Igniting Revival - Dead Bones Come Alive — Shane Idleman

Dead Bones Come Alive: Defining Genuine Revival

The title is, Igniting Revival. Igniting Revival. Dead bones come alive. But before I get into that, I obviously want to thank all the moms out there that are listening to this. And we'll be listening to this on Mother's Day.

We just want to thank you. Your work does not go unnoticed, especially what's going on now and being kind of at home a lot. And just Mother's Day. It's just a day we honor moms and what they've given our families and we thank you so much.

So that goes out from West Side Christian Fellowship. A thank you to all the moms. And I'm gonna transition here back into revival. Dead bones come alive. And what I mean by igniting revival, and it's interesting because this term is not always positive.

A lot of people have negative views of revival depending on who you ask. If you ask a conservative person, they're like, I don't know about those charismatics. And then you ask somebody who loves the word revival and sometimes they have a wrong impression of what that is.

It's not having a lot of meetings as I talked about before. It's not about getting all worked up and amen and praying loud and doing things and come on God, come on God, can't you hear us? It's really not about that.

What reviving is, is God awakening a dead sleeping church. Dead bones come alive. And when you talk about revival, when you talk about the move of the spirit, I'm just gonna recap a little bit what I've talked about just to put this in context.

Spirit-Led Christianity Beyond Mere Bible Knowledge

There are two groups that get offended. Anytime I mention this, whether it's getting in emails or responses, two groups that get offended. Number one, the group that doesn't have the power of the spirit.

And number two, the group that doesn't want the power of the spirit. Those two groups get offended. If you heard me say this before, I'm gonna say it again, I love theology. But it's possible, very possible to be Bible taught but not spirit led.

You can be straight as a gun barrel theologically but you can be just as empty. A gun does nothing if there's nothing in the chamber. If there's no bullet, all you can do with that gun is use it as a hammer.

It's just lifeless, it's dead. That's why the Bible, I believe, says the letter kills but it's the spirit that gives life. Now, the Bible is not putting down the Bible. It's not saying the word of God will kill you.

What it's saying is the word of God by itself, when a heart is not receptive or coming through someone who is not on fire for God, just the word of God alone will kill you. It has to be infused by the spirit of God.

So you take the word of God with the spirit of God, you marry them and that is powerful preaching, it's powerful ministry. That's when the Bible comes alive. Because there are many people who pound their fists on the pulpit.

They own Bibles. There's many people, when the stay home order is over that comes to your house and they knock on your door and they try to convert you to their religion and they have the Bible. Or you can try to follow the Bible without the spirit and then it becomes legalism.

That's why Paul told the church in Galatia, he said, are you going to finish in the flesh what began in the spirit? He said, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has tricked you? You can't finish what began in the spirit with the works of the flesh.

The letter kills but it's the spirit that gives life. The spirit of God brings dead bones alive again. The spirit of God brings a dead church alive again. The spirit of God brings a dead pastor alive again.

The spirit of God is what changes everything. So we have to say God, ignite revival in our nation, in our communities, in our homes. And to this group that they don't have the power of the spirit. They're offended by that.

Actually to them, revival is offensive. Why? Because they think they are already revived. And so what happens is when you talk about this, spiritual pride comes up and they begin to mock you because you're talking about something they don't have.

And they're not open, they're not receptive. And you might say, Shane, why in the world would you bring this up? Because often the only way to convict someone who is spiritually prideful or someone who is carnal is you have to shoot them straight.

You have to tell them the truth about their hard heart and then the spirit of God comes and convicts them, hopefully. And they also say there's too much talk of the Holy Spirit. There's too much talk of the Holy Spirit because they are not filled.

That's just, it's just like a sinner who wants you to stop talking about sin. Stop talking about that. So when you talk about the power of the spirit, the fire of the spirit, the baptism of the spirit, the unction of spirit, like we sang, Holy Spirit, you are welcome here and dwell this place.

The power of God, come here. The person who doesn't have that gets convicted and they don't want you to talk about that. Believe it or not, about six years ago, someone came to me at the church and said, you're talking way too much about the Holy Spirit.

Now granted, I was in a series on the Holy Spirit and I was talking about the forgotten God. Francis Chan wrote that book a while back and I was on a series about it, but I could tell it was the type of person who was Bible taught but not spirit led and they don't want you to talk.

That's why many people don't want to sing about the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. No, he's not. Holy Spirit, come and dwell me. Well, no, I already have all the spirit. Why are we talking about this?

