A Heart-cry for America — Shane Idleman

Wanting me to change it around quite a bit. And how do you know that? You really just, there's a deep impression. There's a yearning to maybe speak on a different type of topic, even using the same template.

And they're gonna actually pass around an article I wrote, The Battle Cry of Isaiah. Looking back, I would like to change that to The Battle Cry of America. Awake and arise. We need to awake and arise.

God Uses the Unlikely Who Surrender to Him

And here's what I want. Here's what's not in my notes, and I hope it's okay. But I want to talk to you a little bit about how I got here. Because I think it's important to everyone in this room. Because a lot of times we think that God can't really use me.

You know, I'm here in Bishop. Somebody just told me, I didn't know anything good could come out of Lancaster. But I know what they're saying. That's a good, I can see where they're coming from. And, you know, we just think sometimes we're insignificant.

We can't really make a difference. And what happened in Lancaster, California, I was born there, actually a little town called Quartz Hill. And barely graduated high school with a 1 .8. But it really wasn't, you know, I did try, but realizing later I had dyslexia.

And I just could not follow teachers. I couldn't understand what they were talking about. Algebra, way over my head. World history, boring. It just, nothing clicked. And I had to just really cheat my way through to barely graduate.

And then, so graduating that, fairly looked upon as the stupid one. Class clown. And then so to fill that void, I turned to alcohol for many years in my early teens, or late teens, actually. And, you know, obviously we all know that's not fulfilling.

But, and then working in construction. Hello. Digging ditches. And God really began to just break me and humble me. And so with no education, no really background other than hard work, and I think kids need that nowadays.

I remember when a man's word was his handshake, if you can believe that. We didn't have contracts back then. Growing up with my dad, watching him work. He was from the farms of Oklahoma. And so would never, ever dare come up here and speak to you.

Speaking in public, you know, just embarrass and sit down. And so, the least likely, what happened? Well, it's called encountering the power of the Holy Spirit. It's called encountering God. And I believe a lot of people, though they know God, they're not completely abandoned to Him and filled with the Spirit.

That's where it comes from. And Michael mentioned the boldness. Well, the real Shane Eidelman up here would be an embarrassment. But it's the Spirit of God that gives us that boldness. And we just got back from an event with, I don't know how many of you follow, Charlie Kirk with Turning Point USA in San Diego.

And my wife and I were down there. They had me on a panel talking to this big ballroom of pastors. And I said the same thing, that we have to have boldness, but brokenness. If the lukewarm, carnal church has slain its ten thousands or thousands, its arrogance has slain its ten thousands.

And you can be a mean, angry pastor, and you're not going to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life. And then you can be carnal and lukewarm, and you're going to be quenching and grieving the Spirit.

So that desire to find that balance. And I see so many angry pastors. Some of these guys are my friends that you follow. Not top names. I'm like, dude, you've got to humble yourself before God does. And they're not really full of God's Spirit.

They're full of haughtiness, not holiness and arrogance. And then of course, we know the other side, the woke culture that I'm really fighting against in L .A. County. And woke is just another word for political correctness.

I don't want to offend. I don't want to upset. I don't want to really go there. We're just supposed to love people. Well, yeah, but are you offending God by your silence? Because if we're not talking about things that put Jesus on the cross, the blood of Christ, judgment, repentance, to me, that's a severe deviation from God's Word.

And they're trying to be popular. And when you do that, you can't be powerful. So I want to encourage you, if you live up here, live down the freeway, live wherever. God can't really use me. What am I doing up here?

Or down in Bishop or wherever? God just needs you surrender to Him. You plus God is the majority. So God took someone like me with my background and broke me and broke me and broke me. Let me tell you, one reason I raise my hands up here, let me tell you.

This might come as no surprise to some of you if you follow the ministry on 88 .5, but when I was growing up in construction, a lot of steroid use, bodybuilding, fighting, all those kinds of things, I would go into church and I would laugh at those people raising their hands.

