The Cure for Chaos – Call a Sacred Assembly — Shane Idleman

Biblical Conviction in Public Leadership

Pulpit is not God's pulpit. You didn't come to hear, you did not come to hear a man, you came to hear a message. And we need to let God speak again boldly through our pulpits and pastors should not be scared to say, listen, this person stands for this, this person stands for this.

These people wanna murder children, these people don't. It's okay to speak truth into the life of people. And we put people in positions of leadership, it really matters. We're done being politically correct, we never really were, but we've gotta take a stand and say, listen, God has given us a republic, God has given us a voice, and we need to put people in positions of office that want to honor his word.

And people say, Shane, we can't be political. I'm really not being political, I'm being biblical. The Bible has something to say, the Bible has something to say about murdering children. It has something to say about gay marriage, it has something to say about teaching our children perversion, it has something to say about these foundational issues.

See, we're not pushing, we are holding the line. They crossed the line many years ago when they begin to remove God from the schools and begin to remove prayer from the schools. Did you know that the schools began in the 1600s to teach kids to read the word of God?

Talk about how far we have drifted, don't even get me started on that topic. I'll get back on track or we're gonna be in trouble. So the title tonight, as many of you know, is The Cure for Chaos, Call a Sacred Assembly.

Sanctifying Ourselves Before the Sacred Assembly

The Cure for Chaos, what's going on around us. God gives us a remedy primarily in the Old Testament to call a sacred assembly. And you might say, well, Shane, why preach this now if the sacred assembly is next weekend?

And the answer is really simple, it's because we need to sanctify ourselves beforehand, the bride prepares for the groom. And many times, a couple times throughout the Old Testament, God would say, sanctify yourself today for tomorrow I would do great works among you.

And there's something special when we come to church, when we come to a sacred assembly and our hearts are already right, we've been praying, we've been fasting, we've been seeking the heart of God and then the spirit of God will fall upon that atmosphere.

And I believe you can create an atmosphere that is pleasing to God or create an atmosphere that where his spirit withdraws. Think about our homes, we begin to put on ungodly entertainment and things like that and God's spirit is quenched and grieved.

Can you feel a difference? And then when you put on worship music and you begin to pray in your house, can you feel a difference or just me? I can walk into houses and I can feel the heaviness, I can feel the demonic oppression and I guarantee that they have been fostering an atmosphere of darkness.

Or I can walk in a home and you feel the life there because there's something about the atmosphere of holiness. And so I'm gonna look to Joel chapter one, I'm gonna be a little bit throughout Joel chapter one.

I looked at this when the COVID pandemic started. I'm sorry, there might be some Freudian slips in there. But when this started, I looked at Joel and we talked about this a little bit, but I think it's important for you to hear because many of you probably didn't hear that message.

And God says in chapter one, through the prophet Joel, and what's interesting about the prophets, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, you have Jonah and you have Micah and Nahum and the minor prophets and you have what's called the major prophets, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel and some of the major prophets.

And what these people would do is they would go to the children of Israel and what would they do? They would call them back to God. They would call that to repentance. And so the God still uses prophetic voices today.

And you can usually tell when a voice is prophetic because they're not popular. I thought of giving a message entitled unpopular prophets or a prophet is not popular. They aren't, are they? Because they go against the grain.

It's like taking that sandpaper and they get to the heart of the issue and they were never called to be popular. They were called to be powerful and speak God's truth. And God actually told Jeremiah, Jeremiah was just a young man.

And Jeremiah said, I can't go, I'm too young. And God said, Jeremiah, go to who I send you, speak what I speak to you. Would you pull down and you will root out, you will build up and you will destroy and you will replant.

Let the word of God go forth and convict the heart. And that's what we need today. We need that conviction again, that draw to holiness and righteousness and being filled with the spirit of God. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna play church.

We didn't come to play church. We came to hear from the living God, the power of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever experienced that when God breaks you, when God humbles you, when he removes your pride and now you're full of the spirit of God and there's joy unspeakable, there's boldness and adversity, there's peace that you just cannot describe because the Holy Spirit of God is moving through you.

That's what we need. He said, hear this you elders, hear this you elders and give an ear. It means listen, all you inhabitants of the land, has anything like this happened in your day or even in the days of your fathers?

Well, what is happening? Well, guess what? It's pretty similar to now. Pestilence, locusts, swarming locusts, all kinds of locusts came and they devoured the crops so the provision was gone and then fire was scorching the land and the people were in, there was distress and there was chaos and confusion and talk about a parallel today.

