URGENT CARE // Full-Cup Parenting // Pastor Richie Fike

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to

know that God is for you. So you're about to

hear a sermon from one of our weekend services in

the twilights of southern Colorado. God is not a monument,

He's a movement. So we're praying that this message will

move you in a meaningful way. Listen closely after the

message for ways to get connection with us. God bless you.

Thanks for tuning in.

Okay, good morning everybody. Thanks for praying for our graduates

this morning. That's awesome. Jake just came up to me

and told me afterwards, Fike, you suck for having you

guys pray for a very specific prayer that I won't

repeat now for the internet. But welcome. We're glad you're

with us today, and we really are, guys, really proud

of you. You know, finishing something means something, and so

all of us that have gone through the process of

doing that, we know what it feels like to finish something,

and so we're proud of you for doing that. We're

in this series called Urgent where we are talking about

the most urgent, most important relationships in our lives. And

today we're going to be talking about parenting. Who's excited

about excited about learning about parenting? Come on, praise God,

and I'm going to just give you the thesis of

the sermon right out the gate. Okay, here it is.

The thesis of the sermon is the ultimate goal of

a Christian parent is to equip their child to move

into the world with a full cup a full cup.

What do I mean by that? Well, there's basically two

kinds of people in the world. There are people who

are walking through life with an empty cup and people

who are walking through life with a full cup. Empty

cuppers and full cuppers are very different. Empty cuppers are

all around us. We see them everywhere we look. Empty

coppers are pursuing affirmation, approval, purpose and meaning, identity and direction,

validation and acceptance. And the problem is that they're pursuing

it everywhere they can find a source, and all but

one source is a faulty source. Can I hear an amen?

And the problem with an empty cupper is they haven't

figured that out yet, And so everywhere they go and

everyone they talk to, and every environment that they're in,

they're looking for people to fill them up. Will you

fill me up? Do you think I'm pretty? By the way,

do you think I'm pretty? Do you think I'm cool?

Do you like me? Thank you? I received that. That's

the loudest amen I've ever gotten. If I behave like this,

will you let me hang out with you? If I

value what you value, we'll have a place to belong.

If I chase after your picture of success, will you

deem me successful? This is an empty cup life, and

the big dilemma is that no amount of acceptance, love,

or validation will ever be enough for an empty cupper

because they're asking all the wrong sources to fill them up.

They are wookin panub in all the wrong places right

an If I know that reference, am I just old? Wow? Okay?

So juxtapose that life up against a full cupper. A

full copper isn't walking through life begging for validation. They've

gotten all the validation, the love, the acceptance, the purpose,

the security that they'll ever need from the only reliable

source that any of us could ever find, from God,

and they're following after God and pouring themselves out. Their

cup isn't just filled, it's filled to overflow. They have

a solid understanding of who they are whose they are,

why they matter, and what their life has to offer

god'som So again, I want to restate that the ultimate

goal of a Christian parent is to equip their child

to move into the world with a full cup. Big

question is how how do we do that? How do

parents do that? How do parents fill up the cup

of a child? How do they get them to learn

how to live like that? What counsel does the Bible

have to offer? And maybe more importantly, what happens if

we don't do that? What happens moms and dads, if

we don't send our children into the world with a

full cup? What happens? I want to tell you about

a book. Put this book in all five of your

little gift packages, graduates. It's a book called The Seven

Primal Questions and was written by Mike Foster. Mike Foster

is a Christian life coach and it took him seven

years to write this book, and he used over one

hundred and fifty thousand different assessments of real people to

come up with the premise of this book and the

answers to these questions that he asked. Here's the basic

premise of the book is that every human being, whether

due to their nature or their nurture, has kind of

a neon flashing question that demands an answer, he asserts.

Mike Foster does that. It's going to be one of

seven questions. I'll show you what they are. The first

one is am I safe as a person? Am I safe?

Am I secure? Am I loved? Am I wanted? Am

I successful? Am I good enough? Do I have purpose?

I bet you right away off the bat as soon

as you read those questions, one of them jumped off

at you and you went, ooh, that's the question for me,

And I understand if you look at this list, it's

easy for you to kind of center in on whichever

question matters the most to you, or the question that

you have the hardest time answering. Going to get to that,

So please don't go mentally there and check out for

the rest of the sermon. Okay, we're gonna get to you.

Because this sermon is not just a sermon about parenting.

That's not what the point of this is. Parenting is

a big part of this because moms and dads are

responsible to send their kids into the world with a

full cup. But what about you? What about your cup?