Because there's a conviction. Like I said before, they love the Father, the Son, and the Holy Word. They miss the power of the spirit and here's why the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is so important. That's the fire of God.

That's the power of God. That's the anointing of God. The Holy Spirit infuses his word. The Holy Spirit convicts the heart. The Holy Spirit builds a church. The Holy Spirit builds a ministry. The Holy Spirit draws us closer to Christ.

The Holy Spirit convicts. The Holy Spirit leads. The Holy Spirit will empower a person. And there's also in this camp, there is a disdain for worship because worship is the heartbeat of those who have been revived.

Those who've experienced revival love worship. They want to worship, but those who don't have that power and spiritual pride comes in, they disdain your heart for worship. And many people dismiss the fire of God because they don't have the fire of God.

There's a conviction there. And you can look at all the great men and women who came before us from Wesley to Whitefield to Martin Luther to Spurgeon. All of them talked about encountering the fire of God.

It has this unction. I like what Spurgeon said. He said, the fire in the preacher sent of God is not mere excitement. There is a mysterious influence resting on God's servants, which is irresistible. The Holy Ghost sent down from heaven anoints all true preachers.

And it is true power and fire. But then of course the group that doesn't want the power. And I talked about that last week. It's the group that says, I just want to buy $3 of God, please. Not enough to ruin my lifestyle.

Don't go after my lifestyle. Don't go after my alcohol. I love my marijuana. I like my porn. I like my sin. I like my whatever. Don't touch that part of me, God. And so they don't want the power of God because it's a call to a deeper life.

It's a call to consecration. That's why Jesus didn't say, hey, come on along, it'll be fun. He said, die to self, carry your cross, which means you are dead to the things of the world. Paul says, because of the cross, I am dead in Christ.

And he said, follow me and carry that cross. So for dead bones to come alive, I'm talking to those who haven't shut me off yet. I'm talking to those who are serious about this powerful relationship with God.

You must recognize that you are dead spiritually to be revived. You must recognize that you are dead spiritually to be revived. Now what I wanna do is, I've been looking forward to this, I wanna spark your hunger.

Historical Revivals and Hunger for God

I want to fuel your thirst for more of God. And I'm going to read to you some brief excerpts of revivals that were genuine. This is what I read at night. This is the heartbeat of my soul. And there were so many, it would take me hours to read to you the revivals that have hit our nation and have hit Scotland and Wales and Europe and so many different places.

I'm gonna actually direct you to a site, a website. It's just romans1015 .com, romans1015, no semicolon, nothing. Romans1015 .com, and you can click on the examples of all these revivals down throughout history.

I believe it's called Beautiful Feet. One of my favorites, and I had to go through those and just really limit this to my favorite, but I like the Moravian revival. The Moravian revival, the Moravians were powerful.

This is, Whitefield was a part of them, Wesley was a part of them, and this is in 1727. They said this, we saw the hand of God and we were all baptized with the fire of God. Baptized with the fire of God, the unction of God.

From that time, scarcely a day passed, but we beheld his mighty workings among us. A great hunger after the word of God took possession of us so that we have not, we have three services every day. 5 a .m., 7 .30 a .m., and 9 p .m., all throughout the day.

And even though this congregation, it's called the Hernhut congregation, they've never exceeded 300 people. They started an around-the-clock prayer meeting and it went on for a hundred years. I have the book about that, it's amazing.

And then the Cambuslang revival. The Cambuslang revival in 1742, it's in Scotland. And it says, it records this, the Church of Scotland had a passion for God. The pastor was in communication with Jonathan Edwards in America and he received news about the revival that was taking place in the colonies.

He would read the revival accounts to his congregation and the passion of God began to increase. See, when you feed people God's food, when you feed them, that's why Jesus said, oh, I will give you water of which you will never thirst again.

There's a consuming of hunger and thirsting for more of God. You can increase that passion for more of God depending on what you feed on. And then in July 1742, George Whitefield visited this church, preached three times on the day of his revival.

His last sermon began at nine in the evening and continued till 11. You'd think I'd go long. The hunger for the word of God was so strong that the pastor preached after him till one in the morning. Even then, people could hardly be persuaded to depart.

All night in the fields, the voice of prayer and praise was to be heard. You see, because when God visits a people, they don't care about the time clock, they care about what's on God's clock. They look to the heartbeat of God and Whitefield even commented on this in his journal, I believe.

It said, this far outdid all that I ever saw in America. For about an hour and a half, there were scenes of uncontrollable distress like a field of battle. Many were being carried away like wounded soldiers.

