The Road To Revival - Part 1 — Shane Idleman

The Road to Revival and Its Messenger

Many of you know we have a worship and prayer conference coming up, so those listening live, or listening to this later, you're more than welcome to join us. It's March 15th and 16th, it's a Friday, it's a Saturday.

And kind of preparing for that, I have a few messages from the book of Zephaniah. It's gonna be up on the screen. The title is The Road to Revival. The Road to Revival, and tonight we're gonna talk about the messenger, and next week, more on the message of Zephaniah.

And then what happens on the 13th here? Worship night. So Chris and his band are gonna be here for almost two hours, and I hope you came to worship, or are going to come to worship, because that's what we plan to do.

But tonight I'm gonna talk about the messenger, Zephaniah. It's important as we build this road to revival, and starting Monday, those of us who can make it are gonna be here at six in the morning for about an hour and a half every single day for worship, for morning worship, for those who can make it.

I know it's a drive for some of you, and many people work, but for those of you who can, even on Saturday we'll be doing this, on Sunday we'll be doing this, obviously. And Zephaniah, what he did, he ministered in the southern kingdom.

Israel was broken up, and he was in the southern kingdom. He was down below, in the southern area of Israel, with King Josiah, and he can trace his lineage back to his great-grandfather Hezekiah. Many of you know Hezekiah, he was a good king.

And Zephaniah, the reason these prophets are so important, the minor prophets, smaller books, the major prophets, larger books like Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, is because they have a message for us today.

You know the old saying, if it's new, it's not true, and if it's true, it's not new. And we can gleam a lot from these Old Testament prophets because the message hasn't changed, and the messenger hasn't really changed.

We have to go back to these old paths, and I like what Chexuendol said about Zephaniah. He grew up under the reign of the evil, evil King Manasseh, and underneath Manasseh's son, Amnon, or Ammon. As a young man, the prophet-to-be would have been surrounded by the trappings of idolatry, child sacrifice, and unjust killings, strong influences on a young mind, and as a result, a prophet is born in Zephaniah.

And that's usually the furnace that a prophet will go through. Somebody called by God, they'll be given a tremendous burden. Without that burden, you don't have a lot of passionate preaching. Through that pain, through that burden, God will take his men, his women, and give them the strong message to deliver to his people.

So he was there in the trappings of idolatry, child sacrifice, and unjust killings. Sound familiar? I don't know about you, but it's hard for me to even watch the news lately. We have people, the next, running for the president of the United States, running for the president of the United States voted against helping children born out of a botched abortion.

So if abortion doesn't work out, and the child is stillborn, living, vibrant, can live, they can actually decide to kill that child. It's just amazing to see how far we've drifted, and God will bring strong voices, strong messengers, because what happens is conviction stirs the pot of revival.

Without conviction, you're not going to see revival. So the messenger is vitally important, and that's why I often joke sometimes about some of the people we watch on TV, and they have a purpose, and maybe God has used them in different areas, but if you're going to spark revival, it's gonna have to be convicting.

It's gonna have to resonate deep within our hearts, and what we're seeing in our nation today, and even in the church today, drifting. Leonard Ravenhill, he said this in his book, Why Revival Terry's, God has always had his specialists, like Zephaniah, whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown of the nation and the church.

Such men were Elisha, Jeremiah, Malachi, and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history. Isn't that interesting? God would raise up his prophets at critical times in history. He would raise them up, why?

To rebuke, to exhort in the name of God and righteousness. Such a man is likely to be drastic and radical. The curious crowd that gathers to watch him will soon brand him as extreme, fanatical, and negative.

And in a sense, they are right, for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost. And I'm actually gonna quote a few more people here, because what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to set the stage to tell us and those watching how important it is for more messengers to rise up, more people with that burden of the Holy Spirit to rise up and say something.

And we have to be careful, because we'll start to think, well, I can't really make a difference. I mean, Shane, you have a platform. Well, there's people with larger platforms than me reaching even many more people.

And it's really not the platform or the audience that God is looking at, he's looking at the heart. He's looking at the messenger. If you give me your heart, I can raise you up. I can allow you to be that voice.