This is a sermon about living all of us from

a full cup. And so I'm gonna give you three

big questions today that I want to try to answer

for you here. They are, Number one, what fills the cup?

If you're supposed to live with a full cup, what

fills it up? Number two? How does it get filled up?

And number three what good is the cup? That's what

we're gonna deal with today. Those three questions. Our cortext

if you have a Bible, is going to be Psalm

twenty three. Psalm twenty three. Guys, we went and saw

this movie yesterday called The Sheep Detectives. Can I just

tell you I cried and cried throughout this movie? And

of course my wife went so like, what really is

wrong with you? Like on a soul level, there's something

wrong right. And my son Judah, we asked him, did

you cry in the movie? He goes, I really tried

not to. It's an awesome movie. So I have no

stake in the game. I'm just telling you it's great.

And the reason I'm telling you about that is because

Psalm twenty three is about a person who has gotten

to know the shepherd. Look at how Psalm twenty three starts.

This is written late into David's life. He has lived

almost his whole life when he writes this song, and

he says this, The Lord is my shepherd. I have

what I need so good. He lets me lie down

in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He

renews my life. He leads me along the right paths

for his Name's sake. Even when I go through the

darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff have they comfort me. You

prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows Verse six.

Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the

days of my life, and I will dwell in the

house of the Lord as long as I live. It's

the song we're just saying. For as long as I live,

I'll never stop giving you praise. So our first question,

what fills the cup? First off, what David wants all

of us to know, what the Bible wants all of

us to know, is that it won't ever be a

what that fills your cup. It's only going to be

a who success will not fill your cup. Popularity will

not fill your cup. A good friend group will not

fill your cup. Your dream job, your dream house, getting

married and having kids, being successful, none of that will

ever fill your cup. And the grown folks in the

room should say, come on, we've seen some of this.

You feel the lack of it, you feel the presence

of it, and none of it fills the cup. David's

saying that it's God that has filled his cup to

overflow what I want to show you. This is so cool.

Foster's seven questions right that he presented to us matches

up so beautifully with Psalm twenty three because David, in

his own way, answers all seven questions. Really, I should say,

he demonstrates how God has answered all seven of those

questions for him. So let's walk through these questions and

look at Psalm twenty three to see this. The first

question is am I safe? David says this, even though

I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger

for you are with me. Here's what I love about that.

David's not saying that the world's not a scary place.

He's not saying that he doesn't have enemies. I'm a

Christian so I don't have enemies. No, he's not saying

that there won't be valleys in his life. He fully

is aware I'm going to go through some valleys, but

he knows that he's safe. He's safe. A full copper

does not believe that life is safe. They simply know

that God is present even in danger. They know they've

got a fighter in their corner, and he's bigger and

tougher than any shadow of death that ever faces them. Right,

they know that they're safe. Here's the second question. Am

I secure? Am I secure? David knows that the world's

a crazy place, that there's dangers lurking at every corner,

But he says, I'm gonna dwell in the House of

the Lord as long as I live. What's he's saying.

He's saying a full copper understands that security is permanence.

It's saying, listen, no matter where I go, no matter

where I walk through, I'm walking with God. He is

with me. I'm dwelling in the House of the Lord.

I'm present with him all the time. I belong to God.

Here's what he's not saying. It's not saying that security

is control or predictability or comfort. We all love those things, right,

don't you love comfort? Don't you love predictability? Don't you

love control? Well, I'm sorry, that's not the Christian life.

That's not what it's going to feel like. It's going

to feel like God is in control and everything else

is going nuts. But I'm secure because I'm with him.

David's gotten this question answered for him. The next question,

am I loved? Now? If you read that list, and

this is the one that popped off the page to you,

something in your life has happened that made you feel

like maybe you're not worthy of love. Maybe the people

in your life who were supposed to show you what

love felt like didn't. And I just want to say,

I'm so sorry that that happened to you. I'm so

sorry that that's your truth, that that's your experience. But

I also want to say, look at what David says

about your God verse six. Only goodness and faithful love

will pursue me all the days of my life. That's

who our God is. Only goodness and faithful love. What's

he saying. God's goodness and faithful love are pursuing us

day and night, just like we're supposed to be worshiping

day and night. God is pursuing us day and night.

I will say that the CSB translation bugs me a

little bit because it says only goodness and mercy pursue me.

How many of you know that other things are pursuing you?

