Rend Reminders To Remove The Blinders

There's something that happens that's pretty amazing when you begin to seek God more fervently. Have you noticed that your spiritual appetite increases? And when you're not doing that, the opposite effect happens. Our spiritual appetite decreases.

And it's such a blessing, even though it's difficult. We get tired, we get frustrated, the enemy attacks. And so what I decided to do, I was kind of sensing this already, but I threw it out to some of our team members and just take a break from Acts for a minute and talk about, since I'm assuming most of you weren't here every night, to kind of give a reminder or a sum up what we've been experiencing so far.

So I titled the message, Rend Reminders to Remove the Blinders. Rend Reminders to Remove the Blinders. I just saw, I'm sure many of you have seen this story.

I think it happened some time ago. I think it was in Australia. And it read that the woman jumped into swim with the polar bears during feeding time at a zoo.

Her blinders were not on. That's just beyond, it doesn't make any sense. And if we look at what's going on even in our country, there are clearly blinders on.

Things that are not allowing our eyes to see clearly. And so I'll cover a little bit Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, last night. And then tonight, I think probably is going to be hopefully a breakthrough night for some people because it'll be on seeking God.

Not a long message, but you've heard me talk about it many times before, seeking God. And the Bible says if you seek Him with all of your heart, with all of your strength, with all of your soul, what will happen? What will be the end result? You will find Him. And many times, it's a battle.

It's warfare. And we sometimes maybe make the mistake of thinking it will not be that hard if I just grin and bear it a little bit more. If I just try a little harder.

It's really not trying hard. It's about resting in Christ and then using that motivation to instill discipline into our lives. But as you know, if you're here Wednesday, Wednesday, Rend the Heavens, the topic was prayer.

Prayer. First night was prayer. And what we mean by Rend the Heavens is based on Isaiah 64, in case you're not sure what that means.

Isaiah the prophet pleaded, basically asked God to rend the heavens and come down and visit your people again. He goes on to say, let the mountains shake. Let the enemies of God tremble.

Now, he's not talking about a literal tear in the heavens where you can see this cut for thousands of miles. It's a term that they'd even use in the Old Testament like rend your hearts, not your garments. They would just rip their shirt.

You've probably seen that in the Passion of the Christ or other movies where the Pharisees, Jews would just rip their shirt in disgrace. And God says, do not rent your garments, rent your heart. It's really imagery to be bare before God, to rip open our heart and to ask God to move in a powerful way.

And when we ask God then to do the same thing, we're praying rip open the heavens. In other words, make it evident that you are here in this place. Come down and convict and draw people to you.

There's something significant that happens when God decides to shed a little bit more grace and mercy on the theme of revival into our hearts. There's an excitement and a joy, but it begins with prayer. Prayer, as I said, is the first step toward revival and it's the last step to maintaining it.

So prayer will revive you spiritually. And if you want to keep that fire burning on the altar of your heart, prayer is what maintains it. We have many physical images.

You make a fire at home, which you will be maybe this winter. And what do you have to keep doing? Come on guys, this is not too difficult. Keep the fire burning.

Logs, paper, kindle. Kindle? Yeah. Kindling.

Yeah, kindle sounded like Amazon. Kindling. Maybe some of us should throw that in there too, as well, our phone.

But we have to keep that fire burning in our hearts. And prayer is the pulse of the Christian. You check your heart rate.

Your pulse is what maintains our love for the Lord. It maintains our heartbeat. And we must pray this prayer, Lord, send revival and let it begin in me.

Revival is not a weird term. I actually had somebody pretty well known in the Christian community, I think a couple years ago said, you know, you might want to avoid that term and just say spiritual awakening because of so many negative things that have gone along with it. And that does make a little bit of sense, but it's thoroughly biblical.

The prophets cried for revival. Revive us again. Revive us again that we may rejoice in You.

Give us a measure of revival in our bondage. Oh God, revive Your work. Restore Your work.

Rend the heavens and basically come down and shake us to our core again. When it comes to prayer, what you put in is what you get out. What you put in is what you get out.

And as we're talking about the Holy Spirit and the book of Acts, I've shared this before, but I know some of you are new to that series, but we no longer have to wait for the Holy Spirit like they did in the upper room. They had to wait for days and days and days for the promise of the Father. We no longer have to wait.

Thank God that salvation and that Holy Spirit coming inside of us is instantaneous. But more often than not, we do have to wait for the fullness, for the filling of the Spirit. Nobody pulls up to a gas station and puts gas in for two seconds.

It's filling and filling and filling and filling. Many times we have to do that. And sometimes it's a choice.

