Better Together: Part 1- Formed

Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our

lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message

would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you

to the life changing love. Of.

Jesus, may you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow

Him today. We're going to begin today, like

we always do, with our confession.

And our confession is just telling the truth.

And sometimes the good news is we believe the truth, and

sometimes the truth is the truth whether we believe it or not,

right. And so our confession, each week

we say this We are badly broken. Yes, you are.

Grace and peace to you. That phrase, that sentence, that

whole idea, badly broken and deeply loved.

It is a deeply formative part of who we are as a congregation.

We assume from the outset that each of us has brokenness, and

brokenness is brokenness in a sense of wounds that have been

handed to us by others. Brokenness from church

experiences that with went wrong, from family experiences

that went wrong, from choices and decisions that we've made

that have gone well and poorly. We have brokenness, but we also

confess that we have brokenness in the sense that.

In the same way that we receive pain, we have a tendency and

history of inflicting pain. And when we declare, when we

confess our brokenness, the point is that this isn't just

some sense of well, if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't

deserve me at my bet. That's nonsense.

Right, like. We don't say anything.

The reason we confess both our brokenness and our belovedness

is because we believe in the partnering of those two things.

Transformation is possible if we deny our brokenness.

It's like the person that never admits that they have like a

festering wound on their arm and you can't get any treatment if

you don't take it to the doctor. But the belovedness, our

belovedness by God means that when we bring him our brokenness

and whatever form it is and listen, we don't even know what

form it's in all the time. But when we bring that

brokenness to God, God I'm an addict, God, I'm afraid, God,

I'm selfish, God, I'm insensitive, God, whatever it.

AB because we're beloved, he heals that.

So as we started talking last time about what it means to be a

member at the church, what it means to be a partner with River

City in this mission of the Capital Sea Church, that's part

of it and it's an important part.

I'm going to tell you about my friend Ernie.

Ernie was a member of part of the other church that we went to

before we came here, when we planted out of this.

And Ernie by all and for all intents and purposes, was

absolutely as immersed as a person could be in the cultural

life of our congregation. Ernie was a small group leader.

Ernie LED mission trips. Ernie's kids were involved in

the youth ministry. He.

Showed up on Sunday mornings and he was a greeter and he stood at

the door and he passed out bulletins.

And everywhere you went at church, you wanted to be where

Ernie was. He was just that guy, Just a

great big old hulking guy. Always smiled on the outside,

love. And he came to me once and I was

like, kind of a new associate pastor, right?

And I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off

trying to make it all happen. And I loved a guy like Ernie

because Ernie wore lots of hats. He did.

He was multifaceted in his service.

I love it. So Sunday morning, Ernie came up

to me and said, hey, Jason, can I talk to you for a second?

And we went around the corner. He said, hey, I don't think I'm

going to be able to leave my small group anymore.

And in fact, I'm not going to be able to do most of the things

that I went. And he went on for the next,

next 5 minutes to talk about how in the span of a week, his

entire life had fallen apart. He said.

My wife's been in having an affair for a year.

I've been having an affair for about that long.

The money's gone. We're going to lose the house.

We're going to lose everything. So I can't leave my small group

this week and I was just floored.

I was shocked. I mean, this is a guy who's

always there like he always didn't.

So I asked him, I said well, how's your like?

What is your small group? Say I this thing goes well, I

haven't told them yet. For a year, my friend Ernie was

living in two worlds, trying to live in two worlds.

And what Ernie realizes, the thing that we all realize

ultimately, you can't be in 2 worlds you can't live in, you

can't swim in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean at the

same time. And that was the problem with

Ernie. Ernie was religiously.

Busy he went and he did. A lot of the things he.

Showed up at the things that that he was supposed to be at

the things that he went but none of the content of those things

none of his participation in those moments sought got any

deeper than his skin. It never became anything more

than something that he heard on a Sunday morning and he or he

heard on a Tuesday night in his small group, but never got down

into his habits or his confidence or his belief.

He was religiously busy, but he wasn't being transformed and

being shaped to look like Jesus. And so the question becomes,

what was going on with Ernie? Now, let me just say, I tell

that story as a part of my own formative experience because

here's part of Ernie's story that's hard for me to share.

For the four or five years that Ernie was around doing all those

things, I was the one encouraging him to do it.

I was like, I knew, man, hey, listen, if you want to get

something done, you got to ask a busy person to do it, right?

So when I needed something done, I asked Ernie, Ernie, do you

want to lead a, another small group?

Do you want to do this for men's ministry?

Do you want to use a missions trip?

And I always could count on Ernie to do the things.

You know who couldn't count on Ernie?

His wife it's kids and so at River City we have a phrase that

helps protect us. I actually bought it from the

other place where we try to live into this.

If you've been around me for a while, I hope you've heard me

say this. If you haven't heard, I hope I

say it 1000 times going on for and the point is that it's going

to it saves us from walking down the aisle like we did with

earning. We say at River City, we're not

making a product. We are the product.