Why? Because they were overcome with the power and the conviction of sin. That's why real revival is not weird. It's the power of God. What do you think happens to a sinner when they feel the power and presence of God?

Do you think they just have their hands in their pocket chewing their bubble gum? Absolutely, they're hit by the power of Almighty God. And of course, in all revivals, anytime the Holy Spirit is working in a church, did you know that there are disruptors?

Opposition and Spiritual Warfare During Revival

Ooh, let me tell you about disruptors. Healthy churches have opposition. This is just when George Whitefield was preaching throughout a brief season. There was a man in a tree, remember they're outside preaching in fields because the churches kicked George Whitefield out.

So a man in the tree exposed himself. There was another man in the tree blowing trumpets. Someone threw a piece of a dead cat at George Whitefield. There was a man on another man's shoulder attempting to whip Whitefield as he preached.

Then there's a joker in the crowd disrupting the sermon. Then there's a recruiting sergeant with a drum marching through the crowd of 30 ,000 attempting to recruit soldiers. See, anytime God is moving, guess who else is moving?

The demonic opposition, God, the Holy Spirit says, I'm moving in the power and presence, I'm gonna change lives, but here comes the enemy trying to pull and sidetrack and discourage and persuade and people have them fall back in sin and to rear their ugly heads of spiritual pride.

That's why you've gotta stay focused on Christ and broken before him so God can use you. And one I really love is in 1802, the revival at Yale University. For those who are listening who do not know this, did you know that many of our universities were founded on God's word?

Yale, Harvard, Princeton all taught ministers of the gospel. Now look how far we've drifted. And in 1802, there was a vacuum created by the church's weakness. Sound familiar? Groups arose that denied the basic teaching of Christianity.

These forces created a widespread drift away from God. Sound familiar? That's exactly what's happening in our schools. Why do you think I keep preaching so hard about revival? That is our only hope. But the encouraging thing, this is why I get encouraged, revival happens when things are dead.

It's not a revival if something's not dead. So there has to be a deadness, a barrenness, for God to awaken his sleeping giant, the church of Jesus Christ. Timothy Dwight was an evangelist. He became the president of Yale University.

He found the student body rebellious and with no concern for the things of God. It was through this type of preaching though that he came, he preached, and he taught. And Dwight broke down the students' philosophies that were undermining the foundations of society.

See, in order for revival to be sparked, you also have to go back to the old truths of the Bible. You can't just come in here and say, be Mr. Positive Pete. Sometimes you have to be John the Baptist as a voice crying in the wilderness and call the people back and confront sin right in the face.

And he confronted sin. And early in 1802, two students were so overwhelmed by the conviction of their sin that it became known to the larger body of students and revival began to break out. One third of the student body began to commit their lives to Christ and then this revival hit other college campuses around that area and a generation of ministers were formed that served on the frontiers of the United States.

They were called Methodist circuit riders. They were pointing the way to the second great awakening out of this dead and barrenness. See, when something is dead, we get discouraged. God says, that's no problem for me.

I can take dry bones and raise life out of them. Out of the ashes, you will rise again and you will fight, my church. Get up and fight again. And then 1863, I took this out, but I just want to tell you the title.

Did you know there was a great revival in the Confederate armies that fought for slavery? That God actually used their losses to humble them and there was a massive revival. You won't read this on the biographies.

I just finished one of, oh, I don't remember his name now. Not Abraham Lincoln, but one of his, he became president later too. I know, I'll think of it later and say, oh, I should've thought of it. But anyway, you won't read that in their biographies, but there were prayer chapels throughout the Confederate armies.

There were baptisms. There was a move of God's spirit. And then there was a revival on the island of Lewis. 1949, the conditions prior to this revival. Let me know if this sounds familiar. Let me know if this sounds familiar.

According to testimonies of people present during that revival, they confessed that the churches were dead and they were in a spiritual winter. Legalism was extreme and the young people wanted nothing to do with church.

Legalism, Carnality, and the Need for a Living Faith

Here, that's a damning effect of legalism. Young adults don't want anything to do with a bunch of rules from people who are hypocrites that don't resemble the character of Christ in their own lives. See, it's not just carnality that kills a church.

Legalism does too. Legalism, come on, you know what that is. Legalism, Jesus Christ plus this. Yeah, but you don't do that. And you begin all these rules and instead of this vibrant, living relationship with the king of the universe, you're crowded by rules and regulations.

