable. I look to alcohol, I look to broken relationships. I look to everything but God. It left me empty, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Take my heart, seal it in thy courts above. Come home this morning. Come home this morning. It's a loving father waiting for you to return. But I don't want to get away from this word here. They have not sought the Lord. They have not sought. That word sought means to frequently follow, to frequently follow, to passionately pursue, and to search diligently. There's a seeking, there's a passionately pursuing. Without that, you will not know God at a very deep level. You will not be filled with the Spirit of God. There will not be that boldness, and that satisfaction, and that lack of fear in the midst of a virus. There won't be any of that because we're capitulating, and we're fearful, and there's trepidation. We don't know what to do. We need to be filled again with the Spirit of God. That only happens by seeking God. If you seek me, you might find me. If you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me. That word in the Hebrew is bakash. It means to look for a child like you've lost that child at the mall. Would you continue eating? Would you order another glass of wine? Would you say, hold on, let me go on Facebook for a little while? No, you would do whatever it takes to find that child. You wouldn't have to use a restroom. You would have no more appetite. Everything is set on finding that child. The same parallels with God. Oh, if I seek you, I will find you. You are on the front burner. Everything else is on the back burner. You are my priority. You are my Lord Jesus Christ. We can't see King of my heart, yet keep him down here. King of my heart, the watchmen have fallen asleep. That's why Isaiah said, cry aloud, pastors, preachers, watchmen. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. What I've noticed over the years, sometimes people need a wake-up call. When Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, I don't think he was quiet. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, there was a yearning. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, if you would just notice the day of your visitation, the Messiah is here. Oh, I want to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. And he would call out to those and say, come back to God and be changed and transformed and set free. There's always a watchman as a trumpet. They're sounding the alarm. And then as a result, don't worry, I'm not angry. I'm passionate. I feel like Nehemiah a lot of times, why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? When you see the decadence and the depravity going on, you see what the little, are your little children and grandchildren are being faced with? And this cancer is spread to the church to us, left our first love. Revelation two, three through four, you have persevered and have patience. This is interesting. This would fit so many Christians. You're hardworking, you're patient. You love theology. You love to debate theology. You've got 16 Bibles. You're well-versed in hermeneutics and homiletics and pneumatology and soteriology and eschatology. And you just like to show people how knowledgeable you are. You stand up for the truth. You labor, you're a worker. Nevertheless, in other words, listen to this carefully. None of that matters. If the first thing isn't first. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You have left your first love. He actually said, it goes on to say that you need to repent and return or I'll remove your influence. That's why Paul said, though I speak with the tongue of men of angels, but have not love, I have not nothing. I have nothing. Though I have great faith to move mountains, I'm spiritual. If I have not love, it profits me nothing. I can have my body to be burned and give to the poor, but I have, if I have not love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not proud. It's not rude. It's not self-seeking. Oh, I can preach as well as Billy Graham or D.L. Moody or Spurgeon, but if I have not love, I have nothing. Christ will not fill a full vessel full of themselves of pride and arrogance. The brokenness must take place. The problem is they were workers, not worshipers. Workers, not worshipers. I can always spot this person too at our church. Pastor, why do we always do those emotional songs? Because we're in love with Jesus. Because we're in love with Jesus. That's why we do those emotional songs. You better put down your MacArthur study Bible and get on your face before God and worship him. That's the Bible I use, so don't take offense to it. I don't know why I'm hanging out here. I didn't hang out here at the first service, but I've seen in the church, there's a lot of people, they're straight as a gun barrel theologically, but they're just as empty. The letter kills, but the Spirit that gives life. They want to debate and show their knowledge, but I want to see your brokenness. I want to see how you treat your wife. I want to see what your kids say about you. I love sound doctrine. I love sound theology, but it has to come through men and women on fire for God. The foundation has to be love and humility. And then Jeremiah echoes this as well, two, three, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. Remember, this is the water Jesus said, if you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. And they have forsaken that water. And what they've done, they've hewn themselves. And there was the cisterns with these rocks, and they would make holes in these rocks somehow, and that's where they would hold the water. But the cisterns are broken and it holds no water. And that would resemble the pride of the people. I will do it my way. I will do it my way. And they have forsaken, they abandoned, they deserted, they ignored. And so the call, the cure for spiritual cancer, return to your first love. I think it was Andrew Murray, he said, pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you. And then obviously the next point, three here, it spreads to our heart, the attitude of arrogance. This might be a good time to remind you, if you don't like what I'm saying, it's probably because you need to hear what I'm saying. My wife, I remember early on in the church, we first planned the church 11 years ago. People come up, man, my husband was offended. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. Can I talk now? I say, you know what? If nobody's offended, I haven't done my job. Because the truth will offend. Our attitude shouldn't, don't misunderstand. Our attitude shouldn't, but the truth will offend. You might as well just get over it now. The truth will offend others. And we've so backed up, we've so capitulated, we so went backwards, and we don't want to offend. Have we ever stopped for one minute and said, have we stopped to consider we may have offended God? By our silence speaks volumes. The silent pulpit is not God's pulpit. You have to speak the truth in love with the power of the Holy Spirit. Philippians 2, 3, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. I recently wrote an article you can find on my website, shaneidleman.com. It talks about idolatry, when ministry becomes idolatry. And I know a lot of these, you know, I won't say their names here, but people in worship bands or famous pastors, famous Christians, and a lot of times it's, I'll only come for a certain dollar amount. I'll do that worship set if I get a percentage of the ticket amount. My platform, my audience, we fail to realize that even the breath we breathe is a gift from God. If the blind beggar is unworthy of our attention, we need to check our heart. When ministry becomes idolatry, rather in humility, value others above yourself. Isaiah 66, 22, on this one, I will look. This is interesting. God says, are you being resisted right now by God? You think God says, I resist the proud, but I'll give grace to the humble. Listen here, I didn't come here to make friends, although I'd like that. I came here to tell you the truth. So many people came up at the first service being set free and delivered of pride and arrogance, addiction, because their hearts were open to what God is saying. On this one, I will look on him who is rich and haughty. You guys catch that up there? Oh no, see? On him who is poor. Now this is poor in spirit. Jesus says, blessed are those who poor in spirit and have a contrite heart and he who trembles at my word. In other words, God is going to look for the beggar who fears God. The beggar. Did you know it's okay to beg? That's what God says in that when Jesus said, blessed are the beggars. Look that word up on your own. It's easy now. Just go to Greek word and look it up. It's a beggar. Blessed are those who call out to God. Those who cry out to God. Any parents here have ever heard your children crying? Like you know the cry. This isn't like they're messing around crying. This is somebody's hurt. Somebody's hurt. I just hurt the other day down the hallway, through the kitchen, out there and just ran through the back door. What is wrong? See, God hears the heart cry of his children. There's a desperation. There's a crying out. There's a there's one who trembles at his word. Lord, I'm a beggar. I need you. God, would you come and rend open the heavens and come down and visit your people? There has to be that desperation. Listen, God is not going to come into a prideful, arrogant heart. Try planting something on concrete. We say, Lord, rend the heavens and come down. But is your heart prepared? You see, America is angry. We're angry, but we're not humble. We're fed up, but we're not broken. We're irate, but we're not desperate for God. We think we can post some arrogant posts on social media and that will be good enough. I'm all for telling people off on social media, but you got to be careful. I'm learning my lesson in that area. But isn't that true? We're angry, and rightly so, but we're not humble and broken. Shane, can you be more specific? Sure, our gun safes are full, but our prayer closets are empty. I'm not against the first amendment. What I'm against is putting something else on the in our hope instead of in God Almighty. Gun safes are full, prayer closets are empty, our stock options soar, but our hearts are not breaking. And that is my concern. What's it going to take? Church, what's it going to take to finally break us? I'll be encouraged when I see all-night prayer meetings. I'll be encouraged when I see a line waiting for a prayer meeting, or a worship night, or people throwing away things they shouldn't be involved in, and a hunger and a desire for God. You might even, I don't want to get too convicting right here, but you might want to consider fasting. You know they used to do that? When? Well, you can look at Ezra, Nehemiah, David, Moses, Jesus himself. We can go back to Amos. We can go to Joel, call a fast, call a sacred assembly, consecrate a fast, and call all my people and cry out to God. I can look at the disciples. I can look at Paul. I can look at early church history, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr. I can look at the Reformers. See, we want comfortable Christianity. Comfortable Christianity is not the answer. It's that God would often parallel seeking Him with travail when Zion's sons and daughters are born. Have you ever watched a woman give birth? I'm not doing that again. I gotta get this out. There's travail. There's anguish. There's desperation. That's what the old saints used to say. We prayed all night until God heard our prayers, and God came down. Now we can't get somebody to a 30-minute prayer meeting. Their children is on crack cocaine, but they won't fast for the day. What is going on? What's it going to take? Desperation for God. When the church should pull down heaven, it's when their hearts were fertile soil for the reign of the spirits. I didn't clap on that one. It's okay. So the cure is simple, but it's not easy. It's repentance plus a desperation equals healing. Here's what always fascinates me. The call of God is not to Washington or Hollywood or to Sacramento. The call of God is to you. If