What Does Christianity Have To Offer? // Let's Get Moving

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you, and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from

one of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your

faith is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as

you engage the Word of God. Stay tuned back from the message for ways

to get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in.

Happy New Year. Welcome to the Movement Church. It's good to see you

guys. I'm Richie Fike. I'm the pastor here. If we haven't met,

I'm happy that you're here with us. It is a new year.

Four is upon us. Thanks for so many of you that watched our New

Year's Eve service online last week. What's in store for twenty twenty four.

I know that many of you thought that my points were corny, and that's

okay. I'm fine with that. There were three big declarative statements that we

made. We're starting a new series called Let's Get Moving. So the points

last week were what I'm for in twenty four, and they were I'll seek

the Lord in twenty four. I'm all yours in twenty four and fling wide

the doors in twenty four and today as we start this new series called Let's

Get Moving, we're gonna be talking kind of about our core the values,

our core values. So what's our core in twenty four? Amen? And

so I already have one dissenter, It's okay, I can take it.

So let me ask you a question. How many people here are big on

New Year's resolutions? How many people here make New Year's resolutions every year?

If one two people in the room make New Year's resolutions? Okay. So

we have a lot of people in the room that have tried and failed for

years and years and decided that it's not worth it, right, I get

it. Okay, Well, then you are my people for this Let's Get

Moving series. I want to show you the statistic that I found really fascinating

last year in twenty twenty three, in the first seven days of twenty twenty

three, twelve percent of all the gym memberships in the country in America were

purchased. That equated to seventeen million people. In the first seven days of

twenty twenty three, seventeen million people said I'm going to join a gym,

isn't that interesting? Seventeen million people went to places like Lifetime Fitness and twenty

four Hour Fitness and Anytime Fitness and the why and maybe they were looking for

Megan thee Stallion at Planet Fitness, But you know these places and every single

one of them had to answer a question, and the question was what does

this gym have to offer me this week? I'm certain and maybe even today

all across the country at places like that, salesmen at gym's like that all

across the country are answering that question. They're walking through the gym and they're

showing the climbing wall, they're showing the pool, they're showing the basketball courts,

the tennis courts if I were there looking for it. They're showing the

spa, the locker rooms that they're showing all of the different things that the

gym has to offer these people and they want, they really need to justify

their membership fees. Right, They're going to tell you the price at the

end. And a sales win for these people is if at the end of

that tour, these people who have walked through the gym say this phrase,

I need this in my life, right, if after having walked through the

gym, and even after seeing the price, they say I need this in

my life. That's a win. Now, this doesn't just happen at the

gym. It happens all the time. We have people in our lives who

are selling us on the things that have made impacts on their life. You

have friends that have a ski pass, and they have told you about how

great it is that they can just go to Monarch and they can just ski

all the time. And you said, I need that in my life.

You have a friend, I'm sure that has a sailboat. Maybe you don't,

I do. I have a friend that has a boat, and he

has raved and raved about this boat, and I thought to myself, I

need that in my life. Right. I have a friend who has gone

nuts over his Trager grill, and I have told Dana, I need that

in my life. Right Certainly, Maybe you have a friend who has bought

a time share, and none of us need that in our life, because

there are all kinds of stipulations that make you know now this this Christmas,

I found it fascinating how crazy you ladies went over these Stanley cups. What

is it about these Stanley cups that you ladies said, I need that in

my life. In fact, if you were to google the phrase Stanley cup,

it's fifty to fifty whether you're going to see this image, which is

what you ought to see, if you if you google Stanley cup, this

is what should come up. Or maybe if you googled Stanley Cup riots,

this is what you ought to see, but instead it's fifty to fifty.