Now, as a person who likes rules and regulations, as a person who preaches holiness, and I love the commandments of God, we've gotta follow those, but they come from the right heart. The emails go something like this from the legalist.

I get them weekly. Brother, I love your preaching. I'm sure hoping you meet on Saturday in honor of the Sabbath, or I cannot continue to listen. I'm sure hoping, that church sounds great out there in California, I'm hoping and praying you guys observe all the festivals of the Old Testament.

Because if you don't, you're in sin. Man, I could listen to you more if you wore a suit and tie. Why all that worry? Worship, get to the word. And I can just picture some people now, Martha, that young man did not even open his Bible.

The scripture is throughout, it's everywhere. Scripture is burning in my heart, out of a burning heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. We meditate on scripture, we pray scripture, we live scripture, it's everywhere.

But the legalist says, he doesn't have my version of the Bible. He is not reading after that Bible. He's not an expository preacher, breaking down the Greek and the Hebrew, and see, every little thing they wanna find against you.

Now it's interesting, I love expositional preaching, we need it. And I remember they asked a famous Bible teacher, I'll just tell you, it was John MacArthur, who's not a fan of topical all the time necessarily.

And they said, but what about Spurgeon? He was all topical. And they said, well, well, well, well, well, Spurgeon was gifted. As if God can't gift other people to do topical sermons. Now, I don't want topical to get into fluff, but I'm talking about sometimes we need to hit topics that deal right to the heart.

And I'm actually tired of pastors not talking about anything that's going on in America. I'm just gonna talk about Jesus. I'm not gonna talk about COVID and the government limitations and what could be going on behind the scenes.

I'm not going to equip the people with the things they need. I'm just going to talk about certain things that keep me in my bubble. And that's what legalism is. It's so deadly. I don't even respond to some of these people because I already know where it's going.

Legalism, Jesus plus. But back to this Island of Lewis, it was called the Island of Lewis. These people had a form of godliness in that prayer and Bible reading, they actually did it in their homes every morning.

Can you imagine, how dead is a person if we go, okay, let's do our Bible study every morning. I'm obeying God's word. And there's a form of godliness and there's no heart passion behind it. And they said it was carried out as a duty.

It was a tradition. And now what I'm going to read, many of you have seen in that YouTube video, Donald's Bible, how they trace the present to this revival, but it began in 1949, two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith, 84 and 82, one completely blind and Christine was bent over.

They were burdened, burdened due to the depressed spiritual state in their village. And I want to shout, amen. You see, it's okay to have that burden, but because without the burden, there's no heart travail.

And without the heart travail, there's no soul-wrenching, gut-wrenching prayer time. Oh God, we're pulling down heaven. God, you need to hear your people. God, would you listen? The burden is so great that, God, I have to pray.

I have to seek you. See, without a burden, many of us will not seek the heart of God. And they sensed the Lord speaking to them. I will pour water on a thirsty land. I will bring streams on the dry ground, thus saith the Lord.

So they prayed in their cottage from 10 p .m. till 3 a .m., while the ministers and others prayed in a barn-like structure. After several weeks of praying, I like this. Don't worry, I'm going somewhere.

Repentance, Holiness, and the Lewis Revival

After several weeks of praying like this, one evening, while the minister and church leaders were praying in the barn, a young deacon, a young deacon, I love this, he got up and he read Psalm 24. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

He began to say, he's reading. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart and who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor has he sworn deceitfully.

Then he closed his Bible. He looked at the ministers and he said to all those men and women there, it seems to me that this is humbug to be praying like we are. If we ourselves are not right with God.

Then he prayed and I can imagine, I can imagine this young man, and this is a meaning, with tears possibly coming down his cheeks. He said, God, God, are my hands clean? God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?

Oh God, is my, and I even asked that during the sermon. God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure, God? Do you need humble, broken vessels, removing spiritual pride, removing hard hearts, removing anger and compromise and cornality?

Give us pure hands and a clean heart. And then around 3 a .m., the presence of God gripped every person in that room. It wasn't only them that sensed it, for the entire village and the surrounding area sensed the same awareness of God.

The following day, everyone was absorbed by the reality of eternal things. What that is, is when the spirit of the presence of God hits a place that you can go out and people in the whole community are touched by the power of God.

How can you limit God to a church building? He says, I will pour water on a dry and thirsty land. I will pour water on a dry and thirsty people. See, I believe every word that Jesus says when he said, come unto me, all who are weak and heavy laden.

I will give you rest and you will drink of me of water of which you will never thirst again. If you are thirsty, if you are hungry, turn to me with all your heart. But the Pharisee and the legalist says, yeah, but, yeah, but, we can't get too carried away.

