When An Enemy Returns | Pastor Shane Idleman

Pastor Shane Idleman: He will fight for you. I've seen this many times. He will fight for you, but it's often not on your schedule, your time frame because I'm wanting out of the fiery furnace. I don't want to go into the fiery furnace like many of you. But that song we sing sometimes, "There’s another in the fire." There's another in the fire. Often, here's what you need, here's the key really: enemies often return when there's an open door. Enemies often return when you give the enemy an open door. He thinks, "Ah, there, I'm going to run through."
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear the second part of this redemptive message titled, "When An Enemy Returns." Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton once said, "To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless." Today, Pastor Shane confronts us with the sometimes challenging area of forgiveness and how we are commanded by Jesus himself to not only love our enemies, but to forgive them as well. Take a listen. You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.com. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.
Pastor Shane Idleman: Because you have to work on staying humble. The enemy will feed your pride; you don't have to work on that. So to be a Berean, to really search the scriptures, yes, be open, but not critical. Attentive, not bored. Penitent. Anybody not know what that word means? It means to have a humble attitude that's quick to repent. It's not prideful. Let me drop the bomb this morning unless you don't know: you don't know everything. And if you think you do, this point is for you. Prideful people think they know everything. They don't need to be critiqued. "I know what the Bible says. I don't need to hear from you," or "I don't need to do this or that." Be careful because God loves a broken, humble heart. That type of sacrifice he will not cast away, but he will actually resist those who are proud. I got this quote from my daughter, so credit's due here. Let's put it up. "Waiting on the Lord is hard, but the only thing worse is wishing you had." That can be applied to many different things. I actually don't know why I inserted it here, but waiting, maybe a good point is waiting to critique. Waiting on the Lord is hard, but wishing you had waited is harder. Apply that wherever you need to apply it this morning. But before critiquing, before lashing out, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. It's hard, but the only thing worse than that is wishing you had. Acts 17:10-15 continues. Because the Bereans search out the scriptures, many of them believed. Of course they're going to believe. If you listen to Paul search the scriptures, you're going to believe. The Pharisees who didn't believe already made up their mind not to believe. And so they believed. Prominent women as well, many of the Greeks. Here come these sneaky little devils. Look at this. But when the Jews from Thessalonica—they're way far away. They're down in Orange County from here. I don't know exactly; I should have looked at the map. But when they heard that the word of God was being preached by Paul in Berea, they came there to Berea. It wasn't enough to go after the apostles in Thessalonica. They said, "Oh, they're in Berea. We've got to go get them." And people will do that. They'll follow legitimate ministries no matter where you go and they'll track you down and they'll try to stir up controversy. And that's what happened here: the enemy returned. The enemy returned, and what did they do? They stirred up the crowds. That word is interesting. It means to incite. The Greek word means to incite. And what happens, especially for those who are not really well-grounded in scripture and maybe they're easily persuaded, is they came in and said, "They did this stuff in Thessalonica too. Oh my goodness, let me tell you, the whole city's in an uproar. Look what they're trying to say," and probably bringing in falsehoods. And so the crowd that was receptive is now upset at Paul and Silas. They stirred up the crowd, and that's what happens. That's why I tell a lot of people, don't spend too much time on YouTube and watching the heresy hunters. If your whole ministry is built on pulling down people, be careful because they will stir you up as well and you'll begin to have disdain for people that's really not founded. Some of it is, of course. Go to the source if you can. But you have to be very careful on those heresy-hunting websites. I'm going to drop a little truth bomb here. You'll find, except for I think I mentioned Mike Winger and others, the majority of those people who build their whole ministry off critiquing, the vast majority, I'd say nine out of ten, the reason they do it is they are cessationists. Meaning they don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still valid today. I can name names. I dialogue with them. That's why they're already looking at you through that lens. "Oh, you're on that side? You still believe the gifts of the Spirit are for today? Well, now you're on my hit list." And then we get people from here, I've had to say, "Stop watching these guys." They get all stirred up. They get all worked up. "I listened to such and such and they said all that music's bad." "Can we go over the lyrics?" "No, it's all bad. You need to go back to the old hymns." Okay, well did you know when the old hymns came out, they were new hymns? Are you aware of that? Charles Wesley would present a hymn in 1740 and it's new. What would they do? They would look at it, they would be a Berean, they would look at it based on scripture. So I hope we check lyrics out by scripture. Does it line up with