4 Life Lessons From Isaiah — Shane Idleman

Isaiah 9:6 and Four Life-Changing Lessons

Isaiah 9, chapter 6. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Isaiah 9, 6. Four life-changing lessons from Isaiah. I'm going to read that. It's a very popular verse. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

And it's interesting, I want to talk about Isaiah for a minute, the prophet Isaiah. And it's been said that prophets are like trees, they are planted for the future. And a lot of times these guys, God would raise them up like Jeremiah, where the Bible says that before you were even born, Jeremiah, I formed you in your mother's womb, and I called you to be a prophet among the nations, planting them in that womb for later, to call that nation back.

Same thing with Isaiah, he was called to bring God's people back. And he's actually considered the greatest Old Testament prophet. He's the greatest Old Testament prophet. And people say, what about John the Baptist?

Well, number one, he was New Testament, we consider him, but also, John the Baptist was the greatest, Jesus said this was the greatest person who ever lived in regard to his proximity. He was actually baptizing Jesus, he brought in the ministry of Jesus, preparing the way for the Lord.

So he was great in that area. But the greatest Old Testament prophet, hands down, is this person Isaiah who wrote this. He's quoted over 50 times in the New Testament. Isaiah is quoted. And so I find this interesting, a lot of people say that the Old Testament isn't valid today, we don't really look to that anymore.

Well, if Jesus quoted it, and Paul quoted it, and the New Testament writers quoted it, it's something that we need to look to. And we don't look at the Bible as Old and New Testament separate, we look at it as one story.

The Old Covenant, and then fulfilled in the New Covenant in Christ. So it all fits together like a perfect puzzle. So I would encourage you to read the Old Testament and the New Testament together. And he also served during the reign of five kings.

His call was faithfulness, not success. And I want you to remember that. God calls us to be faithful, not necessarily successful. Because how do we rate success? By the world's standards. And this greatest prophet, it was said, tradition holds, that he was put on a tree stump and sawed in two by wicked king Manasseh.

So what happens to the wonderful life that we talked about, right? God has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, tell that to Isaiah. But I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, because God might have a wonderful plan for our lives.

And I pray about that. And if you weren't here a few weeks ago, go listen to that message, because it's important. But we also have to have a correct view of what the Christian life is like. Did you read it on the news this week?

The four Christian boys were beheaded by ISIS, because they did not renounce Christ. New York Times, Christian Post. I mean, these are serious times, folks. This is serious stuff. Isaiah. What about his commission and his context?

Isaiah's Prophetic Commission and Historical Context

The commission of Isaiah, the context of Isaiah. He was considered what we would consider a Navy SEAL prophet. He was bad. He was educated. He knew the Old Testament. He knew the history of Israel. And his name actually means the salvation of the Lord.

So Isaiah means the salvation of the Lord, and he's prophesying about the soon coming salvation of the Lord. Isn't that interesting how God intertwines these things? He was a patriot. He loved his country and his people.

And it's funny. If you study the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that they were statesmen. They were reformers. They were preachers. And they were authors. A lot of these guys. And he was a patriot.

And sometimes I get worried. Sometimes people don't think we should have a love for what God has done in our country. It's almost like watching a family be destroyed from what he built to where it's at now.

And there's nothing wrong with that cry of Nehemiah. Why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? To look at the direction we're heading and look at the direction where we started and where we are now.

It's disheartening. It's okay to feel that pain and have a love for what God has done in our country. For those who were born here and call this their nation. And the context is Assyria was coming to judge Judah.

And what happened is when there was a King Saul, King David, and King Solomon, they ruled over the children of Israel. There was one kingdom. And then the kingdom became divided. And different kings went over.

It was almost like America and Canada, right? Northern and southern kingdoms. Judah was that southern kingdom. And Isaiah was called to prophesy, to warn this nation. And Assyria was coming. And Assyria was not a nation that would be gentle with them.

So why is this? Why would God allow this Assyrian nation to come and judge his people? But we also have to remember that God is gracious and merciful and long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.

So he takes, he uses the prophets to call his people back. So why are they coming to judge Judah? Why? It's because the fear of God has vanished. And the people were calling good evil and evil good. They had left God, the fear of God.