If you were to type in on Google Stanley Cup Riot, you might see

this soccer moms in Target going crazy over these Stanley cups. I don't know

why, but they feel like they need that in their life. Okay,

So all of these different items, the gym, the ski pass, the

Traeger grill, they're all trying to answer the question, what does this have

to offer me? What does this have to offer me? And it got

me to thinking, as we start this new year, as we embark upon

this twenty twenty four, people are certainly thinking about the gym. They're certainly

thinking about the things they want to spend their time doing and being. And

certainly there are people in our lives and maybe you're here today because you're thinking

about this. Certainly someone in your life has thought this week, maybe I

need to make space this year for God. Maybe this year I need to

just sort of look up and make some space for church. Maybe this is

a year where where I'll make some room in my world for a church community,

for Christianity. And it got me to thinking about this question. What

does Christianity have to offer? What is it that Christianity has to offer,

What distinguishes our way of living from the rest of the world. What do

we have to offer? Now, I'll tell you we as Christians, we're

up against quite a bit of opposition from without and from within. I have

quite a few friends that are in the process of deconstructing their Christianity. Maybe

you do too. Maybe you have friends who were a part of a church

organization, maybe they were a part of a church community, and maybe they

had a bad experience and maybe they said, you know what, I'm throwing

the baby out with the bathwater. I'm done with all of those christian people

altogether. Maybe you have friends like that. If you don't stick around,

you're going to meet some people like that. Okay, it's it's very popular

these days. I have a good friend in fact, who I had a

long conversation with. His name is Jason, and he grew up, gave

his life to Jesus. He became a professional Christian. He went on staff

at a church, and then he had such a sour experience that he became

agnostic. And then he became atheist. And then after he was atheist for

a while, that didn't do anything good for him. So then he decided

he wanted to find his way back to God, and he found his way

back to Jesus. But he refuses to call himself a Christian. So he

says, I'm a Jesus follower. I'm like Jason, whatever it takes to

get you into Heaven, I'm cool with it. Right. But this is

a conversation that he and I had. I'm gonna give you a long quote.

It's kind of paraphrase. He has quite a bit of I would say

criticism about the Christian experience. And this is what he said to me.

He said, the church, by and large is not doing enough to speak

against the basic human polarity that pulls us towards performative moralization. He's going to

describe that. He says, see, left to our own devices, our

own instincts, we simply drift towards measuring ourselves against each other. I'm better

than you, he's better than me. This makes us think of our faith

through the lens of performance. Instead of practicing our faith, we perform it,

and we're doing it all in the hopes that all the people in our

lives are keeping score, that everybody notices all the good that we're doing.

Whether God is pleased with our hearts or our convictions or our motivations is ancillary

in comparison to how the rest of the world understands and makes sense of our

own personal morality. This can't help but make us all into finger waggers,

judgy, angry, self involved, self unaware me monsters who do nothing to

tell the story of grace, love, holiness, and compassion of Jesus Christ.

And if the person behind the pulpit now he's going to criticize me.

If the person behind the pulpit doesn't constantly and actively push against that unyielding polarity,

all scripture tends to get passed through the filter of performance and righteousness,

whether the preacher intended for it too or not. So people walk away from

church thinking about all the ways that they don't yet measure up in all the

ways that they need to implement new habits or put to death old ones so

that they can perform like good Christians in their daily life. And after long

enough, all of their human effort is just not enough to sustain that initial

spark of interest in the idea of God. And that's why I had to

get out. It was the only way for me to find Jesus. Isn't

that interesting? So I wonder if you felt that way. I wonder if

you've ever thought, man, I would love to invite people into this whole

Christian experience, But I struggle with it myself. I struggle to sell it.

I struggle to explain it. I struggle to tell people why they ought

to buy in. I struggle with the sales pitch. I wonder if you've

struggled in your own mind with deconstructing what is this whole thing that we're doing?

What is Christianity? After all? Maybe you felt like the baby in

the back that's screaming right now, I know I have. By the way,

of those twelve percent of people that joined gym's last year in the first

seven days, seventy three percent of them quit the gym after six months,

so gyms are struggling with deconstruction, just like we are. There's something in

us that says I want in before we really measure the cost, before we

really make sense of what it is we're saying yes to. And so I

would say this, every adult Christian should deconstruct. This is important their Churchianity

for the sake of their Christianity. Every adult Christian should deconstruct their Churchianity for

the sake of their Christianity. Jesus wants us to follow him, and you

ought to say amen. He doesn't want for us to follow the ways and

the customs of this world. And so I would say we could all use

a better sales pitch. And I think that Romans twelve it's what we're going

to look at today. Romans twelve is an incredible sales pitch for the Christian

experience. I think if someone were to ask you, so, tell me

about this whole Christian life thing, tell me what Christianity has to offer.

