Can A NationBe Saved？ — Shane Idleman

God's Sovereignty and the Need for Revival

With where we see things are going. But we always have to remember that God's sovereignty is going to be your sanity. God's sovereignty is your sanity in these difficult times. And God has given me a burden for whatever reason for this type of message, revival type messages.

And revival, I don't know if you've ever heard that term. Some people think of weirdness. Other people think of revival meetings. But the term is thoroughly biblical. It just means God reviving his church, reviving people.

Spiritually speaking, think of spiritual resuscitation. You ever see that? You know, they're trying to revive someone. And the church, especially in America, needs that spiritual resuscitation. So the title of the message this morning is can a nation be saved?

Can a nation be saved? How many of you think a nation can be saved? Hands up. How many think it can't? Oh, nobody's honest, huh? I know not everyone agrees. Well, let me clarify this a little bit because it is a loaded question.

And I wrote a book on it, One Nation Above God, where you can actually get a lot of this. And we're gonna try to send some more up here next week. Or if anybody wants to drive down to our church and pick them up, let us know.

We've got a box of books. We just give them away for free. We've got thousands going out every year. And just love to bless people. But I talk about this theme often. Is America a Christian nation? And can a nation be saved?

Well, we know that a nation has boundaries. It's borders, China, Russia, America. So technically, a nation is a body of land. So of course it can't be saved. But the people inside of the nation, those people can be the ones aflame with the passion of God.

Those are the ones who can be saved. And the reason this topic comes up, is America a Christian nation? It's because if you look at our heritage, if you look at how the nation was started, you see that God's word was throughout the court system, the public school system.

Did you know why it was founded? This is gonna shock many of you. To teach the Bible. That's why they started the public school system, was to teach the Bible. And when they would make laws, from rape to incest to all different kinds of laws, they would look at something called William Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England, that would define laws based on scripture.

Harvard, Harvard was a Christian university. It encouraged its students to lay Christ at the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. Harvard and Yale and all these, so we see, we see that God's word was throughout all of American history, especially when the Puritans came over around 1620, and the Pilgrims came over the Mayflower Compact, that said to the advancement of the Christian faith, to the glory of God.

And so the argument you're always gonna hear is, yeah, but what about slavery? Well, yeah, not good. But did you know that half of our founding fathers were against it? Oh, you're not gonna hear that.

Not with the agenda out there to try to make America this bad, evil country. Look how they treat the Native Americans. Yeah, pretty bad, the evil did. Did you know about all the Christians who tried to help?

Salem witch trials. Did you read about the three Christian men that eventually brought that to an end? See, we don't see that side of history, because we are given history by something called revisionists and they like to rewrite American history so you all feel bad, especially if you're white, bad.

And if you're male and you're straight, feel really bad. And it's actually reverse racism. Those who are saying you're racist are actually the racist in our country. They are stirring this pot of disunity.

They're causing all of this conflict. So if you look at American history, yeah, there was evil throughout, but there was a lot of good and you see that God was raising up leaders and the first great awakening happened in the 1700s George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and that spread into the colonies in the second great American awakening.

And then you've got revivals popping up all over, even during the Civil War. And you see that God's word was elevated and you see that the nation was being drawn back to God, even though there was decadence and depravity.

America's Christian Heritage and National Repentance

So it begs the question today, can a nation be saved? Let me read a quote from John Winthrop, one of the founders of the first colony there with the Puritans. He said, we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all the people are upon us so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the whole world.

And then the Mayflower Compact that I read earlier. We have taken this endeavor, what was the point of the Mayflower Compact? The Mayflower was to come to flee persecution and to come to America and set for the advancement of the Christian faith and to the glory of God.

Now it's interesting, I try to work with the Mayflower Compact Society and we couldn't quite trace it. It ends a little bit, but my mom has always told me that my lineage is from Peregrine White, the first baby born on the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay.

So it's interesting nonetheless and always having that desire. You see Richmond versus Moore, the Illinois Supreme Court. Now can you imagine this being said today in the Illinois Supreme Court? Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be woke.

They must not gravitate towards any type of religion. No. No. Our whole institutions in our country must be based on the teachings of Jesus. It is impossible that we should be otherwise in this sense and to this extent, we are empathetically Christian.

The Illinois Supreme Court, Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, the foundation of our society and our government rests so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if there was faith in, I'm sorry, of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.

And I've got more quotes from John Adams, Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He said that the Constitution is not the offspring of inspiration, but its form and adaption is by divine providence.

