Summer At Elevation: From Casual to Consecrated | Ps Jonathan Clarke

Well,

isn't it interesting how often we can

get familiar with things sometimes?

Sometimes it's just, you know, you know,

okay, listen to this. You know, when you

walk in to a stinky room or maybe it

just it just has a weird smell, but no

one, well, most people in the room don't

realize it's stinky cuz they're they're

already familiar with the smell. So, you

kind of just got to like go on with it.

Wait 2 minutes for your nose to adapt,

you know? Um well actually it's not your

nose that is adapting. There is a brain

phenomenon called habituation. Say

habituation.

And this is basically when your body and

your mind becomes familiar with the

things around you, right? It adapts

quickly. And this can happen with with

anything with good things as well. Let's

say you just bought a new phone, right?

And it's brand new. It's an iPhone 16,

17, wherever we're at. and you just like

you treat it like a baby, right? You're

careful with it. You don't let the kids

have it and you make sure it's clean all

the time, but and then after 2 months,

you know, you're checking it around and

it's in your pocket with your keys and

deep down you know that you don't care

for your phone the same way you did when

you got it first, right? And what

happens is it's not that the phone lost

its value. It's just that you became

familiar with it.

And you know, you know the same thing

can happen with our faith. God is our

father. We know he is a personal God. We

know that he is a close God and that

he's always available. But sometimes

we become familiar to him. And the

problem that this creates is that it

creates something called casual faith.

Say casual faith.

In Australia, for every 10 people who

call themselves Christian, only three,

maybe four, actually go to church. You

see, the issue with casual faith is not

that it just rejects God. It doesn't

reject God. It reshapes God into

something less important.

So today the title of my message for us

is from casual to consecrated. From

casual to consecrated

well what is consecrated? The word

consecrated is all over the Bible new

and old testament. It appears mostly on

the old testament and it's a Hebrew word

called kadesh. Say kadesh.

And it means to be fully devoted

and set apart for God. And we're going

to start by turning to Joshua chapter 3.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

And this is one of the places where

where the word Kadesh appears. And and

here is the story of Joshua leading the

people of Israel through the River

Jordan into the promised land. Right? So

it's a pivotal moment of the Old

Testament. And it says this, "Early in

the morning, Joshua and all the

Israelites set out from Chetim." I hope

I said that right. And went to the

Jordan where they camped before crossing

over. And Joshua told the people,

"Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the

Lord will do amazing things among you."

All right, so let's just take a step

back. Here is the people of Israel

before the River Jordan. They literally

just spent 40 years wandering in the

wilderness and they finally got to the

edge of the promised land. The only

thing separated them from the promised

land is this river. And you know, you'd

expect that they would be like, "Let's

get through this." You know, like,

"Let's swim." I don't know. I I feel

like Joshua could have been like, "You

know what? Let's just let's build some

boats. Let's get out of here." But

instead, he had a different posture. He

said, "Consecrate yourselves." You know

what? Let's let's before we cross, I

believe God is going to do something

here. So, let's just stop and give him

time and give him devotion in prayer in

worship to him.

And then the story continues and a

miracle happens. Verse 16, the water

from upstream stopped flowing. It piled

up in a heap at a great distance away

while the water flowing down to the sea

of Arabah was completely cut off.

You see, if we want to see God move, we

first need a change of posture. We need

to be fully devoted to him. Our faith

was never meant to be casual. So today

let's talk about moving from casual

faith to a consecrated faith to a godly

faith to a to a faith that is devoted to

God. And the first point is this that

casual faith grows familiar but godly

faith grows in reverence.

And the first step to move to c from

casual to consecrated is recognizing who

God truly is.

You know, in Mark chapter 6, we have one

Mark 6 · chapter mention

of the biggest examples in the Bible of

familiarity. And it's the story of Jesus

when he is rejected at Nazareth. And it

says this, "Jesus left the part of the

country and he returned with his

disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. And

then they scoffed. He's just a

carpenter, the son of Mary, and his

sisters live live right here among us."

They were deeply offended and refused to

believe in him. And because of their

unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles

among them. And Jesus was amazed at

their unbelief.

So here Jesus goes back after doing many

and many miracles, walking on water and

and multiplying food, he goes back to

his hometown. But instead of welcoming

him, people reject him.

You know, these people, they didn't hate

Jesus. They just couldn't see him beyond

what they already knew.

Their familiarity robbed them of their

faith. And they had Jesus in their own

town, but they missed what he wanted to

do.

And you know, church, it's the same with

the casual Christianity we see today,

where people know Jesus just enough to

feel good about themselves, but not

enough to make any real changes in their

lives.

