BACK TO BASICS | Moving from Information to Transformation | Part 2

Hallelujah.

Man, we got one in the back. Hallelujah.

>> Hey, it's a good day to be alive. Amen.

>> Good day to be in Grace Summit Church.

if you're a guest with us. Uh my name is

Ben. I have the opportunity to serve as

lead pastor here. And man, you came on a

good Sunday cuz we're about to get into

the word of God. Amen.

>> And uh man, we're we're in a series, a

little minieries, uh called Back to

Basics. And uh I got to give you a

little bit of a fair warning. I'm coming

heavy and hard today.

>> That all right? We're coming in hot.

Listen, one of the things

I've been in mega churches, I've been in

little churches. Uh here's what I've

seen. The mega church that can uh get

lots of people, they're a mile wide. A

lot of times they're a mile wide and an

inch deep. We're good at getting people

through the doors. We're good at uh

getting them through the next steps or

the connect track and getting them

baptized and uh but a lot of times uh it

can start to feel shallow on year three,

five, seven and going, "Man, we we what

do we just start the sermons over next

year?" Right? and it can feel a little

bit shallow. And then I've been in

churches that were uh a mile deep and an

inch wide. It's us four and no more. And

man, we've been uh our little holy

huddle. We've been growing together and

and if a new person comes in, it feels

weird because we've been together so

long. So, it feels like a click. God

called me to a specific thing. A mile

wide and a mile deep. Amen. And so, man,

we're we're not a mega church. We are a

very fast growing church. Uh, man, we've

almost doubled in size since I stepped

in a couple years ago. God's doing

something here. And I love seeing new

faces every week. I met uh several new

people just in our first service today

and so excited. But today is a day that

I'm going to take you a mile deep. You

ready to go?

>> Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you,

Lord, for your word. Father, we thank

you for revival breaking loose in our

spirit.

Praise you, Jesus. Father, we didn't

come, Lord, for just a a flowery

message. But Lord, Father, we came today

to hear from you. And Father, as a son

sits and listens to his dad, we sit

before you. And Father, we ask that you

give us the unadultered raw truth of

what we need to hear today.

So, Father, I thank you for the

anointing upon the preaching of the

word. I pray that you bless it, that our

spiritual ears would be open, our

spiritual eyes would see what it is

you're showing us today. We thank you

for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

So today, I want to show you what real

salvation looks like,

what real disciplehip costs.

And really, I want to help take the lid

off of anyone in here that's been

serving God for a while, but feels like

you've plateaued in your faith. you feel

maybe a little stale or stagnant like

man you know I I think when I first got

saved there was like this excitement and

I was on fire man I was I just really

stirred up and really enjoyed loved

reading the word of God like I don't I

want to know what's in this book because

now I know it's true and and all of that

stuff and and sometimes we grow to a

certain place where the new wears off

and the rhythms set in

and over time we can grow cold say old.

In the church world,

most of us don't have a knowledge

problem.

We know enough.

We've heard enough. We've now watched

enough content online or uh been to

enough conferences or enough church

services on Sunday. We've been in enough

Bible studies. We're we're probably the

most informed and least transformed

generation of Christians that have ever

lived on the planet Earth.

The most informed and the least

transformed generation of Christians to

ever live.

I want that to sink in just a little

bit. You know, I think of even when I

started preparing messages, I still have

my bookshelf with all my commentaries

and man, I'd have five commentaries out

and and uh paper all over the place. I

mean, I look like a war zone in my

office cuz I'd have this one over to

this and I have Post-it notes in my

books and my books, my binders would

break cuz I'd have so many Post-it notes

in there and and now uh all of those

books plus a million more are digital

and at my fingertips anytime I want.

We are one of the most informed

Christian generations to ever have lived

and the least transformed. That should

bother us

and that should challenge us a little

bit, right? The gap between what we know

and how we live really has never been

wider.

You know, the early church, when you

hold your Bible, you read those New

Testament chapters, do you know they

didn't have the New Testament yet?

They didn't have the Bible yet. They had

the Old Testament, but they were living

the New Testament. They didn't have all

the knowledge that we have and the

commentaries and and what Matthew Henry

said about this and what what Martin

Luther did and all that. They didn't

have any of that. They had a simple

basic command from Jesus to go into all

the world and make disciples baptizing

them in the name of the father, son, and

holy spirit. I mean that was a simple

command and they would meet together and

by the power of the holy spirit man they

would hear what god is speaking and they

transformed the known world. Thousands

were added daily to those that were

being saved

because that little piece of truth, they

lived it with everything that they had.