And So what I mean by that is the worship set is not our

ultimate goal. This gathering is not our

ultimate goal. Children's ministry is not our

ultimate goal. Because if those things are our

ultimate goal, then we can do all of those things and you can

never have a meaningful, significant encounter with

Jesus. And in fact, one of the guys who

writes a bunch of books, he's been super formative in my

journey, books that he's written in classes that he offers.

His name is Pete Scazaro. He's responsible for emotionally

healthy stuff. If you're not familiar with it,

you should be emotionallyhealthy.org.

You should go read everything that he's ever written in your

small group. You should do these emotionally

healthy classes. They're fantastic.

They're wonderful. He's up from New York.

He's this, you know, he's just kind of a little guy, talks

fast, high energy like that. His stuff is deeply foreign if

he says this when people have authentic spiritual experiences,

like when I was talking to Ernie about right the leading the

authentic and spiritual experiences such as worship.

And prayer. And Bible study.

And fellowship. They mistakenly believe they are

doing fine, even if their relational life is fractured and

their interior world is disordered.

They are deceived and what I want to hold up for us today is

it's not OK to be spiritually deceived by spiritual busyness.

We started last week talking about what it means to be a

member, to be a partner at River City and at River City, what

being a partner at River City means.

It does not mean that we are making you busy.

One of the hallmarks of our culture, kind of this cultural.

You, if you will, if you walk around and this time is people

wear busyness like a badge of honor.

We say, oh, if somebody asks me how I'm doing and I say I'm

busy, that must mean that I'm important.

That must mean that I have irons in the fire that a lot of people

are trying to get at me. And what I want to say is I

believe that's true. And I believe that we say that.

And I believe that there are lots of places in your world

that will go that will reinforce that to you that you are

important because you are busy. And if you've got free time or

margin or you're just sitting on the couch, so you're wasting

your alive or wasting that your time.

And what I want to say is that is formative for our souls.

When you constantly have a job that tells you your worth is in

what you produce, of course you want to work the extra shift.

Of course you want to do more. Of course you need to stay here

because I want to be valuable, right?

And we get so busy working for our families that we never get

time to be with our families. And we're always hurried and

we're always getting and we're always going.

Are we ever getting there? Have you ever made it and this

life that we live in and it's different.

Listen, when I was growing up, we had summers time.

My kids. I have kids that are

cheerleaders and jacks used to play baseball.

There's no summer anymore. You're working right now And

listen, I we and listen to the easiest thing for me is to be

like, Dang, old schools, man, you got a Co-op.

Except I have to parent my own children.

I'm responsible in my house what we say yes to and what we say no

to. And you know what?

Like driving somewhere and being busy and always planning and

stacking the schedule. That's easier to do than this is

how we deal with boredom. This is what doing nothing feels

like. And we did it the other day with

my kids. You know what?

And listen, their heads did not even pop off, not even for a

second. And they made it and they

survived and it was fine. The problem is and when this is

our input, when you wake up and you go to a job that tells you

what you're produced and you look at a social media platform

that tells you you are the size of your house or the size of

your car. Or you are whatever kind of

curated example you're supposed to be.

It forms us just like this can has formed this Play DoH.

This play DoH didn't have to do anything to be formed by this.

It just existed and you can't get it out.

And so here's the thing what I dream of.

Smells so good. What I dream of for this play

DoH is a beautiful goose. But do you know what stands in

the way of this play DoH being the goose that I want it to be?

It's shaped like a can already, and it can't become a goose

unless it unbecomes a can. And we live in a culture and a

time that loves to make us busy and afraid and anxious and

alone. Because if I'm afraid, they can

tell me who my enemy is. And if they can tell who my

enemy is, then they can largely dictate where my heart goes.

If they tell me who my enemies are, if they tell me to be busy,

they can tell me what my value is.

And then they can sell me a solution to make me what they

want me to be. But the question then is what

are we becoming? And again, like one of the

things we said last week, we're committed.

There's no shame here. I don't come to condemn you.

I don't come to to shame you or to manipulate you or try to get

listen, we're not following me. We're we're following Jesus.

But what I do want to do is I want to hold up.

What shape is your life in right now?

Are you anxious and afraid? Are you nervous?

What if it didn't have to be like that?

What if that's not the way that it was supposed to be?

And that's what I want to suggest and what I want to hold

us, hold up to us today is that I think we've been malformed.

I think our souls and our spirits and our minds have been

malformed by by busyness, by anger, by fear.

And listen, I'm not saying that a lot of it isn't valid.

I'm not saying that you don't look out at the world and see

lots of things that could be interpreted as as afraid or.

Whatever. But the question, the problem

isn't is that stuff out there? The question is, what's in here?

The question wasn't did did Ernie do enough stuff?

The question was, was Ernie working on the things that

really mattered? Ernie was busy with lots of

stuff, but he wasn't busy. Being transformed.