And so God said, tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children and their children, another generation. So God is saying, don't be embarrassed, let them know what happens when the judgment of God falls upon a nation, that there is a judgment that can happen but God's call is not to cry about it, the call is to come back to him.

Revival Begins With Repentance and the Warning of Judgment

And I wanna encourage you, before revival ignites a nation, it first ignites a group of people. Before God brings revival fires, he's going to ignite a group of people, he's going to ignite certain leaders and they bring the revival fire of God's fire into the church and into the community.

And so he's saying here, pass down God's words to your kids. Let them know about the goodness of God but also the judgment of God. I know that's not popular but it's powerful. Do you know Jesus spoke about judgment?

He said, do not fear him who can kill your body but fear him who can cast both body and soul in hell. Jesus wanted us to warn because in that warning, you can wake people up. And what we're doing instead is we're lulling them back to sleep, right?

Like you put a baby back to sleep, shh, shh, shh. Have you ever done that, moms? You know, shh, shh, shh. You don't jump up and down and wake it up, you lull it back to sleep. And that's what many churches are doing, pastors are doing, and what we're, in America, shh, shh, shh, go back to sleep.

Just go back to sleep. Let me lull you back to sleep. But at some point, you gotta wake them up and throw some water on their face or something and get the church awoke again and to get up and strengthen themselves in the Lord and begin to get back on the right track.

We cannot dumb down God's word to make it taste better. It's not supposed to taste good. It's supposed to convict. Now, in case you think I'm just being mean-spirited, I'm not, because at the end of the day, it's not about condemnation and judgment, it's about hope and redemption.

But how do you appreciate, see, what I've noticed is, have you ever seen, maybe you've done this, have you weeped during worship? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And you've experienced God and you begin to just weep before worship and thank God.

And it's often those people who understand what they've been saved from that worship the most. They understand the bad news, so they more appreciate the good news. That's why we're to deliver hard topics and talk about the bad news, is to give people the good news.

So God paints this grim picture, look at what's going on. Then he says, there's only one answer, there's only one remedy, there's only one cure, one cure for chaos. He goes on to say, awake, awake you drunkards.

Boy, oh boy, basically awake you who are comfortable, you who are lazy, you who are asleep, awake, get up and weep, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the elders of all the inhabitants of the land and come into my house, says the Lord, and cry out to God.

And there's a desperation, you see, desperate people do desperate things. I talked about that I think last week or the week before, that when you're desperate, you do desperate things. So in a nutshell, he's calling people to repentance and I've used that word a lot and I wanna give you a definition, it's used over 100 times in the Bible.

If something is used over 100 times in the Bible, it's probably pretty important. And the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says, when one repents, he exerts strength to change and he re-grasps the situation and he takes a different course of action.

In other words, he wakes up, he sees, listen, this is not the right direction, I need to foster the strength to change with the power of the Holy Spirit and I re-grasp the gravity of the situation and I take a different course of action.

So the actual definition of repentance is I'm walking this way, I see the danger, I turn, I repent and I walk this way. It's turning from that sin and that's what God is saying here, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly.

Fasting as Consecration and Spiritual Warfare

So what's he trying to do here? I believe the whole point is to get the heart right first. And let's talk about this for a minute. This might not be popular for many people but it's going to be very powerful if you grasp it.

He says, consecrate a fast. Who's already turned off? What about if it said call a fellowship, a potluck with fried chicken? And in and out is catering and so is Chick-fil-A. And then come into the house of the Lord.

Well, have you ever tried to pray, really pray after Thanksgiving dinner? It's not possible because you have two competing appetites, the flesh and the spirit. And I discovered something amazing many years ago, the power of fasting.

And this was a jewel in the church for about 1700 years. You read the early church fathers such as Irenaeus or Polycarp or Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Augustine, and you go into the Reformation period or even before that, people like John Huss who was burned at the stake for simply translating the Bible.

William Tyndale, the Tyndale Bible. These people gave their life often for the Bible that we have. And they would fast, Martin Luther would fast and John Calvin and fasting was a great, great spiritual weapon.

And sometimes you have to apply extra pressure to the demonic realm. Sometimes just regular getting through the day isn't going to cut it. Sometimes you have to apply extra pressure. You have to bring in that right hook and hit the enemy a couple times and just keep attacking the enemy.