Now, we have all of this truth

and we have a gap between the truth that

we know and the life that we live.

Today, we're going back to the basics.

And I gave you a warning. I'm coming in

hot today, baby. You ready for it? M

Hebrews chapter 5 11

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

he says

about this we have much to say

and it's hard to explain

since you have become dull of hearing

dull of hearing. He's not talking about

needing hearing aids.

He's not talking about audible hearing.

There wasn't this epidemic in the early

church where where man, we've been in

too many uh loud church services and we

can't hear good anymore.

He's talking about spiritual hearing,

having ears that are in tune with the

spirit of the living God.

Do you know how many people have read

the Bible and didn't have the Holy

Spirit to illuminate the depth of the

truth and completely missed it? because

there's a type of hearing that comes

through the spirit of God. And he's

saying to them, he goes, "Man, I got

some things that I really want to share

with you that God's revealing to me. And

and man, there's some powerful stuff.

It's going to change your church world.

It's going to it's going to change you

personally. I have some things to say to

you, but I can't because you're dull of

hearing." Verse 12, he says, "For th by

this time,

you ought to be teachers.

By this time, you ought to be teachers.

Not because they went to Oral Roberts

University.

They didn't go to seminary.

They didn't go through Rooted on

Wednesday nights.

By the way, if you're not signed up yet,

man, you you want to get in on this.

It's good stuff. It's going to take you

deep. It's going to challenge you in a

good way. He says, "For by this time,

you ought to be teachers." You need

someone. Say, "Someone.

You need someone to teach you again,

catch this, the basic principles

of the oracles of God. We need to go

back to the basics.

We need to go back to square one with

you. You should be teach you should be

the one standing up here teaching. He

says, "But but man, I I we're going to

start over with you because somewhere

along the line, we missed it."

Catch this. He says, "You need milk,

not solid food.

For everyone who lives on milk is

unskilled in the word of righteousness

since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature. For

those who have their catch this powers

of discernment

trained

by constant practice

to distinguish

good and evil.

Look around our

Christian world. We'll leave the unsaved

world out of it.

There's a lot of spiritual babies out

there

in more ways than one.

Whine and cry,

can't feed themselves, can't take care

of themselves.

Spiritual babies.

Now, before you get offended

with me, I want you to hear me a little

bit. Uh, babies are cute and they're

awesome. Oh, man. First service, I was

this big. Cutest little baby I was

playing with and I got sidetracked.

First song cuz I walked by and I was

playing with the baby and I played long

enough to get the smile. Isn't that what

everybody wants is the smile? Yeah,

babies are amazing. There's nothing

wrong with being a baby.

when you're a baby.

But if you're grown,

I don't know if I should go there.

There was grown folks wearing diapers

and bonnets and stuff like this whole

baby thing. I'm like, that that's not

okay.

Bizarre stuff. twisted.

Being a baby is cute when you're a baby.

If you're grown,

you've been in church for years,

you've sat under the preaching,

you've been in the small groups, the

Bible studies.

Catch this. You've had access to the

word of God 24 hours a day, seven days a

week since the day you got saved.

Speaking of babies,

what a cutie. Wow.

Yeah, we have the Bible on our apps now.

It's everywhere. If we've been

having all of this access to the word of

God and the only time we ever open it is

when somebody on this platform does it

for you, that's not cute anymore.

Man, I almost started preaching. That

ain't cute anymore.

That ain't cute anymore.

Well, I have a hard time reading. Well,

well, I bet God will help you figure it

out.

Always needing somebody else

to feed us, to counsel us.

He says, "You should be feeding others

by now, but you're still waiting to get

fed.

You're still waiting to be fed.

You should be eating steak, but all you

can handle is milk." Now, first century

church, they didn't have refrigerators.

They didn't have uh these large dairy

farms supplying. They might have a goat

in the yard, right? We're talking about

babies and milk. We won't get into

details, but we all know where babies

get milk from, right?

You know, I think about it. My kids are

getting older now. And uh when they were

little, they were really they couldn't

do anything for themselves. They

couldn't feed themselves, you know. And

so there's this season of salvation

where man, the the body of Christ

rallies around them and and God really

pours into them that that we're feeding

and feeding and feeding. But I'm telling

you what, if my 16-year-old came up to

me and wanted me to to Okay, here's the

airplane,

open wide, I'd be like, "Girl, you

better go figure it out."

But why in the spiritual realm do we do

this? You've been saved for 16 years.

You've been saved for 25 years. You've

been saved for 40 years. Why are we

needing other adults to spoon feed us

the word of God?