And so when we're when we've bought into the idea that we are

what we do, then the solution is always to do more.

And the people that lose our spouses and our kids and our

soul. And so when we talk today about

things to do, I want to acknowledge.

And like this one guy flying around all over here, he's

killing me. But I have to acknowledge him so

that I can ignore him. You see, another thing that we

hide behind is this idea of perfectionism, right?

But we don't so much call it perfectionism.

We don't so much call it perfectionism anymore.

You know what we say now? We've got better language for

it. Now, what we say as people, as

individual, as corporations, as churches, as groups, what we say

is we value excellence, right? Well, great, write it down.

Tell me what excellence looks like.

Because too many times and we just say we value excellence.

What we mean is we make it perfect.

And if the standard and the goal is perfection, that means that

you can't get there. That means that you're not

enough. And So what we default to then

is we laugh off ha ha ha. I'm just a control freak.

And control freak is one of those things like busyness that

I think we should be lamenting over, not celebrating when

somebody tells me I'm. Too.

How are you doing? I'm so.

Busy. We should stop and pray for

them. Oh my gosh.

Because here's what Jesus. Said.

Jesus stood in the. Temple in the most religious

culture that it ever had been, the culture that was looking for

God and Jesus said. Come to me.

If you're heavy burdened and I'll give you rest.

He said if you. Follow me, it will look like

rest. And he said, now here's how

you're going to learn rest. He talked about taking his yoke,

right? He said, take my yoke on you.

And then he described we're like, yes, Jesus, I have your

yoke and it is a Bible study and two Beth Moores and a small

group and I serve and I got prayer group and I got this.

Jesus said my burden is humble and gentle, not busy and

forceful, not powerful and known it is.

Humble and gentle. And he said you'll find rest for

your soul. See, this is the challenge for

me. This is why I didn't challenge

Ernie often enough, because at the time when I talked about

Jesus, Jesus just wants to come and give you what?

Eternal life, right? He wants to give you eternal

life. I always process that

chronologically. Jesus wants to make me live

forever. Are you kidding me?

At the pace I'm going, I'm not going to make it to 50.

What am I going to do with 50,000 years?

See, when when Jesus talked about eternal life, he wasn't

just talking about quantity, he was talking about quality.

Shalom. The Greek word is irenae.

It's peace and it's not peace like I want that peace too.

Like God just make everyone quick calling God just make

everything go away. Just make everything bad stuff

happen. He says no, it's not that kind

of peace. It's integration where what

happens on the inside and what happens on the outside are in

harmony. Not that nothing bad ever

happens out there, but that you have what it takes in here to

withstand it. How many times do we see Jesus

in the Scripture? Like one time, my favorite, he's

sleeping in the storm where his neighbors are like the disciples

are freaking out Jesus and he gets up and he calls us.

I'm like, oh, thank goodness he's able to do that.

It rained again and they were supposed to remember.

The real secret in that wasn't the rain not falling.

The real secret in that was our king sleeps in the middle of and

he says follow me. See that's integrity, that's

peace, that's Shalom. Not always getting what I want,

but always having enough where I am.

Oh, I have a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Good, I have enough. Oh, I'm single, that's enough

too, because I'm not identified by who my significant other is.

Oh, I have enough money to buy a new house.

Oh, I've been living in the same house wherever I am.

Oh, that's OK, I have enough. I'm not defined by what I am or

what you say of me or what you think of me.

Can you imagine the rest in your life if nobody else got to tell

you who you were or what was important for you?

If you weren't trying to live up to or make peace with, if you

just accepted the peace and the rest, the gentleness and the

humility. But if we're.

Going to walk in Jesus yoke. We have to take off the other

yoke because you can't. You can't be, like I said, you

can't be in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Pacific Ocean at one

time. We talked last week about

partnership in the church is to be immersed.

You cannot be immersed in the life of Jesus and immersed in

the life away from Jesus and too many times the reason we're

tired and exhausted and weary and overwhelmed.

Is because we're trying to be both.

We want to take a little bit of what Jesus offers and tack it on

to what my boss offers or my job offers because honestly, my boss

offers better bitters. If it's Jesus says trust me and

you'll be fine. My boss is like, it's not a

great insurance plan, but it's an insurance plan.

You're like, but I got to go to Austin to get a doctor.

He's like, that's fine, that's whatever.

And Jesus is like, you'll be fine, Just trust me.

Be gentle and humble. So the question of our

apprentice then ship it to Jesus is if it's not about filling

this room and it's not about filling this room.

We were here before this room was full.

Hopefully we'll be here and after.

It's not about adding people. It's not about programs.

Being a disciple, being a partner at River City is about

following Jesus together. And if that's our question, then

the question is how can we partner with him and become the

goose that we were created to be?

How can we go from ordinary cylinder of smelly dough and be

reformed and transformed into what he has for you?

That process is Christian spiritual formation.

