The message
this morning is the need for another reformation.
The need for another reformation.
And I'm really not talking about particularly what
happened 500 years ago.
I'm talking about a personal reformation of the
heart.
Me and Morgan were transformed with our recent
trip to New York and just going to
the Brooklyn Tabernacle and seeing their Tuesday night
prayer service and 3,000 people worshiping and
it just came back just with a renewed
passion for what God can really do in
a church that's on fire for Him.
And looking at and talking with the people
there, the need for a personal reformation is
actually a greater need than another reformation.
I'm going to explain what I mean by
that in just a minute.
Because when I put up the title, The
Need for a Reformation, most of us are
like saying, Amen, brother, preach it.
The churches need to be changed.
The political system needs to be changed.
I can get a huge amen on that
one for sure.
So many things.
Yes, yes, reformation, but we forget that it
actually starts here.
Reforming our own heart that reforms the home,
that reforms our marriages.
And what I mean by reformation is this.
It's a reforming, a renewing, a restoring, a
reviving of guess what?
The truth.
Anytime the word reform, I instantly thought of
concrete.
Not everybody will know what I mean by
that, but you construction guys, especially in concrete,
you will know what I'm talking about.
Reforming.
I remember many times I would come out
and I would dig footings so they could
put their forms.
And then once they looked at the plans
a little closer, oh, we're off a foot.
So Shane, can you backfill the dirt and
compact it?
Very, very good.
So it's because we're actually in the house
foundation now.
Compact that and do what?
Remove those forms and reform it.
Reshape it according to the truth outlined in
the plans that the, you know, the...
I knew that wasn't gonna get me.
Architect, thank you.
My goodness.
The architect, the plans, because who goes off
of those plans, right?
I mean, the plumber can't say, well, I'm
gonna do, I'm gonna put the restroom over
here.
And the electrician, well, I'm gonna wire here.
And the roofer, I think the roof should
go over here.
I mean, who does that?
Never.
Everybody goes off of the, actually, the stamped
set of plans.
The most recent set of plans.
And that's what we have to do often
in our own lives is to reform, to
renew, to reshape, to get back on track.
What we're celebrating after the second service and
what the message is really centered around is
what happened 500 years ago on October 31st.
Not everybody celebrates Halloween.
Sometimes we celebrate the Reformation, right?
That's a whole nother topic.
But what happened 500 years ago?
Well, a person by the name of Martin
Luther, a monk who was actually in the
Roman Catholic Church, started to read the word
of God and was actually saved by the
verse that the just shall live by faith.
And he was saved.
And as a result, when you're saved and
when you're looking at the Bible, you'll see
some inconsistencies within the established church.
So he actually went, actually protesting and went
against the church.
He had the audacity to what?
And hammer the 95 thesis on the church
doors of Wittenberg, Germany in 1517.
These are all the grievances with the church
that they need to go back to.
Let me pull this out.
A good reminder, right?
Hey, what does this say?
Not what does everybody, what?
Because actually when it gets away from this,
anything goes, anything goes.
And that's when I, many of you saw
the interview on Fox News that I did
with a pastor who embraces the LGBT agenda
and actually allows, you know, anything to, well,
I'm going to not go there.
Let me, I'm going to be careful.
But what happens is the whole battle was
over this.
You know, this is changing.
It really doesn't mean that anymore.
We can kind of, we have a new
truth now, a new revelation of what God
is doing.
Where does that end?
Because what you think, then what he's telling
me, well, what he's telling Pat and Chris
and Mike, it's all different.
You don't see, it has to go back
to the foundation, back to the truth.
So that's what we celebrate.
And believe it or not, it actually didn't
start with Martin Luther.
It started, well, let me just briefly talk
about three different eras that we, in church
and history, in church history, what they look
at is the apostolic era.
It's when they, the church was born.
Then there's a church fathers era when people
like Pauly Carp, Justin Martyr, Ignatius, Irenaeus, different
church fathers in the early first, second, third
centuries, their writings, we look to them.
And it's interesting, we were all part of
the Catholic church initially.
Okay, good, nobody left yet.
That just means universal church.
We were all part of that.
