The Roar Of Isaiah 64 — Shane Idleman

Isaiah 64 and the Call to Stop Wavering

Now let me tell you what Rend the Heavens is. This will really set the stage. This will get our hearts ready. We can put up the first slide. It is based on Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. And the context of Isaiah is after 50 years of financial prosperity, the children of Israel had drifted.

Sound familiar? They had succumbed to pagan worship and idolatry and judgment was on the way. So Isaiah is painting this picture. And so reflection leads to a decision. We have to reflect on what is going on in our lives, going on in our nation.

And that reflection leads to a decision to stop wavering. And that's always the call. The prophet would say, how long will you waver between two opinions? If God is God, follow him. If God is God, follow him.

And so there has to be a decision made when it comes to Rend the Heavens. We have to look at our hearts and say, okay, I'm not gonna waver between two opinions. I'm not gonna falter anymore. I want to fully surrender my life to the Lord.

And that's why it's so important. Reflection leads to a decision to stop wavering. How long will you waver? And it's a challenge to all of us, even pastors, even leaders, even Christians who have been Christians for years.

They can sometimes fade away or fall away or lose their first love. Ever been there? So Rend the Heavens is a call to recapture and return to that first love. Then we can go to the next point of this.

Isaiah's Prayer for God to Rend the Heavens

So Isaiah 64, here's why we're here. Here's why we put this together. Even I think two years ago, we started. Isaiah, it's actually a prayer. The prophet Isaiah, this is a prayer. And you can see it's heart-wrenching.

Oh God, oh that you would what? Rend the Heavens. That word is to rip open the Heavens, to come down and visit your people again that the mountains might shake at your presence. And so as a church, we believe, I've taught that God is everywhere, right?

But there's something special when his presence is even there in a more tangible way. He's quickening the heart. He's convicting the sinner. He's rebuilding the broken. He's strengthening the sick. He's encouraging the frustrated and he's building up the fearful.

This presence is there and there's something dynamic that takes place. That is revival. At the heart of revival is experiencing God. And so that's our prayer. That's what we base this on, that God would rend the Heavens and the fire would burn, the water would even boil and to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations may tremble at your presence and getting back to the fear of the Lord.

Guys, we gotta get back to the fear of the Lord. We've drifted so far from that. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of understanding, to fear God again.

Desperation and Seeking God with the Whole Heart

And so we have to be desperate. So if you come to rend the Heavens, you've gotta be desperate. Why? Because desperate people do desperate things. Doesn't something have to change? Business as usual is not gonna cut it.

There's a desperation. God, I'm so desperate to hear from you. I'm going to fast. Uh-oh. I'm so desperate for you. I'm gonna come to prayer meetings. I'm gonna try to make it every night. I'm gonna have family devotional.

I'm gonna do things in my own home. I'm gonna begin to worship you. I'm gonna turn off Netflix and voodoo. Even though it's hard, the flesh doesn't like that. Desperate for you. Desperate for more of God.

In the verse we use a lot, you will seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart. With all of your heart. So that's why we come here and we're saying, Lord, here's all of my heart.

I lay it down at the altar. I lay it at the foot of the cross. I want to give you everything. And remember that word seek is like, you've lost a child and you have to find it. Have any parents experienced that before?

You lose something so important, everything stops, everything ceases. And that's what it parallels to seeking God. It's like, Lord, we've lost you. We've lost that anointing. We've lost that first love.

Oh God, I want to find you again. No matter what it takes, I will seek you with all of my heart and all of my strength. God, I want to be desperate for more of you. I want to be desperate for your presence.

Oh God, I need to hear from you. God, I'm broken. I'm broken. God, I'm broken. We need you. Crush my pride. Remove my arrogance. I humbly submit to you. God, whatever it takes, whatever it takes, I'm desperate.

I need to hear from you. Amen. Without desperation, we will not experience revival. And then it goes on to say, on this point of desperation, millions don't defy God consciously. They default to cake and television except for the periodic rush of sex and sports and cinema life yawns.