Are you aware that other things are pursuing you? Doubt

is pursuing you, Shame is pursuing you, idolatry, empty pleasures, lies,

substitutes are pursuing you. Why Because the messaging of this

world comes directly from the mouth of the enemy of

your soul, and so lots of distractions are pursuing you.

The enemy of your soul is pursuing you, seeking to

devour you and moms and dads, seeking to devour your

kids because he hates God and he hates that we

would know him, so he does anything he can to

step in between a loving relationship between your kids and

God the Father. The enemy is real, but David's perspective

shows us that he's got these like active noise canceling headphones.

I don't know, like this is like he understood all

this long before the technology got there. Because he's not

even listening to the enemy. His perspective shows that God

doesn't just put up with him. God doesn't just tolerate David.

God loves David. He's sure of it. So that question,

am I loved? Am I loved? Can I just tell you,

like I have read the Bible multiple times, I am

a master of theology. I would like to share with

you today. God loves you, Oh man, he loves you.

You are loved. And the beautiful, the most beautiful picture

that we have of that is this, that Jesus Christ,

a sinless savior, come from heaven to earth and take

on flesh and give all of himself away to you.

You are loved. The next question is am I wanted?

A little different than loved? Wanted? Is a little different?

Do people want to hang out with me? Do people

want to spend time with me? Do people want to

invite me? Do people like me? That's kind of the

question that's being asked. Look what David says, Let me

tell you something, God himself has prepared a table for

me in the presence of my enemies. Think of that,

God himself has prepared a table. And listen the whole

narrative of scripture, all of it. If you were to

try to sum it up. The whole narrative of scripture

is that God the Father loved you so much that

he sent his son to die on a cross to

take on your sin because he wanted to make space

for you. You are wanted in his kingdom. It's powerful

to think about this. And God knows that if you

don't experience his desire for you, then you'll go chasing

after an empty substitute. That's just who we are. We

want to feel wanted, we want to feel loved. But

David says, look, God has prepared a table for me.

He put out the napkins and the silverware, he took

out the fine china, come on, the stuff that we

only see at Christmas. He made a space for me.

I mean, it's a vibe in here. He wants to

hang out with me. David is keenly aware of how

much God delights to be with him. And that's not arrogance,

it's not self importance. It's peace. He's come to a

place of peace. Full coppers know that the God of

Heaven made intentional space for them. They're wanted, they're pursued,

they're included. Amen, you with me. Here's the next question,

Am I successful? Am I successful? Who here wants to

be known as a successful person? Anybody here raise your hand.

The rest of you are lying. All of us want

to be Not only do we want to be successful,

but we want to be perceived as successful. Right, Well,

look at what David says. He says, God renews my life.

He leads me along the right paths for his namesake.

What's so cool about what David's doing is he's redefining

success because what he's saying is, look at the end

of my life. I know a lot of people are

going to tell a lot of stories about me. They're

going to say a lot of things. I won this battle.

You know, I beat Goliath with a sling. You know,

there's a lot of things that people are going to

say about my success. But I want to tell you

none of it would have happened unless He led me.

Every moment of success in my life is evidence that

God was in charge. He led me, I followed, I

did whatever he told me to do. He's redefining and

reframing what success looks like. Instead of using metrics like

applause or status, or awards or bonuses or wealth, David

says here's what success looks like, faithfulness, obedience, relationship, connectivity.

A lot of empty coppers are achieving all of their

wildest dreams, and they're still getting no sleep at night

because there's never an end to it. Have you felt that?

Have you noticed that? But when you define success as faithfulness,

as obedience, then every day of your life you can

put your head on the pillow and have peace. Full

coppers aren't focused on establishing impressive resumes. They're simply growing

deeper roots in God. This next one's a doozy. Am

I good enough? Am I good enough? Well? First of all, theologically,

the answer is no, you're not okay. None of us

can walk into heaven and say I belong here except

for Jesus, except for the fact that Jesus said. You've

heard it said before. If you're at the pearly gates

and they say why should I let you in, and

you start with the word I, you're already finished. But

if you start with the word he, you start with

the word Jesus. I belong here because of what Jesus did,

not because of anything I did. So the answer to

the question am I good enough? Is no, you're not.

Person next to you, you are not good enough. Come on,

encourage them today in church. You're not good enough. But

here's what I want you to see. Look what David says,

The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need.

I have what I need. I think this is so

cool because the obvious immediate translation of this is I've

got food, I've got shelter, I've got love, I've got

a leader. And that's for sure what he meant. And

there is a deeper significance to this phrase, I have

what I need. David's telling us about the state of

his soul. He's telling us about his relationship with God.