Paul said, be filled with the Spirit. It's a choice sometimes to say, I know I'm not going to take that route, Lord. I'm repenting, that's not good.

And we choose what the Holy Spirit would want us to do. And those choices help to fuel us. But the opposite choices are like taking a drill underneath your car and drilling a hole in that gas tank.

And you get in your car to drive and there's no gas because it's been depleted. So prayer is the best thing for us. We know this, but it's so difficult, isn't it? Isn't it so difficult? Because it doesn't appeal to the flesh.

It does not appeal to the flesh. What's it appeal to? The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I've given this example before, and many of you know, but if we said, hey, tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., we have a prayer meeting.

How do you think that would do attendance-wise compared to, hey, since he's in town for the World Series, what's the guy's name from Japan? Otani? He's actually gonna be here at six. Who's sleeping out front in a tent to be by the front door since it only holds a certain amount of people? Well, what's the motivation there? And so you have to dig deep and find that motivation to pursue God. And I didn't know this early on.

And I was always looking for feelings. Anybody else? I just wanna feel good all the time. I wanna feel like praying.

I wanna feel it during worship. And that has to be built because it's not instilled naturally. And actually, the more you fight the feelings and do what is right, you'll be strengthened even more in your faith.

Joy and peace will follow that step of obedience. That's why there's so many Scriptures. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

That means it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be difficult. Some have to pay the price for the benefit of all moms, dads, grandparents.

Some of you might need to increase that prayer life. Pay the price. Set that time aside.

Get a prayer closet at home and begin paying that price. And whenever you are called to pay the price, the enemy always provides an alternative route. So anytime you make that decision, you make that decision, there's an alternative route often that the enemy will get you sidetracked on.

And often it's because life happens. The number one enemy I think to really pursuing God is a four-letter word that starts with B, busy. Busy B. And our phones don't help.

We thought they would help. Didn't we? Streamline everything. You can get in a car and drive and you'll be somewhere quickly.

But actually, it's added more to our lives. And it's prevailing prayer that perseveres. So when it comes to prayer and asking God to rend your heart, rend the heavens in my home, in this church, in this valley, in California, when we're asking God to do that, it's going to require perseverance and to keep knocking on that door.

I'm gonna read this quote from Gene Easley. I love it. I like to read his book probably once a year.

He said, that the spiritual battle in which the Christian is engaged is fierce. Anybody agree? If not, then I wonder what side of the battle line you're on. It's no game.

Satan is intent upon destroying the presence of Christ from our lives. There are no vacations from spiritual warfare. That is why the fire must be kept burning.

So once you make a commitment to follow Jesus, once you begin to pray and you begin to pray for others, the enemy, he can't read our thoughts or know the future, but he will do what he can to sidetrack us and to get us dismayed and discouraged and discontent. Those DI words. Prayer will keep that fire burning and the passion blazing.

Prayer will keep faith from faltering and it will strengthen strength from failing. Did you catch that? Prayer keeps your faith from faltering and it keeps your spiritual strength from failing. Prayer is the heartbeat.

As the life of the flesh is actually in the blood, the life of the Christian is in their prayer closet, in their time with prayer. A.W. Tozer said, when faith ceases to pray, faith ceases to live. You show me somebody dwindling down, they're discouraged, they're discontent, and I will show you a prayer life that is probably not happening.

Maybe short little bursts of prayer here and there, but they've got to get back to what Jesus said. Close the door. Turn everything off, of course.

I'm sure they apply that. And just seek God with all of your heart. Prayer will rebuild the broken and it will heal the hurting.

But Shane, I don't see it right now. I see the opposite. That's why you have to persevere even more.

Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen. So when we pray in faith, when we ask God for certain things, as long as they line up with His will, we might not see the results right away. There's times where it could be a lifetime.

But we keep persevering, we keep pushing through. And I briefly touched on Jesus' prayer when He said, in this manner, therefore pray. I don't know about you, but I find it amazing that Jesus teaches us how to pray.

And wouldn't you think it would take up like a whole book of the Bible? Jesus' prayer journal. Or just this good-sized letter. That He'd do this, and make sure this, and make sure this.

He actually just said, begin with our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. So from this, that's where we get the fear and reverence for God. It has to begin with fear and reverence for God.

I just preached a message last night that was pretty tough on repentance. Genuine repentance. And it's hard for me to understand how people can leave hearing that, just kind of walk away callous, and continue in sin.

Because there's no fear of God in this place. Of course there is in the church, I'm not talking, but Abraham even said that. Abraham, when he was in that area, he said there's clearly no fear of God in this place.