There's no passion for significance. For many, there's no passion at all. John Piper, and Lena, you can keep going through those. I'll get to those. One must be willing to pay the price. We forget that.

In Christianity, we hear all these fluffy sermons and these books that are, they're encouraging and they're good, but we forget there's a price to pay. One must be willing to pay the price. There's a cost to obtain revival.

There's a cost to pay. It's travail of your soul. It's brokenness. It's humility. It's pressing in. It's persevering. It's contending. God, I might not feel it. I might not see it, but I'm gonna keep diving in.

I'm gonna keep persevering. Come hell or high water, I want to pay that price. And then there's a price to maintain it, and that's why we come every night. Breakthroughs always cost someone something.

Is that not true? Ask Moses what it cost him. Abraham what it cost him. David what it cost him. Ask the prophets what it cost them to be prophetic voices. Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Joel and Amos and Obadiah and Jonah.

They all, it all cost them something to give life-giving resources out of the heart to others. Only the remnant can bring revival, and there's no revival without repentance. There's no revival without repentance.

Repentance and the Return of Spiritual Fire

I love what John Wesley said, light yourself on fire, and people will come to watch you burn. My fear is that our people will become content to live without the fire. Guys, you know when a church has fire and when it doesn't.

It's sad. We need that fire. We need that anointing of God. We need that the pulpits aflame with righteousness again. We need the churches on fire again, and that begins with repentance. God, I repent of my critical heart.

I came in here judgmental and arrogant and backbiting and even fearful and negative and watching things I shouldn't be watching. Lord, I repent of all of that. I need the fire of God back, and so that's our prayer too.

Oh God, rend my heart. Rend my heart. Let me hear the roar of Isaiah 64. Let that roar within my heart, and let me encourage you. Even though you don't feel that fire, you are dead spiritually. The passion has faded.

All you have to do is say, God, help, help. I don't feel it. God, I want that. I desire that. God, I want that more than anything else, and you might not feel it right away. That's why the old saints used to call it travail.

They would go to all-night prayer meetings. They'd come out at four in the morning and say, God finally answered. I petitioned the Father. I pressed in. I travailed, and I persevered, and God answered, and the fire came.

Our families need to see us on fire again for God, and then coming close to the end here, there needs to be dependence. Dependence, and I will tell you publicly right now, there is no plan B with what's going on in the world.

Dependence on God Rather Than Political Solutions

No election, no world leader, no presidential candidate, no laws, no legislation. Washington D .C. cannot save us. God knows Sacramento cannot save us. There is no plan B. There is no other option. Unless God brings another spiritual awakening, there is no hope for America, but praise God, he's looking for intercessors.

He's looking, he's looking for, do you realize you till the soil of your heart, and God brings the reign of revival? God often brought revival based on the prayers and the brokenness of the people. We can go back to the Welsh revivals, New Hebrides revivals, First Great Awakening, back with Duncan Campbell and Evan Roberts, and the fire of God, the revival, it all started from broken people petitioning the heart of the Father and doing whatever it takes to seek God.

And sometimes people say, well, Shane, that's just legalism. No, it's not, it's wisdom. It's biblical to hunger and thirst for God. Jesus said, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be fulfilled.

So what do you hunger and thirst for tonight? You can change that. Thank God, aren't you glad he doesn't make you go through a class for six weeks? Or follow this checklist for 12 weeks and do these 12 steps?

He says, come, come. Come, and I will not cast away. Come broken, come humble. I've seen God take a broken life and in five seconds, renew it. It doesn't mean the consequences are gone, but God walks them through that struggle because now they're in God's will, redeemed and forgiven, versus running outside of his will.

God's Faithfulness and the Call to Wait

So dependence, there's no plan B, my refuge, my fortress, my God and whom I trust. We have to look to that. And then remind yourself of God's faithfulness, reminding yourself of God's faithfulness turns into thankfulness.

When you did awesome things, Isaiah goes on to say, remember God, when you did awesome things for which we did not even look, you came down, the mountains shook at your presence. In other words, you are a good God.