David Man, what's amazing when you study his life. This guy,

from the moment we meet him to the moment he dies,

he never wrestled with the most viral problem that all

of us wrestle with in twenty twenty six. He never

wrestles with it. There is a disease amongst us in

our culture. It's not COVID. It's comparison. It is rampant.

It is viral. In our culture. All of us find

ourselves comparing ourselves all the time. When I was a kid,

the only people I had to compare myself to were

the people at my school or the football teams that

we were going to play, right, that's it. That's who

we compared ourselves to. Now, because of our phones and

because of the Internet, we are comparing ourselves to everyone everywhere,

all the time, true or false. And not only that,

but we tend to compare our blooper reels to their

highlight reels. We tend to go, oh, man, I just

don't measure up. Look at that slam dunk. I can't

even touch net, right, I mean, that's the way we

experience life. That was a basketball metaphor, ladies, just in

case you're wondering. But yeah, but you know what, David,

in his whole life, we never see him wrestling with comparison.

He's the youngest of eight kids. He's got no problem

with that. When he is soon to be king, Saul

is ticked at him and wants him dead. He's hunting David,

and David never says a sour word towards Saul. David

never wrestled with comparison. Why, because the Lord is my shepherd.

I have what I need, beautiful. He's certainly talking about provision,

but this principle is spiritual. What if you approached life

like this? What if instead of comparing yourself to all

the people you think are better than you, what if

you walked into life and just kind of appreciating what

God gave you, your skill set, your gift mix you're calling

your personality. It's God given and therefore it's sufficient. God

already has a Richie fight, He's already got a Billy Graham,

he's already got filled in the blank. But he wants

to do something significant and distinct through you. He wants

to fill up your cup so that you can overflow.

Are you willing to let him do that? What if

you didn't walk around comparing yourself to everyone? What if

you weren't insecure about what you're not about who you're not.

What if you were just grateful for who God made

you to be. I'm grateful for who God made you

to be. Those of you that I know really well

in the room, I love you, guys. I'm so proud

of who you are and God is to you. Don't

have to be anything other than who you are. Some

of you may have grown up in a home where

the goalposts we're always moving. You come home and you

say I got a ninety seven on my chemistry exam

and your dad says couldn't get a hundred. Hey, I'm

going to be starting on the baseball team. You'll never

play college ball. Some of us grew up like that

with parents who spoke like that and who made you

feel like you'll never be good enough. I just want

to say I'm sorry, and I also want to say

that to me. And really, what this book talks a

lot about, that's evidence of a person who never got

that question answered for themselves, a parent who would treat

you that way. As a person who's trying to find

significance in your achievements instead of understanding who God made

them to be, they never got their cup fill. Another

way to say that is that insecurity is loud and

confidence is quiet. Right, hurt people hurt people, and parents

hurt people. So as a child, students, you graduates, your job,

man is to learn to let God answers the answer

these questions for you, and parents it's our job to

help them do that. Am I good enough? As a

major question that parents can help their kids find the

right answer to, And David found his answer. I mean,

the guy was absolutely an achiever. There's never been a

king like David in all the world. There's never been

a man more heralded, a more conquering victor, a more

prolific writer, a more passionate worshiper. There's never been anyone

like David. And yet he never wrestled with these questions.

Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Can I

accomplish enough? Will I ever measure enough? No, he says,

you prepare a table for me in the presence of

my enemies, and you annoy my head with oil. I

love the picture of that. That all these people who

hate David for all of his accomplishments, who hate him,

they're standing there going, ooh, I can't stand how good

you've got it. God says, I want you to know

that he's got it this good because I gave it

to him. That's why. That's how he got it. I

love this language. Have you heard this language? This is

what the gen Z kids are saying. David is sat

Have you heard this? Okay? This is what it means

old people when someone says, dude, I am sat. Like

if you see a movie trailer right and you go,

I really want to see that movie, people will say dude,

I am sat for that movie. It's super dumb, but

that's what kids are saying. But David is sat. He's

not striving, he's not yearning, he's not earning, he's not proving.

God has proved it. And for us, because we have

the whole of scripture, we see another way that God

has proved it. He's proved it to us. You were

dead in your sin. You were lost, and you were

moving the wrong direction, and God made away when there

was no way. He gave himself up for you. The

cross is a clear message that in God's eyes, you

are worth it. You're worth all the shame, all the ridicule,

all the pain, all the curses that were cast upon

our savior, this sinless man died your death you were

worth it. And here's the last primal question. Do I

have purpose? Do I have purpose? Listen? Know what David says.

