RADICAL LIFE | Part 1 | The Four Pillars

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>> We're all about helping people know

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jump in.

>> Hallelujah. [applause]

You know what I've noticed? People

started stealing my hallelujah.

>> I want it back, Miss Whitney.

>> Look at your neighbor and say,

"Hallelujah."

>> Hallelujah.

>> Well, hey, if you're a first- time guest

with us, my name is Ben. I have the

opportunity to serve as lead pastor. Uh,

hey, before we preach the word today,

um, I wanted to share a little bit of,

uh, fun stuff with you. So, who's been

in Grace Summit for a long time? Raise

your hand. You guys know that every year

in August, we celebrate Uncle Art's

birthday. And uh Uncle Art uh he would

have been 105 this month. He passed away

a couple of years ago at 103. And just

an incredible uh legacy. But hey, we're

still celebrating his birthday. He's in

heaven and looking down on us, but uh

we're going to have some cupcakes after

service.

>> And I'm always looking for a good reason

for a nice cupcake at church. Amen. Uh,

but I want to share a little bit of an

update about his legacy, about who he

is. Uh, for those of you that don't

know, Uncle Art, um, left his estate to

Grace Summit Church. Amen. And so, we've

been navigating that uh, his home and

different things. And, uh, all of that

when, uh, we're able to get it sold and

go through the motions, uh, that's going

to go towards our building project, uh,

towards the building campaign. We feel

like it's an incredible legacy uh, to a

man of faith. 3 that served in the

church uh longer than any of us have

been alive, right? Uh just an incredible

legacy. But an update on our capital

campaign. Uh if you're new to the idea

and not really sure what we're talking

about, in the hallway, we have some

pictures um of some renderings and some

drawings. And uh out of necessity, we

felt to expand the platform here a

little bit. Uh primarily because of our

kid ministry. Uh we have more kids than

what can fit in our classrooms a lot of

weeks. And uh we believe that the next

generation deserves adequate space uh to

be ministered to. Amen.

>> Also uh we could use a little more space

in here. And I don't know if you've been

in that foyer between services, but it

gets a little tight. You guys ever been

in there doing this stuff? Yeah. So uh

been uh working and and uh participating

together to raise some resources for

that. So a campaign update. Uh we've

raised almost a half a million dollars

pledged.

>> Hallelujah.

>> Amen.

And uh that's for our $2.1 million goal.

Building costs are pretty expensive. Uh

we're pretty confident we can come in uh

fairly well under that $2.1 million um

to get us going and uh looking at a few

phases. So we might be able to do part

of it um sooner than later and uh

continue as we go through. Uh but if

that's uh something that you want to

participate in, I know many in this room

have participated. I think we have 37 or

38 people that have pledged 38. Um, out

of a church that we're running, you

know, 240, man, we could we could uh see

some more pledgers. Amen. If 38 can

raise a half a million, think about what

a 100 can do, right? Could get us across

that. So, pray about that. Uh, whatever

God would lay on your heart um to

participate in that. You guys ready for

the word of God?

>> Hallelujah.

man. Uh, I'm going to preach. Pray with

me. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your

spirit in this house.

>> Father, we thank you, Lord, for your

presence during worship, God, for the

work that you've already done in our

hearts. And Lord, we didn't come to hear

from men. Father, these people didn't

come to hear my words, but Lord, I pray,

Father, that your word would reign

supreme above all things. Father, that

your Holy Spirit would bring comfort and

counsel and encouragement and

conviction, God, that we would leave

this place more like Jesus than we've

ever known.

So, Father, I thank you, Lord, for an

anointing upon the preaching of your

word in Jesus name. Amen. Well, hey,

we're kicking off a new series called

Radical Life. Look at your neighbor in

the greatest ' 80s Bill and Ted voice

and say, "Radical."

>> [laughter]

>> AS [clears throat] I'M PREPARING THIS

SERMON, that's all I hear is like

radical, excellent, bodacious, rad, you

know, like all of those those terms that

kind of come with that uh date myself a

little bit. Uh but really the thing that

we're hungry for as we're uh going

through disciplehip, we're going through

rooted, we're really looking for radical

life. Amen. That my life is valuable in

the eyes of heaven. And uh before uh

many years ago, I used to travel uh for

several years to different churches,

about 90 different churches a year. And

this is back. I'd preach couple services

Sunday morning, then I'd preach a Sunday

evening, then I'd preach Wednesday

night. And I did like a five-state

circle. And so I've been in every

denomination, literally every Protestant

denomination that I know of um

preaching. And I saw a lot of different

church models, uh big churches, little

churches. Uh can I say this? Um, I've

seen bad big churches. I've seen good

big churches. I've seen good little

churches and I've seen bad little

churches. Amen. And so the the greatness

or the impact of the church has has

nothing to do with size. Has everything

to do with the heart of the ministry. Uh

there were times traveling that uh we'd

be in some of these smaller churches.

And I don't want you to hear me wrong. I

know that sometimes because I've

pastored small churches. Um uh sometimes

uh we only have so much resources,

right, to pull things off. And it can be

a struggle to do ministry with

excellence.

But I've been to some churches. Have you

guys ever been in a church where the

music's just awful?

