Joy in Maturity - 10.27.19 Sermon

[inaudible]

and so heavenly father, we come and sing and celebrate because you have given us that hope.

So living hope, it's an eternal hope.

It's a hope that found in your son Jesus Christ.

And so I pray today as I open your word, I believe it's true.

It's powerful.

It's everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness.

And so I pray you would fill our hearts with hope and love and joy and peace and patience and goodness.

I pray that you would do at work through your spirit, through your word, in our hearts, that we might mature and look more like Jesus.

Our heart's desires, that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done.

And so would you use us?

Would you strengthen us?

Would you equip us?

Would you empower us to be about your kingdom work for your glory?

Would you strengthen those who are weak this morning?

Would you give hope to the hopeless?

Finally, would you open the eyes of the blind?

Would you save souls this morning?

Not because of anything good that we've done, but because you're just that good.

You're a God of miracles.

So I pray you would do that through your word for your glory this morning.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Who welcome.

So glad you're here.

Before I jump in and do regular, uh, w welcome to the new commerce quick announcement.

Uh, November 10th, it was the town hall meeting.

I've changed the name.

We're calling it the super duper meeting now because I think it's going to be super duper and I think you're gonna love it.

Uh, and I wanted to switch it just from town hall meeting because at town hall meeting you get like 18 people that show up and they're like, well, what are the parking lot going to look like?

Well, that's not, that's not what the SuperDuper meeting is about.

Hillside fellowship has a family and it matters what kind of family we are, matters that we're warm and welcoming and inviting and nurturing, and we create a safe, secure environment.

My goal is to keep the main thing, the main thing that we preach, Christ crucified, buried and resurrected because that creates a family that has their eyes fixed on Jesus and is full of life.

And hope and joy.

And so as I keep that, the main thing, it's also incredibly important to us that we see disciples formed.

It's the mission Jesus gave to us, the formation of disciples, the growth, the equipping of disciples to reach more disciples with that message of good news.

And as we do that, we want to be a fruitful people.

We want to see, I pray to see Jesus use us to be fruitful, to raise up new leaders, to start new works and new places to reach new people with that gospel message in a decade and in a time where churches are dying, I pray Jesus would use us to plant healthy, gospel centered, Jesus preaching churches.

Now to do all of that, we know that we've got some pain points, some pinch points.

We need facilities that facilitate that vision and mission.

And we I'm excited to lay out, we've got a big vision, big dreams, but we're taking small steps towards that and we want to lay out that first step of the plan so we can look at facilities that will facilitate that vision and mission and not frustrate that vision.

And mission.

November 10th it's five 30 I think.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's five 30 I'm, I missed the dismount last time, so I was cautious.

My mind threw a caution flag.

Five 30 to six 30 write it on your calendars.

Come.

We might even have some Maxwell house.

Good to the last drop coffee.

I'm not positive.

I'm not promising, but maybe all right.

First time are sh so glad you're here.

I've met a bunch of you.

Really glad that you've come.

You've found yourself at hillside fellowship.

We believe that Jesus changes everything.

Ah, I snuck in, I read to the end of the Bible and I found out that Jesus really does.

He changes everything and he creates all things new and we're not in sin and darkness and suffering and sorrow and disease and death.

He brings life and hope and joy.

And so we're a group of people that Greg gathered together to celebrate him and we encourage everyone everywhere, every day to follow the one who changes everything.

His name is Jesus.

And so I'm not going to, I'm not going to hide my cards.

I want you to hear about Jesus and I want you to follow and love and serve and worship and obey and enjoy Jesus Christ.

That's my goal.

That's my aim.

It's out there and so that's what the scriptures do, so that's my heartbeat.

It's what I want to do, but I'm so glad that you're here.

We've been looking at where joy doesn't reside and where joy does reside.

We've looked at Ecclesiastics.

There's a whole bunch of place that has no joy at promises, joy, but it never produces or provides joy.

That's what Solomon went through, an ecclesiastical.

Now we're looking at the book of Philippians.

There's one place that promises produces and provides joy.

It's Jesus Christ.

He is the source of joy.

He's all together good.

He's 11 he's kind, caring, compassionate.

He says, come follow me.

Carlton, if you'd do me a quick favor, I feel like I'm in a Coca Cola can just a little bit.

Let me read it.

We're in flippings chapter three I'm going to look at seven down through 16 and then we'll just enjoy it together.

In Philippians chapter three verse seven God says, Paul writes this, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things to be lost.

And do you have the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them, but rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own drive from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I might may know him and the power, his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death.

Not not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brethren.

I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude and if anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.

However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained now.

Beautiful sections, some, some run on some long parts.

So let me kind of give you an overview of the whole Bible so that we can understand where Paul is going here.

If you and I read through straight through the whole Bible 1,196 pages in my Bible, we got to the end and I looked at you.

One of the things that we could say about God is that God is perfect.

He's mature.

I told you that last week that because God is perfect, he's mature, he gets to change everything to look more like him.

And I think we would all say, okay, I get that.

In the beginning he created everything perfect, mature sin ruined it.

It's all very immature now and at the end it's going to be all mature.

It's going to look like him.

Now, here's the small theological point that you're gonna see.

Once sin entered into the world, I now struggle with immaturity.

You do too.

I'm not going to put that on you, but we struggle with immaturity.

So if you spent time with me, you would say, Dave, there are areas you're immature intellectually.

You don't think like God thinks in all things.

Therefore you're not perfect.

You're not mature intellectually.

And if you spent more time with me, you would say, Dave, you don't emotionally respond like God responds perfectly in every circumstance.

You're emotionally immature.

And I'd have to say you're right.

And if you watched my relationships with Brook, with the kids, neighbors, sometimes you, you'd say, Dave, you don't always relate like God relates.

You're not perfect.

You're immature.

That's what immaturity is.

We don't look, think emote and relate like God does perfectly.

So all of us are immature.

Here's the good news of the Bible.

Jesus Christ came, took on human flesh, dwelt among us, lived a life without sin, grew in wisdom, stature, favor with God and men.

He matured.

He died in my place for my sin.

Taking my shame, taking my sin, setting me free from slavery to sin so that I can now grow and mature and look more and more like Jesus Christ.

Paul's going to tell us, I want you to mature.

He uses that word perfect.

I want you to mature.

I'm about to tell you something that's going to blow your mind, but it's absolutely true.

Growing old does not equate to growing up.

I'll say it again.

Growing old does not equate to growing up.

I know a lot of old cats that act like they're three and they throw temper tantrums and throw fits.

I wish that growing old meant that I grew up because then I could just passively get gray and be like, no, I'm super duper wise and everybody listened to me.

There's certain things that will stunt my growth and will stunt your growth.

Paul today is not going to mandate maturity.

He could.

He's an apostle.

He could say, grow up, and we'd be like, okay, how do I do that?

He doesn't mandate maturity.

He's going to do something much more powerful.

He's going to model maturity in this section.

If you just go through the personal pronouns, you'll see it.

Paul uses himself as a model of what he has had to let go of and grow in in order to be mature like Christ.

So instead of mandating it, he models it because maturity is often caught more than taught.

You see, if you came from a system where grandma and grandpa were jacked up and they were very immature, guess what?

Mom and dad probably picked up what?

They caught a lot of immaturity and jacked up stuff.

So guess what you think is normal.

A lot of immaturity and jacked up stuff.

Jesus today is going to walk you through and say, look at my look at the model of Paul and Paul's going to give us some simple truths because one of the biggest questions I get is a pastor's day.

Have I been stuck?

I've been stuck for years.

I'm stuck in this relationship.

I'm stuck in this job.

I'm emotionally stuck.

I'm relationally stuck.

I don't feel like I'm growing.

Paul's going to walk through five points and show us there's certain things that will stunt and hinder your maturity.

And so I, I just went through my story where I struggle with it, where I learned, I'll talk about the lesson of the monkey bars.

I'll talk about a halfway house in California and how it almost killed me.

I'll talk about working out in leg days and what leg days have taught me about maturing in Christ.

Um, w we'll look at the fact that I forget passwords and it Maddens me and that what that taught me about maturity in Christ.

And so I just grabbed, I wanted to have fun today because it's, it's a different passengers.

Some run on sentences and I just want to have fun looking at the scriptures with you.

But most of all, I want us to mature and look more and more like Jesus Christ.

So I want to look at the model that Paul gave to us and I'm just going to ask you five different questions.

Watch where he starts out.

Start out in verse, I think it's seven eight and nine chapter three verse seven eight and nine what I learned from the monkey bars, how many of you played on monkey bars in kindergarten?

First grade, second grade.

You know what the bars are?

I would get on the monkey bars.

Dad would go with me.

Mom would go with me, but I was a clinger.

I would just grab two and stay there because the whole physics of it escaped me and it took me quite a long time to realize I had to let go of one.

In order to grab the next, I had to let go.

In order to move forward, I had to let go to grow.

Watch what Paul says here.

Watch the words gain and loss, profit, loss.

Watch what?

Whatever things were gained to me that I was getting those things I had to count as lost.

I had to let go of for the sake of Christ.

More than that.

I count all things to be lost.

How many things I need us to own this and I'm going to need your big outdoor Texas voices like you were at a tech game or you T game or an Aggies game.

There you are.

How many things?

Paul looks at himself, he says, I counted everything to be lost in view of the surpassing greatness or value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them about rubbish.

This is one of the strongest words Paul uses in all the 13 books that he writes.

I don't even have the courage to tell you how I would translate this in the Greek, but in Greek class, I went to the Greek professor.

I said, Hey, the way I'm translating this makes me feel very dirty like I'm cussing.

He's like, well, that's because it means human fecal matter.

It's the strongest word, Paul.

Everything that I value, I consider it to be like poopoo or do do.

There's kids in view of the greatness of gaining Christ Jesus.

So let me tell you what Paul is talking about here because if you are falling into this trap, I can guarantee you you're hanging on the monkey bars wondering why am I not growing and why am I not going forward in your story at some point, someone somewhere in some way, typically dad, maybe mom, grandpa, grandma, boss, somebody you looked up to told you where security, significance, value, meaning, purpose, worth where life indeed was to be found.

I'm going to say this again and I wish I had more time to interact with you at some point and sometimes somebody that you looked up to told you where security, significance, value meaning purpose and worth, where your identity was to be found.

Typically it's here.

If you want to be somebody, you better be rich, and we locked it away and said, okay, I'm going to make a whole bunch of cash.

If you want to be somebody, you better be pretty.

So we said, okay, I better figure out what, what beautiful is you want.

You want to be somebody you want to be secure, you want to be significant, you better be a president, you better be VP, whatever it was.

Someone somewhere told you, I call this the Joe dirt principle because what that, how many of you seen Joe dirt?

How many of you know who Billy Ray Cyrus is?

Same.

He had a long mullet way past its expiration date.

What happens to the kid is he hears this is where security, significance, value meaning, purpose worth is, and they hold onto that and they pursue that and they will not let go of that.

It is what they live for.

It is what they love and it's like a kid hanging on the monkey bars doesn't know why he can't go forward.

Why can't grow, but he's holding onto his mullet.

What Paul is saying is your spiritual mullet is past time to shave off.

Y'all let go of the pacifier.

Pacifier served a purpose when you were little.

Okay, so many of you are like, pacifiers are horrible.

Listen, you ruin your kid.

Let me ruin my kids.

We'll point them all to Jesus and we'll call it even right, like whatever.

We get into all these arguments, no pacifier, pass it, whatever.

Ruin your kid and point them to Jesus.

I'll ruin my kids.

Point them to Jesus.

The point is this pacifier server purpose for a time, but if you're still holding onto that, what Jesus is saying, what Paul is modeling is there's something you need to give up.

He's asking you to let go in order to go.

He's asking you to lay down what's dear so that he might be near all of these phrases.

He, Paul says, I gave up everything and guess what?

I lost nothing but gained everything.

But every, because every created thing that I laid down, I gained the creator who created all of creation.

So I lost nothing.

I actually gained everything.

So the question at this point is, what is he asking you to let go of today?

You say you want to grow, and I'm down with that.

The Bible's down with that.

I'm totally into that posture.

Do you want to go?

You want to grow?

You want to go?

If there's something you've got to let go of.

If not, it just looks goofy.

Listen, Joe dirt was Joe dirt and we all laughed because he was rocking along mullet way past its time.

All of us have some kind of mullet that we need to let go of.

Lord saying, let go, come to me.

You'll lose nothing, but you'll actually find maturity in Christ.

So there's 0.1.

Now watch this.

So the question, just write it down.

What's he asking me to let go of?

When does he at today?

What is he asking me to let go of that I might go forward and gain Christ.

Now watch this.

This is a good one.

This is what I learned from leg days that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to Jesus, his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

I don't know why, and I don't know exactly where I picked it up, but I believed it for the majority of my life.

The lie I believed was this.

If, if I just do things right, life will be easy.

Anybody, anybody else?

If I just do things where if I just did this right, life would be easy and then I began to get angry because I think, well, if they would just do it right, life would be easy for me and that's a bad place to be.

If the government would just do things right, life would be easy.

Amen.

I know you.

I know.

Yeah.

Ellis'.

Hey, if they would just leave Trump alone, if they would just get Trump out, life would be, we begin to put it out there.

I want you to see what Paul says here because here's what I learned about from leg days.

Once a week, trainer will come over and she'll work.

Brooke and I out and if I do leg days correctly, guess what?

They hurt super duper bad.

That's if we do them right.

If I do it right, it hurts for days.

Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed.

She doesn't do that because she hates that.

She wants to help us grow stronger and get better.

Watch what Paul says here about leg days that I might know him.

You see the problem, one of the problems we face is many of us came to Christ that he would make life easier.

Life is hard, it's horrible, and we began to preach.

Go to Jesus, he'll make it all better, which is about 50% true.

It just leaves off half of the story, right?

It's called sanctification.

He will make it all better in all eternity after he sanctifies us.

Plus as if I do this right, I'm going to know him.

The power of his resurrection.

Parts of me are going to have to die and meet the power of God in my death.

The F, the fellowship of his, ah, thanks Chris.

He's with me being conformed to his.

If you do the Christian life correctly, guess what?

It's going to hurt.

That doesn't mean you're doing it wrong.

You can blame me and be like, Dave, we need a better pastor.

We need a better church cause my life is hard if you do Christianity correctly and Jesus was totally upfront about this isn't there is no, there's there, there's no slight of hand.

Let me walk you through it.

John 1633 I've spoken these things.

Throw that in me.

You might have peace because in this world you're going to have trouble.

There's one acts 1422 Paul went around to the churches encouraging the souls of the saints, saying to them through many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God.

First Peter chapter one verse seven don't be surprised at the fiery trials that are among you as though some strange thing were happening.

James chapter one consider it all joy when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing, so we've got trouble, tribulation, trials, temptations.

If we do Christianity, Christianity correctly, if you do it well, it's going to hurt because I, and I can walk you through the physiology of it.

When I muscle breaks down, it interprets it as I've been injured and so it begins to build back up and it gets stronger than it was before because it says, I've gotta be stronger.

This is what Jesus Christ does to me as I'm conformed to the image of his death, if I, as I enter in to suffering.

So the question is not only what does he asked me to let go of in order to grow and gain Christ.

Second question, what hard thing is he asked you to do that you've skipped?

Where did you skip leg day?

Which hard thing did he ask you to do that you're like, no, I'd rather not because I want my life to be easy.

Listen, be careful.

Don't Jabba the Hutt.

Skipped a lot of leg days and look what happened.

Honestly, how do you get a whole society of people who come to church and like feed me, do it for me, figure it out for me because we skip a lot of leg days in when life gets hard.

We're like, man, I want out.

Jesus said, don't skip leg days.

Sharon is suffering.

Be conformed to the image of his death.

If you do Christianity well, there's going to be times it hurts.

That's why he's given us a community to bear the way together to walk together.

We'll watch, watch what comes next.

It's going to be verses 12 and 13 I call it the beam me up.

Scotty.

I've watched a lot of star Trek growing up.

Watch what happens if you choose not to do any of these things.

If you don't want to let go and you're just going to hang, not, not rock the monkey bars like they were meant to.

If you're going to skip leg day and complain that any way it is too much, here's what tends to happen is just my theory, but I can show it to you from the scriptures.

Paul says, Paul says this and verse 12 and 13 still shock me if I, if I pause, it's cause my mind is like no way.

That can't be true watch.

Not that I've already obtained it or have already become mature.

Perfect.

Paul speaking here, and this is bizarre to me because as I go through my knowledge of, uh, of biblical characters in biblical history, I think if, if I could look at anybody and say they've arrived, who would I look at?

And of course, Jesus, of course, John the baptizer and Paul, if anybody could kick back on a hammock, drink a pina colada and be like, Hey, I arrived and it's really awesome here and you guys need to come join me.

It's Paul.

Watch what Paul says.

I haven't obtained it.

I'm not mature.

I haven't become perfect.

So I press on that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

He says it again because he knows my mind is going to glitch.

Look at verse 13, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet.

It's amazing.

Paul says, I have not arrived.

Here's what happens in Christianity for those, uh, for those who you're agnostic, atheist, non-believers, I'm so glad you're here.

Let me tell you why.

There's so many atheists agnostics here.

What happens to a church that doesn't understand the beam me up.

Scotty principle is this.

We come together and we live with ourselves.

So I know I don't measure up in any area.

I know that and that seems very exposing because I'm getting up to preach and tell people about Jesus.

So what we do is we become very religious, dead, hopeless, heartless, helpless.

Religion.

Manmade means modes and methods of trying to please God.

Now, when I do that, I know I'm not okay.

So I can't take the Bible and apply it to myself.

So what I naturally do is try and convince everyone I've arrived.

And as soon as you say that, what you're going to do is you're going to weaponize the Bible.

So you come to the Bible and since you've already arrived, you're super duper awesome in your mind.

You're living with binoculars, not a mirror.

You're checking out what everybody else is doing.

Oh my goodness.

Nose hair.

Doesn't he know you should trim that?

Oh my goodness.

Ear hair.

When does that start happening?

You're checking everybody else out.

That's life through binoculars.

That's religion.

The Bible actually calls us to live with a mirror where you come to the scripture, the perfect law of Liberty, and you're like, Oh my goodness, when did I get so old?

I've got nose hair, I've got ear hair.

I need to apply this to myself.

For those of you who have gone to a church and it seemed very judgmental, that's because they weren't that.

They were believing this.

Beam me up, Scotty, principal, I have arrived.

I am perfect now.

You need to be perfect like me.

The problem with that is Paul said he hadn't arrived.

Paul said he had to press on.

You see the truth here is this, and it'll give us a lot of freedom.

It'll give you a lot of freedom to quit living with binoculars and checking out your spouse.

It'll give you so much freedom from weaponizing the Bible.

Do you know what I'm talking about when I talk about weaponizing the Bible?

It means you get up early in the morning so you can read the Bible and you read it and you're like, Oh my goodness, that one's perfect for my wife.

I need to leave that one for Brooke.

I'll put that on a sticky note because I love her.

Amen sweetie.

I love you.

What's the problem with that?

Then you read the next verse.

Oh, that one's for the kids.

They need that one.

I wish they were reading that this morning, so you, you leave a little love note in their lunchbox.

Hey, I just want you to know you don't measure up here, here, here, and here.

Why don't I just, I'm loving you.

I'm just trying to love you.

What's the problem?

Then you read the next one.

Oh my goodness.

That one's for pastor Dave.

I'll email him because I love him.

You sock, you're no good.

Everything is no.

We can laugh about it because that's called weaponizing the Bible.

I've arrived now.

I'm God's special messenger to weaponize this against everyone else who needs it.

That's a place of judgment.

It's not a place of grace and truth and love and mercy.

That's a place where we hide.

We withdraw.

We isolate.

Paul says, no, no, no, no, no man.

That's not how we're going to roll.

The truth is, as long as I'm alive, I haven't arrived.

As long as I'm alive, I haven't arrived and neither have you.

You see, just growing old doesn't mean you grow up and as long as you and I are alive, we still have more growth.

And Paul says, I press on, I reach for eye strain for what Jesus Christ has for me because I want to grow.

Look more like Jesus.

Watch this.

Next one.

We'll go stay right there.

I think it's on the same slide.

I couldn't get past 13 verse 13 I'll show you why.

Paul says, I haven't arrived.

I'm not mature.

I still have to[inaudible] grow.

I still have to change, transform, and look more like Jesus.

But here's what I do know.

Watch this one thing I do.

You see what the next word one.

Here's one thing I do know that I need forget.

In fact, he present actively, continuously.

I need to be forgetting.

I've got to remember to forget.

It's a very interesting phrase.

I've got to forget things.

I've got to forget everything behind me.

Here's my problem.

I remember what I should forget and I forget what I should remember it.

So I wrote down on your notes.

I forget passwords.

So frustrating.

I want to remember passwords I desperately do.

I've got sticky notes with passwords all over my, I'm like, remember this one?

The problem is they keep changing, right?

I'll forget it once and I'll email.

They'll email me back, I'll reset it and then I can't remember.

I remember a whole bunch of stuff.

If y'all, I wish I could forget Q four seven two seven four that's my phone number from 42 years ago to five nine three seven two six it's my phone number from 25 years ago.

1-800-THREE-TEN-0412 the Butterfinger helpline.

Why do I know that?

I don't, I'm broke.

I don't know.

I can do this for hours and give you number after an[inaudible].

There's a whole file.

It's like Laura, I'll never use that.

I hope unless I've, I've relapsed and then I'm like, Colin Butterfingers not one was awful.

Send me a free one.

I think that's why I remember it.

Whole bunch of stuff.

I'm like, Oh, I need to forget that.

The things I need to remember, I tend to forget policies.

There's one thing I do need.

I need to forget what's behind you.

See, here's what happens, and all of us are in this camp.

All of us have a past because you're here today, which means you've lived for a period of time.

So you have a past.

In that past, you have both a glam shot and a mugshot.

You know that.

And we all function either according to the glam shot or mugshot.

Let me show you my glam shot.

This is from, this is me.

Shame on you.

I feel shame now.

If you didn't grow up 80s and 90s, and never had Olan mills glam shot, the like Napoleon dynamite, I feel bad for you.

This was some fun.

You know, you lay down on a mirror and you get all, uh, now people who, who, this is me, I think 17 maybe.

So people who are there, they just always remember that they live according to their glam shot and they think, Oh, I'm awesome.

I'm awesome.

Look at my Olin mills glam shot.

I'm perfect problem is they've aged by 45 years.

They don't look like that anymore.

They're not awesome, but they're still living by that.

I can always tell when I'm, when I'm interacting with somebody who, who's living according to their glam shot, cause they'll come in, Dave, you need to change this and change this and change that and the church needs to do this different.

And I've written up a policy and an outline and here's how you do everything different.

I'm like, wow, you, you really think you're awesome.

You're living according to your high school glam shot.

Problem is you're not glamorous.

And so I'll ask them one question.

If you come in with your glam shot or rocket rocket change, everything, I'm awesome.

I'm going to ask, how's your marriage?

And it's very interesting because every time they say, this isn't about me, this is about how much you suck.

And I'm like, well okay, thank you for that.

But how is your marriage?

Because see here's the weird thing.

I've been here like 20 years, yo, two decades.

So I know a lot more than I should.

It's very interesting when you come in with your glam shot.

I happened to know that your wife's about to file for divorce and it's really sad because all I'll tell you what, what you probably need to do is quit focusing on everything else and go serve and love your wife.

Just humble yourself and say, please forgive me.

And there'll be like, you're a jerk.

I'm outta here.

I'm like, okay, mr.

glam, you're not sexy.

You just think you are right.

But all of us also have a mugshot.

This is probably about half a year later.

This is me on intake with the police station having gotten in a fight.

Uh, guns were just discharged.

I was arrested and got taken into the police station.

I always know when I'm dealing with somebody on the glass, on the mugshot because they'll come in and typically there'll be invisible and when I finally get a chance to talk to them, they'll say, I'm no good.

God couldn't use me.

You have no idea about my past.

There's no way God could use me.

There's no way God could forgive me for that.

See the truth is, Paul says, you've got to remember what to forget, the glam shot and the mugshot.

Both of those are ridiculous.

Both of those are ridiculous.

The glam shot says, I'm better than what God says.

The mugshot says, I'm worse.

Here's the truth.

Sin doesn't get to define you in Christ anymore.

Your savior does.

So forget the glam shot.

Forget the mugshot and follow the one who gives you a new shot at life.

His name is Jesus Christ.

So if you come in and say, Dave, there's no way God could forgive me for that, I'm going to say, actually, here's what he says about you in Christ.

You're adopted into his family.

You're adored.

You're a new creature, a new creation.

If he says He's removed it as far as the East is from the West, why do you keep looking at it?

You've got to remember what to forget.

Paul says, I forget what lies behind.

All right, let me, let me jump onto the next one because I love this, um, has as we walk through, I've got to ask you the question before I move on.

I want you to write it down.

What do I need to forget?

What do I need to forget?

What is?

See you've got an accuser of the brethren, her cha, revelation.

W you've got an accuser that accuses you before the father day and night, and he loves to use my past against, against me.

Dave, you're an addict.

You're a method.

You ripped people off.

You robbed people.

Do you know how bad you are?

Jesus can't use you.

Is it a mugshot you need to forget or is it the glam shot?

Now what I'm about to do to you again as intellectual and theological whiplash, but Paul does it.

I'm not doing it.

See, Paul just got done saying, push on.

Press on.

Get her done.

Like let's show up and go.

Paul buffeted his body.

He disciplined himself for the sake of righteousness.

He's holding himself out as a model of maturity.

If I preached through just that first section, I could say, let's follow Paul.

Do more.

Push harder.

Go do.

And we would all leave exhausted saying, I'll try Dave.

Watch what Paul does here.

He's so good.

So kind.

So loving.

He knows there's some here that don't know Jesus and he just wants you to know Jesus.

He knows that there's some baby Christians and he just wants you to know Jesus.

He knows.

Watch what he says.

He changes his pronoun from I now to us, first time in this whole section, let us therefore, as many as are perfect, mature, whoever's grown up, let us have this attitude.

So if you're here and you know you know Christ and you've let go of the past to hold on, you're you reject the glam shot, the mugshot you're willing to do leg days.

Good.

Let us have this attitude and if anything, anybody has a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you for 16 watch the grace, the kindness, the goodness of Paul.

However, let us keep on living by that same standard to which you have attained such a beautiful, gracious kind tender word at the end, C for a type driven people.

I look at those first sections, I'm like, okay, let's grind it out and I will literally push myself.

I will not eat for weeks.

I will push myself until I relapsed and then I'll wonder what happened, what happened, who, it was my immaturity that kept pushing me to that.

Let me tell you about how a halfway house in California almost killed me.

I got out of rehab now coming up on 16 years ago and I couldn't find a job to save my life because I was being honest with every interviewer.

What have you been doing while I'm a recovering addict and alcoholic?

I'm just trying to get well and I need a, I need a start.

I couldn't get a job anywhere.

One of my friends that I was in rehab with called and said, Hey, come out to the halfway house and there's community here.

