Till The Soil Of Your Heart

And the theme is rend the heavens. Rend the heavens for a week. What is the prophet asking God to do? Isaiah 64 Oh God, rend the heavens.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens. That means to me something is shut. It's shut.

Have you ever been to that spot? Lord, I can't hear You. I can't feel You. I can't see You moving.

Lord, I'm barren. I'm dry. I'm dead.

I'm lifeless. He said, oh, that You would rend the heavens. Now, I think he probably said that a little louder.

I don't think this is a quiet text to you. Do you ever get to that spot? You get emotional sometimes out of desperation. And that's why desperation can be good.

Oh God, would You rend the heavens. Do something in my life. Do something in my heart this week.

That You would come down, that the mountains might shake at Your presence. And even the brushwood, which is the undergrowth under trees and different things, that would be consumed just like water is boiled by the fire. And that would make Your name known to Your adversaries that the nations may tremble at Your presence.

In other words, Isaiah's writing in a time where the southern and northern kingdoms were divided and the armies were coming because God was allowing Israel to be judged because of their sin. And he's saying, oh God, come down and visit Your people again like You used to do when the nations would tremble in Your presence. And when that happened, it was evident.

It was powerful. It was life altering. Guys, that's what we're doing.

We're asking God to rend the heavens in our hearts. And when He does, it is life changing. It is life altering.

One moment in the presence of God will change you forever. And again, many of you are new. Maybe you haven't heard me talk about this.

It can be a confusing topic sometimes, but to clarify, we know that God is everywhere. We're not asking God to come down from heaven because you're hiding and you're not really here. We're asking that His tangible presence be felt in our hearts and in our lives, that we get touched by God.

Lord, because maybe you don't know. Some of you do know, some of you don't know, but there's something very significant that happens when God's presence is literally felt. And that's why I'm not against emotionalism.

I'm against emotionalism for the sake of emotionalism. For example, let's get some loud music and some, what are those? They make smoke? Or you can hit that chord. Because lyrics in a song, you can get emotional.

I get emotional during the national anthem. How about you? There's nothing wrong with that though if it's pointed to God and you begin to get emotional over God. God gave us emotions so we could experience Him.

Thank God we're not robots. Can you imagine how boring life would be? And it's a good reminder, it's never too late to be what you might have been. That's why we're also here this week because I know a lot of people think, but Shane, I would have done that or I could have done that.

I'm living in regret. I've missed years, I've missed decades. But we believe that it's never too late to be what you might have been.

So what do I mean by prepare the soil of your heart? Well, when God would talk about hard hearts, hard soil, plow up the soil, the fallow ground, for it's time to seek the Lord again. So the image is God raining down, and God would often use images because we know He's Spirit and those who worship Him worship Him in spirit and truth, but He talks about the mouth of God being the prophets or the right hand of God or the voice of God. And He's not a physical person other than revealing Himself in Jesus Christ.

But when He talks about tilling up the soil, the fallow ground that I'll get to in a minute, it's getting our heart ready like the soil would get ready for the rain. The rain can't get into hard soil very easily. It has to be tilled up, and that's what God wants us to do.

Psalm 4, 23, about preparing our hearts. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it, it springs the issues of life. In other words, guard that heart.

Guard your heart because it determines the course of your life. It's guarding the heart. It's allowing the heart to be tender towards God, to be teachable.

Oh, if we could get the church teachable again. You can learn so much from others, can't you? Teachable. Funny story about our juicer.

About a week ago, I could not get it to work, and I'm like sending it back, and my daughter looked at it and it's working. She prayed. She says she's prayed, it's working fine.

Wow, okay, so I get it out today and before service, and it's not working. I'm running to Walmart, I'm getting new, and I'm sending this one back. And my daughter comes over, and she plugged the cord in a little bit better in the back.

And now it's working fine. I thought it was like one of those cords that are always in there, but it came loose. Being teachable, humbled.