Man, I'm about to give you something

today.

Feed yourselves.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Feed

yourself."

Somewhere along the way, we stop feeding

ourselves. Most of us don't have a

knowledge problem. We have a dependency

problem.

And it's the church's fault. Can I say

this?

The church has done it. Now, in our

home, what if we just never held our

kids accountable? And and uh ever since

they were babies, we just kept spoon

feeding them.

and giving them their little baba

of milk and they never had to fend for

themselves. You know, I'm looking at it.

My oldest daughter has two more summers

with me. That's messing me up on the

inside

and I'm going, man, is she really ready?

She's sitting here.

We were having this talk. Is she really

ready to be 18 and go out and do it? I'm

going, uh-uh.

Love you, but you ain't ready, girl.

Yeah. I mean, somewhere along the way,

we got to teach this girl how to cook a

a grilled cheese and some spaghettiio or

something.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Ramen

noodles, baby."

Yeah. And we do this as parents. And

I've seen the unhealthy parenting that's

kind of the helicopter and the hovering

and the always coddling and taking care

of. And then I look at the other parents

that go, "Man, you got to figure it out.

Get after school, make yourself

something,

right? Figure it out." And there's this

point in our Christianity that God says,

"Okay, now go figure it out.

Learn to feed yourself.

Learn to make something."

If you open your Bible and you don't

like how it tastes, learn to make

something different.

Amen.

Most of us don't have a knowledge

problem.

We have a dependency problem and the

church is at blame because we have all

of these programs and these systems and

all of these things and it kind of can

come across especially as a new believer

that you become dependent on us

and the next big Wednesday night Bible

study come to pride detox and which I

think is good by the way got a lot of

good feedback from that man we're going

to knock the pride out of some folks.

Yeah, just, you know, we we do this and

I want you to hear me today. That's all

good. Sunday morning in his church life

is it's kind of like going to the

restaurant,

right? Uh we don't eat out as often as

we'd like cuz we have four kids. Taking

six humans to a restaurant.

Yeah, daddy ain't got it like that.

But it's nice. It's fun when we do,

right? But what do we do between

restaurants?

We cook our own food. I've already got

nourishment all week long. I've already

been feeding myself. I've already been

eating. I've already been uh paying the

cost for the food. And then when I come

together Sunday morning, it's like,

"Hey, we get to hang out with family and

have Sunday dinner together, and we get

to feast together on the word of God."

He says, "You should be feeding others

by now, but you're still waiting to be

fed.

You shouldn't be eating steak, but all

you can handle is milk."

Mature Christians

will feed themselves.

Mature Christians

will feed themselves.

You'll pick up the word without being

prompted.

you'll seek God without needing a church

service to do it.

Or can I say this,

a crisis in your life?

How many people I know have heard this

testimony over and over? Didn't pray.

Didn't pray. Didn't pray. Crisis happens

and I finally turn to God.

Why does God have to wait for you to

have a crisis in your life before you'll

talk to your father? before Jesus died

on that cross for you. Amen. He desires

to have relationship with you

and you're waiting for a crisis to even

talk to him about life.

Says solid food

is for the mature,

for those who have their powers of

discernment.

That's pretty powerful language. powers

of discernment. Trained

by constant practice.

Trained

by constant practice.

Trained by constant practice.

That's what we're missing a lot of times

is we're not allowing ourselves to be in

that constant practice, that rhythm of

relationship,

trained by constant practice to

distinguish good evil. I want to give

you three bites of solid food today and

I want to see if you can swallow it.

Look at your neighbor and say, "I'm

hungry."

If we keep it moving, we can beat the

Baptist of the restaurant.

Number one in your notes is confession

over curation.

Confession

over curation. Too often we live curated

lives. It's the culture we live in. We

have social media. We have curated

profiles.

Uh, we don't let the pictures. You guys

ever seen the post that says, "Show me

the last picture on your phone and you

ever looked at the last picture on your

phone and going, I ain't putting that up

there."

Because we live curated lives. We play

safe, don't we? There's some wisdom to

that. But we have this whole culture. We

have cur curated personalities.

We call it sometimes in the church

world, putting on Sunday Face,

fighting with your spouse on the way to

church. Man, almost didn't even make it

here. Y'all just back and forth. It's

getting serious. And then you show up to

church, it's like nothing ever happened.

Hello, brother. Hello, sister. How is

everything? Oh, it's blessed and highly

favored of the Lord.

It's like, you ever been around your

spouse and and you're just like, "What?

Where were you five minutes ago?"

