The Cure for Judgment - Call a Sacred Assembly — Shane Idleman

The Cure for Judgment and the Call to a Sacred Assembly

The title of the message is The Cure for Judgment. The Cure for Judgment. I know that's not going to get a lot of clicks on YouTube, but it will if God's tugging on your heart. The Call for Judgment. Call the Sacred Assembly, if I had a subtitle there.

Judgment as God's Response to Sin

But Call the Cure for Judgment. Let me just explain this word because it is mistaken a lot of times. Judgment is God responding to sin. In short definition. Judgment is God responding to sin. It's a very broad term though because we know the great white throne judgment that we're reading about where all humanity, well mainly unbelievers, will be judged.

The believers are judged at the behemoth seat of Christ. There's rewards and different things and I'll hopefully get into that in the theology series. But there's a judgment at the end of the age, obviously.

But there's also a judgment that has been on the world since the fall of Adam. There's a judgment of God. There's a wrath and condemnation of God is on the world. There's a judgment there. That's the point of the cross.

To come and fix that and redeem us and stand as it were in the gap between us and that judgment. But there's also times throughout the Old Testament you'll see and you'll read a lot that I believe God still does a lot of the same things in the Old as He does in the New.

It's one God, one book. There's a point where a nation or people will reach a point of judgment. God in His loving patience and His mercy. As we know a lot of the promises to Israel, you know, if my people are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face was written to the nation of Israel and Solomon was there.

But I believe there's underlying principles that still apply. I believe that if God's people humble themselves, I mean call me silly, I don't know, but if they humble themselves, they pray, they seek His face, they turn from their wicked ways, there might be a blessing right at the end of that.

Or God might relent or there might be a change in the atmosphere if these principles are applied. So I don't just take a scripture and immediately apply it to America. But I do apply the principle of God judging on certain things, judging sin.

And we don't like to hear the word, but it is something we need to understand. Because the bottom line with judgment is we are to respond before the judgment comes. There's a response before the judgment.

That's what we do a lot of times pleading and preaching. There's a judgment coming, respond before that judgment comes. Or in the case of what we're going to read in a minute, Joel's case, God's judgment was poured on the nation of Israel.

He took this he explains it in one of the other prophets, this wonderful bride and he nursed this little child and raised this child and then this child withdrew and rejected God. And God's saying, no, come back come back, would you come back?

Come back before my judgment has to fall. My truth cannot change. I've set the course of truth, it can't change. My judgment is going to fall. Here's what's going to happen actually there's more cursing, more spent on the cursings in Deuteronomy than on the blessings.

Just for food for thought. We talked about last week, Jesus spoke more about the realities of hell than of heaven, depending on how you translate the words and different things. But we see that there's a warning that's the reason to talk about this.

Because if we never talk about it, how can anyone respond? You know, you turn on the guys on TV, right? You never hear judgment, you never hear repentance, you never hear any difficult things. How are people supposed to respond?

They think they're already good. They're good with God. So there's a call to this area of judgment that we are to respond before it comes. But also there is a sense of response after judgment falls. So when judgment would fall on God's people, they could respond in a certain way to reposition their self in the heart and the will of God again.

Now if you again, a broad term, we can have it in our own lives. I believe that God will allow things to happen to believers. Discipline them. Judge them because of besetting sin. Listen, I'm warning you on this.

I'm convicting you on this. And God's challenging and challenging and challenging because he sees what the end result of that is. So see, it's never just to judge and hit you over the head with a two by four, the Bible, right?

It's to change that direction and come back. He says, here's what's going to happen if you don't change. But by the grace and mercy of God, when you're in that judgment, you can call upon the name of the Lord again, and he can reach down and pull you out of the mire and out of the depth of destruction.

I mean, that's incredible. You say, Lord, I'm sitting in this judgment. He says, that's okay. Call on me. Call on me. So what is the cure for judgment? Well, I'm glad you asked. God puts a warning label on certain things, right?

We read warning labels. It came on the tobacco industry many years ago. Remember that? This can cause cancer. This can kill you. This can lead to birth defects. This can...warning labels, warning labels.

What's the point of that? What warns the user about the risk associated with the use of it? Or the lack of it in the case of the Bible? What the warning that the Bible gives us is, hey, do this or else this will happen.

A person is not to wait for God's judgment. They are to remove the cause of it. We're not supposed to wait. Well, here it comes. And that's why I hear so many people, well, we're in the end times, brother.

