Why Your Faith Is Boring (And How To Fix It) - January 25, 2026

Morning, we put the seats really close together so y'all could

get warm. Husbands, this is your

opportunity to get a snuggle in. I'm just telling you, somebody

said it's cold. I said if your favorite football

team was playing today, you'd be there with snow on your head.

So ain't that cold. My name's Daniel.

I'm the lead pastor here at Res Church.

Welcome to the Junketique Outlet thrift store.

If you're unfamiliar with this place, this is a a dream that

has come true that was born from a yard sale, a Calvary Bible for

many years and now the profits from this organization go to

missions and missions organizations and missionaries

and partners all over the world to further Kingdom purposes.

There's a, there's a famous line in the story Lord of the Rings

where there's a there's this council that gets together

trying to figure out how to accomplish this impossible task

of destroying this ring of Sauron.

And there's these little weak little hobbits that look kind of

like kids and, and they volunteer and the council looks

at them kind of condescendingly. And there's a famous line where

one of them looks at the little hobbits and he goes, 1 does not

simply walk into Mordor. Translation.

You can't do this. Who are you?

I want you to keep that in mind as we read today's text.

In our story, we're finishing up a series called Sent this idea

that when you were saved, you were also commissioned.

When God took you from spiritual death to spiritual life, he

actually gave you a purpose. And so we're going to finish

this series in Luke 10, starting in verse 17.

We'll be reading Luke 1017 through 23 today.

If you have your Bible, join with me.

We're going to finish off a story of these 72 disciples that

are coming back here. Here we go, verse 17 to 72

returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to

us in your name. And he says Jesus, he said to

them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents

and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing

shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in

this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that

your names are written in heaven.

In the same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I

thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have

hidden these things from the wise and understanding and

revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one

knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is

except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal

him. And then turning to the

disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes that see

what you see. For I tell you that many

prophets and kings desire to see what you see and did not see it

and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.

Blessed be the word of God. If you're picking up on our

story, in week 472 disciples were sent out all into the

countryside to preach and proclaim the gospel.

And and now they're coming back since 72 came back and returned

with what's that word? Joy.

Just like everyone who showed up in the cold today, joy, we came

back with joy and said, Lord, even the demons is subject to us

in your name. Now I want you to think about

the story. We're not talking about the 12

apostles and we know their names and they wrote books and they're

famous. We're talking about 72 regular

people with very little training sent out pretty unprepared, no

defenses, no money, no preparation, no equipment to

preach. What was the very controversial

message to what turned out to be a very stubborn people who would

eventually kill Jesus for that message?

And on this trip, if you're a planner right now, you're

thinking so much could go wrong on this trip.

They witnessed such supernatural power.

Did all they do, They come back and they go there's that scene

in the one of the spider man movies where the first time he

uses his power and he's like, whoa.

And they come back and go whoa, healing miracles, casting out

demons. What like what you know, maybe

you're here today or, or you're listening to the live stream,

but you're thinking like the the the very idea of miracles, the

very idea of demons is like a bit overwhelming.

You know, it's just, let's allow me to at least finish the story

'cause I get it, it was for me too.

Of this is, there's a lot here and maybe you don't think much

of the spiritual world, but almost every human being can

admit that there are many things about this universe that we do

not understand and cannot explain.

And so if you'll stay curious for a few minutes, maybe as we

finish the story, we can address some of those doubts.

These disciples return from this journey.

They're overjoyed at what happened.

And I want you to think about a trip that they took with no

prep, no money, no defenses, no help, and came back overjoyed.

And here's what I would tell you that is so from my experience,

that is so representative of life in line with God.

When you're living a life pursuing God, it begins to feel

this way when you're willing to risk everything, including their

lives for Jesus. Apparently that's joyous.

Not easy, not comfortable, might be cold under the tent, but

amazing, satisfying Christian. Did you want to know for for

many of us Christians, why your faith is boring?

You're not actually following Jesus.

You, you proclaim Jesus, but are you really pursuing him because

he's moving And often where Christ is leading us into unsafe

spaces. And the moment that Christians

stop pursuing, we start plopping.