What about that voice on Facebook? I mean, there's a good out of that. It's not just evil. And what about YouTube or in your own sphere of influence or at your work, being that messenger or in your communities, being that difference maker?

God is not concerned about numbers. He doesn't care about your platform or my platform. He says, I'll use you in whatever sphere I've called you in. And I used to just not get too motivated myself, because even starting out at church, we just started out.

We didn't have hardly anything going on, like, oh, Lord, what, I mean, I'm preaching to the choir every Sunday. And God says, just keep preaching to the choir, because they need to hear it. And it'll spark revival.

Revival as Spiritual Resuscitation

Revival sparks in our own hearts. And maybe I should clarify that word for some of you. I have before. But revival, what do you think of when you hear the word revival? I think of awakening or renewal or resuscitation or restoring.

And it's actually, it comes from a word to revive something that was once alive, but now is dead. And that's why the prayer went out in the Old Testament. Oh, Lord, will thou not revive us again so that we can rejoice in you?

So it's spiritual resuscitation. You know, the person who's dying, and you give them CPR, and you're reviving, and they're flatlining, now they're back. They're flatlining, now they're back. Folks, the church has flatlined.

The nation, the moral compass of our nation has flatlined. And unless God brings revival, that is our only hope. That's why I'm passionate about this, I think, for two reasons. Number one, he's called me in this area.

And that's why not everybody has this type of calling that I feel this burden that God has given me, number one. Number two, I truly feel that this is our only hope. The Titanic has hit the iceberg. It's taking on water.

The only hope is God reviving his people. And I take great comfort in that because God would raise up a Zephaniah. He would raise up a Elisha. He would raise up Zachariah. He would raise up a Jeremiah.

Before Jeremiah was even born, he said, I formed you. Jeremiah, I formed you in your mother's womb. That's why we can't take life at conception. God formed that child. He said, I formed you in your mother's womb.

And what did I do? I called you to be a prophet to the nations. To what? To rise up, to pull up, to encourage, but also to pluck out and remove the evil of the people. And he'll raise up these people to bring convicting messages.

The messenger is so important. So I'm hoping to rattle some cages this evening. I'm hoping to have you say, you know what? I want that. God, I want to make a difference. I want to be that voice. And that's all he needs.

I remember 1999, I can tell you the street. I can tell you I was hungover. I was watching television. I was losing everything. And there was a message on TV that rattled my cages. It convicted me. And I said, but God, I want that.

I want to do that. I want the calling that that man has to call men and the church back to you. But who am I? I'm sitting here drunk. God will honor your heart to make a difference. Can you imagine if we all just went out and made a difference in our community?

It catches like fire. Correctional officers, sheriffs, community organizers, politicians, aerospace, I see all kinds of people in this room. Can you imagine if we said, here's all you have to say. God, here I am.

Use me. And that's, God's gonna spark, because that's what revival is. It's reviving his church. It's reviving his people. And revival really isn't primarily about salvations. Those follow, those come, but the main thrust of revival is for God to revive his people.

They are dead, they are going through the motions, and God revives them. This, from being dead and barren to now this fire, this heavy, because I know, I lived 15 years not doing anything for God. I was a Christian, but I didn't talk to anybody about Jesus.

Looking back, I'm like, I can't believe it. And then he revives you, and you have all this passion now. That's what we need. We need revival to spread the message of the gospel and of hope. And it's okay to say this, because I don't think they're watching, but there's somebody in church I haven't seen in here in a couple years.

And I sent them a message, said, great to see you, hope to see you again. And he said, we'll make it now and then, but we're so busy with travel, ball, with sports. And you wonder why we're dying spiritually.

You wonder why kids are walking away. Because that's idolatry. That is absolute idolatry. Now, of course, do sports, have fun. Please, coach, I did. I'm not talking about that. But any time that begins to replace God, and that becomes your God, and you'll get to church when you can, we have to be careful.

See, that's meant to be convicting, because it stirs and it convicts us. I think we passed out an article I wrote this week, another kind of religious leader must arise. And it's out on the national media this week.