By divine providence. And the House and Senate Judiciary Committee back in 1850, there's no substitute for Christianity. This is the religion of our founders of the republic and they expect it to remain the religion of their descendant.

And there's quote after quote after quote of why is this so important? Because you realize, oh, we have drifted pretty far. We have drifted pretty far. And in cases like this, let me just, I'm gonna drop a bomb right now, hope it's okay.

Everybody's talking about 2024. Okay, but we better get our faces on the floor and pray. There's no other hope in this right now. There's no plan B, there's no backup plan other than God bringing revival, awakening his church.

There is no plan B. There is only one cure. There is only one remedy for the crisis we are in. It's for God's people to begin seeking him like never before. Now, will that work in the political arena and Hollywood and media?

I hope so. We're supposed to be influential in all areas of society. And that's why you'll hear this phrase often, separation of church and state. Have you heard that a lot? That basically means church, shut your mouth.

Don't spread the truth. We don't wanna hear the truth. And it's not in the Constitution, it's a lie. Thomas Jefferson actually used the phrase when he wrote a letter to the Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut.

And he actually said, here's the funny thing. He said, don't worry. Don't worry, the government will not infringe on your religious freedom. There will be a separation of church and state. So then they used it, the Supreme Court in all their wisdom back then, used it to now block and say you can't have 10 commandment monuments, you can't pray in the school.

The founders would have never, never embraced that. Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof. So they can't establish a national religion, but they can freely and openly and unapologetically acknowledge the sovereign hand of God that has guided us.

The Offense of Gospel Truth

I get so tired of people saying I can't have the 10 commandment monuments in the courthouse, that offends me. Well, you wanting it to remove it offends me. So when are we gonna stop getting off of the offend me train and start saying what is true?

Yes, the gospel offends. The truth is offensive. It's supposed to pierce like a sword. It's supposed to divide truth from error, right and wrong, light from darkness. That's what it does. And it's offensive.

It's okay to be offensive. I learned that a long time ago. When I first started preaching, I'm like, Lord, please, I hope my sermons aren't offensive. Boy, oh boy, oh boy, was I in for a rude awakening.

But about 20, I don't even think I met my wife at this point around 1999, 2000, just came back to the Lord on fire for God. I read this devotional by a guy named Oswald Chambers. I'll never forget it, highlighted it.

And he said the message of the gospel hurts and it offends until there is nothing left to hurt and to offend. Oh, that is so powerful. Don't you see it offends our pride? It offends our pride. And I told the first service, I'll go ahead and tell you, if you don't like what I'm saying, it's probably because you need to hear what I'm saying.

That's how it works. We don't like the light shine into these areas of darkness, but it's so important. And I'm gonna read from the Old Testament. I'm gonna read from Jeremiah, but I wanna tell you something that's so important.

Reading the Old Testament in Context

We need to understand Old Testament application, understanding Old Testament application. What I mean by that is when we grab verses from the Old Testament, we have to be careful because many of those verses were written in context.

Any people who like to study the Bible in here? There's a phrase you've probably heard called context is king. So whenever I read scripture, I look at the historical context, the linguistic, the language style, what was the author trying to convey?

What's the context here? Because if you get out of context, you can have it say whatever you say, whatever you want the Bible to say. And a lot of people, it hasn't happened recently, but they'll say, you know what, Shane?

You're not supposed to judge. Jesus said, judge not. And if you're not educated in the Bible, Jesus did say that. Ah, man, you got me there, darn it. No, context. He said, first, remove the plank from your eye, humble yourself in the spirit of humility and speak the truth in love.

Then you can go and judge your brother. See, it's all about the critical heart, but they like to twist scripture so they can do whatever they want. And we have to look at it in context. So my point is when I use these scriptures from the Old Testament, I understand the historical context, especially the most popular one on revival, bar none in the last 50 years.

Many of you know, 2 Chronicles, right? Seven, 14. It says, if Washington, if Sacramento, if Hollywood humble themselves and seek my face, what's it say? You, me. If my people. And so the context is Solomon is king.

And God said, hey, when I bring pestilence, you know what pestilence is? We went through it recently, a couple years ago. When I bring pestilence, when I bring famine, when I bring drought, thank God for this year's rain because Grant works at AVEC.

I used to work for a water district. And you know those aquifers, when they get low and they start cutting water, bye-bye landscaping, bye-bye rations. I mean, here comes rations. We were pretty close, one or two more years.