It's a gift to be teachable and humble. I'm not perfect in that area. I know many of you aren't either, but we want to be teachable.

We want to be humble. And we have to guard our heart because a little drift is still a drift. It's often subtle.

And that's what gets us sometimes. You ever go up to the aqueduct, and it looks like it's not moving, but throw something in there? It's drifting. It'll be in Los Angeles eventually.

That little drift, that's what you have to guard against. And we see what's happening to Christian leaders and churches across our landscape. We're seeing that so many are just lukewarm, and the term now is woke that you're hearing a lot, or political correctness, or scandals, or moral failings.

And you have to wonder what's going on, but it's pretty simple. When the fire fades, the heart becomes lukewarm. And when the well of living water runs dry, that's what's happening.

It can happen in my life too. I'm preaching it, but that doesn't matter. You've got to live it.

And that's what happens when a person drifts is that fire fades and we become lukewarm. And that living water, Jesus said, drink of this and you will never thirst again. And from that, the old hymn came, Prone to Wander.

How many of you used to sing that song? Prone to Wander. Lord, I feel it. Do you ever feel that pull to wander away? And the reason we're prone to wander is because we're often driven to worship the wrong things.

Look at Deuteronomy 4.19. I encourage you to bring your Bibles too. I wouldn't use your phone, because texts will pop up. Instagram alerts, Facebook messages.

And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the hosts of heaven, you feel driven to worship them. There's a drive in us to worship something. That's why every continent in the world, every tribe of people, they're driven to worship something.

God has put that in our hearts. And so I want to look at real briefly Isaiah 1 since we're getting our text from Isaiah. And we see the main calling of a prophet is to till the soil.

That's what the prophetic books of the Bible, take time, read Isaiah and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and Daniel, and even the minor prophets, and you'll see often, maybe not as much in Daniel and a few others, but the whole thrust of their ministry was to till that soil. And I believe that's why God has given the church today. The Bible talks about some have called to be prophets.

Some have called to be evangelists. Some have called to be apostles. Some have called to be pastors, teachers.

And some of those words have taken on weirdness. Prophet such and such. Apostle such and such.

They've robbed God's Word of what it means. Apostle just means sent one. So when somebody's going out to plant a church, it's apostolic in nature.

When God calls someone to evangelize, their primary calling is to evangelize. Bring the good news to the lost. And they're going to have the Ray Comforts and the Frank Tureks and things.

They're going to have a different way of doing that. Pastor, teacher. Primarily, you think of the John MacArthur's.

When he came out with that study Bible, many people don't realize he's been working on that for decades. Saving those notes. Saving those commentaries.

That's his calling. And then there's others with this Isaiah, Jeremiah, you know, that prophetic edge that kind of rubs people the wrong way. It cuts where we don't want to be cut.

But we know we need to remove the cancer. And so, we're either receptive or we fight it. And that's why God has given those different types of ministry to the church.

And I believe you need all five of those to be healthy. In Isaiah 1, 1-2, He said, Hear, O heavens, this is God speaking. Give ear, O earth, listen, for the Lord has spoken.

I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against Me. The ox even knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know.

My people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord.

They have provoked God to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. Shane, that's intense.

Yes, I wanted to show you what many churches don't show you about the Bible. It's not all a bed of roses. It's not all God's love.

And just don't judge people. And just be encouraged all the time. It also, from time to time, it cuts.

Why? To till the soil of our heart. Listen, I've been speaking a while. We've seen a lot of people come and go.

And it's always the same story. People are either cut by God's Word and they change. And they're here at the altar.

Many of you I see and know. Or others, right? I'm never coming back. That guy, who does he think he is? Man, don't ever go to that church.

What happened? Same message. Same message. But the soil of the heart wasn't being tilled up.

It wasn't being broken up. Jeremiah 2.13 For My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me.

I am the fountain of living water, yet they have forsaken Me, and they have hewned out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Very important text. A well would be when they would go down and get the water.