And Christian spiritual formation is the process of

total transformation. You're here already, like I

said, and you've been formed by genetics.

You've been formed by right, Like Grandpa.

That one of the things that Pete Skizero says, like Grandpa is in

your bones. You felt this.

I'm Irish. Yeah.

That's why I yelled at that Lady at the store, because I'm Irish.

You shouldn't have done that. Whether you're Irish or not,

right? And we know this understandably,

right? We've been shaped by our family.

We freak out about the same thing that our parents freaked

out about, because we're shaped by them, because they formed us.

We're formed by our experiences. The places that you've gone, the

things that you've done, the choices that you've made,

intentionally and subconsciously, all of those

experiences form us. They shape us.

They turn us into the people that we are.

And there is no such thing as a blank slate.

There's no such. Such thing as an unformed

person. You are here today and you have

been formed by the world that you've lived in, by the people

that you've encountered, by the people you are.

You're here with an imprint on you.

And what I want to say to you is Jesus isn't mad at that.

He wants to transform it and he always wants to take it from

good to better, from wherever you are.

And you can look at the things and go, oh, I'm lonely.

Oh, I'm afraid I'm ugly, I'm poor.

Whatever the labels you've bought, whatever the script that

you've been handed, Jesus looks at your things and goes, I can

work with that. Of course I can make something

beautiful out of this, but it only begins when we.

Start with this. The Apostle Paul talks about it

in the scripture that Sean read. He said Romans chapter 12 verse

Romans 12:1

1 and 2, the whole leading up, Paul had been talking about

salvation, writing about how God gets involved and he brings the

Jews and the Gentile together not to have a Jewish humanity

and a Christian humanity. But one new humanity, all

serving God together under his name and this new Kingdom where

we're not afraid and where God makes everything new and, and

all this stuff. And he says, in light of that,

brothers, in in view of his mercies, I urge you to present

your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to

God. This is your worship.

Our worship is not singing songs with raised hands, although we

can absolutely worship with our hands raised.

Our worship is here is all of me.

It is this is my body, God. Use it for what you will.

And remember last week we saw that we're the body of Christ.

We saw the things that Jesus did with his body.

What did he do? He healed, He taught, He gave,

he served, He loved. Those are all the things that

his body is supposed to be doing today.

That's what this congregation is about, loving and serving.

It's not me, it's not the worship team, it's you.

It's us, the way that God formed and created you.

And so he says, present your bodies as a sacrifice.

And the sacrifice part we just. Can't get around.

If you go back to the Old Testament, they had to bring

animals to be sacrificed and the picture was if you're going to

gain the liberty and the freedom that God.

Has for you. Something has to die.

And so The thing is, here's the deal.

If again, the question is, how's your way going?

Are you free from anxiety? Are you free from concern?

Are you free from anger? Are you free from envy?

Are you free from? Selfishness are you free from?

If you are, you don't should be teaching.

Come talk to me. You can preach next week, but if

not, the way that we've been formed is what's behind that.

And Jesus wants to offer us something new.

So he says offer me your bodies. And he says this.

Do not be conformed to this age. Don't be crammed down into that

Tim, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that

you may discern the good, pleasing and perfect will of

God. To be transformed is to think

differently about the way that we exist in this world, not as

consumers, not to get, not to grab, to receive, but he has

placed us in this world with a blessing to give.

Do you remember? What did he tell Abraham, right.

He said, I'm going to make you a blessing and the whole world is

going to be blessed from you. That's God's design for humanity

to be givers, to be producers of a blessing far and wide and

world. His heart hasn't changed.

His purpose for his people is still to be.

Get that. But if we're going to be what he

has called us to be, we have to be immersed in the life that he

calls us. And we have to think differently

about this world. And then we have to behave like

it. And you're like, great.

So all I have to do is fundamentally alter the way that

my brain works. Yes.

How's that working? Are you discouraged?

Are you frustrated? I am.

Paul knew something and Jesus knew, and we're going to talk

about it in just a second. But this is something that we

need to grasp as his church. Affection follows action.

This is not what our culture tells us.

Our culture tells us whatever you feel you should do, the

whole phrase, you do you. That's terrible advice.

You don't know how selfish I can be.

You don't know how much I will take and take and take and take

and never be satisfied If me doing me, you know what me doing

me let's my own devices will end all of you empty on the floor,

right? That's the human nature.

That's what we do. He doesn't say hey, live out

your life. He said.

Hey, your affections, what you care about will follow what you

do. It will follow what you do.

This is scandalous stuff. This says you can train your

heart to do what it's supposed to do.

See, this is how we get addicted, right?

There was a moment. Listen, if you're in here and

you're an addict, whether you're secret or you're out of the

closet or you're recovery or you're not, listen, I want you

to know, I know why you drink. I know why you use.

And you don't need to be ashamed of it or you don't need to be

embarrassed of it. You need to admit it because

here's the deal. One day in your life, something

was bigger than you could handle, and you were afraid and

you were scared, and so you sought.