And it would have been pretty bad. We were already getting letters from our city officials on cutting back water and only using it Monday, Wednesday, showers every other day and things like that. And God brings this abundance of rain in the Sierras.

And we forget how just, we rely on God so much for everything, we forget that. So when I bring pestilence, when I bring famine, when I bring drought, he said, because my people have rebelled against me, they have become disobedient, they have rejected me.

When I bring these things to do what? To wake them up. Thank God when you get spanked by God. Have you ever been spanked by God? If had I not been spanked for God, I would not be here today. I would be buried in a cemetery in Lancaster, California without a shadow of a doubt.

Because the human nature left to itself will destroy itself. The flesh says, feed me so I can destroy you. That carnality that Paul talks about. It says, if my people humble themselves, if my people humble themselves, I don't care what wicked kings are doing in Assyria, I don't care what the Babylonians are doing, I don't care what Egyptians are doing, if my people, see God, here's what we forget, we get all worried about the majority, right?

Oh, if we could just have a thousand people at this event, or if we could just have the majority of people vote this way, or if we could just, God says, I am the majority. You plus God is the majority.

Did you know that? I've done so much to disrupt the kingdoms of darkness in the last 20 years that I can't even believe it, but it's because of God. He used a dumb country boy, construction worker, who couldn't speak well, who had a learning disability, graduated high school with a 1 .8.

That's my credentials. I love when people, brother, man, where'd you go to school? Nowhere, school of hard knocks. I have nothing to lean on, I can't impress you. I have nothing but the spirit of God filling me with his spirit, with boldness and truth and love, and he said, if my people, you plus God is the majority, oh, if I could get a church even this size, full and on fire for God, at the altar, on their face, and it dawned on me, man, if we could really have a glimpse of Christ when they sang that song, Natalie sang that song, here I am on my knees.

Oh, could you imagine if we got on our knees and cried out to God, but no, we're too bored, we're too, what's for lunch, oh, the shame, I hope he doesn't go long, the buffet line's gonna be full. Where's that desperation?

Where's the desperation for more of God? God, we're not leaving here until I hear from the risen Savior, I need direction for my life, my kids need the Lord, I'm gonna call down heaven. That's revival, that's awakening the church.

Oh, I don't like that, well, you need to be revived. You like Netflix for four hours a day, you'll go to Cinemark and sit there for three hours, but when you're in the church of the living God, you're bored, the problem is you need spiritual resuscitation to be revived.

If my people, if us, if we humble ourselves and pray, if we humble ourselves and pray and what? Seek his face. I have more liberty here because I'm not on a time limit and I didn't talk about this at the first service, but that word, many people miss it.

If my people humble themselves, so that's hard right there, hello? Humble themselves and pray, not just a quick prayer on your way, I'm talking a life of prayer, close the prayer closet door and seek the heart of God, and if they seek me, that word seek is very important.

It's very interesting because like you, I read it for a decade, I'm like, oh yeah, I think I seek God, right? I mean, we're seeking God here, which is true, don't get me wrong, but I started to do a word study and actually it's a Hebrew word bakash, bakash, and as I look, I'm like, oh my goodness, it's seeking until you find it, and I thought of, and I won't confess this to too many people, but it's out there on the internet now so it's too late, but I think it was, I might've lost my son at the fair many years ago, and my two little ones were at the zoo recently, I couldn't find them, so did I go, you know what, let me go eat first, let me eat first, let me run some errands.

What do you do? Everything stops, I'm no longer hungry, I don't have to use the bathroom, what do I have to do? I have to find that child, bakash. So are we really seeking God with all of our heart? Is he really on the forefront of our lives, on the main burner?

Is it an all-consuming passion? Yes, we have to work, we have lives to lead, but is he really that all-consuming passion? Lord, I'm gonna get up in the morning and I'm gonna seek you until I find you.

I'm just pressing, I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna worship. Same thing as losing a child, you lose your child at the mall, you're gonna go have lunch, you're gonna go to the next store, let me go to, keep shopping, I'll find them later.

That's not the, no, that becomes the priority. You have to find that child until, I mean, you keep searching until you find them. So that's the same word. Seek me with all of your heart, not a half-hearted approach.

Do you know that now on surveys, the Americans now, it used to be church just about every Sunday, decades ago, now it's twice a month. Twice a month. And if you're like, I can relate because I lived that life saying I don't, if I feel like it, I'll go, if I don't feel like it, I won't.