scripture? It might not be something you prefer or I prefer, but does it line up with scripture? And that's what they do: they stir the pot. And we have to address it a lot here. You don't see it, but we've got some pot stirrers that find their way in here and they'll stir up the crowd. Usually not the whole crowd, but they'll take a small group of people. "Did you hear what he said today? What do you think of that?" Then they'll get their little groups together and they'll stir the pot up. And it's sad because it's division. It's division in the body and I don't think the Lord is well pleased. How do you know? Proverbs: seven things the Lord hates. One is somebody who sows discord among the brethren. They plant those little fiery darts and they fuel that up. They fuel it and they stir. And that's what the enemy returned. Paul, can you imagine? I can just picture this too, because it's happened to me. Paul's happy to preach, they're listening, they're open, they're teachable, and here come the Thessalonians and they just stir it up. Oh my goodness. Many of you remember when I did the debate at the college that we had protesters out on the sidewalk. This was when I first met Ray Merker Choi. He was security over the college and they get this big warning, "Here comes this Shane guy, you've got to have security." They even had a helicopter ready. And I just parked my truck and I just walked in. He's just like, "Where is he?" They stirred something. It got out that they stirred the crowd. And so people are out protesting on Avenue K with their signs and yelling at us. Like, what? I'm just debating an atheist. Why are you so upset? Stir the pot, stir the pot. "You said something two years ago about marriage and we're going to come after you." See that? No matter where you go, there's pot stirrers. And it's not fun, but it comes with the territory. I was reminded of Judges 2:3: "They will be thorns in your side. They will be thorns in your side." Actually, the whole verse is if you don't drive out the people, if you learn their way and do not, they will be thorns in your side and irritants in your eyes. It says that elsewhere. The Judges context is they did not remove the people, they learned their ways. And that's also in 2 Corinthians: a thorn in the flesh was given to Paul, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. A thorn in the flesh. Many of us believe that was more of an illness, probably. But you can see how there are thorns that are given. Sometimes an enemy returns. They're looking for that opportune time. So don't ever let your guard down; maybe that would be practical application point number one. Don't let your guard down because after mountaintop experiences come valleys often. For me, Mondays are usually the hardest day for me, usually because of Sunday. And the enemy's right there looking for those opportune times of discouragement or getting in a funk or fearful. And all of these things, he just rushes in. From Nehemiah to David and from good kings to the disciples to you and me, there's often tension between victory and battle. So know that as a believer; be prepared. We're in that mountaintop experience, things are going great, just keep the armor on. Don't take the armor off because that's when we become easy prey for the enemy. And that's when he returns. He's looking for those opportune times. There's the verse: Luke 4:13, "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time." I don't like it, but I have to tell you the truth of what the Bible says. I wish it wasn't the case. I wish when we came to know the Lord, we're almost in heaven and life is peachy all the time. But you are on a hit list now. You are an adversary. You are an enemy of Satan. And so we have to look for and watch out for, I should say, opportune times where he strikes. And he will strike. But being forewarned, you can be forearmed. That's why I want to talk about something like this. But be encouraged when you do fall. The key is to get back up when the enemy does come in, and he might hit you. Has he ever hit you? Oh yeah, if we're honest. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way. Thank God for the last half: "Though he fall, he shall not utterly be cast down because the Lord upholds him with his hand." So even though some struggles remain, some strongholds come down and come back, some temptations return, that's the life of a believer. After victory, the enemy wants to quench the celebration, so he will try to come back and discourage you. Have you seen that before? You've been encouraged to start a ministry, you've been encouraged to walk with the Lord, and it's so motivating. The only way to stop that forward momentum and that motivation is for the enemy to bring in discouragement. When the enemy returns, he often returns with discouragement. But these are not the times to stay down; they are the times to get up and keep fighting, to get up and keep fighting. "Oh Lord, just give me more anointing." We don't need more anointing; we need less of the flesh. More anointing is good sometimes, but most of the time, it's more of the Spirit. When you have less of the flesh, you're more full of the Spirit. That's how you overcome these things. And again, I had a whole teaching I was going to go into for a while on Ephesians 6:12: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood." Now I know this is elementary for most of us. We've heard this verse 50 to 100 times. We've heard teachings on it, but just because you've heard something before and you remember doesn't mean you can't lose that edge. We need to be reminded often that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. So what is coming against you often is demonically