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1/3/18 "OH, THAT YOU WOULD REND THE HEAVENS" – Pastor Shane Idleman

540 views · Published 5 January 2018 · 37:50 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: Westside Christian Fellowship · 2018 · News & Politics

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Complete Sermon Notes
Oh, That You Would Rend The Heavens

Isaiah 64 (NKJV) “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil—To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence. 4 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,Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”

COME DOWN: There has to be a desperation. Thank God for desperate situations. Ask Him to come down.

A downpour nourishes, restores, replenishes, and revives – it makes alive. Example of seeds – dead and buried. You may feel Dead and Buried, but don’t give up. “God, come down!”… must be the Desperate Cry of your heart.

But men, especially, are too proud to cry out to God. As a result, they never experience a Downpour. I can’t imagine going through life with the heavens never opening. Sure, you’re a good Christian and you know the Bible – but you’ve never experience a mighty downpour.

Sure they live the Christian Life and do a few things, but it’s the difference between a farmer throwing down a few seeds on the ground and planting a bumper crop with 1000s of seeds.

EVERYTHING SHAKES – “the mountains shook”: When a downpour hits, it disrupts everything – the soil, the landscape…our lives, our agendas…our relationship with God.
IT CONSUMES: As the brush is burned and the water boils, a downpour consumes, heats, and purifies.
IT STOPS THE ENEMY: “he trembles at God’s presence.”

“The weakest saint on his knees receiving God’s downpour is stronger than hell’s best soldier.”

THANKFULNESS REFRESHES: “You did awesome things.” Bitterness, negativity, and a critical heart prevents a downpour. I’m going to ask you to let all that go.

WAITING PREPARES THE SOIL FOR THE DOWNPOUR: “He acts for the one who waits for Him.”

Waiting has a cost ~ a downpour has a cost. The value of something determines its cost: Retirement, a PhD, the Olympics… The Cost of the Cross – have you embraced it?

There is no Painless Pentecost: “I don’t want to WAIT in an upper room!”

“Life-giving preaching costs the preacher much—death to self, crucifixion to the world, and the travail of his own soul. Crucified preaching only can give life. Crucified preaching can come only from a crucified man” (E.M. Bounds).

Break up the fallow ground –  examine our hearts. Is the downpour about God’s glory, or are we striving for popularity, position, and power. Remove excuses such as “I don’t need that…I don’t want to get carried away. I’m just not emotional. That’s not who I am.”

Pull out the root of bitterness: “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Galatians 5:15).

Sow in love: so many believers know the Bible and they are workers but they lack the fertile soil of love and compassion. If you’re not loving, gentle, and compassionate, you have not received a downpour.

When Jesus comes He will baptize you “with Holy Ghost fire”…

How many can say like Jeremiah, “His word was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not” (20:9)?

In the words of Oswald Chambers before the Spirit came upon him, “God used me during those years…but I had no conscious communion with Him. The Bible was the dullest, most uninteresting book in existence…”

Then he writes a few years later, “If the four previous years had been hell on earth, these five years have truly been heaven on earth. Glory be to God, the last aching abyss of the human heart is filled to overflowing with the love of God.” HEAVEN WAS RENT.

Coming forward prepares the soil. You’re admitting that you need more of God. You’re asking Him to Rend the heavens. You’re turning from Pride and humbling yourself.

The irony is that I often see those who don’t necessarily need to come to the altar come, and those who desperately need to come do not. Ask God to rend the heavens today…
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Westside Christian Fellowship is a non-denominational Christian church that meets every every Sunday at 9:00 am & 11:00 am in Leona Valley, California (9306 Leona Avenue).

For more info, or to read our statement of faith, visit westsidechristianfellowship.org/about-wcf/statement-of-faith/

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