Rend Reminders To Remove The Blinders - Part 2

I want to encourage you, obviously, to go out and vote. We have a responsibility because of the type of government that God has given us. And often, sometimes during these times, I think of Paul standing before Caesar Nero, who was going to burn Christians at the stake, like candles lit up in Rome.

And what about if they had the type of government that we have, where you could actually choose who you want to lead? And there was somebody talking to Paul. It wasn't a believer, kind of rough and not a Christian. But he said, Paul, I like what you believe, and I want to help further that cause.

It's a no-brainer to me that Paul would probably vote because he had a civic responsibility, if that's the type of government they had. And so I just kind of get a little irritated when people compare us with Rome 2,000 years ago. It's, yeah, well, that'd be a whole other sermon.

Because especially if you read, God gave me a passion years ago, probably 24 years ago, to start reading the original intent of the founding fathers and to read the Mayflower Compact. It's kind of funny, I could trace it for a while, but my mom told me, and I traced it for about five generations, that my lineage goes back to Peregrine White, the first baby born on the Mayflower Cape Cod Bay. I've contacted the Mayflower Compact Society, and there's some generations missing there, so it's interesting.

But studying what they believe, studying the Supreme Court justices who are Christians, and the city upon a hill, we shall be a light shining. And of course, in the midst of that, you have bad people doing bad things. But America is not evil, it's a reflection of her people.

So if the nation's evil, it represents the character of the people in office. And so studying all that, I realized the foundation that God gave us was very strong. And actually, you can get real deep on our executive judicial branches of government.

The three branches there are actually found from the founders actually quoted, I think it was Isaiah, if I'm not mistaken, I will be your judge, I will be your lawgiver, and I will be your king. So they take from there, the Bible was quoted four times more than any other source when they drafted the Constitution. I mean, guys, this is a no-brainer.

And they gave us a republic. Benjamin Franklin actually said, we gave you a republic, now it's up to you to keep it. And so realizing that America is not bad, and evil, and corrupt, and capitalism, you realize that, man, there's a heritage there that should be actually defended and supported, if we can keep it, right, based on God's design.

This morning, the title of the message is Rend Reminders to Remove the Blinders. Rend Reminders to Remove the Blinders. I gave part one last Sunday, and I kind of caught us up to where we were.

What I want to do now is catch us up to where we finished off at. And Rend the Heavens was based on a book, In the Day of Thy Power, written in the 1950s. And I think, or even earlier, and it gave principles of revival.

Principles of revival. And we were talking about the principles of revival. And now, you might not believe in corporate revival, you might not be too concerned with corporate revival, but many of us need individual revival.

We need a spiritual awakening within. Many Christians are walking around defeated, and discouraged, and quenching and grieving the spirit. And I've been there, and I can go there again real quick, and it's not fun, is it? The prodigal son eating with pigs is not a fun place to be.

The world loves it, but even though they're miserable, they think that's the answer. Do you know that's why many people never come to Jesus, to saving faith? Because, for example, this happened to me recently. They see me, and they used to know me, and they're like, ah, I don't want to give up all my sin and fun.

They don't realize they get something a hundred times better. But because of that enjoyment of sin, that enjoyment of sin, they don't want to turn from that. I just got a text late last night.

My friend, I'm sure he was drunk, in Lake Havasu. Lake Havasu. Remember when we used to watch the Tyson fights? They're coming up again.

So I sent him my message on repentance from Ren in the Heavens. I'll pray he watches it today. But they don't want to give that up.

They're miserable. They're on Xanax. They're on their third marriage.

It's a deception of sin, the deception of pride. And so I want to cover some things that I left off on Sunday, hoping I can get through everything. But just a recap of last Sunday, and if you were here, we talked about the importance of prayer.

That's the number one principle to revival. It's the first step toward revival, and the last step to maintaining it. And the prayer must be, Lord, send revival and let it begin in me.

Never forget this. The secret. What's the secret to the Christian faith? Does anybody ever ask you that? The secret is the secret place.

That's where deficits will get fixed and issues hammered out. That's where character will develop as we go into that time of prayer and into that prayer closet and that spiritual awakening happens in the secret place. And then the next point Abram talked about was perseverance.

Perseverance. And how important it is to move forward in spite of obstacles, in spite of delays, in spite of disappointments and circumstances. Persevering through.

Do you ever say I had a hard time worshiping today? I often wonder if God gives us seasons of that just to see if we'll persevere. Because faith and perseverance are kind of like a spiritual muscle. It doesn't grow until it's hurt.

And developing that and not trusting in feelings. And I'm sure Abram can attest to it too. There are times where you just feel electric.

The sermon is coming alive. It's on point. You can't wait to get to preach.

And it's like, what is going on? The Holy Spirit is just... But then there's other times where, Lord, Your Word, hopefully will minister to these people because I want to go home. But you have to be ready in season and out of season. And do what You're called to do regardless of if you feel like it.

And often the reward comes later. I've done many sermons like that and afterwards, people are like, that just hit right where I was at. Thank You so much.

I can't believe I was going to miss today in my life. What? Because God's Word does not return void. You have to be faithful regardless if we feel like it and obey it regardless if we feel like it.

Just as a personal transparency here, I often have to obey when I don't feel like it. Anybody relate? Boy, sure, I can't wait to turn off Netflix and read the Bible. No, I usually don't feel like it.

I don't think we've had that in years, but a good example of that. Other things, you get YouTube too much because the flesh always likes that sin. And so perseverance is so important.

So the point about that is even if you don't feel like it, even if you're feeling heavy or down or God is distant, to be revived personally, you have to press in regardless of how you feel. And it's in the pressing in that God rewards you. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

There's a pressing in. I've got to hear from God regardless of what it takes. I've shared this I think on social media or maybe mentioned a few times, but a lady drove from Canada.

Drove from Canada with her son and his friend. I don't want to say too much. They'll probably listen later, but we were just praying for him.

Praying for him the whole week. And even in the prayer room, you know, he said he's an unbeliever. She's got questions.

And just as they persevered and seeing him get baptized the last day was incredible. Absolutely incredible. And then service is over.