And somebody named Jesus Christ said, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. And I know some translations don't have that in there, others do, I don't wanna get into that. But it is a biblical principle that this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.

And I wanna talk to you about this topic for a minute because it's so important. Consecrate a fast, it means to dedicate something to a higher purpose. And our hunger for food often outweighs our hunger for God, correct?

Often, so there's nothing wrong with food. God has given us an appetite for a reason, but it's when that appetite begins to control us and begins to pull us in a certain direction, we begin to allow the fleshly appetites.

And if you give into these appetites, it's easier to sin. Anytime we get in trouble, it's often because of the flesh, amen? So what by feeding the flesh and constantly feeding the flesh and never starving it, we are actually empowering it and giving it more strength.

Now I know many of you cannot relate to this. I'm sure, but let me tell you how my flesh works. I get up early in the morning and I want Dunkin' Donuts and a big coffee. And then a couple hours later, I want a chicken or a egg McMuffin.

And then a few hours later, I want In-N-Out Burger and then later Domino's and then Baskin-Robbins. It's just constant, the flesh is constant. And many people cave into that and cave into that. And the flesh begins to control them.

What fasting does, it rips that strength from the flesh and it begins to allow you to be filled again with the spirit of God because anytime you can tell the flesh no, it begins to lose strength. And I'm not talking about this idea of a monk in a monastery and you're starving yourself and it's this weirdness.

It's actually very biblical, very biblical. Moses fasted, he received the 10 commandments. Elisha fasted and went 40 days on the strength of the food he consumed. David fasted, Esther fasted and said, if I perish, I perish, I've been called for such a time as this.

Call a fast, Joel says, call a sacred assembly, begin to starve the flesh. Jesus went out, it's interesting, he was baptized in the Jordan River and the Bible says the Holy Spirit came upon him, very clear direction, the word is epi in the Greek, E-P-I, upon, overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit came upon him and led him into the wilderness and he began to fast for 40 days and 40 nights and the devil began to tempt him and Jesus came out, it says in the power and in the fullness and in the filling of the Holy Spirit and then he begins to do his ministry.

Isn't that interesting? We don't even hear of Jesus doing anything until that endowment of power, until that filling of spirit, until that starving of the flesh and fasting. Our hunger for God often outweighs our, I'm sorry, our hunger for food often outweighs our hunger for God and what fasting is, it's a disruption to our normal life, it disrupts it and we can see what's really important and you want to know how strong the flesh is, I challenge any of you, any of you, try to give up coffee all day tomorrow, just go 24 hours, you will turn into a monster.

Try to just get, I'm not gonna eat sugar, I'm not gonna just eat, watch, what that flesh, it just begins to pull, it begins to dominate everything. Fasting, fasting also though represents mourning, that's why I believe he said call a fast, there's mourning, fasting would often be a sign of mourning and repentance but don't be discouraged because after the mourning there's great hope, God says humble yourself and that's really what fasting is, it's humility, it's humbling ourself.

Practical Discipline and Humility in Fasting

God, our nation is in this predicament, our children are being used and abused, your word is being ridiculed, you're being mocked, Jesus is being scorned and I'm going to go on a fast and I'm going to mourn for our nation, I'm gonna pray for our nation when that hunger comes, I'm gonna do a hunger strike against hell and I'm gonna begin to pray and be filled with the spirit of God and the more I tell the flesh no and you yes, I go out in the boldness of the Holy Spirit.

You know what's funny, the critics, the critics of fasting are those who have never missed a meal, you'll die, you'll die if you don't eat in a day or two. Now granted, there's a lot of practical steps that need to be taken, if God is calling you to that, do that but a lot of times that's why I want to give you my book on fasting free when you leave here because there's practical steps too.

Do you know why fasting is so hard? Because 99 of you will be weaning off of withdrawing from caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, processed foods and sugar. Of course you feel like garbage because we've been on all of these things and that's why fasting is so hard.

So you have to get your body ready for these things and I believe God has given us our health for a reason. I believe he is, I realize this is all I got, when this goes, I'm done. When this goes, I'm done and I began to fast about eight years ago and I wouldn't eat all day and I would come and I could just feel, I felt the spirit of God more heavily because I was denying the flesh throughout the day, that's a biblical principle.

I'm not talking about works based and pleasing God and I found and I know and you know, God doesn't love me more when I fast but I sure love him more because I'm denying these appetites because I want the filling, I wanna be closer to God.