Let's just wait for his judgment. I don't think that's the heartbeat of the church. I'm praying for revival. I'm praying for renewal. I'm praying for restoration. I'm praying for God to relent and maybe leave a blessing instead of a curse.

God's people are supposed to petition, not just wait for judgment. You'll never find any support for that. But we get lazy, don't we? Well, it's a lukewarm era. The Laodicean era. Well, the rapture's coming any day now.

Really, they've been saying that for 150 years. Any day now. Any day now. I listen to guys in the 1980s. Some of you know who they were. Well, I know before I died, Christ will come. Well, they died a long time ago.

And we just, well, it's just the way it is. We read about it. But God never tells us the judgment that is to come for us to become passive. He tells us so we can contend. And so we can pray and we can fast.

Arthur Wallace wrote these words, if lukewarmness and apostasy are predicted for the end time, it is not that we might apathetically await the fulfillment, but that we may be forewarned and strive to advert it.

National Repentance and America's Spiritual Drift

If you look at just the reason, here's the reason why America's an interesting spot. If you look at the history from pilgrims, Puritans, if you look at the Mayflower Compact, if you look at the Declaration of Independence of the Founding Fathers, if you look at the constitutions of different states and running for office and having to profess a belief in Jesus Christ, if you looked on, that's where people say that America, it's not a Christian nation because a nation can't be Christian because it's people.

But it was built on initially biblical principles. Yes, some evil came in just like everything is. But it was the Mayflower Compact said something like, to the glory of God and to the advancement of the Christian faith.

Now in that, people didn't do things perfectly, but they wanted to honor God. The Puritans and the pilgrims coming over 1620s, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, sparking revival. So you see this possibility of this nation that wants to honor God.

Of course, here comes slavery and it takes Christian men and women to get rid of it. Here comes Salem witch trials, takes Christian men and women to get rid of it. And so we see this, because people say, well, what about slavery?

Yeah, it was a terrible marker on a nation's history and Christians fought for it. I have a list of pages and pages and pages and pages of founding fathers who abhorred the practice. But you'll never hear that on the news.

You'll never hear that. Fox News, CNN, here I got, oh no, we don't want to see that. Oh no. So long story short, so you look now at where it started. Actually, the laws in the court were based on Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of England.

And by every law, they had a scripture reference. They put, in God we trust, the Ten Commandments. That's where that term comes from, a nation built on Judeo-Christian values. Now, fast forward to the 1900s, and now you're ordaining gay clergy to speak from the pulpit.

You're saying that marriage between two men or two women is okay. The Bible had it wrong. You see that you're aborting millions and millions and millions of innocent children, literally aborting them, killing them, murdering them.

And every time I see people, be softer, be softer. God help us. That's the problem. That's the problem. We're too soft. You encourage those who have went through this, but you don't encourage the sin.

My goodness. So you see all of this. You see the rebellious nature of kids. I mean, I can't believe what kids do. If I did that 30 years ago, I'd have been slapped on the backside of my head and hoeing weeds for two days.

So you see this debauchery. You see this perversion. You see all this. Now, it's not only being glamorized, but it's being called good, and good is being called evil. That's what I'm called by secular people.

I'm evil. Honestly, this is evil. A woman's right to choose. People can act upon their own feelings about marriage. That's good, but Shane, you're evil. The Bible's evil. And the prophet said, woe be to that nation who calls good evil and evil good.

And the direction of leadership determines the direction of a people often. And God, I believe it's not the call to Washington or Hollywood. The call is if my people will humble themselves and seek my face.

If my people. That's my call is to always to his people. Not to, gosh, if Lady Gaga would just repent. And Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber, if we could get them on our team, right, Steve? They could be on our team.

We could do pretty good. I could maybe have them come speak next month if he would just. No, that's, God's call is to the church. You'd be amazed at what, I believe, again, I talked about last week, what judgment is averted because God's people come together.

And they pray and they seek him. So here's the key with judgment. We are to act before it happens to avoid it, but we're also to act after it happens to reestablish and reconnect with God. So where we're at in this area of judgment on America or on, I mean, I'm not being specific because only God knows.

And you will see, though, often a judgment, we think of pestilence, famines, and that is true. But there's also what we talked about last week. There's a famine in the land. Not for water, not for meat, but for the word of God.