It's okay to tell the truth in church,

right? Like the singers are flat, the

band's off a little bit, you're trying

to worship, but I'm a music guy, so I'm

like trying to worship, but like I'm

just I have a hard time focusing because

of stuff. or uh back in the day. Uh

who's been saved long enough to remember

the the overhead projectors with the

clear transparencies for worship?

>> Yeah. You know, there's still some

churches that still do that.

>> Uh in our ministry, we used to have the

the high school young young guys doing

it and so they would put it on and then

it's upside down

>> and then they'd be doing this and it's

backside and they're doing this and

we're all trying to worship like what in

the world is going on here, man.

Even with uh uh the screen sometimes the

lyrics, you ever just stood there for

like a whole song and the lyrics aren't

up? You know what I'm talking about,

man? I've been in churches where they

got shag carpet going up the walls

still.

Yeah. Smells a little funny when you

walk in. You guys know that smell? Yeah.

Lots of different types of churches. Uh

traveling for years. uh seeing some of

the I don't know

uh how churches

some of them don't I'm being careful

with my words. Can you tell? Um some of

them don't do church with excellence.

Friends with people, right? Ask pastors.

I have ask people that attended church

because I had to know um why are we

doing church this way? Why are we kind

of settling and everyone's just okay uh

with sister so and so that cannot sing

doing a special

>> number Sunday on the regular.

>> You guys just thought back to your

church experience with sister so and so

that couldn't sing, right? And somehow

she gets a platform and it's like man

why why are we kind of settling for

this? So I had to know is everybody okay

with this? And the answer that I got was

a resounding no. We're not okay with it.

We know that we could be doing better.

Um, but we've kind of settled and uh

what church can turn into sometimes and

I'll speak as far as America is

concerned. It can become a place of

hobbies,

right? And so this one's enjoys doing

this and so we give them a platform for

this and then this one really likes

this. So we give them a platform for

this and you know and sister Martha's

not upset that the music's bad because

she gets to do her quilting group and

Bubba's not upset that the service

didn't go long and announcements took 28

minutes. uh you know, he's not upset

because he does his barbecue and his

barbecue's no good, but he gets

celebrated at church that he gets to do

it twice a year and

it becomes a little place of hobbies.

And I want you to hear me. I'm not being

critical,

but I've studied the scriptures and I've

been in church a little while to know

that the God that we serve deserves

excellence. Amen.

>> Amen. [clears throat]

I want to give you a little bit of a

glimpse

to the church world from heaven's

perspective.

You know, the Old Testament, uh, they

had the tabernacle and then the Old

Testament temples. And even to build

them, God gave, uh, really precise

instructions on how to build. And they

were built with the finest gold. They

would call in the finest craftsman from

all over the land. They had the finest,

the very best musicians that came. They

had an entire team that to make the

temple actually function. Uh they had

gatekeepers. We call them security teams

now, right? Little shout out to Joe and

the security team, keeping the house of

God safe, right? Uh they had uh

sacrificial priests that would handle

the sacrifices. They had uh servants

that would serve in different areas and

all these different things. Uh but they

didn't settle for anything less than

excellent because they had this

reverence

for God. This awe of God that said we

are coming with the very best. Amen.

I want to talk a little bit about being

radical for God. And what I'm not

suggesting is that we should mimic the

Old Testament model.

I am saying that they had a culture of

excellence that's fitting for the God

that we serve. Amen.

the highest standard for the highest

God.

You know, people would come with their

sacrifices and the standard was this. It

had to be the spotless lamb. It had to

be the unblenmished. It had to be the

best of the entire flock, right? That I

would bring for my sacrifice. In Malachi

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, uh we see a people uh serving

God that has fallen away from the

standard of excellence.

Malachi 1 and verse 6, this is God

speaking to his people.

He says, "A son honors his father and a

servant is master. If then I am a

father, where is my honor? And if I am a

master, where is my fear? says the Lord

of hosts to you, oh priests who despise

my name. But you say, "How have we

despised your name? By offering polluted

food upon my altar." But you say, "How

have we polluted you?" By saying that

the Lord's table may be despised.

So let me give you the snapshot here a

little bit. Uh there were food

offerings, right, that were happening uh

in the in the temple. And so they would

bring the leftovers, the polluted, the

spoiled leftovers and they would be

offering it to God and then they had the

audacity to speak negative of God's

house saying that place is stink stinky

and the food is horrible and we're not

going back.

We don't do that in America, do we?

I'm not going back to that church cuz

they didn't

Well, maybe God's calling you to fill

that role.

>> Amen.

and maybe the uh stinky would disappear

if you show up with the fresh alive

thing. Uhoh, that wasn't in my notes.

So, they're complaining that the house

of God is disgusting. Verse 8, God says

this. He says, "When you offer blind

animals and sacrifice, is that not evil?

When you offer those that are lame or

sick, is that not evil? Present that to

your governor. Will he accept you or

show you favor? Says the Lord of hosts.

Skip down to verse 14.

He says, "Cursed is the cheat who has a

male in his flock and vows it and yet

sacrifices to the Lord what is

blemished.

For I am a great king, says the Lord of

hosts, and my name will be feared among

the nations."

You guys hearing God set the standard

and change the tone of a people that are

worshiping him. He says, 'Man, you guys

at home, you have the unblenmished. You

have the spotless, right, that was vowed

to me and what you brought was the one

that got attacked by an animal is now in

lame. You're bringing the one that was

blind because it cost you nothing.