They had departed from God. So the only way to get them back is how? Sending in Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Joel or Amos or Obadiah or Jonah. Actually, Jonah went to Assyria, the capital Nineveh there, and called that whole secular nation to God.

They repented and they turned to him. God spared that city for 150 years because of these prophetic messages going out and turning the people back. And here's an interesting point. The first 39 books of Isaiah contain strong messages of judgment and a call to repentance.

If you sit and you read Isaiah, you're going to go, Whoa, man, what's this guy's problem? Wow, this is hard. What side of the bed did he wake up on? Why is he such an angry prophet? And you have to remember that you can't confuse anger with passion all the time.

He was called to bring God's people back. However, he offers them comfort and hope with where we're at here. Isaiah 9 -6, God promised a Redeemer. So he lovingly encourages the people to turn back to God with strong language.

You've left your first love, all those types of things that we, you know, that's New Testament. But he said those kinds of same truths that you've left God, you stiff-necked people. And the interesting thing is this.

Does a person change when all is well? I mean, let's be honest. Does somebody turn from domestic violence and anger when everything's going good? Or is it when their wife says, no more, I'm leaving? What about Oxycontin?

All pain meds, all these different things that people, do they decide to just go off of that? When, hey, my job's going good, I'm making $100 ,000 a year, my marriage is intact. Do they decide to go off then?

No. I mean, everything from alcohol to anger to all these things, it usually takes a wake-up call. People do not change when all is well. Very few times, and maybe we can think of very few times every now and then, but you've never had, I've never seen somebody completely get off a bad course if that bad course is not going wrong.

They usually try to just live it out as long as they can until there's a wake-up call of God. And many times, even then, people don't change. So that's why God uses Assyria in the Old Testament, or trials or sometimes difficult things in our lives.

And why is this happening? I can't believe this is happening, whether it's injury, illness, whatever it is. And I don't want to say that God always does that, but we can't rule it out. Because we will not change unless there's consequences sometimes.

Until we get that knock at the door and there's a wake-up call. That's when most people change. So that's what He's doing here. He's giving the children of Israel a wake-up call. Just read the first few chapters of Isaiah tonight.

Lesson One: Hope Comes From Seeing a Way Out

So what are the four lessons that we can glean from Isaiah? Primarily Isaiah 9 -6, of course, but the whole message here of Isaiah. Four lessons. The first one I want to just give you tonight is hope comes from seeing a way out.

He offers hope here, does he not? He's offering hope. There's hope here. And hope comes from seeing a way out. We've all heard that saying, right? Light at the end of the tunnel. Well, there's truth to that.

When you take away that light, when you take away that hope, people want to die. People want to just give up. And there's hope. Hope comes from seeing a way out and pointing people in the right direction.

If we always say that nothing is wrong, all is well, just stay positive, then we avoid the cure. We avoid the hope. That's what Isaiah is doing. He's saying, listen, you want hope? You want to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

You need to look at the real condition of the heart. Look at how we drifted from God. Look at where your heart's at, your lifestyle. The hope is getting back on the right path. See, the wrong path leads to destruction.

The wrong path leads to heartache. The wrong path leads to disappointment. So God, through Isaiah, is trying to get these people back on the right path. That's where the hope is. See, when you're on the right path, you can say, I see the hope now.

I see it now. Once I get through all these challenges and consequences, I see that there is hope at the end. But you have to get back on the right path. And Isaiah offered real hope. Here's how. By painting a real condition.

The people were lost without God. And that's why the types of, well, mainly our church, your Westside Christian Fellowship, some people just do not like these messages. I've talked about that before many times, right?

I'm not going to belabor the point again. But they just don't like these messages. And it often leaves me baffled and others because we're painting hope. We're not saying, oh, you're in trouble now. You're never going to, I can't believe you sit in this church.

How can you be here, you sinner? You better get out of here. You better run for cover. We don't do that. We offer hope. But in order to offer hope, you have to paint the real condition of the heart. Here's why.

Because then you can direct the heart in the right direction. Once you paint the real condition. And think about this. Ironically, ironically, the number one sign of a false prophet in the Bible is, do you know what that is?