I'm down here and it's like, hey, his friend wants to pray to receive Christ now. It's like, Lord, wow! God is not on our schedule. And another family drove from Nashville, Tennessee and pressed in and pressed in and pressed in even when they didn't feel like it.

And there's tons of breakthrough. I think we forget how important perseverance is because it offsets what the enemy is trying to do. The enemy is trying to discourage.

Don't go worship. Don't let this penetrate your heart at a deep level. Don't go to the front.

Stay at home. Discouragement, discouragement, discouragement. And I can only preach this because I live it.

I'm right there with you. I would not be at church this much if I didn't have to be here. Come on, guys.

Remember the olden days? Does our daughter have a cough? Better stay home. Keep the jammies on and the slippers for a while. Man, we got to bed late last night.

Let's just stay home and get some stuff done. You wake up, the house is a mess. You know what? I'm just going to stay home and get some stuff done.

I can keep going. Sprinklers are broke. Great time to fix.

Go to Home Depot. Let's just, you know, we'll get back to church next week. I had them all.

And so do you, correct? So I just, sometimes I start laughing when God says, you're going to be a pastor. I'm like, there's no getting out of this one. But the fruit is amazing.

I'm so thankful because you realize that you've got to tell your flesh what to do. If it tells you what to do, or the favorite, I mean, I don't know if I should say this or not, but anybody have arguments the night before or the morning of that keep you away? Fine, if you're not going to church today, fine. That's it.

So many reasons and ways to stay away. That's why perseverance is so important. And then number three, we talked about the posture is so important.

Humility to reach the high and lofty one. You must humble yourself. You must humble yourself.

Guys, I see this in the church all the time and I was there, so I'm not judging. I'm encouraging you and inspiring you. I know so many of you, so many even listening, I know you love the truth, but do you love Jesus? Do you love others? That's the real gauge.

They'll know My disciples by your love for one another. And that lack of humility, it can come in all of our hearts. Amen? And then we talked about repentance.

The message I sent to my friend. It opens the wellspring of living water. So when you repent, it opens the wellspring of living water.

And a wellspring is a source of continual supply. And I like to clarify on this point because I do get questions a lot about this. Repentance, but I'm a believer.

I'm a believer. Let's talk about this. Acts actually says, I think it's Acts 3.19, repent and believe and rivers of living water or times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord.

So we know as an unbeliever, when you repent, truly repent and believe in Jesus and you turn from the darkness to the light, there are wellsprings of living water that come out. But as a believer, sometimes our wellspring gets clogged. It's called quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit.

And the only way to unclog that line is to repent 180 degrees. I got to change this. And I repent.

And I don't know the dynamic exactly how it works. I just know it works. To open up those floodgates again, we repent.

Or, has anybody ever offended you? Personal offenses? Get rid of those. Don't let that root of bitterness grow. And when you fix these things and you repent and you work on things, the rivers of living water that were stopped up begin to flow again.

Because the Bible clearly says you grieve the Holy Spirit, which means if the Holy Spirit in me is grieved or saddened, or, why did you do that, Shane? I lose the power, the anointing, because I'm also quenching the fire. The fire of the Spirit. And that's where the boldness comes from.

That's where the joy comes from in our lives. So if we're quenching and grieving, we have to repent of whatever is quenching and grieving. And those floodgates will open again.

I've had the floodgates reopened a thousand times, if we're just being honest here. You think I walk around with the floodgates flowing out every single day of the week? You have no idea. And you can relate too as well, correct? And I want to put this.

I don't think I talked about it when I spoke on this topic. Those who fall also need grace. On this era of repentance, those who fall often need grace.

Because we see somebody, they're changing, right? It's encouraging, but then months later, they fell. And then instead of encouraging them, we rebuke them. Let me tell you, when that happens, they're already feeling very condemned.

And conviction is a good thing. Conviction gets us back on track often. But that's when they need the encouragement to get back up and fall forward.

The encouragement. Because if we keep beating people down, especially our kids or grandkids, you ever feel beat down? It's hard to get back up when nobody's on your side encouraging you. And then we talked about seeking.

Seeking God that Sunday night. We are waiting on God, but is God waiting on us? And the verse was, you will seek Me and you will find Me when you seek Me with all of your heart. And I thought about that for a while.

What is all of your heart? All of your strength? All of your soul? And it gets down to where the rubber meets the road. It's all of us. Lord, if there's anything in me that's hindering me, show me.

Because we can do partial obedience. You know, kind of go to church when we want to and kind of forgive this person, but not that person. Hold this against someone, but let this thing go.

Lord, I know You want me to do this for my finances, but it's not going to happen. I'm busy right now. I'm paying the bills.

And we're partially seeking God. But when the verse talks about it, it's like, Lord, everything is Yours with all of my strength, Your energy, Your endeavor with all of my heart, there's no idolatry going on, with all of my soul. Lord, I seek You.

And then we talked about holiness. God's Spirit comes upon those who are holy and set apart for His glory. One key principle to revival is always holiness.

Always holiness. And you might say, well, Shane, that's great. I blew it last night.

Well, guess what? You can repent and get back on track today. Thank God for His grace. Now, there are consequences we have to carry sometimes because of our actions.

But as you're carrying the consequences, God is carrying you. Don't let a mistake detour you from your destiny. Get back on track.

Hebrews 12.14, Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Now, this has twofold meaning, I believe, as well.

Holiness, when you're an unbeliever and you repent and you believe, now Jesus has saved you. He set you free. He's taken your place.

He's cleansed your sin. Now you are holy and can stand before God. And without that, no one will see the Lord.

That's true. But could it be that this Paul's writing to... Well, not Paul. It's probably Paul.

I don't know. Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews is a genius. I'll tell you that much.

And they're writing to Hebrews who are considering, some of them considering going back to the law. Some of them are following Jesus. Some of them are tasting and considering things about Christianity.

But Paul said without holiness, no one will see the Lord. And that word in the Greek language, it means to look upon, to experience, to perceive, or to discern. So could it be without holiness, no one will experience the power of God in their heart? As a believer, as a believer, the Holy Spirit will be suppressed and not given full reign.