But he said a cistern. A cistern would hold the rainwater. Much like what we have here in California.

Those reservoirs that hold the rainwater. And God's saying, they didn't want the living water that I can give them. They wanted to do things their own way.

And they built for themselves fake things. Things that were broken that would hold no water. And God says, My people have committed two evils.

They have forsaken Me and they've looked for fulfillment in things that do not satisfy. And because of this, verse 7, because of this, your country is desolate. Could be your life, maybe.

Maybe some of you listening, you need to hear this. Your life is that word desolate. Brings us back to that picture of instead of a living, vibrant garden, it's barren, it's dead.

Your cities have been burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence. And it's desolate.

It's overthrown by strangers. And this must be very interesting for Isaiah. Now, probably older in his years, and Israel and Judah, again, broken up in the northern kingdoms of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.

They were broken up now. And, you know, the Rehoboams, the Jeroboams, the different kings, and they had years of financial prosperity. And Isaiah saw that.

But then that prosperity led to apathy. It led to drifting from God. And that's why, yes, thank God for our blessings, but be careful.

Be careful, because a form of idolatry can set in. And things get overthrown. Had not God left a very small remnant, what is a remnant? God says, I'm wiping out this group of people because of sin, but I'm going to have a remnant.

I'm going to still have, because of my commitment to David, for my namesake, I'm going to have a remnant that will still prosper. And that's why we often use the term God is looking for that remnant. God is looking for those to come out from among them and be separate.

And it's not always in numbers. It's not always in numbers. It's those who seek God with all their heart, with all their strength.

This is interesting. He says, had I not saved a remnant, you would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifice to Me? Why are you sacrificing to Me? Why are you going through the motions and killing bulls and goats? And in Abraham's dream, he had a turtle dove, a heifer, a she-goat, a ram.

And why are you doing this? Because it doesn't matter. Your heart is not right. I've had enough of these burnt offerings.

Man, God is letting them have it. But what I love about the prophetic books is He begins to build up. And you know, sometimes we have to be torn down before we can be built back up.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls and goats and lambs. Do not bring these sacrifices to Me anymore. They are an abomination.

These celebrations that you're having, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. In other words, I cannot endure your sin and also your coming in and your having church and your bringing sacrifice. It would be like all the evil that's going on in Hollywood and D.C. and Washington and all this.

And then they just come to church. They do. They go to Mass.

Or they come to church. And they kind of go through the motions. God says, I'm done with that.

But what I love about God is He doesn't just beat up to beat up to beat up. He beats up to break down to restore. We should actually encourage hard messages.

And I try to remember back, man, I can't remember the soft, easy messages when I came back to the Lord that drew me back to the Lord. I remember the hard messages because sometimes it takes the hard hammer to break the rock. Remember, you've heard me quote it often, the Lord said, is not My word like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Is not My word like a fire that devours? And when pastors want to be politically correct, and not biblically correct, when they don't want to offend, when they don't want to upset, when they're going woke and liberal, lives will not be changed.

Because you actually encourage people in their sin. You don't confront. And the confrontation, unless it's arrogant and bombastic and rude and stuff, but true confrontation doesn't come from arrogance.

It comes from love. Truly confronting someone comes from that time with God, and that boldness comes out. I hope it happens.

I don't know if I want to say it, but it's on the calendar, so I hope it happens. But many of you, do you ever follow Sean McDowell? You know, Josh McDowell's son. I'm going to be on his podcast to talk about this topic of grace and truth.

Because there's a lot of grace guys that I'm going to go ahead and use somebody's pronouns because I love them. I don't want to push them away. I'm not going to call out those things because it hurts them.

And you have to have grace. But if that's all you have, how are you going to tell them the truth? Because the truth is what they don't want to hear. It's what they need to hear.

And only Jesus perfectly balanced grace and truth. And give the truth guys a little grace because it's hard to preach both grace and truth perfectly. It's a lifetime struggle.