I think if you were sitting down with to coffee or to lunch with someone

and they said, so, you're a Christian, why what does Christianity have

to offer? I think you could say, well, let me turn to

Romans twelve and let's read it together. So let's do that today, all

right, what does Christianity have to offer? We're going to start with Romans

twelve, verse one. I'm in the NLT today. If you have a

Bible, open it up. If you get advice, fired up, if

you got eyeballs, just look up at the screen. Romans twelve one two.

Paul says this. He says, and so, dear brothers and sisters,

I plead with you to give your bodies to God, because of all

He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice,

the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way, everybody say,

the way, the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and

customs of this world. But let God transform you into a new person by

changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for

you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Now, I just want

to proffer to you that our guy Paul is a terrible salesman. Okay,

if you were to walk into Lifetime Fitness today and say I'm interested in joining

Lifetime Fitness, They're not gonna tell you the price first, Okay, They're

going to show you the climbing wall and the sauna and the pool, and

the tennis courts and the locker rooms and the gym. They're going to show

you all of that before they tell you the price. That's not what our

guy Paul did. Before Paul ever gets into the benefits of the Christian life,

he's going to talk about the cost. He's going to say, Look,

I'm going to show you around. It's it's going to be great this

place, this Christian experience. Man, there's nothing like it. But before

I show you, I just want to tell you what it's going to cost.

And it's a little thing called the hokey pokey. Okay. You know,

I know a lot of us think that Christianity is you put your right

foot in and you just take your right foot right back out. You put

your right foot in and just shake it about, and then you take your

right you take your right foot out. You don't have to put it,

you don't have to keep it there. That's not what Paul said. Paul

said, the Christian life is you put your whole self in and you don't

take anything out. You put your whole self in and you shake it all

about. We're supposed to be a living and holy sacrifice to God. Man,

what a cost? What's it going to cost you? It's going to

cost you everything a living and holy sacrifice to God. The word holy doesn't

mean sinless. I just would like to just if I could just kind of

debunk this for you for a moment, because I think that that could be

a huge barrier for some of us. We go. I'm just I just

real quick. Can I just raise my hand and ask a question? I'm

not holy? Is it okay? I'm a sinner? Does God know that

about me? Yes? He knows that about you. He knows that you're

a sinner. The word holy means sinless. It means separate, set apart,

distinct. While everything else is one way, this one thing is unlike

everything else. God's holiness. God's holiness is distinguished by his righteousness, and

a world marred and ruled by sin, God's righteousness stands apart as distinct and

unlike the rest of the known world because God is incapable of sin. So

yes, God is holy, and he is sinless. He is set apart,

and he's distinguished by his sinlessness, his righteousness. You can be holy,

though but God's expectation for human beings is not that you would be sinless.

Why it says in your Bible that all have fallen short of the glory

of God when you sin. He's not like, can you believe it?

I'm shocked. No, He fully is aware of your sinfulness, and he's

fully expecting that you are going to fall short. That's why he sent Jesus,

and you ought to say Amen, that's right. Your sinfulness is not

a surprise to him. But you can still be a living and holy sacrifice

to him. You can still live your life separated from the rhythms and the

customs of this world. You don't have to bow down to the values of

this culture. You can choose to hold tight to God's culture. You can

be in it and not of it. You know what that means. That

means you can be in the world, living in it, understanding it,

making sense of it, but not bowing down to the rhythms and the cultures

of this world. Living and holy sacrifice. You put your whole self in

and you don't take it back out. You're in it, but you're not

of it. That's the idea. You can be a living and holy sacrifice.

So maybe Paul's not that bad of a salesman. Maybe he just doesn't

want for you to purchase something that you're going to turn in six months.