Answers and you realize when I take a drink, I feel better.

And so the next day you did the same thing and then you did the

same thing and then you did the same thing.

The problem is you never faced up to why life was scary in the

1st place. You never learn to think about

that thing that was out there. And so listen, I'm not

condemning you. I'm not judging you.

If you're here and you're caught up in the throes of an

addiction, what I want to tell you is there's delivery, there's

deliverance. Like you can find your way out,

like you can find your way out of that.

But it involves thinking differently about your addiction

and the way that that you respond to the world.

And it revolves A bodily investment.

It involves you getting there and showing up because when you

start that now you can't escape when a young man or an older

man, but when a young man grows up and he wants to wonder, am I

powerful? Am I strong?

Do I mean something? You know what a great way to

find out is sexually. And so a young man begins sexual

conquest with a question. Am I enough?

Am I big enough? And he finds an answer.

Young ladies ask different questions.

They don't wonder whether they're big enough or strong

enough or conquest. They seek love and affirmation

and they can find it there. The problem is the question

never gets answered. The problem is we get dependent

on that and we go there and now we become defined by who we are

in this context or that context. We become defined by all these

kind of labels. And what I want to tell you is

what an exhausting life that leads that Jesus wants to leave

you, lead you out of. Paul said, present your bodies

and be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Jesus said the exact same thing a little differently.

And the problem is like we read this passage and the first thing

we think about money and it is about money.

But he says this, don't store up for yourself treasures on earth

where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and

steal. And I just want to stop and say,

like, for some of you, that's talking about money for sure.

But for some of you, your treasure is your identity.

And you work so hard to build it in a social media space.

And you put all those pictures up you so that you'll get to see

the hearts and you'll get to see the likes.

And you get to hear the comments and you get to hear people say.

And what I want to say is as good as that feels for right

now, it is a fragile existence because all it takes is one

person to say you're not and you believe.

And So what I'm saying is, those powerful voices, they shape us.

And we let those voices come. So, he says, don't put your

treasure. Whether that's your identity,

whether that is your time, right?

For some of you, that's the deal.

Like time is I don't have enough time to do all the things that I

need to do, he says. Are you giving your time to

eternal things? That some of it is money for

sure. If you ravenously scour the

stock market pages because you know that your ability to

survive depends on what direction that line is heading

and you have anxiety and fear, what I would say is you've put

your treasure in something that cannot ultimately fulfill you

and satisfy you. But store up for yourself

treasures, all those things and identity in heaven.

Store for yourself treasures in heaven, where moth and moth and

rust destroy, where thieves don't break in and steal.

And like, here's the line for where your treasure is, there

your heart will be also. I would expect that to be

different. That's a nice 21st century

reading of that passage. Where your heart is, there your

treasure will be. Well, here's the problem with

that. I'm married to my loving wife,

and my loving wife has revealed something in my nature and in my

character that is sinful. And she's like, Jason, I like

you. Like, why are you walking in

that fear? Why are you walking that?

And she's telling me the truth and I don't like it because I

don't want her telling me the truth, right?

And then someone walks by that makes me feel something kind of

funny. And all of a sudden I'm like,

oh, my heart is going out to this one.

It's a. Trap.

It's a trap, Jesus. Says give your best.

To where you want your heart to go.

My wife gets the best of me. Supposed to my kids get the best

of me because long after this is gone.

Listen, I'm not doing this forever, right?

I'm almost 50 years old. You know what that means?

Likely 10 years. What?

10 years, 15 years? Someone else will be here,

right? Then who am I?

Then what am I? That's why I took two months off

this summer. This church has grown and it's

opportunities on the horizon. Is that what I am?

Am I that, am I some guy who leads a bigger church or am I

something else? Does God have something to say

for me? He says where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. And again, this isn't just about

money. Jesus is talking about that

thing that we protect and pursue most.

And I also do want to say, right, like there's something in

me as a passion. I did.

I saw there were a few. Things in my religious

upbringing that were more abused and and causing of spiritual and

religious trauma then the dealing with money at the

churches that I went to. I mean, it was bad.

It was bad, right? And so here's the thing I just

want to offer you as a parent, I don't talk enough about it to

you and I and I don't, I don't talk about it because I don't

all the things I don't want to offend you and I don't want to

do it. But here's the problem.

Everyone else talks about it, the world talks about it, the

news talks about it, friends talk about it, We feel it.

It hangs over. We're nervous.

We know this. And what I want to say is Jesus

is talking about that thing that most has the power and the

ability to make you uncomfortable and to make you

nervous. And what he's talking about is

rearranging the way that our lives relate to all of those

things, rearranging the way that we look at what we love, the way

that we look at the things that we do because our behavior can

direct our heart. Our spirits are malformed as we

treat shallow things as if they are eternal.

We treat people as if they are a means to our end.