Clearly there is no reverence for God in our nation and what's going on. There is no reverence for God in the White House. Do you remember when they put the rainbow flag colors on the White House? God help us.

That's mockery. That's blasphemy. Where's the fear and reverence? So in order to get your prayer closet right, and your heart ready for prayer, you've got to again get that fear of God in your heart.

What's the best way to do it? Open Genesis and end in Revelation. Open Genesis and end in Revelation, you'll start to see, my goodness, God is awesome. God is on the throne.

Nobody messes with God. He is an all-consuming fire. He breathes and armies are defeated.

He speaks the Word and demons are delivered from the person. What amazing, even the demons feared God more than many Americans. The demons.

I love how they would whimper to Jesus, don't you? When you read that, please, please, don't throw us into the abyss just yet. They couldn't back talk, they couldn't try to fight. They had to submit at the Word of Jesus Christ because there was fear and reverence.

God Almighty, just take some time maybe and look at what NASA has found out there. I mean, it's one thing to say, okay, God created the earth, but when you get beyond that, my mind explodes, like that is just absolutely amazing. Awesome.

That God commands respect and reverence. It's incredible. But we must begin our prayer with fear and reverence.

Can you imagine if pastors now would begin their prayer with fear and reverence for God before even preparing a sermon? Because a lot of times, this will be cool, this will be good, I found this story, I found this illustration, I'm gonna sound like this motivational speaker and I just want people to like me and I wanna be popular and I wanna get a lot of likes and there's no fear and reverence for God. Because if you truly understand what you're doing, you are preaching, you are actually saying, this is what God's Word says and this is how we should respond. I don't know if there's anything as serious on planet earth than saying, thus saith the Lord.

Not opinion, but opening up the Scripture with the fear and trepidation before God. As a matter of fact, the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is to fear God. You wanna know a lot, you wanna be wise in this world, fear God.

And so that's how he starts a prayer. Pray like this, hallowed be your name and then your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Isn't it interesting, it's all about God at first, not us.

I don't know about you, but when I begin to pray, I sometimes forget that and it becomes about what I want, what I need, what I think. And that's okay if it flows from the initial foundation of prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this is an acknowledgement of His sovereign reign.

His sovereign reign, God is sovereign. Anytime I forget that, guess what begins to drive my thoughts? Fear. And when fear drives my thoughts, I'm out the exit.

And I'm not coming back, but God's sovereignty. And that's why I'm posting a lot, I'm reminding people, no matter what happens on November 5th, our motto is His sovereignty is our sanity. Okay, you gotta get that in you first.

Because if it's not, I also wanna do some videos I'm praying about when I wanna take some notes on, how should a Christian act if Kamala Harris wins? How should a Christian act if Donald Trump wins? Because if Kamala Harris wins, a Christian should keep being a Christian, do what we do, encourage people, preach repentance. Nothing's gonna really change in our hearts. We are there to be the salt in the light.

The salt keeps things preserved. The light illuminates. And if it's Donald Trump, people should not gloat and in your face and mock.

What I'm becoming very aware of is people, for the wrong reasons, it's clearly a lie, they are worried. I mean, they're like a lot of people on the left, Keith Overman, have you heard of that name? And I'm following him on Twitter. I'm like, Donald Trump's gonna lock us up and concentrate.

What are you doing? Where do you get this information from? And engaging people, they're genuinely scared. So do we fuel that or say, hey guys, don't worry, let us pray for you? And we are an encouragement, not a mocker. Not a mocker.

He's the greatest threat to our Constitution. No, I'd say the other side's kind of doing that. And so you speak the truth in love and no matter who it is, we're not mockers and we're not getting depressed.

We're not getting calling of arms and fighting. It has to be God's sovereignty is your sanity. Am I nervous to wake up on the sixth? Yeah, a little bit, because fear comes in.

Maybe a lot of you are off the radar, but loudmouths like me preaching the Gospel, they're gonna be up on that list along with X and Twitter and Elon Musk. They're gonna silence voices. You guys realize that this is the most important election ever in the history of America, by far.

People say, well, you always say that. Well, what happens is it gets progressively worse, progressively worse, progressively worse to now where we're in this complete annihilation of Christian values and just calling perversion good. How can you get behind murdering babies? Don't worry, I can rebuke both parties.

I'm not afraid. This is just amazing that people are not really aware of what's going on. It's a spiritual battle.

Give us this day our daily bread, which is our daily need. Guys, don't miss that point on sovereignty. I just feel so strongly about that because most Christians who are fearful and worried are not trusting in God's sovereignty.