Yeah. Sunday face,

curated

personalities.

Unfortunately,

we also can have curated spirituality.

We know how to present a version of

ourselves that is mostly true,

partially authentic,

but carefully managed.

You know, we throw around some cliche

statements in the church world.

We're a real church serving a real God,

right? Just real people serving a real

God. The real God part, that's always

true.

But the real people part sometimes is

false.

Here's where it gets dangerous for

believers.

Living a curated life of spirituality.

We can look like we're growing

without actually being changed.

Man, we can post the verse regularly on

our social media feed. We can share the

worship clip. We can use the right

language. learns a little bit of

Christian ease.

Yeah.

Show up on Sunday,

be here faithfully, and meanwhile

carrying shame,

sin,

secrets.

You know, if you got to muscle through a

Sunday with some sin and a secret, I get

it. That shouldn't keep you out of

church. But when it becomes a lifestyle

and a rhythm of your life that all this

time has passed and you're still hiding

the sin and the shame and the secret,

we've missed the mark.

Jame James 5 and verse 16 says this. It

says, "Confess,

confess your sins one to another.

Pray for one another that you may be

healed."

That is one uncomfortable scripture for

me.

Just being honest. I've been in those

moments. I've been saved for a minute

where I had sin in my life, junk in my

life. And I had

felt compelled to go confess that sin.

And I am talking about some of the

greatest anxiety and fear that I've ever

experienced. You ever experienced that

where it's like, man, you know that you

did wrong. you know that it's ugly and

and man, you've been holding on to it

for way too long just out of fear of

what other people are going to think and

what other people are going to say and

and now it's time that you got to you

got to kind of fess up and you're going

there and have you ever just bailed out

of moments like that? Like I don't have

the courage to do that.

Man, you guys know my testimony. I've

had guns in my forehead that were less

intimidating than to go to confess a

sin.

Heart starts beating, man. And you can

feel it just like

confess your sins one to another. Pray

for one another that you may be healed.

I want you to hear this. Healing is tied

to honesty.

Your healing is tied to your

transparency,

not to how pretty you are during

worship,

not to your serving schedule,

not to your giving history.

Man, I felt some toes curl back.

I hear you. Amen.

For those watching online, there's a

baby in the back. Amen section over

there.

Healing is tied to you telling the truth

about yourself to another believer.

We've replaced confession in the church

with looking good on social media.

And God is not impressed with how you

appear to others.

He said, ' God is not impressed with how

you come across and appear to others.

We don't like it because it cost us our

image.

It's even harder when you've been on a

good streak. You've been doing good for

a while and you get caught up.

Confess your sins one to another so that

you can be free, so that you can be

healed.

1 John 1

8 says, "If we confin,

we deceive ourselves."

I don't care how long you've been saved.

This scripture is true for you, too.

Bunch of sinners.

Sheesh.

All we are is a big old mess.

I'm just a mess that prayed a prayer 25

years ago.

God's doing a good job at cleaning me up

better than I can do on my own.

But we have yet to be perfected.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive

ourselves,

not those around us.

And the truth is not in us. If say if.

It's one of those optional things. If we

confess our sins, he is faithful and

just to forgive us our sins and cleanse

us from all unrighteousness.

That cleansing in the original language

there's our language has three tenses.

The original biblical language has like

seven tenses. It's a present tense, but

it means that it's always happening into

your future as well.

If we're willing to confess our sins to

God, he forgives us and cleanses us.

from all unrighteousness.

Confession

isn't that one time you got saved when

you were 12.

Confession is a lifestyle.

So, let me help pull these two together.

We confess to the father for

forgiveness,

but we confess to each other to be

healed.

I'm just reading the Bible.

How many years have we lived in bondage

because we're unwilling

to reveal the secret?

Man, it got quiet in here. Mhm. I think

people online, I think I made a couple

of living rooms uncomfortable.

We confess to the father for

forgiveness.

We confess to each other to be healed.

Let me ask you something, and I don't

want you to answer out loud.

When was the last time you told the

truth about yourself to another

believer?

Is that common practice in your life?

Because if it's been 10 years, for you

to say, "I haven't sinned in 10 years,"

is deceiving yourself.

Told you I'm coming heavy today.

When was the last time you told the

truth about yourself to another

believer?

And let me clarify, this isn't in vague,

pray for me, I'm struggling terms.

This is taking the time to find that

person that you know can is mature

enough to handle all of you.

To sit down and say, "Hey, I fell short.