All those silly charismatics. Oh, my Lord, Lord, that's for women and children. And then when God started to break me, and you sing that song, Wounded, for our transgressions, that cursed on a tree, He died for our sins, amazing grace, how sweet it is that saved a wretch like me.

I should be dead. I should be on my way to hell. ACDC song, I'm on a highway to hell. I used to listen to that with the Jack Daniels between my legs going 100 miles an hour. And that's where I should be.

So shouldn't we be the most excited worshipers on the planet? Now, I know there's different, you know, I'm more conservative, you know, but I do it to just remind myself I will humble myself before man and not be embarrassed by what God has done in my life.

And Lord, I give you all the glory, all the credit. You've broke me, you've humbled me, you've filled me. And so I thank so many of you for loving the radio station, how the messages have impacted your life.

But you have to know it's not me, it's God working through someone who is submitted to Him. And that's what many of you need to do. Full surrender. It's not optional. Full surrender. And even in that, there's not perfection.

I still struggle with attitude adjustment. Anybody have a hard time getting to church with kids? Just me? Okay. We filmed a short video on Instagram. You can watch it afterwards. And I said, well, this is the easiest time it's ever been because it took us two minutes, one mile.

So that wasn't too bad. The kids weren't acting up. But, you know, the challenges of life and, of course, pride and, of course, struggles and all those things. But God is looking for the heart that submits and surrenders and gets back on track and repents and falls forward and wants to be the fullness of His Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, and God’s Guidance

And so that's actually where 88 .5 came from. I don't know if you listened in 2017, but they contacted us and said, hey, we're selling the station and just going to let you know your program will be off the air.

And so I said, okay. And so I'm driving. I remember the street. I remember the location. It's probably two, three in the afternoon. And I said, well, that stinks. Oh, well. And it was like just this thought came into my mind.

Why don't you buy it? Yeah. Okay. You know, and I'm careful because it's so, this is such an interesting topic. This would be a whole other sermon. But I believe the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit are still available to us today.

I believe God can give us prophetic words, but you need to put a seatbelt on sometimes. You know, it's not, if it's not, if it's odd, it's God isn't biblical. It's not weird. Holy Spirit empowering me is not weirdness.

Actually, if we want to get really biblical, the number one fruit of somebody filled with the Spirit is boldness to proclaim the truth. And so that comes out. And so I'm open, but I'm cautious because I've grew up and I preach at Baptist churches, very conservative.

I preach a very charismatic and very, it's like, you know, and so I'm, I'm, I'm just, I love God's people because there's diversity in there as well. And we need to stop being wrongly judgmental. You know, some charismatics need to put a seatbelt on.

Some conservatives need to step on the gas pedal. I'm going to get off that topic because, so anyway, long story short, I'm driving. I heard them like, oh man, Lord, you got to be kidding me. I don't even know what's involved.

And so I contact the station. It's kind of funny. I joke with him. I haven't in a while, but he's like, well, we can't sell to you. You don't know how to run a radio station. Well, I'm like, well, that's a good point.

And so I'm just praying, praying for probably eight months, six. I don't know. And I said, you know what? I'm just giving this up because this is ridiculous. This can't be God. I'm busy. I've got five kids, 17 to three, running the church, running, speaking nationally, writing articles.

Whose idea was this anyway? And so two days later, we get an email or I get an email from the office and they said, Hey, there's this guy here. I told my wife, I said, I can't, I can't manage a radio station.

So I think I might've missed it on this one. I don't know what that was all about. And so I get an email and I'll never forget it. I've never got an email like this before. I'll never get an email like this again.

But she said, Hey, Shane, there's a guy stopped by. He is, he's thinking of moving here and he manages a Christian radio station. Well, so today he still, he has walked us through all this. He's, but he had, he never moved out here.

He lived in, lives in Missouri. He was able to do it all remotely. And so, oh, there's that one hurdle. And then I'm still like, nope, there's no way. Like this is too big of an undertaking because there's a lot to it.