Maybe he wants you to make a purchase that's going to last your whole life.

Maybe Paul is saying, look, I want you to make this purchase.

I want you to buy in. I want you to make this membership

decision. But I don't want you to cancel in six months. So I

want you to understand what's it going to cost you? Man? Everything?

It's going to cost you everything. Before he tells you the benefits, He's

going to tell you the cost your life, your living, all of it,

all that you are, all that you do, all set apart for

God. And if that's the cost, If that's the cost, what's the

benefit. If that's the cost, what's the benefit? Man? If I'm

sitting across the table from Paul, that's my question, That's what I'd be

asking. Okay, man, dude, that's a pretty heavy cost. What

do I get out of this deal? Right? Well, I'm glad you

asked. Look at this in verse two, don't copy the behavior and customs

of this world, but let God train form you into a new person by

changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for

you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So what does Christianity have

to offer you. I'm going to give you seven of these. Okay,

here's the first one, A true transformation through God's mental health. That phrase

right there, mental health. We're going to talk a lot about that in

twenty twenty four at the Movement Church. In fact, in the month of

May, we're going to do an entire series. Somebody decided in America that

in the month of May it is mental health Awareness month in America. Cool.

So we're going to do a series called your Brain in your Bible in

the month of May. And here's why. Because mental health matters immensely to

God. Your mental health is immensely important to your God. It matters to

him deeply. Did you notice what he said? Let God transform you into

a new person, not by changing your heart or your emotions, but by

changing the way you the way you think. That's mental health. True mental

health happens when God changes the way we think. There's this phrase we say

this time of year every year, New Year, New you. You know

this phrase? Here's the problem. It's a new year, but it's the

same you. Right, come on, it's the same you. It's the

same traps, same trouble, same triggers, same trials. It's the same

you. But God can transform you into a new person. You can be

a new person just if you will let him change the way you think.

Christianity has been offering mental health long before that term was popular. True mental

health happens when God changes the way you think. By the way, every

wealth manager, every dietician, every personal trainer, every leader of an alcoholics

anonymous class, every golf instructor, every tennis coach, they're in the same

business, every one of these people. You know what they're trying to do.

They're trying to change the way you think. They just have one problem.

They're all in the same business. But none of them have the Holy

Spirit to use as a resource, because none of them can invade and interrogate

and inhabit your thoughts like the Holy Spirit can. And you ought to say,

amen, thank you Jesus. So are you stuck? Are you sick

and tired? Doesn't this guy look like a good salesman? Are you stuck?

Thy Christianity? What does Christianity have to offer a true transformation through God's

mental health? Let's keep reading verse three. He says, because of the

privilege and authority God has given me, don't think you are better than you

really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the

faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts, and

each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We

are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

What does Christianity have to offer? Here's number two? Contextualization that's greater than

self. Contextualization that's greater than self. Let me tell you what I mean

by that. In the world we live in, we're taught to measure ourselves

against each other. All the time, we're measuring ourselves against each other.

This guy's got a boat. This guy's got a bigger house than me.

This guy's got side hustles. Come on, I wore the shirt for a

reason. This guy's getting the promotion. How come I didn't get the promotion.

This guy's trying to look like he's happy for this guy, but he's

really not. Right, Like, we're constantly comparing each other against each other.

Uh. You know, we get a new car, we think we

really did something, and then we see somebody got the riv and we're like

dead, gummut, I didn't get the car enough. You know. We

put up our Christmas lights and our neighbor puts up better Christmas lights. You

know. There I went a trick or treating with the Copes this this last

Halloween, and there was a house. It was amazing. It was amazing.

This house did all of these incredible, you know, Halloween things.

And then my hero, honestly, the most heroic house on the whole block.

All they did was put up one of these one of these things.

It was literally across the street from this house that put up all of these

Halloween decorations. So this is me and Jeremiah just trying to be the anyway.

