Replay | Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Summer Jams) with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online, go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.

You shone on your crazy town.

Now there's a look in your eyes like black holes in the sky.

You shone on your crazy town.

You were crying the crossfire, shouted to stall them, thrown on the steel.

Come on you target for four way laughter.

Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr and star.

You searched for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.

Shone on your crazy town.

Threatened by shadows at night, exposed in the light.

Shone on your crazy town.

You were right to welcome the randomness of you, thrown on the steel.

Come on you red, you seer of the mission.

Come on you painter, you black, you're the one that shines.

Come on you target for four way laughter.

Come on you target for four way laughter.

Come on you red, you seer of the mission.

Come on you target for four way laughter.

Come on you red, you seer of the mission.

Come on you target for four way laughter.

Amen.

Well good morning HTV.

Hey can you give another hand for Rick Vance.

Hey and Daniel you sound great too my man.

Thank you to everyone.

Summer jams continues.

It actually concludes today unfortunately.

But it will come back next year.

Thank you for joining us from home if you're tuning in online.

This series is about discovering God in our everyday lives.

The songs that have been chosen in this series are simply tools that assist us in challenging

us to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

We at HTV in no way encourage you to go out and listen to, buy, purchase these albums

though many of you already have them.

So we kicked off our series a few weeks ago discussing loneliness through the song Boulevard

of Broken Dreams by Green Day.

Then we moved to the Red Hot Chili Peppers Give It Away now and we challenged ourselves

to live a generous life last week.

We heard Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman and we discussed how to live in the moment

every day.

Today you just heard Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd.

This is of course a Pink Floyd classic that can be found on their 1975 album titled Wish

You Were Here.

Now the song is primarily a tribute to the artist's former bandmate, Sid Barrett.

Sid Barrett was actually the man that founded Pink Floyd and wrote many of the early songs

on the first album.

However, he was kicked out of the group in 1968 because of his LSD abuse and fragile

mental health.

The track captures the band's feelings of guilt and ousting Sid while at the same time

their admiration for what he brought to the band and the songs that he wrote.

In the verses of the song, the singers use metaphors such as shine, sun to describe his

massive potential in creativity while at the same time they discuss the contrast using

terms like black hole to signify the loss of identity and in fact his very memory.

The sense of friendship between Sid Barrett and his former band was exhibited in a very

unrecognizable way, Sid, who had not seen the members of Pink Floyd for years, almost six

years in fact, showed up randomly at the recording studio while they were recording the very

song Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Roger Walters quoted in the Floyd biography, Saucerful of Secrets, said that he came to

tears at the very appearance of Sid Barrett.

A man sitting in the corner that was once great was now fat, bald and completely mad.

Sid Barrett died alone in 2006 at the age of 60 from cancer, yet he will live on forever.

Notice the title of the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Sid is spelled out in the very title.

Now as I was reading through all of the history about the band, I was reading about Sid Barrett,

I was listening to the song over and over and over again.

At the beginning of the song, I was like, God, what direction do you want me to go in

this week?

Because let's be honest, this is a downer.

People talk about how great the song is, but then when you really understand it, you think,

oh, this is just negative.

What do I do for people that are gathering here on a Sunday morning?

What do they need to hear?

And immediately, one word just came to my spirit, almost like God was yelling at me

and that word was choice.

See, God clearly spoke to me that everyone has a choice in life.

Essentially, we are the sum of the total of choices that we have made up to this point

in our lives.

And if you think about it, the choices that we're making today will determine who we become

and what we do, where we will go tomorrow.

I choose.

See, here's the reality about life.

You and I, we're going to experience a lot of pain in this life.

You're going to experience pain.

And if this is your first time here, welcome to HCV where I'll give you a feel good message

that will change your life.

Now, you and I are going to experience a lot of pain.

And the reality is a lot of the pain that we experience will be outside of our ability

control.

That's why Jesus said in John 16, 33, in this world, you will have trouble.

See, a lot of times this trouble is not our fault.

Freak accidents.

Somebody you love betrays you and hurts you.

Your company downsizes you, you lose your job.

Your family re-globacates to another state causing you to lose all of your friendships.

A loved one passes away too soon.

All things out of our control.

But there's also the reality that some of the pain that we experience in life is within

our control.

In other words, you will have a choice to face the pain of your consequences later.

For example, you can choose the pain of living within your means today, or you can choose

the pain of battling out a mountain of debt tomorrow.

You can choose the pain of studying for your exam today, or experience the pain of retaking

the class tomorrow.

You can choose the pleasure of having sex right now in the relationship you're currently

in that will only cause pain in the future, or you can choose the pain of discipline and

waiting until marriage.

See what I want to do to you today is I want to talk about choosing a certain type of pain.