I've got some emails about it. But I said a few things. Let me just quote a few things. Those who have been called to preach, much like the prophets in the Old Testament, will confront compromise. They will condemn moral digression and powerfully denounce sin in the hope of reconciling man to God.

They speak the truth in love. And the world and carnal Christians despise them because they challenge the sin they enjoy. And I guess another title that might have been even better is prophets are popular.

They never will be. Anybody that speaks for God, and that's, I guess I should clarify that term, too, when we talk about now in the New Testament, we don't believe, I don't believe that the office of a prophet, you know, the Old Testament prophet, that office is still there, but the calling, that God gives somebody a prophetic type of calling.

Where you have Greg Laurie, he's more evangelism. Billy Graham, more evangelism. You have Leonard Ravenhill or A .W. Tozer, more prophetic. You have those who have different giftings and different callings.

But God will raise up that person. All pastors should ask this question, though. I would love for these large churches to ask this question. Does the world love the way you do church? Do they appreciate that your church never challenges or calls things into question?

Do they like the fact that your church never makes them feel uncomfortable or offended? Are they grateful that you never discuss controversial issues? That, my friends, is not a church. We have to remember that the church is for believers to come and be built up to worship God and to be strengthened and to go out.

Confronting Compromise in the Church

What happens is we start to change things around for the world. And what happens is you will dumb down the gospel. You lose that fire. I remember there's a pastor, he stepped down, now he started a church again, I think in North or South Carolina.

But he always had secular music on during church service, the first song or two, because of the people coming in. He played Highway to Hell by ACDC on Easter. Can you imagine, Chris, can you come up and do Highway to Hell?

I'm on a high, and you just, I'm sure you probably could, but is that healthy, is that beneficial, is that gonna honor God? See, this is why we're in the predicament we're in, catering to the world. Instead of asking, what does the world want to hear, we should be saying, what do they need to hear?

What do they need to hear? That doesn't mean mean-spirited and angry, but to truly love them. That's how we've gotten in this condition that we're in. A .W. Tozer said, if Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, does it need that today?

Absolutely. It must be by other means than is now being used. If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injury she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher.

He's talking about the land of the 1900s now, but obviously we're fast-forwarding. He concludes, this person will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear.

He will contradict, denounce, and protest in the name of God, and he will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christianity. That is true. The church as a whole hates the voice crying in the wilderness.

The remnant loves it. But the church as a whole hates that voice crying in the wilderness. Such a man is likely to be lean and rugged, blunt-spoken, and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willing to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other, but he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.

And there was voices saying this for many years, that the church needs to be revived again. We need pastors to walk up to the pulpits with the burden of the Holy Spirit. I don't know, and many people don't know what that is, but the burden of the Lord is this burden, this weight you've been spending time with God.

You're pregnant with the word of God. You're actually pregnant with the word of God. My wife will say, it's not even close, and I agree, but there's this burden. You walk up, and you feel the intensity of God's Spirit on what's going on in the culture, in the nation, in the church, and you must speak into the lives of others.

But many people come up, and they wanna just be smooth and not offend, and you know, things I've talked about before, but national revival begins with individual revival. National revival begins with individual revival.

We need more messengers filled with the Spirit of God. Not everybody agrees with this statement, and that's okay, because we're allowed to disagree as pastors, I'm talking about pastors now. But I truly believe that a pastor, a preacher, teacher, whatever you wanna call it, filled mightily with the Spirit of God will inevitably convict people.

There's no way around that. The Holy Spirit has been called the hound dog, the hound of heaven, and when that hound is let loose, he convicts, he draws people to God. It's impossible to come up and preach God's Word and not convict, and that's what you're seeing in the culture, they're trying to silence the church.

They started with separation of church and state, and they begin to grow into other things where they don't want you to talk about controversial things. If you get the wrong people in office, you'll see soon enough where everything I'm saying tonight, it will be labeled hate speech.

As soon as you start to say that lifestyle is a sin, you're a hater. See, remove the voice of truth. Remove the conviction. Tell us soothing words, tender words, that comfort us in our sin. So let's look at Zephaniah chapter one.