God renews my life. He leads me along the right

paths for his namesake. There's a really interesting clause here

in this sentence. It's this one his name's sake. That's

David's purpose. That's why he did everything that he ever did,

Any effort he ever made was in that direction. David's

telling us that his purpose is not to make a

great name for Israel, but to be a good servant

to the King. Everything he has ever accomplished or ever

will accomplish, is rooted in one per It is the

great name of the Lord, his God. That's why God

led him every step of the way. It's why his

life was renewed. It's why David gets up in the morning,

It's why he fights the fights that he does. David's

true north was not is not building a legacy for himself.

Young people, that is going to be the temptation of

your life to go out and build something for you mine.

You know, gollum, my precious like to make something that

you own. David's telling us the purpose of life, the

best purpose of life. What will fill your cup is

if your purpose is God and his kingdom, it's pouring

himself out to God. So what fills the cup? It's

not a what, It's got to be a who. Here's

the reality. If we don't, if God doesn't fill our cups,

we'll spend our whole life asking broken people with empty

cups to do what only God can do. Anybody here

know how bad that works? Out for us. When we

try to do that, we go looking for affirmation and

validation from people who are just as broken as we are.

It doesn't work. But if we let God answer our questions,

our cup will fill to overflow. That's the first question.

Here's the second question, How does God? How does our

cup get filled up? We know who fills it up,

It's God. But what's the process. Here's what David said.

He said, he lets me lie down beside green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life,

he establishes my path. All of this is about quality

time with the Lord. All of this is about spending

time with the Lord, quiet waters with the Lord, intentional

time with him. God fills the cup through presence and

guidance and rest and formation and loving leadership. There's no

instant fixes. This stuff doesn't happen overnight. Listen, if any

of you young folks in the room think that you

were just going to have all these answers liquety split overnight,

no problem. I got another story to tell you. It

is a lifetime of learning the rhythms of grace, get

and stay filled by consistently. That's the most important word.

On this slide, consistently connecting with God. It can't just

be a summer camp high. It can't just be I

went to passion twenty twenty seven and it changed me

forever until March when I forgot all about it right.

All of us have had those experiences. But the primary

expectation for a Christian parent is to model this kind

of life for your kids. What I want to show

you in Deuteronomy six, this will be our second scripture

for the day. In Deuteronomy six, God does this really

amazing thing. He gives instructions to parents about what is

expected of them in the legacy of their faith. He

says this, Listen, Israel, this is Deuteronomy six y four.

The Lord, our God, the Lord is one. So here's

what you are required to do. Here is what it

looks like to have a real relationship with God. Love

the Lord your God with most of your heart. Is

that what it says? Love the Lord your God with

some of your attention. No, Love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your strength. These words that I'm giving you today are

to be in your heart. Now listen. Now that you've

done that verse seven. Repeat them to your children. Talk

about them when you sit in your house, and when

you walk along the road, when you lie down, and

when you get up. Bind them as a sign on

your hand, and let them be a symbol on your forehead.

Write them on the doorpost of your house and on

your city gates. What's he saying. He's saying that discipleship

is a process, it's daily, it's repetition, it's continuing to

do these things that God's talking about. As a Christian parent,

we are responsible to steward the process until our children

can do it for themselves. But notice, you can't teach

what you don't live. You can't teach fullness. While my thirst,

your kids are investigative reporters. They are watching everything you're doing.

This Friday night, this past Friday night, on the way

to growth group, my sweet wife and I were having

a little heated conversation, as we like to say, and

Judah was in the back seat. Now, we in our

relationship with our kids, we have never hidden a fight

from our kids. We don't want them to not know

how to resolve conflict, and so we don't hide when

we're having tension with each other. And we were having

some tension with each other, and what I didn't know

was in the back seat Judah was filming the whole thing.

And what I also didn't know was that he sent

that film to justice. Is this normal? Our kids are

watching us? Amen? Come on, you can't fool your kids.

You're not going to be able to fool them. Do

as I say, not as I do. Has that ever worked?

