Prone To Wander, Lord I Feel It — Shane Idleman

Prone to Wander and the Struggle Within

The title is Prone to Wander. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above. The title is Prone to Wander, Lord, I feel it.

Proverbs 27 .8. Like a bird that wanders from the nest, so is a man who wanders from his place. Wander means to depart, to stray, to retreat. And it's one of the things you will have to face as a Christian.

I put down earlier that most Christians will have to face this, and I was completely wrong, because all Christians will have to face the wander within. There's something inside of us that wants to wander from God.

It's that sinful nature. It's what they call, the theologians call the Adamic nature, the nature of Adam. There's something in us that's prone to wander, or the influence of the world. Is anyone being influenced from the world and not the things of God?

And there's this thing in us, it's, Lord, I'm prone to wander. I'm prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Do you ever feel that struggle? Like, what's going on here? What's going on in my heart?

And I've said this before, and maybe it'll have more relevance this morning, but if you're bored during worship, you might be on the verge of wandering, or close to wandering. Hurry up and get through this.

There's a wander within that's wanting to wander from God. It means to stray from the things of God, to retreat. It's almost as God is saying, after you wander, God's saying, son, daughter, you don't belong here.

You don't belong here. And I remember a story I heard many years ago of a man, he was high up in his community. Prayed for his family, but one day, his son made a bad decision, ended up in jail. He was gonna be there, I think, a few years.

And he walked in, and his son was just in tears and crying, and, Dad, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And the dad just looked at him and said, son, you don't belong here. You don't belong here. Encourage yourself.

Strengthen yourself. Get back on track, because where you're at sometimes isn't where you belong. So when you wander, see, the prodigal son wandered, correct? Ended up eating with pigs. Saying, oh, my father, my father.

I can go back to my father. Same thing with, and that's that song, Good Good Father, just stood out this morning. I don't know why, because maybe, have you ever called on him? Have you ever heard that whisper in the darkness of night?

When I was saying that lyric, it just came alive, because you hear that whisper in the darkness of night. You hear that never-ending, that never-failing love from a father, and as men, sometimes it's hard, because we have this image of God of who our dads were.

And it takes time to erase that and change that sometimes. Especially if you had a dad that was hard. Anybody out there? You know, you don't cry, you don't do this, men are tough. Always seeking affirmation.

Always seeking, did I do good enough? Did I exceed? Dad, look at me, look at me. And then sometimes we can take that same concept into our relationship with God. And the Bible paints a different picture than our earthly father sometimes provided us.

Son, you don't belong here. God says, stay in this place. When God, like a bird that wanders from its nest, that's when it becomes easy prey, right? Up high, high in the nest, it's fine, but it comes out of that nest, it becomes easy prey.

So God says to us, stay in this place, stay in this environment, stay in this shelter. And that's my heart for people really, is I believe that God provides a covering that is not free of trials. The trials will find you wherever you're at, but there's a covering, there's a shelter, there's a safety, there's a protection, there's an anchor where you can stay and have the presence of God, the blessings of God, the protection of God, as if your father's holding you, guiding you in that safety and in that protection.

Balaam, Idolatry, and Remaining Under God's Protection

And I'm often reminded of that story I've talked about before, of the story of Balaam, the false prophet, who King Balak hired him. And he said, go and curse the children of Israel. It's an amazing statement.

And he tried to curse the children of Israel, curse the children of Israel. And he came back, he said, I can't curse these people. I can't curse what God has blessed. But he said, I'll tell you what you can do.

Get them to remove themselves from the blessed place. So the children of Israel, under God's safety and protection, were actually led astray by idolatry, sexual immorality, the pagan gods, the pagan, he said, here's what you can do, though.

Here's what you can do. You can relate to the wonder within and pull them away from God, have them curse themselves. See, there's a safety, there's a shelter, there's a protection of staying in God's Word, staying in that anointing, staying in that presence, staying in that spirit-filled life where no demon in hell can come against you.