God begins to remove his influence. God removed. You think that school shootings, all that would happen if you had the Ten Commandments back and prayer in the school? Well, you can't force that. I know the ACLJ or whatever has been doing a great job of telling everybody that there's separation of church and state when actually the public school system in 1620 was founded by a pastor to teach kids how to read the Bible.

My goodness. So see, when you see how far you've drifted, the alarm gets a little louder. Beep, beep, beep, beep, off course, off course, off course, get back on track. And so that's what this has been burning in my heart.

Now, ironically, though, if judgment is coming, or if it's already came, the response is often the same. So what I'm supposed to do to advert judgment is what I'm supposed to do if judgment comes. And what judgment sometimes happens, individual, I tell you, there can be believers, they're following the Lord, then they start to drift, they make bad decisions that cost them maybe some integrity.

They go in a wrong direction, and they know it's not right, and they continue, and God says, you need to turn from that. There's going to be judgment, there's going to be discipline on that. And the person just continues, they're losing their marriage, and their job's falling apart, and the judgment starts to happen.

The discipline of God might be a better word on believers. He starts to discipline them. It's going to be the same answer. It's interesting, though, as a culture, we don't want to hear about the penalty, but the pardon.

Don't tell me about the pain, I want the pleasure. Don't tell me about the judgment, give me the freedom. And there's a scripture I've quoted many times, but I want to put it on the screen. I don't know if it's been on the screen.

Preaching the Whole Counsel of God

2 Timothy 4, 1 -2. This is Paul talking to Timothy. Probably, in my opinion, one of the most powerful first sentences that there is in the Bible, in the New Testament, when he is saying something powerfully.

When you say, I solemnly charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ. It doesn't get any stronger than that. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Jesus Christ who will, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, Timothy, here's what you are to do.

You are to preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with patience. Great patience and instruction. Basically, tell them about the pain, but also the promise. Tell them about the judge, but also the pardon.

Martin Luther, many of you know who he was. He nailed the 95 Theses to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, 1517, and sparked the Protestant Reformation. It was actually sparked many, many years before that.

But that helped to fuel it. He said this, always, always, and I try to remember this, always preach in such a way that if the people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you.

Don't clap for that one. I don't know about that one. But think about that. Isn't that true? Because we've had this we want to preach in such a way that we don't offend, we don't hurt, but when you truly preach God's word, people will leave hating their sin, hating their condition, wanting to come back to Christ and Christ alone, or they'll hate the messenger.

That's the power of the Gospel. That's the power of truth. It hurts, it divides, it pierces. And that's what solemnly charges. I solemnly charge you. I mean, in my opinion, this should raise an alarm in the heart of every pastor.

Are you encouraging sin by your silence? Are we encouraging sin by our silence? Because to say nothing is to say something. Is it not? Millions, millions of people, I'm not going to vote. Well, you just said something.

You just put who knows what into office. Shane, you're getting political. No, I'm getting biblical, that we're called to be stewards of what God has given us, to make a difference, to speak out on things.

I mean, if you had the vast majority of pulpits speaking out on abortion, gay marriage, and loving, and mercy, and love, and all those things, but balancing it. I solemnly warn you, Timothy, preach the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So help me God. So here's a reminder I said last year, and I went back and forth, but this is what has been my heartbeat on this topic. Paul is saying to preach the difficult truths as well as the joyful ones.

Preach the cross, and preach the new life. Preach hell, and preach heaven. Preach damnation, and preach salvation. Preach sin, and preach grace. Preach wrath, and preach love. Preach judgment, and preach mercy.

Preach obedience, and preach forgiveness. Preach that God is love, but don't forget that God is just. See, it's interesting. When you preach, when you just preach what God says, you warn the sinner, but you encourage the saint.

Spurgeon said that. You preach, you encourage the person. I need to get back on track, and thank you for that, but you also convict the person who needs to turn from the wrath of God. It's God's spirit moving because you're preaching the whole counsel of God's word.

Joel's Call to Acknowledge Judgment

Regardless of where you're at, Joel offers a cure for judgment. Now to the message. Steve, by the way, I'm breaking all the rules of homiletics in these sermons. In this case, judgment has already came.

Okay, we're going to the book of Joel. Judgment has already came on the people. Joel 1. I think it's on the screen too. The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear to all you inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it. Get this. Tell your children. Wait, Joel, no, I don't want to tell my kids about this. Right?