Hebrews chap 12 28 says this. Therefore,

since we are receiving a kingdom that

cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and

so worship God acceptably with reverence

and awe. This is important. With

reverence and awe. For our God is

consuming fire.

This is how the Bible defines God.

Consuming fire. And the way you view God

will determine how you live out your

faith.

And to be honest, there was a season in

my life where I grew familiar and

indifferent to the things of God. And

what happened was that there was just

this bitterness against the things of

God that started growing in my heart.

And I just became um critical of

everything. Ah, everyone's wrong. You

know, the church is doing things wrong.

The pastor's wrong. All the Christians

do all of this wrong. If everyone does

things wrong, why am I expected to do

things right? You know, you know, I'm

just going to And I grew indifferent.

I grew bitter. My relationship with God

was dead. And it actually took a close

friend of mine to come alongside me. and

he identified that and he just called me

out. You know, whatever thought that is,

it's wrong, mate.

It's wrong. Yes, you do need to try to

be right because our God is holy.

>> And his his desire of that is that we

would become holy as well. And he

encouraged me to go back to to spending

time in God's presence. And with time,

breaking my heart in God's presence and

trying to find something in the Bible

that would sustain um my spirit, God

eventually gave me strength. And one of

the the passages, well, the main passage

um that helped me get out of that place

is actually in Isaiah chapter 9, uh

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

sorry, Isaiah 6. And it's this beautiful

uh vision that Isaiah has where he is

approaching the heavenly throne exalted

in heaven, right? And he sees God there

and then there's these angels around the

throne and they're covering their eyes

because of the glory of God and all they

can say is holy, holy, holy is the Lord

God Almighty. The earth is full of his

glory. Wow. And what I love about that

passage is the closer Isaiah's being

drawn to the to the throne, right? And

the closer he gets to the throne, the

more reverent, the more humble he gets.

You see, there's nothing wrong with

knowing God as a close friend or as a

loving father. That's who he is. The

Bible also defines him as that as long

as we don't forget that he is also king,

>> that he is God Almighty, that he is

allconsuming

fire. Reverence for God isn't a fear

that drives us away from God, but an awe

that drives us closer to him.

So the question I have for us today is

are you truly seeking God in reverence

and in awe

or are you just treating him casually?

You know, is is he really someone who

you break your heart and and you just

pour all of your your sins and your

worries before him or is he more like,

you know, an emergency contact or like a

wish list? You know, I have to catch

myself sometimes because I sometimes I'm

just praying and then I stop and I

realize literally all I said is about

me. It's just what I want and and do

this for me.

When what God wants is just for us to be

in his presence

because he's amazing for to is for us to

recognize God, I'm here and I just

wanted to say you're amazing. Make me

more like you. My hope today is that we

don't grow familiar with God, but that

we grow in reverence to please him.

Point number two is this. Casual faith

lives pretending, but godly faith seeks

obedience.

Second Peter 1:5, it says this, "For

2 Peter 1:5

this very reason, make every effort to

add to your faith." And it and then it

goes on to tell us a bunch of stuff. Add

goodness and to goodness knowledge and

to knowledge self-control to

self-control perseverance. To

perseverance godliness to godliness

mutual affection and to mutual

affection, love. You see, godly faith is

not that um

worried with what people think and what

their opinions are. It doesn't care

about it. It it it thinks, "How can I

add to my faith? How can I better serve

God? How can I better obey my heavenly

father?"

And we're going to put an illustration

right right now on the screen. It's uh a

painting

and it's called Who Cares by Mauricio

Palasio.

I hope I said that right.

Who cares?

And um just to give some context, this

is this this painting was actually

inspired by um William Boof. If you

don't know who William Boof is, he's the

founder of the Salvation Army, a great

man of God. And he initially had this

vision of people drowning, of souls

drowning. And that's what inspired this

image. And as as we look at this image,

I I I want you to notice what's going

on. You know, there's a guy there trying

to reach out. There's two others here on

the boat. But most people, they're

physically present, but they're

spiritually indifferent.

And this is what casual faith looks

like.

It's belief without compassion. It's

knowledge without response.

You know, the picture reflects a

community that is so content with their

faith to the point of not acting on

God's love through compassion.