But God said, I can no longer endure, put up with your sin when you spread out your hands. Lord, we worship You. We worship You.

And possibly the day before, they just sacrifice their child to Molech or they're committing adultery. He actually goes on to say, you are like lusty stallions. Man! Neighing at your neighbor's wife.

The adultery, the fornication that was happening, the idolatry and spiritual idolatry. He said, don't spread your hands out anymore. He said, I will hide My face, My eyes from you even though you make many prayers.

Even though you make many prayers. And we say, but does God hear my prayers? Of course He does. But I believe there's a very important principle that when God says My ear's not heavy and My hand's not short, I can hear, I can say, but your sins, your iniquity have separated you from Me.

So that I cannot hear. Deal with that sin first. And then I'll be able to answer those prayers.

He said, you make prayers, but I will not hear. Wash yourself. Make yourselves clean.

Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil. Basically, they're reaping and they're sowing.

And now one of the famous verses, come now, let us reason together. In other words, God's saying, let's think about this. Come on, guys.

Think about this. Reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

And like Israel back then, too many today are confusing God's patience with His approval. And I feel strongly about this. I don't know if we have this point up.

We are not to beat ourselves up and live in shame and guilt. That's not the goal of this message. But we are to till the soil of our heart.

So what's the old saying? If the shoe fits. So, if these words are hard and they cut, the point to them is not to go home and feel, oh, man, I feel beat up at church. I don't think anybody should ever, if you leave here feeling beat up in church, it's because you probably don't want to repent.

You probably don't want to work on those things. I feel beat up too. Somebody just told me what I didn't want to hear and I don't want to deal with it.

That's exactly why we feel guilt and shame and beat up on hard messages. Because that's not the goal. The goal is to say, okay, till the soil of your heart.

What we just read, probably a lot of this doesn't apply to some people tonight. You came and filled with the Spirit of God. You've dealt with the Lord recently.

You have that prayer life. But maybe you need to send it to somebody who does need that conviction. Hosea, it's where we get the topic for tonight.

Sow for your self-righteousness. Reap in mercy. Here's how you do it.

You want the righteousness of God, the mercy of God. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. It's time to seek the Lord.

How long? Until He comes and rains righteousness upon you. So it's that seeking. It's that petitioning.

It's that pressing in. I don't know if you've ever heard that term before, but the old saints used to say from the 1700s, 1800s, we sought God and we pressed in all night. We kept petitioning God and God answered.

We heard from God. We petitioned Him. We sought Him.

And of course, we see the wonderful principle of sowing and reaping. Let me tell you, the more you sow into God, the more you'll reap righteousness. The more you sow into God, the more you'll reap joy and peace.

Here's the interesting thing. Fallow ground. He said break up your fallow ground.

Fallow ground often has already been tilled and it's been readied in the past. Most commentators agree with this. It's not this hard.

You know, you ever come up to, wow, this has never been dealt with. But this soil had been tilled before. This soil had been readied for the harvest, but over the course of months and years, the rain was hitting it, but it was becoming like concrete.

Weeds were forming. Nothing could grow. The weeds were choking it out.

So God says deal with this stuff. Begin to break up that fallow ground and seek the Lord again. The soil becomes very hard when it's not used and retilled.

Returning to that first love. Benson Commentary said, your hearts are as ground as overrun with weeds. And it has to be plowed and broken up by conviction, by humiliation, by godly sorrow for sin that good seed may be sown in them.

And this is what happens in the life of any believer, myself included. The heart can become hard by unconfessed sin. Here's the thing about unforgiveness, which Chris said, you don't just stay in neutral when you're in unforgiveness.

You are digging a deep root of bitterness. And that's why she said, out of that came anger, always wanting to fight because you're holding that unforgiveness in. It has to be dealt with.

What hardens a heart as we wind down here? What hardens a heart? Sin. Sin. Not just in actions, but in our attitude.