You're going to kill it anyways.

>> [clears throat]

>> and you expect to find favor in the

house of God. You know, we have a clear

understanding that, you know, I think

about the leftovers, the spoiled

leftovers. If you go to your boss and

you bring a gift all wrapped up nice and

pretty and he opens it up and it's your

spoiled leftovers from three weeks ago,

and then you look at him and be like,

"How about that raise?" Right?

>> We laugh here, but why do we do that

with God?

We bring God the leftovers, the spoils,

the blemish, the lame, and we say, "Oh,

God, bless my life. Bless my family.

Bless bless my finances. Bless my

marriage."

I love when God gets funny in scripture.

He says, "Give that to your governor.

See if you find favor." Right? Give that

to your boss and see if you find favor

in the workplace.

But in the house of God, you have the

audacity. Oh man, I almost started

preaching.

We don't show up at our friend's house

that way.

Culture [snorts] changed. Remember when

you had to bring a something to your

friend's house when you were a guest?

People don't do that anymore. That

wasn't in my notes. I was just thinking

that out loud.

M

we wouldn't show up with our boss that

way. We wouldn't show up at our friend's

house that way,

but we show up to the house of God with

whatever leftovers we have and we call

it worship.

I've been tired. I just had a long week.

Listen, here's the here's the idea that

we have in American Christianity for

some reason is that I go from Sunday to

Sunday and I come Sunday to feel good

about things. I come Sunday to get

recharged spiritually and then we go

home and have dinner and and I feel

better about it.

Can I tell you, there's a radical

difference that happens when when you've

been serving God Monday and you've been

on fire for Christ. When you've been

serving God Tuesday and Wednesday and

Thursday and Friday and Saturday and you

show up full of the Holy Ghost, full of

the anointing, full of the blessing of

God and the favor of God in your life,

and you say, "God, here's my very best."

And you worship God from that instead of

another week. I don't even know if I can

wake up and make it to church. I'm so

tired.

>> [clears throat]

>> Yeah.

Kicking off a new series today called

Radical Life. Let me start with this.

Radical favor begins with radical honor.

Amen. Radical favor begins with radical

honor. Casual is not excellence

and mediocre is not the calling.

I said mediocre is not the calling.

I didn't read that portion of scripture

where God celebrated those that were

mediocre and half-hearted.

Amen.

And what I'm not going to do today is

beat you up, tell you how horrible you

are for not doing life a certain way.

I'll tell you what I want to do. I want

to give you a glimpse. if we could pull

back the veil, give you the standard of

heaven of what worship looks like, what

serving God looks like, and really give

us something to attain to. Because the

enemy would love to lower the bar. The

enemy would love to lower the standard,

particularly in the house of God. That's

not that big a deal.

It's okay,

right?

When God's calling for us is higher, say

higher.

Today I want to give you four pillars

of the radical life.

And it's really experiencing radical

life that comes from heaven. Four

pillars to radical life. Number one is

radical honor.

Radical honor. God says 1st Samuel

chapter 2:30. He says this. He says,

"Those who honor me, I will honor." Hold

on for a minute. I want you to think

about times in your life that you've

been honored for something good that you

did. Doesn't that feel good? And think

about, man, uh you know, if somebody uh

in the public eye or celebrity or

somebody reputable, some whatever

whatever association or whatever uh

called you up and said, "Man, you just

been doing so. We want to honor you

publicly. Would you show man? you would

just you would feel some kind of way

like they want to they're going to have

a whole dinner for me and my name's

going to be up on the on the thing and

they're going to give me stuff and

they're going to talk talk nice about me

and people are going to share all this

cool like they're going to honor me

public that's that's a yeah yeah let's

do that right maybe for some of you if

you got a rough job what what if your

boss honored you right what if your boss

honored you showed up to he just honored

you and said man here's six months

salary bonus

>> we you've been yeah we Just I I want you

to think about this, right? That would

excite us. God says, "If you honor me, I

will honor you." I want you to think

about the creator of the universe, the

one that spoke the universe into

existence, breathe into a handful of

dirt, and man became. I want you to

think about that God

honoring you.

That's powerful stuff.

But it follows my honor for God. He

says, "Those who honor me, I will

honor." Catch this. Those who despise me

shall be lightly esteemed.

It's a principle. It's a standard that

God has.

If you want radical favor, you have to

start with radical honor.

I want to show you what this looks like

a little bit from a practical side. Luke

Luke 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 uh portion of scripture. This

is early on when Jesus is calling

disciples and uh approaches Peter and

Peter is a professional fisherman,

right? We we read a lot about Peter.

Poor Peter gets picked on so much about

being stubborn and all the different

things, right? I'm going to apologize to

Peter when I when I get up to heaven

because I've picked on him a lot over

the years preaching. Uh but Peter's a

professional fisherman and this is a an

expert fisherman. This is what he does.

He knows the water. He knows the

seasons.

He knows the fish.

He's an expert. And he's been out all

night fishing.

And he's tired and he's frustrated. And

the Bible says that he was washing his

nets. That's Bible language for I quit.

I'm done. Right. I mean, I did went out

and did my very best. I went out all

night hours on the water and man, I've

gone I have expertise. I know the I've

done everything that I can. And I and

I'm all done. I wash them. Let's wash

up, guys, and go home. Right? So, he's

frustrated. He's given up.