Zephaniah's Warnings Against Idolatry and Complacency

They're gonna have it up on the screen. The first thing we wanna talk about is the warnings. Now it's interesting, prophets, writing minor and major prophets, I'm sure most of you are aware they didn't have whiteout back then, or backspace, or delete.

So not everything is in order. The Spirit of God would just flow from their pen. They would write, I'm sure they have a couple chapters, and they're like, I'm not cleaning this up. This is the way it is.

Thus saith the Lord. So sometimes chapter one and chapter three, there's some condemnations and then some encouragement in between, but overall, the warning is crystal clear. Think about this. This week, this amazed me.

I went on a long walk and just thought about this. This is God's word. God said it. He told them to write it down. The Bible's the number one bestselling book of all time. Nobody even comes, no book even comes close.

But nobody wants to read these things. You will not find many churches and any time I say that, I'm not trying to puff up West Side whatsoever. There are great churches out there. I'm not saying that.

Even sometimes it's difficult for me to read, but this is God's word. This is what he wants to say. I will utterly consume everything from the face of the land, says the Lord. Oh, it's a nice way to start the chapter.

I will consume man and beast. I will consume the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea and the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land. Thus saith the Lord.

See, I believe that if you had more pulpits saying that, reading that, you hearing that, people might, what was that? What did he say? I don't have this, I have this view of God as a ball of love. Have you felt that before from others?

He's a cosmic ball of love. Or a big Santa Claus. Or up in the sky. Or a genie in a bottle of this, this just, but that's not God. And if people would understand, this is the true and living God. I will cut off man from the face of the land, says the Lord.

Isn't it interesting, we understand human judges. If you go to the courthouse, if you see someone, you know someone who was guilty of something, let's say murder, and you know it. What about those serial killers?

Just that have been in the news in the past and obviously will in the future. We see them, we want justice. Don't we? We see a police officer killed, want justice. So why, though, when it comes to God, as the ultimate judge, we don't wanna view him as a judge.

The world doesn't, majority of the church doesn't. Remember under the banner of love? But if you understand that the wages of sin is death, and what sin is and what it does, there has to be justice served.

Isn't that interesting? We have sinned, and unbelievers that don't know Christ, they have sinned against God. There's no way around that. Justice has to be served. The gavel is going to fall, and execution will take place.

Now the cross makes sense. See, justice has been served. And people get so mad, they say, oh, Shane, that's so negative. Nobody's gonna wanna hear you. Yeah, I think they are gonna wanna hear, because they understand, they feel the wrath and condemnation of God.

They don't know what it is. They wanna release, so you point them to the cross. See, justice has been paid. When you explain the price of sin, the cost of sin, justice makes sense. So that's what he's talking about here, saying justice will have to occur.

And I've noticed this, and so have you, I'm sure. Anytime we're in rebellion against God, resources are often dried up to get our attention. Resources. I will consume this, God says, I will consume that.

I will remove this. Our resources begin to dwindle, and things are dried up, things that we used to count on. Back then, it was the rain. God says, I'll hold back the latter rain and the former rain. I will devastate your crops.

I will lick up every vital nutrient that you could consume, and it'll be just parched ground. Why would you do that to get the people's attention? Really, judgment often is purification. The irony is, God is talking to his people.

He'll talk to the nations in a different chapter, but he's talking to his people. I've quoted that verse before, where God, when he finally judged Jerusalem, he said, I sent my messengers. I sent my prophets, rising them up early and sending them because I had compassion on my people and on my dwelling place.

Did they listen? No, they mocked my messengers, they despised my word, and they scoffed at my prophets until the anger of the Lord arose against his own people. So when God brings judgment, often it's for purification.

It isn't God saying, oh, man, I'm just gonna annihilate everyone. Scorched earth theory becomes true. I'm gonna put the sun 20 million miles closer. I'm just gonna wipe you out. No, he brings judgment for purification.

Because you know, when the heat's turned up, we often go back to God. When things are going great, don't ask to be tested in this area, but watch your business start to plummet. Watch your finances start to have holes in the money bag.

Watch everything start to fall apart. What's happening? Oh, then we turn to God. So God knows us, and he'll use certain things to get our attention again. And he said, I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place. See, God defends himself. I will remove Baal, he says. You Baal worshipers, you kissed his image, you worship this little statue of Baal. I will remove Baal.