And this element has actually been lost in the church. And again, I used to have, I still have them, but now online you can read a lot more, but I had all of Spurgeon's sermons, like the volume set, Puritan sermons, I'm talking revival sermons, 1700s, 1800s, the Welsh revivals, and these sermons. What did Wesley say? What did Whitefield say? What did the Great Awakening say? What did Finney use to spark the awakening? What did the Second Great Awakening say? What did they say during the time of Billy Sunday? Nine times out of ten, it was plowing the soil and saying the hard things.

But then, I don't know, 1970s, 1980s, Christian merchandise became very popular. Let's get that book on the front of Barnes & Noble. Let's tell people what I had firsthand experience.

I've told you guys this before. I was praying for my book, Lord, if You want me to write this book, it's called Desperate for More of God. We can give you free copies.

We have them. Just ask the ushers. But I had no motivation.

This is hard to write a book. It's not going to happen. And then this major publisher that's very popular reached out and said we've been watching your sermons.

We want you to write a book. And we want to see a rough draft of the manuscript in six weeks. So I was so excited.

Morgan remembers I was pumped every day. I'm writing, writing, writing, writing my part. And I send it.

And they're like, oh, this isn't going to work. On there, forget that email. I still don't know what this really means, but this does not address a felt need.

Your first chapter, the desperate need for absolute truth. I don't think people are going to be open to that. Can you rework some things? Make it just... What is a felt need? I guess you're just like a... I don't know what that means really still today.

Because to me, that's a felt need. Truth. So I said, you know what? I can't do that.

Thank you though. Now my manuscript's written and I got the motivation I needed. But you've seen that.

You follow Forrest Frank. Why he didn't go to the Grammys or whatever it's called. The Christian music industry.

Some of these guys, I mean, they're charging $50,000, $100,000 a performance. One who's real popular right now is about $200,000 to show up at an event. All the top sellers.

I just went recently, Barnes & Noble, Christian books. You won't find anything about repenting from sin. It's drift.

Now, they might throw it in there just like they're working it because maybe at the end of the chapter, last chapter, because it doesn't... Man, I like this. And that's how you build a really good church. A really big church.

You don't say things that are controversial at all, really. And Charlie Kirk months ago called out Steve Furnick for saying nothing about the girl who was murdered on the subway. Saying nothing about abortion.

Saying nothing about gay marriage. These guys are trying to build a platform and an image and likes and followers. And when you preach the truth, you will lose an audience, but you gain the audience of the Lord.

And that's what's really happening. And you'll see, if you go back to the 50's, the 60's, and these churches that were coming alive. And Chuck Smith, right? Calvary Chapel.

MacArthur that came in at that time. And these others. And God was raising up that Calvary Chapel movement.

Came out of Los Angeles. And God has done so much in California. And they were preaching the truth.

They were loving people. But it was sin and repentance and calling people back to God. And then something came out later known as the church growth movement.

The seeker sensitive movement. I remember when we planted this church, I went to... I can't go to these things anymore. Because it's like, the best way to grow your church is to send out things to the people in your area.

You're reaching Lancaster, Palmdale, and ask them, what do you want to hear in church? Now, I guess on the surface, that's not a bad idea. Like marriage issues, money. Okay, you could kind of... But that wasn't the motivation.

Seeker sensitive. And again, I want to be gentle. Because maybe hearts were good, right? I don't know.

But what came out of that was a dumbing down of the truth. Because if I invite 100 seekers here, if you're seeking, come on Halloween night, right? Because they're coming on Halloween night, I'm going to dress up as Gandalf. And I'm going to give a nice cute message.

Trick or treat. Four ways to experience God like you experience candy. Guys, you're sensitive to the seeker.

But real church is the house of the living God. Pillars who support the truth. Unbelievers are welcome.

Seekers are welcome. But we're going to worship the living God. And you can come and listen if you like.

And you might get convicted to the heart. We love you. We want you to come back.

We welcome everybody. We welcome the homosexual and the witch and the warlock. We welcome everybody to come.