You ever felt that before?

Done everything I'm supposed to do. I

mean, I've done it. I did did it all

right. And I have nothing to show for

it. That's what Peter's going through.

Jesus shows up and Jesus says something

to him. He says, "Push out a little

deeper and let your nets down for a

catch." Now, if I'm Peter and some

random guy walks up to me, right? Maybe

he even knew Jesus who he was. Maybe he

had some idea. Maybe not.

This guy walks up and I'm all I'm

washing nets. I'm ready to go home. And

he says, "Hey, go go go out deeper and

and drop your nets." I want to go, "Hey,

listen. I'm the fish expert. Uh you're a

carpenter. You build tables, but uh

we've already been at this thing for

eight hours tonight." Like, "No, I'm

over it. I'm going home. I'm hungry. My

wife's waiting for me." Right. Peter was

married, by the way. Did you guys know

that?

>> Yeah.

That was free. You can study that later.

Look up Peter's mother-in-law.

Yeah, you're just a carpenter. You go

build tables. I'll catch the fish.

That's my job. Look what Peter says.

Verse 5. Luke 5:5. He says, "Master,

Luke 5:5

number one, we see honor out of the

gates. Master, we've toiled all night

and caught nothing. Nevertheless,

at your word, I will let down my net. I

want to tell you that nevertheless is

the hinge moment for radical

breakthrough in your life. Amen. I mean,

the Bible says it's impossible to please

God without faith. That we walk by faith

and not sight. And I don't know how many

times that I understand some things and

and I have some experiences and I look

at it, I go, "Man, this is logical. This

makes sense." And God says, "Go do this

other thing and you'll prosper." And I'm

going, God, I don't I mean, it makes

sense to do this. That's what makes

sense, right? And there has to be this

point if we really want radical

breakthrough and radical life that we

step there and we say, "Nevertheless,

Lord, I'll go." Amen.

>> Nevertheless, I've been standing

spiritually what it feels like on the

edge with a cliff and there's nothing

there. And God says, "Take a step." And

I'm like, "Uh, did you take a look

down?"

Like, "There's nothing there, Lord."

Right? and and God says, "Take a step."

And there has to be this point when I

go, "It makes zero sense." Right? It

makes zero sense, Lord, but

nevertheless,

you said it. I'll go. And you can be

freaked out as much as you want, but

there's this act of obedience and faith

where you step out and you let God bless

you.

[clears throat]

My logic says no. My feelings say no. My

bank account says no. You've been there

before.

used to make my wife mad.

[clears throat] Hallelujah. We started

we planted a church in our living room

of our studio apartment. We had no money

when we planted a church. And I'm not

saying that facitiously. I'm saying like

we had no money when we planted a church

in a borrowed apartment. We couldn't

even afford the apartment. God told us

to go plant this church. So, we just

start going. It's a duplex apartment.

They may had a drum kit in our living

room and the kitchen was my office,

remember? And uh we used to make our

neighbors upset every Sunday morning

because we'd be in there ooch oo oo oo

with like six of us.

[laughter]

Yeah. Thankfully we didn't stay in the

studio apartment too long. We got a

building and grew the church man. But

but there were times that that man we

don't make any money. there's no money

to be had and God's telling us to go do

this thing and we're going man I don't

know how that's like not even doesn't

even make sense like it's not that the

bank account doesn't say it we don't

even have a bank account right we're in

our 20s just crazy for Christ yeah

there had to be this point that we said

man I I I I sense this wrong my

relationship with God is intact and even

though there's no logic there's no

understanding it makes zero sense

nevertheless Lord I'll Oh, God blessed

it every time.

Say, "Nevertheless."

>> Nevertheless.

>> So, Peter ignores all of his years of

experience and obeys the voice of the

master. And what happens? The nets

break. Boat starts to sink. He gets so

many fish. Not because of the weight of

the fish, but because of the weight of

the blessing. Amen. That God showed up

in a powerful way. And G and Peter falls

at Jesus's feet and begins to to worship

him and honor him. Peter understood that

the harvest didn't come from his skill.

That the harvest came from his obedience

to Christ. Amen.

>> Came from honor. Came from surrender.

[clears throat]

Number one is radical honor.

If God said it, I'll do it. I honor it.

Number two is radical obedience. Your

radical honor will lead you to radical

obedience.

I want to tell you something profound

this morning.

And and I want you to not hear me wrong.

I'm not building a theology here, but

God doesn't look at you and decide who

gets to succeed and who doesn't.

God's laws do. Amen.

There's already a set standard

that's laid before us. And there's not

this favoritism thing like like, man,

Pastor Ben's going to be able to do

this. You're you're not right. There's

not this favoritism type stuff. God's

not picking and choosing who gets more

blessed than the other. [sighs]

Let me help you out a little bit.

There's [clears throat] laws, right?

Romans 1 talks about that we can

understand the invisible nature of God

by understanding and seeing creation.

You guys familiar with this text? So, we

can see how God made things and we can

understand the the nature of God just

from understanding his creation.

Gravity is a law that we all live under,

right? Gravity doesn't care if you're a

Christian.

It doesn't care if you got up and prayed

this morning and you're a good little

boy, good little girl. Uh, man, you can

you can even believe that gravity

doesn't exist. But if you go jump off a

building, gravity is going to give you

the response that gravity gives everyone

and everything. Amen. Because there's a

law of gravity.