I mean, I completely missed it. I I

sinned. I'm or I'm caught in this sin,

this rhythm of sin, and I don't know how

to break free. I I need somebody. I need

an accountability part. I need to

confess this to you." Do you know how

good that feels just to get it out of

you sometimes?

a rhythm of confession.

Curation says, "I'm good. I'm just

tired."

Confession says, "Man, I'm white

knuckling it. I thought about not even

going to church, coming back to church

because I'm struggling so bad."

Curation says, "Oh, marriage can be

challenging."

Confession says, ' Man, I was cold and

distant

and sharp and rude with my spouse, and

that's not the kind of man of God that I

want to be.

We live curated lives.

We live curated lives. You guys know I

like to play with restaurant analogies.

Used to work in restaurant world. And

Chaz is here, the chef that trained me.

You know, I haven't been a chef in a

while. Yeah.

Think I forgot as much as you taught me.

But in the we we worked at high-end

restaurants and everything was curated,

right? You don't just smack it on a

plate. It's not a diner. Everything had

garnish. Uh the one restaurant we worked

at in Virginia had the the whole dining

room had glass. And I would walk out in

my chef coat and go pick a mint of sprig

and they would watch me pick it and we

come back and put it in the sorbet to

cleanse their pallet between courses.

Everything was fancy. Everything was

dressed up. And it tastes better when

it's pretty, isn't it? We eat with our

eyes first. We curious

work. We work together in Michigan for a

while. And my folks would come in. My

mom's here, by the way, too. We were

talking about this at brunch yesterday.

No,

she misses. She She went to church with

us for a decade in Michigan, so I get to

pick on her. And it was April Fools. And

I uh I'm a little bit of a jokester. And

it was quite the April Fools, man. We

had a whole run of really really good

ones. And and her and my dad come in and

and uh they sit down. We kind of had a

habit of like stuff that we were

thinking about putting on the menu or

something special, you know, we'd bring

it out to them and hey, give this a try

and we're thinking about this. So

anyways, they eat their meal, a

beautiful meal, and I come out at the

end. I said, "Hey, we got a we got a new

dessert we're getting ready. You guys

you guys want to give it a try before we

put it on the menu?" "Oh, yeah, that

sounds good." So I go in the back and

man, we we we go right over. I get ice

cream scoop and go right into the Crisco

and put a couple of nice big scoops of

Crisco onto a plate. And man, we had the

raspberry sauce and the whipped cream

and the mint sprig and and powdered

sugar. I mean, this thing was beautiful.

and I have my chef uniform on and I

carry it right out and come over and sit

it right in front of them and their eyes

light up. Oh, that looks good. I don't

know. We came up with some stupid name.

Called it something. Yeah. And so then

in the kitchen, we sat them in the place

specifically for this purpose. We both

of us got the kitchen doors cracked and

Chaz and I are on top of each other

watching us with one one eye looking at

them. And man, they they go in, took a

big bite. You should have seen the look

on their face.

It was gross. My mom was so sweet. She

moved stuff around so it looked like

they had ate more than what they did.

Come out and ask, "How was it?" "Oh, it

was it was okay. It was it was okay."

And I'm like,

"Yeah."

telling you that story because we can

take something disgusting in our life

and our spirit and our soul

and we can dress it up pretty and come

to church on Sunday and as long as

nobody gets close enough to take a smell

or take a bite, we're going to make it

through another Sunday.

Curation manages perception.

Curated Christians stay stuck.

Confessing Christians stay free.

Number two in your notes is obedience

over options.

Obedience

over options.

My goodness. We live in a world with

more options

than are necessary.

It's ridiculous.

Yeah. You ever just get stumped at where

you're going to eat at a restaurant

because there's so many options? It's

like I grew up in a small town that had

one greasy spoon. You know, if you're

going out like it's either go there and

see Mary and get the greasy eggs or go

somewhere else or go home. You know what

I mean? Not a lot of options. And man,

I'm not talking just about that Netflix

and Hulu. I mean, we have so many

options. But what I'm talking about is

all of the spiritual options that we

have. You can go on right now and find a

thousand pastors preaching either in

short reels or YouTube sermons.

So many different perspectives.

All of them are trying to teach us what

to believe.

We have a consumer culture that we're

saturated in and it's created a

generation of Christians that shop for a

Jesus that requires the very least from

them.

Well, listen to any teacher who affirms

the life that I've already chose in my

heart to live.

Trust me, the sin that you want to keep

secret, you can go find some weirdo

Christian that agrees with that.

Mhm.

Yeah.