And then around, oh gosh, 391 or so
AD, Rome married the church.
And then became the position of power and
authority.
And that's where many people believe that a
lot of the corruption came in around that
time.
And then that's when it became the Roman
Catholic church.
And then in my opinion, because that's one
argument, they say, well, the Roman Catholic church
would say that our history is right from
the apostolic era.
Shane, right when Jesus built his church, but
you guys started 500 years ago.
And I usually say, no, we're actually, we
go back 2,000 years ago to what
Christ said, what the church was built upon,
the word of God.
So in that time, though, I think there
was reformation.
People were going back to the word of
God.
There were people following what God said.
We just don't have a lot of recorded
history.
And then we get to around the 1380s,
1384, John Wycliffe died.
He had a stroke.
He actually started to translate the Bible into
the common tongue of the people.
That was not a good idea.
It was in Latin, and they didn't want
the people knowing the Bible.
That in and of itself should tell you
a lot.
I made a promise today.
I wasn't going to rail on different religions
or different things, but here's the truth.
That it was in Latin.
So people like John Wycliffe, who was called
the morning star of the reformation for this
very reason.
And then people like, have you heard William
Tyndale?
Tyndale House.
John Huss.
Actually, Huss means goose.
And when we get that phrase, your goose
is cooked from that.
William Tyndale and John Huss were actually burned
at the stake for translating the Bible.
Heretical, heretics, because they dared to challenge the
established religious system of the day.
A lot to think about.
To be chained to a stake with wood
underneath you and set on fire.
See, so this disagreement runs pretty deep between
Protestants and Roman Catholics.
It's a pretty deep little hurt there, you
know?
And I'm invited sometimes to ecumenical things.
Can't we all just get along?
And we can all get along when the
foundation is Scripture.
If you go back to Scripture, then groups
can get along.
And Protestant comes from the word protest.
So they protested what was being taught in
the church at that time.
So hopefully that gives you a little bit
of background.
So it's not some new movement that sprung
out of the spirit of rebellion.
It actually was wanting to always go back
to the initial teachings of the church and
the initial teachings of Christ.
So, a couple Scriptures we're going to put
up on the screen.
When we talk about reviving, renewing, restoring, going
back to the truth.
Psalm 119.
The sum of your word is truth.
And every one of your righteous rules endures
forever.
Forever.
Did you catch that?
It doesn't change.
It's not relative based on our situation.
And then John 17.
Jesus said, sanctify them in the, what?
Relativism?
Sanctify them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
That's why a slogan we've always had here
at West Side Christian Fellowship is times change,
but truth does not.
See, it's the only sure foundation.
Jesus built the church on the truth.
We are to be sanctified, which is to
be cleansed, to be renewed, to be restored
by the truth.
And then we look at John 1.
And the word, which is Jesus, became flesh
and dwelt among us.
And we have seen his glory.
The glory as the only Son from the
Father, full of grace.
Only?
Wait a minute.
That's a big teaching right now.
Just grace.
Just mercy.
That's it.
No, there's an end in there.
Grace and truth.
See, you have to have that.
I would be miserable if I didn't have
that.
If I believed in ongoing revelation and that
things change, I would, you would probably have
to lock me up.
Because what do you bank your life on?
What do you raise your kids in?
What do you go back to when you're
drifting?
Thank God for truth.
People died because of this, and we take
it so nonchalantly today.
I have eight of them.
Really?
There's people in China, when they receive these,
they start crying.
And I've been reading, my friend who does
missions work there sometimes, they get through the
Bible once every three months.
Like four, five, six times a year.
I'm like, wow.
How do they find so much time?
See, it's not finding the time.
It's the priority.
How many of you just spent three hours
watching something last night that is over?
You watch a guy lick his bat, but
we won't read the Word of God.
It's an inside joke.
I just still don't understand that.
But, but I'm being serious.
See, we have the time.
It's not the time.
It's the priority.
If we, this is God's, you have to
have that truth in your life.
Because without it, you start to drift.
So God, I got to go back.
What do you say?
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
And it brings you back to what His
Word is.
John 8.
If you abide in My Word, and you
are truly My disciples, you will know the
truth.
