10 Signs of a Healthy Church — Shane Idleman

Acts 13 and the Topical-Expository Approach

Acts 13 .9, here's my challenge, I went through all the way to 14 and pulling out historical aspects and things, I kind of turned this into a topical expository. So I pulled out some key elements from this to speak on this topic.

Prayer, Fasting, and Being Filled With the Holy Spirit

Now last week we read that they were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They were praying and they were fasting. They were praying God and fasting is basically starving the flesh, putting the flesh in submission so you can be filled with the Spirit of God.

And point of confession, I am very hungry this morning. I promised God I'd stop yesterday and just go to tonight, just water only, and I wanted a donut and coffee this morning at 6 .30 and I fought the devil for a half hour and he did not win.

Praise God. But I feel, and the only reason I share these with you is to let you know, when it comes to fasting, I fall often. You know, we think of fasting as this perfect 30 day fast, didn't touch any sugar.

I mean, people sometimes blow it and the key is to get back on track. So prayer, and I've seen fasting, it's like prayer on steroids. And steroids aren't necessarily bad if you're using them for a good way and medical purposes, but it's like increasing your prayer life.

You don't want to stop, you want to keep going. You pull down heaven, the flesh is starved and the Spirit is alive in God. So they were praying, they were fasting, and they were sent out by the Holy Spirit.

As a result, they encountered a sorcerer. And I found that to be true often. Sometimes we're full of the Spirit, Lord, just let me run into a Girl Scouts who just want to pray for them and give me flowers, but instead I run into the devil himself.

Sorcery, these things, going to Walmart and people, there's this attacking and cussing and looking at you and it's like this demonic realm is real. Isn't it? It is. And they do not like people filled with the Spirit of God.

So the disciples were filled with the Spirit, they encountered a sorcerer, it was Paul, in verse 9, then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. You know what, it's interesting, I just thought of that again, we talked about it months ago, but when the Bible says Paul filled with the Holy Spirit, that tells me we should take notice.

Because if every Christian was just filled completely overwhelming with the Holy Spirit, the Bible would never mention it. It would be a given. And Peter, breathing, it doesn't say that, and Peter, looking or walking, these things, and Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit, there's something unique that comes upon a believer when they consecrate their life and they're filled with the Spirit of God.

Boldness in Confronting Spiritual Opposition

He looked intently at the sorcerer and he said, oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil. You know, it's okay to confront the devil like that, right? Sometimes here's what we do, I'm sorry, okay, no problem, I know, I just cowered down and just, you're right, and gentle, mild, meek Christians turn the other cheek.

But sometimes you can say, you know what, you full of deceit, you son of the devil, I'm going to tell you what God's Word says, and you speak boldly at that demonic realm. It isn't about always cowering down.

Now don't misunderstand, I'm not talking about being mean and arrogant, but you can, I've spoke boldly to people, haven't you? No, that's not true, devil, that's not true, you're not going to take my family, you're not going to ruin my marriage, you're not going to, you fill in the blank, and you speak boldly to that demonic realm, you son of the devil.

Well here's why, this might take a lot of rabbit trails, I'm just telling you right now. You have, do we all agree we're in a spiritual battle? If we're in a battle, you have to be bold. What soldier enlists in battle is not bold and timid and runs?

So boldness is something you better get used to, and it's going, and it's, the Holy Spirit stirs up something with you if you're in a school district, if you work in a government office, if you work, or do what I do around town sometimes, there's a boldness that has to take place.

So he said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all unrighteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? This is exactly what the demonic realm does, what the devil does, pervert.

You know what, we use the word in our society, pervert, perversion. A pervert, a perversion is something that is good and God-given, going this direction, they twist it and make it perverted. So now something good, marriage, it was good, the enemy perverts it, and now this stuff in the news that you can be whatever, like I don't have to be male or female, and this new gender that's nothing, and you can have it, they're trying to get on your birth certificate, it's like what is happening to, pervert, they're perverting the truth.

They're actually telling kids in school, you don't have to tell your parents if you're going to get an abortion or if you're doing something, you shouldn't be, they think it's fornication, don't worry about it, and they're perverting all of this stuff.

So perversion is what the enemy does. So how does that apply to you? Very easily. He'll make something seemingly that looks okay, pervert it, twist it, you come up with excuses and you fall into sin. It happens all the time.