So or you go to somebody's house and they have this incredibly immaculate house

and you realize they don't have kids. Right, You're constantly comparing yourself against

each other, right, We're constantly measuring ourselves against other people, and it's

exhausting and it's defeating, and it makes us bitter and anxious, and we

can't celebrate people because of how it reflects on us. Well, Christianity has

something different to offer, and it's called contextualization. We can contextualize, we

can understand each other differently. We no longer have to measure ourselves against each

other. We measure ourselves against Jesus Christ and him crucified for our sins.

Instead of worrying about how we measure up, we are treated to the honor

of mattering you matter. You matter. In fact, if you do me

a favor and tell the person next to you you matter, would you tell

them that you matter? Now? Tell the person you didn't want to talk

to, your second choice. Tell them I didn't want to tell you this,

but you really matter. Tell them right now, you matter, Paul

says. Paul says, don't think that you're better. Don't think that you're

better than you really are. Now I just told I just told you to

tell the person next to you that you matter. That makes you feel good,

right, but, Paul says, don't think you're better than you really

are. Don't get a big head, Fred, Be honest in your evaluation

of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as

our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function. So it

is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we

all belong to each other. The pressure for you to be better than me

is off, and the pressure for me to be better than you is off.

I don't need to compete with you. I need to rely upon you

and you need to lie upon me. Why. Because we don't just belong

to Jesus. We belong to each other, and we ought to say amen.

That's the way it works. Nobody that joins this movement is intended to

solely receive from it. We're all supposed to be contributors. So what does

Christianity have to offer contextualization that's greater than self. Let's keep reading. It

says in his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things

well. So, if God has given you the ability to prophecy, speak

out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is

serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is

giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the

responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others.

Do it gladly. What does Christianity have to offer? Number three? A

purpose and place for the things you do well. A purpose and a place

for the things you do well. There's a book that came out a few

years ago, pretty popular book called Strength Strength Finders. Everybody read this book.

Anybody here read this book. I would encourage everybody to read this book.

The concept of this book was, very often we tend to fixate on

the things that we're bad at. Like if there's some some habit or some

skill set that other people are good at that you're just naturally not good at.

We tend to go, I need to be good at that because he's

good at that and I'm not and I should be more like him. And

Strength Finders basically says, no, you need to figure out what you're great

at and just major on that and just be great at what you're great at.

Strength Finders is trying to tell us stop worrying about what you're not great

at, start really trying to fixate on what you're great at. So I

would encourage you to read this book because being great at one thing and bad

at a lot of other things doesn't work. If you're gonna live your life

in isolation, if you're gonna choose to rely solely upon yourself, then you're

gonna have to learn how to hunt, trap, kill, skin, cook,

eat, and preserve. Okay, you're gonna have to be Andrew Clark.

Okay, you're just gonna have to be. I don't know if you

know Andrew Clark. But Andrew Clark can do all of these things, and

so when the zombie apocalypse happens, he's gonna be the only one that survives.

Okay, but I will be dead quick as soon as Chick fil A

closes. Just take me, take me. I'm done. I rely upon

Chick fil A. Did you notice the word that I highlighted the most though

when we read this, it's the word if. If your gift is serving

others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is to

give, then give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take

the responsibilities here. If you have a gift of showing kindness to others,

do it gladly. What's the point of all this. There is no room,

no room, no room at all for half heartedness in the Kingdom of

God, no room for half heartedness. The only way this works is if

when each of us mans our post, we execute our role with gusto.

Here is what Christianity does not have to offer. Are you ready? Here's

what Christianity does not have to offer. A purpose and place for people who

don't really make much of an effort. That's not what Christianity has to offer.

It's not really built for people who are just gonna sit the fence.

It's not really made for people who are going to watch other people do the

work. Christianity is about all of us manning our post and doing it well.

That's the idea. And so you know, for me, I'll tell

you how this flesh is itself out. For me, my sort of gift

is faith and teaching. That's how God built me, That's how I'm oriented.

And so it really matters to me that these sermons that I preach,

that they reach you, that they impact you, that they're portable, that

you take them with you. It matters to me that I teach well like

I don't just kind of, you know, put half of my heart into

these sermons. It's crazy because I spend three or four weeks on each one

of these sermons. I preach them one time, and then it's like on

to the next one, and I have no idea what kind of impact any

of these sermons ever make. I'm not asking you to tell me how great

I am right now. I promise you I'm not. What I'm saying is

I do what I do just because the Lord has gifted me to do this.