They offered false hope. I mean, we think of false prophets, right? Their theology is off and they're out there. They're saying things about God's word that's just not true. And that's true, absolutely.

But throughout the Old Testament, the number one sign of a false prophet was false hope. Look throughout, they'll say, Jeremiah especially, Jeremiah 23 and 24 and throughout, he's talking about, you tell my people, peace, peace, safety.

When God says there's no peace, there's no safety, there's judgment coming. But they would encourage people in their sin by saying it's no big deal. It's no big deal. God says peace. He says good job, good job.

God's not angry. He's not upset. God says false prophet because they're giving false hope. And that's one of my concerns with a lot of the TV preachers. It's God just loves everybody. God, you know, just go team, go team.

He's got no false hope. False hope. Things are not going in a good direction. Just look at the news. Shootings increasing. Porn addiction increasing. Abuse in the home increasing. Sexual assault increasing.

Everything's on the rise. But it's okay. God's happy. It's okay. Peace, peace, peace. Don't worry. Don't worry. Guys, come on. And God says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, but they spoke.

But had they truly stood in my counsel, they would have turned the people from the error of their ways. It's that famous verse. Is my word not like a hammer, like a fire that devours? If you just preach the word, in season and out of season, love and mercy and grace, but also holiness and righteousness and judgment, the whole counsel of God, that's how you turn a person back.

If all we talk about is the pleasantries, and all we do is offer hope, you don't always help people. I can share with you guys, because I don't think she might be here at the second service. I don't want to share with them.

But somebody we know that's close to us had to flee from domestic violence. And talking with them and trying to talk to the guy, you know, you have to paint a picture of hope, right? Hey, listen, she's ready to give up.

There's hope there, but I'm going to shoot you straight. You are destroying your family. This is getting out of control. Do you see the red flags? You need to turn to God. You need to repent. It won't be to me if I just offer hope.

Hey, man, don't worry. Things will get better. Just look up. How's that going to help anything? That's actually going to encourage the sin. So you see how important it is to shoot people straight. We have to shoot them straight.

Once you get them on the right track with God, now they see the hope. Without being on the right track, they don't see the hope. They don't see the hope. So hope is vitally important, but you have to see a way out, but you have to look in the right direction.

So be very careful because hope, the sign of a false prophet is false hope. So be careful there. And it's nothing new, right? Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I want to hear. That's nothing new.

Nothing new. Who doesn't want to meet somebody? Tell me what I want to hear. Tell me what I want to hear. Oh, that's right. Tell me what I want to hear. There's nothing new. It almost reminds me of how teenagers love parents that are friends with them.

Right? They're just telling me what I want to hear. Parents, you should never be close friends with your kids. You're called to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Because once they love this relationship, they're going to end up hating it later.

I remember when I was growing up, 14, 15, all the kids' cool dads were the ones who got us drunk and alcohol. And at 16, that led to giving us free crystal meth. And at 17, that led to weekend trips to Vegas.

So what was cool now is a nightmare. And I loathe those men. I hate those men. I have to forgive them. I have to love them. But I hate how they planted those seeds early on. Tell me what I want to hear.

I just, man, my dad's so cool. He's my best friend. That might be good later on, but right now when you're training them, what is cool eventually becomes a nightmare. And the truth is we love the gospel of hope and forgiveness, but not the gospel of repentance and change.

See, if I just say half of that, everybody would love it. We love the gospel of hope and forgiveness, but not the gospel of repentance and change. So on this point, hope comes from seeing a way out. Do you see a way out?

Do you see a way out right now? Because I talk to people all the time that maybe they're pregnant and they don't know how to tell their mom or their dad. They see no way out. Or what about the 1 .2 million, did you catch that?

1 .2 million abortions the nation has on a yearly basis. Should we offer hope to those people? Absolutely. Camp out in Psalms 51 or Psalms 23 and live there because there's great hope. But we have to get to them before that point.

So if somebody is just hearing this and they're struggling in this area and they're pregnant or they're whatever, I don't know why I put this in the notes. It's here for a reason. But there is a way out.

Hope comes from seeing the way out and looking to what he just said. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. That's where the hope is found. It's not going to be found down at Planned Parenthood and Palmdale.