But you will be convicted. You will be transformed by the living God if you humble yourself and you repent. That's the message of the gospel.

Jesus said, go out and preach repentance. What is repentance? It's a matineo in the Greek. It's a turning from sin and a turning back to God.

Oh God, would you not rend the heavens again that we can come back and worship You? We love You. We adore You. God says, they've got My ear.

That's not a false prophet. That's a true church because they proclaim My Word faithfully. That's a mark of a true spokesperson, a true church.

They preach My Word faithfully. And that does mean grace and mercy and love and truth. But it also means saying what needs to be said.

So we have a lot of people with hard hearts. And we've got to address the sin in attitude and in actions. What else hardens a heart? We have any of that in here? Any pride? Pride, indifference, worldliness.

Won't those things harden a heart? Because when I'm... You can go look in my way back yard right now. I've been indifferent to it and it's got a lot of weeds. I couldn't plant anything right now.

I've got to rent a plow. Those electric or those gas... till up that soil. Indifference.

Worldliness. It might not be a bad thing, but when we pursue other things, it can take away, it can rob us of that joy of the Lord. Indifference.

I don't really care. It's not that big a deal. And you know when you see things that should break your heart, but instead you're like, indifferent.

I just saw clips of Tim Tebow on a Sean Ryan podcast about sex trafficking. If that doesn't break you and humble you, God, how is that even possible? I'm telling you, we make Sodom and Gomorrah look normal. Shouldn't that sin break us? They had a map of like 115,000 hits across the United States on child porn within a day.

Like, God, I can't handle much. Five years old. It's like the darkness, the deception, the corruption.

It should break our hearts. But so many are indifferent. I just hope the line is short at Starbucks.

Indifferent. Indifferent worldliness comes in. Here's the thing about worldliness.

Some things are good. Watch entertainment, healthy entertainment, things, you know, and a home, a vehicle, sports, you know, they're in and of themselves, they're kind of neutral. It becomes worldliness when it captivates us and we pursue that first.

And we desire that more than God. And we begin to pursue, drift towards the things of the world. I caught a little heat.

It's okay. It's just kind of funny. When I say, hey, you guys, you got a choice to make this week.

Baseball or the fire of the Spirit. If that offends you, you might want to take that to the Lord. Because that's just a true statement.

You have a choice to make. Hello? You want the baptism of the Spirit or baseball? Nothing wrong with watching the Dodgers. I wish I could.

Otani? But when does it become idolatry? And that's our pursuit. See, that's what worldliness is. When it becomes our pursuit, and oh yeah, I'll get to God on Sunday.

Once this month, maybe twice. And see, so that's the deception of worldliness is we can try to serve two masters. But it eventually hardens the heart.

Because the heart, the spiritual side of the heart is supposed to be humble and pliable and teachable to the things of God. So I'll close with these points. What softens a heart? What softens a heart? This will be our four main focuses throughout the week.

Repentance and returning to God. Repentance and returning to God. Why is that word so special? Why do I use it so much? Well, number one, it's my primary... It's the way God designed me.

He said, okay, Shane, when I call you to be a preacher, your main thing is going to be repentance, not Bible commentaries. I'm not going to come out with a Shane Idolman study Bible. It probably wouldn't be too accurate.

I'm not going to sit here for a month and go through Philemon. Yeah, Philemon. Yeah, okay, thank you.

You know, it's just... But that's not my... I want to say Flamin' Yon. It sounds good. Or church planting and church growth and missions, right? All those things are great.

But what He's called me to do is this theme of repentance. And that's where we've seen the most fruit. Because when you walk in your calling, you'll see the fruit.

When you try to do something else, there's little fruit. Because God's anointing isn't on it. And I know that can be a controversial word, but it basically means when God says, I'm touching that person for this task.

And because of that, they're going to carry a weight of what I want to do in their life. Others are going to recognize it. Right? Anointed to worship.