Nothing can when you're in that safety and protection of God. That's why God's call is always come back, come back. See, he's so good, so honest, so just, that when a man makes his decision to wander, he has to pay the consequences of that decision.

What kind of God would he be if he, okay, well, that doesn't apply now, I'm taking that back, it's lying. He can't be just and holy yet can change things and not have us responsible for our actions. So wandering is something we are all going to face.

Repentance as the Way Back to God

So here's five signs I want to share with you that you may be off course. You may be wandering. Here's the encouragement I'll give you up front, is when we're wandering, you know, obviously this is pretty obvious, but if I'm supposed to be going this direction and I'm wandering away from God, all I have to do is what?

Turn. Yeah, you're not there yet, but you're at least one step in the right direction. That word is actually repentance. Repent, a change of mind that leads to a change of action. So the wonderful thing about wandering is you can say, Lord, I've been wandering, you're right.

I'm on the wrong path, what do I need to do? Wait 10 months? Do these seven things and then maybe you'll hear my prayers and maybe jump up and down for 45 minutes and all these things and bow to this north, south, east and west and hopefully you'll see through all that.

No, he just says turn. So change your course. I'm wandering, you turn. The person caught in sin can turn that quickly. They can turn back to God. Yes, there might be consequences. Because sometimes we think, oh, life's not rosy anymore and I have to deal with these consequences.

Yeah, but would you rather be under God's shelter and safety in his will dealing with the consequences or outside of his will dealing with the pain of regret? See, there's a point that we have to turn and make that decision.

Sign One: Restlessness and Unconfessed Sin

So first sign that often comes is there is restlessness. There's restlessness. I believe a Christian should be at peace in God's will. And you know what restlessness is in the physical. Maybe I can bring this home in the spiritual.

Do you ever get frustrated and you can't get a good night's sleep? Right? It's usually tied to your later in the day caffeine, but I won't go there. So, well, there's some truth in that. There's a restlessness.

And when I'm restless and I don't get a good night's sleep, actually I didn't too much last night because my two daughters decided to hop in bed between us and kick and, you know, this and throw things at like two in the morning, three in the morning, it's four, I'm just gonna get up and move the couch.

And it's like, you didn't know that, did you? So there's restlessness. There's restlessness. And when I'm sleepy, when you're sleepy, that leads to accidents. It leads to, it hurts our alertness. It leads to many health problems.

Just for, if you're interested, look up sleep apnea or look up sleep deprivation and how it affects the body. It's, the list is very long. It's because in that deep sleep, the body begins to heal and repair.

And fight disease, fight cancer, fight heart disease, it begins to repair the body. So if you cannot get that sleep, that deep sleep, that restful sleep, and you're always restless, the same, what happens, it affects you physically.

If you're always restless, and the thing, spiritually speaking as well, it will affect your relationship with God. Because restlessness often is confusion. I'm restless, I'm not satisfied. And idle hands are the devil's playpen, right, or the devil's tool, so are restless hands.

Because restless, you ever have a restless kid? You say, go climb the roof or something. Go hike a mountain because you're so restless. And that's a sure sign often that you're wandering. Why, because what happens to a wander?

I'm restless. So I'll go in the direction I shouldn't go. And usually you get restless when you're not satisfied. When things aren't going your way. When things didn't pan out. When I'm just not being promoted.

I'm just not seeing God move like I used to. And we become restless. And that's a tool for the enemy to have us remove ourselves from that covering. Psalm 32, three through four. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away with the fever, with the heat of summer. That's David. Did he become restless? Read the whole chapter of Psalm 32. He was a restless man, he's restless.

And he says here, when I kept silent about my sin, isn't that a good way to approach this? Who's keeping silent about their sin? Anyone in here, anyone hearing this later? Because if you keep silent about your sin, it will begin to kill you from the inside out.