I'll tell you that right now. It's not going to be found in worldly advice and Oprah and seeing if that brings hope. That brings nothing but despair and brokenness. There's hope if you look to the right person.

See, that's the key. There's always hope if you look in the right direction to the right person. Or people say, my life is falling apart. They don't see the hope. My marriage is crumbling or this addiction has me trapped.

I'm an emotional wreck. Depression is taking its toll. My children have walked away from God. I owe so much money that I don't see a way out. God, where are you? I'm scared. I desperately need you. And I want to point you in that direction.

I want to point you in the direction of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Because we have to see the real condition of the heart. And then from that point, it's in the right direction.

So if these issues, if there's sin in our life, if we're holding on to the sin and certain lifestyle things, God says, I want to give you hope. I want to give you that freedom, but you need to bring it to me.

You need to take it to me. All of these speak of hope. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Those all speak of hope. So the next point on lessons from Isaiah, we must experience God.

Lesson Two: We Must Experience God

You might say, well, Shane, that's not real profound. Well, trust me, I'm getting somewhere. Because I think this is the majority. The majority of Christians have this problem. They've never truly experienced God.

They've repented, but they don't know the passion that I'm talking about. They don't know the fire in their belly for the things of God. Scriptures never came alive. Have you ever sat just for an hour or two and wept during worship or just worshiped God and couldn't stop?

Have you ever experienced Him in the fellowship of the suffering and the pain of going through life and being drawn back to Christ and having that ongoing relationship? Isaiah, we can learn from Isaiah.

And I found this interesting as I was studying all 40 authors. The Bible is written over 1 ,500 years on three different continents, 40 different authors. All of them, unless you can find me one, experienced God.

All of them had a powerful encounter with the living God. So much so that they were able to pin His words. And they experienced Him without sound systems, without hymnals, without Bibles, without plush buildings, without sermon apps, without commentaries.

They experienced God without all this. And now it's like, oh, God, I'm in a hurry. Right? But they experienced Him. Now, if you do that, it's okay. Sometimes it can get hot. I'm not making fun of that.

But we have all this stuff and we still haven't experienced God. Experience changes you. Here's why I want people to experience God, because that changes you. Listen, I've heard of people drop off of eight or nine prescription meds in one night, spending one night in the Word of God and having it break them.

I've seen people get back on course in one night of prayer and in the Word of God. I've seen how experience changes you. Think about it. All those people say, you know, kind of tease parents, right? Oh, can't you keep your kids in order?

Can't you make them do this? Wait until you have kids. You just wait. And once you have that child, does that experience not change you? Radically change you. Dramatically change you. Has anybody ever been to the Holy Land and walked where Jesus walked?

I mean, it'll bring tears to your eyes. I haven't yet. But I've heard of you. It's just absolutely amazing. Why? Because experience changes you. So what's happening? What's blocking this experience with God?

Well, I think, again, Isaiah, this time instead of 9 -6, think of Isaiah 6 -9. God says to him, go and tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and be healed.

People sometimes have a question here. Why is God telling him to make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy? Why doesn't he want them to hear God's message? And personally, this is my own personal opinion.

When we hear but we ignore, we become dull. So God is telling Isaiah, listen, go and tell these people, preach to them, keep on hearing, but do not understand. And the more he kept proclaiming God's truth, the more they got quieter and quieter in silence and dull.

And God's just saying, keep on proclaiming it, Isaiah, keep on proclaiming it, and the people are going to get dull. They're going to not hear. Their ears are going to be heavy. They're going to shut their eyes because of the preaching of God's Word.

We must experience God. Do you know that Isaiah experienced God? That's after God called him, after he experienced him. It should be in your bulletin, Isaiah 6 -1, where it talks about Isaiah saying, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up, and the entire train of his robe filled the entire temple.

And the seraphim or cherubim or whatever those were, they covered their eyes with the holiness of God. They couldn't see it. They covered their feet and they flew. And then they cried, Holy, holy, holy is our God.

Holy, holy is our God. Isaiah sees this. The whole place is filled with smoke. And as they said, Holy, holy is our God, that whole temple shook. Holy, and the pillars and everything just shook. And then Isaiah said, Woe is me.