And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell upon him and he went out seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

Then the procouncil, which is the governor of that area, then he believed in the gospel when he saw what had been done, being astonished by the teaching of the Lord. So basically Paul called him out, said because you're a deceiver you're going to be blind.

Now I wish we saw that same kind of power today. I think it still exists, I think that God does miracles and things, but I think, and I've said this before, and the more I read the book of Acts, the more I read even the Old Testament, the men and women of God, there was a holy consecration that many people don't experience today.

They walk close with God and so when they spoke the Holy Spirit was prompting them and guiding them and leading them. So when Paul called out the blindness, God honored that because the Holy Spirit put it on his heart, in my opinion, to call out this and call down blindness.

Now granted miracles and signs and wonders were following the apostles, but I believe that same power exists today. I don't think that God just suddenly stopped. I mean, just read some good missionary books, and I'm going to recommend one, I've got the title here at the end, it's called An Asian Harvest, An Asian Harvest, I've ordered many copies, we'll be sending those out to you or making them available here.

Or missionary books on the mission field, they see this, we see this often when it's for some reason not in America. I haven't put that connection yet, but I think we're not really as consecrated as we think we are.

I think we're not really, I mean, we're full of Facebook, but full of the Holy Spirit, I don't know. I can tell you what Facebook says, but I'm not sure what the Holy Spirit is guiding me to do. I can tell you what Mike Trout did in the outfield, but I'm not sure what the Holy Spirit is doing through the Word of God.

And the closer you walk with God, the more you'll see miracles and things coming to life in your life. So the first sign of a healthy church, a healthy Christian, is boldness and spiritual power. If you're a healthy church, there's boldness and there's spiritual power.

There's no way around that. You will have both of them. So if there's no boldness, and it's just timidity, and there's no spiritual power, you haven't seen God moving in a while, you're going to need what I'm going to talk about at the end of the sermon.

Spiritual power needs to take place. Boldness needs to enter into your heart. And see, the reason a lot of times people are afraid of boldness is because they confuse it with arrogance. Right? I mean, haven't you been called, those who are bold, have you ever been called arrogant?

You're just bold. Now, you have to be careful, because there are some arrogant people who say, I'm just bold. I'm just bold. I love my faith, and I'm going to let everybody know I'm a guardian of the truth.

No, you're arrogant. You can tell. The fruit of boldness is you can feel the love. It was said of D .L. Moody, he wouldn't even preach a sermon without tears about hell, without tears coming down his face, or Whitfield, or Wesley, these people we love to read, they were full of boldness but full of compassion.

You have to have both of those. You have to have both of those. Verse 13, then Paul came to Perga and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. After the reading of the law and of the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to him, saying, men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

Boy, they didn't know what they were asking, did they? They see Paul, oh, a fellow Jew, we just read the law, which was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the prophets, probably, they probably read portions from the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, they read something from there, and then the minor prophets, and minor doesn't mean they were less significant, it just means they didn't have as much to say.

And the prophets were called of God to call that nation of Israel back to God. That's primarily what they did. So they read the law, and they'd be convicted by the law, then they'd read the prophets and be convicted again and get direction to give their lives back to the one and true living God.

Reading Scripture and Exhorting the Church

So the second sign of a healthy church or a healthy Christian, in a healthy church there is reading and exhortation. Now you might say, well, duh, Shane, that would, you just got bored and threw that point in there?

I mean, well, you'd be very surprised. I can name churches around this valley where people tell me it's just that there's the pastor or different people speak, it's just they're telling stories. It's just stories and how we're going to go paint the neighborhoods.

And when I was younger, and stories are great, I tell them often, and I'm not chiding anybody because I can fall into this side as well. But to be a true healthy church, you've got to look at the word of God.

That's why I like to put this up here front again. We look to the word of God, the centrality of scripture, we read the scripture, we're encouraged by the scripture. And actually, a lot of traditional churches will read a passage of the Bible before the service.

And we could even do that. There's nothing wrong with that. You read, say, Isaiah 58, you read the first three or four verses as an exhortation to the people. That's very healthy. But then also, the reading of the scripture, and he said, exhortation, do you have any word to give the people?

Now exhortation is urging someone to do something. Urging someone to do something. If you've been here any length of time, you know that's what I like to do. I have no problem with exhortation. Reading the word of God and urging people to do something.