There's death taking place. David would actually say the bones that you've broken. My soul groans, everything within me is hurting. Because of my sin. And that's usually restlessness and sin are close comrades.

Sign Two: A Critical and Negative Spirit

And then we see number two, there's a critical spirit often arises. Uh-oh. Often reflected in our what? Here's what I've noticed, those filled with the Spirit of God, those loving the things of God, working towards God, they're not restless, they're not critical.

They're anything but, right? They're filled with God's Spirit. They're like, oh, whatever, let's just be united. They're not critical. But it comes up in all of us. There's a critical spirit. And we start to criticize each other.

We might just start to criticize the church. We start to criticize our children, our parents, our family members, even God. There are critical spirit is a sure sign you might not be going on the right direction.

Or you might be halfway on the path and getting ready to turn in the wrong direction. Look at our heart. I see it so much in the church. People that are so critical. Is it just me? I mean, I got people that are so critical if you don't use the right translation of the Bible.

What? I'm all for good translations. There's a few out there, but just because I don't follow your translation and critical spirit, oh, you're going to hell. Well, that's a critical spirit. You're a Pharisee.

I'd rather be where I'm at than you're at. Or why doesn't the church do this? Why can't we do this? What about my family? What about my friends? And critical, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. All day at home.

That's a wanderer spirit. You're about ready to wander. You better just glue, you better get some super glue out. It really starts up here though, doesn't it? Because you can glue your mouth and still be thinking it up here.

When we wander, we become angry in this area. We become angry, disgruntled, discouraged, critical, and negative. Do you think the prodigal son was in a good mood when we wander? Actually, you might already be wandering because a Christian who should be on the right path when he's on the wrong path is not a happy camper, is he?

You don't want to be around that person sometime. You don't want to talk to that person. And what that does, wandering, makes us angry, disgruntled, discouraged, critical, and negative. James 4 .11, do not speak evil against one another.

I would love to post that all over the church in different places. How many times do people disobey this? Me too. Think about that. Do not speak evil against one another. We shouldn't have it. So that's a sign of a wanderer.

It's a sign of somebody, when somebody is restless, how can I, restlessness, because I went through a season of this. I was never satisfied. Where I live, what I drove. You know, if I moved here, Pasadena, I moved down there, I was a district manager at 24 Hour Fitness.

I moved to Pasadena, oh, I was so restless. Moved up here, and I was just restless in my spirit. And then I became critical and negative. I was veering off the right path onto the wrong path. And then as a result, when you're on that wrong road, there is barrenness, isn't there?

Sign Three: Spiritual Barrenness and Lack of Fruit

You know what barrenness is? Barrenness is just the word, barren, unfruitful, unproductive, dry. The Bible talks about in a dry and thirsty land, Lord, you're the only, or in the dry land, you're the only thirst.

You're the only one that can bring down that water and quench my soul. So there is barrenness. We are unfruitful in the things of God, but can be fruitful in the things of the world. Think about that.

A barrenness, when somebody's barren, they're unfruitful in the things of God. They're not doing anything for God, but they're doing a lot for the world. And as a Christian, though, that makes you pretty unhappy, because I should be doing more for God.

I should be doing things for God. There's barrenness in my soul for the things of God, but the things of the world, I'm fine in. So let me just encourage you in this area, in barrenness. Just step out and do something.

Okay? Just step out and do something. You'll feel so much better, because you weren't called to take all of God's word in and become fed and fat on the word of God. What is it supposed to do? It comes in, and it goes out.

Some of you saw the YouTube clip. I won't embarrass you guys. I see you up there in the balcony, so I'm not gonna say anything. But I had the privilege of going to a home yesterday and cleaning out a pantry and a refrigerator with all the wrong stuff and putting the right stuff in there.

And I felt, I just wanna thank you guys, because I felt so fulfilled after that. It was such a blessing for me to go in. Maybe not them, right? Because all the good stuff's gone. But I felt just, that's what I was created to do.

