Hope For The Fallen (Video) — Shane Idleman

The message this morning is hope for the fallen. Hope for the fallen, out of Proverbs 3 .19. Don't worry, I'm going somewhere with all of this. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Proverbs 3 .19.

And I believe one of the areas that God has called me in is to help others when they have fallen. Hope for the fallen. Just this week alone, I've talked to a couple people who fell off the wagon in regards to alcohol, and I encouraged them, hey, just get back up.

Okay, it's not the fall that hurts you. It's not good, I'm not giving you an excuse, but get back up and get back on track. There's hope for the fallen. Actually, we named my radio program Regaining Lost Ground for this very reason.

Nine years ago, the radio stations, what are you calling it? I don't know, what should I call it? What's your ministry about? I said, well, helping people regain lost ground. And that's kind of where that came from.

And so I have a passion for helping those who have fallen. Here's why. Like I said just a minute ago, it's not the fall that often gets us. It's staying down that does. It's getting caught in that cycle of defeat and failure.

Now, big disclaimer, I'm not encouraging sin. Okay, I'm not saying go fall. Who cares? Go cheat on your spouse. There'll be huge consequences. There'll be enormous ramifications. It's not good. But there is hope for those who have fallen.

If they get back up and they once again set their sights on God. I believe that sometimes the deeper the appreciation and love for God is because the deeper the fall often. Those who have been forgiven much, love much.

I mean, you get, and I joke about this often, but it's true, you get somebody fresh out of seminary at 25 years old, their sermons are not gonna speak deeply to where you're at because they have not yet experienced the pain of life.

But you start to give that person pain. And hopelessness and falling and God, I can't get back up. And out of that pain will come some powerful sermons. That's why I often say it takes broken men to break men.

Having to go through those challenges. So here's what we're gonna talk about. There's gonna be a lot of rabbit trails on this. That's the hard thing with teaching through Proverbs is it's not just a book written in order.

It's a whole bunch of little nuggets of truth here. And I'm gonna try to get through these in the next weeks, maybe months to come because the Bible has a lot to say about even social issues. Do you know that the big debate now in our nation is really socialism, even distribution of the wealth and not, and the Bible has something to say about that.

Did you know the Bible has something to say about our borders? Something about healthcare? It has something to say about these issues. Parenting? Hello? And now we've got, I've just saw on the news where the sex ed curriculum in the public schools is alarming.

It's almost like parents, you don't know anything. Let us teach your kids about sex and they should experience it as young as age as possible because it's their right. This is perversion. And the Bible says something about these things.

So I'm gonna be getting into those topics in the weeks and months to come. But right now, Proverbs 319, and actually we've been spending a couple chapters on wisdom. Wisdom, why is wisdom emphasized so much in the book of Proverbs?

Do you want me to tell you why? Wisdom and understanding will line you up with God's will, with God's nature, with God's character. If you want to know the character and nature of God, look to godly wisdom.

Look to the word of God. Because there's only two really worldviews, a biblical worldview and a world's worldview. Worldliness directs you or the spirit of God through wisdom directs you. That's why this is so important.

So Proverbs 319, the Lord, what? By wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up and clouds dropped down the dew. The incredible power and sovereignty of God in creation.

This is what we're seeing here. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up and clouds dropped down the dew. Now, I was gonna go to the next verse until a couple days ago. I just had this desire to talk to you a little bit more about God founding the earth, the wonderful, incredible sovereignty of creation.

And can you just take your mind there for a minute? What it must have took to create the universe, to create life, and just rest in that sovereignty. Just rest in God creating everything. Now, here's why this is so important.

There's something out there, it's a big trend growing. It's called theistic evolution. How many of you know what that means? You don't have to say anything, just a couple hands. Okay, three, four, five, six.

Theistic evolution is that God allowed the evolutionary process. It's growing, it's prevalent. I'm actually gonna talk, hopefully, to a pastor in the next week or two who believes opposite of me in this area, just to sit down and see where they're coming from.

Now, I'm gonna just share some things with you, why I do not think that theistic evolution is even remotely biblical. And what we're seeing in our culture is the need for biblical truth. What does the Bible say?

Not opinion. So I'm gonna walk you through this quickly. I told you it'd be a rabbit trail. Does it have anything to do with hope for the fallen? Not a thing. But I thought this is a good opportunity to talk about it.