And of course, if I'm not going to Havasu, I'm not going to Idaho, I'm not going jet skiing, I'm not going motocross, I'm not going mountain biking, I'm not going camping, I'm not going to High Sierras, okay, I think I can fit them in this Sunday.

Oh, how sad, how sad. We miss that deep relationship with God. And he can be in all those different things, but he has to be the priority. And then the final thing, I'm going to drop the hammer. You guys ready?

Hold on, hold on, put on your seatbelt. If they, can we say this in this church? If my people humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and come on now, help me, turn from our wicked ways. Turn from our wicked ways?

Is there wicked ways in the church? Do you know how many are addicted to porn in the church at large? 50%. Do you know how many deal with a critical, bitter, arrogant heart? Well, the number's even higher.

Godlessness in the church is running rampant. Somebody said, and maybe you guys can help me on this one. I wish you're hot or cold, but if you're lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Jesus said that Revelation 3, writing to the church, the last church in Laodicea.

Hey, I wish you're hot or cold, but if you're lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Anybody drink lukewarm coffee or tea? Even water on a hot summer day? There's this, if my people, if my people.

Jeremiah's Potter, Repentance, and God's Patience

And so what's happening here is Jeremiah 18. Jeremiah 18, so that's the same type of context, talking to God's people. Then the word of the Lord. Oh, I want to say this about the Old Testament. I completely forgot.

We cannot say, I don't think we can say it's the same as the Old Testament, but we can say it's similar. It may not necessarily apply to us directly, but there is direct application. We cannot become unhitched from the Old Testament.

Jesus said it many times. It is written, it is written, it is written. Deuteronomy, quoting the law and prophets many times. This prophet said, this prophet. It's looking to the Old Testament for principles to guide us even today.

So there's many here, Jeremiah 18. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter, says the Lord? Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

And I'm not gonna go, I've got probably an hour's worth of sermons for Idaho, but I just want to get to the main points this morning. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?

So the Lord is saying, I am the potter, you are the clay. My sovereignty will prevail. So are you moldable this morning? Is your heart pliable and moldable? Guys, that's where it starts. In order for the filling of the Spirit to come in mightily changes, we have to be open and teachable and pliable.

Lord, I am clay in the hands of a potter. What do most people say? Instead of saying that, they say, nope, my plans, I'm done. Here's my plans, Lord, come and bless it. They don't want to ask the Lord to show them and to break them and to humble them.

The Puritans used to say the same sun that hardens the clay outside will melt the wax. And the same word of God, this is the most interesting thing as a preacher I see, the same word of God goes out. One person breaks and weeps and cries out to God and they're full of the Spirit.

The other person leaves angrily, upset. I said the same thing with the same tone. No different, what's the difference? The heart, the human heart. And then he goes on to say, in the instant, Jeremiah 18, seven through 10, in the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, the instant I speak, in other words, they have tried my patience and I'm concerned that we're confusing God's patience with his approval.

He said as soon as I make that decision, enough is enough and the judgment hand of God is going to fall, I'm going to destroy that nation. If that nation whom I have spoken against, if it turns from the evil that I'm going to lay upon it, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.

If that nation hears the voice of truth and they turn back to me, they repent, I will stay my hand of judgment. I personally believe that the reason we're not seeing more tragedy and judgment in America is because the remnant has been crying out and fasting and praying and pleading the blood and interceding.

Oh, the power of intercession. Oh, if you can intercede, God said, I look for a man from among them, Ezekiel, I look for them to stand between me and the nation. Lord, stay your hand of judgment like Moses.

Don't judge his people, Elijah, Jeremiah. They would intercede and God said, I look, but I found no one to intercede before me on behalf of the people. This is not a new concept. You've heard of Jonah.

What happened there? Assyrians were going to be judged. In 40 days, God's going to judge them. And they repented and Jonah got mad. He was wanting that judgment, wasn't he? Oh, I forgot to tell you this, church.

Holding Truth and Love Together

We need both truth and love. You guys can be the love side. If all you have is love, you'll become very lukewarm and carnal and you will slide into the woke-ism of what's going on. You won't call out sin.

You're just gonna always love and I know none of you, this is just an illustration, but behind a lot of this is cowardliness. That's what it is. We don't wanna speak the truth in love. So before you start shaking your head too much on this side, you're the legalistic side.

You're the truth. You're the truth guys. You ever run into those guys? The truth guys. Just the truth, the truth. Yeah, but you're arrogant. You're critical. I don't care about your pneumatology, your eschatology, your theology.