I went out and it almost killed me.

It killed two of them since then.

You see, we sat in that house and we were talking about our time and recovery and our time and in rehab and then one of them said, you know, I'm just not sure that I can stay sober for the rest of my life.

Say look, looked way out.

I'm just not sure I can not drink for the rest of my life and the next person said, yeah, I don't even know if I can do it for the next 20 years.

Little bit further back.

Yeah, the next guy, most likely I'm going to relapse in the next decade and I know that the recidivism rates are so high.

The next girl, man, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to stay sober for 90 days and next one, I haven't been able to stay sober for 30 days my whole life and next one we should all go relapsed together in the halfway house, gets up and goes from relapse.

I'm like, Whoa, Whoa.

What is going on?

I see this happened in Christianity all the time.

God is encouraging us.

Let go to grow and move forward.

Don't skip leg days.

Do the hard things.

Have the hard conversations.

He's encouraging us.

Don't look at the glam shot.

Don't look at the mugshot.

Look at the savior he defines you and the majority of us will say, I'm just not sure I can.

I can stay away from this for the rest of my life.

I'm just not sure I can stop that for the rest of my life.

I'm not sure I can never do that thing again.

And so we jump right back into it.

That day, the majority of the halfway house went and relapsed.

I got in my car and just drove thousands of miles and said, Lord, I don't know.

I don't know if I can stay sober the rest of my life.

I've got no control over that.

I've got no control over the rest of my life.

And he encouraged me.

He said, Dave, I know you can't change everything.

You're not God.

I know you don't know the future.

You are not God.

But I will tell you this, if you'll just obey me today, I'll make a path for you.

Hebrews chapter three today.

If you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.

Don't live in the future.

I don't know if I'll be able to stay sober the rest of my life.

What is that?

That's ridiculous.

You have no idea what the future holds in.

Neither do I, but here's what I do know manifold.

Just obey the light that I have today.

My savior is a good shepherd.

If you'll obey what he's calling you to let go of today, he'll give you grace for today because he wants to meet you today.

The best way to follow Jesus is one day and one decision at a time.

I'm gonna say it again because many of you are overwhelmed with anxiety.

The best way to follow Jesus is one day and one decision at a time, one step at a time.

Lord Jesus, you're a good shepherd.

What do you have for me right now?

Because you see, when you begin to put down the binoculars and pick up the mirror, when I put down the binoculars and I pick up the mirror, I see thousands of things wrong with me.

I do.

You can see'em too.

If you live with me and look at me, I just see so much is wrong and I say, Lord, I'll never be able to change all of that.

I can't do everything.

And he says, I haven't asked you to do everything I've asked you to do this something I've put right in front of you.

Will you obey me with the light that I've given you?

He's a good shepherd.

He won't give you more than you than you can handle.

He won't give you more than you can do in that moment.

You want to grow.

You want to mature.

Ask yourself, what is he asking you to let go of to gain Christ?

What hard thing is he asking you to do just today on leg day to work out your legs and strengthen them?

What is he asked you to forget?

Are you forgetting it?

Are you forgetting to forget what he's told you to forget?

You see, this is where he wants to meet us.

What is he asked you to do today?

Do you know him?

He's such a good shepherd.

He'll give you the grace to obey the light that he's given you today.

Let's pray.

Father, God, thank you for the time this morning, just to look at your kindness and your goodness that was made clear through the life of Paul and father.

Thank you that you don't call us to do everything because we can't change everything.

In fact, we can't change anything, but you have called us to obey you in the light that you've given us today.

So would you give your body here grace to obey and whatever thing that you've put before them.

I pray you'd grant humility.

I prayed grant repentance.

Father, I pray that you would restore marriages as we do the hard things and have the hard conversations and follow what you grant light and truth to those who don't know Jesus who are here.

I prayed today.

They'd say, God, I'm a sinner.

Thank you for your son, Jesus.

I want to put my faith in him.

Would you make today a day that changes eternity for your glory?

In Jesus name?

Amen.