Very rarely are they mentioning God's sovereignty. They're talking about their bomb shelter bunker underneath their property. I can make it six months.

Listen, if you have to go live down there for six months, we've got way worse problems on our hands than canned soup, having enough canned soup. We have to trust in that sovereignty because God, you're on the throne. It pushes fear out.

Here's why. Obviously, obviously, whoever's leading our nation, God did not, it didn't catch God off guard. He's not going, oh man, I didn't plan on that one.

So as hard as it is, it's the truth that whatever He allows, we cannot become unthankful and ungrateful and bitter because God allows it. God allows it. And I truly believe that what happened in 2020, God was waking up the church, humbling the church, humbling the believer.

And we see just how chaotic things get. And if it is Kamala, I believe that God is a judgment, a hard judgment is on America. If it's Trump, then I believe God's giving us a season of grace and mercy.

Here's why. I don't get behind people, I get behind policies. And when you can appoint Supreme Court justices, when you can put people over the board of education that are gonna pray and get rid of this transgender, perverted ideology and make it, that's what I'm concerned about.

I'm concerned about people in positions of authority, governing, protecting. Just came up this morning, somebody didn't like a comment I made. I like about the borders, right? But Shane, what about loving our enemies or doing good and bringing water to? Well, that's my personal commandment.

That's not the government's commandment. You need to restudy the Bible. The calling of the government by God Himself is to restrain evil.

That's what they're supposed to do. Now as believers, as believers, we are called to support and to love and to help others. So many people apply the verses to individuals to the institution of government.

Are you telling me that we turn our cheek to China and Putin and Russia? No, that's a misapplication of the Scriptures. Trusting in God's sovereignty. And then pray, give us our daily bread, our daily need.

What do we need today? Not what we want. Uh-oh. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Repentance. Repentance. And do not lead us in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.

That is warfare. That is warfare. And just to remind you from the Old Testament prophet, you know this famous verse, the weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper.

When you're praying and you're pleading the blood of Christ over your family and you're doing battle with the darkness and you're asking God to come and bless your family and give you wisdom and prayer becomes your heartbeat, your spiritual heartbeat, your prayer closet becomes one of your favorite places. The Bible says the weapon will be formed, but it will not prosper. So the enemy is forming weapons against us.

So what tilts the scale? How does he get that fiery dart in to our heart? How does his weapon prosper when we walk away from God's covering? We walk away from his protection, away from his shelter. And then Pastor Abraham talked about perseverance. Perseverance.

I never knew how important this was. Anybody else? The Christian faith actually is about perseverance. My goodness, perseverance.

What does that word mean exactly? Well, it means moving forward in spite of obstacles, delays, disappointments, and negative circumstances. Wait a minute, I have to keep moving forward in God's word and what he calls me to do even when there's things in my way? Obstacles in my way? I'm supposed to keep moving forward even when there's delays? Man, delays are difficult too because we're waiting and we're waiting and we're getting tired. And I don't know how many years, maybe a couple years ago, we were on the five freeway and it was packed.

And you know you're in trouble when the highway patrol in front of you is like this? He's slowing down. He's getting slower. And then we were the first car out of miles that had to wait.

Just sitting there, there's an empty freeway. Delayed, delayed, delayed. And as a Christian, why that's so challenging is because if you're like me, you kind of have an idea.

Okay, Lord, I'm going to pray, I'm going to fast for a couple weeks and I want to see some results. And a couple weeks go by and there's no results. Actually, things are more difficult, more challenging.

And you get hit with these delays and these setbacks. What about disappointments? You know everything's kind of going good and you get that text, you get that email. Something's happened in your own spiritual life, in your heart, and there's a disappointment or circumstances, all hell is breaking loose.

So in the midst of all this, I've got obstacles, landmines I've got to walk around in. And now I'm actually walking forward, not backward. Now I've got to watch out for these things.

Now I've got circumstances. A very expensive violin is by me and I don't want to knock it over. And so this is a Christian life.

This is a Christian walk. Perseverance. And so the sooner you teach your children that, the more apt and ready they'll be prepared for what may come ahead of them.

Persevering, persevering. To what we love that verse from Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Isn't that, I mean, if you just think about this, even though God kills me, I will still trust you.

Even if I go and the doctor says, I need to talk to you. This is, it's all throughout your body. All throughout your body.

Get your home in order a couple months, maybe. That's going to test the faith. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.

And I will tell you a little secret up front. You don't live in carnality and lukewarmness and rejecting God and no prayer life. And that happens to you and you instantly feel that way.