Don't go jump off a building, please.

Come on. Are you guys awake today?

What's going on?

>> Hallelujah.

Gravity will respond exactly how it

responds to everyone and everything. It

doesn't play favorites. You can stand up

there with

all the belief in the world. God, give

me wings to fly. I believe it. I believe

God's told me to fly. Hey, you can

there's a law of gravity.

He governs his creation through laws. I

said he governs his creation through

laws. You are part of the creation. Your

life is the sum of the laws that you

choose to obey.

Amen.

>> Radical honor leads to radical

obedience. Galatians chap 6 7.

I have too many teenagers in my house.

Galatians 6:7 just messes with me.

Galatians 6:7

Get out of my brains, teenager.

[clears throat]

Galatians 6:7

Galatians 6:7

says this,

"Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatever one sws,

that will he also reap.

Don't believe the lie. Don't be

deceived. If you sow it, you'll reap it.

Amen.

That's not favoritism. That's cause and

effect. Those are laws that have

good or negative consequences.

Sometimes we're praying, "Oh God, just

change my situation.

Oh God, if you could bless this, bless

my finances, bless my marriage, bless

this. And the reality is is that God has

already established a system

of success in that area. Amen.

>> Oh my goodness. All you got to do is

read a little, baby. It's all right

here.

Yeah. That's the good stuff. You don't

pray your way around gravity.

You don't fast your way around sewing

and reaping.

You don't come in and worship away your

way around tithing and good stewardship.

I don't have to tithe. I worship great.

There's laws and standards that God has

established.

Man, I've been in some hypers spiritual

circles before.

uh hyper charismatic circles. And one of

the things that always ground me was uh

you know seeing people that are super

duper spiritual on Sunday. Oh, they're

speaking in tongues. They got the flags

and they're all they got a pro. They

have a prophetic word for everyone.

Every Sunday they have a give me the

microphone. I have a word from the Lord.

Right?

And then on the outside, you find out

that they're living in disobedience and

sin and stuff. And I'm going, "How

spiritual are you?" Right? You can't

speak your speak in tongues your way

around obedience.

>> Y'all are being too quiet. Amen.

>> Can't be hyper spiritual in certain

arenas, disobedient in others, and

expect God to bless you. That's not how

the kingdom works. That's not how

creation works. There are principles

that God has established.

And when we cooperate with them, just

like gravity, [clears throat]

they produce exactly what God designed

them to produce without favoritism.

Amen.

without favoritism,

radical obedience, radical honor,

like praying for muscles and refusing to

go to the gym.

Just praying for big old biceps. Lord,

just want to be a big man.

You don't go to the gym. What's wrong

with you?

>> Right?

>> We do this spiritually. So we laugh

about it and stuff like that. We do the

spiritual alert. I'm just praying for

breakthrough in this area. How much have

you invested in that of yourself to obey

in that area?

Not trying to beat you up. I'm trying to

be practical and realistic with you. And

I got to tell you, serving God is much

more uh uh practical than we think

sometimes.

praying for muscles, refusing to go to

the gym. God's not withholding the

strength. You're violating the

principles, the laws that are required

to gain strength. Amen. God, you just

don't love me. You don't want to give me

big muscles.

[clears throat]

Yeah.

Praying for a harvest that you refuse to

plant.

God's not withholding the harvest. We're

just violating the law of sewing and

reaping. And I got to tell you, I

believe really believe this is one of

the things that frustrates Christians

the most,

that we have this idea of faith and

spirituality

uh that

says that we can supersede the the laws

of obedience, right? We're praying for

this, praying for that, praying for

this. And then when God doesn't show up,

we raise our fist at God. And God says,

"I've already put it in you. I've

already put the system in place. All you

have to do is this. If you sow, you'll

reap." Amen. If you seek, you'll find.

If you ask, you'll receive. The law, the

Bible is full of conditional promises

because [laughter] there is a law and a

standard. And God's not showing

favoritism. God's already set the

standards in place. The Bible says, "God

is not a man that he should lie, nor the

son of man that he should change his

mind." God said it, man. God's coming

through on it. Amen.

>> If you humble yourself, God will lift

you up. Draw near to God, he'll draw

near to you. I just feel so distant from

God. I feel like God doesn't draw near

to God and he will draw near to you.

Amen.

It's conditional promises. It's not God

teasing you with possibilities. It's

laying out the format. And it's

revealing principles in order for us to

walk.

Let me say this. Faith in God isn't

believing he'll do something that he

never promised to you.

Amen.

Faith in God is believing

that what God has established is true

for you.

Maybe, just maybe,

God's not withholding a harvest that

you've been praying for.

Maybe you're praying for a harvest that

you're not willing to obey for.

Boy, I got really quiet.

Maybe you're praying for a harvest that

you never obeyed for.

And obedience isn't the price you pay

for blessing.

Obedience is the container that holds

the blessing.

We don't serve God out of works. Amen.

Can't pour water into a broken cup.

God says, "Man, I want to bless you, but

I can't bless disobedience.

I want I want to bless you, but you're

you're unwilling to show up and do what

you're supposed I want to bless you."

And I just picture the heart of the

father breaking, looking over our lives

going, "Man, I want to bless you. I hear

your prayers and I want to give you

everything that you want, but you're

unwilling to have the container that

holds the blessing.