If you want to look upon God and gaze upon Him and experience Him, you will need that holiness. I mean, I don't know about you, but that song is just beautiful about Isaiah. I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

And it says that the train of His robe is larger than this, just filled the entire temple. And those pillars that shook and the angels cried, Holy, Holy, Holy is our God. Holy.

Without holiness, you will never get to that deep relationship with God without holiness. Because the continual sin blocks that pathway. And then the final thing that we talked about was fearing the Lord.

Fearing the Lord. Why is that so important? Having reverence for God is always the foundation of genuine revival. Or personal revival too.

If you need to be revived personally, bring back the fear of God in your life. Bring back that awe and that respect and that awesomeness. That word awesomeness actually comes from trying to describe God.

And I just thought yesterday, shouldn't we of all people be the most awestruck, just look at what God, because in the Bible times, they didn't know about the universe. What are those things out there? That's interesting. Now, like every time I look at NASA videos, it's like, I'm going to explode.

How many galaxies? A galaxy? Like there's lots of those. And stars in the, what's the number, trillions? Have you ever tried to fathom trillions? And they believe the universe might be expanding, which actually makes sense because when God said, bam, the big bang, his big bang, light, and then it just expands out. And we also know, they wouldn't know anything about the human body 2,000 years ago.

Person dies, they wonder what this is, wonder what this is. Now, I mean, we know the details, like the microbiome, you've got all this little bacteria living in your gut that actually affects the way you think and your health. And then the central nervous system, the muscular system, the nerves and all of this, it's just mind blowing.

How awesome is that God? How awesome is that God? A male and a female, there's a little sperm, eats an egg, and then now there's life? Give me a break. Guys, where's the fear in our nation? Where's the awesome in our nation? You've got all these people coming up, Carly B and J-Lo, and oh, woman's right to choose. Choose what? To kill that life? Guys, this is incredible.

Fear of God in this place. There's no fear of God in this place because when you become God, God no longer sits on the throne of your heart. You're God.

You're the master of your own destiny. The fear of God. The fear, oh, it would change the way you vote.

It would change the way you handle yourself. It will change the way you treat others and how you act. And when you make decisions, our government needs the fear of God.

That's why Darwin and all that was so dangerous. They removed God. Did you know that public schools used to teach the Bible and have prayer? We are so stupid that we can't... I'd like to just talk for five minutes at some of these conventions.

Why is gun violence so high? We've got to get rid of the guns. Well, could it be we've removed God from everything? I don't know. Just call me naive.

You tell kids they're animals and now they act like it and you're surprised? But see, when you have the Ten Commandments, you say there is a God and there's reverence and respect for Him. And there's a covering there. And I truly believe that.

You can't force people to pray and you can't force them to obey the Ten Commandments, but you can unapologetically acknowledge the sovereign hand of God. Establishment is not acknowledgement. And they try to remove God, separation of church and state from everything.

No, He actually was supposed to be in everything. Separate in their duties and functions, but interwoven in their principles. And there's just no reverence for God.

And that's what you see happening. How can you go from zero school shootings just about to after Columbine and different things, massive upheaval? And you're going to blame the guns? All of my friends in high school carried loaded 12-gauge shotguns in the back of our Chevys and our trucks and our Fords because we went shooting after school. Nobody shot the other person.

Because you have a sin issue. Not a gun issue. Somebody in the Bible killed somebody with a rock.

Cain and Abel. The blood of your brother cries out from the ground. Now, of course, can we get better on who can carry something? Of course.

There's always things we can improve on. But there's just no fear of God in this place. Can you imagine if judges had the fear of God? Can you imagine if Gascon, the Los Angeles, district attorney had the fear of God in his heart? Things would change.

You could kill racism. You could minimize racism, minimize hatred, minimize abortion, minimize... Look at all these things. In Matthew 10.28, how many of you have heard this verse before? I should give some of you some context, or those listening who maybe don't see it on the screen.

This is Jesus talking. Right? This perception of Jesus kind of easy going. Doesn't want to upset or offend anybody.

He said, do not fear those who can kill the body. ISIS, Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah. Do not fear those who can kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul.

But rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Fear Him. Fear Him.

Just this week, I heard testimony from Africa, where they tied up the man and cut his fingers off and stuff in front of his family. You will no longer talk in Jesus' name. Cut his lips out.

Eventually, kill them later. But don't fear those people. That's all they can do.

They can just damage the temple. But because we're eternal, where does the spirit go? That's why Jesus said, don't fear those who can kill your body. Big deal.

Fear Him. Have respect for Him who can cast both body and soul in hell. Isn't it interesting? This might be a different topic later, but Jesus identifies.

There's a separation. There's an eternal part of a person. And you see all these debates online.

Is hell forever? What is it? What is it like a fire? Is it literal? You know, you just don't want to find out. I don't know. Holy cow, they debate for hours.

Is it temporary? Probably not. It sounds eternal when you read the Bible. And you have great theologians, I think like John Stott and others who believed in annihilation who eventually ceased to exist.

But for me, it's hard to see that. When Jesus says, worm does not die and fire is not quenched, can you imagine if the pulpits brought back that fear of God? Can you imagine if Joel Osteen read this verse? I bet you this verse has never been read. Ever in churches like that.

Because you'll hear it afterwards from your deacon board. Pastor, we're going to lose thousands of people. We've got a $42 million budget.

This isn't going to work. So I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who said we need to close every church in the land for one Sunday and cease listening to man so we can listen to God. And then here's the two points I didn't get to on Thursday, because I had to put a whole new message together.

Amen for you. I don't like when God does that. What usually happens is Pastor Abram was preaching, and those two points, they're not hitting with me.

They're not popping. There's not excitement about it. Which normally, too bad, you press through.

I deal with this a lot. But when a different message starts burning on your heart, the day darkness died, and I can't stop. So sometimes you guys see me up here on my phone.

I'm not texting or looking at Fox News. Or the Dodgers World Series. Maybe once I did that time.

But I'm putting these notes so I don't forget, because I've learned. I'm like, oh yeah, I'll remember that tonight. I won't remember that tonight.