But we serve our treat our house.

Listen, I watched my house being built.

It's not going to last forever. I, I assure you, right, my car,

that car that I got a payment for and it's nice and it's under

warranty and all that, it's a payment and six months from now

it's going to be the thing that I throw my McDonald's wrapper

in, just like my paid for beater, right?

One maybe comes with a little stress.

One comes with a little less stress.

The question then that Jesus is talking about is around what are

you orienting your life? What are you building on?

And that is what forms our souls.

And so the practice of spiritual formation is an intentional

immersion into the habits and practices of Jesus.

And So what I'm going to do is I want to show some things that

Jesus immersed himself in, right?

And here's what it's not a list. Go do this.

Go do this. Go do this, go do this.

Because I'm listen, because I'm not talking about a list,

because here's the thing you can take, take the list.

An already busy person can take a list and go, I can squeeze

these things in, right? And what you're trying to do is

you're trying to live swim in the Atlantic and the Pacific at

the same time. I'm not telling you to go do

more. I'm saying stop doing everything

and begin building a life that has Jesus 1st.

And if it wasn't previously on those things, then some things

are going to have to be different.

And what Jesus is talking about is utter transformation of the

way that we see ourselves and the world and our place in the

world, about seeing the things that define us and they give us

purpose and hope and meaning. And what I'm saying is he

doesn't come to you and say you got to give me everything right

now, but he does say give me yourself and I will change

things and I will turn you from temporal and angry and

frustrated into fully. Alive for all of eternity, if

you'll trust me. And what I want to say is

important is the three things I'm going to tell you.

These habits will not change your heart.

You can't change your heart. If you could change your heart,

it would be changed, right? If we could do that kind of

heart surgery, we'd be different.

I wouldn't be selfish. I don't want to be selfish.

I am selfish. I need to train that.

I need to discipline that. I need to work that out.

If I want to be listen, if I want to be an unselfish person,

I have to immerse myself in unselfish things.

And you know what that means? That will be like every moment

at first kicking and screaming because I want to be selfish for

49 years old. I've built my entire life around

it and now all of a sudden I got to do something different.

I don't have to do something different, but if you do what

you've always. Done.

You will get what you've always got.

Your relationship to Jesus and others will not change if

nothing changes. And when we saw last week when

he built this whole thing on immersion, again, that's what

I'm asking. I'm not manipulating you.

I'm not trying to punish you or cajole you or get browbeat you

in. But what I do want to do is I

want to present the way that the Scripture talks about following

Jesus and being a part of his church and its immersion.

It's not an option. You will either be immersed in

the way of Jesus or immersed in the way of the world.

So where do we begin? You can begin by immersing

yourself in God's Word. Well, it's legalism.

You can't say I got to get up every day and put the word of

God into my head. No, but I bet you get up every

day and put something in your head.

Fox News, CNN. Forbes, who gets to tell you

what? Your day.

Is going to be about first thing in the morning.

You can choose. You can choose to read Psalm 139

that says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made before I was

born, all the days for me were written out and I can step back

and go, Father, this day is in your hands, not their hands.

I can read Jesus where he says love your enemies, pray for

those who persecute you. Or I can look at the news who

says they're your enemy? They're the one who's ruining

it. Get them.

And those two messages are opposites and opposing, and you

are immersed in the one or you are immersed in the other.

And so when I say immerse yourself in the word, I listen

like some of you. And here's the thing, right?

Like there's a party that wants to go tell me what, right Like.

And so some of you have been getting up for an hour long for

the last 25 years of your life, and that hour has ceased to be

fruitful for you. I'm not saying you need to do an

hour and 20 minutes. I'm saying maybe you need to go

down to do 15 minutes of something that's meaningful.

You need to go for a walk, you need to change all together.

But for some of you, you're just like going from the time you get

up in the morning. So what I would say then is,

yeah, like fast, Like just go for 30 days with no news.

The world's going to turn whether you know it or not,

right? As much as I like to worry about

what's going on in DC and Austin and Sacramento and and Albany

and all those places, not once do they call me and go.

Not once you get to choose what you put first.

So here's what you can do. Practice Lectio Divina every

morning. I don't know what Lectio Divina

is, go look it up. If you wanted to work out, you'd

figure out how to work out. If you wanted to eat healthy,

you'd figure out how to eat healthy.

If you want to know where to invest your money, you figure

out how to make investments. Lectio Divina in the morning,

set an alarm on your phone at 11:30 every day and read a Psalm

every day for lunch, not to get through it, but to remind

yourself God is here, He's with me before you go to bed every

night intentionally. Where did I see God today?

Where did God come through today?

The point is to immerse ourselves in being with Father

and listening to Him. Because listen, somebody's going

to tell you who you are. Somebody's going to tell you who

your enemies are. Somebody's going to tell you

what your value is. Somebody's going to tell you

what's real and ultimate and lasting.