Why I don't believe that God allowed the evolutionary process. Number one, you have to understand where it came from. What people are trying to do, especially if they're intellectual, maybe have master's degrees or PhDs, they're trying to reconcile this view of evolution with there being a God.

See, obviously, they know there's a God, but they also wanna be held in high esteem in academia. So it reconciles, well, God, there's clearly a God, he must have allowed evolution, Darwin. See, they can reconcile both.

Now they're not looking at some quack that doesn't believe in evolution, but I believe a God created. Well, how can you believe in a God, but still believe in evolution? And I mean, it's, well, hold on, I'm going somewhere.

Francis Collins, some of you might know that name. He was head of the Human Genome Project. It's where they studied, took 13 years, I believe. They broke down the DNA and all the strands, and he said clearly, I mean, he used to be an atheist.

He said, clearly, there's a God, but I'm still gonna hold to evolution because I don't wanna look that silly. So that's kind of where it started from, number one. Number two, here's the biggies. Jesus and others mention a literal Adam and a literal Eve.

I just had my son read Genesis 1 and 2 this morning. I said, okay, do you think Jesus, do you think Adam and Eve was a story? And he, dad, no, of course not. The Bible says it's not a story. It's literal.

So Jesus and others, they mention a literal Adam and a literal Eve. Genesis says that God formed man out of the dust of the earth and he blew into him, actually, he breathed into him. That word we get, pneumatology, the Holy Spirit, the pneumatic, you use pneumatic tools.

It's that wind, it's that, he blew into him the breath of life and then he became a living soul, a living nephesh. In the Hebrew language, a nephesh is this life, bringing life to something that was dead.

And then from that came the woman. That's pretty literal. I don't know how you can use that as allegory or, well, that's just an analogy. That's, if that's an allegory or if it's just a story or a parable, then how in the world can you interpret the rest of the Bible?

Who's to say what is true and who's to say what is not? So Jesus mentioned this. Other authors mentioned it. And also, number three, the clear teaching of Scripture and the rules of hermeneutics demand it.

The clear teaching. And hermeneutics is the study of how you would study the Bible. You look at laws, things like laws of first mention. You look at what's a historical context. You look at what's the language of the words, the verb tenses and all these things.

Did the author intend it to be true? So it would go against all the rules of hermeneutics on studying the Bible to say that God allowed evolution. And then number four, I like this one. God will not break his own laws.

As we all know, the human body had to be formed at one time. You can't have a heart developing a thousand years later after the lungs. And you have to, it develops right now. Right now, the human body's ready to go.

Well, what about a little child, Shane? It starts at conception, right? It starts to develop what the umbilical cord brings the nutrients, the blood, the carbon dioxide from the child being formed is taken out by these areas.

So you see that life has to aid in the process of life. God had to create Adam and Eve at one instant moment. You couldn't have these little cells starting to grow. Who's gonna take care of these little babies?

I mean, it's just mind-boggling. And then also, number five, it doesn't allow for the fall of man. According to Carl Giberson in Saving Darwin, human beings were flawed and sinful from the very start because they were produced by an evolutionary process driven by selfishness, in his words here.

So anyway, the point is, it doesn't allow for the fall because what was the fall? God created Adam, he created Eve. It said, okay, everything is good. Did you realize that? Everything is good. But don't eat of this.

And when Eve saw that it was, what, desirable for food or desirable to make one wise, good for food and pleasant to the eye, she took of it and ate and gave to her husband. So you see the fall coming in.

So the evolutionary process would not allow that as well. So, that's my two cents on that, in case anybody ever asks, in case you're wondering why. We believe in the literal translation of the Bible, to take it literally where it's meant to take literally.

And that question will come up often. Well, would you take it literally? Of course I do. But what about these areas? Well, again, a common sense. What was the author trying to say? Is Jesus really a lamb?

Meh, meh, you know, this little lamb of the world? No, what is it? The imagery is the lamb that was shed, the blood that was shed in the Old Testament, the Passover lamb shed for the sins of the people.

Jesus became that lamb. Is he the door by which all men must enter to get to the Father? Is there a big oak door bigger than those? Of course not. It's showing, it's imagery showing the word of God coming alive.

And then verse 21, now we'll get back on track. My son, let not, let not, I'm sorry. My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So what's he saying? Let not what depart?

Let not wisdom. And that's why I said earlier, there's two opposing views. The world view, that is secular. Basically, this view says, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. I don't want there to be a God.