I'm a man of undone lips, and I dwell among a people. They are ruthless. They are evil. God, I'm undone. Basically saying, I'm exposed. I'm a sinner. Once you meet Christ, you change. Once you truly meet God, you change.

And I'm tired of prideful, arrogant people telling me how spiritual they are. When you meet God, you don't become prideful. You become humble and broken. That's the problem. We don't have a lot of people experiencing God.

They're not saying their own story. When I saw God high and lifted up on His throne, the whole smoke filled the temple. I saw Him. I felt Him. And I cried out, Lord, I'm undone. I'm a man unworthy and an unclean lips.

I met the risen Savior. I've met God, and He's changed my life. And then that changes everything else. Now Isaiah can prophesy to a wayward nation. Now Isaiah can proclaim truth. Now Isaiah can die for his message because he's experienced God.

Many people haven't experienced God. How can these four Christian kids who refuse to announce their faith and become Muslims be beheaded? People get upset when you can't find a parking spot. Or these little things.

How is that possible? It's because we haven't experienced God. I guarantee you take... I'll be conservative on my estimates here. You take 60 of the church in America. You say denounce Christ and you're going to get beheaded.

They'll say, where do I sign up? Where do you want me to come? You want me to worship Allah? You want me to be Hare Krishna? You want me to be this? You want me to be that? I'll sign it. I don't care.

And that's conservative numbers. Because they haven't experienced God. Or for many of you, you need to experience Him again. Like D .O. Moody said, right? We are leaky vessels. We have to sit underneath the fountain of life every day or every week.

You've got to sit. You've got to receive from God. Because I know my own human heart. I can preach like this, this Christmas, next Christmas. I can just be dull and boring. I haven't experienced God in a year.

I don't know where He went. I'm tired of church. What happened? Did God drift? Or did I drift? And I need to experience God again. That's why Paul talks about... The song we sing at the end worries some people.

Holy Spirit come and you're welcome here. Oh gosh, you guys are so... No, that's what you need. That's what you need. You need all the Holy Spirit. It's a triune nature of God. You think God the Father is going to dwell inside of us?

No way. The Holy Spirit, which is God the Father, the triune nature. Don't have me try to explain it because I can't. But know that that's the very nature and character of God. That's the same Holy Spirit that rose Christ from the dead.

That's the same Holy Spirit that does miracles and powers. All we're saying is, Lord, fill this place. You are welcome here. Instead of, no, we don't believe any of that weird stuff. That's too emotional.

You're not welcome here. Right? We've got the Bible. We've got God the Father and God the Son. Holy Spirit, don't come in this place. But that's how you experience God. When Paul talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit.

Or receive God. It's vitally important. Psalm 3418, on this topic, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. Are you brokenhearted? Are you crushed in spirit?

Because that will pull God to you like a magnet. The problem is most people aren't. I'm just here to shoot you straight. They're worried about what's for dinner. What time is this over? They've got all kinds of things on their mind.

They're not thirsty for God. And on this truth, those who are satisfied will never experience more of Him. If you're satisfied with where you're at with God, you will never experience more of Him. Think about it.

If I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat. If you're good with God, hey, I'm going through the motions. If you're not satisfied, those who are satisfied will not experience more of Him. See, there's a longing in my heart.

Lord, I need a deeper relationship with You. Lord, I need that. I need prayer time tomorrow. Lord, I will want that. Because now when you want something, what are you going to do? You're going to seek it.

Those who seek Me will find Me. If you seek Me with all of your heart, you will find Me. You see how that's tied together? If I'm fulfilled, I'm not going to seek God. I'm going to go this direction. I'm not going to seek God.

I could care less. I'm satisfied. And I would say the majority of the church, I wish I could preach a whole sermon series on this because we're not experiencing God. How do you know, Shane? The petty arguments would end.

We'd have extended worship and prayer time. We'd be seeing people confess and ask for forgiveness and repent. The love of Christ would be evident everywhere. Televisions would be out in the garage. We'd be worshiping.

We'd be praying at home. We'd be putting God first. We'd be experiencing Him and the power of the Holy Spirit. And we're just not. And the third thing we can glean from Isaiah is to prepare your heart.