It's gone. And so I had the outline of the whole sermon done just about that night. And then the morning, I worked on it all.

And all day, I can't wait to get there. And it's the day darkness died. And talking about how we can push out the darkness and things like that.

And then I saved these two points because these are so important for revival. Guys, if you want to be personally revived, I don't know how you came in here this morning, those listening, YouTube, Rumble, Twitter, Facebook, listening later, radio. But the Christian life is hard.

I'm glad I didn't know that 25 years ago. Isn't it? Hurt, attacked, lied about. Got to keep acting a certain way even though it's not acting, even though you don't feel like it.

Got to come in. The joy of the Lord is my strength and be smiling even though I'm hurting inside. Anybody relate? Just me? Need to stop telling my own personal stories, right? And the only reason I do that, I would listen to, you know, when I was younger, it's a lot of the same people you do.

You know, it was Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, MacArthur, James McDonald, Alistair Begg, Dr. David Jeremiah. And I've often wondered, do they struggle with anything? Because not too many people open up about it. I wonder, I mean, once you get to be a pastor, maybe you don't have to struggle with stuff.

Like I've never heard them say they might have arguments in their marriage. And maybe they just stick with short messages. I don't know.

I mean, maybe God has different places at different people. Maybe I've been through so much hell that I want to encourage people not to go there. I don't know, but I just never heard.

It seemed like once you reach a certain, you know, suit and tie preacher, man, there's no more issues. And actually, that's when the issues started more when you want to plant a church and want to follow God. And so, these things are revival stimulators.

Everything I just said, with prayer and perseverance and humility and repenting and seeking God, and there's a holiness, there's a fear of the Lord. You have to wrestle through all of that even when you don't feel like it, even though when all hell is breaking loose, even when you get the divorce papers, even when you just get the doctor's report, even when you just heard some terrible news and some people are lying about you. You've got to... And I love what David said.

The Bible says, he strengthened himself in the Lord. Sometimes you can't get to a sermon or you can't call the person you need to talk to. Sometimes you need to strengthen yourself in the Lord.

That is so important. Never rely on other people alone to strengthen you. Rely on God alone.

Let Him strengthen you. So here's the final two points that we did not hear at Ren the Heavens. Numbers 8 and 9. I was going to close out my Tuesday night, but I'm so glad we had Gabriel testify.

I actually gave this message, and I said, no, this guy's testimony. We need to hear it. And I didn't want to cut him off at 15 minutes.

I wanted him to talk. And then this was the final night on Thursday. Unity and faith.

Unity and faith. Why are those so important? Well, revival killers are disunity and disbelief. You want to kill the spiritual excitement in the church? Disunity and disbelief.

You want to kill the fire of God in your heart? Disunity and disbelief. And I had to fight through this. I remember, I don't think I met Morgan yet, and I had the experience I talked to you about with the Lord, and I wasn't at church.

God met me on my floor crying. And the Bible came alive, and I'm turning off my country music. It was Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, my date and myself.

Brooks and Dunn, my date and myself. Okay, you remember. Man, I just put them on as drunk as I could and depressed as I could.

But then there's a shift. I'm like, this doesn't... I don't want that anymore. And then back with Darlene Chek and Hillsong.

The old school Hillsong. Shout to the Lord. And I'm just like, what's going on in my heart? What's going on here? And then you're reading the Bible.

You're reading the Bible. Like, look what Paul said, and you'll speak in other tongues. Look, you can actually pray for the sick and just getting encouraged and doing ministry.

And then I ran into the negative Nellies who say, you don't do that. That doesn't happen anymore. Oh, no, no, that was for the church when they need to prove the gospel, and they didn't have the Bible yet.

That kind of stuff is not for us today. My fire was out for a while. I'm feeling a call to preach.

Actually, you really shouldn't preach that people need to repent because there's something called Calvinism. And people don't have a free will. God has to draw them.

And here's a book by Martin Luther. It's called Bondage of the Will. You need to read that.

And my fire was just my fire for preaching. It was out. Because basically, if I don't show up, people are still going to come to faith regardless.

Why preach? Well, we're commanded to do so. No, Paul said, oh, King of Crip, I would to God, I would persuade you. I don't see that.

I don't see that honestly in the Bible. Jesus said, oh, you were not willing. Jesus said, you did not repent.

He never said you could not. And so my fire was out. It's like, man, we can't do this stuff anymore.

This must be of the devil. The gifts of the Holy Spirit. And don't get too excited.

Don't get too excited. I mean, the altar, raising your hands, worshiping, that's emotionalism. So we're supposed to be dead like a cemetery? Turn to hymn number 44.

Let's all stand there like we're not happy. Oh, hail King Jesus. And I love the whole hymns.

Oh, rugged cross, amazing grace. Fanny Crosby. Fanny Crosby, you got to look up her story and her hymns.

Amazing. But they have to be sung with the right heart. Not legalism.

Shane, you can't listen to that stuff, but that's like contemporary. But weren't the old hymns new hymns at some point? I mean, they didn't start in the Bible. They had to start somewhere.

And then you start to read Martin Luther would take bar hymns and turn them into gospel songs. And so breaking out of that people quenching my fire was difficult because it's people you look up to. So the gifts of the Holy Spirit aren't for today anymore.

You really don't need to call people to repentance when it's their time. God will lead them. Election, okay, well, there goes that.

And don't get too carried away in worship. Make sure it's not too emotional. Okay, just through the Spirit is control.

But I realize they don't read the beginning of that verse either. Joy. Love and joy and peace.

And there is excitement. There's excitement for the things of God. The disciples I'd read in Acts, they're excited.

They're pretty excited. I think that upper room was pretty exciting when the Holy Spirit fell. And you realize, oh, they've never really experienced the deep work of God.

And they're challenged by what I believe. Be careful. Be careful.

It happens a lot. And I realize that emotions are actually... Who created emotions in us? God. God gave us emotions.

And aren't you glad? I'm glad when I held Aubrey at A.B. Hospital and held her finger for 12 hours while she was in the jaundice unit. I couldn't stop crying. I had tremendous emotions.