The container is obedience.

The third pillar in the radical life is

radical belief.

Radical belief. There is so much power

in what you believe. Uh there was a

study done uh by two psychologists at

Dartmouth University. This was a lot of

years ago. They had dozens of

participants and they'd all get them in

a room and they would kind of lay out

the format and they'd have makeup

artists come in, the best make some of

the best makeup artists you could find.

And what they would do is they would sit

each person down and they would paint uh

just an incredibly nasty scar on their

face. Lifelike and realistic just like

you see in the movies. Man, this thing

is is is just a disgusting nasty face

scar. And then after they put the scar

on, they say, "All right, now we're

going to send you into a room for a for

a interview with some other people." and

they don't know anything about anything.

We want you to go and and feel what it

feels like to have the scar in your

face. And so participants get ready.

They go one by one. They get ready to go

in. And just before they go in, uh the

makeup artist says, "Oh, let me touch

you up right before you go in." And

while they're being touched up, he wipes

the makeup off of their face to remove

the scar completely.

Okay? And doesn't tell them. Then they

send the individual in to experience and

after they come out they go, "Man, what

was your experience?" They stared at the

scar the whole time. I felt judged. They

talked down to me. This wasn't like 60%

or 80%. 100% of the participants had no

scar on their face and came out with the

same negative experience

because they believed that they had a

scar on their face.

Can I tell you? You've been saved and

sanctified and delivered that you're

washed in the blood and you have no

reason to shrink back anymore. Amen.

It's time to step up into radical belief

and radical life that man, I've got this

calling on my life and I don't know, but

my life's going to count for heaven and

I'm going to tell somebody about Jesus.

And and if you believe that, you're

going to break through to a new radical

life that you never even knew could

exist. Amen.

M [clears throat]

look at your neighbor and say the scar

is not there.

Whatever you believe determines how you

receive

determines how your life goes.

If you believe the scar is still there,

you're going to live like that. And

everything's going to be filtered

through that belief, whether it's true

or not true.

If you believe you're radical,

you'll receive radical.

You know the word believe.

Uh, who in here is familiar with John

John 3:16

3:16?

God so loved the world, whosoever shall

believeth on him. I like the King James

version better. Sound believeth on him

shall not perish, but have everlasting

life.

You know, we I want to say this. John

John 3:16

3:16 wasn't written in English. It was

written in Greek. And do you know that

our word for believe is radically

different than the Greek word for

believe? In English, it really doesn't

cost us anything. I believe it's going

to rain this afternoon. We had this

debate earlier, right? We have different

weather apps on our phones.

>> Yeah. Any other marriages have this?

I went out and paid for one just so I

could super seem like mine's right.

>> She's like, "Mine says it's going to be

this." And I'm like, "Mine doesn't say

that. Mine says it's going to be this,

right?"

You want to know what I believe my

weather app. It's going to rain at 5:00.

Going to be a late sprinkle. It's going

to rain at five o'clock.

>> Yeah, that's not a thus sayeth the Lord,

just so you know.

But I believe that. And it doesn't cost

me anything because if it doesn't rain

at 5:00,

oh well, your weather app was better.

I believe this. I believe that. Belief

in the English language has no cost. In

the Greek, it costs everything. It's

pist.

It's a term that they use for the

loyalty a soldier has to his king. When

the king is radical and says, "We're

going to go out and take this land and

take this people and you're going to be

on the front line," there's some type of

loyalty that a soldier has to his king

that says, "I'm betting my life on it

that we're going to win.

I believe, I trust, therefore, I obey."

M it's the trust that a bride has

as she's walking down the aisle to make

a vow to spend the rest of her life with

her groom.

I believe he's going to take care of me.

I believe he's going to be with me.

It's not

I think Jesus is real.

I think it might be true.

Salvation is different.

To believe on the Lord means I know it's

going to cost me something. I'm willing

to lay my life down for it. I I'm

betting my life on this Jesus. Amen.

It's radical belief.

And in scripture, that radical belief is

normal belief.

In America, you start radically

believing or just believing

authentically, people go, "You're crazy.

You're radical. Why'd you get so

religious?

>> [clears throat]

>> when you're the one that stops. I was

really unsaved, right? Be around humans

that are unsaved and I'm saved and I go

to pray for my food at a restaurant and

they're all looking at me like I have a

third eyeball on my head.

Like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm

going to pray. This is what I do, right?

They call it radical. I call it

believing in in Jesus.

Radical belief, biblical belief is not

intellectual agreement. It's total

reliance.

So let me ask you

really, what are you believing right now

about your life? About the calling on

your life? What are you believing about

your marriage?

What are you believing about your

future?

What are you believing about what God

can do through your life?

Because

what you believe positions you for what

you're able to receive,

radical honor,

radical obedience,

radical belief. If you mix those three

together, Chaz, let's build a recipe,

man. Let's mix those three together.

Throw it in the oven. It produces

something. Pillar number four is radical

excellence.

Radical excellence.

That's why the Old Testament tabernacle

was fashioned with gold with the very

best craftsman from the entire land.

That's why the very best musicians from

the entire because there was this

radical honor. There was this radical

belief. There was this radical obedience

that says, "Man, I'm bring we're coming

with everything."