Anointed for missions. Anointed to pray for other. Anointed for grief share ministry type where you can really speak to those going through grief.

That's what this incredible anointing is for. So what softens the heart? When we repent and we return to God, say, God, I've been wrong in this area. I've got a root of bitterness growing.

Anybody have those? I have. It's like I get offended every day. And if I dwell on that offense, just a couple days ago, I'm in Sprouts, and I haven't seen them in church in a couple years.

They're like, oh, hi, how's it going? Good. We still watch online. Like, okay, well, where are you at? What do we do? Why don't you come to church anymore? What do I do? What do I say? Right, offense.

Or somebody says something about you or a family member. Or get hurt by anybody. The enemy's going to fuel that offense.

Fuel that offense. And it grows and it grows. And it's like, oh, Lord, let me deal with it.

I've got to deal with it too. Morgan's parents sold their house. I knew a real estate agent, a friend of mine, I referred him to and never a thank you.

Nothing. You just made $20,000? Thank you for the referral. Is it too much? It's like, Lord, You know.

You know, hopefully they'll watch this later and get convicted. But offense, offense. People posting negative things or saying things about you.

Offense. And you have to repent and say, God, I don't want to hold this in a root of bitterness. Oh, what softens a heart? Worship and prayer.

Worship and prayer. Forgiveness and surrender. Thankfulness and gratitude.

Thankfulness. Guys, I'm realizing more and more, I think this has been preventing me from really going deeper with God the last few years. A lack of thankfulness and gratitude.

I'm stuck here in California. Abram gets to move to Michigan. There's hunting and fishing.

I run into somebody every week. I invite to church, right? Oh, that's too far. That's too far.

Leona Valley? It's like you guys think this is in Santa Clarita. Bouquet out to Cascade Lake. It's 12 minutes.

Thankful. Gratitude. Psalm 104.

Enter His gates. Enter His gates with grumbling and complaining. And go into His courts upset and angry.

And you know, right? I don't think it's talking about going to heaven. It's like it's actually experiencing the presence of God. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

It could be talking about the temple where you're walking in. You're going to the gates there and you're coming with thankfulness. And even that picture of just walking through that.

Can you imagine just being there and we know what it is and it probably hit us differently, but walking into that temple through the outer court. Walking through the outer court and into the temple. And sometimes I imagine it's as high as this, probably the lights up here, but you walk in and you see and there is the holies of holies.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and the courts with praise. We enter the holies of holies. Lord, I want to see Your face.

Guys, it's about the presence of God. It's about the presence of God. That's why we have this whole... Do you understand that? Why we're here? It's not because I want to preach.

I don't want to be here on Saturday night. I just realized I have to preach twice tomorrow and then come back. And then Monday.

And then Tuesday. Now please understand, I want to. I was so excited to get here.

I'm still excited. But we don't do it just to show up and have a social gathering. We want to experience the power and presence of God.

We want to enter into His courts with thanksgiving. We want to enter into His courts with thanksgiving and we want to come in with praise. Lord, thank You.

I don't care if we're in California or Los Angeles County. Lord, thank You that we even can live where we live and watch our kids grow up. And even if I'm in a bad situation, anybody go through hell, and like Job, though he slay me, yet I trust him.

The enemy's after your thankfulness. He wants you to keep that critical heart. Why? Because it prevents worship.

A believer on fire for God, worshiping in prayer and filled with the Spirit, watch out. Watch out. That's what the enemy fears more than anything.

You should never leave here feeling beat up or discouraged. But encouraged and motivated to strengthen your walk with the Lord. But guys, it begins with tilling up the soil of our hearts.

Even if we've been a Christian 20 years or 30 years. Even if you've been involved in ministry. Sometimes those most guilty are the ones serving.

Ask all of our volunteers. I'll tell children's ministry, right nursery, guys, make sure you're in the services. Get helpers.

Ushers, don't just serve all the time because you'll become a worker and not a worshiper. True Christian work must come from worship. That's the foundation of everything.