All my kids, thank God, I had a lot of emotions that were good. Can you imagine just not having... Gene, we're robots. Don't feel.

Don't get too excited. It's they're trying to put God in a box because they themselves have never experienced the power and presence of God. And they want to put out your fire because they don't have one.

And now I don't even care what they say because we know what the truth is. And all you can do is pray for those people. Pray for those people.

I mean, I'll still get it now that I'm not in a suit and tie and I didn't use the King James Version. If you were here Thursday night, you might have let that pass, okay? Oh no, that's emotionalism. You guys shouldn't get too carried away.

It just drives me crazy because the very thing they need is the very thing they're running from. How is unity a principle of revival? Well, God's Spirit does not come upon a critical, negative person who sows discord. And it does not come upon a contentious church.

It's so important why leadership wants to get their heart right. This is from in the day of thy power. I don't know if we have it, but I'm just going to read.

I want you to listen if we don't have it. In the book I recommended, in the day of thy power, there are always some who are desirous of revival. Until it comes.

And then they bitterly oppose it because it has not come in the way they anticipated. The instrument that God used or the channel through which the blessing flowed was not what their convictions had led them to expect. They looked to see if a great person was chosen for this great work, but the Lord who looketh on the heart chose a David.

They thought that their own local church, their own fellowship, which was so Scriptural and right, would see the beginning of the work, but God chose a work elsewhere and this became to them a stumbling block. To all who handle the work of revival, this should be a solemn warning of the great danger of yielding to jealousy and prejudice, which blind the eyes, harden the heart, and hinder the spirit. And I don't want to share a lot, name names and things, but anytime people will tell other churches what God is doing here, like the last nine nights, yeah, well, you know that Shane guy.

He's too political. And they get a little carried away. Just be careful.

Stay away. What about if God might revive your church if we were united instead of divided? Like that one night we had the other church from Lancaster come and that Saturday night, was it Saturday night or Sunday night? Sunday night. Just powerful.

The pastor was here and that's what the heart of God for that unity. Countless people such as George Whitefield, John Wesley, Duncan Campbell, everybody I mentioned, anyone who led a genuine revival were all criticized. Revival stirs the water.

Dead churches are convicted about their barrenness and carnal Christians are deeply challenged. Oh, Lord, I don't know if I should go here or not. No, yeah, easy for you to say.

You don't have to. I know people who personally avoid church. They don't come very often.

They definitely don't want to come to rent in the heavens because it challenges where they're at spiritually. It challenges their mediocrity. It challenges they're not where they want to be.

And they don't like it. It's like, you know, you ever seen the person who's on fire for God and you're not? Hello, what's wrong with these people? And you get upset. You get a little jealous.

But we see that a lot. Because if a person is dead or they're hard and they're rigid, they're not open to more of God. They don't like... Shane, shut your mouth about this topic.

Get back to expositional study through the book of Numbers for eight months. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't go. Don't go to the heart.

And carnal Christians, oh, they're not coming. I love my carnality. I don't want to be challenged.

I don't want to be challenged. I love my Netflix and my IPA. I love these things and I don't want to be challenged.

But so what revival does, it stirs the water. It separates the men from the boys. The followers of Christ, the esters from the ishtars.

It stirs and you would think it's all good. It's not often all good because the devil hates it. Meeting every single knight for nine nights.

There's conflict. Disunity kills revival corporately and personally. Did you know that the Lord hates seven things? The Lord hates a proud look.

What is that? You know what a proud look is? Oh, you know it when you see it. Trust me. A lying tongue.

Hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans. Feet that are swift in running to evil.

A false witness who speaks lies and in bold for you to see. This is something God hates. Stuck in this week because you realize this isn't a big list of things that are not good.

One who sows discord among the brethren. And sowing is planting. You're planting.

Instead of guarding others, you're planting gossip. You're watering slander and you're nourishing rumors. What have I called that before? I'm not cabbage patch dancing.

You guys remember that too? You want me to show you? No. You know what? Oh, Chris, it's great to see you. Did you hear? Hear what? Oh, they didn't tell you.

Sowing some gossip and some slander. There's people who come to church looking for something. And that's their crack in the armor it needs to be repented of.

Shouldn't we be protecting and guarding each other? I mean, as believers, that's what we should be doing. But somehow in our fallen nature, gossip is interesting to hear. But let me give you an alert.

This really resonated. One who sows discord often has the other three traits. God says, I hate a prideful look.

Well, one who sows discord is often prideful. They have a lying tongue to some degree. And they often embellish or withhold information like a false witness would.

So this discord, this sowing discord is so important. Disunity disrupts. Disunity disrupts, but you can bring order again.

The pull toward God must be greater than the pull of disunity. Recognize it. Repent of it.

Don't feed an offense. Amen? Don't feed an offense. An offense is planted.

A seed is watered. And a thought is entertained. That's how the enemy gets us, doesn't he? If it's not entertained, where does it go? In the trash can.

The mental trash can. Repentance must be pursued. Isn't an apology an order? I mean, it's got to be corrected.

Or you don't entertain the thoughts. Guys, don't you see that's how the enemy causes disunity? With thoughts. I look around.

I see some of you who were not here a while ago because you were offended. I can't leave though, so I have to stay. But isn't it good when you work that out? And you press through that? Because the enemy, I think a fiery dart often is an offense.

You get that fire. Do you quench it? Pull it out of your heart? Or do you fuel it? Fuel it. Anybody ever been offended at church? Oh, maybe.

You guys are doing good then. Oh, you have? My wife's been offended at church. Don't entertain that offense.

I asked for permission before I share this story. I said, yeah, go ahead. Just don't name names.

Well, about a week ago, somebody pulled my daughter's hair. They said, be quiet during worship. So I can affect my preaching.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Not going to entertain it. I said, but maybe you should have been talking.

You know, err on the side of grace. And it's the one who never talks. It's like, so, I wish you had got the other kid.

Then it would make sense. Right? And I know who it is. But I actually forgot about it until I was preparing this.

If I hold that, oh man, I'll be looking for them the next round of Heaven's Night. But see how it evened to me. It works.