Now it's okay to eat and of course and God designed us to do that but when it begins to control us and we can't stop, that's why he said, awake you drunkards. What often went with drunkenness in the Old Testament?

Gluttony, they ran hand in hand because you give into one appetite, here's another and this image is, you're comfortable and you're lazy, you're asleep, you're gluttonous, God says, you need to come out of that awake and consecrate a fast.

The mightiest weapon we have, did you know the mightiest weapons we have as Christians? Are humility, prayer and worship, did you know that? And all of those are fulfilled in fasting so I'm going to throw a challenge out there today.

Fasting for Freedom and Spiritual Revival

My wife came up with a great title called fasting for freedom, fasting for freedom. It's what, we're gonna fast, we're calling a church fast between now and November 3rd, between now and the election.

Our elected officials are under attack like never before, darkness is starting to rear its ugly head and just now losing a Supreme Court justice, they're saying there'll be burning and riots in the street if our president appoints someone too soon and there's just this upheaval, you can tell that things are tense and this is a time to fast for freedom.

So I know a small minority of people will only listen but I'm talking to you, even if it's a meal, even if it's changing your diet completely, even if it's going on water only or juice, whatever God calls, He doesn't gauge, He doesn't measure success by perfection, He wants to see the condition of a heart and say, Lord, I'm willing to give this up for you.

There is a price to pay when seeking God, fasting pays that price. Basically what I'm saying is Lord, my hunger for you is greater than my hunger for food. When I feel that desire coming, Lord, I'm gonna take it to prayer and fasting.

This is not a weight loss program, this is a spiritual weapon program. When you're calling down heaven, you're praying for your children, you're praying for your spouse, you're praying for what's going on, God wants to know how bad do you want it?

Do you want it bad enough to deny yourself so that the spirit of the living God can work through you? I love what A .W. Tozer said, I want the presence of God himself or I don't want to have anything to do with religion.

Can you imagine if our kids at 12, 13, 14 or 15 were filled with God's spirit? Oh, in that day, I will pour out my spirit, your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream visions or have visions, your young men will dream dreams or vice versa, I'm not sure on that one, but he says I will pour out my spirit on your menservants and on your maidservants and they will prophesy in that day, why?

Because the spirit of God is being poured upon a broken and humble vessel and fasting is one of those mechanisms, it's a great treasure. One of the shocks of my life was 20 years ago when I started to read books, John Wesley prayed and fasted.

He actually wouldn't ordain people to the ministry unless they fasted on Wednesday and Friday. I thought of that, but I don't think I'll be able to get away with it. If you want to be, I won't go there, but there was a desire for their David Brainerd who ministered among the Native Americans in his journal, tons of fasting and prayer.

Robert Murray McShaney, he died at age 29, but he was Scotland's, one of Scotland's most anointed preachers. When he would walk to the pulpit, people would begin to weep. They'd say, where is that anointing coming from?

Oh, just read his journals. The day spent in prayer and fasting because see, that's when you're loading the gun. We've got people straight as a gun barrel theologically, but they are empty. You need to put a shell, put a round in that chamber and be filled with the spirit of God through the power of prayer and fasting.

Physical Effects and Spiritual Purpose of Fasting

And I want to just share this for a minute, but anytime God calls you to do something spiritually, there are physical benefits as well. There's enormous physical benefits of fasting. God might speak to you right now, to some of you in this message, just from this part.

Fasting has been known, fasting's not a cure. What it does, let me just tell you, let me switch from preacher to teacher for a minute. Fasting, what your body does throughout the whole day is it takes 50, 60 of your energy to convert food.

And to convert food, it's called your metabolism, your metabolic rate, the process of converting food into energy. And it's exhausting and it's doing that all day long. It's just exhausting and converting energy and converting energy.

You add to that all the junk food, all the processed food, all the dead food that does nothing for your body. And we begin to gain weight, we begin to get disease and issues. And so fasting withdraws the poison and allows the body to begin to cleanse itself.

That's why it's so hard at first because it's called detoxification. And your body switches from burning glucose now to burning your stored fat tissue. And in that is a lot of toxins. And that's where your energy comes from.

And as people begin to fast, it begins to heal their arthritis. It begins to help their ulcers, their high blood pressure, heart conditions, gallstones, tumors, colitis, and neuromuscular diseases. Overfeeding is killing us.