And the truth will set you free.
Do you want to be set free of
many things this morning?
Now, it's interesting here.
To know the truth.
Here's where we make the mistake.
You can study this word in the Greek.
There's a whole Bible dictionary on these things.
But many times we think, you know what,
I know it.
But Shane, I'm not set free.
Actually, knowing in this context is to apply
it.
We have, if you apply the truth, you
will be set free.
If you apply it, even the demonic realm
knows what the truth is, but they don't
apply it.
So the power comes in the application.
That's why I always say that.
So the true church.
The true church.
Because everybody claims it, right?
There's a church down the street.
That's the true church.
Jehovah Witness.
That's the true church.
Seventh-day Adventist.
That's the true church.
Roman Catholicism.
That's the true church.
I actually had a quote on here.
I took it out this morning.
I probably should have left it.
From catholicism.org that says, there's no salvation,
actually, outside of the Roman Catholic Church.
And so, see, I'm not, people say, why
are you putting, and I get mean, but
I'm just, this, now, if I'm telling a
lie, call me on it.
If I'm saying something that's incorrect, tell me.
But if this is all true, and it's
just facts, why do people get upset?
The true church was built 2,000 years
ago, and it holds to Christ's teachings.
Not perfectly, but we tighten our grip when
necessary.
It's interesting.
I'm glad I don't do this ever again.
I'll never forget it.
It's the first time I've had a heat
stroke.
There was something at our fair in town
known as the Rural Olympics, and there was
east side against west side tug-of-war.
You guys remember that?
And guess who they asked to be on
the tug-of-war team?
I didn't know you could hold a rope
and pull so long, I mean, for so
long.
I mean, you think a tug-of-war's
over, right?
A couple seconds.
I think this was like five, six minutes
of pulling as hard as you can, and
they had the bodybuilders against the farmers, and
the farmers won.
It's interesting.
I think Troy Green, many of you, I
just talked to him yesterday in Idaho.
He was on the team.
He was the big anchor, I think 6
'5", 350 pounds or something, and we thought
we could win, but you kept losing your
grip, you know, and you couldn't, you just,
your hands were falling, and I was just,
you know, falling.
And finally, I had a heat stroke afterwards,
but just tightening, but it reminded me of
truth.
You have to go back, and you tighten
your grip around the truth.
Okay, I'm falling off course, I'm losing, I
have to come back and tighten my grip
on this.
So that's the true church.
The true church is throughout all of the
world.
I can take you to India, or South
America, or Uganda, and the true church, the
brothers and sisters in Christ are there because
they love the Lord, they've repented of their
sin, and they believe.
So be very careful of any church that
tells you, you have to belong to our
church, you have to be baptized by our
person, you have to say the right things.
So from this reformation, 500 years ago, came
five things that are important, and you should
probably know about, many of you already do
know about it.
Number one, sola, scriptura, sola, all these come
from the Latin, of course, sola meaning singular,
one person, sola, scriptura.
And what they meant by that is, scripture
alone.
The reason is because papal authority, the Pope,
actually could decree things that superseded the Bible.
Okay, it's not really what this says, it's
what they decree.
So that became the standard of authority, not
the Bible.
So you have to go back to sola,
scriptura, the inerrancy of scripture, 2 Timothy 3
.6, I think there's a handout that you
all have with these verses, 2 Timothy 3
.16, actually, from the King James, I learned
a lot of these in the King James,
so I use that Bible from time to
time.
You know what, I should maybe throw this
out there for those listening, for you that
are curious, people, probably one of the top
questions I get is what translation is best?
So that is actually on our website, I
went through an hour teaching on what translation
is best, or what translation should you use?
What's the difference?
How do we get our Bible?
It's on our website if you search for
that.
King James, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for correction,
for instruction and righteousness that the man of
God may be perfect, not a perfect person,
but complete in everything they do, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.
So that's the point of scripture.
See, it's interesting.
It's profitable for doctrine, okay?
Do you want to know the heart of
God and how to live?
It's profitable for that.
Do you want to reproof somebody?
Hopefully you don't want to.
Hopefully it just comes from time to time.