That's what we're, to go out and be a blessing to others. You could sit at home and do this. That's why the NFL doesn't fulfill. Basketball playoffs don't fulfill. It doesn't fulfill. You were created to be the hands and feet of God.

We've got 25, 30 patients in the hospital homes that you can go and sit and visit and read to. Go out and be, I've got people here that need help in certain areas of counseling or nutrition or marriage counseling.

We just need to step out and do that. Then that barrenness can turn into rivers of living water. What was the Christian that just takes it in and never gives it out? It becomes, and what happens when we're wandering, we become barren.

Because when somebody's wandering, who wants to do anything for God? The Bible's boring, is what you hear me say often. I'll get to church when I can. Worship's boring. The Bible's boring. I'm barren.

I'm dying spiritually, basically. And that's a sure sign that you're on the wrong course. Proverbs 13, 15, hard is the way of the transgressor. Amen to that? Hard is the way of the transgressor. The one that has wandered from God, hard is their way.

Not only are you not fruitful, you're not built up and encouraged in the things of God. There's no joy. There's no peace. There's no love. The fruit of the Spirit. Do you know what the fruit of the Spirit is?

When you're filled with the Spirit of God, doing the things of God, out of your belly flows rivers of living water from the Holy Spirit. Love and joy and peace and gentleness. How's everybody doing? Goodness, faithfulness, self-control.

These things are flowing out of you. When we're barren, when we've wandered, what's flowing out of us? Critical spirit, negative, anger. It's actually the opposite. Love, hatred. Joy, confusion or anxiety.

Love, joy, peace, no peace, anxiety. Goodness, faithfulness, not faithfulness. We don't keep our commitments off and we commit to things and I don't wanna do that. Why don't you wanna do that? Because you're wandering.

Does anybody do that? Make a commitment and then when the time comes, time? See, it's really easy to say it, isn't it? Yes, I'll serve in that ministry. Let's sign me up for VBS until it gets here. Then Monday morning, we have a headache.

Now, I'm not downplaying genuine medical concerns. Right, you know that. But we have to be that outlet. So barrenness and then four, there is unconfessed sin. That's a sure sign that we are on the wrong road or we are going to be on the wrong road very quickly.

Sign Four: Unconfessed Sin and Restored Spiritual Life

See, sin, when it goes unchecked, begins to grow. Because if you can cover the sin, it's like covering a seed in soil. Cover an apple seed in soil and water it every day and watch what happens in a few years.

That's what happens with sin. When we cover it, unconfessed. Now, we make the mistake, well see, nothing's happening, not today. But that seed's still growing. Oh, nothing's happened this week. It's still growing, it's getting bigger, it's starting to, what do they call it, sprout.

It's starting to grow. And unconfessed sin will keep us on the wrong path. First Chronicles 21 .8. Then David said to God, I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg You, God, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant.

I have done a very foolish thing. See, for a year, David didn't bring it up. How was he doing that year? Miserable. He was miserable. He actually said later on, oh, give me back the joy again. Can anyone relate?

David cried out to God, Lord, give me back the joy again. Now, you know that verse about his bones being broken? Blessed are the bones that you have broken. Oh, that the joy of my salvation may return.

See, there's barrenness, there's unfruitfulness, there's restlessness when we wander and we don't confess sin. Now, I could stay here for an hour and list everything, but you know what I'm talking about, right?

It would be very healthy maybe today if we went to our spouse and said, you know, I've got a critical spirit. I've got a critical tongue. We need to repent to this. We need to keep not doing this. We've been restless.

We've been too restless. Let's just stop and seek God because it's not getting us anywhere. We're not being productive in this restlessness, and we confess it or confess of other sins. The biggies out there, right?

We know those as well. We confess and say, Lord, I need help on that this morning. I'm not gonna hide it anymore. I'm not gonna act like it's no big deal. I'm going to confess that, and then watch out because springs of living water are right behind you because sin will dam it up.