You're actually going to get really fearful, really bitter, really upset. But if you've been walking in the sovereignty of God, you've been praying, you've been keeping that fire on the altar lit. I think that's what the title is tonight, actually.

If you've been keeping that lit, when you get that news, when you get that news, doesn't mean you take it well, amen? I mean, I know I talk a good talk, but if I got that call, that's when the rubber meets the road. But I hope based on what God's been putting in our hearts that when moments like that come, that we can say, though he slay me, yet will I trust him and mean it. Lord, we know You can heal.

We know You can change course. I don't know what brought this about, but I trust You and You alone. Here's what else is amazing.

I've talked to people who've experienced that. Some have been healed. I believe in the God who heals.

I remember, I don't want to say her name in case we don't have permission, but we showed the slide up there a couple years ago. Was it a couple years ago? The cancer was everywhere. I mean, it's like little white spots throughout her whole body.

And they were just asked if the elders could anoint oil and pray over her and then the last test, and then when she got the results, and we looked at the other scan, it was gone. And so it was like, I think stage four. And so you know God can do that.

Now, it may be the exception rather than the rule. There's so many things that go into play on that. I did a YouTube video if you want to search for it.

When God heals and doesn't heal. And there's about seven things from Scripture that we have to look at. It's not just one thing.

There's so many different dynamics because sometimes it's due to sin. Did He just say that? Sometimes, not all the time. Sometimes it's a demonic attack.

Sometimes it's the body getting older and it's part of the curse. Sometimes God is wanting to do a very deep work in our heart and that doesn't happen until we're losing everything. God knows, though He slay me, yet why trust in perseverance? I love James 1. Many of you know it.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. That's the time to remain steadfast under trial. During when the weight is heavy.

It's kind of disputed, so I don't say it all the time, but depending on who you read and where you get your information. But it is said that Martin Luther, do you know that name, Martin Luther? In the year 1517, he was a Roman Catholic monk who read the Bible with open eyes and got to the faith that God justifies, so those who trust in Him, the just shall live by faith, put his faith in God and receive the fire of the Spirit. And then he began to challenge the Roman Catholic Church.

That's where the term reformation comes from. It means reforming. Reforming what was going on in the church.

So many wrong doctrines, and that's where the 95 Thesis came from. He nailed the 95 Thesis on the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. And challenged all kinds of things, indulgence, different things that were just not in Scripture.

And that's why you have to be very careful, even now I tell Roman Catholics, be very careful, make sure you look at what you believe. Just do your own research. You don't pray to Mary, you don't pray to saints, you don't go to purgatory, you don't have to go to a priest.

Mary's not co-redeemer, it's not perpetual virginity of marriage. There's a lot of stuff that's not in the Bible. Be very careful.

And he had his faults as well. He was anti-Semitic in many cases, against the Jews often. And you can read his bio and things like that to figure out why, but the bottom line is, in that time, they would actually execute you if you went against the church.

Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church killed a lot of Christians? Something they don't want to talk about, I think they apologized decades ago. Queen Mary, Spanish Inquisition, lots of things because you could not challenge the false doctrine. Or you would be burned at the stake.

Anybody have the Whitecliff Bible? Or is it the Tyndale? Anybody have books from Tyndale Publishing House? That comes from William Tyndale. These people would try to translate the Bible into the common tongue of the people. You'd think that would be a good idea, wouldn't you? No.

Keep it in Latin to control the audience. And many of them were killed, burned at the stake. So here is Martin Luther in hiding, translating the Bible into German, using Jerome's Vulgate and different texts to do that.

And they found him. And they said, recant what you've been writing. And he said, here I stand, I can do no other.

That's pressure. I don't know if you've ever considered what it's like to be burned at the stake, but that could be a little depressing. Your feet are bound, your hands are bound behind the stake.

And you're standing on a lot of wood, and they light it up. They kill you as a scare tactic to others as well. Warfare in the spiritual realm, perseverance.

James is so true, remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test of time, he will receive the crown of life. I want the crown of life now.

I don't want to be tested. But really, a faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted. We forget that the building of our faith comes as a result of trials.

The stronger a person's faith is, they've been through a lot of trials. Galatians 6.9, and let us not grow weary in doing good. For in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.

Do not give up. And that's why you've got to strengthen yourself in the Lord. Don't wait for a pastor.

Don't wait for your favorite worship song. You've got to strengthen yourself in the Lord and say, Lord, I can't grow weary. I will reap eventually, and I don't want to give up.