And, you know, it's just, I think a lot of the passion comes from, that I see is, I see so many broken lives out there. Broken lives. I spent three, not three hours, hour and a half, three hours total, different people, but an hour, hour and a half, calling out of state, marriage issues, problems with their church, other friends I know are getting a divorce, friends I know are getting divorced, people hooked on drugs.

I see the kids, the looks in the children's faces, the mommy and daddy, and the devastating. And I have to exhort. I have to encourage. I have to push back. Push back. We have to, because something that is attacking needs to be confronted.

And if you don't confront it, you will not win that battle. Here's what happened. Reading and exhortation. A healthy church, sin is exposed. In a healthy church, sin is exposed, but grace abounds. That's a healthy church, a healthy Christian.

Sin Exposed and Grace Abounding

Sin is exposed. If you want to be a healthy Christian, expose the sin. Expose it. Tell somebody, I've got a problem in this area. I've fallen back into this area. I need help. I need accountability. Spouse.

Tell your spouse, I'm struggling with moral purity right now. My thought life is a mess. Can we pray? Oh, I'm never doing that. Then you're going to keep living in deception. That sin is not going to stay there.

It's going to grow. And it's going to grow, and it's going to grow, and it's going to grow. So we expose sin, but then grace abounds. What does that look like? Well, we expose sin. We talk about sin, and we confront sin.

I've confronted people. You have. But brother, we're here for you. Grace abounds. Grace. See, grace doesn't mean we continue in sin. Grace means we acknowledge a sin, we repent of it, and then we have grace and understanding because I'm the same way.

All of us in this room should not cast the first stone. We should be very graceful, but we should be very against sin. And that's why some of the biggest named preachers on TV, Sunday mornings, huge audience, won't ever talk about sin because they confuse, brother, it's just about grace and not beating people up.

No, that's not a healthy church necessarily. It doesn't matter the size of the church. The health of the church is predicated upon what we're talking about, not the size of the church, whether it's small or big.

Because I've seen some churches, yeah, we're 25 people, we're the frozen chosen, we're doing everything right, and you know, that's why we're little. People don't like to hear it. And we're going to stay little, and if they don't want to hear it, they can just exit right out that door.

And they think because, you know, it's just us. That's why nobody comes. As soon as I start preaching, everybody leaves. Well, that means there's no love in your preaching and not filled maybe with the Spirit of God.

Now, I have to be careful there too, right? You know, we don't want to push people out, but we also don't want to encourage sin and avoid things. And this is a hot topic for sure because, as you know, I've talked about before, the majority of people who no longer come here or have left or do not want to come here is because of this issue.

They're convicted. They're convicted. They don't want to hear it right now. And people said, I'm not at that point right now. I'll go to a different, I'll go to this church. I'm not going to Westside.

I'm not ready for that yet. I mean, what does that mean? I just heard it this week. Somebody invited somebody and they said, I'll go to, I'll go to, I won't name it. And then, but, but then, but I'm not ready for that church yet.

I'm not there yet. You know, but they don't understand. We're all not there yet. It's a point of lifting up and encouraging and getting healthy and, and, and walking people through that. And because pastors aren't perfect, we can err on the hard side sometime.

Maybe err too much on the law side or too much on that pounding side. And then there's other guys who, you know, err too much on the grace side, too much on, so it's, it's trying to find that balance.

And the only way you can find that balance would be filled with the Spirit of God. And to know, come, come the criticism or not, you are preaching what God has put on your heart. Criticism can be good.

It can be bad as well. You want to learn from it if there's nuggets of truth there. But you also want to avoid critical, critical people that constantly pull you down. That was another rabbit trail. Verse 16 through 23.

Paul's Gospel in the Synagogue

Okay, well let's put this in context. So Paul went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down, and there was a reading of the law and of the prophets, and the rulers of the synagogue said to Paul, Hey, Paul, if you have any words of exhortation, let us hear them.

Oh, my goodness. They did not know what they were asking. The apostle Paul, who's just been converted, Saul of Tarsus, this mean, angry Pharisee is now a believer. So verses 16 through 23, I'm just going to paraphrase.

Basically, God brought deliverance from David's seed. He walked the people through Abraham, the covenant. He brought the Messiah through David's seed. And then Paul said, According to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus.

And they're probably going, Uh-oh, why did we ask this guy to speak? Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God. So see, this is a glimpse into the old synagogue style.