my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, and I know what the theologian out there is thinking, but Shane, the context of that is Israel back many, many years ago. Yes, I love the historical context. Context is king. I love studying context, but are you telling me the principle of repentance and brokenness and prayer and humility and crying out to God and turning from our sin is not still applicable today? Is that what you're saying? Actually, the context says when I bring pestilence, that's known as a virus. Hello? When I bring pestilence, when I bring famine, when I bring disease, when I bring war, if my people as a judgment on their sin, if my people humble themselves, not King Pharaoh, not King of Assyria, not the Babylonians, if my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face. So the call is to us, but then there has to be desperation. You know those, maybe it's yourself who you've, you've been diagnosed with cancer. Well, there isn't, there's an urgency about it. Don't, don't you take drastic measures? This, this big plant-based craze is all because of many times because of health-related issues. And now I'm changing everything. No more Snickers, now an apple for the rest of my life, right? And there's this desperation. There's this urgency. There's this aggressiveness. There's this intense. How much more when it comes to spiritual matters, where are we going to get aggressive again for the things of God and intense for the things of God and drastic for the things of God and say, Lord, Jesus, I'm turning off Netflix and I'm focusing on you again. I'm getting rid of these things that are pulling me down. And King Jesus, I'm putting you back on the throne. Let me tell you this morning that the red, white, and blue will not save you. Only the crimson blood of Jesus Christ will set you free. Listen, I love our nation. I desperately love our nation. I would be considered a deplorable, a patriot. There's nothing wrong with being proud of what God has done in a nation that surrenders to him. Nothing at all. Don't let people make you feel convicted. But they acknowledged God early on. Even Benjamin Franklin wasn't even Christian. I can tell. They're having issues with the constitution. By the way, they quoted the Bible, referenced the Bible four times more than any other source, informing the documents of our early American history, of early America. He said, gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen, stop, stop. This isn't going to work. If the sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it possible that an empire can rise without his aid? And they got on their faces before almighty God. And they cried out, you couldn't even run for office unless you believed in God. Our whole system, our whole legal system was backed by Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of England, where they would define, here we go, you ready for this? They would use scripture, uh-oh, they would define, they would use scripture to define how laws should be taken and out, rape, incest, whatever it is. They would use scriptures for that. Webster's Dictionary, did you know that, you ready for this one? Okay, hold on to your seats. They used to define words using scripture. 1828 edition, still have it. They defined it with scripture. See, here's what's alarming to me, is we have drifted so far from the truth, many people don't realize. And in parallels, when I read 2 Chronicles, God said, he said, I sent messengers to my people, waking them up early and sending them because I had compassion on my people and on my dwelling place, but they mocked my messengers, they despised my word, and they scoffed at the prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against his own people, until there was no remedy. See, that's the hard balancing act, is you want to give love and joy and peace, but listen, seven steps to financial prosperity are not going to help us in these dire times. We need sermons that cut to the heart and men filled with the spirit of God who can rightly divide the word of truth and let the hammer of God fall and the fire of God devour. Let people be broken again at the altar and weep over their sins, and you see revival spread across our landscape. That is our only hope. I'll close with this. I'm writing an article, you can get it probably next week, on my website, the beauty of brokenness, the beauty of brokenness, especially men. We don't like this word broken, humble. I remember when I was on a lot of steroids, I was really big in bodybuilding, I thought I was strong because I could bench press 400 pounds, beat people up, but I was dying inside. A. W. Tozer said, before God can use a man mightily, he must hurt him deeply. The blessing of brokenness, if God is breaking you, embrace it. It's called the furnace of affliction. He removes the dross and the impurities and through that brokenness, you come out out of the ashes, I will arise because God broke me and broke me and broke me. Any of you use olive oil? Ask the olives how they felt. Grape juice, perfume, the flower petal just crushed. See, it's in that brokenness and that humility and that total dependence upon God, that out of the ashes, because now I can come up here and say, God did this, I didn't do a thing. If it wasn't for the grace of God, I should be buried in a cemetery in Lancaster, California, back in the 1990s, when all hell was breaking loose and I would put on ACDC, I'm on a highway to hell and I would see how fast I could go and not even remember the night before and God reached down and saved the prodigal son. Should we at least be excited and desperate for more of God? There's a desperation, there's a beauty of brokenness. I don't think I can get to it all, but listen to the first service, but I talked about God breaking me, breaking me and what that looked like. Here's the key. Arrogance in the church is preventing a mighty downpour of God's Spirit. Is there any hope? I said earlier, there is, but it will cost you. It will cost you. There has to be a repentance and a desperation and an anguish for God. I saw something