Wasn't didn't say this in the first. I

think we were talking about it uh a

while back. You know, the weirdos with

conspiracy theories and all the stuff

land before internet. They just used to

be the weird person in our towns.

Now the internet has connected all of

the weirdos together.

Now there's websites and meeting places

and groups and all this stuff.

Yeah. It's kind of scary, man.

Yeah.

You can find somebody that'll agree with

your sin.

We have options.

But often times it's at the expense of

the obedience

of really seeking authentic truth for

your life.

It's called the menu mentality.

We pick and choose what we like over

what Jesus said.

People will attend the church that asks

the least and offers the most.

Follow the teaching that doesn't disrupt

their comfort.

And some have the audacity to call that

spiritual maturity.

And that's not spiritual maturity.

That's spiritual autonomy.

That means that you've separated from

the actual spirit. You've separated from

the actual truth. And now you're living

on an island with you and your little

weirdos that all agree together.

It's okay to be down to earth and just

speak plain to you.

Early disciples didn't have options.

They had orders.

Luke 9:23.

Luke 9:23

And he Jesus said to all, "If anyone

would come after me, let him deny

himself and take up his cross and follow

me."

So, the original call, Jesus didn't say,

"Well, if you don't like what I'm

saying, there's another uh guy down the

down the river that you can listen to."

Daily, deny yourself, take up the cross,

and follow. No asterisks,

no unless it's inconvenient,

no opt out clause, just follow.

And following means Jesus gets to take

you places you didn't choose.

Jesus gets to ask things

from you that you didn't budget for.

Jesus gets to disagree with your opinion

and still be right.

Luke 6:46 Jesus said this. He said,

Luke 6:46

"Why?" Say, "Why? Why do you call me

Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you?

Well, this is American salvation. If you

confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord, you'll be saved. And I read this

scripture.

Why? Jesus says, "Do you call me Lord

and you do not do what I've asked you to

do?" Why?

Lord means you don't get a vote.

Lord means I'll obey

even when I don't understand it.

Lord means I don't have to agree to

surrender and give myself to it.

And here's how we roll way too often in

our church culture.

I'll forgive if the apology is good

enough. Well, Jesus just said forgive.

And so why are we adding our personal

terms to it?

I'll give I'll I like to give to the

church but we only do that when our

finances feel safe.

Bible says God loves a cheerful giver.

We give out of obedience not because

it's comfortable.

I have had some really tough financial

seasons in my life that it made zero

sense for me to give any of that to the

church.

God challenged me to give anyways. And

God blessed me more than I could have

ever imagined.

You can't outgive God.

Jesus said, "If something causes you to

sin, cut it off or gouge it out." We

say, "Well, I'll just try harder next

time.

I'm I'm I'm a work in progress. I'll

just keep working on it." He says, "If

that thing causes you to sin, cut it

off.

Get rid of it.

Why do we call him Lord and don't do

what he's asked us to do?

Hebrews says, "Don't neglect meeting

together as some are in the habit of

doing."

We say, "Well, I'll attend church when

the series is interesting

or when Pastor Ben's going to be back

picking at you.

The music is good.

We want to follow Jesus on our terms.

And Jesus doesn't do terms.

He does surrender.

I'm challenging you today because

I believe there's a lot of people in

here that desire to go deeper with God,

that desire greater freedom in their

life, that desire a fresh move of the

Holy Spirit in your life. I think I'm

talking to the right crowd of going,

"Man, we we want to go deeper, but we

don't want just another flowery sermon

on Sunday morning, but but man, we

really want to dig in. We really want to

get a hold of this this God that created

us. We really we really want to want to

go there. Amen. I I'm preaching this

heavy to you because I believe that you

want freedom.

I'm talking real salvation because I

really want us to be saved.

To make God truly our Lord is more than

a prayer that we prayed. It's a

lifestyle that we live.

Hebrews 10:25 again he says not

Hebrews 10:25

neglecting to meet together as is the

habit of some but encouraging one

another and all the more as you see the

day drawing near.

We had men's Bible study yesterday. We

were talking about briefly came up about

the we have a large people that talk

about uh not going back to church

because it's a bunch of hypocrites

there. Have you guys ever heard anything

like that before?

You've never said it, have you?

Singing about it. You know, I've heard

similar through the years and they're

supposed to be all about love and mercy.

And I I went and they were rude. I'm not

a bunch of hypocrites there. They were

rude with me. I'm not going back.

Well, what if we use this in other

things? You know, we're members at the

YMCA and and uh I don't get there as

often as I need to, but

but what if I walked into the gym,

first time there, second time there, and

said, "I'm not coming. They're a bunch

of hypocrites. They say they're all

about fitness here and health." And the

big big folks came jiggling in. They

Hallelujah.