Working with the FCC and tower and transmitters and engineers and a lot of things that I'm learned, learned through the process. Had God showed me then what I know now, I would have said, no way. And he often does that.

He doesn't show you everything you're going to go through. He just shows the fruit and then you walk and then you go through all the challenges that get you there. But so we, we are, I was still praying because it was under contract with another buyer, a Mexican radio station, Hispanic radio station.

I guess in this day I should pronounce things correctly or get a woke email from someone. And I love all ethnicities. That's what's funny. I love, we have my, my associate pastor is a black pastor. He's filling in for me the next few weeks.

And another rabbit trail. Sorry, I've got a lot of rabbit trails. So I'm driving. I get to church. I say, Lord, let me, let me meet someone today that has been blessed by that radio station because it went off the air for a while.

And let me, let me hear from someone who's been blessed by that. And I know I just need this confirmation. Look, because see, I trust God. I just don't trust Shane Idleman. So I don't know these thoughts that come in, you know, sometimes a good thing isn't always a God thing.

Satan, I believe can, can shoot fiery darts. Your own ego can, can plant seeds. And so his name was Walt. I said, Walt, how'd you hear about the church? He goes, oh, you'll never forget this. I was so blessed on that radio station before you went off the air.

That really changed my life. I'm like, oh my goodness. Wow. So long story short, we move forward. God closed the door on that escrow. Opened the door to other escrow. And we just, the financial was there.

I mean, it's a good 7, 8 ,000 a month to run both radio stations. You know, if you look at the Southern California Edison cost, transmitter cost, at least twice a year, people email us. Hey, you ready to sell Bishop yet?

You ready to sell Bishop yet? It's like, no, no, we're not selling Bishop. And so just your encouragement. My point was, I guess I could have got to this 10 minutes ago. But to be encouraged. I'm encouraged by the fact that so many of you are encouraged by that radio station.

Because we don't hear from people we don't know. And so that really is a good reminder that God had his hand in that, still had his hand in that. And I don't really, I choose some of the programming and different things.

But a lot of times we have programmers that connect. I don't do all that kind of stuff. Just the main overseeing of everything. So that's how we kind of got here. I wanted to encourage you. I don't know, again, none of that's in my notes.

God’s Calling in Everyday Life

But God can take what you consider nobody and make you somebody. Actually, he uses the least likely. And when I travel and sometimes speak, and people are like, oh, what seminary did you go to? School of Hard Knocks.

Cemetery. I don't know about that one. But my point is, when God calls you, and of course you want to educate yourself, read theology. I love theology. I still do today. But when God calls you and he will begin to use you in your sphere of influence, whatever that looks like.

And I didn't choose this calling. It chose me. And in your own life as well, you can make a huge difference up here or where you live, just in your home, in your community, on your street. And a lot of times I still feel, in California, in Los Angeles County, during the lockdowns.

Now, that was a little interesting. We just shut down, like everyone did, for just a little while. And then a friend of mine, maybe you probably follow Jack Hibbs, texted me, said, what are you thinking?

I said, we need to open ASAP. And so we set a date. We had some conference calls. And we opened the church. And about 200 people moved out of California from our church during the last two years. But the church tripled in size.

Financially increased as well. But also people left because they were, you know, saying we weren't loving our neighbor. And I'm like, I'm trying to, but I've got people hooked to addiction, brutal marriages, adultery and pornography, suicide.

When's the church supposed to be the church? How do we know we're not capitulating? And so when you look at all the shenanigans, I like to call it, you know, I was following the numbers. Friends of mine who are nurses in UCLA and different, like Shane, they're doctoring these numbers.

They're putting all these things down that's not true. And so we just used wisdom. And so we didn't step out in a spirit of rebellion, but of a desperation to honor God and His word. It was amazing what God did.

And it was not without its challenges. And I know me and my wife had a serious talk on, okay, this could result in possibly getting arrested. And because they were, I don't know if you remember, but L .A. County, they were clamping down.