This is what I feel is right, and they're just going with it. And then you have the biblical world view that often goes against this view. So he's saying here, do not depart from wisdom. Let your eyes stay focused on the, keep sound wisdom and discretion.

I don't know if I should talk about this, but I might. I have a low note here. One of the things I mentioned earlier that the Bible has a lot to say about issues that we're facing today. One of those being the borders, one of those being healthcare.

And I'll talk on those a little bit later when they're relevant in the text. But if you take this idea of universal healthcare that people push, and the concept sounds great. It feels right. We want to help as many people as we can.

But if you begin to take from others to balance out, you have to find a better system than that. For example, we had to cancel ours a year ago. So much for affordable healthcare. We have no healthcare for last year.

We do a shared program. So I'm with you, I hear you. However, biblically speaking, this is ironic. You've heard me talk about this. Nobody's even talking about this, Fox or CNN. The real question is why are we so sick?

Why are we so sick? So you just keep throwing money at it. You don't fix the problem. The problem is what we're consuming. Oh, it's quiet now. But is that not the truth of God? We are, you give a type two diabetic more insulin instead of helping them get off the medication.

You give somebody who's overweight tremendous amounts of heart medication, why not help them get where they don't need any medication? See, we don't even talk about these issues. Now, people that are convicted and upset right now, understand, I'm not saying we never need a physician.

I have one. We never need medication. Of course, there's a time and place for it. But this is an epidemic. The childhood obesity rate, they're calling it an epidemic. They're already saying our current healthcare system will not be able to handle it.

Read any paper, secular or Christian. The Titanic has been hit. So how is it spreading it all out going to work? And socialism, how does that work? Well, that's just equally, like it's equally give everybody equal.

That doesn't work because those who are working hard have to give to those who maybe aren't. Now, those who maybe aren't, there's a small section who actually need it. That's what it's for. The church is supposed to help those who are genuinely poor and destitute because of circumstances, situation, their health.

We're to help those. But if you just shoot everybody, you shoot it out to everybody, it's gonna kill the system. For example, at dinner a couple nights ago, I took $40 from my daughter. I said, okay, give your siblings each 10.

Dad, that's not fair. Well, yeah, it is, it's even across the board. Why I'm not motivated anymore? Why even work? I don't know. But see, biblically, it says you have to work to eat. Biblically. But Shane, there's those who can't write.

That's why the system's there. That's why the church should help. But that's about 5%. The other 95 need to do something. So what you're doing is you're rewarding diligence. You're actually not rewarding diligence and hard work.

You're taking away from those and giving it, just spreading it across the board. And then those who maybe are lazy or slothful, it's okay, those words are in the Bible, are now not motivated to do anything.

So see how it just does not work biblically speaking. You won't be able to bring that across the board. I don't know why this has to be controversial. Everybody knows that's the truth. What I just said is the truth, and we know it.

And they'll say, but Shane, but what about this person? What about disabled person? What about, exactly, who do you think we're helping? Of course, my Lord. Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But see, biblically speaking, we have to look at all these areas the right way. Now, do I have the answer? People say, well, so what's the answer? That's like telling the captain of the Titanic, what's the answer after it hits the iceberg?

A supernatural act of God is the only thing, get our leaders on their face before God, instead of trying to impeach and argue and this, get them on their face before God, praying and seeking God, that's the answer.

So apart from that, Democrats and Republicans going like that aren't going to fix anything. It has to be the awakening of God himself. So that's why I believe the word of God has to speak to all areas.

And then verse 22, so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. You know what, I'm glad I read a Tozer quote this morning. Off trail again. It said, I never went to preach to impress. I never went to preach and expected to be invited back.

That's what pastors have to get back to. We have to spend time with God in his word, broken, humble. What does his word say? And Lord, this is your word. Now, is it gonna hurt this group? Is it gonna offend this group?

Is it gonna upset that person? Because the word of God quickens, it divides, it's sharp. So they will be life to your soul, wisdom will, and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble.

Remember this verse, okay? I'm gonna come back to this. I don't wanna do it right now, but I'm gonna come back to this. So if you follow wisdom, then you will walk safely. Anybody wanna walk safely? Anybody wanna walk according to God's will?

Anybody tired of making wrong decisions? Anybody so confused about what's going on in politics in America and the world? What's going on? Walk according to wisdom. That's a secure footing. But we see here, it's a plea.

It's a plea not to let them depart. Don't let wisdom depart. How many times has he said that? We read earlier. In all you're getting, get wisdom, get understanding. Don't let it depart from you. That tells me what?