And that's why preaching sometimes gets a bad
mark.
Oh, it's correcting me, it's convicting me.
Can't you guys just tell me what I
want to hear?
It doesn't do that.
It reproofs, it rebukes, it corrects.
Isn't it interesting?
Rebuking, doctrine, correction, instruction, and righteousness with how
to live.
Those four things tell me it's going to
be challenging more often than it's encouraging.
Because we're often off track.
And to get back on track, see, it's
not like we're always walking on track.
And sometimes we do need encouragement.
We need to be built up.
And to me, when I'm convicted, I change.
I am built up.
Isn't it interesting?
You know, it's not always just beating up,
but it's profitable for correction and instruction and
righteousness that you may be thoroughly furnished, that
you have everything you need.
So I could spend a whole sermon on
this, but I pulled something from gotquestions.org
because the question always comes up, Shane, you
just believe in a book that was put
together by men.
Some men met at a council and they
said, A couple things you need to know
for sure.
The letters of Paul, the letters from John,
the Jude and these different books of the
Bible, they were already being used by the
early church in the first century, in the
second century, in the third century.
These letters were viewed as canonical, being authoritative
in the New Testament.
They already had the Old Testament.
That was a given.
The books of the Old Testament were a
given.
They've been passed down for hundreds of years.
The New Testament, these are just letters that
the church was already using.
So when the council met, I don't want
to give you the exact date, 300 something
AD, they just said here's the books that
the church has already been recognizing.
So see, they didn't bring in all these,
because that's what people will say to get
you off track.
And actually, when people say things, they don't
really know what they're talking about.
If you challenge them on things, name one
verse of the Bible that's wrong.
Well, that's what I've been told.
Well, council met and they did this.
What council was that?
How'd they go about doing it?
So see, they just throw things out there.
So you need to know that.
You also need to know for biblequestions.org,
for a book of the Bible to qualify,
the author had to be an apostle or
had a close connection with the apostle.
The book was accepted by the body of
Christ at large, by the early church.
The book contains consistency of doctrine and orthodox
teaching.
The book bears evidence of high moral spiritual
values that would reflect the work of the
Holy Spirit.
That's why they say it's not really 66
books.
It's one book written by one author.
So you have all these books that match
the authoritative.
And then the Catholic Bible has something called
the Apocrypha.
And they throw in Maccabees, they throw in
different books of the Bible.
Interesting reads sometimes, but they're not authoritative.
We don't look at those as being ordained
by God to be the canon of scripture.
And many books, like the Da Vinci Code,
I think that was one.
And they'll throw out, what about this book?
It says Jesus was married.
Or what about this book?
It says this, but is it consistent with
scripture?
And how many years ago it was written?
A lot of this is fake and fake
news.
They had fake news back then too.
So that's where the scriptures come from.
Sola Scriptura.
Then the second point, Sola Fide.
Forgive me if I don't pronounce these correctly.
I didn't look at my Latin translation.
Sola Fide.
Faith alone.
So see, you have scripture, and then you
have faith alone.
Romans 5.
1.
Therefore, all of you that are believers, being
justified by faith.
See, that's how we're justified.
But the church was teaching that you're justified
by what?
Works.
Oh, I did so many works for God
today.
I'm going to go to heaven.
It's not biblical.
So faith alone.
Faith alone is this.
God, I believe You are who You said
You are.
I believe that I am a sinner in
need of a Savior.
I repent of my sin.
I confess Christ as Savior and Lord.
I believe in my heart.
I have faith that You are sufficient and
a person is saved.
But see, the works flow from it.
Because I don't know anybody that's truly saved
that doesn't do works.
You can't.
It's like you have the Holy Spirit now
in you.
It's like, Shane, we've got to do works.
We've got to do works.
You've got to.
I mean, when you're full of the Spirit,
everywhere you go, you want to talk about
Christ.
The person on the corner.
The person here.
It's just this work of God.
There's fruit everywhere because of the correct branch
that is within you.
The correct fruit.
And that's the argument.
They say, oh, all you guys do is
Protestant.
You preach faith and faith and faith.
You minimize works.