And it's through the weeks, and sometimes the months, and sometimes through the years of just pressing forward and pressing forward. That's genuine faith. That type of faith pleases God, because He knows they can't see the results.

There's no fruit. They're simply trusting Me because of who I am, not what they can get. That's powerful faith.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Count it all joy, my brother. This is tough for me.

When you fall into various trials, wait a minute, count it all joy. Usually trials produce anger. And it's okay not to like the trial.

You get that letter from the IRS that you're going to be audited. You don't have to jump up and down and get excited because that would be false and fake, wouldn't it? But you say, all right, Lord, keep my attitude in check. Help me with this.

Maybe the IRS agent needs me to witness to them. I don't know. But Lord, I'm going to count it joy because You're sovereign and You're still on the throne.

Count it all joy. What about a relational challenge or something breaks down in your vehicle and it doesn't give us an idea of what it is. It just says a trial of any kind.

It could be even demonic opposition in your life and in your heart. Know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. What is steadfastness? It's like taking a piece of wood and just 20 nails, nailing it into the other piece of wood.

It's fastened. It's steadfast. And when you do that, you'll be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

And then Hebrews 12 about perseverance. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings to us so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Endurance means you're going to have to endure.

It comes from a word that's like pressure is on you and you have to keep walking forward. Endurance. In 1 Chronicles, seek the Lord and His strength.

Seek His presence continually. Perseverance, guys, is so important. And then we talked about posture.

Our posture is very important, which is humility. Humility is an incredible verse, I think on Friday nights. To reach the high and lofty one, you must humble yourself.

For thus says the high and lofty one. Isn't that a cool way to word God? Because the Bible, they have to use words like we do. They said, he says, thus says, this is what God says, the high one, the lofty one, He inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

His very name is holy. The angels cry, holy, holy, holy. We're called to live holy, holy, holy.

And that holiness is a standard. And He says, I dwell in a high and holy place with Him who has a contrite and humble spirit. And I will revive the spirit of the humble.

And I will revive the heart of the contrite one. Do you need to be spiritually revived this morning? Have you considered humbling yourself? Have you considered humbling yourself before God? Well, how do I know if I need to do that? Well, the enemy's probably planting excuses into your mind right now. Pride is that deadly thing.

I don't remember what the saying is. It's like pride's the only disease where everybody sees you have it, but you don't see you have it. Humble ourselves before God.

Dads, fathers, husbands, do you need to humble yourselves? Wives, moms? Do you need to humble yourselves? Kids, humble yourself before God. In due time, He will exalt you. But if you exalt yourself, He will humble you.

Humility is so important. You remember that story I told, I think a few years ago here, about Muhammad Ali? He was on an airplane. And he was at the height of his career.

You remember him? Anybody who doesn't know who he is, you're probably younger. One of the most famous boxers of all time. He was on an airplane, and the flight attendant said, Mr. Ali, would you please fasten your seatbelt? And he said, Superman don't need no seatbelt.

And she said, Superman don't need no airplane. Whether that actually happened, I don't know, but it's a great story, isn't it? But isn't that pride? We think certain things. Humbling ourselves before our spouse and our children.

A great step is to say I was wrong. I need help in this area. Would you pray for me? God, this is not right in Your sight.

This attitude is not right in Your sight. I need to work on this. God, I humble myself before You.

Proverbs 11, when pride comes, then comes disgrace. But with the humble, there is wisdom. Humble yourself, James says, before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you. Listen, I've seen this more times in ministry than almost any other thing. People who want to promote themselves, the self-promoters.

Right? Let me lead worship one Sunday. I'll tear it up. No, you probably won't.

But it's those who are humble that God begins to put there. Leading women's ministry or men's ministry or Bible studies, or even teaching now and then, or all these areas, God begins to... Who can stop God? Who can stop God? Have you thought about that? If God wants to promote, He'll promote. Over 14 years, I've had people, they've left the church and they've said that.

You didn't let me lead worship. You didn't let me speak. You think little Shane Eidelman is going to stop what God wants to do? Could you maybe need to go home and look in the mirror and deal with that pride? Because I'm actually not called to help boost your pride.

We're called to help you grow spiritually. Sometimes that requires a two-letter word. No.

No. You'd be amazed at what happens when people hear that word. The true colors come out.

Genuine humility or contentious pride. Well, I'll just go and find a place that will let me do my gifting. You can let God promote.

We're all for God promoting. But be careful when you promote yourself. The Lord will exalt you.

Micah, I love this one. God has told you. God has told you what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you? Lord, what's Your will for my life? I don't know. I'm confused. It says, do justice.

Be a just person. Righteousness. Fair.