No empty cup parents can't produce full cup children. It

just won't work. There's a pretty popular opinion out there,

or kind of an edict that says, we are, as parents,

supposed to put on our oxygen masks first. Have you

heard this? What's the idea there that there's this moment

the plane's crashing, the oxygen tanks come down, and before

you try to put them on your kids and run

out of oxygen for yourself, put on the oxygen. Breathe

deep so that you can be a good help to

your children. It's the same thing that God's saying in

Deuteronomy six. Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Put that oxygen mask on your face. You get filled

up with God before you try to fill them up

with anything. That's what he's saying he's saying, put God's

word in your heart. David said, I've hidden your word

in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Mom and dad, that's your job. Repeat God's words to

your children. Mom and dad, that's your job. The scripture,

the Holy Scripture, should be foreign to them. They should

hear it out of your mouth, not just the preacher's mouth,

not just the youth pastor's mouth, not just the children's

director's mouth. Out of your mouth. How's that going to

happen if you don't read it for yourself? Uh oh,

he meddling. Now talk about God's Word with your children.

What does it mean? Hey, let's read this together. Barb

White is one of my heroes in this church because

she is reading through the Bible with her grandson and

he is so excited. What time that they get up,

Steve five in the morning or something. Every day they

get up at five in the morning to read the Bible.

How you doing? That's crazy? And that's what they're doing

to hide the word in their hearts. Read God's Word

with your children everywhere and all the time. Have a

Bible with you, have a Bible in your car, have

a Bible on your desk, have a Bible in the house,

make a public decoration of your family's true north. What

is your family's true north? Listen? I hear a lot

from moms and dads about the kind of messaging that

their kids are receiving and the ways that truth is

being confronted by the world that we live in. Moral

deviations are all around us, slippery slopes and shades of

gray all around us. It's the very same thing that

happened in the book of Genesis. We're experiencing all the time.

What did the serpent say to Eve? That's right? He said?

Did God really say that? Mom and Dad? You can't

answer that question for them if you don't know it

for yourself. Did God really say that? Is it really

a sin? Come on? How could that be wrong when

it feels so right? How could that be wrong when

it's so fun? Did God really say that this is

what our kids are being confronted with? Mom and dad,

You've got to have a good answer for that question, Okay.

God's word lovingly confronts the things that we run to

for identity, validation, and purpose, not because he wants less

for us, but because he wants the best for us.

And full covers. Know that what God wants for us

is what's best for us. And where do they learn it?

They learned it from the same place that I learned

about this when I was in like elementary school every Saturday.

I don't know why they played this cartoon or this

commercial during the cartoons on Saturday mornings, but maybe you'll

remember this commercial. Watch this it's yours. No, I'm gonna

set you found it in your closet. I don't know

one of guys. Look, that is why did you get it?

Answer me? Who taught you how to do this stuff?

You are right, I learned it by watching you. Parents

who use drugs have children who use drugs. Okay, I

mean it's admittedly humorous, but also very true, right. I mean?

The point is you can't You can't expect anything of

your kids that you won't model, and you can't expect

most of the things that you model for them. Be

with me. Parents who live from a full cup have

a better chance at producing kids who live from a

full cup. So invite them into your story. Teach them

about how you answered those seven questions. Tell them about

what was the loudest question for you and how you

got an answer from God about those things. Teach them

how to discern morally great topics with the true north

of the Bible. Teach them how to represent their Christianity

in a way that is compelling and not combative. We've

got enough finger wagon Christians. We've got enough looking down

your nose Christians in the world. Let's don't be those people.

Let's be people that advocate for what God advocates. He's

not against us, He's for us. Right and teach them

how to find rest and peace in God. Teach them

how to live a life of greater purpose. Okay, so

we've answered the first two questions. What fills the cup?

How does it get filled? I love this God never

fills up a cup just to put it on a shelf.

There's always a reason why he did that. So what

good is the cup? David said, you annoyed me, You

annoy my head with oil. My cup overflows. I really

don't know what else you want for your kids. I

really don't know what else there is to want for

our children. That they would walk through life with a

cup that is overflowing with all of God's goodness everywhere

they go, that they don't just walk around with an

empty cup begging, but they walk around with a full cup,

ready to give of themselves, ready to share what the

Lord's done in their life. The more improper validation you get,

you know this is true, the less that it sat satisfies,

the more insufficient acceptance you receive, the more you chase

after it everywhere all the time. It makes sense for

middle schoolers to do this, right. I mean, if you're

in middle school and you're trying to make sense of

your emotions and you're trying to make sense of the

world you're living in, you're going to do things and

say things and try things that you're hoping will fill

you up. It makes sense for middle schoolers because they're

learning about themselves, they're learning about their world, they're learning

about their soul. But it doesn't make sense for full

grown people to keep living like this. And yet, I

bet you can think of some people in your life

that are living an empty cup life. Right. It doesn't

make sense for us to do that. Here's the contrast.