Yeah, but was there fruit? Were they theologically correct? And you know what I'm saying? I'm saying, oh Lord, do it again. God, do it again. Awaken my soul. God, awaken my soul. Holy Spirit, you're welcome here.

God forbid we have a problem with these kinds of songs. Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. What's the opposite? Holy Spirit, you're not welcome here. That's the problem with many churches. That's the problem with many churches.

They don't want the power of God to change their critical, hard, arrogant hearts. They don't want the Spirit of God to crush their carnality. We sang this last week. Find me here in your presence. Oh God, find me here in your presence.

I'm not leaving the same. Let your refiner's fire purify me again. Let the weight of your glory bring me back to my knees. Oh God, come with revival and God, start it in me. Well, that was my introduction.

Returning to the Basics: Seeking God

I'm getting to the sermon now. I'm probably not gonna finish. You know, a lot of these things I'm gonna talk about, we have a whole new audience. I've told many of you and we've shared it that we have about 100 ,000 views per week on the sermon on one of our platforms.

I don't say the platform because they discontinue you. Or we've got, you've got Google against you. You've got Facebook against you. You've got Twitter against you. I mean, we are fighting a massive spiritual battle and you better be prepared.

But on this topic of revival, on this topic of seeking God, I feel like sometimes like Vince Lombardi when he took over the Green Bay Packers after they had lost a big game, he walked into the locker room, all these men, and you know what he said?

He held up a football and he said, gentlemen, this is a football. Back to the basics, what's the point? Back to the basics. Church, back to the basics. Our only hope right now is this, this. Seek and turn, seek and turn.

And I've shared that word with you many times before, that word seek, it's like a search and destroy mission. I'm gonna search God and destroy sin. So here's my three points. I'll get to them real quick.

Making the Pursuit of God the First Priority

Seeking must be a priority. Seeking God must be a priority. So get this in your mind now. You can't just get God in a little bit. You can't try to squeeze him in later. Seeking God is the priority. When you seek something, it becomes the priority.

And throughout all of the Old Testament, try me on this, anytime the children of Israel would drift from God, it was because he was not their priority. So why would the prophets, Jeremiah, Deuteronomy, you will seek me, people, seek me and find me when you seek with me with all of your heart.

See, that's what we miss. All of your heart means it's the priority. God, I'm not seeking my finances before you. I'm not seeking fellowship or fun or entertainment. I'm seeking you. First Chronicles 22, now set your heart, set your heart and soul to seek the Lord your God.

This word set here is like setting a bone. Have you ever broken a bone or had a joint out of place or your shoulder and the doctor has to set it, it doesn't feel good, I'll tell you that right now. You have to set that again.

And God, to set your heart, it hurts a little bit, but to ignite revival, you must set your heart back in place. And it's not better intentions. I'll do better next time. I'll try harder. It's really not even being convicted.

It's a complete brokenness and repentance before God. I mean, think of the opposite words of ignite. Extinguish, quench, choke out, suffocate, stifle, dull. What good is an extinguished fire? What good is a suffocated voice crying in the wilderness?

What good is a dull knife? So church, if you want the dead bones to be awakened, you have to make seeking God a priority. It means it comes before anything else. And then number two, you have to plan to seek him.

Planning Prayer and Persevering in Spiritual Warfare

You have to plan to seek him. Guess what? One of the biggest learning lessons of my life, it doesn't come naturally. Seeking God does not come naturally. I don't wake up and wanna seek God. I wake up and wanna go back to sleep.

I wake up and all these things I have to do enter my mind. You have to plan to seek him. And I will tell you this, all hell will unleash everything to stop you. Schedules have to change. And then begin to list your prayer needs and contend for them.

Go to battle, plan to seek God. I'm contending for my family. I'm praying for these areas. And you go to battle and you plan to seek God even when you don't feel like it. Charles Brett said this, pray hardest when it's the hardest to pray.

That is so true. Pray the hardest when it's hardest to pray. The big lie that we have bought into in comfortable Christianity, America Christianity, is that it should be flowing. It should be easy. It should be microwave Christianity.

Man, if I don't feel like it, something must be wrong. No, you might not feel like it. You pray the hardest when it's the hardest to pray because as you're praying, you are allowing the Holy Spirit of God to begin to take over and your flesh, your flesh begins to move out of the way and it doesn't want to.