I wanna know your heart. I don't care if you've got books as high in hermeneutics and homiletics. Are you broken? Are you humble? Are you loving people? Because see, you can be straight as a gun barrel theologically, but just as empty.

The Pharisees had the truth, didn't they? Jesus said, oh, do what they say, but don't do what they do. And that's where the term modern day Pharisee comes from. Have you ever heard that? Judgmental Jerries, critical Cathies.

I don't know anybody named that name here, but if the shoe fits, wear it. But isn't that true guys? We have to repent of that. We need both love and truth. Truth, Jesus said he was, or John actually said in that, we behold the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.

We have to find that balance. If you don't have it, pray that you have it. Lord, help me find that balance. Now I prayed for people after the first service that they're either on the love side or the truth side.

Oh yeah, I'm too critical and arrogant or this side, I'm too cowardly and wishy-washy. And finding that balance is so critical. But back to Jeremiah, that was just a rabbit trail. The instant I speak concerning that nation, if they turn back to me, I will relent of the disaster that I was going to pronounce upon it.

And so again, I believe that remnant is holding back that tide. We talk about Sodom and Gomorrah a lot, but do you know that we are more depraved than Sodom and Gomorrah? Absolutely, I have no question in my mind.

Because they at least knew things were evil. Today, we call good evil and evil good. Today, a grown man can dress up like a woman, wear a thong bikini and go dance in front of a six-year-old. My Lord, people, have we lost our mind?

That's perversion. The church, where's the church humble and broken saying we gotta have a prayer meeting this week and intercede for our nation? No, we're too busy, we're too full, too bored. Do we really want it bad enough?

Do you really want that desperate relation with God bad enough? Because it will cost you. It will cost you. It comes with a cost. That is perversion. The sex trafficking. Have you heard about the new movie coming out, Jim Caviezel and different things, and kids and it's a number.

It's like I am sick to my stomach. Do I even live? It's like I live in a cesspool and I've gotta get out of it every day and take a spiritual shower. And living in this filth and Sodom and Gomorrah? Look at the nation we live in.

And where are the intercessors? When is the last time you prayed and fasted for the day? Oh, I won't make a difference. How do you know? You plus God is a majority. Tell William Wilberforce, one person doesn't make a difference.

Tell the Apostle Paul, one person doesn't make a difference. Tell Oswald Chambers, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Adonai Judson. All these people we love to read and we talk about, we know about started with one person in a prayer closet on fire for God.

I found that God does start with one person. And that flame of that fire becomes contagious. And it's hard. I remember we started the church. My wife remembers opening night, we're going on 13 years in Lancaster, 200 people opening, oh, this is gonna be great.

Oh man. And by six months, I preached it down to 52. I remember driving home and said, Lord, it doesn't matter to me. Whether it's five, 500, or 5 ,000, I'm gonna preach what you tell me to preach and what you put on my heart.

And then what happens is hungry people come. Hungry people come. And then he opens, many of you, I don't know if you know, but we bought 91 .9 FM four years ago. It aired from almost Acton all the way up to Mammoth Lakes.

Every day, 24 seven, getting the message out there and worship out there. And the church getting, and just God doing incredible things through one person who submits and surrenders. And it doesn't have to be perfect.

You think I do it perfectly? Just go talk to my wife or my kids. No, but they know I try and I repent when I'm wrong. And I don't wanna be haughty. I wanna be who I am on Sunday, who I am on Monday. It's a process.

It's fighting the old flesh. Any of you war with the old man inside? Come on, give me a break. I'm not as worried about the devil as I am the old man inside. Remember that old carnal nature, the old days?

I still get protection from people. I'm in Havasu. I'm like, well, have fun. Those places brought me down. Not saying you can't do it. I'm just saying there's certain triggers for people, right? And again, there's so much here.

Maybe even listen to the first service because I went into more detail. But he goes on to say, in the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build it back up. He said, in an instant again, I'm gonna build it back up.

But if that nation does evil in my sight and does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good which I said would benefit it. In other words, it's God is seeing if the heart is right. You know how many people, they cry, but it's not genuine repentance?

A .W. Tozer used to say, don't come up here and cry about it. Go home and live it out. And so he said, okay, you wept and you cried and I'm gonna revive you, nation. I'm gonna restore you again. But if you go back to your evil ways, if it was just lip service, then I will turn back around and God is forced to bring that pestilence, that famine, that drought.