Remember, I told my kids, avoid the book of Revelation. Don't read the Pauline epistles just yet. Avoid the Old Testament at any cost. Stay out of Jude and James and Peter. Stick with just John. Just John.

Repeat. Repeat. Tell my children about the wrath of God, about God's judgment. He says, yes, let your children tell their children and their children another generation. It's interesting, in Judges, the Bible says, and another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord.

Another generation arose who did not know the Lord because they didn't pass down these truths. So here's the first cure for judgment. I don't know where you're at. Are you about ready to lose your marriage?

Are you about ready to backslide into a certain area? Do you just need to be encouraged and continue? Do you not even know God? Here's the cure for judgment. Acknowledge it. Own it. Pass it down. First thing we see, there's an acknowledgement.

There's an own it. Tell your children, look, we brought this upon ourselves. Own it. Own it. Americans used to own things. Now they don't. There's blame shifting on everybody. We don't want to own it.

God says, own it. It's okay. Even as the pulpit, Daniel, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, they would cry out because of the sins of the people. They owned it. Lord, we have done this. And then we pass it down to our children and we tell them, who are we to soften God's blow?

Who are we to ease the pounding of the hammer? Who are we to silence the trumpet that God is blowing to get our attention? See, I want to see my children crying out to God. I want to see them weeping under the magnitude of their sin because then they turn to the Savior.

Then they have genuine faith and they are born again. What will be the parent who paints a glamorous picture of Christianity and then a shooter comes in and asks them, do you really love Christ? To their school or something?

We have to own it and say, look at what we've created. Look at what we've done. Here's the answer, turning back to God. The greater the need, the tighter the hold. It's okay to point your kids. Tell them the truth.

Tell them the truth, obviously not maybe like you would an adult, depending on their age, but you tell them. Tell them the truth. You own it. So when there's a pitting judgment or when things are difficult or when we're out of God's will, you own it.

Actually, it's called repentance and confession, right? Lord, we own this. Do you know how much blame shifting goes on in the church? Well, yeah, but. It's a yeah, but. That would be a good sermon. No more buts, right?

Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Yeah, but you don't know. Yeah, but you don't this. Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Sounds like rabbit or something. But that's what he's. God says the first way, the first cure for judgment.

Acknowledge it, own it. Acknowledge it, own it, and then pass it down to those underneath us. And then verse 4, what the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten.

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Can you imagine that? It's this army of locusts coming in to the land, and it is devouring everything. There's different types of locusts, and they're coming in, they're devouring every hint of vegetation, everything that is for food.

They've just devoured it, because why? Because God's people begin to drift from him. So he doesn't bring calamity in always just to rebuke and a judge and a mean father. It's calamity to get your attention.

Most people come to the Lord as a result of, right, hey, I've just lost my job. I better turn to God. I just, my marriage is on the rocks. My wife, my husband just left me. What am I supposed, and because of calamity, often judgment, it'll get the heart of the person back on track.

Awakening from Spiritual Slumber

So he says, awake, you drunkards, and weep and well, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. There will no be grapes, there won't be fruit of any kind.

For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. So after we acknowledge it, the second thing that is clear here, I'm going to circle that, second service, awake, awake, awake.

Remember last year I spoke, I wrote an article and spoke on, are you among the living dead? The church is full of the living dead, right? Christians that should be vibrant in their faith, they should be excited, they should be spirit filled, they should be joy filled, they should be wanting to do great exploits for God, they should be filled with this spirit and can't wait to get to church, can't wait to get to worship mornings, conviction, right?

Right, they just can't, they can't wait. They're alive in the things of God, they're filled with this God's spirit, so they're alive. If you're not alive to the things of God, you are among the walking dead, spiritually speaking.

So God says, awake, awake, awake. I know dozens of people right now, not mainly here, but out in the valley at different places, they're Christians and you just want to go shake them up, wake up from your spiritual slumber, get up out of bed, wake up, throw some water in you, wake up, don't you see what you're doing to your family, don't you see what you're doing to your marriage, don't you see what you're doing to your health and your spirituality?

Don't you see it? Wake up. Because what happens when you wake up? Then you get up and you take a different direction. That's why this is so important, he's saying, wake up. A .W. Tozer said, a Christian will make spiritual progress exactly in proportion to his ability to criticize himself.

Did you catch that? Do you want to make progress as a Christian? It's directly related to, and I totally agree with this, your ability to criticize yourself, your ability to examine yourself. It's almost like we'll go to a doctor, would you remove this?