It creates radical excellence. Now, let

me be clear

by what I mean about the word

excellence.

Excellence is not perfectionism.

Amen. We serve one that is perfect. Look

at your neighbor. Say, "You ain't

perfect."

>> And that's not what we're chasing after

when we're talking about radical

excellence. Amen.

[clears throat]

Excellence

is alignment to your design.

Alignment

to your design. All right, let me break

this down a little bit. Um, God created

fish to swim.

We all agree. Uh, fish don't have to

take swimming lessons,

right? Somehow it's just like they just

know how to swim. Do you know that a

fish looks radically untalented on dry

land?

Yeah, we went fishing last night down

our little pond and I got a dog. Oh my

goodness. I don't know what his deal is,

but he loves fishing and he is like he

is like laser focused on the bobber the

whole time.

Like he won't move.

>> God,

>> he's just on it and it starts to move

and his head starts to move like he's on

it. We're just catching little

bluegills, right? And uh I had a I had

it on the string. I make my wife upset

sometimes because I had on the string

and the dog's all like over it and he's

and he bit the fish and she's like,

"It's going to smell like fish.

Yeah.

>> And then we're catching bluegill and

somehow I had my bobber out and I caught

a stinky old catfish.

>> They don't stink. I don't Well, they do

kind of stink, but they're nasty looking

critters, aren't they? Little things.

>> Yeah, he was a nasty one. So, I'm over

there playing with the dog with the

catfish, right? And then he gets off the

hook and the fish is flopping all over

the place. And a fish looks ridiculous

on dry land. You would, if you didn't

know about the water, you would look at

the fish and be like, "Uh, this animal

is ridiculous."

That's what you do is flop around like a

dork.

Yeah. You know, if you take a bird out

of the sky and put him in the water,

you're going to go, "Uh, the bird looks

pretty untalented

in the water." Because the bird was

designed to fly, not to swim.

You

are created by God, fashioned by God

with a unique anointing, a unique

calling on your life. It's only yours.

Let me share this with you. I was when I

was called to preach, I was saved a very

short time. And before I was saved, I

was really unsaved. Drug addict, the

whole thing like like all of a sudden

I'm in church and I don't know anything

about anything. felt this call to preach

and people are telling me this stuff and

I'm going man I don't even know what

that means

but can I tell you when I stepped into

the calling that God had on my life for

the first time if I could put it in an

analogy it felt like I had been a fish

on dry land my entire life and for the

first time God scooped me up and said go

swim little buddy

and I was like man I don't know how this

thing just fits

God gave me a big mouth and I can yell

at people holly Hallelujah.

[laughter]

Maybe you're called to preach. I don't

know.

Yeah.

God designed you. He fashioned you to be

you. Not me, not anyone else. But that's

the body of Christ.

He designed you to be you. Not that

person on Instagram.

Can I just say that y'all are comparing

yourselves to a fake image online? Knock

it off.

God designed you to be you. And you be

the very best you that you can be in the

kingdom of God. You walk in obedience.

You walk in honor. You walk in belief.

Get radical with it. And watch your life

turn into radical excellence. Amen.

>> Watch God scoop you up and and let you

fly or let you swim for the very first

time. And you're going to find that

everything clicks because of radical

obedience. Amen.

Excellence is not a standard that we

have to achieve like perfectionism.

Excellence is a nature that you get to

step into and obey.

Amen. The swim is already in the fish.

Put him in the right environment. He

doesn't have to learn how to swim.

[clears throat] Excellence in your life

is the supernatural, the spiritual

nature that you get to step into.

Look at your neighbor and say,

"Excellence is in you.

>> It's in you." And God's not showing

favoritism. It's already in you. You

[snorts] I think about Daniel in

Babylon.

uh loved God and all of a sudden he

finds himself in a culture full of

pagans that are worshiping false gods

and all these idols and just

ridiculousness, right? And I can imagine

uh what some of us might experience if

we're we're out of the church for a

while, we're held in captivity, all

these different things, we're around all

these pagans that we might have a

because we know we're going to get

stoned if we start worshiping the one

true God that that we might want to just

kind of blend in.

Right? I can picture Daniel having a

temptation, maybe a flesh, of going,

"May maybe I'll just lower the I'm

radical now, but maybe I'll just lower

the standard a little bit."

He couldn't do that. Daniel refused the

king's food.

Uh when he prayed, he opened up his

windows and prayed loud enough for

everyone to hear. And he honored God in

a culture that it was dangerous to honor

God. Daniel 6 and verse three

says this. It says, "Then this Daniel,

catch this, became distinguished above

all the other high officials and sad

traps

because an excellent spirit was in him

and the king planned to set him over the

whole kingdom."

Bible says that Daniel esting

distinguished himself because of this

excellent spirit that was in him. When

you evaluate the life of Daniel, you can

see radical honor, radical belief,

radical obedience,

and even unsaved pagans had

distinguished him, set him apart and

said, "There's something unique about

him. There's an excellent spirit on

him." Amen. So much so that the other

sats are to kill him. It's a mess. It's

a dramatic story. Read it if you got

time.

He didn't adapt to the environment. He

brought the excellence,

his excellence, God's excellence into

the environment.

And I [clears throat] believe that's

what radical excellence looks like.

You don't achieve

excellence.

You step into it.

Honor un honor unlocks it and obedience

activates it. I want to close with this

thought

and I've alluded to it.