Even when I'm not following you, look at the goodness of God. If it was not for the grace of God, I would be dead right now. I would have been died long ago, or I would be buried, I would be up on the curb in Lancaster, fallen out homeless, but for the grace of God, there go I.

Thankfulness, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you. And guys, this is critical. God acts for the one who waits for him.

So you have to determine, I will seek him and I will wait for him, even in the storm. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. And we know the famous verse, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their spiritual strength.

Waiting on God in an Age of Instant Gratification

Here's what's interesting, I just looked this up in the Hebrew this morning, the literal meaning is to bind together like a cord. So it's not at home with your feet propped up and Netflix on, that's not waiting for God.

Those who bind themselves to God like a cord and hold on, will renew their strength. And if you're barely holding on tonight, remember, make sure it's onto the hymn of his garment. Barely holding on, hold on to the hymn of his garment.

So God, we're gonna wait on you, we're gonna bind us together like a cord, do not let us go, we're gonna wait upon you and renew our spiritual strength. And so that means different things to different people.

We might camp out at a worship song. Stephen might just play quietly. He might be able to speak something over your life. Same with the other nights of blessing and Madeline and the other worship teams we have coming.

Just waiting on God, not being in a hurry. We have to teach ourselves in this culture we live in today of instant gratification. 60 second videos on Instagram, go, go, go, go, go. We have to learn to wait, wait upon the Lord.

And that's how we renew our strength. And then God will bring deliverance. I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all of my fears. I sought the Lord, again, this is not a quick five minute microwave Christianity.

Pressing In by Faith and Seeking God's Will

This is pressing in and pressing in. Some people you might be frustrated and go, I don't, I didn't really get what I wanted tonight. What, you coming tomorrow? You leave tomorrow, I didn't really get what I wanted.

Well, what are you trying to get? Because you don't get God, you draw close to God. And sometimes you got to press in, Lord, I want to meet you. And I believe it takes more faith to press in even when you don't feel like it.

And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So we actually please God when we don't feel it and we still press in. That is true, genuine faith. And that's why we are here. We are here this week for the next eight nights to ask God to rend the heavens, to come down and to repair our churches, our families, our nation, and to repent and to intercede.

So this altar is going to be open all night till we're here, obviously. And this is where you can come, you can intercede for your prodigal son, your daughter, your marriage, yourself. The doctor gave you a bad report.

You need to know God's will. How many of you need to know God's will? Then I would find myself up here at some point. It's a step of humility. Remember when I talked about something, so Sunday, something must die in you before Christ can truly live in you.

Something must die, pride, arrogance, self, self-righteous, self-esteem, self-made man. That has to die in us. And guys, I'm not saying any of this with a mean heart. I know the power of the Holy Spirit, and I know how He can change a life and redirect that life and give you a passion and a fire.

Doesn't mean life's easy, but it means I've got God on my side and the Holy Spirit just directing and guiding. It's a wonderful thing. So I'm gonna go ahead and pray. I think, is that the last point? It's only when the whole heart, oh, Ian Bounds, oh my goodness.

If you want a good book on prayer, pick up anything by Ian Bounds. Grab an hour, get a quiet place, a quiet heart, and a quiet place, a quiet heart, and yeah, a quiet hour, and pick up Ian Bounds and bring a highlighter.

It's only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends. For none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God. The earnest man gets the access to the ear of God.

Prayer, Baptism, and Full Surrender

And again, we're gonna have baptisms and you can begin your journey of full surrender tonight as well. Just let Pastor Abram know if you wanna get baptized. Lord, so we just come to you tonight. Lord, we are all broken and fractured and frail.

Thank God you don't give us over to ourself. But Lord, we need you. We need to hear from you. Our families need you. Lord, I know I need you. Speak deeply into our lives. Give us wisdom and direction.

Let us know your will. And I pray this anointing over the next few nights as worship continues. Give us a taste of heaven here on earth. And I ask this in Jesus' precious name, amen, amen. Amen.