You know, Governor Newsom, who you need to pray for. Don't mock. Just pray for him and his wife and his kids. And I know it's hard sometimes, but they were saying, you know, no singing, no church. And it's like just pushing down.

And I remember the Department of Justice under Trump sent him a letter and said, you will not stop the churches. They are essential. So that kind of gave us a little fuel to say, okay, you know, here we go.

In L .A. County, we opened up at the stadium. L .A. County said, you know, there's no singing. And I want you guys 12 feet away. And so we just, I'm sorry, I can't do that. And see, the truth will offend, but our attitude shouldn't.

And so the boldness comes. We can be gracious and loving and understanding, but still hold the line and say, this is perversion, our culture. We're not allowing that in the schools. This is not right.

You will not silence the truth. You just stand still, stand still and hold the line. And then God honors that. God gets behind you on that. And so out of that came, you know, the church staying open. Like Michael said, the media presence.

And they asked me to speak at the Turning Point USA. And then Rob McCoy, I spoke at his church. He spoke at our church. And so a lot of these pastors banded together. And what you need to know is, a lot of the pastors we ran into throughout the United States, there's a, I don't even know what the right word is.

But there is a holy indignation. There's a righteous indignation that God is moving among his pastors and his people. There's a sense of revival. Because if you've heard me speak, you know, spiritual awakening at this point is our only hope.

Political Leadership, Cultural Drift, and Spiritual Awakening

The Titanic has been hit. 2022, great. 2024, whatever. I mean, I'm all for godly legislation. As a matter of fact, we realize just how important leadership is during COVID. If anything, it showed me how important leadership is.

Who appointed the three Supreme Court justices that got Roe v. Wade overturned? Who secures our borders? Who appoints Christians to public office? So I don't care if you don't like the person. We're not following a man.

We're shaping a movement. And so, and we saw how important this is to godly leadership and how far our nation has drifted from the truth. And so the title of the message today, took me a while to get there.

What I want to encourage you with is the battle cry for America. Awake and arise. The battle cry for America. Awake and arise. I know some of you are thinking, I wish this sermon was over soon. Not everyone does.

I've learned that over the years. And I will say this, here's a test. This is what I prayed about this morning, if I should say this or not. So I'll let Michael handle the damage later. But there is a quick test to take if you know, you know, Lord, am I fully surrendered?

Am I filled with your spirit? Do I want more of you? There is a quick test. Did you want worship to hurry up and get over? Did you want more of it? Let that penetrate your heart. Is church on the back burner and all your other priorities on the front burner?

Or is God on the front burner? See, you can gauge spiritual health. I can gauge your physical health by your appetite. People dying of cancer, dying of other diseases, their appetite's gone. And so if your appetite for God is fading, if there's no appetite for God, there's no desperation, there's no, I've got to work.

I mean, when I heard 50 hours of worship, I'm like, how can we be here some of those times? How, I mean, my heart beats for seeking God because there's a desperation. There's a, in these dire times, just coming to church now and then and maybe saying a quick little prayer is not going to cut it.

God's got to become your all-consuming passion, your all-consuming desire. I need God. I need, oh God, would you rend the heavens? God, would you open up and come down and visit your people? Because we're desperate.

Our grandchildren, our children are exposed to so much perversion, ungodly legislation, so many politicians are lying and deceiving. And if we can't trust the FBI, who can we trust? God and God alone.

Don't get me started. I might go down a political rabbit trail. But I'm so tired of people saying we shouldn't get political. We just need to preach the gospel. My Lord, the gospel affects all areas of life.

It has a lot to say about murdering innocent children. It has a lot to say about gay marriage. It has a lot to say about transgenders teaching preschoolers about being a transgender and choosing your own sex.

My Lord, if not now, when? If not who? You? When are you going to wake up? But am I not just preaching the truth? When are you going to wake up, church? This is not time for playing games. And I didn't come here to tickle the ear.