See, the Holy Spirit wants to work in us and through us to be a conduit, like electricity, right? I used to dig. I've told you this before. I used to dig around large electrical lines, 12 ,000 volts, and they would mark it, and Southern California Edison would be out there sometimes, and they would mark it, and I have to find it, and I'd find this big six-inch line or pipe, but actually that wasn't, because I broke a few of those and nothing happened.

It was the black line in the middle of it that would kill you. See, we're just that conduit for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. As we empty ourselves, we are filled with the Spirit of God, and out of us comes those things.

Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Out of your belly. I mean, how many can relate to that? Don't raise your hand, but how many can truly, this is a promise from Jesus Christ himself. I don't know about you, but I take the Bible pretty literally, all the way literally, to the max literally.

So when Jesus said, if you believe on me, as the scriptures say, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water, John the Baptist said, when you believe on him, the Spirit's baptism, the Spirit's fire, the Spirit's anointing, the Spirit's unction, he will baptize you with the power of the Holy Spirit.

So where is it? Where is that fire? Where's the living water? We should be so full of God's Spirit, then we leave here and say, who can we minister to at lunch? The waitress. You look like you're having a bad day.

I am, my husband just walked out on me. Well, can I pray for you? And you begin to minister, because the conduit. Think about, if we never do anything for God all week, what's going on in here? I told you you're gonna be a little convicting.

You know, I'm getting to a point where I don't... Good, we need the convicting. I mean, there's so much, I listen to TV guys, and I'm like, oh my Lord. Motivational speakers. We are so entertained. We are so encouraged.

I mean, I look at top sermon sites a lot of times. Some of the guys, I'm not talking about everybody, but it's just all encouragement, and thank God. We don't need to always be beat up, right? We need to be encouraged.

But if all you're getting is the encouragement, if you have a child and they keep disobeying, and all you do is encourage them, it's all right, son, you'll get them next time. And the hundredth time, you'll get them next time.

I know you're coming home drunk, running the car through the garage, but you'll get them next time. It's okay. No, no, you need to, okay, next time that happens, next time that happens, you are out of this home.

I will pray for you, I love you, but this has got to stop. You are going to ruin your life. You're on the broad road that might lead to destruction. You could end up in jail for the next 10 years. You are going, there's too much at stake, son.

You've got to stop. See, that's conviction, that's a loving father. So if we don't ever convict, do we really love? Or are we just worried about people's opinions? Remember I told you I had to make a huge switch, talk about a huge switch.

When I used to public speak in 2001, 2002, yeah, 2000, 2001, 2002, I was raided by audience approval. They'd fill out cards. Would you be inclined to come again? Were you encouraged by this message? And you better have a lot of encouragement.

And then you do this, and God says, I don't give a darn, right, say that. I don't care who, I don't want any encouraging cards. I don't want to, yes, open for constructive criticism, of course, concerned about people.

But when you leave here, you've got to say, God, did I do what you called me to do? Woe be to the man who is concerned about the opinions of men, but not the opinions of God. Jesus actually said, woe be to you when all men speak well of you.

What was He saying? It's good to have a good reputation. But He's saying, if you're going around tickling the ears, never challenging, never contending, that's actually the problem, why the country is in the situation it's in today, because the pulpits are silent.

They should be convicting, saying, hey, that's not a good direction to go. That's not a good direction. Come back, convict, convict, convict. And then the fifth point. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.

Sign Five: Rebellion, Pride, and Humility

If when you know you're on the wrong road, there is always, always, always rebellion. And why this is so important, because I talk to Christians often who need to get on the right path. Do you think they want to hear what I'm saying?

Rebellion, and something, maybe it's me, but I don't like witchcraft, I don't know if you do. Divination, witchcraft, horoscopes, anything to do with the occult, the demonic, the dark side is not good.