To be kind to others and to walk humbly with your God. Walk humbling with your God. Ephesians 4, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

Why is that so hard for us? We're called to bear with each other in love. That tells me people are going to tick you off. Anybody not go to church because you're offended? Nobody in the whole service? Balcony? Anybody ever avoid... I know we struggle with that, don't we? But I have to go.

There's no way out of it for me. Offended or not, I've got to be here. But when you work through it, something beautiful happens.

We bear with one another. We err on the side of grace. If you err on the side of judgment and you start forming opinions and the enemy will use that, like fuel and push you away from fellowship.

It's very discouraging to watch when it happens. And then of course, our favorite verse here, 2 Chronicles 7.14, if my people humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways. And I don't share a lot of names and things here, but I do reach out to some of the conservative voices.

And I say, guys, you're not helping things. You're just as arrogant as the other side. Tit for tat, mocking, mocking, mocking, mocking.

What's wrong with you? We're supposed to be Christians filled with the Spirit of God? Doesn't resemble it. It does not resemble it. One of our leaders put out a tweet, I hate Taylor Swift.

I'm like, that's not a good idea. What is going on? Hopefully it's a mistake. I don't know, but we're not bearing with one another.

We're not wording things just right. That's a strong language for believers especially. 1 Peter 5.6, humble yourself.

By the way, I don't hate her. We pray for her. We love all people.

Very discouraged at her influence on young people, but we don't hate. We hate the sin, we hate what the enemy is doing, but we're called to love those who are stuck in that sin. And 1 Peter says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and due time, He will exalt you.

Just like James, isn't it? And then finally, I talked briefly, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it because we're getting close here. I talked on repentance last night. Repentance.

Why is repentance so important on this theme of revival? And I'm not talking about a corporate revival. I'm talking, if I could go through this room and we could do surveys, a lot of people need to be spiritually revived. They need to be spiritually revived.

What repentance does, it opens the well springs of living water. What's a well spring? A well spring is a source of continual supply. Did you know there's, I can't even fathom how many gallons of water underneath us in the earth.

And there are some areas that are springs. It's a well spring. It just keeps springing up.

It just keeps going up into the dirt and up to the top surface. And ironically, the Bible says, we've got a river of life flowing out of me. Right? Remember that song when you were little? Am I dating myself? I do remember that one.

Everybody's clapping. I've got a river of life flowing. Maybe the worship team can do it.

I don't know. I'm not gifted to sing. But there is something in you, which if you've been in the book of Acts, I've talked about a lot.

Jesus said when you believe on Him, what's going to flow out? Anger? Bitterness? Oh my goodness. Mr. Scrooge. A lot of Christians look like Scrooge.

Don't they? Just kind of bitter, kind of critical. Where's the well spring of living water? Where's that joy unspeakable? Where's that spiritual life? Now, I'm not preaching at you. I'm talking to all of us because the devil likes to clog up that spring well in my life too.

But something's got to burst it open and that's often repentance. Repentance. Changing your mind about your current situation and your current mental state and saying, Lord, I'm wrong, I repent.

It's not about self-improvement. It's about renouncing sin and turning from it. Very clear.

John Rice, an old Baptist preacher, he said there is no way you can please God. No way you can have sweet communion with Him to get your prayers answered if you are in rebellion against the known will of God. If you were here last night, I kept that quote out for a few days and I'm like, you know what though? It's true.

It's true. Absolutely true. If we're knowingly rebelling against God's will and we know He's called us to maybe let an offense go, ask for forgiveness, forgive others, and we're holding that in, that's going to be hard to get your prayers answered because often God is not in a hurry.

He says, I'll wait, I've got eternity. And if you're like me, I think eventually God will change His mind. Don't you? It's been weeks, months, Lord, come on.

Let's make a deal. Let's make a deal. Nope, it's never let's make a deal.

He says, this is the deal. This is the deal. And last night, this was so striking to me.

It just came out October 22nd. It's a big study of Christians. It finds that the majority of practicing Christians admit to viewing porn and many are comfortable with the habit.

Okay, I just have to say this. Didn't upset anybody last night, but it might today. If you're comfortable in sin, you're not saved.

I can talk to you about this till I'm blue in the face with lots of Scriptures. It doesn't mean you don't struggle, but the fact that it's a struggle, there's a conviction, it quenches the spirit, there's a fight going on. But if you're comfortable with it, it's no big deal.

What does comfortable mean? It means enjoying contentment, free from stress or tension. A true believer in sin is not free of tension. It actually brings tension.