Men and brethren of children, your children of Abraham, mean there were Jews in the audience, but also, and those who fear God. So there was Greeks that wanted to convert, and they feared God. So this is a multitude, not just of Jewish believers, I believe, and those among you who fear God.

To you, to you, the word of the salvation has been sent. And though they found no cause for death in Christ, no cause for death in Christ, you should let people know any time they get upset at Christianity, there is no cause, nothing.

He died for you. He loves you that much. He died for you. There's no cause for him to die other than the sin of man. They asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead.

So he's preaching the gospel at the synagogue. And it dawned on me, how do you think he's preaching this? Oh, here's what happened. I mean, there's passionate preaching. There's passionate preaching. That's why passion should come out in preaching.

If somebody's not passionate, I don't really want to listen to them. Because they don't, I guess it says this, there has to be a passionate passion in a healthy church. That's a point I forgot about. There should be passion in a healthy church.

Passionate Worship and Gospel-Centered Preaching

I mean, I don't know about you guys, but the ones who are here early, as we're singing these songs, I'm no longer a slave. If we were truly a slave to fear death and the grave and eternity separated from God, God saved us from that and redeemed us.

Oh, it might change your worship. I think Jamie had it right, right? Oh God, and just keep worshiping and worshiping. That's why we want the freedom in worship. It's not a four-minute song, a three-minute song, a four-minute song.

Shane, you come up, you've got 35 minutes, and let's go to lunch. That's not worship. It's there. My goodness, why shouldn't we be passionate? I mean, I have a feeling more people would be passionate if we just said we just came into a lot of money.

As you leave here, you're each getting $10 ,000. As you leave here, you're each, we would, oh my goodness, a passion in this place, right? So that's why you've got to take your mind back to Calvary, back to Golgotha, the place of the skull, the place of death and crucifixion to give us life.

Well, if there's no passion there, I don't know what to tell you. You guys are doing good, though. I'm just talking about others in the future that are not passionate, because people say, well, Shane, you're passionate.

Yeah, this is the most exciting thing a person can talk about, but it's also the most heavy. A lot of you don't know this, but when you go in the morning after the sermon, I'm praying, and I know that I'm coming up here, and thousands of people on the radio, now San Francisco, the Bay Area, Riverside, all over Los Angeles are hearing.

So I better be very careful that I'm not just putting my opinion in there, and I'm not just what do I think and dumbing it down and trying to do, but I have to say, God, what do you want to say? So the weight of that, the weight of that, I mean, if I was just a motivational speaker, I could just go wherever and no big deal.

But the weight of that, and then also the passion, the passion of, you're preaching light, you're preaching the best news that has ever been heard. You're preaching the gospel of salvation. Shouldn't there be a passion there, a something, an exciting?

Feeding the Saints and Warning Sinners

So there is passion, but there's also the third point out that we glean from this. I'll keep reading, verse 31. Jesus was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.

And we declare to you glad tidings, the promise which has been made to the fathers. If we had time, we could go back to the Old Testament, but the promise to the fathers, the nation of Israel, was God would send a Messiah to save his people.

Paul just said the Messiah has arisen, arisen from the dead. Pilate killed him. He's here. And I would love to see the look on that audience's face or the rulers who said, Paul, would you like to say something?

They're like, what just happened? But we can also glean something from what Paul said here in the synagogue, church style. Another sign of a healthy church is you feed the saints and you warn the sinner.

That's a goal of preaching, is to feed the saints, to be edified and encouraged, but also to warn the sinner. That's why there is such an importance put on, or I guess that's a good way to say it, the importance of going through the Bible every year.

And I would say one of the things that shocks me the most is how many Christians have never went through the entire Bible. I just asked somebody this week, thought for sure. I've talked to pastors, elders, deacons, been serving for 20 years, they've never read through the entire Bible.

What happens is we put, well, I'm in John today, I'm at Psalm tomorrow, and then my daily devotional has me back in John, and we never see the whole counsel of God. You start in Genesis to see creation, and you see Exodus, God's plan of bringing his children out of bondage.

You see Leviticus, the Levitical priesthood, and the need for that sacrificial system of the shedding of blood. Leviticus, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, the going through the wilderness, and all the examples.

My goodness, you can learn so many examples of idolatry and what not to do in the book of Numbers. In Deuteronomy, the law, the blessings, the curse, and then it gets into the judges, and what happened, these judges, people would call upon the name of the Lord, and they would depart from God, and then you get the kings, and all the prophets, and Ruth, and we learn about our king's men, the Redeemer, and who Christ was, and Boaz, and you look at the whole Bible, and you see the whole counsel of God.