Hypocrites. I want my money back. I

ain't doing membership here.

Yeah.

What if the gym was designed for people

to get in shape,

not because you showed up in shape?

What if the church was made for people

who don't have it all together?

What if we're all just a big mess

and we decide to come be a mess together

and chase after the one that can change

us and perfect us?

>> I'm still a big old mess. Ask my mom.

Just

not supposed to say amen there, girl.

What if we get in better shape because

we keep coming back? We keep pressing

in. We keep growing close. What if

disciplehip didn't happen with God's

magic little wand waved over you?

>> What if it happened because of

consistency and determination?

Here's what I need you to hear.

Your future self will be shaped more by

the boring basics you stick with than

the rare moments you post about.

Free people stop managing the double

life.

They stop negotiating with God. They

stop maintaining the gap between who

they say they are and who they actually

are.

Back to basics means Jesus,

you're Lord of my life. Here's all of

me, good, the bad, the ugly.

This life is but a midst or a vapor in

the eyes of eternity. You're afraid to

confess sin because what they're going

to say about you or think about you, who

cares? Because like this, it's all going

to be over.

I don't know if you know this, but we

can't stay down here.

You can't just stay here with your

little friends and family.

And if you watch the rhythm of the

earth, but we all die and go to a

different place.

And we're making eternal investments in

my relationship with him. I'm

vulnerable. I'm real. I'm authentic.

Chasing after. Number three in your

notes is formation over feelings.

Formation

over feelings.

Sometimes we

get in this place where we disciple our

feelings more than our faith.

Do I feel close to God?

Did I feel something emotional during

worship today or I don't feel like

reading my Bible?

Did I feel something

during that sermon?

And if the answer is no, a lot of times

we disengage.

We drift.

We church hop.

We take a season off

because it didn't feel.

Early church didn't build their own

feelings. Acts 242 says this. And they

devoted themselves

to the apostles teaching and the

fellowship to the breaking of bread and

prayers.

They devoted themselves.

Not they attended when they felt

inspired.

>> He showed up because there was an event.

They devoted themselves. They practiced.

They built rhythms.

And this is a church age that was not

the comfortable America that we live in.

I think about the Roman Empire

making torches out of humans along the

streets because they professed Jesus

Christ as Lord. They kept the rhythms

and kept the devotion even when it cost

them potentially everything.

We stay home and watch online because we

have hidden stuff inside of us that we

don't want to reveal.

Because we're too lazy to get up and get

out. Man, I'm preaching to somebody

online right now.

Mhm.

Yeah. I don't know who you are, but next

Sunday, baby, we want to we want to see

you right here if you're able.

Amen.

They built rhythms. They showed up.

Formation is what happens.

when you do the basics long enough that

it becomes part of you. You I think

about military formation. Uh I doubt uh

most of the people felt like getting up

at 4:00 a.m. and being out in the rain

and standing there with their uniform on

just to do a drill

and then do it again tomorrow. I doubt

that they felt like doing that. But

there was a type of formation. There was

a type of obedience that says, "Hey,

even though I don't feel like it, I

believe in this mission and and I want

to get up and get out and be there."

Second Timothy chapter 2:3,

and I better ask the worship team to

come up here.

2 Timothy chapter 2:3 says this, "Share

in sufferings as a good soldier of

Christ Jesus." No soldier gets entangled

in civilian pursuits

since his aim is to please the one who

enlisted him.

His aim is to please the one who

enlisted him. I don't care about the

soldier next to me. I'll die for him.

But I'm here to please the one that gave

the orders.

Formation is not Holy Ghost goosebumps

and emotions.

It's daily obedience.

It's healthy rhythms. Spiritual

discipline.

Formation is what happens on Tuesday

morning when nobody else is looking.

When you open the Bible and read even

when you don't feel like it.

Formation is the marriage that you keep

choosing

even when things are very hard.

Formation is showing up to serve

when you know in your heart that you're

the one that could use somebody to serve

you.

I want to say this. The prayer that you

pray every morning,

whether you feel it or not, it's doing

something for you and in you and through

you and for those around you.

The verse that you sit with in your

lunch break and meditate on, it's

forming you. The Sunday you show up,

even when you're dry, it's building

something in you. God uses the mundane

rhythms that you stick with

more than those rare moments.

You ever go to the doctor?

You think you got something serious

going on?

Go in there, man. I finally break down.

I'm I'm the guy. I go to the doctor if I

think I'm dying and that's it.