Do you know what I mean by plopping?

Plopping down in pews and chairs, Plopping down in

routines and and comfortable friend groups that haven't

changed in years. Plopping, getting comfortable.

It's like, it's like playing with the wrapping paper and

missing the gift. Christian, you can't plop and

pursue. You can plop or pursue, but you

have to pick one. Look around you real quick.

Look around you. Go ahead, Look at all those

beautiful people. One of the reasons that I wanted

to do a church service here in a parking lot under a tent is

guess what? You're not sitting in the same

seat you sit in every Sunday now.

Some of you actually sat in the same section of chairs that you

do in the sanctuary. You made me chuckle.

You made me chuckle. I was like, man, we do like our

routines. I wanted you to sit in a

different seat because the Christian life is about pursuit,

not about getting comfortable. The disciples came back from

this uncomfortable mission overjoyed because Jesus LED them

into a crazy moment. And they said yes, The Bible

says that where Jesus is, there is life, There is contentment,

there is satisfaction when we are connected to the vine.

That's Jesus. We can bear much fruit, but the

Spirit is moving and we better be obedient.

And if not, it's going to get boring because the Spirit's

moving, and if we're not, we get left behind in an empty

building. That's what the famous quote

from Bono. He said.

Religion is what you get when the Holy Spirit has left the

building. Christian religion is what you

get when you plop all of the moral fibers of Christianity.

But Christ is on the move and the spiritual life and vitality

will get sucked out of the room when we get cozy and

comfortable. So this point number one is you

can plop or pursue, but you can't do both.

Pastor Francis Chan says it this way.

He says the core problem isn't the fact that we're lukewarm,

half hearted, or stagnant Christians.

The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we

have an inaccurate view of God. We see him as a benevolent being

who is satisfied when people managed to fit him into their

lives in some small way. And we forget that God never had

an identity crisis. He knows that He's great and

deserves to be the center of our lives.

And if he's at the center, then you and I, we, we've got to get

our minds around this concept that we are sent.

They finish this line, they come back over, join and say, look,

Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

Say they're throwing out demons, that they have experienced

supernatural power and they're in awe of it.

And Jesus affirms this. He says, and and he said to

them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents

and scorpions and all over the power of the enemy, and nothing

shall hurt you. Theologians are kind of split on

what this means when he talks about seeing Satan fall like

lightning. But the most common of the

opinions is that he's referring to the fact that when they begin

to do spiritual work, Jesus could actually see the spiritual

impact against the enemy. That even though they're all out

over the countryside, that Christ could actually see the

impact of their work on Satan. You know, the Bible says that

the primary conflict of this world is not political.

It's not racial, it's not gender based or economic.

It's not ice in Minnesota or an invasion of Greenland or

conflict in Iran. The primary battle of this world

is spiritual. That's what Ephesians 6 tells

us, the apostle Paul says. For we do not wrestle against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Now you may be listening and thinking, like when first demons

and now spiritual warfare. Like really, I get it.

It's OK to have doubts, even listen, even if you're not sure

about the supernatural. I just want you to think what

what if the principle of it is true?

What if, what if who you Love Actually matters more than you

know? And we're going to keep looking

at that. Jesus is affirming the impact of

their mission. Hey, I saw what happened in the

spiritual realm because you were obedient.

They saw some supernatural things.

Jesus saw the impact and greater effects of it.

And for you, Christian, when you obediently step into God's call

and God's mission, we're going to impact far more than the

physical, more than the temporal.

We shake the foundations of Satan's realm, you and I,

Christian, we, we get to push back the darkness of this

reality just a little bit more when we're obedient.

You didn't get called to foster that child simply for the impact

of that child. You didn't get called to feed

the hungry just for that one meal they need right now.

All of those things are good. But when we obey the call of

Christ through outreach, through proclamation of the good news,

through the living out of the gospel, we participate in an

ancient battle and we make a difference.

You make a difference, believer. You can shake the very

foundations of hell when a whole people turns toward the darkness

of this world and begins to shine for Christ.