You just sit at home and have faith.
No, your faith has feet.
You show me your faith.
See, they say, show me your faith by
my works.
We say, no, we'll show you faith because
of faith alone.
And we work.
We have works because of our faith.
So that was one of the sticking points.
It's faith alone.
Justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Something that's very interesting.
If you just have works, works, works, works,
and don't know Christ, you have no peace.
I asked somebody, he got upset at me
at the gym a couple years ago, a
Jehovah Witness.
Do you know where you're going?
No, I don't.
And I won't know until I get there.
Do you have peace?
No.
He's an angry man.
No peace, no hope, but a lot of
works.
And he was mad about those works.
So you see, if it's just, because how,
if you just stop and think for a
minute, when does it, I gotta do this,
I gotta do this.
And God's gonna not sit and look at
us in heaven, go, gosh, you did do
a lot of works.
You did a lot of bad things too.
And let me just weigh these on a
scale.
I'd be miserable, wouldn't you?
Because you're, each day, oh, did I do
it?
My mind's thinking bad things.
Now I gotta do another good work.
I do a few good works, but then
now I'm doing the good works because of
pride and ego.
Now I'm actually in sin, so they're not
good works.
They don't even count.
Because let's be honest, how many of our
good works are really good works straight from
the heart?
I'll just leave you, I'll just let you
chew on that one.
So faith alone, Ephesians 2.8, for by
grace you have been saved through faith.
And it's not of yourself, it's the gift
of God.
So we go back to faith and faith
alone.
Sola gratia, sola gratia, grace alone.
Romans 3.24, being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus.
So it's by grace alone, again, not by
work.
So Martin Luther was going back to this,
actually John Calvin, Urich Zwingli in Switzerland, John
Knox in Scotland, they were going all back
to this truth.
Solo Christo, solo Christo, and it's solo instead
of sola because it's a masculine form there.
Solo Christo, Christ alone.
Now this might seem odd to some of
us, but back then it was Christ plus
certain things.
Christ plus I have to do these things.
So they said, no, it's Christ alone.
Matthew 7.21, not everyone that says unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he that doth the will of
my Father which is in heaven.
John 14.6, Jesus said unto them, I
am the way, the truth, the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by
me.
That's pretty narrow.
So see, they were going back to that
because they're teaching the people, just go to
Christ, Christ alone, not these things.
And they have things where you could actually
put money into a coffer, put money into
a box or something, and you could spring
your relatives and friends out of purgatory.
More money, quicker they'll be out.
I mean, can you see why this just
infuriated true believers?
I mean, purgatory is not even a biblical
concept.
And I mentioned before when I met with
a priest down in Santa Clarita of a
large church, 4,000-people church, and I
asked him, what about purgatory?
He goes, well, Shane, our shame and guilt
has to be done with somehow.
Did you catch that?
We have to go to purgatory because our
shame and guilt has to be dealt with
somehow.
That dealt with it.
That dealt with everything.
So you don't have to go somewhere and
get punished for your sins for a certain
time.
It's already been paid.
See, none of that's biblical.
So that's why people get passionate.
They get upset because it's not correct.
You're leading people down a false road.
And then the fifth one, where I want
to just camp out a minute, soli deo
gloria.
Again, forgive my pronunciation.
Soli deo gloria, to the glory of God
alone.
To the glory of God alone.
1 Corinthians 10 31, the English Standard Version.
So whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever
you drink, whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God.
Whatever you do, do to the glory of
God.
See, individual reformation leads to larger change.
Individual reformation.
And I will tell you this, as a
living witness, no reformation will occur without accepting
the Holy Spirit's correction and guidance.
No reformation will start in your heart, in
the church, without accepting the Holy Spirit's correction
and His guidance.
Many of you have heard the verse, and
we've talked about it many times, that salt,
about salt losing its savor, right, losing its
flavor.
Jesus said that, how will you be any
good if that salt loses its savor, that,
you know, when you taste salt, that saltiness
that it has.
A light isn't meant to be put underneath
a bushel, it's meant to be shown.
But I started to think about this week,
how does salt lose its savor?
How does it lose its preserving effect?