It's 20 minutes a day. Just start somewhere and just keep going. I usually have a paper clip in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and just keep them going together, keep them going together, check it off, and that's how you get the heart of God.

That's how you'll know when something doesn't, you're not sure, or you're not sure on doctrine or theology, you'll know the heart of God. So that's a primary goal of the church is to feed the saints, and what I mean by primary goal.

The Church's Primary Gathering and the Seeker-Sensitive Movement

A healthy church recognizes that our primary, the primary goal is, now this, some might not agree with this, but that's okay, the primary goal is a gathering together of believers. It's to hear the word of God, to be edified to worship.

What happens if the main goal of the church is the sinner and evangelism, and things like that, the main goal, then what happens is something comes in called the seeker-sensitive movement. Have you heard of that?

It was big, probably 20 years ago, and now a lot of pastors have talked, spoke against it. But the seeker-sensitive movement is this, listen Shane, we have to start being sensitive to those who are coming in who are not believers.

So that means you have to change everything. You change the worship so it's not offensive, you change your messages so they're not offensive, you change the, you know, different things, you make it sensitive to the seeker.

But the main goal of the church is to come and be built up and to glorify God. The main point of the church is for the believers. Now from that, we go out and we evangelize. We reach the unchurched. We do things, but the main core of coming together is tailoring the service for believers to worship God.

Communion, worship, baptism, exhortation, it's all of us coming together. Now if somebody happens to come in, 1 Corinthians 14, 24, if an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes into your gathering and is convicted, I'm paraphrasing, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed and so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.

See, unbelievers often are attracted to genuine worship and to genuine anointing and genuine preaching. They're attracted to that. So you don't change things around to make it sensitive to not offend anybody.

You center it around God and they can come in and be part of that if God is drawing them. Now careful point here, we're not to be seeker-sensitive in avoiding the truth, but we are to be sensitive in how we represent God.

Welcoming Without Affirming

So on one hand, I'm not seeker-sensitive, in case you didn't know, on the preaching, you know, and the worship and how we do things. I'm not really thinking, okay, now if unbelievers come in, darn, they're not going to like that point either, or that point, well, I might as well just start all over, you know.

But I do say, you know, how is somebody going to take that? Could I have worded that differently? Is that offensive? Did I get a little too arrogant and want to make sense of it? We want to make sure that when they come in and check their children in the children's ministry, they're not offended.

It's clean. It's organized. We want excellence in everything we do. And the people are full of life and welcoming them. See, you can be welcoming but not affirming. You can be welcoming but not affirming.

Me and Morgan tried to invite a friend of ours we know from the gym who's gay for the church for the last 12 years. We're welcoming. Welcoming. We just have a heart for this guy. I won't say his name, but we'd say, you know, come on, just come to church.

Oh, no, no. Now should I say, no, come to church. You won't be offended. No, come, we'll welcome and affirm. See, that's the difference. But you don't go out of your way to pound that person. You just let the word of God speak.

You're full of love. You're full of the Holy Spirit. And if it offends, if it cuts, it's meant to offend and cut. So you can welcome and love people. And I just wrote, I re-released an article, What Did Jesus Say About Homosexuality?

And my goodness. I mean, it's like 500 comments on Facebook from Crosswalk. I think it is crosswalk .com. And it's, I scroll through them sometimes, I know it's not a good idea. But people say, this, this is why I'm embarrassed to be a Christian.

Because me. Because this article. Right? This is why. See, everybody throwing the, casting the first stone. Putting everybody down. Read the article. Read the article. It's not about that. But see, we have this, we have this concept that turn the other cheek.

God loves everybody. Means he affirms sin. He doesn't affirm sin. He says, I love you enough. I died for that sin. So would you come out of it? So woe is me if I do not preach repentance. I'm actually doing people a disservice.

And if a person's not ready to hear it, yes, it does hurt. Of course it hurts. Who wants to hear you need to change and repent? Not even me sometimes. Not even you. Right? So I understand that. But a loving church is part of God's design.

Justification Through Christ

Verse 38. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, Paul is still speaking, through this man, Jesus, is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

So what happened in the Old Testament, and even up to this time, they're following the law of Moses. The Sabbath, the ceremonial laws, all the different things that Moses outlined, they're following these.