Empty coppers use people. Full coppers serve people. Empty coppers

need validation. Full coppers give encouragement. Empty coppers consume attention.

It can't get enough. Full coppers they know who they are,

so they pay attention to the people around them. Empty

coppers perform for love. If I act like this, will

you approve of me? Full coppers live from love. Empty

coppers chase identity, and full coppers they know their identity.

When they walk in the room, they change the temperature

of the room. Right. My favorite thing about this book

is this kind of sum up. At towards the end

of the book, Foster says this, after you've gotten your primary,

primal questions answered by God, it becomes your mission in

life to help others experience the answer he's provided you.

Your question becomes your quest. I love that so much.

I had a good friend who actually was the one

that encouraged me to read this book, and he told

me of a story that happened to him. His primary

question was am I loved? He grew up in a

home where his mom and dad never said I love you.

It just wasn't the thing in their home, and so

he walked through life kind of holding his cup out

asking am I worthy of your love? Do you like me?

Do you approve of me? And you read this book

and a friend of his said this to him so

beautiful said, I'm so sorry for what you've been through.

You were worthy of being delighted in your heavenly Father

has always delighted in you. You are loved by God,

not because you've done enough to earn it, but because

he created you, He knows you, and he receives you

as his son. My friend told me that story, and

he said that when he heard that out of this

man so matter of factly, he just broke down in tears,

not because of all his struggles from his past, but

because for the first time, the love of God moved

from this idea on a piece of paper to a

reality in his soul. God loves me. That was powerful

for him. And since that moment, and I can attest

to this because he's a good friend of mine. This

guy has done everything he can to make sure everybody

he knows is so aware of how much God loves them.

You can't hear this enough from this guy everywhere he goes.

Do you know how much God loves you? Do you

know that substitutional pursuits aren't worth it? Do you know

that perform if Christianity is not going to get you anywhere?

Do you know that prove it to me. Living is

not what God wants for you. He loves you. His

question has become his quest. I think that's so powerful.

Now let me tell you about me. That's me on

the right. I grew up as a latchkey kid. I

just want to make sure you'll know that's me on

the right. There. You see the swag, don't you. I

mean I had the swag from an early age. I mean,

pop your collar, don't let him sweatch you. You know

this is also me. This is my neighbor's house. We

didn't eat alligators. I know, I'm from Louisiana. This is

this is contributing to the stereotype. But this is me

and that was also me in middle school football, And

you know I grew up in a latch key home.

My mom and dad both had full time jobs and

they were both teachers. My dad was a coach for

a middle school. He won a state championship. Really good coach.

He coached football, baseball, soccer, track, basketball, He coached all

the sports at his school. He was a great, great coach.

And my mom tutored after school. I've told you the

stories about my mom tutoring Shaquille O'Neil. My mom was busy,

so I would get home at three o'clock, I'd have

a key, I'd go in the house. I wouldn't see

them till six o'clock. I'd get my homework done, we'd

eat dinner. That'd be it for the day. But there

was also, you know, just some hard feelings that I

began to grow in my heart because when my dad

got home, he went straight to the couch, and he

went straight to his recliner because he was exhausted. He

would put on a ball game and fall out asleep

on the couch, and I began to interpret his exhaustion

as absence in my life. I never really felt connected

to him. In fact, I never felt really cared for

by him, protected by him. There was some unhealth and

home growing up. My mom, I think, was carrying too

much burden because my dad would get home and be exhausted,

and so she had to do all this work, and

I began to feel like I was kind of a

problem in my own house. I often felt exposed instead

of protected, like nobody was really in my corner, nobody

was fighting for me, And over time I started believing

that I was the problem. When I read this book

and I got to the chapter about am I Safe?

I just cried and cried through that chapter because Foster

describes safety as a sense of advocacy, a sense of

someone defending you, someone fighting for you. I walked through

the valley of the shadow of death, but I fear

no evil, for God was with me. I didn't think

anybody was with me, and that's how I grew up.

What was missing in my house contributed to the volume

of that question, Am I safe? Is anyone fighting for me?

Is anyone in my corner who's got my back? Tears

just like poured out of my face when I read

the chapter. Thankfully, when I read this book, I had

already found an answer to this question. I had already

accepted Christ. In fact, one of the things that was

most appealing to me about the Gospel story was this

idea that God fought so much of me that he

would send Jesus to fight for me, to defend me,

to make space for me. That really meant a lot

to me. That Jesus was in my corner. I didn't

have to be alone, I didn't have to fear life.