How do churches, how do pastors, Christians fall
away, depending on your theology, if they fall
away or if they don't fall away.
The bottom line is, we can walk away
from God.
We can begin to get carnal in our
thinking.
We can begin to drift.
Our salt loses its effectiveness.
Have you ever had salt that's no good?
I think it's, I don't know the chemical
makeup, but chlorine dioxide or something, sodium dioxide.
But the salt, there's two ways, interesting, I
looked this up, two ways that salt can
lose its savor, can lose its effect.
The first is an outside influence.
Try dipping your salt in water, and then
take it and then put it on meat.
You won't even taste it.
Same thing with the believer.
Same thing with you in this room.
An outside influence can come in and begin
to quench that work of God, begin to
quench and grieve what God is doing.
It takes all the savor away.
It's an outside influence.
And then the second thing, an internal change
in our taste buds.
Something can happen on the inside.
So see, salt loses its effectiveness by what's
coming on the outside.
And guess what else?
What's coming from the inside, something within us
can change it.
So if the taste buds, when a person's
sick, have you ever noticed, or if they
told you, I just don't taste the things
anymore.
I can't taste that.
One of the interesting things that happened to
me over the years of fasting and different
things is now I crave broccoli.
I crave bell peppers cut up and put
into hummus.
My taste buds used to hate that.
What happened?
Something changed within, changing within.
And that happens here with salts.
If there's something changing in your body, changing
in your taste buds, you will not taste
that.
So is there something within us that is
drifting?
Is there something within us that is starting
to wade away from God?
Think of that song, Give Me Jesus.
If you're singing that song with a cold,
callous heart, if it doesn't mean anything to
you, may I suggest that there may be
a drift going on?
May I suggest that there's a possibility of
losing that first love?
May I suggest that what God is wanting
to do in your heart is being stripped
away by outside and internal influences?
That's why I often say if worship is
boring, if worship is hard, if it's distracting,
if you can't sing, oh Jesus, I love
you, oh how I love you, but you
can't wait to watch the Dodgers, something is
wrong.
In the heart, there might be a drift
that is happening.
And with your permission, I'm going to add
another sola if I can.
500 years later, are you ready for this
one?
I'm going to take a drink first on
this one because this is going to hit
home.
Sola is the Latin, but the word after
it is not.
It's English.
Ready?
Sola, action.
Put feet to our faith.
This is a big issue in the American
church.
I recently read a quote, we're professing believers,
but practical atheists.
That had to sink in for a minute
because it's very easy to believe.
It's very easy to be here.
But when have we went out and actually
put feet to our faith?
When was the last time many of you
here visited the hospital homes?
When was the last time you reached out
to the homeless in our community?
When was the last time that we did
something?
See, it's not meant, and this is hard,
trust me.
I struggle too.
It's not just about absorbing and absorbing and
absorbing.
It's about absorbing God and then giving it
out.
I mean, it's interesting.
There's something they're doing in Lancaster.
I might talk about this more in a
little bit as the weeks come.
But they're wanting to get the homeless people
out of the cold this winter.
And they're asking some churches to house them
on certain nights and minister to them.
And the first thought I had was wonderful.
That sounds great.
The second thought I had is, would anybody
be willing to do that?
Because I don't know about you, but I'm
getting tired of being fed up on this
fed.
Fed up is probably not the right word.
But being fed, right, on the Word of
God, but then not giving it out.
That's why many people are stifled in their
growth.
That's why they're angry and unproductive.
Because you aren't designed to just take in
and take out.
That's actually selfishness.
As a fellow struggler, right?
Right here admitting it.
It's the hard part.
I mean, I can read the Bible all
morning.
I can listen to Erwin on the radio.
I can put on apps.
I can listen to Jim Cimbala's book on
tape.
Put on my Bluetooth.
I can do all these things.
Feed me, feed me, feed me.
But when it comes to putting feet to
our faith, that's where we can look practically
like atheists.
And that is meant to cut a little
deep.
It is meant to challenge.
We also have something we're going to talk
about at the end of the service about
water wells and bringing water to children that
have to walk miles and miles and miles
to just get water.