He's following these. Have you ever tried to follow a lot of rules and how hard that is? I mean, we still can't do it, right? All these signs say, don't drive over 55. A lot of you are not listening to those signs.

But it's so hard. So he says, we were not justified. Justified means just as if I had never sinned. If you remember that. Justify Christ. I'm allowed to go before God the Father because of what Christ did on the cross.

He justified me now in right standing before God. The law could never do this. Following a bunch of rules could never do this. So Paul's breaking it down. That we've been justified through Christ. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you.

What's been spoken in the prophets? Well, if you spend time in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, not too much in Daniel, more prophetic, more Babylon. But then the minor prophets and Micah and Nahum and Habakkuk and Zephaniah and Zechariah and all these guys that wrote, you would know, you would say, aha, what did they do?

The prophets often warned the people because they stayed in rebellion. They despised the things of God. So he's saying be careful because what's happening, happened in the prophets, which we love to read on the Sabbath, is also happening in your own life and in your own heart.

So here he gets real seeker sensitive. Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you. Behold, you despisers marvel and perish. For I work, a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe the one word to declare it to you.

So he's saying you despisers, you despisers of the truth marvel because you will perish if you continue to reject that truth. But I want to just highlight point four. Ever since Paul started to speak, here's a sign of a healthy church.

Everything Centers on Jesus Christ

Here's a sign of a healthy Christian. Everything centers on Jesus. Everything centers on Christ. Everything we do. Now, perfectly, no. But when we start VBS this summer and Friday evening comes, what I'm already looking forward to is presenting the gospel to the kids and to the family members.

And throughout the week, what are we doing? Presenting the gospel. He's the only one that can heal and restore these little ones. What's the focus of the youth group that we're going to start? We actually had one.

Nobody knew about it really. I'm coming to find out. So we're going to relaunch that. What's the focus? Christ. What's the focus when the elders get together and start to make decisions? Jesus, where do you want us to go?

What's the focus of the worship? That's the center of everything. And now that can trickle into your own life before you make decisions. What would Jesus do? That's a good little thing to wear. He's the center.

It changes where you go. It changes what you'll listen to. It changes everything, doesn't it? I mean, just for fun, I should have did this, but just a minute. I wrote an article about entertainment a while back on how it affects us spiritually.

And I didn't even watch this movie, I just saw some reviews. And something about Deadpool, you know, I said, it's probably not a good idea. Christians were like, email me, like, what? It's fun. I couldn't even have five minutes on there.

The cussing. I'm like, how can people... I did this for Harry Potter, too, because somebody said, oh, it's a good movie, teaches this. Let me rent this thing. And after the snake comes out of this guy's mouth and this lady's levitating, I said, back to Breadbox.

I mean, because they challenged me, watch it, watch it, you'll change your tune. No, I didn't change my tune, I actually increased my tune. These things should not be glorified, these things should not be in a heart that's healthy.

That's the difference. A healthy heart is very selective with what they watch and where they go, because you know, right? Your flesh gets locked on it, though, right? My flesh wanted to keep going Deadpool.

And Logan, Jason Bourne, all those things for guys, right? You know, but I know, the flesh wants it, but the Spirit says, don't you dare. So you have this constant battle going on. So a healthy Christian centers everything on Jesus.

The church centers everything on Jesus. Now, have we done it perfectly? No. But that's our goal. Look at our mission statement. It's on our website. It's actually out front on the wall. This man has preached to you the forgiveness of sins.

So just ask yourself this question, have you been justified? Do you truly know God? It's a little trite and people say it often, but it's probably because it's really good. If you were to die, do you know where you're going?

If you were to die today, do you truly know where you're going? Because you can't live your life with a question mark here. And I talk to people, oh, gosh, Shane, I think so. I mean, I'm a good guy. I'm a good person.

Oh, ee, ee, ee, ee, red flag right there. No, you're not a good person. And they get offended at that. See, because self-righteousness. If somebody says, Shane, at the core, you're not a good person, I'll say, amen, brother.

Preach it, please. But I need Christ. I need to be filled with the spirit of God. So if you've never repented of your sin, acknowledge everything I'm talking about, I would encourage you to do that this morning.

You don't have to come forward. You don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to do a special dance. You just have to say, God, I need you. I've been running. I've been hiding. And it's funny, on this subject, too, when I talk about things like this, people do leave and they don't come back.