I could face anything because God was with me. And

then I got to the turn that part about your

question becoming your quest, and I started thinking about this church.

I read this about a year ago. Three years ago,

we sat together as leaders praying about the Movement church,

and the Lord in a very holy moment. Those of

you that were that are in the room now, that

were there that day can attest to this. The Lord

just kind of brought us this mantra that we have

decided as a church to live by. You hear it

almost every week. God is for you, and so are we.

In a world that wonders, is God against me? Why

does God hate me so much? Or is God indifferent?

Why doesn't he even care? Does he see what I'm

going through? We read the Bible and we see a

God who is so for you. He is so for you,

and he wants for his people to be the same way.

I'm reading the chapter, I'm imagining this moment, and I'm

thinking about the fact that in fact, my question am

I safe? Is anyone fighting for me? Is there anybody

who's for me? Has become my quest as the pastor

of this church. And I'm just like amazed by who

God is. I want people to know God the way

I've gotten to know him. I want people to love

God the way I love him. I want people to

experience Him the way we have experienced them. A God

who is still fighting for you. I want you to

know that God. So when your question becomes your quest,

that's what's good about your cup. So your cup is

going to function in one of two ways. If it's empty,

it can either be the source of constant disappointment when

we go looking for someone other than God to fill

it up, or when it's full, it can be the

way that people we love experience the God of the

Bible when we allow God to fill us to overflow.

Jesus said this in John chapter seven. If anyone's thirsty,

let him come to me and drink. The one who

believes in me, as the scripture has said, will have

streams of living water flow from deep within them. So, parents,

the goal of Christian parenting isn't just to raise kids

who avoid destruction. Just not having a bad life is

not the goal. The goal is to get them to

be filled with streams of living water, equipping them to

know that they don't have to walk through this life

with an empty cup. So Presley Morgan, Kayla Jack Jake,

I want you to know, this world will never satisfy you.

Is there any adults in the room that would say, Amen,

this world will never satisfy you. You can never get enough.

It's like drinking ocean water. If you're stranded on a

boat in the ocean, it's just going to make you sick.

The more you pursue the world, the less satisfied you're

going to be. But the more that you get to

know Jesus, the more that you interact with the King

of kings, the one who loved you so much, cares

about you so much, fought for you so much, that

you can know the Father, your life will be a

well spring. And that's the life that your parents want

for you. That's the life that we all want for ourselves. Amen.

So I don't want to leave you without some kind

of practical application. Here. I'm going to give you four

ideas to think about over the next week as you

think about this sermon. Number one, identify your empty places.

Which of the questions was your question? Which of the

questions are you trying to get everybody but God to

answer for you? Identify it? Say, hmm, I think that's

the question. I think I've got to work through that

a little bit. Number two, Stop asking people for God's answers.

Stop asking God, Stop asking people to validate you. Stop

asking things to validate you. Ask God and he will.

Number three live like Psalm twenty three. Connect with God,

Rest in God, Commune with God. Find your identity and

your direction in God. Let God be the answer to

your questions. And number four, choose to be a river

and not a reservoir. What does the reservoir do? It

drives up? What does the river do? It never stops.

It's flowing with life, teeming with identity and purpose and direction.

Be a river and not a reservoir. What God wants

to do in you and for you, He wants to

do through you and with you. And if that language

doesn't sound familiar, then you haven't been paying attention to

the forward, because we say every week in the forward,

move in me, Oh God, move for me, Oh God,

Move through me, Oh God, move with me, Oh God.

That is the prayer that your moms and dads are

praying over you, and it's the prayer that we are

praying God to do in us every week. It's why

we say that prayer. The world is filled with empty

cupter any empty cuppers holding out their empty cups begging

to be filled, But David's cup overflowed. Jesus promises that

your cup will too. So Movement Church. Full coppers don't

beg they overflow and that's what God wants for you. Amen.

So what's God leading you to do next? And how

can we help? Send us an email to info at

Movementchurch dot co and tell us how we can pray

for you and help you to take the next step

in your spiritual journey. If you'd like to contribute financially

to our ministry, you can text the amount you'd like

to give to this number A three three seven two

five zero one three two. That's A three three seven

two five zero one three two, or just look us

up online at Movementchurch dot com. You can find the

Movement Church on all social media platforms, and we hope

that you'll give us a follow up. God bless you,

and remember God is for you, and so are we