Probably need to change that a little

bit. But you ever go to the doctor,

think you got something serious, they do

all the tests and all this stuff, and

they come back and they say, "Well, you

just need to start drinking more water.

I'm like, "Wait a minute. I thought I

had something major going on." You know,

do you take vitamins? I'm old enough now

that doctors ask me if I take vitamins.

Are you getting enough rest?

And I think about, man, those moments

that that we think we're looking for

this big breakthrough, this big, you

know, doctor moment and all this stuff

and and they're giving us the basics,

then a lot of times in our own life,

we're we're coming to God and we're

looking for this this big miraculous

breakthrough. Oh, God. And God says,

"Are you praying

daily?

You're you're reading your Bible."

Uh-oh. Got quiet again.

We want the miracle

and he wants maturity.

Time to grow up.

Time for us to grow up.

Stop asking God to do supernaturally

what he told you to do naturally.

I want to end where we began.

Hebrews chapter 5.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

He says about this we have much to say.

It's hard to explain since you have

become dull of hearing.

For though by this time

you ought to be teachers.

You need someone to teach you again the

basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk,

not solid food.

Three basics, not complicated.

but costly.

Confession over curation,

obedience over options,

and formation over feelings.

I want to do something a little

different right now. There's a reason

Jax hasn't started playing yet, but he

looks very handsome standing over there.

I've requested no music.

on purpose.

No ambiance,

nothing to set the mood,

just silence

and honesty.

I want to challenge you

to listen. I believe God's been speaking

one thing to you throughout this hour.

I don't know what it is and I don't need

to know but you and God know. And I want

you to think of that one basic

thing that you quietly or maybe you

never started but

it's not there.

Not 21 things.

What's the one thing?

Maybe it's confession.

Maybe you've been carrying the secret of

the sin or the shame.

You built your walls,

scared to share.

Maybe it's obedience.

God's been asking you and telling you,

and you've been negotiating with God,

wrestling with God for six months, a

year.

10 years whatever it is

maybe it's formation

you like the

emotion of Christianity but not the

rhythms

prayer went away scripture went away

community went away

that one thing that God is speaking to

you and maybe you need to text it, put

it in your notes app or write it down

somewhere.

But that's your assignment.

And it's not come to God and say, "I'm

going to try harder." It's God, I'm

reinlisting.

I'm enlisting myself in this and I'm

making a commitment for the next 30 days

and I'm going to use my alarm app on my

phone or whatever I need to do to

discipline myself to show up and be who

I've called how you've called me to be.

I'm going to step back in and be a

soldier in the army of the Lord.

God's calling you out today and calling

you up.

Okay, Jax, you can play something.

Here's what I've learned in my own

disciplehip in my own life.

If we get the basics right, God comes

with the breakthrough.

I want to ask you a question

and I know it's a big one. We've been

dealing with it on Wednesday nights, but

who is that person in your life? We're

talking about confession.

And sometimes the thing that can hold us

back from having enough

gumption to share is that we don't trust

humans.

Maybe you've been wronged before. You

shared something

in vulnerability and it became

ammunition that was used against you or

it went public and it should have never

went public.

Who's that one person for you that you

can open up to and tell anything to and

you know they're a vault?

Or who's that person in your life that

has a voice louder than you

that's spiritual that can speak into

your life and they carry a type of

weight and authority in your life

spiritually that you'll hear them.

And if you're hearing this and you're

going, "Man, I don't have that person."

Then you're assignment is to pray and

seek God and say, "God, will you send me

that person?"

And I believe God wants you to have that

that confidant.

Ask God to bring that person into your

life.

Safe place. Would you stand with me to

your feet all over this room?

I'm going to ask our prayer team to come

forward.

If you need prayer for anything today, I

want to encourage you to come. We have

different ones that'll pray with you

that'll be a blessing to your life.

We're going to close with worship and

a little bit of time of reflection. But

would you pray with me? Father, we thank

you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit. Father,

I'm thankful for just shooting straight

with us today, God, for challenging us,

for calling us up and calling us out,

God. And Father, we take the call.

Father, we we choose to step up and and

move forward, Father. Lord, we ask for

forgiveness for our shortcomings, God,

for those selfish things or those those

areas that we've drifted. Father, we beg

you to forgive us,

Lord. Today, God, we thank you for the

strength

to move forward and be everything you've

called us to be. Lord, we know our time

on earth is short and we pray that you

use our life in a powerful way that

others would see you through us.

So Lord I pray blessing over everyone

now in Jesus name. Amen.