When we say yes to adopting that child, to praying for our Co

worker, to speaking into the life of a friend with the truth

of the gospel, Satan shutters. Last week there was a guy named

Jose and he got his name written on a little ping pong ball in

the ping pong wall, a white one because someone invited him to

church. And then someone got to write

his name on an orange ball because he showed up.

And then by the end of the service, someone got to write

his name on a paintball because he surrendered his life to

Christ. And in the same way that Jesus

is saying, hey, you saw some of the supernatural impact of the

things you were doing when you were being obedient, and I saw

more. What I want to tell you is that

we see some of the impact of this, but but when someone gives

their life to Christ, hell shakes and demons flee and Satan

grits his teeth. We don't even see all of it yet.

And that type of power that they're experiencing in this

moment as they come back joyous, I'll be honest, it's a it's

addictive. It's so attractive that Jesus

actually follows it up with a warning.

He says, yes, I saw what you did.

Yes, I saw the impact. I gave you that power.

Say me to push back against the enemy, but don't get caught up

in the power because it'll make you prideful like Satan.

And don't forget the big picture that it's not about me, it's

about the King. I want you to say that with me,

Church, it's not about me, it's about the King.

Let's say it together, It's not about me, it's about the King

and His name is Jesus. So don't lose sight of who we do

this for and why it matters. If you know Christ, if you have

surrendered your life to Christ, you've found the greatest

treasure ever and your eternity is guaranteed and your salvation

is sealed and you have but a few days or years left to shape what

all of eternity will look like. He chose you to send you.

That's our big idea. He chose you to send you?

Yeah. I worked as a, a volunteer, a

teacher, and then a volunteer elder and then a volunteer

pastor at my last church for, for many years.

And then I came to this church and I worked here for about 7

years as just a volunteer discipleship pastor and

associate pastor. And, and I, and I was working

for free. But I mean, in reality, I wasn't

really working for free. I was enrolled in the ultimate

retirement plan where stocks can never crash, thieves can never

steal, and I just want to invite you to participate in the same

retirement plan. When we get to please our King,

there is great satisfaction in our lives as we serve, but also

we are storing up treasure in heaven where neither moth nor

rust destroy. And so I want to look at in our

in our last moments today, how we go about doing that.

We know why to please God, but how do we do that and pick this

up in verse 21 in that same hour.

This is Jesus. He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit

and he said I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that

you have hidden these things from wise and understanding and

you've revealed them to little children.

I'm not sure if I should be offended.

I'm pretty sure that Jesus just said that God hid the knowledge

of Christ from the wise and the understanding of this world, and

he only revealed Jesus to little children.

So if we know Christ, that makes us little children little

children. You don't think Jesus is trying

to insult you in this moment? I think He's trying to explain

something to you and I don't want you to miss it.

He makes the same point in Matthew 18.

I want you to read it this way. In Matthew 18 verses 2 through

Matthew 18:2–4

4, Jesus says and calling to him a little child, He put him in

the midst of them. And he said, truly, I say to

you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never

enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like

this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

What, what part of childlike faith is it that we need?

Well, it's, it's right there in the text.

It's humility. You have to humble yourself.

You see, a child knows where the authority and the power and the

strength comes from. A child knows that it's Dad that

gets the tough stuff done. So Jesus is telling you and I

something really insightful. He said if you want to

experience supernatural power and miracles of the Father, you

need to come like children because it's not us, it's Him.

And so you need to cling to Him, you need to be infatuated with

Him, you need to be captivated by Him, you need to be in love

with Him, you need to be dependent on Him.

You need to believe in Him like children believe in their

parents. You ever asked a child what can

God do and just start to chuckle when you laugh at all their

outlandish comments? Well, God could, and it's some

massive thing that makes you smile and laugh.

And I just want you to realize that they have it right and we

might be a little cynical. Remember the hobbits?

The unlikely weak little heroes. Far too often we become cynical

and we're the people looking down our noses and thinking you

have to be powerful to do something great for God.

No, you don't. You just have to believe.

Our problem isn't that we lack power or money or people or

strategy. God has all of those things.

Our problem is that we dream too small for such a big God church.