And I do want to say it might've been an order, but next time it might be maybe a tap on the shoulder. You know, that's a little, that's old school. That's old school, isn't it? Remember, you guys grew up, man.

Church had permission to whack your kid. I got hit from people like, when I was like 12, 13, all the time. That was just the rule.

You know, you were out of order, those old saints in the church, they would straighten you up. So still processing that a week ago, you know? And so, but we all get offended. I'm not going to let it hurt Ren in the Heavens.

I'm not going to let it hurt my preaching. And I don't want it to hurt them. Maybe they, maybe it was a bad day, you know, err on the side of grace and things like that.

But see how an offense works? Offense, it hurts. And you got to not hold that in. I ran to somebody a while back who used to go here and they did not have, they basically put me down.

You just go up front, you raise your hands. It's all about you and your pride. And I'm like, if they only knew, if they only knew, it's actually the opposite of that.

In my pride, I'd sit in that back row. You would never see me. Because real men don't worship like that.

I was raised, boy, you don't cry. You drink beer and you beat people up. So it's actually the opposite for me and to go and humble myself before others.

And as the leader, let people, yes, be encouraged by it. But boy, did I want to light him up. And I did, we both apologized.

I didn't, I wish I could tell you it was perfect, but you catch me at a bad time. You know, come on, let's be honest. But see, we're dealing with this all the time.

All the time, all the time. Offense, offense, offense, offense, offense. And it wears you down.

It's a trick of the enemy. But I believe when the Bible says, take every thought captive, you can choose to throw it in the mental trash can. Or you can choose to dwell on it.

I don't know if I'll tell it at the second service. I made sure I didn't see him come here today. So an offense will continually, an offense will continually, oh, I'm sorry, you will either fuel the offense or you can quickly extinguish it.

It's our choice. And what happens is the more you feed it, and I've lived this, that's when it becomes a root of bitterness. You've heard that term? It's in the Bible.

And you just get, you go to bed angry, you wake up angry, and that root of bitterness has taken hold. And I would encourage you actually, if it's relevant to go to the person and make it right, apologize. Because that's how you, even if you're not wrong.

Do you know how many times I have to say, you know what, I'm sorry? Why am I apologizing? I literally did nothing wrong. But it opens the door of communication and people say, oh, okay. Yeah, me too, me too.

And then actually the relationship is much stronger than it was initially. When people work through it, it's much stronger. That's why we encourage marriage couples.

If you can work through this and both forgive and both move on and both change and repent, both change and repent, maybe sometimes it's not the other person's fault. I've seen that too. But it takes those two to really make that work.

Do you read into things that are not necessarily there? Do you read it? That's what most people do. I will tell you right now. Do you read into things that are not necessarily there? It's dangerous.

Be careful. True story. Just dealt with this a few months ago.

They don't come here anymore. And again, the only reason, I don't give names. I don't give situations.

I don't give kids names. I don't give dates. Nothing.

But it helps all of us as a body learn from these experiences. But they felt that God actually told them something about what the other person did. Like the God said card.

And I knew for a fact that that's not true. That's not true. I was actually involved.

But because God said, do you know you can have a deceiving spirit tell you stuff too? Did you know that? I think more often than not. It's that deceiving spirit. And that's what happens though.

We read into things that are not there. And I see this a lot too. My wife, we've shared this before.

I think she did in her testimony in Lancaster. You know, there's a guy that left and I asked his dad and he goes, oh yeah, he said you didn't say hi to him when he got there. Like hi, what? How does this happen? Fueling those thoughts.

Those fiery darts. Reading things into, and I want to say, even if I didn't say hi, who cares? You don't leave a church over that. Give me a break.

But see, we're so easily offended. And it wasn't like this 50 years ago. You would stay planted in a church and you would grow.

But now it's like, I'll just go to the other one down the street. And then I'll just go to the other one down the street. And I'll just church hop.

And the person never grows. And the person never grows. I haven't seen it here much, but in Lancaster, pretty much everybody, and maybe even here too, when you talk about revival, you know, most people are like, yeah, yeah, brother.

Yeah, amen. Alright. But when it actually happens, and I might stop preaching because the weight of God's glory and the altar's full and the worship team camps out, somebody might be getting delivered from a demonic stronghold over here and getting a little too carried away.

I'm not coming back. That's a little too emotional. What did you think revival means? God is reviving sinful flesh.

And sometimes there's a response. Sometimes the flesh doesn't want to let go. It grabs you.

And then why are they weeping at the altar? What's going on here? See, it didn't come like they thought it should come. And one of the times in Lancaster, I'll never forget, we used to have a group of transition homes. Just one home they would bring guys just out of prison to the church.

We loved it. I think they go to church closer to them now. And one night, it was messy in a good way.

Like Morgan, I preach my heart out. I'm in tears. And you can feel it.

I don't know if you've ever been where you can just feel the weight of just God's Word and the worship. And they come forward. The altar's full.

We're in worship. I go down and one of the guys is just... I mean, it's disruptive in a good way, right? Because God's doing something of deep work and another guy's praying over him. And it's like, whoa, this is not what everyone's expecting, especially if you come from a nice, comfortable, conservative 30-minute sermon, one song at the end.

I'm ready for In-N-Out. I don't want anything. I just want to buy $3 of God, please.

Not enough to explode my soul. And I don't remember when one of the ushers came back, because I like the back. By the way, my wife's a front person.

In the front row, I'm back row Joe. So I compromised during Run the Heavens. Up there every time.

It was hard though. But you know, you're the watchman, right? And you share us, please. You kind of want to see the whole view.

And so, but anyway, that was a side note. So he comes back because I'm just praying. And I am, I'm like, oh goodness, Lord.

I don't know what to do with this, but it's a beautiful mess. It's a beautiful mess, God. And he came back and said, hey, do you want me to talk to them? Or I don't know what... I mean, you know, I said, well, hold on.

So I went and I talked to the guy who brought them. It's a big white van. I think it's seated like nine or so.

And I'm like, hey, is everything okay? And he goes, oh yeah, just pray for him. It's even hard now. He found his son hanging in the garage a couple days ago.