He often judges even with foreign adversaries. Sound familiar? You think we're stronger than China right now? With these people we have in our administration? The stupidest decisions I've ever heard of.

Pulling out of Afghanistan, how they did that. It's like, it blows my mind, the level of stupidity. Yeah, I said it, okay. I don't have to be back here next Sunday, so I can do that. But again, am I just saying the truth?

I'm not saying Republican, Democrat, I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying where we are as a nation, we are ripe for judgment if the church does not get on her face again and seek the heart of God.

Returning to the Old Paths

Business as usual is not gonna cut it in these dire times. Business as usual is not gonna cut it in these dire times. I'm excited, I'm gonna speak on a panel at Turning Point USA event, Charlie Kirk, lots of pastors are coming in, they asked me to talk a little bit to the pastors and say things.

And last year I recommended, hey guys, it's great for these meetings and rah, rah, rah, go team, but we need to have worship, times of worship, and times of prayer. It starts from the top, we can't, business as usual is not gonna cut it anymore.

And a friend of mine, Malachi O 'Brien, I think he's gonna head that up and they're gonna start doing that now. And I went to the National Religious Broadcasting event and guys, we can't have three days of meetings and not even pray and worship, business as usual is not gonna cut it anymore.

We can't just come in and hurry up, get through those three songs, Fred, get through those announcements, hope it's a 30 minute sermon, because I gotta go eat. You think that is gonna bring the hand of God into our lives and restore us?

Business as usual is not gonna cut it anymore because business as usual is not historical, biblical Christianity. I remember when the church would pray. I'm gonna blow some minds here. I remember all night prayer meetings.

Oh Lord, why would I do that? Well, why wouldn't you do that? You sit and watch Netflix till midnight. See, there's no passion, there's no desire. We wonder why we're not seeing great exploits from God.

Are people being healed and set free anymore? Where's the church of the living God? We're not called to come and listen for a few minutes, listen to worship, sing a few songs, and then go home. There's a change that must take place in our lives.

And so he told Jeremiah, therefore go and speak to the men of Judah and tell them, I am fashioning a disaster against you. Return now, return now, return now. When you hear his voice, harden not your heart.

The call is always to return. And if you think I'm being too brazen in this area, read Isaiah, read Jeremiah, read Daniel, read Ezekiel, read Joel and Amos, oh please read the minor prophets, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, read Hosea, how he would call the people and he'd say, prepare to meet thy maker.

Oh Israel, prepare to meet thy God. It's a difficult truth that get us to break and humble ourselves. Is that not true? At least nobody's walked out and left yet that I know of. It's not uncommon, it's not uncommon because people do not like to be lovingly confronted with the truth.

What do they say? Tell me sweet things, coddle me. For the time will come when they will not endure, put up with sound, good, biblical, solid, hard-hitting teaching. They will look for teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

As a result, the church is a mile wide but only an inch deep. Speak the truth. And just to make you feel better, I don't like to say difficult things. I was a people pleaser. That's why I cannot even believe I'm doing this.

Nobody's more surprised than me, trust me. People pleaser, couldn't speak well, stuttering, speech impediment, overweight, shy, not a good combination. And the more you read God's word though, as you know, the more you're full with the spirit, you have to speak the truth.

And when it gets challenging, doesn't it? I mean, maybe you don't have a constant criticism like I do 24 seven, seven days a week, no holiday breaks, but it's hard. And sometimes I say, am I even making a difference?

Look at Sacramento, what is going on? I don't even want to preach his word anymore. Have you ever felt that way? Thank God Jeremiah can relate. He said, because when I said that, but I couldn't because his word was in my heart like a burning fire.

It was shut up in my bones. I could not hold it back. He said, the word of God is like a fire that devours. It's like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. And he says, we need to get back to the unadulterated word of God that pierces the heart and brings the sinner to salvation and brings the carnal Christian to full surrender.

That is biblical historical Christianity. And he said, return to them, return. And I want to skip ahead to Jeremiah 18, 12. This is so sad, but it's so true. Jeremiah paints his picture, 18, 12. He paints his picture for them.

Hey, can you imagine if they said, hey, just turn back to God and he will fix everything. Might take a while, but you'll get there. Have you ever had that joy of the Lord and you've lost it? Man, I would do anything for that.

I don't know about you, but there's no other high like King Jesus. And being filled with the spirit of God and the joy that surpasses all understanding. All hell can be breaking loose, but still there's that joy and that peace.