Is anyone convicted or is it just me?
I remember growing up, you had to park
your car outside.
And then something built called a garage.
Comes from a French word in the early
1900s to house a vehicle.
And if one car garage wasn't enough, guess
what came out?
And then when my short time in real
estate, everybody wanted to get a house with
a...
And just this week, I thought about those
things.
It just, it really, it hurt my heart
because how...
See, we don't notice.
See, we get very...
I'm very good at staying to the truth
in my mind, but we don't realize how
far we're drifting when it comes to putting
our feet into motion.
Because God didn't save us just to save
us.
He saved us to make a difference.
And how blessed we are.
I'm not joking about three-car garage.
Now there's four-car garages.
And then all these storage units to do
what?
See, we really have to put this stuff
in perspective.
Sola action.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
This is where it's going to hurt a
little bit.
We've got to do something with our faith.
So I am going to lovingly challenge this
congregation on some of these things in the
weeks to come.
And it's hard.
I get frustrated.
Maybe just in my own self, but I'll
get emails that, you know, Shane, we need
more helpers.
We need more servers in the hospital homes
ministry.
We don't have enough people that can go
visit them on Sundays.
People that are looking forward the whole week.
They're looking forward to Sunday afternoon when we
bring the church to them.
And I see the email.
I sometimes get mad.
Maybe mad at myself.
Maybe I could do more.
We don't have enough people.
Hold on.
Let me get this straight.
We don't have enough people to go and
visit.
Take an hour or two out of their
day and go visit these people who desperately
need to know about the love of God.
There's a problem there.
And again, I'm not coming up here with
the whip.
Because as Leonard Ravenhill said, you need to
weep before you whip.
But it should touch your heart.
This is the point.
And maybe it's me.
Maybe it's a season of life.
But okay, preaching the word of God.
Preaching the word of God.
It's wonderful.
We're getting imparted by truth.
But if it doesn't produce action, if it
doesn't produce us going out and making a
difference, what is the point, really?
Because we're supposed to be going out and
doing something.
So that's the first part of sola action
is put feet to our faith.
The next part about action is we do
need to go back to the old paths.
Go back to the old paths.
Do you remember when this meant everything?
Some of you are there, I know.
But some of you, you've drifted off that
old path.
The Bible says, go back.
Return to the old path.
Return.
And I thought about this a week.
Where are they today?
Where are these guys?
Where are the White Cliffs who stood so
unyielding for the truth that he was called
the morning star of the Reformation?
Where is the Tyndales and the Husses who
were burned at the stake for simply declaring
the truth of God's Word?
Where are the Martin Luthers who when he
was faced by his executioner, he said, here
I stand, I can do no other.
Where are the Jurek Zwingles who preached in
Switzerland so boldly that he was often being
chased?
People wanted to kill him.
Where are the John Knoxes?
I love John Knox.
You should read this guy's biography.
He said, give me Scotland for the cause
of Christ or I shall die.
Where's that today?
Who's saying, give me Lancaster?
God, give me Lancaster.
Give me Palmdale.
Give me this Leona Valley.
Give me it for the cause of Christ
or I shall die.
The reason they're feeling that is they feel
the work of the Holy Spirit in their
hearts and they have to do it.
George Whitefield who brought the UK and America
to her knees.
D.L. Moody who stood so unyielding for
the truth.
Richard Baxter, the Puritan who said, I preach
as a dying man to dying men.
Where are they today?
Yes, I know they're here and they're there.
Don't get me wrong.
But we need to put action back into
our faith.
So I'll leave you with a closing prayer.
I'll leave you with our closing action.
Our prayer is this, Psalm 25.5, and
I prayed this many times this week.
God, lead me, lead me in Your truth.
God, lead me in Your truth and teach
me for You are the God of my
salvation.
For You I wait all the day long.
Are you praying that, Lord?
Lead me to Your truth, because you better
be praying that, because if you're not praying
it, guess what direction you might be going?
Remember, the human heart by default is already
set on sin.
Let me just turn this dial on sin.
So if I don't do anything, that's the
direction I'm going.
So, oh, there's another prayer.
Lead me not into temptation.