And fasting, fasting can help with that. I know it's really convicting, but we need to be convicted from time to time. And because of this, I believe there's a mighty filling of the Holy Spirit. So I believe that's why one of the reasons God says, first, consecrate a fast, call a fast, get the flesh into submission.

Consecration Before Corporate Worship

What happens if we come next Saturday? We've been watching Netflix all week. We probably saw some things on the internet we shouldn't. We'll listen to music that's not edifying. We've been eating too much.

We've been gluttonous. We've been drinking too much. And we come here next Saturday and we expect that the spirit of the living God is going to descend upon us and change us from the inside out when we haven't been consecrated and set apart for him first.

Call the sacred assembly, but first consecrate a fast. And then he says, call the sacred assembly. So he says, now, once you're set apart, once you're fasting, once you're maybe hungry for food, but more hungry for God, he said, call the sacred assembly and begin to cry out to God.

Is that interesting? Cry out to God. There's a passion. Like I said, desperate people do desperate things. We read about the blind man. I love that story. He cried out, oh, son of David, have mercy on me.

And what did the crowd say? Be quiet, be quiet. And he said, he cried out all the more, oh, son of David, have mercy on me. I'm a blind man and I need your redemption. And he began to cry out and the woman would go after Jesus, fighting through the crowd, moving people out of the way.

And if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I would be healed. Or they lowered the man down through the roof and they removed the shingles and lowered him down. If we can just touch Christ or the weeping, the weeping prostitute that came before Jesus and begin to clean his feet with her tears.

Oh, desperate people do desperate things when they want to find the heart of God. They might fast. They might remove ungodly entertainment. They might seek God with all their heart and with all their strength and begin to move things that God is convicting them about.

Because I must find God, desperate people do desperate things. I'm sure there's people saying, I wanted to hear a teaching tonight. Well, you needed to hear a preaching tonight. Listen, I'll never forget this.

And I kind of hope this person hears me when I tell this story. But we were in Lancaster five, six years ago. And I tell it often when it fits things like this, it just blew my mind. The spirit of God was so thick.

People were at the altar, people are weeping and crying. And the worship is just, it's incredible. One service, our first service actually flowed into the next service without any interruption. And I came up there, I felt the heaviness of God.

I felt just the weight. And I said, guys, we just got to keep worshiping. We just got to keep worshiping. I'm not going to give a message tonight. And a man left upset. He walked out, he told the usher, I came here to hear a message.

I thought that poor man, the very thing he needs is the very thing he's running from. The very thing he needs is the very thing he is running from. He needs to find himself on the altar, broken and humble before God.

Because if worship upsets you, there's something going on with your heart. If you're not a worshiper, there's something wrong in your heart. Oh, I'm a lover of his presence. I'm a lover of his presence.

25 years ago, I would have laughed at you worshipers until God fills you with the spirit. That changes everything. Oh God, I'm a lover of your presence. The proud, Bible-thumping, critical heart must become a lover of God's presence.

Unity, Humility, and the Rejection of Critical Spirits

Examine their hearts. And then after that, it says something interesting. Then come together, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly like we're doing now. But I'm glad he didn't forget this. Then come together.

Do you know what he's talking about there? Unity. Unity, gather all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord, your God. You know what I've noticed when all hell is breaking loose right now?

Not too many people are debating non-essentials. Not too many people are poking fun at this ministry or poking fun at this, or you're not a Calvinist, or you're not Armenian, or you believe in this. No, no, now we're in battle together.

We are in battle together. And the small little battles, the small little essential things need to fall to the side. And we need to come together in unity. Because often what is behind division is pride.

Let's call it out. Let's call out those people who like to debate and like to put down others and like to highlight non-essentials. And they have a critical, arrogant spirit. They are haughty. Paul says that they are proud and unteachable and eager to dispute.

That kind of person will never experience spiritual revival. Hebrews says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And that word see is to see spiritually, to perceive.

There's an inward spiritual perception. When you're desperate, trivial things don't matter, does it? Listen, when I'm in battle with you, I'm not real concerned what denomination you're with. I'm not concerned with what church you're with.

I wanna know, do you love Jesus? Do you believe in the inerrancy of scripture? Is he your Lord and Savior? Do we agree on the essentials? Great, let's go into battle. That's what God wants. We gotta get back to that part of that point of unity.

I mean, I'm not for or against denominations. I'm not sure where God, you know, biblically speaking, I have a hard time with them sometimes because most of the time, do you know where denominations spring up?