There's no God but me, he says. The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests. So you had priests that were representing God, but they had become idolatrous. They were doing it for the money or doing it for the recognition or they started to drift from God.

Those who worship the host of heavens on the housetops, those who worship and swear oath, oh, I'm sorry, oath by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom. Well, what does that mean, Shane? Well, glad you asked.

Hosts of heaven, obviously, is the stars and the moon and the sun, and they would go on the roofs and they would look at these and they would worship these things. And it's amazing. They're worshiping the creation, but not the creator who created them.

And Milcom is interesting. They were double-minded. They would swear by God, but they would swear by Milcom. What is Milcom? Well, you might know it as Molech. These people, children of God, would put wood in this iron statue and get this fire blazing.

It would be red hot and they would sacrifice their children on the arms of Molech. And God says, you're doing things that haven't even entered my mind. Severe decline is when we worship anything but God.

You can tell people are declining when they worship anything but God. Are we not seeing that today? What is happening with abortion is much deeper than just abortion. It's idolatry. Sexual idolatry, plain and simple.

Do what I want, when I want, how I want, without any ramifications. Not to mention the massive amounts of money behind this industry. If you just, I mean, and sometimes I can't even process this, this whole thing that came out with selling baby parts, that happens.

They'll tell you how much, 15 ,000 for this or 25 ,000 for, they sell these to different hospitals and organizations that run tests and try to, you know, come up with different vaccines or different things they need.

They need aborted tissue and it's just unbelievable. And you see that in a society that they'll start to worship anything but God. Those who have turned back from following the Lord, I'm reading here still, and have not sought the Lord nor inquired of him, be silent in the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice.

He has invited his guests. So it's interesting, anytime you turn away from God, he says be silent and listen. And it doesn't necessarily mean just, which is good, but remove all the distractions. Quiet your mouth, quiet your heart, quiet your mind, remove all the distractions, be silent and listen to me, your God, he says.

For the day of the Lord is at hand. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He has invited his guests. As soon as I read this, I thought of Luke 14, 16. I think there's a parallel. It's when Jesus said that there's a certain man preparing a great banquet and inviting many guests.

He's talking about God. And at the time of the banquet, his servant went out to all the people that were chosen, that God selected. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, I have just bought a field and I must go back and see it.

Please excuse me. So God is inviting them to this feast. God's saying, come and partake, come and fellowship with me, but work and busyness sidetrack these people. No, no, no, no, no, I just bought a field.

And when they would buy a field, they would go and they would move all those big boulders and all the trees and the tree stumps and it was a lot of work. Now we can just go rent a bulldozer, Cat 10 or D10 and just knock down everything.

I love driving a bulldozer and just annihilate the dirt in a day, what would take them months sometimes. So they'd have to go and prepare that field to plant the crops and plant the different wheat and barley and different things.

So they'd say, no, I can't go. They're making excuses. So how much in our own lives is work and busyness drawing us away from God? And another person said, I've just bought five yoke of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out.

Please excuse me. Financial pursuit. See, people have all these excuses, all these excuses. Why can't we fully surrender God and worship him more? I'm busy, I've got to do this, I've got to be here. Still another said, I just got married, so I can't come.

Relational distractions. Like I said earlier about that person who put that sports in front of God. The servant came back and reported to his master, then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant and said, go out quickly into the street and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.

I will tell you, not one of those who are invited will get a taste of my banquet. So the analogy really is Jesus coming, his own people not receiving him, and then God says, go out and open up to the Gentiles, to all mankind, come to the banquet.

The feast is ready. So there's a choice there. There's a choice involved in pursuing God. And then Zephaniah, verses 12 and 13. And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency.

Are you complacent tonight? I came to wake up your complacency. A complacent Christian, what is that? Did you know there's no such thing? Complacency, what does complacency mean? A feeling of smug with oneself or one's achievements.

I'm comfortable, I'm complacent, I'm good. And I know, I used to sit in the pew, and I know it's easy to become complacent, isn't it? Even up here, all of us, there's something in us called the flesh that loves to just be complacent.