I came here to challenge the heart. God, we got to get, guys, we got to get desperate. That's why a battle cry. A battle cry is our only hope right now. What was a battle cry? It would summon armies to war.

You know, when the Philistines heard the battle cry of Israel, the Bible says they literally shook. What is that cry in Israel? What is going on? The God of years has visited them. The battle cry that shook Jericho.

I mean, when you get Christians, again, not arrogance. Boldness underscored with brokenness. I read something 20 years ago when I first came back to the Lord. A .W. Tozer said, before God uses a man greatly, he must hurt him deeply.

And I finally, over the years, realized what that means. God's got to humble you and break you. Maybe that difficulty you're going through right now is to break you. Stop fighting it. Stop blaming the other person.

You know, one of the number one thing we see in counseling marriages is the blame shifting and the blame game. I said, I have the solution right here. Just drink of the living water. You will never thirst again.

Humble yourself. I don't care if you're right, you're still wrong in your attitude. You have the answer. And how many people don't? But you don't know my spouse. You don't know what I'm going through.

And we can no longer be shamed into silence. You know what shamed into silence is? Words like homophobe. People don't even know, we have people struggle with same sex attraction at our school, at our church.

We love them. They're at advance. We're no different than struggling with any other sin. However, we love the sinner, but we fight the agenda. That's the difference. That's what people don't realize. I love the mom who just had an abortion.

We can pray with her, we can help her. But you fight the agenda. And they try to shame you into silence. Homophobe. White ring. White, wait, right wing. White nationalist. That's my newest title. Whatever that means.

I don't have any clue. I guess because I'm bald. But shut him up. Shut him up. But when you know who you really are, that stuff shouldn't bother you. And when you speak the truth in love, it will hurt.

It's supposed to. God's word is not like a feather. It's like a hammer. It's like a fire that devours. It's like a sword that pierces. So when you speak the word of God with the spirit of humility and gentleness, the word of God goes through and it crushes pride.

It slices through arrogance. It will cut down the demonic realm. That's the only way. This is how I fight my battle on my knees, fasting before God, praying and pulling down heaven. I love having church.

I love preaching sermons. But most revivals are sparked in the prayer closet as men and women seek the hand of God. You will see more breakthrough at this church from 50 hours of worship than five years of sermons.

And Michael knows I'm not putting him down. I'd say the same thing about me and my church. When God radically meets you through worship and prayer and fasting and breaks you, then you come out of there a spirit-filled believer.

And that's what we need. The battle cry. But a heart cry must precede a battle cry. Many Christians are angry, but they're still arrogant. They're wound up, but they're not worshipers. And they're haughty, but they're not holy.

Is that not the truth? And I feel your pain. I'm right there with you. I'm so angry. I'm going to post something on Facebook today. If you knew what was going on up here, I would tear Twitter and Facebook and Instagram apart.

And just in your face. You know, I've got to balance it with love and grace and make sure. Is this edifying? Is this going to build up? But there is a time to strengthen and equip people and encourage people.

Another friend of mine, Sean Foyt, you might follow him. He's having all these worship events. He was down there as well, but he's very bold in posting those things. And I think it's good. We need that to show, you know, if it's done in love with the right spirit.

Jesus’ Confrontation, Holiness, and Righteous Anger

But who said Jesus? Did you know Jesus didn't turn the other cheek when he was hit? You need to all think about this. Jesus did not turn the other cheek when he was slapped. What did he do? He said, why'd you slap me?

What evil have I done? He confronted. See, turning the other cheek, we err on the side of grace. That's not my demeanor is to fight back. I'm going to err on the side of grace. I'm going to turn the other cheek.

I'm going to love him. But there comes a time where I will confront you. I will confront. What evil have I done? Why have you slapped me? And we forget that he made a whip. He made a whip. Can you imagine me coming here with a whip?

I would never be back here again. And pushing over the seats. Why? Why? Zeal for your house has consumed me, he said. I can't see this in the house of God. This is perversion. This is wrong. This is mockery.