Jesus said, pray like this, lead me not
into temptation.
So our prayer this morning should be, God,
lead me into Your truth.
Teach me for You are the God of
my salvation.
For You I wait all the day long.
For You I wait.
Did you know that hurry is the archenemy
of devotion?
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, going here.
You cannot be devoted to God in that
sense of seeking Him.
You know, many of you know right now
that when you can spend that time away
with God, you are a new person, because
the Spirit's being built up and the flesh
is being crucified.
We have a retreat that men go to,
women go to.
It's twice a year.
Talk to Mike Livingston after the service.
We just had a group of guys come
back from it, and a group of women
there right now.
They're being transformed by the power of God.
Anytime you take that little thing in your
pocket that beeps all the time, you shut
it off and you say, Lord, I'm going
to seek You.
Guess what?
Within an hour, you have withdrawals.
We don't realize how hurried we've become.
And that's the enemy of devotion.
That's what's happening.
It says, just wait.
We don't know how to wait anymore, do
we?
Try going to New York.
Oh, my goodness.
Nobody knows how to wait.
Fast-paced, fast-paced.
Everything's so fast-paced.
Go and wait.
It says, just wait on Me.
And then our action this week needs to
be Lamentations 3, 40-41.
Let us search out and examine our ways
and turn back to the Lord.
Let us lift our hearts and hands to
God in heaven.
Isn't that powerful?
And Lamentations, who would have ever thought?
Lamentations is Jeremiah lamenting over the destruction of
Jerusalem because of the sins of the people.
So he's encouraging people, let us search out.
See, no matter how far you've drifted, no
matter how far you've gone, let us search
out and examine our ways.
Isn't it interesting?
Search.
Search means to examine and to investigate.
Does my lifestyle line up with God's Word?
Or do I need to tighten my grip?
Examine ourselves.
Turn back to the Lord.
Lift up our hearts and hands to God
in heaven.
See, as a result of turning back to
God, I begin to worship.
It's interesting.
There's a whole debate in the church, right?
The hand raisers, the non-hand raisers, the
suit and the tie, the not-suit and
tie, the charismatic songs, the conservative songs, the
hymnals, the contemporary, the suit and tie, this
attire.
You know, you have those different things going.
The worship wars.
There's whole books written on the worship wars.
But the bottom line, when your hearts turn
back to God, just like it said here,
let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven.
See, to me, it's actually a point of
submission.
Because to do this 25 years ago, I
would have laughed at you.
A bunch of God babies, worships for women.
What is this?
I mean, we'll praise our favorite team, won't
we?
Look at that.
Because see, it's what's happening in the heart.
That's why people, how many people jumped off
the couch?
I can't believe it.
Did you see that hit?
Did you see all that?
Did you?
What are they doing?
They're excited.
They're worshiping.
So that's all it is when it says,
we lift up holy hands to the Lord.
Our hearts are on fire for Him.
We want to worship.
We want to, because it's what's happening in
the heart.
See, I don't know about you, but I
can't, I can't just sit there and like,
let's get through these, gosh, 30 more minutes.
I can't do that any more than I
could tell my kids to just sit outside
of Disneyland for three hours and do nothing.
Why?
What's going on in the heart?
So you have to wonder, and I was
convicted at Tuesday night in New York.
3,000 people, I'd say 2,500 were
not ashamed to worship.
They were worshiping it.
That sound was just penetrating, and the people
were all nationalities.
Black, white, red, blue, yellow.
All languages.
Now, it doesn't matter.
You don't worship more the more you turn
up the volume.
You do have people that act weird.
That's not worship.
But if something is happening in your heart,
if God grips my heart, isn't there an
emotional response?
Isn't there something, God, I just want to
worship you, something in my heart?
I mean, tell the father who saw his
prodigal son coming.
Did you settle down?
Settle down.
Just wait for him.
Just sit at the table and wait.
What did that father have to do?
He ran to the son.
You tell the blind men who were just
healed to be quiet.
See, action is a normal response.
It's a God-given response when something vital
happens.
So, think about that verse as we worship.
Let us search out and examine our ways
and turn back to the Lord.
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven.