Permission to Doubt // Jesus Wants you to Deconstruct your Faith

I'm going to be in Matthew, chapter five, and I want to bring your childhood back to life.

How many of you played with Legos growing up?

Legos, okay, how many of you?

How many you guys still play with Legos?

You still play Legos.

Right, let's go.

I see y'all still play Legos.

Legos are awesome, right?

I mean, how many of you guys?

How many of you guys you preferred, like the box sets, where you would actually make something based off the box?

Let me just do that.

How many of you were like me?

You just had all the Legos in a bin.

You dumped them out and just try to figure it out.

Yes, okay, right.

My mom was like, how fun, go ahead, I'll see you later, in two hours.

You know there was.

You had Legos and Legos had a.

Legos had what I would call their cousin, kinects.

I don't know if you guys have ever heard of Kinects, kinects Anybody heard of Kinects?

Kinects?

No, okay, jason, thank you, jason.

Jason's heard of Kinects.

Kinects are awesome.

Okay, yvonne, okay, there we go.

So they had Kinects.

Kinects were awesome.

They were awesome.

And I remember when I was in elementary school there was this Kinects new structure that you could build.

It was called the Big Ball Factory.

This is what it looked like.

Let me tell you this is circa the 90s.

Like I wanted a Big Ball Factory.

And the Big Ball Factory this was like five feet tall, fully constructed Elementary school.

Nate was not five feet tall, hey, adult Nate's barely five feet tall, right?

I wanted a Big Ball Factory.

This is what I really wanted and I was asking my parents can I have one?

And it was like it was $100.

I mean, I was in the 90s and I was a kid.

I'm like there's no way I'm ever going to get this Big Ball Factory.

But I came out Christmas morning.

I knew the exact size of the box because I had seen it at Toys R Us.

I knew the size of the box about this big and my parents they didn't have the good Christmas presents.

They didn't bring those out early, they waited until Christmas Eve.

So we couldn't really see them until Christmas morning.

So I remember going out there and it was like the angels in heaven were singing.

There is my Big Ball Factory and I opened it up.

Happiest day of my life.

I'm like I got the Big Ball Factory, let's go.

And I'm like, oh, my goodness, now I got to put this giant thing together.

How do I do this?

So I'm eight years old and you know, I'm eight years old, so I pretty much know everything and I can figure this out and try to do it.

And I'm like, ok, I can't do this.

So I had a friend.

He was like the Kinect experts, like this guy.

I mean, he was the Kinect guru.

So I invited him over.

So what we were going to do is we were going to construct this Big Ball Factory.

This is like hundreds and hundreds and like there's teeny pieces Like this is actually thousands of pieces.

So we're going to construct this five foot tall Big Ball Factory.

So we opened up this big box and there's all these packages you know, all these packages of all the individual pieces.

So we rip open the package and we dump these pieces out.

We rip open the package, we dump these pieces, we see the directions, we throw those out, and so we have all these pieces out.

We're putting this thing together.

We got this Building this thing.

Then we're like I don't think the Big Ball Factory is supposed to look like that.

Let's go look at the box, not the directions.

We don't need those yet.

So look at the box, like yeah, this does not look like that, that's OK, we don't need the direction yet.

So we took some things out, we put some things back and then we started building it.

And then we were like, wait, wait, I don't even know if these pieces are even a part of the Big Ball Factory.

I think these pieces were from the other set that somehow got intertwined in all the Big Ball Factory pieces.

And finally we were like we're going to go to the directions to see what this is actually supposed to look like.

How do we actually do this?

So in our process of trying to construct this Big Ball Factory, we had to deconstruct all these things that were in there but didn't really belong in there.

So, looking at this Big Ball Factory, and we're thinking that should go out.

And the thing is we were really convinced as we were constructing it that this should be there but it shouldn't.

And what we had to do is we had to deconstruct what shouldn't be there so we could reconstruct what should be there.

We had to take out the parts that didn't belong so we could eventually look at the directions and see what did belong.

And we were able to, literally days later, make the Big Ball Factory and I wish I had a picture of it, but I don't.

That I made.

And here's why I tell you that story, because it's possible that there are mindsets and beliefs that we have about life, and maybe even about Christianity, that need to be deconstructed so God can construct the authentic, real faith that we see in the New Testament.

And for some of us, before we can construct something, we're going to have to deconstruct some things and reconstruct some things.

And I've got to stop for a second and say there's this entire movement and I'm wondering if you've heard of it.

It's called the deconstruction movement in the Christianity.

Anybody heard of that?

So here's the idea.

The idea is people are deconstructing from their faith.

So once they believed in Christ, they're saying I no longer believe, they're de-converting from Him and they're not following Him anymore For a number of reasons, and many of them are valid reasons that they're heard and they kind of wrestling with some things.

But I want to suggest today that there's actually a healthy way that we can deconstruct our faith.

And we've got to put some language around this, because you've got to kind of understand what we mean when we say the word deconstruction.

This is what we mean when we say this word, it's a sincere examination of your beliefs, seeking to let go of what is untrue so you can hold on to what is true.

So it's me examining what do I actually believe about Christianity, about faith, and I'm gonna let go of what is untrue so I can hold on to what is true.

Now I got a couple difficult objectives today, okay, first difficult objective is to keep everybody awake on time.

Change Somebody.

Can somebody say amen to me?

You out there?

Amen.

Okay, all right, if you've all sleep, I'm calling you out.

No, I'm just kidding, I won't.

I'll think about it, but I won't, no.

So there we go with that.

But here's but really here's a difficult objective.

I want to talk to two groups of people today, and it's really hard enough for me to talk to one, so I'm gonna attempt to talk to two.

The first group of people I'm gonna talk to is I'm gonna talk to people that maybe are having doubts right now about their faith or faith in general, like we've been saying in this permission to doubt series, that doubts are normal and doubts don't disqualify your faith.

Real faith isn't the absence of doubts.

Real faith pushes through the doubts to a deeper faith.

So I want to talk to some of you guys that are there right now.

I want to talk to another group of people that you're not there, like you're not having doubts, but you want to help people that are having doubts, real people that are wrestling through things, they're trying to figure out some things and maybe you have some internal turmoil based on experiences and based on things they've seen and they've heard, and you want to help those people and you can help those people in a way, without having a negative or judgmental attitude, and we want to have a posture that listens to people and has compassion for people and cares about people and meets people right where they are, because one day that might be us.

But to both groups of people, whether you have doubts or whether you don't have doubts and you're strong in your faith, I want to remind you of what we've been talking about these last several weeks.

The big idea and it's this Okay Doubt is not the enemy of faith.

Doubt is not the enemy of faith, it's an invitation to a deeper faith.

It's right, it's an invitation to a deeper faith.

So what we're going to do today is we're going to go to Matthew, chapter 5, and we're going to see how Jesus challenged people to examine what they believe and deconstruct what was untrue so they could hold on to what is true.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Let's pick it up in Matthew, chapter 5, verse number 21.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

If you're ready for the word, would you say amen, amen.

So Matthew chapter 5, matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7, this is what's known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention Matthew 5 · chapter mention

It's the longest message, the longest sermon that Jesus gave.

That's recorded.

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 21.

Matthew 5:21

He says you have heard that.

It was said to our ancestors do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.

But I tell you, everyone who's angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court.

Whoever says you fool, will be subject to hellfire.

So Jesus is talking to religious people here.

He's saying this is what you believe, this is your tradition, this is the societal norm, this is what you think, and you think that your only subject to judgment is if you murder somebody.

If you actually do this act, you're subject to judgment.

This is what you believe.

Jesus says.

But I tell you, you're subject to judgment if you insult your brother or your sister.

You've heard that it was said.

This is what you've held to.

But I tell you, in verse 27, he says you've heard that it was said do not commit adultery.

They knew that.

That's what the law said.

Verse 28, but I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

These people thought, hey, as long as I don't do the act of adultery, as long as I'm not having sex with somebody that I'm not married to, I'm good.

Jesus says no, you're not good.

Lest in your heart is that committing the act.

You've heard, this is what you've heard.

But I tell you, looking into verse 33, he says this again, again verse 33, you have heard that it was said.

You have heard that it was said.

Can we say that underline phrase together, ready?

You have heard that it was said to our ancestors you must not break your oath, but you must keep your oath to the Lord.

You see what Jesus is doing.

Guys.

Are you guys picking up on this?

You've heard it said this is what you believe to, this is what you hold to.

Verse 34, but I tell you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven, because it's God's throne, or by the earth because it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great king.

Do not swear by your head, because you can't make a single hair white or black.

Man, some of us wish we could make our hair black, right, which could make our hair darker.

Verse 37, but let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.

Anything more than this is from the evil one.

What's Jesus saying?

Don't ever take an oath.

He's not saying that.

What he's saying here is keep your word, be a person of your word.

Verse 38,.

Here we go again.

He says you've heard that it was said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you, don't resist an evil doer.

Verse 39, on the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him.

Also, ask for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt.

Let him have your coat as well.

Man, jesus is challenging their mindset.

He's challenging their worldview.

He's challenging their worldview.

This is what you have heard.

This is what I say.

And then, verse 43,.

He gets to one that I really don't like at all.

This is really uncomfortable.

It says you've heard that it was said love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

I can be with that, jesus.

I tell you love your enemies.

What?

What about the person?

A couple weeks ago they did that and they, on purpose, did me wrong because they were trying to be difficult to me.

What about the person?

Love them.

Love your enemies.

Pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, where he causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

What is Jesus doing here in this passage?

This is what he's doing.

He's inviting them to consider and examine what they believe and let go of what is untrue so they can hold on to what is true.

He's inviting these people to a better way.

He's inviting to these religious people that were so tied to the law and so tied to their religious view.

He's trying to show them a different way.

He's trying to get them to think.

There's a thing about the Christian faith.

The Christian faith is a thinking faith.

It's not something where you leave your brain to the door.

It's not a blind faith where you sit in a room like this and if the pastor says this is just what we do.

No, not a blind faith.

It's a faith where we think.

It's a faith that is evident.

It's a faith where we reason.

In fact, even the Old Testament, the prophet, says come, let us reason together.

The book of Acts, the brands, they searched the scripture to see if what they were being told was actually true.

So we think and we consider Jesus did something time and time and time and time and time again to people, people like you, people like me.

You see, we challenge people's beliefs and their traditions and their societal norms.

Did it five times here.

This is what you say, this is what you believe.

But I tell you Now, what makes this really hard is when we talk about faith and Christianity and letting go of maybe what is not true and embracing what is true, is a lot of us have lots of different religious backgrounds and somewhere along the way we picked up some things, and maybe some things that aren't even in this book, maybe some things that aren't true, maybe some things that are partially true but not completely true.

And somewhere along the way we've picked up some things and like, for example, maybe you picked up somewhere along the way that you had to be a good person for God to love you and you're mine like.

For whatever reason, that's where you are.

You just think that, man, I got to be a good person for God to love me.

Or maybe, based on your religious background, maybe you think that if I don't do these certain things or I don't perform and act a certain way, I'm not going to be accepted by God or welcomed by God, because, well, I know God saved me in the gospel but I have to do all these things.

Even though I've trusted Jesus, I still have to do all these things to have God's acceptance.

Or maybe you were in a religious environment where it was about performance and you had to do all these things.

It's so hard to receive this unconditional mercy and grace of God and understand it because in your mind, like what you believe, because what you've been around, it's normal is, you believe that it's all about my performance, it's all about what I do for God, it's all about how I look.

Maybe you have a bad church experience and it hurt really, really bad.

I'm not talking about a bad church experience where somebody didn't shake your hand or the worship song wasn't your favorite.

I'm talking about where things happened in the church.

That shouldn't have happened and it left you hurt.

And it's so hard.

It's so hard in that season, with the pain and the emotions, to separate the essence of Christianity from our experience with Christians.

It's hard and we have these experiences in our lives, we have these religious experiences and then on top of that, we also have a lot of content out there that we consume all the time.

I mean, you think about this, we're really we're like content consuming machines.

I mean I was on social media the other day and I was scrolling I scroll for like five minutes and I was like wow, I probably just saw like 20 posts or something with information about all kinds of stuff and I just absorbed to some degree all this content.

Like we absorb more content right now than ever before in human history.

We absorb content all the time and it's the crazy thing about content is we form our content but then our content forms us.

So we do is like we form.

We choose who we follow.

We choose who we're going to our new stations, we choose the Tik Tokers we're going to follow, we choose our YouTube, whatever we choose that but then our content starts to form us.

So we have all these experiences in our lives and then we have all this content that we're consuming.

What could happen is you can really dilute the truth of what Scripture and Jesus actually says.

It can really cause us to hold to things that we think are true, that we think might be Christianity, but it's not.

Here we have these experiences and we have this content and we're like what do we do with all this stuff?

And then we have this Christian life and we're like I don't even.

I'm so all over the place.

I don't even know what to believe and I kind of believe this over here, but is this even true?

It's like I don't know if you've been there, but I have.

What do we do?

We talk to somebody.

We talk to somebody that maybe is a further along in their faith or not further along in our faith than we are.

We talk to somebody that's maybe sturdy in their faith and they're safe enough to not feel threatened by your honest questions and your honest doubts.

You talk to somebody that you respect in their Christian walk.

You respect their life, you respect their faith.

Maybe this is your growth group leader.

Maybe this is your growth track mentor.

This is maybe your ministry leader.

Maybe it's somebody else, but somebody that you respect.

And when we have these questions and we have all these things that are going around in our minds, we need to talk to somebody about them.

Say, man, this is where I am Like, help me understand.

And if you're the somebody that's struggling, comes and talks to you, this is what you need to do.

You need to listen to them and not judge them, and pray for them.

You don't need to fix them.

You don't even need to have an answer to every question that they have.

It's not your job in that moment.

You need to listen to them and hear where they are and have compassion and have empathy for whatever their experiences are.

Maybe this is the right answer and it's very clear, but they've had such a painful church experience they aren't ready to hear this.

They just need somebody to sit with them in this.

Maybe somebody.

Maybe there's a very clear answer right here, but somebody's had a traumatic experience in their life and they're things in their minds they can't justify and they just can't reconcile.

In that moment we don't need to give them the right answer, although there may be a time where we can have a conversation about this but in the moment we might just need to sit there with them and empathize with them and care about them.

And something that I'm learning.

And, man, I get this wrong more often than right, but I'm having more conversations about this and people are talking about stuff.

I try to ask two questions, especially in this conversation, when I'm not exactly sure what they're trying to tell me and I'm trying to listen, I'm trying to hear.

I ask them do you want me to listen right now or do you want my advice right now?

Because I can do either.

I can just sit here and listen for however long, I'm fine with that, but if you don't want that, I want to help you, it's?

Do you want me to listen or do you want my advice?

And for those of us I'm going to talk to the dudes, because this is kind of how we are, those of us that are fixers, right, fixers.

Let's just be honest.

How many of you guy or girl, whatever, you're just a fixer.

You just want to fix things right?

Raise your hand, okay, all right, cool, all right.

So I'm not alone.

A lot of us, right?

This is what we think.

We think if we have a conversation like that and we didn't give them advice or we didn't fix something.

It wasn't a successful conversation.

Wrong.

If somebody feels hurt and loved, it's always a successful conversation.

And this is what we do.

We listen to them, we hear them out, and the reason why Jesus challenges our societal norms and beliefs and the reason why he comes to us and talks to us about these things and things that may arise doubts, the reason why he does this is because he wants us to let go of what is untrue so we can hold on to what is true.

He wants us to let go of what is untrue so we can hold on to what is true.

In Matthew, chapter 5, when he's challenging these people, he's not like mad at them.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He's not like I don't want to get these, no, no, he wants them to let go of what is not true and embrace what is true, and it's a beautiful thing.

I'll give you an example of this.

Over the last few years, we've been able to just make several building updates around here because of your incredible generosity.

It's been amazing.

And a couple of years ago we had a guy, a contractor, here.

He was working on the electrical, the electrical.

I don't know if any of you guys know how to work with electrical wires and all that stuff.

I have no idea how to do that.

I'm just good at turning on the light switch for the light bulb.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't know how to do any of that.

So he was working on some wires and the wires he was actually working on was for the backlight right over there.

He's working on those and I guess some stuff had been Jimmy rigged together or whatever, and he went to grab some wires that were not supposed to be hot.

But he grabbed them and they were hot and he got a good shock and he talked to me and he was like man, I don't know what's going on.

I was shocked really good, and he had a great attitude about it, a great spirit about it and of course we apologize and you know those types of things and he was able to, he worked on it and whatnot.

But what he didn't do when the wires were messed up back there is he didn't go to Pastor Cody, who leads all of our facilities.

He didn't go to Pastor Cody and he didn't say hey, cody, that part is bad, that part of this building is not good.

This is what we need to do Burn the whole building down and go away from it, move to a different building.

This is a bad situation.

This is a bad place.

I mean that right, I didn't do that.

This is what he did.

He deconstructed, he fixed the part that wasn't right and now it is right.

And sometimes what happens is when we come to a place in our faith where there's doubts, where maybe we see a discrepancy between what was told to us and what somebody did, or maybe we have some, what we can be tempted to do is say, I'm just walk away from all of that.

And if that's what Christianity is, if Christianity is that Christian leader, then I'm, and they did that, then I'm leaving.

No, no, no.

That's what we do.

We let go of what is untrue and we hold to what is true.

And I want to give you an example why this matters so much.

We're going to have fun for a second, okay.

Is it okay if we have fun this morning for a second?

Is that okay?

Is that okay?

This is what we're going to do, okay, I'm going to have you, on a count of three, close your eyes and you're going to point what direction you think is north.

So when you look around, like, what direction do you think is north, north, south, east, west?

I want you to point to the direction that you think is north.

So, on the count of three, I want you to close your eyes, I want you to point the direction and then you can open your eyes.

Okay, ready, one, two, three, close and point.

Alright, everybody, open up their eyes, hold them out, look for it.

Okay, you see.

Okay, north is this way.

That's right.

I saw somebody Not going to call them out.

I saw somebody pointing up in the sky.

That's right, this is up.

This is up.

This is true.

North is this way, south is this way.

Now I was practicing this illustration and I was like, wait, I got to get this right.

Like, what direction is north?

So praise God for iPhones.

I took out my iPhone.

There's like an app for everything for crying out loud.

I typed in compass and I put it.

Would you know?

There's a compass on your stinking iPhone that just comes with it.

It's amazing.

And I looked at it and it went this way.

So I'm like okay, so that's north, that's south, north, south, north, south.

Okay, so this is north and that's south.

I said I wanted to go to LA.

I'm going to Los Angeles.

If I went this way, yes or no, would I get to LA?

I wouldn't.

Maybe eventually it would take me a while, right, I wouldn't If I wanted to go to Seattle Washington.

I want to go to Seattle.

I don't know why anybody want to go to Seattle Washington.

That great weather all the time.

My best friends was up there just kidding.

If I wanted to go to Seattle Washington and this is north and this is south, but I went this way Would that be a good idea, yes or no?

I don't want to go this way because this is the direction Seattle.

Now.

Here's why I say this Because truth has consequences and truth matters and I can be very sincere and say okay, so north is dollar.

Right, north is dollar.

That's the other way.

I can be so sincere and I can say I'm going to Seattle this way, this is where I'm going.

I believe this.

Don't y'all tell me that that's north, I am going to Seattle, and that's going to have consequences and that's going to take me somewhere.

Jesus says you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Truth actually matters, and what Jesus invites us to do is to let go of things that are not true and to hold on to things that are true, even if it's really difficult and really hard.

I want to give you an example of this as we kind of wrap up, and it's very personal to me because it's kind of a little bit about my journey of where I had to kind of let go of some things that were untrue, so I got to hold on to some things that were true.

I was 23 years old and I had just finished up Bible college.

I had a degree in theology, which can be really dangerous.

I had a degree in theology and I had a lot of zeal without a lot of knowledge.

I thought I had a lot of knowledge but I had a lot of zeal and I had this combination of a type A driven personality Any type A people out there, type A, some type A driven personality right, there's some great strengths with that but I had a type A personality and I had some life experiences and I had this religious background too.

It was like I was holding on to some things, though that were not true in my zeal for Jesus, some things that left me with some anxiety and left me prideful and, honestly, left me being a pretty judgmental person, all in the name of Jesus and also left me kind of worn out, like I was like tired.

In my faith I had a pretty high capacity so I could do a bunch of stuff like go, go, go, go, go, go.

Right, I could serve, serve, serve, serve, serve.

I could do it all.

Like we talk here about taking breaks, volunteers taking breaks.

I'm never going to take a break, I don't need a break.

Oh, I'm good, right, crazy people at that church even gave me a microphone to let me go on stage and talk sometimes.

I mean, I was just that, was zealous, that was kind of burning out and I had been reading just a bunch of like self-help books.

So my faith had been like there had been like this self-help stuff that had come into my Christian faith.

So I'm like I just need to do more and try harder and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it caused me to be so weary in my journey with Jesus.

It caused me to be so tired.

It caused me to be comparing myself with other people and I was in this place in my faith where I constantly felt like I had to prove myself, like I had to prove myself to other people.

I had to prove myself to God.

I had to prove myself to the professors that I went to, that taught me in college that lived hundreds of miles away from me.

I don't know why I thought this.

And I was living in this place where I had to prove myself.

I had to prove the worth of my existence and if you've ever been in that place, it's really hard and it's really tiring.

But I just felt like I had to prove myself and I was drained and I was getting burned out.

Ironically in my faith.

And I read a verse like Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28.

Matthew 11:28

I read these verses and they were the opposite of my Christian experience.

I read in this actually became my life.

First, jesus says come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy-layed, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I'm lowly and humble and hard, and you'll find rest for your souls.

This is what Jesus says that I'll find rest for my soul.

My Christian life would not be described as rest.

It would be described as work and tire and toil and comparison, and being prideful and being judgmental, honestly, just being honest, confessing my sins right up here, for everybody here.

And I read this verse and I was studying this out and I was like man, something's gotta change, like something is not right, and I did something.

That's a good thing for me to do is I talked to my mom.

I was like, mom, this is kind of where I am.

I'm kind of like this low-level frustration and like, help me understand this.

And she recommended this book to me by a guy that's actually a medical doctor.

His name is Richard Swinson and the book is contentment the Secret to a Lasting Calm the Secret to a Lasting Calm.

First of all I saw that book and I was like that's the ugliest book cover I think I've ever seen.

But my second thought was, hey, I'll read it.

I'm not content in my life at all.

I don't have calm in my life at all and through that book the author just went through the teachings of Jesus and I learned that I didn't have to prove myself to God, that God already accepted me.

I learned that I didn't have to do things to make God love me.

It's not that in my head I knew that there was nothing I could do to make God love me more, and there's nothing I could make God love me less.

But my heart didn't know that it didn't.

My heart wasn't resting in that.

It was through that book that I learned that I had to let go of this idea that if I do more of these things, that I can gain more of God's favor, like I can make God more happy with me.

It's almost like the death of Jesus wasn't enough, like Jesus really mattered for my salvation, for me to trust and follow Jesus, but now I had to do all these things to get more of God's acceptance and all this other stuff.

And this book showed me I didn't have to, that my righteousness was not based on what I did for God, but what God did for me.

That's what my righteousness was, and I went on this journey as a 23 year old of deconstructing, of examining my beliefs and what I actually believe, and it allowed me to let go of what is untrue so I could hold on to what is true, allowed me to let go of the things in my life that were causing honestly, there were spiritual reasons I was having anxiety and difficulties and challenges, and I had to let go so I could embrace more of who I am in Christ, this idea that I don't have to live for an identity.

I don't have to try to be somebody.

God already says I am somebody.

And it was so freeing.

And, in an ironic twist, I had been around some teaching and some things in religious environments where the motivator was guilt.

I don't know if you've ever been in an environment like that.

It was guilt and shame you have to do this.

And the church was less like a hospital for our souls and more like a place to get whipped up in shape or whatever, and so my motivator was I got to do all these things out of guilt.

Ironically, what happened is when I started resting in the gospel and resting in my acceptance in Christ and resting in how much he served me and how much he loves me.

It actually fueled my service for him and it made me wanna serve him more than ever before.

But what deeply changed was the why in my serving and my motive for serving, and it changed everything for me.

And I tell you that story for this reason that maybe you're in a place like me in your Christian journey, where you're just like I have to.

You feel like you have to prove yourself to God.

You feel like you're having to earn all these things.

You're just, you're like lost in your Christian journey.

Can I say, like there's a better way, like Jesus provides rest for our souls.

Maybe you're in a place in your life where you've been around some Christian leaders that have done some terrible things.

Can I say that's not Christianity and I get the hurt and the pain.

But maybe we need to let go of some things that are not true, that maybe have interwoven into what we think Christianity is, so we can embrace what it truly is and the ways of Jesus.

So here's my challenge to you guys today.

I got two challenges and we're done.

One is this search the scripture.

Search the scripture, like what does this actually say?

You have a question about this.

One of the best places that's helped people all the time is go to gotquestionsorg man.

The answers are straight from the Bible and gotquestionsorg.

Search this, maybe for the first time in your life.

Like, don't take secondhand information from me.

Study this for yourself.

Search the scripture what does this actually say?

And then, second of all, let the scripture be your filter.

Right now we are, we're in a day and age where there is a lot of content out there I was sharing that a minute ago and there's a lot of voices out there that are making a lot of money off of the views that they have and the clicks that they're getting, and there's a lot of voices out there and what can happen is we can let those things be the filter for what we believe.

We're also in a political election year God please help us and we can let a political party be the filter for how we see the world and how we see things.

God help us.

We have to let this be the filter and, guys, this is my challenge today Search the scripture and let the scripture be your filter and let go of what is not true so we can hold on to what is true.

Let me pray for you this morning.