It can depart from me. Or rather, I should say I can depart from wisdom. I can depart from the right path. So this is a plea to get back on the path of wisdom. And it says wisdom gives life to your soul.

Wisdom gives life to your soul. And I believe this is why many Christians, even maybe in this room, are lacking joy and peace and purpose. It's gone because they're not following the course of wisdom.

Don't you feel better when you're doing what you know to be right? What the Bible says to be right? So that's why we're saying get back on the course of wisdom. Have that joy of the Lord return. Have that peace return.

And then verse 24, when you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Boy, wouldn't that be nice? Do you know that's possible? As a believer, this is very possible.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Oh, who loves a good night's sleep? Doesn't that make a huge difference in your day? Do not be afraid of sudden terror.

All these things going on out there. Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes. For the Lord, what? Will be your confidence. So the Lord will be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being caught.

But I thought this week, is he your confidence? Do you truly know him? And I wanna get this in at every sermon because I don't know who's here. Last time we checked, there's like 2 ,000 people on the different Facebook pages watching right now.

Live. So I don't know where people are at spiritually. So I wanna ask the question. Is he your confidence? Is he true? Now, I'm not talking about struggling with fear. I mean, who doesn't do that? There's a struggle there.

It's the humanity of us. But is he truly your confidence? Do you truly know him? Because see, here's the key. The more you know him, the less you fear the world. The closer you draw to Christ, the less you fear man.

I should come someday. I would leave you in tears to read Fox's Book of Martyrs before they would burn them or cast them out to the lions or the gladiator vents and what they would say. The fear would come in a little bit because it's in our humanity, but they would stand there.

They would denounce the king. They would denounce the papacy. They would stand there and begin singing hymns. Most Christians begin having mental breakdowns, panic attacks. Oh, woe is me. Why? Because many people are not ready for heaven.

You're not scared for something you're ready for. So the Lord will be your confidence and he will keep your foot from being caught. So think about that. Take inventory. Is he your confidence? Do you truly know him?

Come on, guys, not know about him. Not know about him. This is alarming to me. The more people I sit, I even sat by a guy on a plane on the way back from Washington. They say all the right things. Oh, I know about Jesus, but there's not that relationship because deep repentance has not taken place and belief.

Okay, I know you, but you need to know me. You are my Lord and you are my savior. Have you ever heard the word Daniel Webster? Not Noah Webster. Noah Webster wrote the dictionary of the American language.

It actually had scripture references back then, 1828. I've got the edition. It would define words with scripture. Oh boy, how far have we fallen? That would not be politically correct right now. But back then, it was built on that.

But anyway, Daniel Webster was one of the, if you study his biography, I like this guy. I think he fought the abolition of slavery even back then. He was one of the, they would call him one of the thinkers, one of the founding fathers of thinkers, one of the greatest minds that ever lived back at that time.

Somebody asked him this. What is the most profound, powerful, life-changing, life-altering thought that you have ever had in your life? He didn't even skip a beat. He said that I will encounter the living God someday.

Is that, should that not be the most profound thought we've ever had in our life? If not, after the service, name me one thought that is more profound, more powerful than that thought, that you will meet your Savior someday, that you will meet the living God someday.

So everything pales in comparison to this thought. So it does beg the question that I said earlier. Is he your confidence? Do you truly know him? But Shane, how do I know? Is there fruit? Is there fruit?

Have you ever grabbed an orange from an apple tree? Nobody here? Banana from a pineapple? Why, because certain things produce certain fruit. So believer, even if you've fallen off course, even if you're not mature where you wanna be, there will be fruit, some type of, even a little baby lemon, a little baby banana.

There's something there that signifies you're a child of God. The Bible's not vague on this. It says genuine faith. Genuine faith is marked, is marked by a sincere love for God, for his word, humility.

There's a love, there's a fruit of the Spirit present there, although not perfectly, it's there, there's some fruit there. And Paul would tell the Christians back then, and we say it again today, examine yourself.

Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? So I'm simply doing what Paul's doing. And one of the most profound things I've noticed over the years, just especially reading, is we have, the pulpit has become so soft that what I'm telling you right now is viewed as extreme.

Everything I just said, that guy's hell fire and brimstone. Oh, my, that Shane guy, he's so, oh, he's so hard, he's so this, he's so, just Google people like Paul Washer. I can list others, yes, that would just, but see, we've, back 100 years ago, this was commonplace to challenge people.