We want to believe in the Father like little children do.

I want to live in a space where either God shows up in power or

I look foolish and silly because a child doesn't care about

looking foolish or silly. Believe like a child.

That's the first step to getting to participate in this mission

from this text Believe like a child verse 23.

Then turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are

the eyes that see what you see Rez church.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you're getting to see in a

move of God right now. For I tell you, many prophets

and kings desire to see what you see and did not see it and to

hear what you hear and did not hear it.

So first point is come like a child.

The second is to be remembered as faithful.

Let me ask you this. What were the names of the 72

people that were sent out and did all these miracles?

Nobody knows. Nobody knows their names.

We don't have any other names at all.

They did miracles. They healed people.

They cast out demons. And we don't know their names.

They're not written in this book.

They're written somewhere else. They're written in the Book of

life. See, we aren't working to be

noticed. We're serving so that maybe

Jesus gets noticed. Our mission is not to have our

names remembered here on earth, but simply to be remembered as

being faithful. What's it going to look like,

Rez? To look faithful?

To be remembered as faithful in the days or years that you have

left here before God calls you to heaven.

What's it going to look like? Galatians 6, 9, and 10 says it

this way. This is the apostle Paul again

writing to another church. It says, and let us not grow

weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not

give up. So then, as we have opportunity,

let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of

the household of faith Church. We are the hands and feet of

Christ. We are the hope of the world.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

That's what Colossians one says, that Jesus could transform us to

live so differently. Other people would notice that

the whole plan to reach a broken world was you.

It's dangerous, it's treacherous, it's exhausting,

but there exists nothing, nothing in this universe that is

more satisfying, that will bring more peace and contentment in

your life, that will be more impactful, more eternal, than to

gather together and burn brightly for Christ while we

serve others. Because you've been given all

authority and all power and all wisdom.

And our response is simply to get up and follow Jesus

desperately with childlike faith and don't give up doing good.

And if we will do this, the very gates of hell will tremble and

shake. Satan will be terrified that a

bunch of kids in Bakersfield said yes to Christ.

I believe we can change the world, not because we have any

particular power to do so, but He does.

So I want to give you an opportunity to start believing

like a child today. Would you learn today to be a

kid? You're right.

Here's your opportunity to start believing like a child.

It's this simple. Here's the first one.

Pray for something impossible. Everyday.

Pray for something impossible. Secondly, invite someone that

you're scared to invite or that you've given up on.

And 3rd sign up for something you do not want to do or think

that you can't pray for something impossible every day.

A couple years ago, we were in like year seven of the Kern

County drought. I don't know if you remember

that one fun times. And I was in prayer with the

Lord and I had really been struggling with just kind of

getting my arms around the calling here.

And I finally got to the point where I was talking to the Lord.

I said, man, I, I, I surrender wanting to move somewhere that's

not brown and dead. I'm going to do whatever you

want me to do. I'm going to stay here.

I'm going to embrace what you're asking me to do.

I'm going to be obedient. But God, would you, would you

just make it green here? And so I remember having this

conversation with the Lord and just just getting to talk to him

and feeling like, man, this is so good.

And I went back in the office afterwards and I said, hey guys,

y'all better check your umbrellas 'cause this fall it's

going to rain like crazy. And everyone laughed at me.

You're 7 of a drought, right? And I was like, no, you don't

understand. I I asked dad for it and that

year we had a record rainfall. Who looks foolish now?

Ask God, Pray for something impossible everyday.

Stop dreaming small. He doesn't invite someone you're

scared to invite or written off. Listen, you don't have to

convince them to come. You just have to invite them.

God does all the convincing. Third, sign up for something

that you do not want to do. Could be scooters or think that

you can't do. Sign up for something mildly

scary. Serving, going on mission,

learning something new, a group, leading a group, starting a

group. There's so many different things

right after the service. We're going to give you

opportunity to serve in a bunch of different ways here in this

community. Go try something new.

In fact, one of the things we've been talking to you a lot about

is that there's a an evangelism workshop coming up on February

7th. Raise your hand if you've

already signed up for that. I'll look around.