inspired. And that's why I will say, that's demonic, because they plant thoughts, they shoot fiery darts, they stir up. The demonic realm loves to stir up. You've seen churches be destroyed. Have you heard of church splits? The enemy comes up and stirs up that controversy. One of the heartbreaking things, me and my wife were at a church split when we first started going to a church. And it was, of course, over what I mentioned before: gifts of the Spirit. And the enemy just stirred. I've never seen anything like that before. And it's sad because that's how he stops God's work temporarily, is with stirring up things and controversy and dividing. Because if he can get the church divided—think about the church when it's divided. There's lots of division, you're having meetings, you have to address this person. Oh boy, there's such and such here. And you're just, it's just painful. There's no anointing, you're thinking things during worship and conflict, and it just kills the atmosphere of a church. That's why you really have to fight for unity. You do. You have to fight for unity. And praise God, what other people are doing, that's between them and the Lord as far as I'm concerned. Paul said as much as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. What you can quench are those fiery darts of disunity. And you can say, "You know what? Why don't you just talk to them directly? I'm going to worship the Lord today." And you can just stop those fiery darts. Again, as of now, I don't know of any here at this church. I just know that any church, good church, is going to come and try to divide. And you have to fight for unity. It's a reminder: you do not wrestle. That word is struggle. Your fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. And again, if we had time, principalities can be a conglomeration—yeah, that's a tough one. You know it's a tough one. So, groups of demonic powers, other powers, against rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So that's our battle. And you know it's true. That's how you can just be having a great day and then you sit next to somebody in an airplane. Like I just said. Can you imagine? That is just, I just can't believe it. Or in a grocery store, you're just whistling, having a great day, and the person in front of you is not having a great day. And they tell you, "Stop whistling. What are you so happy about?" And here we go. It's not—or in the workplace. Anybody have challenging workplaces? It is; it can be really hard. Think about those in county offices or city offices or government offices. And you've got to bend the knee to godless agendas or you'll be harassed, you'll be made fun of. You'll go through things like, "Why am I even going through this, Lord? Where are you at?" It's because we wrestle; our fight is not with flesh and blood. It's with demonically inspired people and influences. And we hold the ground by putting on the whole armor of God, which I do want to talk about at some point. Wrestling: it's an intense, active, and continuous battle. It's not often a single isolated fight. Don't you wish it was? "I overcame that battle today and move forward." Often it's reoccurring when the enemy returns. That's why I said earlier: you have to have solid footing and a solid mind. That's where we need to start. You can't be wavering and weak in the faith. It's, okay, I'm holding my ground, Lord, I'm trusting you, solid footing and a solid mind focused on the word of God. And he will fight for you. I've seen this many times. He will fight for you, but it's often not on your schedule, your time frame. Because I'm wanting out of the fiery furnace. I don't want to go into the fiery furnace like many of you. But that song we sing sometimes, "There’s another in the fire." There's another in the fire. Often, here's what you need, here's the key really: enemies often return when there's an open door. Enemies often return when you give the enemy an open door. He thinks, "Ah, there, I'm going to run through." I mean, there's a variety of different things. I won't—you've heard me talk about many open doors. HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, tired. You go back to a certain addiction that's not healthy, you just open the door. How many of you ever went back to something and you're like, "This is a lot harder to get rid of than it was initially"? Anybody ever been there? Why? Because now the door's open, that influence is stronger. And if you feed the enemy—how do you feed the enemy? Well, you can feed him by thoughts. Feed it by thoughts and get on his side, his thinking. And you get all worked up and now you become part of the problem, not the solution. The thought life and you're feeding those things or feeding on the wrong things. When you're going through something difficult, don't feed on a lot of social media. Don't scroll through this because when we feed the enemy and we feed those thoughts, that's when he often returns. "Ah, there's an open door in that thought life. There's an open door in that thought life. Oh, I can go right in and plant these fiery darts now that they've opened that door." I'm like, why are they like they should run from you? Now if I throw rocks and stuff they will, but they're like kind of following me and I get going and like, "Wait, this is not good." So after about a month and a half, I'm out there, there's nobody else there, and then I see a hat on and a backpack, keep my water and stuff. And I see a lady, like she’s over not on the trail, and she’s got a hat, a backpack on. And I said, "Hey, you might want to watch out, there’s like five or six coyotes right in this section." And she goes, "Oh, I know, I feed them." What? No, no, no, no.