One of the most famous sermons ever preached in America. You think it was the love of the Lord will be your strength, even though I love that? Sinners in the hands of an angry God. If I announce that's my sermon topic next week, who's coming, right?

Most of you will, I know. But if I advertise it on a billboard. But see, we've drifted, we don't want to hear the truth of God's word anymore. I don't want that. Because the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.

Timothy, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Listen, I see this all the time. I live a very difficult life because of the views people have on me. You would not believe the things.

Oh, he's so mean, he's so arrogant, he's so hard, he's so narrow-minded, he's just, yeah, I know, I know, I know he loves God, but he doesn't love people. We need more prophets in our pulpits and less puppets.

Leonard Ravenhill said that many years ago. And you know what, I can only say this by the grace of God. Here's why I know it's not arrogance. I know it's boldness. Because the more time I spend with God, weeping for many of you, weeping for our nation, fasting, worshiping, looking at the word of God, the bolder I become.

That's the fruit. So the fruit, the fruit of my time alone with God is boldness. But if I'm law and order, pizza, six pack of IPA, don't worry, it's not happening, just an analogy here, right, just carnal all week long, I wanna come and just tell you what you wanna hear.

Because I don't feel the own passion in my own heart. I don't feel that deep calling deep. I don't feel it, so I don't preach it. And most pastors I know, the more time they spend with God, the more bolder they become for the things of God.

The less time they spend with God, the more they'll begin to seek the opinions of people. Many of these mega church pastors, and even other church, they don't wanna say things that are difficult to hear.

Because they're more concerned about the opinions of man than the opinions of God, what God has called them to do. And here's why I don't say it arrogantly, because I can slip very quickly into that side.

This was a profound realization for me a few weeks ago, because I was having a hard time. I was having a hard time. I'll give you one example, hopefully he won't mind, because we won't mention names except his.

You know, Chris, who helped us with worship a while back, a couple weeks ago, I think he's leading on the 18th, is that coming up? Again, Brant's been gracious to kind of help work him in a little bit.

He said, man, after coming to your church and talking with you, I gotta call some people and set them straight. With their view of you, and the view of the church, and like, really, oh yeah, from this church and that church, I'm like, holy smokes.

Why, because shedding tears over the word of God? Shedding tears because of the direction of our nation? Wanting people to have a genuine, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ, and be filled with the Holy Spirit?

God, help us! God, help us if that is wrong! But see, the carnal church says, don't you dare challenge me. Don't you dare challenge me. I love my carnality. And the Pharisee says, don't you dare challenge me, because I love my pride.

Because when the word of God goes forth, it will cut, it will hurt. And something you don't know, and I don't know if this is good or bad, sometimes we share a little bit of things on Facebook. But just this week, I think, Nebraska, Alabama, Canada, Texas, people being transformed by the word of God here.

One person wrote, they've been filled with the Spirit, they're no longer addicted, thank you, thank you, thank you. Different places of the world, can you believe that? New Zealand, Austria, I've got all these places, they're emailing, we're coming into town, we're flying into L .A., but we got people here locally who think this is just some hard, arrogant, narrow-minded church.

Why, because these people are open for the work of the Spirit. If you are not open to God working in your life, you will hate these messages. That I can guarantee. That I can guarantee you. If you don't like, now granted, there's preference, okay?

Some people don't, oh, settle down. Just go through the Bible slowly, quietly. I mean, somebody said, I'm still waiting for you to exegete the text. I'm still waiting for God to exegete your heart. My Lord.

That's what we're supposed to do, exegete is to expound and to break apart the text and to show what it means. I'm going there to the heart issues. Amen, that was my little soap opera, soap opera, so.

But it just, it hurts at a deep level because it's just not true. It is not, it's not even remotely true. So here's a little bit of the application, it won't be long. Hope for the fallen. Hope for the fallen.

Let's go back to that verse. Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble. Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble. But I thought about this this week.

But, that's nice, that's nice, Proverbs. But, but what happens when you do fall? What happens when you do fall? There are people here right now that are not here this morning because they fell into sin.

I've got friends who are not returning text messages because they've fallen into sin, they've fallen. What do you do then? Well, I wanna show you a scripture that has been a tremendous help. I think we have it up on the screen, Psalm 37.

This is so important. The steps, as a believer, you're considered a good person. You say, well, I'm not good. The Bible says none are good, right. But because of Christ's righteousness, we take on that imputed, the big theological term, we take on the righteousness of Christ.