Don't want to miss out. There are 100 of us, just over

100 of us now signed up. And so we want you to come sign

up and join us there. It's always a little bit weird

when we roll in and like, most of the churches there have three

people and then we come up with like 100.

It's a little bit like growing up in East Bakersfield.

Yeah. Yeah.

We just come in like, oh, it's Rez.

There's all of us and what's up, dude?

Yeah, what's up? It is, it is a little, it is a

little fun. I'm sure everyone else is

intimidated, but you won't because there'll be a lot of us.

Sign up for something that you haven't tried.

Sign up for an evangelism workshop.

But I don't want you to forget this.

This is the point of today. He chose you to send you.

He never chose you to plop. He didn't chose you to choose

you to get comfortable. He chose you to send you on

mission. And so you're never going to be

fully satisfied in Christ until you actually begin to get your

hands and your heart and your mind around that calling that He

has on your life. That's why it's the job of

pastors to equip the Saints for works of service.

Say me, that's you. That's why we want to keep

giving you opportunities to find out what is that calling look

like? What is God calling me to do?

Before we finish our services, we wrap this up and, and we all

run out and go serve together or take a tent down or stack chairs

or go to the the homeless center we're going to go to in a

minute. Maybe there's a few of you here

or watching our live stream that have begun to realize you need

some of the hope that we keep talking about and you don't have

it. You know, if you're new to this

whole Bible thing, it is completely OK to be searching.

But I want you to consider, in our story, why would 72 very

average people risk everything and come back overjoyed?

Maybe because we are more than simply biology and reasoning and

intellect. And maybe that brokenness that

you feel has an actual answer. Today, Jesus offers you real,

everlasting hope. The Bible says that every person

is born under the curse of sin, that the first people on earth

rebelled against God, and now all of us are born hopeless and

in need of something that we can't provide for ourselves.

So God, loving us even though we were his enemies, sent his Son

Jesus to live a perfect life of obedience that we can't live.

He was killed on a cross by religious people, but in doing

so, he sacrificed himself for us and he rose three days later,

conquering sin and death forever.

The Bible says that salvation is found in no other name than

Jesus. And so if you want that hope,

you must surrender your life, your will yourself to Jesus, the

King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

And he says that if you will acknowledge with your words and

believe in your heart that he is King, you will be saved.

So I want to give you that opportunity today.

Will you? Will you bow your heads and

close your eyes with me as we we finish this service?

If you're listening to this today and and you've come to the

point where you would surrender your life to Christ, I want you

to simply repeat this prayer after me.

Jesus, I can't save myself. I surrender to you.

I ask you to save me and adopt me into your family.

Be my Lord. Please, Jesus, if you prayed to

surrender your life to Jesus for the first time right now, would

you be brave and raise your hand for me to see?

Thank you. I see you.

Thank you can put your hands down.

Maybe you're here today. You've come to realize that you

aren't living on mission for Christ.

Your life is better defined as plopping than pursuing, and it's

been dominated by your own plans and your own wisdom and your own

desire. And you want to turn away from

the worries and distractions of this world, and you want to live

a life sold out and on fire for Christ.

You want to commit to making changes in your life that allow

for discipleship and community and a charging after Jesus in

your daily life. And if that's you, I just want

you to raise your hand right now for me to see.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. See, you put your hands down in

Jesus name, Amen. All right, He saved you to send

you. For those of you who just

committed your life to Christ for the very first time, welcome

to the family. In just a moment as we respond

to this sermon, we're going to sing a song.

Our per team's going to be up here and we're going to pray

with you. If you just made a commitment to

Christ for the first time. There's a table in the back

right there. She's waving her hand.

Say hi. She's beautiful, says I raised

my hand. We want you to go back there and

tell someone that you made a commitment to Christ.

We'd love to talk to you about what's next.

We have a gift for you. We want to celebrate with you.

If you just made a commitment to go hard after Christ, we want to

pray for you. There could be a bunch of people

up here to pray. Just come up here and pray with

us if you need prayer for any reason.

We cherish opportunities to pray with you and for you.

Let's stand to sing You. Move as the Lord leads you.

Love you church.