But we won't go to God, would you remove this? I need to remove this, I've got this going on and this going on and this going on, I need to remove this God, I need to remove these issues. I'm examining myself, Paul even said he took a step further.

Examine yourselves, do you not know yourself? Is Jesus Christ in you? Is even in you? Examination. So once we acknowledge it, we have to wake up. Let me just ask this question, I've asked before, are you hungry for prayer?

Are you hungry? Are you desiring the word of God? Are you craving worship? Are you craving worship the same way you're craving lunch? Are you craving prayer and church the same way you're craving other things?

If not, there could be something that's dying in your heart spiritually. Because we should crave the things of God. But to most people craving the things of God is like broccoli over pizza. Something amazing happens, if you eat only God given good food for a month, you will crave broccoli and bell peppers and all the good stuff.

Why? Because you've changed your cravings. Same thing with the word of God. You've got to awake from your spiritual slumber. And I don't want to embarrass people, but I could go around this room and I could point out people that need to awake from their spiritual slumber.

I can tell, and that's my heartbeat, it's for you to awake. What else would I be doing this for? To win a popularity contest? Hey, grade the sermon on your way out. Do you feel great and loved and nobody didn't get convicted, didn't step on your toes, or is it trying to help?

So you have to awake. And then verse 8, I think it's on the screen as well. Lament. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. It's basically, it's as immature as a virgin waiting for her husband, but because of unfaithfulness.

It never happened. And God often uses that imagery, like a virgin putting on the sackcloth and the ashes and being mourning over what could have been, what should have been, but because of her error and her disobedience.

She was not allowed to marry, and that's what Israel is here, it's a picture of cheating on God. Let me be clear here. Cheating on God, having an affair, spiritual adultery. Not physical, spiritual adultery, because when physical adultery happens, what happens?

A person gives their heart, right? They gave in to lust or whatever, but physical adultery is when they give their heart to another as well. And he's saying here, just like a virgin who's girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth, the grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests mourn who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns for the grain is ruined. The new wine is dried up, the oil fails, be ashamed. How things in our homes, we watch things, we view things, we do things, which that's why I often say what amazed us 40 years ago, we would have never allowed, now amuses us.

And what used to amaze you and used to blush at you, said no, now amuses you. Remember on movies, you're just a little nudity and you'd be blushed as a Christian, but that's just not right. Now it's entertainment.

See, God hasn't shifted. So priests mourn, mourn who minister to the Lord. The land is wasted, the land mourns for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails, be ashamed. Be ashamed, you farmers.

Well, you vine dressers, all the trees of the field are withered. Surely, joy has withered away from the sons of men. He's telling the farmers, the vine dressers, be ashamed. Be ashamed of what you caused.

And that's the third point, the third cure for judgment is lament. Lament. It's a passionate expression of grief. You know the difference, right? Lamenting is a passionate expression, not just, you know, you hear people say, I'm sorry.

I mean, that's what you wanted to hear, right? That's not going to work. I'm sorry, I know, but here comes the buts again. If you ever have your sorry and then buts, you might be in trouble. But this is a genuine, he says, lament.

It's a passionate expression of grief. The deeper the lament, the deeper you realize just what has happened. When a person laments and travails, it's because of the pain. Anyone ever lose someone close to you?

A child? Was that lamenting? The grief over, there's a lamenting, and God says, I want that to parallel how much my relationship means to you and how you've drifted from me. Lament over that condition.

Let it break your heart. We must recognize our condition. See, this is one flaw of the self-esteem movement. You know what the self-esteem movement is, right? Psychologists got involved 80s, 1980s or so, and it's all about building self-esteem.

And there's good, I mean, you don't want to just beat people up, right? Of course. But the flaw in the self-esteem movement is because we actually start to validate our sin. We excuse our pride and we justify our actions.

So they would actually validate, see, build their self-esteem. And there's, I'm reading headlines, you see them too in different reports. You know, teen suicide is increasing and all these things. But they need more self-esteem, Shane.

They need to be, no, because if you're validating in their sin, their sin is going to keep leading to depression. You've got to point them to the answer, to the Savior who has all the answers, all the hope.

That's how you help somebody. You don't validate them in their sin. Now, you encourage them in their sin, right? You can get back up. You can fight this fight. You can prevail again. That's a struggle.