I hope this is not really heavy. I know

it's challenging, but let me tell you

something. This is not a depiction of

Elevation Church. Are you with me? This

does not show who we are because the

vision of our church is not only to

create a beautiful healthy environment

that we can come and worship God. But

it's also

to reach out to the lost to make room

here for those who are brokenhearted and

that need an encounter with God. And I

just wanted to highlight our missions

team. Can we honor our missions team a

little bit? Come on, Pastor Sanjieve and

Pastor Joselyn, they're leading the

charge in that cause for lost souls. You

know, Jif uh Sanjief, sorry, Pastor Sam

Jeie, um recently took uh a team to the

train station to witness. We have our

ongoing caravan initiative. You know, we

have the MAF partnership. We partner

with Beautiful Crazy. And there's so

many other ways that we can uh reach out

to those who are lost. But let me tell

you something. This is not just for the

missions team,

>> right? We can do something about it as

well. You know, maybe you can you can

bake something for your neighbor. Go

over see if what happens. You know,

maybe you can pray for someone. You can

ask, "Can I pray for you?" If you know

they're going through something, maybe

you can invite someone to church, a

coworker, or maybe you can start serving

in in one of our teams on a Sunday or

youth on a Friday.

Casual faith gradually makes us

indifferent. While godly faith responds,

it leans in. It looks beyond self. It

stretches out. You know, you don't need

to be a preacher or an evangelist. You

just need to be obedient.

You know, this picture, it shouldn't

shame us, but it's a call for

reflection. Am I really following

Christ,

or am I just pretending?

If I claim Jesus for myself, do my

actions show otherwise or do my words

show otherwise?

Which leads me to my third and final

point that casual faith performs but

godly faith repents. Luke chapter 18,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

there's the parable of the Pharisee and

the tax collector. And I love the story.

We actually did a devotional on this

story in our youth camp last year and it

was really good. And it says this. Two

men went to the temple to pray. One was

a Pharisee and the other was a despised

tax collector. The Pharisee stood by

himself and prayed this prayer. I thank

you God that I am not like other people

like cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm

certainly not like that tax collector. I

fast twice a week. I give you a tenth of

my income.

But the tax collector stood at a

distance and dared not even to lift his

eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he

beat his chest in sorrow, saying, "Oh

God, be merciful to me, for I am a

sinner."

I tell you, this sinner, not the

Pharisee, returned home justified before

God. Wow. So why did the Pharisee

not get justified by God? It was because

his worship was just an empty ritual.

Because he used religion

to cover his sins and his hope was

placed on his works and not in God

himself.

You know, God's main concern is not that

the the religious practices, but it's

the heart of true repentance. And when

we stay busy for God,

a lot of times we tend to to just grow

entitlement within ourselves. You know,

like the Pharisee, oh, I'm a good

person. I give to the church, so surely

I have a place in heaven. You know, this

is not good theology, by the way. Um, he

was just prideful.

And in contrast, the tax collector, all

he did was come to God with a broken

heart, with a genuine heart. You know,

this tax collector was probably not a

man of God. You know, the context back

then, the tax collectors, they were seen

as traitors. They were outsiders. They

left uh the Jewish community. They

wouldn't frequ uh frequent temple

gatherings. They they jumped ship and

joined the Romans and they would charge

their own people and they were known to

be greedy and take as much money as they

could.

So he's probably not a good person, but

the fact that he's in temple already

shows, wow, there's something different

about this guy. And not only he goes to

temple, but he beats his chest in

sorrow. And he asks God for his mercy in

repentance.

You see, God isn't that impressed by our

works. He looks at the heart behind what

we do. Matthew 15:8 says this, "These

Matthew 15:8

people honor me with their lips, but

their hearts are far from me. Their

worship, they worship me in vain, and

their teachings are merely human rules."

You know, one of my heroes of faith, his

name is John Wesley. And if you haven't

heard of John Wesley, he was this great

preacher. He actually founded the

Methodist church. And he is known to

just preach the gospel throughout the

whole Europe, right? It is known that he

he probably traveled more than 400,000

kilometers on horseback, preached over

38,000

sermons.

But one of the most impactful moments of

his life was when he preached this

sermon called almost Christian.

And he had just he just had this moment

where he poured out in fear to God. And

he says, "You know what? Despite I did

all of this, I just hope that I never

become an almost Christian. I just hope

that my works don't cover the heart for

God. Because it's not about what I do.

It's about the why behind what I do.

It's about the heart behind it. A

pretending faith has the knowledge of

God without the heart for him.

God's presence doesn't just depend on

church events, on worship nights.

It depends on a heart that is hungry,

humble, and desperate. Hungry, humble,

and desperate.

Psalm 51:17, "The sacrifices of God are

Psalms 51:17

a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite

heart, oh God, you will not despise."

So maybe you're sitting there after this

preach and you're thinking, "Uh, well,

is God mad at me?" And the answer is no.

In fact, he is madly in love with you.

But he wants you fully.

He doesn't want a heartfelt faith. The

Bible tells us that he is jealous for

you. He wants you all just for himself.

He doesn't want a casual relationship.

You see, it's not about being perfect.

It's about approaching him saying, "God,

forgive me. My heart is all that I

have."

That's what changes everything.