You have a radical call on your life.

You have a radical calling upon your

life.

And we have this strange church

structure in America that puts pastors

on a pedestal and elders on a pedestal.

All these different things and and I

just come to church on you have a

radical calling on your life. Amen

[snorts]

>> to be used by God. The Bible says he who

the son sets free is free indeed. Do you

understand that? That indeed is radical

freedom.

You have radical freedom.

Jesus came that we might have life and

have it abundantly.

That's radical life. Abundant life.

You have a unique calling on your life.

Excellence is already in you. Success is

already in you.

Can I say this? Somebody in here is in

bondage.

Freedom is already in you.

Deliverance and healing is already in

you. You just get to properly align

yourself to walk in it.

Let's stand to our feet all over this

house and I'll ask the worship team to

join me.

1 John chapter 4 and verse 17

1 John 4 · chapter mention

says, "By this love perfected with us,

so that we may have confidence for the

day of judgment because, listen to this,

as he is, so also are we in this world."

That's referencing Christ.

As he is, so also are we in this world.

Amen.

We are the hands and feet of Jesus. And

I believe the resurrection life calling

is upon us. Radical life.

Ordinary people live by what they see.

Radical people live by who they see.

Praise you, Jesus.

Somebody

in this room

needs to know that you've been set free,

that you've been healed,

>> you've been delivered, and somehow

you've been believing that there's still

a scar on your face. and and you've been

living life through that lens, through

that belief that I'm damaged goods, that

I'm that I'm no good, that I God can

never use me or whatever the whatever

the lie is. You're believing something

about that scar. And God says there's no

scar there anymore.

There's no scar there anymore. Don't

believe that about yourself. Believe

that you're free and live like you're

free because I set you free. Amen.

You're not damaged. You're not mediocre.

You're not stuck.

You're not just another person blending

into a crowd. That's right.

Radical obedience

is the calling.

I believe this that somebody in here is

looking at the logical things and seeing

what they see and you're an expert in

this area and you know this thing and

somebody some maybe some expert told you

something about you

and I believe that God is bringing you

to a point today to stand at the edge of

the cliff and say nevertheless Lord I'll

go I don't see it I don't feel it I

don't understand it but I'll go anyway

because you said

Praise you, Jesus.

In just a moment, we're going to open

the altars.

We're going to have our prayer team up

here. And that's okay. If you need

prayer, I want to invite you to do it.

But if you're in this place and you're

going, "Man, I've been living like

there's a scar on my face and I want to

be free. I want to walk in freedom

today." I'm going to ask you to to walk

walk right up the aisle and join us at

this altar.

If you're going, "Man, I I've just I

haven't been living in obedience. I

haven't I haven't been doing the right

thing, man. I've been praying for God to

bless me, but I haven't been giving him

the container to to be able to fill me

up.

I'm going to ask you to come

to make a radical step towards a new

radical life, a new radical

breakthrough.

And I'll say this, maybe you're in here

and you're going, "Man, I don't know

after you explain believe, I don't know

if I've ever really believed on Jesus. I

don't even know if I'm saved anymore.

Well, today is the day to pray in a new

way. A type of salvation that changes

you from the inside out.

Changes the way that you live. It's very

simple to confess with your mouth that

Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. And

believe with everything that you are

that God raised him from the dead. The

Bible says that you'll be saved.

And that's you. I want to invite you to

walk the aisle to come forward and let

us pray with you.

You don't have to come up and be prayed

for with an individual. [music] You can

just come up and pray and take my stand

and say, "I'm going to do life

different."

Let me leave you with this statement.

Try giving that to your governor.

What have we been offering God?

Is it leftovers? Is it whatever we can

muster up?

Would you offer that to your governor?

Maybe it's a day that you need to take a

radical step

and go, God, I'm coming all in.

I'm not giving you leftovers anymore.

I'm I'm going to give you everything

that I've got.

Father, I thank you, Lord, for freedom

in this house. Father, I thank you,

Lord, for just stirring us up and

calling us out, calling us up to a

higher place. And Father, I pray that

we'll never allow the enemy to lower the

standards in our life, of our worship,

of our adoration, of our obedience, of

our belief. God, you are a radical God.

And we want to be a radical people,

Lord. We want to serve you with

everything that we are, God, with all of

our heart, with all of our soul, with

all of our mind, with all of our

strength. Father, we're yours.

And Lord, today we're going all in.

Nevertheless, Lord, we'll go.

Nevertheless, Father, I'll step out.

I'll be who you've called me to be.

So, Lord, I pray blessing over this

time.

I thank you, Lord, for real freedom

happening in this house in Jesus name.

Amen. I want you to step out right now

from where you are and come if you need

prayer this morning. Let us pray with

you. [music] We're going to worship for

a short time. We're not going to leave

the altar open really long. We have

other business to tend to at the end of

this service, but I want to open the

altar. Won't you come?

[music]

>> Thank you for listening to today's

message from Grace Summit Church. We

hope it encourages [music] you to walk

out your faith this week. If you're in

the Fort Wayne area, we'd love to meet

you in person. Join us for a Sunday

service at 9:15 or 11:00 a.m. on [music]

East Duvant Road, or connect with us

online anytime at graceummitchurch.com.

Have a blessed week and we'll see you

next time.

[music]