You're playing with the wrong spirit. And when God says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, that really makes me ponder this area. First Samuel 15, 23, let me set it up for you. Saul is, Saul is king.

He's the first king of Israel. And he gets impatient, and he decides to sacrifice ahead of time. When God said, no, do it this way, even Samuel said, no, do it this way, he got restless. He got impatient.

Let me just take matters in my own hands. And he disobeyed God, and God said, for rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.

He said, Saul, your rebellion is the same as witchcraft to me, in my eyes. Now, be encouraged in this sense. In my opinion, Saul had a rebellious spirit. This isn't, this isn't, this isn't a guy saying, oh Lord, I'm sorry, I blew it.

This is a rebellious spirit from day one, and God says, I'm rejecting you from being king. A Christian with a rebellious spirit is an oxymoron. I don't even know if that's possible. But you know what that is, right?

Here's where we're in danger in America. It comes with American pride. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do, when to do it, how to do it, or why to do it. I'm gonna do it when I want to do it. And there's this sense of entitlement, this taking pride, and that's not biblical.

You better remove that quickly, or God will. And it's not fun when God, when God says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, in due time, I will exalt you. Humble yourself quickly. Don't let God do it.

Don't, because I've seen God so humble people, and it is disastrous. He will take a ministry, he will take a church, he will take a job, he will humble you. So he says, humble yourself in the mighty hand of God, under the mighty hand of God.

In due time, he will exalt you. He will do it, so humble yourself. Take the low road, not the high road. In America, pride is an asset, and humility is a liability. But God says, oh no, you better change that.

Humility is the asset, and pride is a liability. So humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Humble yourself. Stop thinking so highly of yourself than you should. Stop thinking you're so gifted. Stop thinking, gosh, if I was in that pulpit, if I was on that worship team, boy, I would let them have it.

If I was a head of that ministry, if I was the boss, if I was the sergeant, if I was in charge. God says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. In due time, he will exalt you. Be careful, it doesn't end there.

But he said, if you exalt yourself, I will abase you. Abase is an interesting word. It means to bring down to a spot so low you can't go lower. Abase. God says, I will abase you. And sometimes we need to hear this type of message.

We need to be convicted of our pride because it can rise up in all of us, can't it? The prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. I feel these things rising up in me sometimes. You don't feel pride rising up?

Anybody ever want to just be right? Oh, nobody out there, I'm gonna wait for the 11 o 'clock on that one. This is for the 11. I'm serious. But you feel it rising up, right? You want to be right? You gotta get the last word in.

You gotta correct them on the email. You gotta text message. You gotta make sure your kids know you get the last word. You know, right? No, don't prove me wrong. When it comes to theological issues, people are prideful.

Oh, I couldn't be wrong in this area, could I? Am I teachable? You feel it rising up in you. So be careful in this area. Continual disobedience is what he's talking about in the scripture. Sometimes people are thinking, oh, I'm rebellious and God's gonna just take it.

No, this Saul, there was a consistent pattern. But I believe if there's a consistent pattern of rebellion, you hear a sermon like this, you fail to respond, then God, you know, you're losing chances here.

God says, I'm long-suffering. But that length comes to an end at some point, doesn't it? So here's what's happening with the rebellious spirit. We don't want to hear the Bible, or read from the Bible.

We don't want to attend church much. We don't want to hear convicting sermons. That's a sure sign that a Christian, a Christian is in a state of rebellion often, because they'll go to church, right? But they'll avoid churches where it's convicting.

That's why some churches are safe havens for the rebel. They can sing the songs, they go, that was a wonderful, encouraging message, and no conviction. They don't change. So they stay in their rebellion, they stay in their pride, they stay in their arrogance, they're never challenged, and they come back, they love it because it provides a safe haven for them.

That's, I don't know what it was, many years ago, a writer, probably 1800s, said when people come under the sound of Holy Ghost preaching, they are mortally offended because they've never been exposed to the white light of the gospel.