And that zeal for my house, he said, has eaten me up. And he begins to drive out the money changers. Actually, did you know the money changers should have been there? They were exhorting. They were taking exorbitant amounts of money.

They were taking advantage of the people. The money changing had to take place so the people could make their offering. But it was their heart. And so I'm careful with this topic because I don't want people to leave here.

Yeah, Pastor James, I can hit people. I can just be angry. No, that's not. No, no, no. But, see, we've got this view, especially in the woke culture. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here. But just this passive, nice, mild mannered Jesus.

Don't say anything. Don't say anything wrong. Don't upset. Don't offend. He offended the entire religious system. He offended everybody from the Pharisees to the Sadducees to the religious leaders. You whitewash tombs.

You are nice and clean on the outside, but you're a dead man's bones in the outside. You go travel land and sea. And when you win one proselyte, you make him twice the son of hell as you. Jesus, He spoke more about hell than heaven.

And it just really, really infuriates me when people use Him to hide their cowardliness. And I know it's a hard message. I make no apologies. Every time I give this message, at least somebody doesn't come back to the church.

Oh, that guy. He's too hard. What's wrong with him? Why is he so angry? Oh, no, no. You're confusing passion with anger. Now, there's a little anger. There's a little righteous in the nation. Thank you.

It's okay. Jesus had it. One of the characteristics of God is anger, the right kind of anger. See, God's attribute is love. I don't know what that attribute is. I don't even want to say the number. But it's like 100 to 1 where His attribute of holiness is mentioned way, way, way more than love.

Our God is holy, holy, holy is our God. The angels even cry, holy, holy, holy is our God. The whole temple, these huge posts, 26 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter, they shook by the holiness of God. Holy, holy is of God.

And Isaiah said, my eyes have seen the King of glory. I've been radically changed from the inside out. And that's what some of you need. You need a Holy Ghost fire underneath you so you can have the passion and boldness of the Spirit.

You can confront a dying and dead culture and say, this is wrong, yet still be willing to die for that culture. It's a dichotomy. It's such an interesting thing. And how can I speak so aggressively yet love those stuck in sin?

It's the work of God's Spirit in your heart. Halfway through page one, there's four pages. So what time we have to end? What time do you actually really end? Okay. 1230? No, I'm not going to. I know you guys are.

Worship, Spiritual Hunger, and Unity in the Church

Well, here's the deal. When you're being encouraged, you're on the edge of your seat. You want more. You're not in a hurry for things to end or worship to get over. And that's a problem we have. I spoke at so many different churches.

One was, I'm not going to mention the name or city, but it was Omega Church. And they said, okay, here's your timer. You've got exactly 30 minutes. We've got this song. I'm not kidding. Four minutes and 23 seconds.

Baby dedication, a minute and a half. This song is four minutes and 32. And here's your 30 minutes. And we might have to cut into that if baby dedication goes long. And here's our one closing song. Then we've got to get them out of here.

Why is that? Because of the attention span. Oh, no, if you're Holy Spirit filled, your attention span is going to be a lot longer. We're not trying to conform to the culture. We're trying to conform the culture to God.

And I would just encourage you, be plugged in at a good church, but there has to be time for pressing in. And when he said worship goes 45 minutes before the mess, I'm like, praise God. You don't see that very often.

Because there's that time. Well, I won't get into that. I know the older crowd. I like the old hymns. I do too. But did you know the old hymns used to be new hymns? When they were first written? The biggest war we've ever had in our church is the worship wars.

I didn't even know anything existed. Worship wars. But both sides are actually right. The older person who walked down the sawdust trail of the Billy Graham crusade and heard those wonderful hymns, the old rugged cross and nothing but the blood and amazing grace, that just really, oh, that's God moving.

Yes, it is. But don't discount the 20-year-old who just came to the Lord eight years ago. I'm worthy of it all. I can't sing. And that's the kind of music. And see, those two sides fight instead of complimenting each other.