He found his son dead in the garage a few days ago. And my heart, it broke. I went up and I prayed with him.

Remember, I was on his side and just crying and praying. It was not pretty in church. But see, that offended some people.

I'm like, good, leave now. Let's weed them out now. Because if that offends you, you cut down your own son.

And that changed my perspective on worship. I remember another lady up front, she was just like crying and like, well, this is kind of distracting. And afterwards in talking to her, I don't know how long, but some type of, remember crack, you know, addiction? And God broke it out of her.

She got her kids back from DCSF. And so she might be a little excited, guys, right? I mean, come on. Who told us Christianity is just dry, dead, sitting in a cemetery instead of in the house of the living God? Where things actually might be revived.

And sinners, when a sinner meets a holy God, you might hear people begin crying out and running to the altar. And because that's God breaking. And I would even submit to you, that's a healthier church.

That is a healthier New Testament church than many churches where you just come in, do your thing, a few songs, don't get carried away, don't get emotional, and we'll see you next week. Shouldn't we come expecting God to move? I can give you lots of stories like that. One I've told you before is when I came up, I don't know if Blessing was helping with worship that night, but when you know, it's like, this is holy ground.

People just come to the altar on their own. People are kneeling. They're crying.

It's like, I'm not even going to preach. It's time for me to preach. I'm not going to preach.

We're just going to go in. We're just going to keep worshiping. And we did.

And one of the ushers afterwards said, oh yeah, it's funny, some guy got upset and left. I'm like, why? As he's leaving, he goes, I came here to hear preaching. Lord, help me.

What is wrong with these people? Like honestly, really? And you're going to leave? You love the truth. You don't love the Savior. Arrogant Pharisee.

I could just keep telling you stories. When God awakens a church, it upsets, doesn't it? Good friends that left here a couple of years ago, it hurt. They said, you've gone too charismatic.

I'm like, well, what does that mean? Because we haven't changed in 14 years. Maybe you've changed. But what does that even mean? We just want to be open to what God wants to do.

Sound doctrine meets the power of the Holy Spirit. But see, they're becoming uncomfortable. The call to morning worship.

The call to prayer. The call to extended worship. It's a little too uncomfortable.

Anybody relate? And it stirs that. So what do we need to do? We need to get back to the basics with Galatians. I say then, walk in the Spirit.

That's not easy. It's a choice. Like many of you, when I first read this 27 years ago, I came back to the Lord, I thought it was this feeling of euphoria.

And you're like, I'm walking in the Spirit. Nobody can knock me off track. Have you ever thought that? It's like, man, I'm in the Spirit.

Like this stage feels like I'm walking on clouds. And you're just, oh, it's so easy to walk in the Spirit. Actually, it's a little challenging.

Because something happens. You're gonna say, nope, not gonna go there. And you walk in the Spirit.

Did they just say that? You know what, I'm gonna walk in the Spirit. And you're choosing to walk in the Spirit. And as you walk in the Spirit, then you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

See, I feel it. I feel the lust of the flesh pulling me to pop off. Don't you? Come on, let's just, maybe I'm too transparent.

I'll switch gears. But we feel that and we say, no, I'm choosing to walk in the Spirit. So once you make that choice, you're not gonna fulfill it, bring it to completion, bring the sin to completion.

So as you walk in the Spirit, make the right choice, you do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And I don't have the whole list here, but look at the lust of the flesh. Hatred, contentious, when you're contentious, you're not walking in the Spirit.

Jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, what are dissensions? What we just talked about. Causing dissensions. That those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And I won't go into detail, but you know what I mean by practice such things, right? It's an unrepentant attitude. That's like who you are. And I have concerns.

Friends of mine, people I've known, recently had this conversation. For example, in this list too, if they just keep getting drunk and alcoholism and they keep doing it and they say they're Christian, but they never own it, they never apologize, think it's, hey, that's practicing. It's one thing to own it.

I've got to work on this. And you struggle. That's welcome to the Christian walk.

But it's the practicing. Not acknowledging that it's wrong and continuing in it. Another person, he's actually a really good friend of mine, a decade ago, you know the people that are so nice, you love them, but they just lie like it's, holy smokes, bro, you are just a liar, liar, liar, pants on fire.

Like everything from, I can't, it's just like, oh, this is, but the problem then got big. It got bigger. I would say, hey, can you handle this issue at church and call them and go, yeah, okay, I took care of it, we're good.

I'd run into the person, I'd say, no, no, nobody ever called me from the church. I'm like, oh, this is not gonna be good. But never owned it.

Left, never talked to them again. If you keep practicing that, that's a lying spirit that you keep practicing, it shows you've never genuinely repented. Because if you struggle, yeah, I struggle with that.

Yeah, I need help on that. Thanks for being transparent. That's my crack in the armor.

See, you can work with that. But to practice it and be unrepentant, that's why the Bible says adultery, homosexuality, those things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven if you practice them. How many men look at pornography and they don't really care? This is who they are.

As you're lusting in your heart, and if there's no repentance, you're practicing sin, it shows that your heart's, you're not saved. If you practice sin, unrepentant sin, it doesn't bother you. You have to really look at, am I saved? Because I don't know about you, but I have to go apologize to my wife even if I say something wrong, right? Because the conviction of the spirit won't let you, oh, man, I gotta fix this.

That's what the Holy Spirit does, it convicts you. And those caught in the same sex attraction or LGBTQ, if they say, yeah, this isn't right, according to God's Word, I need help, but it's my struggle, hey, we need to pray. But if they say, this is who I am, why is it called Pride Month? Why do you get a month, but our veterans get a day? Actually, it's like, I don't even know, they get like 200 days now.

It's like, it's pride. It's in your face. Pride and sexual perversion.

We'll change your children. Practice such things. Practice such things.

You will not, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So a Christian can't be gay? They can struggle with it and be repentant, but they can't embrace it and live the lifestyle? No, absolutely not. The Bible's clear.

Those who practice such things. So do you practice disunity? Some people like it. I don't know why, but they just can't wait to stir the pot.

Drama queens. Drama kings. They stir that pot.