And they're miserable because of the tension. It's the fight within. It's the battle within.

I want to break free of this. I'm convicted. This is wrong.

Yeah, it's no big deal, I'm comfortable. Be very careful, check your heart. Do you truly know Jesus or do you only know about Him? Do you truly know Jesus or do you only know about Him? Maybe that's something you even think about this morning.

How many of us truly know Jesus versus about Him? I'm just going to leave you with this final thought because tonight I'm talking about seeking God. And the title is The Day the Fire Fell. How is seeking God a principle of revival? It keeps the fire lit or it lights it for the first time.

And you guys can see up there about seeking God. We are waiting on God, but is God waiting on us? Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually, continually.

Here's why this topic is so important because like you, you're seeking God, right? You're at church and you're seeking God. Things are going okay, it's kind of difficult. You got some prayer in today.

You did a daily devotional. You're feeling pretty good, right? You're seeking God and then all hell breaks loose. You're either hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.

The devil comes in opportune time and all that traction you made is gone and now I'm way away from God. The camera guys hate me, but that's all right. Right, what happened? Because you have to seek God continually.

Seek God continually and Lord, I'm seeking you. Okay, the devil got me there, but I'm back on track. I'm seeking you continually.

I'm gonna get into my prayer clothes. I'm gonna repent. I'm gonna worship and then man, Lord, I'm just hit with this thing and I blew it again and now I'm just kind of blown back this direction.

But God, I'm gonna keep seeking you continually even if I have to limp from the last battle, even if I've got some shame and guilt on my face, I'm gonna keep seeking you continually and continually. Oh, the devil just got me. That was a hard right hit.

Oh my goodness, did they just give me divorce papers? And I'm hit, but you know what? Though he slay me, yet why trust him? I'm gonna keep seeking him and seeking him knowing that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Oh, I gotta stop or I'll have all my notes gone for tonight. You will seek me and you will find me.

When God's, I'm more certain of that than I am the sun coming up tomorrow, honestly. When God says it, it's written and it's absolute. God cannot lie.

God won't change His mind. He says, I will not change. I don't lie, I will not change.

Once I set absolute truth in motion, it's the foundation of our lives. You will seek me, and if you seek me, you will find me. You will find me.

So anybody, and I've heard over the years hundreds of, some excuses are valid, okay? Let's not, well, just suck it up. Hey man, I'm struggling with a depression. Well, just think joyful thoughts and read Scripture.

Well, sometimes that's a real thing and we can't just blow it off. But I do know that God says, if you seek me, you will find me. When you seek with me, when you seek me with all of your heart, all of your heart.

That means finances and relationships. Because a lot of times we seek God, but not with all of our heart. I'm not gonna give that up.

I like going to bed at midnight. And it affects me seeking you in the morning, but that's okay, that's my one little vice. But Lord, I love, I love this and this.

I kind of love money. I kind of, you know, I wanna seek you, but see, often it's not with all of our heart. All of our heart says, Lord, all areas of my life are yours.

My finances, my marriage, my parenting, my attitude, my actions, how you've designed me. Lord, I'm gonna seek you with all of my heart and with all of my strength, and with all of my soul. And at some point, ah, you will find me.

The breakthrough will come. And what's hard is we compare it to other people. Sometimes people seek God for weeks, and the rivers of living water finally flow freely.

Other people have been seeking it for months, and they're like, Lord, what's going on? And it's almost like he's saying, just keep on, just keep on, just keep persevering, just keep remaining steadfast. Maybe greater, maybe the greater the struggle, the greater the blessing. Could it be? But I'll talk more about that tonight, but I just wanna remind you of where we left off with, we had four spontaneous baptisms last night, and we never know where people are at.

If you need to make that decision, you need to make that decision this morning, that we have to get our lives right with the Lord now. There's no guarantee of tomorrow. So if you've never repented of your sin and sought God, make sure you do that this morning.

The Bible says just confess that Jesus is Lord. Repent that you need Him. God, I need Him, I need You, I'm changing my ways.

I'm looking to You and You alone. I've been a sinner, I've been caught in sin, even though I thought I was a Christian, even because I did the right things, but I never had that relationship with You. I'm lacking that relationship.

I need that this morning. Let us know, let us know in the prayer room, we'd love to baptize you today, or we can schedule it tonight, if you want to invite people or bring back clothes, even though we do have clothes you can change into. We'd love to baptize you.

Even maybe you were baptized as a kid or a little baby, it didn't mean anything, and you wanna finally dedicate your life to the Lord, because it means death, burial, and resurrection. The old man is dead, the new man is that life in Christ.