That's true, you would be amazed. Sometimes I'll speak where people don't hear this very often, and they're like, honey, where's my purse? You're just leaving, you know, because I'm not putting up with that.

Right, spirit of pride and rebellion. God's Word should crush you. Who are we to say no? No, I'm not going to hear that. It's God's Word. If you think this is my opinion, just look at the Bible. All of these points are biblical.

Men, Family Leadership, and the Cultural Battle

Men and women, rebellion affects our family at a very deep level, does it not? Here's where I'm gonna pick up a little bit from three years ago. I quoted Kenny Luck, he said this, today virtually every social problem, social injustice, and behavior abnormalities can be traced back to an absent, delinquent, misbehaving, drunk, or sexually immoral dad who didn't respect or understand their enormous calling.

Girls often find themselves mistreated, miscast, misused, and undervalued. What they need is guidance, esteem, honor, and worth that only a father can give. Same goes for boys, they just have a different set of statistics.

Men are appointed by God to make our children secure. God's highest calling for a man is to be a husband and a father. They're actually, their highest calling is to seek God with all their heart and to fulfill the role that God has put you in.

That's why the world will take you away from that role. See, whatever role God puts you in, look, the stuff on TV just blows my mind at how they're minimizing the role of the father, even the mother, how the kids are so smart, so in charge at 12 years old just running the house on all these TV programs.

See, the culture always goes opposite because the prince of the air, prince of the airwaves, right, for the most part, the secular society, the media is pulling these good, godly qualities away from us.

And God says, no, men, regain your right ground, regain lost ground, get back on track, stop wandering. Yeah, you don't have to do a perfect devotional. Hello, amen? I mean, just say, Lord, I need to get back on track.

I'm not going to listen to the lies of the enemy. So many, I see them, they are so focused on their Jetseys and their motorcycles and the river and the trip and this and that and baseball, yet they are dying inside.

Their family is evaporating and dying. It's focused on sports nowadays more than God. Now, great, be involved, do things, but you better have the right focus, the right priority because you get to the end of your life and go, oh, my Lord, I've wasted so many years.

But a few statistics, I was focused on girls this time. It says a girl is bullied every seven minutes. Every 15 seconds, a woman is battered. 50 of music videos portray women as sex objects, victims, or in a condescending way.

And one out of four college women has an eating disorder. One out of three girls between ages of 16 and 18, they say that sex is expected of them at their age if they are in a relationship. What's happening is the culture is shaping our families.

The parents are no longer shaping the families. The men need to be leading. The women need to be assisting as well, and we need to be leading our families. So, men, we are missing in action. This should cause every man to repair what he can.

Shouldn't it? I printed this this morning. Let's see if I was gonna be brave enough to read it. I wrote this many years ago, and it's brought some very good feedback, but it's also upset some people. I wrote an article a few years ago, that caught national attention, and it was overall positive, but here's just an excerpt from it.

I said, men, you're not called to be a passive, weak, indecisive partner. You're called to protect, lead, and guard your family. You're to initiate prayer. You're to defend your wife. You're to shepherd your children.

You're to make your home a holy sanctuary, not a breeding ground for Satan. You're called to fight the enemy, not flee from him. I'm tired of weak, passive men who never contend, never stand, never fight for anything worth dying for.

Our nation is looking for character. Our wives are looking for leaders, and our kids are looking for fathers. Men, stop the silly video games. Get off Facebook. Kill your porn habit. Tell your ungodly friends to hit the road.

Hit the road, Jack. Come on. You're called to lead. You're called to love. You're called to die, if necessary, for your family. We are the reason the nation is deteriorating. We are the reason the family is breaking down.

We must stop blaming everything from God to the government. We are the problem. We need to look in the mirror and regain lost ground and say, no longer, Lord, not on my watch. When have we interceded for the men in our nation to bring back the family?