I'm trying to do my very best. I don't do this so that

you will think highly of me. I don't do this to grow the church.

I don't do this so that God will approve of me. I don't

do this to feel good about myself. It's because I've been gifted to do

this. And my gift is not for me. My gift is for you.

And by the way, your gift is not for you, it's for

me, it's for us. That's the way the Kingdom works. That's not

the way the world works. That's not the way the world works. In

the world, people's gifts are for themselves. In the Kingdom, people's gifts

are for other people. Do you see that your gift is for me,

and my gift is for you. That is amazingly beautiful. That's what the

Kingdom has to offer, a purpose and place for the things that you do.

Well, Okay, let's keep reading verse nine. Don't just pretend to

love others, really love them, Hate what's wrong, hold tightly to what's

good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each

other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

When the odds people are in need, be ready to help them.

Always be eager to practice hospitality. What does Christianity have to offer? Number

four? Community aiding in love, care and help. Community aiding and love,

care and help. My favorite TV show of last year was a show

called The Bear. Anybody watched The Bear? You can? You can admit

it in church. It's okay. Let's show about this guy Carmi. He's

like a five star Michelin chef and he comes back to Chicago to help rebuild

a restaurant. It's really about this community, these people that he's not just

rebuilding a restaurant, but he's rebuilding a group of people who are reeling after

his brother Michael has died. And there's an episode in season two that is

my very favorite episode called Forks, and it's built off of this book called

Unreasonable Hospitality. And if you're a leader of any sort, I would encourage

you to read this book, Unreasonable Hospitality. It's an amazing book. These

two guys, Richie, his name is Richie, and I love him because

his name is Richie. Ritchie and this guy are working. Richie's job for

a week is to go clean forks. That's all he's doing for a week

is cleaning forks in a three star Michelan restaurant in Chicago. And he thinks

it's really stupid. At first, he thinks it's just the dumbest job.

He doesn't want to do it. And as the week goes on, he

starts to notice that these people really really care about the customers at this restaurant.

They want to blow the minds of these customers. They want to treat

them with unreasonable hospitality. And there's this quote this guy says. He says,

have you ever thought about the fact that restaurants and hospitality, restaurants and

hospitals use the same word when they talk about how they treat their customers hospitality.

Restaurants and hospitals hospitality. And it kind of awakens Richie to realize that

he has an opportunity, even in a restaurant environment, to serve and bless

people. Now this is a secular environment, but he has a religious experience

in this moment, And it got me to thinking about how much more a

church should live that kind of attitude. How much more we should be loving

and caring and serving. And I think that's exactly what Paul is saying.

How much more eager we should be to be loving and serving and caring and

showing hospitality towards our people. How much more should a church be known for

this kind of attention to detail. How much should a community of faith be

known for its love, for its hospitality. Jesus said this, He said

a new commandment. I give you love one another as I have loved you,

So you also must love one another by this. Check this out.

By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples. If you love

the world, if you love the homeless, if you love the lost,

no, they're going to know you're my disciples. If you love one another.

That's powerful. Because when you come to the question what does Christianity have

to offer to a secular person, What does Christianity have to offer? It

better be this. When people come to our church and they say, tell

me about the movement church, it better be this. We better be doing

this, amen. This is what it's all about. A community aiding and

love, care and help. Let's keep going. Verse fourteen. Bless those

Oh, I want to tell you, you're not going to like this part.

You're not gonna like this part. Bless those who persecute you. Don't

curse them, Pray that God will bless them. Anybody do that on a

consistent basis. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those

who weep. Live in harmony with each other. But don't be too proud

to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don't think you know it all

wives. Don't nudge your husbands. Never pay back evil with more evil.

Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do

all that you can to live in peace with everyone. This is a very

countercultural scriptural section. This is very much like let me tell you what distinguishes

Christianity. I told you last year about John Wick. You remember we were

talking about John Wick for a moment, and I've told you that there's been

four John w movies. And it all started because somebody killed John Wick's dog,

right, remember this, And when they killed John Wicks dog, he

has now killed over five hundred human beings because they killed John Wick's dog.

Right. He wanted to pay back evil with evil. Now, over Christmas,

we got a little dog named Trixie. This is Tricksy. She's a

soft coated Wheaton Terrier. She's actually named Triskett because she's she looks like wheat,

that's Wheaton, but we call her Tricksy. And if someone were to

kill Trixie, I think I would resonate with John Wig. Okay, I'm

just saying, but so anyway, all I'm saying is that longing for retribution

only ever leads to one of two places, violence in jail or bitterness and

isolation. That's what the world has to offer. I want retribution, I

want I want to re pay evil with evil. Okay, it's going to

lead to one of these two places. So what does Christianity have to offer

a peace that replaces that old bitter pill. He says, bless those who

persecute you. Don't curse them, Pray that God will bless them, never

pay back evil with more evil. I want you to look at all these

exercises, and I want you, I want you to think through the lens

of exercises, because these are all exercises. Blessing those who persecute you,

Praying that God blesses those who curse you, choosing to be happy with happy

people, choosing to enter into the sadness of others, fighting for harmony,

laying down your pride in order to engage ordinary people, choosing not to know

it all, never paying back evil with evil, doing all you can to

live in peace with everyone. These are all exercises, and there's not a

person on the planet who walks and lives in peace instead of bitterness, who

doesn't work hard to do so. Okay, Now, when you walk around

Lifetime Fitness, there's all these pictures of these really fit people that I don't

look like, and it says I can do it all in my lifetime.

There's all these pictures of these people, And what I often remind myself of

is Lifetime Fitness is not selling abs or biceps. They're selling access to the

machines that will give you abs and biceps. Right, They're selling you access

to the machines that if you get on the machine and do the work,

you will get abs and biceps. Now, if I never get on the

machine and do the work, I will not ever see my abs or develop

biceps. Right, so I can do it all in my lifetime. I

just don't right. The life of a Christian is not just about out joining

the gym. It's about doing the work. And you ought to say.

You don't want to say it, but you ought to say it. Amen.

Therefore, my dear friends, this is what Paul says in Philippians.

As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much

more your salvation with fear and with trembling. What does Christianity have to offer

a piece that replaces the old bitter pill? But man, guys, we

still have to work at it, work for it. These last two are

pretty quick about there will be some justice. Paul's not telling us that injustice

will be met with indifference. I want you to hear this because if you

think you like John wick Way, do you get a load of God because

he is John wicked, says leave that to the righteous anger of God.

For the scriptures say I will take revenge. I will pay them back,

says the Lord. I heard an amen. That's right, Thank you,

Maya. What does Christianity have to offer a God that repays every wrong,

how many wrongs, every wrong with his will? I have been around long

enough as a Christian as a leader, and I've been inside long enough with

some of the people in the Christian music industry who have fallen morally. I've

been in rooms with people who I thought, man, there's something fishy about

this guy. I don't know. This guy doesn't seem like he's in it

for the right reasons. And then months later read a report. Sure enough,

his sin came back to haunt him. God will not be mocked.

Okay, God will repay every wrong with his will. We can count on

it. It's in the word. It's true. Here's the last one.

Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they're thirsty,

give them something to drink. And doing this you will heat burning coals of

shame on their heads. Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by

doing good. Here's the last one, What does Christianity have to offer an

upside down way to find heaven not hell? An upside down way to find

heaven not hell. Listen, there's what he's saying. Evil's intent is to

conquer you. We talked about this a lot last year, that darkness and

light are constantly at war. Darkness is trying to overcome light. Light is

constantly overcoming darkness. Evil is trying to conquer goodness. Evil's intent is to

conquer you, and if you don't have a plan to counterattack, you will

be conquered. And so the best way to fight fire is with We fight

fire with Okay, I don't know who told us that fighting fire with fire

is a good idea. Have you ever seen a firefighter show up to a

house that's on fire and say light a match? Where do we get this

idea? The best way to fight fire is with water. The only way

to conquer evil is by doing good, and you should say amen. The

only way to experience heaven instead of hell is to live your life upside down.