amazing, October 25th into November, our church, it's like you guys, you're desperate for the truth. We decided to have church every night for two weeks at six o'clock, sometimes three-hour services. The altar was full. I saw felons with correctional officers and God breaking and that's what's repentance and marriages being restored, addictions being broken, tons of testimonies and there was that repentance and returning to that first love, but there was also a desperation. I must lay hold of God and there was anguish. David Wilkerson said when God decides to recover a ruined situation, he finds a praying man and he baptizes him in anguish. There was a flame started 2,000 years ago in an upper room, as the early church meant, and waited and waited and waited on God. Then the fire fell. I remember I was reading last year a book on revival. It could have been the Welsh revivals of New Hebrews Revival's 1940s. I don't remember exactly, but I remember they were interviewing this old man years, years after the revival ended. I think it just ended suddenly. It might have actually been 1904, 1905 with Evan Roberts. It was just a one year there and they asked the old man, why did it end? What happened? It documents that his eyes lit up and he said, young man, let me tell you, when you lay hold of God, never, never, never let go. When you lay hold of God, never let go. And it begs the question, where are the prayer warriors today? We throw that term out there, but where are the prayer warriors? The church, the early church, I remember when the church used to pray, there was prevailing prayer and they said, God came down today. He answered our prayers. We need those to pray again, like Isaiah and Jeremiah who called the nation back to him. What about the reformers with Martin Luther who said, here I stand, I can do no other or John Knox in Scotland. He said, give me, give me Scotland for the cause of Christ or I shall die. Let me ask you who's leaving here later saying, Oh God, give me California for the cause of Christ or I shall die. Are we just thinking about the banquet, thinking about the food? How can I get out of here? This Bob Ball guy's convicting me. I don't like what he's saying. There has to be a desperation. Oh, when people come back to God, there is a desperation and there's the fire of the Holy spirit. Remember when you had that, when the word of God became alive and worship began to come from the portals of heaven and everything, nothing mattered but God and finding God. That's returning to that desperation. That's for those who have drifted, but I want to just end with those who don't know God. Let me tell you something. Matthew 16, 26. The question is not, do you want to go to heaven, but do you want God? And this is the scripture that leaped out when I came back to the Lord. What profit is to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And I realized I had a religion, not a relationship. I went to a Christian school, grew up in a Christian home. I'm American, aren't we Christians? You see, I had a religion going through the motions, go to church, check it off, do this, check it off, say a quick little prayer, going through the motions. I didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's why top athletes, wealthy movie stars, top professionals, maybe some of you here today, what does it profit you to gain the whole world? Yet you lose your own soul. All these vain pursuits. At the end of the life, we get to the end of our life and we realize that all, like Solomon, all is vanity, all is vanity. And I love asking people, how do you get through these dire times without Jesus Christ at the top of your list? So I want to encourage you this morning to make that decision. Repent. The Bible's crystal clear. He who believes in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Repent and believe in the gospel. But Shane, I'm not ready. You'll never be ready, let me tell you. I'm too broken. Welcome to the club. I like that famous hymn. It says, I come broken to be mended. I come wounded to be healed. I come desperate to be rescued. I come empty to be filled. I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the lamb. And even if you know Jesus already, but you've drifted, you weren't even planning on coming to church today, but something got you here. You've realized how fragile life is. You realize that God is nothing in your life. We would love to pray with you. If the truth be told, many people here need that prayer, need to be prayed for. But what keeps us, let me just talk about myself for a minute, what keeps us from coming forward? Five letter word. This is embarrassing to confess, but I was at a men's conference. There's about 300 guys. And God was, you know, guys, you want to be tougher on guys, right? Guys, we don't worship. I don't worship. I'm not emotional. Will you express anger real well? See, the problem isn't we're not emotional. The problem is our heart's engaged in the wrong area. And God was pressuring me, Shane, get to that altar. I'm like, get to, I'm the speaker. I'm not going to go to the altar. They're going to think something's wrong with me. And I fought it for a while. And I led the way to that altar and I was broken before God. God filled me completely with the Spirit. I'll still remember that day. I'll never forget that service. 150 guys came forward out of 300. We prayed with guys for another hour after that. But what was keeping me from? Because there's nothing significant necessarily coming forward. What it is, it's like with tithing. God doesn't need your money. Did you know that? You understand that? It has to do with my heart. Same thing with coming forward for prayer or any other thing. It has to do with our heart. Taking that step of humility. God, I humble myself. I humble myself. I'll be the first one to tell you, I'll come up here. I need to humble myself. I need, I don't know about you, but I need prayers for everything from my marriage to my kids. Who doesn't? If you don't need prayer for anything, I'd love to meet you afterwards because I've never met that person.