If you're not getting it from Jesus, the world would be happy

to tell you and fit you into their little bubble.

Afraid and anxious and unrepentant and just going and

wishing something would change on the outside if I eat.

Too much. I'll never be healthy if I don't

exercise. I'll never be healthy if I never

let God tell me who I am. I'll never know who God says

that I am. Immerse yourself in God's Word.

Second, immerse yourself in the practice of generosity.

The Church of Jesus is intended to be a giving, generous

organization. Christians are supposed to be

known as generous. When we read about the first

church in Acts, it says if somebody in the church saw

someone with need, they would sell their property in order to

meet that need. The first church didn't talk

about a tie. They didn't talk about 10%.

The New Testament model is they gave everything to whoever had

need. And so here's what that means

for you. And again, like I, I confess

this, I don't talk about money enough, right?

Because I don't want you to think that I'm manipulating you.

And now I'm not manipulating you.

What I, what I want to say is I don't want to defer the

conversation anymore to people that would make you afraid.

What I would say is, or going to the reason here's why we're

afraid of money. You know why?

Because we consume 100% of what we make and we live right at

that margin. And then we just go.

If one more thing happens, what if you?

Reorganize your life so that you don't consume 100% of what you

make. You know what a great way to

practice that is? By giving.

And you say, I'm going to give. So that way when I walk out in

this world, I know I'm a contributor.

I'm making this, I'm making this world go.

There's a guy that I know if you saw him, you would recognize him

right at River City. And I just had a conversation

with him at the park the other week and he talked about one of

the things that I always say is like, I'm not telling you to

quit your job. I'm saying you might need to

quit your job, right? Like you're not following me,

you need to follow Lord. And that guy told me, says ha

ha. My pastor always tells me that

you might not quit my job, but you need to quit.

And he quit his job. He got a smaller house.

And you know what he said my job was too hectic.

I was under anxiety and oppression.

I was burned out all the time. So we decided we were going to

do something different. You guys, the faith of that

takes to organize your life around a different set of

priorities and a different set of principles.

Now, I'm not telling you that you need to sell your house, but

I'm telling you if your house is the source of your anxiety, you

should sell your house. Because you know what?

You're going to leave it to your kids when you die and they're

not going to care that much and they're going to sell it.

So why don't you just get ahead of them and spend it on

something else? Not the dying part.

But I also don't say 10% because listen, there's probably some

people in you who have such great resource that giving it

10% isn't that much to you. There's no, you've been giving

it 10% and there's no faith or sacrifice involved in that in

any. And what I would say is, are you

still trusting God with your finances?

Or are you just now at a place where you're fiscally secure

enough that you can make do on 90% in a way?

And again, I don't know. Here's the thing that I promise

you, I don't look at finances for you.

I don't get involved and go. Oh, well, I see all so and so is

back. Looks like they're given 8%

right now. Don't do that because for some

of you have never given anything and you hear 10% and you just

go, I could never get that. I've got dollars, right?

And what I'm saying is begin to reorganize your life, cut out a

meal every week, cut out a Starbucks every week and begin

to put something in and begin to see if you don't experience

freedom. And then I'm not saying give

more, I'm saying chase freedom. You believe, listen, we chase

the standard that the world tells us, right?

It looks like the car and the house and reputation stop facing

that. What if freedom is the metric?

What if not ever being financially worried is the

metric? And here's the thing that I want

to tell you right? Like because I know you can just

be like sounds pretty self-serving preacher.

You're trying to get us. Listen, I want you to give for

you. But here's the thing I want you

to know Rivers, we don't have denominational affiliation.

There is no outside financial support.

What we have is what God puts here.

And here's the thing. I know, right?

And I introduce you to the elders so that you can see, you

know. We are.

Gladly committed to living on what the Lord provides.

And if that number goes down, we'll do less because I'm not

here to manipulate you into paying my salary.

What I am saying is if the voices of fear are the only ones

that get to speak into your financial well-being, what I'm

telling you is the secret is generosity.

To say, my first priority is to be generous.

And I, I'm looking around the room and I see like, I know some

of you and I know some of your stories that are, that are

generous people. And you know what?

Generous people smile at this. The generous people know

they've, they've seen it and it doesn't make sense.

I'm going to confess to you, right?

Like there are times, right? I got kids going to college, I

got cars breaking down. I got like, like all of the

things, right? There are times where I just go,

Oh, I can't. Oh, right.

And this, Oh, I didn't write the check this week.

Let me just tell you, I have never skipped A tithe payment

and then more at peace and at ease than I was before.

Never, not once. Do you know why?

Because whatever I've skipped my my spiritual payment for now

that's I'm looking at that thing.

I'm looking at my debt, I'm looking at what comes and that's

scary. But when I just go, Lord, in

this world that consumes everything, you've given me the

ability to be a contributor. I'm a contributor into my world.

I'm not just a consumer. That's what Jesus has for you.