Whatever this world is telling you, whatever your human nature is telling you,

it's gonna send you to ruin. So be like George Costanza and do

the opposite. Okay, do the opposite. Any Parks and RECs fan,

Parks and REC fans in the room. Parks and rec Remember the show,

Remember the episode where they did treat Yourself? And I remember treat Yourself.

These two characters did this thing where they had this one day every day where

they would treat yourself and they were just whatever they wanted to do. They

would just do nice things for themselves, and they called it treat yourself.

Well, I have a friend who made this post on New Year's Day where

he was pushing against treat yourself, and he said, I treated myself today

to a four mile run in the snow. That's what I did. I

treated myself to a four mile run in the snow because cupcakes and a long

nap and you know, and three shots of bourbon are not good for me.

But a four mile run, even though it was hard, that was

good for me. So that's what I treated myself to. What he's saying,

the only way to conquer evil is by doing good. But we can't

let doing good become performative. We have to let it be the result of

our time in the gym. The best and most incredible athletes in the world.

People who win championships, people who hit the game seven, last second,

game winning shot, are people who spent hours and hours and hours in

the gym where nobody was watching them. Right, People who worked out when

nobody no cameras were on them. People who spent hours and hours working for

it, training their body for that moment. The same is true with us

those moments when you come up against an opportunity to either choose good or evil.

The time you spend in the gym, in the word, in his

presence, connected to God. That time you spend with him is what's going

to determine the decisions you make in those moments. Let it be the result

of your time in the gym. Christianity is not about proving your righteousness with

good works. Your good works reveal your Christianity. The only way to conquer

evil is by doing good. So what does Christianity have to offer an upside

down way to find heaven not hell? So let me review all this.

I know I give you a lot, but here's the seven points. What

does Christianity have to offer a true transformation through God's mental health? He will

change us by the way we think. Contextualization that's greater than self. It's

not just about you, it's about us, a purpose place for the things

that you do well. You are not just meant to be a recipient,

but a contributor community aiding and love, care and help. The idea is

that all of us are going to experience the love of God when we love

each other. The world is going to know what sets us apart by the

way we love one another well. A peace that replaces the old bitter pill

in this world that's fulfilled with bitterness and anger. We can have peace.

What a gift. A God that repays every wrong with his will. We

can trust that even when hard things happen to us, He's got our back.

We can believe in that. And an upside down way to find Heaven,

not hell. Everything that this world says is right, our God says

do it the opposite, do it different, and that's how you find God.

That's great, That's what Christianity has to offer. But I can't leave

this sermon without answering this question, what does Jesus have to offer? What

does Jesus have to offer? I was sitting at lunch with my friend John

Wilson this week and John was sharing with me the significance of a particular verse

in his life, and it's just been kind of rattling around in my heart

since you shared it with me. So I want to close the day with

this verse. It's from Matthew and this is the message translation you've probably heard

of a thousand times. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

Come unto me, those who are weary. But I want you to listen

to way to the Way. Eugenie Peterson wrote this. In the message,

he says this, Are you tired, Are you worn out? Are you

burned out on religion? Come to me, Get away with me, and

you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn

the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on

you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Man, that's what Jesus has to offer you. If you've never accepted

Jesus as the person who will lead you, the lord of your life,

the person who will save you, who will take all of the sin and

all of the shame and all of the anks that you have on your life

and just take it away from you. If you've never experienced that this is

what Jesus has to offer, Today should be the day that you say yes

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

can we help? Would you send us an email to info at Movementchurch dot

co and tell us how we can pray for you and help you take the

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

ministry, text the amount you'd like to give to the number eight four three

two one, or look us up online at Movementchurch dot c. You can

find the Movement Church on all social media platforms, and we hope that you'll

give us a follow God bless you, and remember God is for you,

and so are we.