And understanding, we won't relate. Now, I can easily juggle both. You get me to a choir, and amazing grace is going, and worthy is the Lamb with the right vocals, instrumental, and anointing, and even a cappella sometimes.

I remember one of the best youth conferences we ever had. And now she's on our worship team, but she just opened with a guitar. I don't even know if it was an amplifier. It's just a guitar. And she's like, I mean, you feel the chill.

The anointing of God was there. And then I've got the emails. Oh, you can't worship God with drums and a guitar. I'm like, well, where's that in the Bible? Well, see, here's the thing, though. Just because it's not in the Bible doesn't mean it is in the Bible as well not to do.

There's a lot of gray area. I mean, I get to Psalms and rejoice with the trumpet and the harp and the flute. I mean, there is expressions of worshiping God. And so, again, it goes back to humility. You see how important humility is?

I would say 90 of the division in the church is over nonessential things where we don't humble ourselves. Could it be that God gave us division so we would practice humility? Unless you walk like me, talk like me, believe like me.

And I really confuse people because I have the John MacArthur Study Bible and the Jack Hafer Study Bible. You can look it up online and see who those people are later if you want. But isn't that true?

And even this week, people want to label. So what domination? What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? I'm not sure what Calvin said, but what does the Bible say? Arminian, Joseph Arminian. What does the Bible say?

Isms. We want to put isms out. Now I can get you in a box. Now I can judge you. And one big passion of mine is to get the church united. The real church, not ecumenical movements of falsehood, but the real church to put down differences.

The Baptist has to worship with the charismatic and stop judging, oh, that church. Oh, they're too crazy. You think they're a circus? You're a cemetery. I'd rather be a little bit lively. And remember, Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians, on the gifts and use of the Holy Spirit.

Living children need rules. Dead children don't. So if God's not moving you, we've never had anything like that happen. Are you alive spiritually? You can tweet that one out later. But I often hurt the feelings of lukewarm, and I also hurt the feelings of arrogant conservatives.

And I love both. I'm just, what does the Bible say? And I see so much. Maybe as a pastor, maybe this doesn't mean a lot to you, but I see so many little, at conferences or bickering, you know, we've got our little tribes.

I'm five-point Calvinism. Well, I'm four-point Calvinism. Well, I'm not a Calvinism. Well, I'm amillennial. Well, I'm premillennial. Well, I'm postmillennial. Well, when's the rapture coming? And your pneumatology is different than my pneumatology.

And what group do you want to be with? And see, how is the Holy Spirit going to move in a divided group? Have your passion for nonessentials. Like, here's what I believe, and here's why. But so many people want to argue over the nonessentials.

You know what that is? It's called pride. Pride, and it hurts a bit. And if you're convicted about this, if you don't like what I'm saying, maybe you might need to hear what I'm saying. You will not see revival, corporately or individually, unless you get rid of this area of division.

Jesus prayed, let them be united like we are. I can't worship like those charismatics, but I still love them. I can't be dead like the conservatives, but I still love them. And you find, I guess I should say, I'm a conservative, I guess.

Charismatics say, I'm too conservative. And conservatives say, I'm too charismatic. And so they want to put you in a box. Another rabbit trail. There's so many rabbit trails. But let me get to Isaiah.

Isaiah’s Call to Awake, Arise, and Warn

Awake and arise. Many of you know in Isaiah 60, the verse talks about awakening and arising, but there's so much before that. In Isaiah 57, he says, You sons of the sorcerer and offsprings of adulterers, you inflame yourself with gods under every tree.

And so Isaiah is rebuking the people. See, we forget about that sometimes. Oh, that's kind of hard. That's for the Old Testament. No, God still has prophetic voices. God still needs to wake up his people.

God still sends watchmen to warn. Are you ready for this one? The number one trait of a false prophet in the Bible. Number one trait. You can spot it. You can still spot it today. You ready for this one?