It's a spiritual battle. And you begin to contend and pull down heaven and then the breakthrough comes. Quoting Vince Lombardi again, I love his quote. He said, I firmly believe, I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, his greatest sense of fulfillment is that moment when he has worked his heart out for a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious.

We've got to get back to warfare Christianity. Warfare Christianity, not with guns, with prayer closets, with hearts that are broken for the things that break God's heart. And what happens is you begin to seek him and you begin to plan to seek him and now you're fighting against the demonic influence and now your life is like a heartbeat of prayer.

Demons cannot defeat you. Haters cannot silence you. People cannot break you. Money cannot buy you. Trials cannot stop you. Fear cannot control you. The devil cannot seduce you. The government cannot overthrow you and addiction cannot hold you.

When you are praying Christian on your face before God and you're seeking God with all your heart and all your soul, what can the enemy do against you? The enemy draws you away from God and then you become an easy target.

That's how demonic opposition works. And obviously I really don't even have to say this, but number three, you have to kill whatever is hindering. Whatever is hindering your walk with God, we have to kill it.

Removing Sin, Busyness, and Idolatry

Did Paul say coddle the flesh? He said crucify it. Listen, if there's a besetting sin from anger to addiction to whatever, if there's a besetting sin, what I mean by besetting is you just keep falling into it and this hindrance is going to kill the spirit-filled life.

And I have to remind you of this, busyness. Busyness is a huge hindrance. I've seen it in my own life. The busier I become, the more I push God out of my life. And then of course, idolatry is a hindrance.

What is idolatry? Our love for sports and entertainment. Isn't it weird now how sports and entertainment are gone? You know, God just kills the idols but this idolatry and all these hours watching sports, all these hours in entertainment, all these hours in chasing success and fame and no time for God, that's a hindrance to revival.

That's a hindrance to the bones coming alive because idolatry has to die at the foot of the cross. Does that mean you can't watch a sports game? Of course not. You know what I'm talking about, don't be silly.

It's a lifestyle. I gotta tell you this. I posted something a while back and I talked about carnal Christianity that loves their alcohol and loves going to Las Vegas and I forget what else, and loves watching ungodly movies and you'd be amazed at how many people said, what's wrong with going to Las Vegas?

Well, I didn't say that. Are you saying I can't have a beer? I think you're convicted. That's what I think the problem is. I didn't say any of that. I said it's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. If your heartbeat is for the things of the world, love not the world nor the things in the world, he who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him.

There's a, it's that carnal Christian, Las Vegas Christian lifestyle. And when you're convicted, you lash out. See, it's not watching a game or doing something. It's a lifestyle consumed by the things of the world.

And as we all know, the things of the world begin to choke out the things of God. You can't not serve, you can't serve two masters. You'll love the one and hate the other. Or you'll be loyal to one and despise the others.

You cannot serve two things, the God of this world and the God of the Bible. It's very, scripture's very clear. I like what David Wilkerson said. It is impossible to maintain the joy of the Lord. Let me tell you this.

Are you lacking joy right now as you're listening? Do you lack the joy of the Lord? I'm not talking about difficult days. I've had plenty. I've had enough difficult seasons to last me the rest of my life.

Thank you very much. But it's impossible to maintain the joy of the Lord if sin is present in one's life. We must increasingly separate ourselves from the world around us. How can the Holy Spirit pour out joy on a people who continues to indulge in idolatry, pornography, addictions, and materialism, living like those who do not follow Christ?

That Christian, that person is miserable. Because true joy comes a right relationship with God. Did you know that? True joy does not just come from reading the Bible or going to church or posting Christian things on Facebook or Instagram.

Seeking God Through Seasons of Apparent Distance

Joy comes from I'm in right standing with God. I'm not perfect. I mess up. But I'm quick to repent. So I'm gonna conclude here shortly, but let me give you some encouragement. Sometimes God will also withdraw, or it might appear that he's withdrawing so that you do seek him.

You do seek him. You do grow. It's like training that muscle. So God will withdraw. And as he seems to withdraw to you, it forces you to seek him. He can't always help us. Many of you, I shared that when my little one-year-old started walking, I just wanted to go and grab her all the time and hold her.

Come on, walk like this. Well, I said, let go of her hand. She's never gonna learn to walk. So I had to draw away. Same thing with bike riding. You know when you teach your little kid, you can't just hold the bike the whole time in the training wheels.

Sometimes you've gotta walk away. And sometimes God might feel like he's walked away, like he's distanced. And there's one cure for that. God says, seek me, seek me. God throughout the Bible just says, ask.