Yes, this is Old Testament, I understand. But the point is that those believers, those people who believe in God, they're good, they're often called good, as opposed to wicked, correct? So the steps of a good man are ordered, or woman, of course, what does that mean?

Governed, strengthened, established by the Lord. So the steps of a good man are governed, strengthened, established by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he will not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

And I just thought of this just yesterday. Remember when your kids were little, those who had kids, or holding little kids, and you're walking with them, and they fall? I got you, I got you. Even walking on a little wall, I've got you.

I've got you. Peter in the water, I've got you. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. They are, he delights in his way, and though he falls, he will fall, he will not, the Lord upholds him with his right hand.

He still pulls him up, so as we're in that mire, in that sin, in that depression, that hopelessness, God says, I still got you. I still got you right here, just look up. Look up to me, and let me pull you up.

Get back up, because I'm not a robot. You're not a robot, and I can't control you all the time. I'm sovereign, but you have choices. Get up, look to my strength, look to my hand, and reach up. God's hand is never far away, never far away.

David said, where can I go to flee your presence? Where? If I go to heaven, you're there. If I go to hell, behold, you are there. If I go to the uttermost parts of the sea, Atlantic, Pacific, even, you are there.

What, to uphold me with your right hand, to lead me, to guide me. So see, that's hope for the fallen. Reach up, grab the hand. Get back on track. What I do is I say, devil, you almost got me, but not now.

I've got my strength back, like Samson, and my hair's grown back. My eyesight might not improve, but that anointing. See, many don't understand this about Samson, his hair, this, it was in his consecration to the Lord.

It was in his being set apart for God. And God said, I've called you. I've put my anointing upon you. It was in the consecration that created his ruin, his disaster. Micah 7, 8, do not gloat over me, my enemy.

Though I have fallen, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. I'm just gonna close with this, and I know this isn't gonna affect too many people, but those who need to hear this will appreciate it.

I don't know about you, but this is how I fight my battles. You know that song, I go back to worship, I go back to the word of God. Just a few songs we sing here. I will rise again. Out of the ashes of despair and defeat, I will rise again.

Not for a moment was I forsaken. Brant, just saying it. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? See, that's why many are bored in worship, because they've never experienced the radical power of God. They just, not for a minute was I forsaken, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, but if you can apply it, oh, oh, if you can apply it, you hold back tears. Not for a minute was I forsaken. Do you know I've totaled two vehicles without seat belts when I was younger? Totaled. Dave, you told me, right, 18 years ago, you said, this thing's totaled, you're not fixing this.

Walked away. And I, well, don't, story, you all have this story, don't you? As Blyov, if it was not for the Lord on my side, if it was not for God on my side, never, never, not for a minute was I forsaken.

The Lord is in this place. He has come, Holy Spirit, dry bones awaken. What does that mean? It means the dryness and the deadness and the callous hearts need to be awakened and restored and renewed. I'll close with these lyrics.

I think we're gonna sing it in the future. Why don't you close with scripture? Because I just quoted 40 scriptures. Scriptures all over this text. Be careful, Pharisee. I'm telling you, God's been dealing with me.

He's saying, Shane, start confronting these people. Start confronting this dead spirit in the church, this Pharisee spirit, this carnality. Say, oh no, no. But unless we confront it, it won't change. And the devil will make you run into somebody at Trader Joe's.

I haven't seen you in a while. My husband thinks you're too hard. Oh, okay, well, thank you. Let me change that. Nope. No, also, you can't gloat in that. You can't be arrogant about that. And ha, ha, ha, we're the only right church.

No, I understand. I'm well aware of my weaknesses. Thank you very much. But I'm also well aware of what God's called me to do. I count on one thing. The same God that never fails will not fail me now.

The same God who's never late is working all things out. Yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley. Yes, I will bless your name. Oh, yes, I will. Sing for joy when my heart is heavy. All my days I will praise you.

Oh, yes, I will. That's the name, oh, yes, I will. Because the devil, doesn't he tell you, oh, no, you won't? Or is it just me? Come on, don't leave me up here hanging. The devil says the world's a, oh, no, you won't.

Oh, no, you won't do that. Oh, no, you won't accomplish anything. Oh, no, you, oh, yes, I will. Oh, yes, I will because the God, I will lift him high in the lowest valley out of the ashes of despair. Who in the world, who else can write amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me?