Because people leave and think, I'm gonna do it the right way. I'm gonna be this denomination and we believe this and we're the right denomination. This, this, this denomination believes this and this is the right domination.

You guys, I promise myself I wouldn't say this, so forgive me if it's wrong. I'm just asking for forgiveness now. But the guy in the corner, the heckler, right? The guy in the corner, he's mad because I don't use the King James only.

My Lord, is there anything more important? Yes, the salvation of souls. Have you ever led anybody to the Lord? Have you ever led anybody to the Lord screaming at them? Of course not. You have to be broken and humble and all this bickering and complaining over, what translation do you use, brother?

And I've had emails that say, you don't wear a suit and tie. You're not a real preacher. Really? I didn't know that, I'm sorry. Let me go check my wardrobe next time. The arrogance is amazing. The critical spirit in the church is amazing.

Oh, I don't like those songs. I like these songs. Why are they doing that? Why are they standing? Why aren't they standing? Why are they sitting? Why aren't they sitting? Why are they raising their hands?

Why aren't they raising their hands? They're too charismatic. They're not charismatic enough. Why do they act like that? Why do they get all sappy? Why are they crying? Critical spirits. And we wonder why we're not experiencing revival.

Compassion for the Wounded in Worship

I'm trying. I'll never forget, there was a guy at the church in Lancaster. Well, a lot happened in Lancaster. Praise God for that. But he was at the altar and weeping uncontrollably. And I could tell people were a little bothered by it.

You know the people in church like this, where it's a Laker game. You know, and they're just people, emotional people bother them. And I went up to pray for him and I just, I started weeping. I don't know why.

And come to find out he found his son who hung himself into the garage. Oh folks, we gotta be careful. We gotta be careful to judge others. You don't know what they went through. You don't know the pain they're carrying.

Many times those who are emotional in worship, it's because they've met the risen savior. They've experienced God. And I love when guys tell me, Shane, I'm just not emotional. I'm just not emotional. Well, you express anger very well.

Is anger not emotion? You can yell at your kids and throw the cat and kick the dog and punch a hole in the wall. You're very emotional. Sir, the problem is you have not been humble and broken by almighty God and begin to worship him.

And it comes out, oh God. And that's why I cannot even, that song Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. If that doesn't penetrate your heart, he says, I was blind, but now I see spiritually blind on my way to hell.

If it was not for the grace of God, the reach down to grab me, there go I, but by the grace of God, there go I, I was lost, but now I'm found and God found me and he saved me. He set me free. You might get a little excited.

You might wanna worship. You might not wanna be in a hurry. If you're a clock watcher, be careful. And then I love what God does. He shouts it again. In case I'm not clear, blow the trumpet and Zion and sound the alarm on my Holy Mount.

In other words, call a battle call. Call believers to the forefront. Call them to boldness. Tell them to come out of their complacency. Shame, when I've given you a voice, wake them up. And that's why I said, you didn't come to hear a man.

You came to hear a message. And that message is God trying to wake up the sleeping giant known as a church of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine if the church would wake up and come back to holiness and righteousness and love and unity and being filled with the spirit of God?

You cannot stop the move of God's spirit. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble before me for the day of the Lord is coming. Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting.

There he goes again. Just when I was looking forward in and out afterwards. With fasting, with weeping, with mourning. So wrench your hearts and not your garments. I love that picture because what they would do in Israel, they would take the shirt and rip it.

They would, oh, look how sorrowful I am. Look how broken I am. Look how humble I am. I'm rending my hearts. And oh, God says, I see your hardness. I see your callous hearts. Don't just wrench your heart, wrench your garments.

Branch your heart, break your heart. Let your heart cry out to God. Men who are arrogant, look how you're hurting your family. Oh God, we need you in our homes. God, our schools need you. Spirit of the living God, would you begin to minister to us tonight?

Preparing for Corporate Worship

So I want you to come spiritually prepared on September 26th and we're gonna worship. I don't know what that sermon looks like, if I'm gonna, or a service, if I'm gonna give a quick sermonette or a sermon or mainly just worship.

I don't know, I'm seeking God in this. I will be fasting. I guess I should have told you that earlier. I'm gonna start fasting, and this is a corporate call to fasting for those who can. If you're not sure how, if you have questions, again, we've got resources for that.

But the bottom line is say, God, I'm going to stop this that I'm addicted to, that I'm drawn to. I'm gonna take a season of fasting so I can hear your voice clearly. Worship is warfare, and that's what we're going to engage in.