Who say in their heart, the Lord will not do good, nor will the Lord do evil. See, what happens is we become complacent, and that's why I've often said that we are confusing now God's patience with his approval.

That's what we're seeing in our nation today, in the churches, we're confusing, ah, God is approving this, no, he's patient. And so they even said this back then, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil.

We can do whatever we want. Therefore, their goods shall become booty, and their houses a desolation. In other words, they'll lose everything to an army. I believe it was Babylonians who came in and destroyed, Zephaniah doesn't talk about that, but other prophets mentioned that Babylonians came in and destroyed these people.

They shall build houses, but not inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine. So this is, Zephaniah is speaking to the children of Israel. Can you imagine somebody telling you this?

Guys, listen, you've drifted from God. Your house is that you built, you're not going to live in. You're complacent, you're worshiping all these other gods, except the true God, wake up. They think that God is neutral, and they will build, but not benefit, they will plant, but not harvest.

Zephaniah's Call to Return to God

And then I'm gonna skip to chapter three, verse one, woe to her rebellious children. Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted. To the oppressing city, she has not obeyed his voice. This is so interesting to me, because the world, especially America, if you try airing this message in New York or Hollywood, or San Francisco, just try it for a half hour and see what happens.

Right, the Lord is saying, return to me, give up your idols, but they will not obey his voice as if they can fight God, and they can't fight God. She has not received correction, she has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God.

So the people became bitter and hard. Maybe that's for someone to hear tonight. Have you become bitter and hard? It can happen to Christians, or those professing to know Christ. Life can make us bitter and hard, amen?

So what can prevent that tenderness and brokenness? Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted to the oppressing city, he's talking about Jerusalem. She has not obeyed his voice, she has not received correction.

She has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God. This is what I loved about God. He would tell the people, listen, you're not going down a good path. Judgment's not coming today, but it will come if you don't turn, don't redirect yourself.

He'll bring the prophets, he'll bring the Isaiahs and the Jeremiahs and the Ezekiels and Joel and Amos and Obadiah, and he'll bring these people, and God's, hey, I'm warning, I'm warning, I'm trying to wake you up, but they keep pushing away and they do not hear his voice.

Her princesses in the midst are like roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning, her prophets are insolent, treacherous people. So he's saying these princes, these rulers of your city that are supposed to be good and God-honoring, they are treacherous, sound familiar?

Boy, if I had time, I could tell you about some of the leaders that are leading us. Her priests, people called of God have polluted the sanctuary. So many churches around our nation are polluting the sanctuary, they're bringing things in that ought not be there, mocking God, they've done violence to the law.

The Lord is righteous in her midst, he will do no unrighteousness, every morning he brings his justice to light, never fails, but the unjust, they know no shame. So in a nutshell, the leaders are ruthless, judges are bought, and the prophets and priests are false prophets.

That's how you damage the law. I mean, technically, you can't damage God's law, but what you do is you damage it in the laws of people. You say God doesn't care, God isn't concerned about what you're doing, but we know God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, he will also reap.

So that's the messenger, and that was the message that he received from God. Zephaniah was a messenger, the message that he received from God was no different than it is today. Stop worshiping false idols, stop polluting your mind, stop becoming complacent in your sin, and return back to me.

It's the same message. And I'm gonna get into this more next Wednesday, but I'm gonna talk about next Wednesday, the reflection. What I mean by that is self-reflection. So what we're supposed to do when we hear a message like this is reflect.

And that's why if you do preach messages like this to the, this is an easy audience right here, but if you preach to a difficult audience, like sometimes what you'll see Ray Comfort does on videos or other people, and you preach to a difficult audience, nine times out of 10, they will hate you, they will mock you, but God's looking for that one or two people who are listening, who will pick this in and receive it.

It's self-reflection, that's the whole point of the messages being difficult. Think about it, if God's people were drifting from him, they're into sin, they love sin, how would he call them out of that?

Would he say, hey, good job, keep going. No, nothing bad's gonna happen, just keep on with it. I'm winking, I'll wink at you up in heaven. But remember, that's a sign of a what? False prophet. The false proclaimers would say, don't worry about it.