Lesson Three: Prepare and Set Your Heart Before God

Set your heart. Isaiah said, So I said, Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

One great lesson from Isaiah is to prepare your heart, to set your heart. And that word there, to set your heart, is like when you break a leg or break something, they have to set that. They have to put that bone right.

So this is putting your heart right back again with God. Set your heart towards Him. Return that heart back to Him. One of the hardest things about preaching is preaching this type of thing, this type of message, and very few people are receptive.

That's what I said last week. Let's stop saying, Great message, Pastor, and let's start applying it. I'd rather just say nothing to me and then just see the glow off of you next week of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.

That would be my greatest, greatest thing. Because I even know people say good message when it stinks. Right? I mean, we're all nice. I used to go to some churches dead as a doorknob. I'd say, Oh, good job.

You handled Matthew 18 really well on that. It's like, Oh, this guy needs to be filled with the Spirit again. He's sitting on ice. He's cold up there. But you want to compliment people. So, I mean, those things are good, but we have to really look.

Are we experiencing God? Well, here's how Isaiah 118. Come now. See all this truth from Isaiah? It's unbelievable. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Reason together. He's saying, Come.

Let's talk about this. Let's reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool. Praise God. Thank you. People say, Oh, thank you, Shane.

I need to hear that. Oh, keep reading. If. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land. If. If. And maybe it's just me, but I often wonder sometimes. You read the Bible. What if Abel?

Or Cain, rather. Cain would have just asked for forgiveness instead of killed his brother. Or what about we read the sin of Achan? It's traumatic in the Old Testament. What about if Achan would have just not grabbed the accursed things?

They conquered a city and God said, Do not grab the accursed things. Do not take of these people. Do not take of the spoil. And this man, Achan, grabbed the accursed things and hid them. And God said, There's sin in the camp.

And all of Achan's family was destroyed. How can you stone little kids and his wife and daughters? How can you? Folks, the cost of sin. That's why all these difficult passages in the Old Testament are difficult.

It's because of the cost of sin. What if the children of Israel would have just thanked God instead of complained in the desert? Two people see the promised land out of, I don't know, it's been estimated 1 .5 million to 3 million people.

Two people see it because of grumbling and complaining. Why is that? What about if Samson, this mighty man of God, Samson would have ran to God instead of Delilah? What about David? David, if he would have just called for his chariot instead of Bathsheba, three lives are gone.

Four lives are gone. The baby and Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah. He just killed four family members because of that sin. And how it would play out later. And Absalom, his own son, he's running. David's running from his own son.

And finally, when they catch Absalom, David said, spare the boy. And they don't. They thrust him through his spear a few times. And when David hears the news, he just weeps, Absalom, Absalom. Absalom, my son.

Do you know why he weeps so hard? It's probably because he knew he caused it. The fallout. The fallout. See, I think sometimes we forget about the cost of sin. Like it's something like patty cake with the devil.

It's no big deal. Trust me, I know it's hard. I've got to watch it. I know the enemy's got a bullseye here and here. He's coming after us. That roaring lion. So that's why you have to set your heart. Prepare your heart.

What about if all the wicked kings in the Old Testament would have just turned to God and set away from Him? What if the church today would actually set their heart towards God? You would see revival.

You would see people changing if they actually set their heart towards God. Get pride out of the picture. Get stubbornness out of the picture. And become men and women of humility and prayer and brokenness.

God says, I just want that heart. That's all I want, is I want that heart. I don't care about money. I can have a cat on a thousand heels. I don't care about sickness and illness. I can heal the body like that.

I don't care about all those things. I just want a humble, broken, contrite heart. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. That's what He wants. He says, I will not reject that offering.

I will not reject that gift. But if you come into the presence of God with arrogance and hideousness, you go through the motions, God says, I will reject your very worship. Because the heart's not right.

You have to set your heart towards God. It's interesting too, when the Ark of God was captured, the Philistines finally captured the Ark of God. It was so traumatic for the people that when the priest fell, broke his neck, older guy, and then also this lady gave birth and died and named, I believe it was Ichabod, and says the glory of the Lord has departed from this place.

See, the power wasn't in the Ark. The power was in the fact that that was where God's manifest presence was at. It went with the people. And they were going to the tabernacle into the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could come once a year to atone for the sins of the people.