Do you enjoy it? Do you look for the latest gossip? Because at the heart of disunity is rebellion. Always remember this. There's a deeper anointing.

There's a more powerful place of worship. There's a more prominent place of service that flows from unity. I'm tempted to either wait until next week, but you want me to get through this point now on disbelief? Okay, if you need to leave, you can exit quietly.

I understand. But I'm going to talk about this next revival killer. Disbelief.

Disbelief. Then we can be in the book of Acts again. The world says only the paranoid survive, but God says only the faithful, faith-filled will survive.

How is faith, how is belief, faith a principle of revival? Well, it's impossible to please God without faith. Seasons of revival come when God is pleased. Faith believes in God to act, but even if He doesn't, in the way that we think is best, we will not bow our knee to discouragement.

Discouragement always discourages revival. You will never see a person revive spiritually who's walking around like Negative Nelly. Or Judgmental Jerry.

They're just critical. They're not believing God to do anything. And it's hard to revive that heart because if you doubt that God will heal anybody, He probably won't.

If you believe that the USA is too far gone, then we probably are. If you believe that there is no hope for your marriage, then there probably isn't. See, belief plays a huge role.

Hebrews 12 says, we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. What's the context of that? In faith, in faith, in faith, Noah being warned by God, moved with reverence, moved with fear for the building of Anarchon, the saving of his family. Abraham moved by fear, moved by faith.

Rahab the harlot by faith. Joshua by faith. They conquered kings and they shut the mouth of lions by faith.

It's an incredible principle. I mean, if you look at all the stories, think about the faith of the father of the prodigal son. The faith.

The Bible actually says, he saw him from afar off. That tells me he's waiting. He's waiting for his son to come back.

He's waiting. He's looking. Is that my son coming over the hill? It looks like him the way he walks.

I've got faith. And that's why he said, my son who was lost has been found and he was dead, but he is alive again. The father exercised faith.

Oh, faith is hard to see, but it's easy to believe. Oh, what about the mother of the daughter who is possessed by a demon? Her faith. Her faith.

She went to Jesus and said, Heal my daughter. Was He receptive at first? Nope, I've only come to the house of Israel. Lord, even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the children's table.

Oh, woman, I have not seen this much faith. Not even in Israel. She didn't get offended.

She contended. She wasn't rude. She checked her attitude.

She didn't storm out. She pressed in. Think about it.

When we don't hear from God, or we don't think people treat us the way we should, or God didn't answer the way I thought, then we get offended. We get rude. We develop an attitude or we storm out and anger drives us.

Those things must be dealt with. Faith must be fueled. Build your faith.

Strengthen your faith. As I read before, two natures beat within my breast. The one is foul.

The one is blessed. The one I love, the one I hate, the one I feed will dominate. Christian, you've got to build your strength.

Build your faith. J.C. Ryle said, The child of God has two great marks about Him. He may be known by His inward warfare as well as His inward peace.

He is a child in the Father's home, but He's also a soldier in the Savior's war. Praise God. Faith is so important.

Faith, believe. Believe that God can restore. Believe that God can revive your home.

Believe that God can revive your heart. Maybe some of you need to break out of that depression this morning. Break out of that unbelief.

And I know I've been there. It's called a stronghold for a reason. Jesus actually said, I'm scared of this verse.

Peter, Satan has asked for you that he may sift yourself. Sift you as wheat. But I have prayed that your faith fell thee not.

The importance of faith. There's no faith without warfare. This is what I didn't know, guys.

I didn't know this, did you? You thought faith. Man, now I'm like, Jesus. And now I'm like, man, this is going to be great.

Life is going to be... I'm going to have my best life now. I'm going to be making money. This is... Wait a minute.

You realize it's warfare. It's warfare. There's no faith without warfare.

Faith waits on God. Faith worships. Faith hopes.

Faith prays. Faith seeks. Faith responds.

And I love that song. I had it for Thursday, but I really had it in these notes. Who else commands all the hosts of heaven? Who else could make every king bow down? Who else could whisper in darkness trembles? Only a holy God.

What other glory consumes like fire? What other power can raise the dead? And what other name remains undefeated? Only a holy God. But here's the line that really stood out. Come and behold Him.

Even when I don't feel like it. Even when I don't want to worship. Even when all hell is breaking loose.

Even when this is going on. It doesn't say when you feel like it. It says come and behold Him.

Come and behold the Savior. And be thankful. Be thankful He took your place on that cursed tree.

Thankful to God that Christians should not be walking around defeated and discouraged and with roots of bitterness. Christ saved me. He saved you.

He leads us. He listens. He comforts.

He encourages. Faith gets back up and it fights again. From streams in the desert, lift up the hands that hang down.

March straight through the flood, and lo, the waters will divide, the Red Sea will open, the Jordan will part, and the Lord will lead you through to victory. This is a wake-up call for when we don't feel like it. Can you imagine if we pressed in when we don't feel like it? I'm not feeling worship today.

I think the pastor was talking directly to me in his sermon. My husband must have talked to him. My wife must have talked to him.

This happened. That happened. We're just discouraged.

We're discouraged. I don't feel like it. And I want to end with this for those who might not have genuine saving faith.

Look at these three verses and I'll be done. Acts 17, the times of ignorance. God is overlooked, but now He's commanding all people everywhere to repent.

2 Peter, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So both groups of people in here, unbelievers and believers, we need to repent.

Repent to be revived either way. If you're an unbeliever, you need to repent to be revived spiritually, to have the new birth, to be born again. But if you're a believer and you've been there like I've been there, and you're dying spiritually, if we took a pulse, there isn't one.

A spiritual pulse. Your faith has dwindled. Discouragement has got the best of you.

Disunity is marking your life right now. You need to be revived. Repent of it.

Repent of it. John Calvin in his book, The Institutes, page 311 if you want to be precise, he said, can true repentance exist without faith? Huh, no. But although they cannot be separated, they ought to be distinguished.

So you can have faith as a Christian, but still repentance needs to take place. From the wrong heart, the wrong attitude, and say, Lord, create in me a clean heart. Renew the right spirit within me and let it begin with me today.

It's what I started with. Lord, send a revival and let it begin in me.