And so listen, so if you're like a physical writer, we have check

boxes around. I think River City does amazing

things. I think the, I think the work

here is valuable. You're not giving to me, you're

partnering here. Some of you have brought your

friends here and I've seen God move in their lives.

But more than I want you to just be honest, I want you to have

the freedom to know that you can be generous.

And it's not just your money, it's your time as well.

It's your talents and your gifts.

So the question is, who have you given your life to that doesn't

have your last name? Who that doesn't have your last

name? Have you given yourself to the

last thing that leads the last thing?

Immerse yourself in community. I want you to immerse yourself

in God's Word. I want you to immerse yourself

in practicing generosity. Here's like, here's the thing,

generosity, little practices. Just commit to this.

No matter how bad the meal is, you're a 25% tipper, right?

Just because and and more than that, if you can be just

whatever is you just go, yeah, it's not about whether my soup

was warm or they got, you know, I asked for French fries or

potatoes. They're about you seeing

somebody working at doing a hard job making whatever and you just

saying I'm going to make their life better.

Listen, go to Frazee's at lunch. We have a great hamburger, nice

crispy fries. And make sure that your waitress

knows that you were there and make sure that when you walk

through the door, they're fighting to get you to sit in

their in their section, right? Live generous and finally live

in community. Community is training myself to

love as Jesus loves, and it's community where we encounter

that person. You know who the One is, right

all the time, with the talk and the story and on and on.

And you told that story last week, and you told it better

last week, and now you're just yammering on.

And how do you have the same thing?

How can you have not figured it out by now?

And listen, every single time that you go to your small group,

to your group of people, and you listen to that guy and you pray

for that guy, and you know, and in your edge, you're like God.

Why? Why can't they get this right?

Every time you do it, you are practicing being just like

Jesus. Because when you come to Jesus,

every time you're like God. I'm afraid.

And you've always provided me before, but I'm worried that

this isn't the one that you're going to come through.

And I feel like you're going to fail me.

Now Jesus doesn't go. Why aren't you going to get it?

Why do you keep talking to me? Why do you keep yammering on?

Every time you bring your heart to Jesus, he goes.

I see your pain, he says. You don't have to be worried.

You don't have to be afraid. You get to now do that in your

community to make sure that your community is a group where

people are badly broken but also deeply loved.

You get to be that kind of love and it's hard and it can be

terrible, but we get to be a part of a culture that is like

that. If you're not in a small group,

you can be. And listen, I'm not saying I'm

not talking about small group as a program of this church.

I'm talking about as a community, not just.

But it's different because listen your.

Community. I say, oh, my community's at the

Little League field. That's great.

You're Little League. Those people, Little League,

they're judging you based on how well Junior hits a curveball.

Is that the metric that you want to be lived up to?

That's not. That that's not it, right?

I'm talking about a community as a place where we immerse in the

journey of becoming like Jesus together.

If you're not a part of a community to that, go outside,

get talking to the. Table but here's the deal.

Maybe you are a part of a community and you're not sure

how to make it that go listen. The great thing about our this

time that we live in is we have all kinds of resource go look up

emotionally healthy emotionallyhealthy.org look up

classes. They have video classes.

You can read a book. They have daily devotionals.

Do it as your small group. What would it mean for us to be

an and emotionally healthy believers?

Go to practicingtheway.org. They have entire classes and

sections and segment that as a small group.

You can get in. All you have to do is go play

and it'll unfold it for you and you can talk together about how

we walk in Jesus together. So you're immersing yourself in

the Word. You're immersing your life and

reorganizing your life around becoming a gigger giver, not

just a taker. And you're doing it together

with people in community. That's what the church.

Is not just a gathering of religiously busy people, the

people seriously practicing the life of Jesus.

I'm not telling you to take this list and go tack it on to what

you're already doing. I'm inviting you to reorient

your life around some things that maybe have been in the back

seat. Because as we do this, as we

practice the life of Jesus, his habits will begin to be

transformed. We'll see the world and our

neighbors in it differently, and we'll count on Jesus.

So, Jesus, that's our desire not to be conformed to a world that

tells us we're not busy enough or stable enough or rich enough

or handsome enough or powerful enough, but we are lacking.

Instead, you said, come to me. And so, Lord, save us from a

religion that makes us busy and worn out and still far away from

you and each other and make us new in your life.

And in your name and Jesus, as we go talk about these this

week, I pray that we'll begin to be transformed and we ask these

things. Father, in your name and for

your glory, Amen. Thank you for joining us today.

River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing

God's love in our lives and community, and we hope that

you've been able to experience that today.

As grateful as I am that you've spent this time listening in

this morning, this podcast is no substitute for full

participation in a local church. I love it when River City people

listen to other pastors, but it is those who show up week after

week faithfully giving their support and time and resources

that make all of this possible. If we can help you get connected

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your friends. Thanks so much for listening.

May the Lord bless and keep you in all grace and peace.