I struggle with this, you struggle. Let me encourage you. Let me show you the price it costs. And you encourage them, but you don't validate it. If we just keep validating and validating, it's not going to fix anything.

More self isn't the answer, that's the problem. More self, more self, more self-esteem. We've forgotten how to weep, how to blush, how to be ashamed. Have you ever thought about why? It's because the tenderness of Christ, the holiness of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit are lacking in most Christians.

Now, I'm saying this, let me just, let me take the Lancaster hat off for a minute, and I could sit right there. I'd probably be in the balcony, but I would be out there, and I'm susceptible to the same exact things.

This isn't somebody, I've mastered everything, let me tell you how. It's more a cheerleader in the group of cheerleaders, right? And getting back on track. But if you are not careful, when you lose the tenderness of Christ, and you don't have tears when you see the homeless woman walking with her child in Lancaster.

You don't hear abortion, or gay marriage, all those things, and I'm not trying to make this a hot button issue, but it's important because when you don't have the tenderness of Christ, or the missionaries out there, the persecuted church, and you've lost that tenderness, you'll begin to develop a hard heart.

And you drift away from the holiness of God. Being holy and set apart for God, and the power of the Spirit. So if you're not tender, you're lacking holiness, and the power of the Holy Spirit is not in your life, you'll become very hard and rigid, you won't be able to lament.

That's why you're cold and calloused. That's why you never weep. Has scripture ever made you weep? Has worship? Why is that? Because there's lamenting, there's something taking place. We don't play Mr. Tough Guy in church.

I'm sorry to drop a bomb on you. But there's not like, I'm stoic. No, you're arrogant. I just wasn't raised to be emotional. Oh, you got really emotional at the Super Bowl. What's the difference? You lack that tenderness.

I do. I remember I grew up, my dad always said, boy, don't cry. Boy, you don't cry. And I know that. I would err on the side of not very emotional. But that's a danger spot to be. Because unless you have the heart of Christ, which is very tender, very emotional, you will start to get a very hard heart.

That's why one of the keys here is to lament. Even as I'm speaking, some of you need to repent and lament and say, God, give me that heart of compassion again. Give me that heart for others. Because what happens too is if we don't have that heart, we become hard and legalistic and rigid.

You know, it's more formality and church has a lot of rules and spirituality. We forget the real message of the church is to go out and be the light in the darkness. To go be that cup of water. To go be that hug.

To go to the hospital homes. Right? And just sit and minister and talk with them. That's the heart of Christ. See, we think, oh, I went to church and sang worship. That's not the heart of Christ necessarily only.

That gets your heart ready to become the heart of Christ. Coming here gets, now my heart's ready to go out. Some people, we come in like, okay, I'm done for the week. No, that's not the finish line. This isn't the finish line.

This is the starting point. And we get broken before God. We sing those songs. Oh, how He loves us. And God, you're building me up. You're strengthening me. Abba, Father, I cry out to you. And you get lamented and broken again in your heart.

And the heart breaks for the things that break for God. It's not little trite sayings. It's true. If your heart doesn't break for the things that break the heart of God, something's wrong. We're supposed to have that tenderness.

Fasting and Calling a Sacred Assembly

And then verse 13, gird yourself and lament, you priests, starting with leadership. Gird yourself and lament. Well, you who minister before the altar, come lie all night in sackcloth. You who minister to my God for the grain offering, the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

So it says leadership in the church. See, that would be a good call. Sometimes the leadership in the church, even abroad, America, they need to come to the altar. They need to repent. As leadership goes, so goes the congregation.

Right? If I'm too busy to be here at 6 in the morning on my face at the altar worshiping, then we've got problems. Because from that is going to come the service. So he's saying, priests, leaders, this is serious, get on your face before God.

Come to the altar. Humble yourself well before the Lord. Now verse 14, here we go. Here we go. Everybody knows it, but very few want to do it. What is that word again? Fast. I cannot get away from that word.

It's everywhere. Nehemiah, fasting. Esther, fasting. Moses, receiving 10 commandments after fasting. Jesus, you had to fast. Paul, in much tribulation, fasting. Peter, fasting. I can keep going. Ezra, wanted the Lord's protection, fasted.

Elijah, 40 days, fasted. The reason it's so difficult is because it's so important. When God says, turn on air one and drive to Baskin Robbins, that's not very difficult. But when he says, go sit in your prayer closet for an hour.