We will choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret.

See we all have different types of pain, but if we're going to choose the pain of discipline

over the pain of regret, that ultimately is going to change the very course of our life.

Again, back to the Pink Floyd autobiography, the bandmates share, Sid Barrett was like

a child who lacked discipline.

He couldn't control his drug intake, which led him to suffer from schizophrenic attacks.

And Sid had a choice, which leads us to our first thought this morning as we conclude

rock anthems.

Discipline is choosing between what you want right now and what you want the most.

What you want now or what you want the most.

Listen to the words written by Paul in Romans chapter seven, and I got to be honest with

you, it makes me feel so good to relate to Paul and to hear the words that Paul writes.

See, he almost sounds crazy in saying it.

And if you're new to HTV, you're new to relationship with Jesus, maybe you're not in a relationship

with Jesus.

I have no idea where you are and you don't know much about Paul.

Just a little context.

Paul was a guy who met the risen Jesus.

See, Paul was a zealot.

He was killing the early Jesus followers.

He was, he wanted to eradicate the early church and he was on a horse on his way to Damascus

and the risen Jesus, not the physical Jesus, he had already died and risen.

The risen Jesus verbally, audibly spoke to Paul and knocked him off his horse, blinded

him.

Not only was he knocked off his horse, but then Jesus completely heals him of his blindness.

Paul goes into, goes on to grow in his relationship with Jesus, becomes a church planner and oh

yeah, writes about a third of the New Testament.

If there was anybody who had a spiritual edge, Paul had it.

If there's anybody that should have gotten it right, we should be able to look to Paul.

But in Romans chapter seven, Paul talks about how difficult it was to do the right thing.

And I'll be honest, his struggle makes me feel better because of how often I mess up.

And this is what he says in Romans 715, I don't really understand myself.

For what I want to do, what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead I do what I hate.

How many of you have done that before?

Excuse me, both hands should be up.

All of us, we should be doing jumping jacks.

That's me.

Come on now.

I mean, and you say, no, I haven't done that, of course, come on.

Tell me you've never said, I can't believe I ate the whole thing.

I didn't want to eat the whole thing.

But man, that cherry Garcia was good.

I ate the whole thing.

And Paul continues in Romans verse 18 to 19.

I want to do what is right, but I can't.

I want to do what is good, but I don't.

I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

Oh, what a miserable person I am.

Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

I mean, this is Paul writing these words to us and it sounds like he has no hope, no relationship

with God.

What's going to happen next?

His life spiraling out of control.

I can't do it.

I want to do what's right, I don't.

I want to end up doing what's wrong.

Who can help me?

Then his tone changes and he says, thank God.

The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

See, what is he saying?

He's saying I want to do the right thing, but I can't do it.

Actually, I'm often ashamed that I don't get it right.

I feel bad about myself.

I beat myself up.

I'm embarrassed.

And in my mind, I'm thinking I got to get it right.

I got to get it right.

I got it right.

Then Paul says, thank God.

The answer is not in me being better.

The answer is not you being stronger.

The answer is Jesus.

You're like, what?

Yeah, that's the key to this whole talk today.

We're gonna make the wrong choices, we're gonna mess up.

But with the help of the Spirit, he can enable us to choose what we want now, right?

And push our life forward so that we can walk away from that negativity.

We can choose discipline over regret.

And all we have to do is look at Paul's faith journey.

And it's amazing to watch his growth and his change, how he taps into the power of the

Spirit to live a more disciplined life.

Right?

This is the guy, he says, I can't get it right.

And then in 1 Corinthians, he uses the imagery, the metaphor of a race.

And this is what he says in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 25.

Don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets a prize.

So run to win.

Everyone say run to win.

He's saying when you're running, you're not running for second place.

When you're running, you're running with every bit of focus, intensity, and power you have.

You're running to win.

And this gets me fired up, you know why?

Because I like to win.

I am ultra competitive to the point where it's probably my downfall.

I remember I had to quit slow pitch softball.

Some of you may remember me throwing away my cleats because slow pitch softball caused

me to sin.

Hit the ball!

I used to stand on shortstop yelling at the hitters because they would take walks.

And then they would get to second base.

I'm like, dude, we're playing softball.

You're supposed to hit it.

So I quit.

Because see what would happen is everyone would be like, who's the pastor of this church

that we're playing?

Oh, he's on shortstop.

What?

So I threw my cleats away.

But you know why I love this statement?

Paul was competitive.

Look what he said.

He says don't coast through life.

Don't be comfortable in life.

He says no.

He says run to win.

He says all athletes are disciplined in their training.

And if you're going to win, what do you have to do?

You have to choose what you want most over what you want now.

Well, Chris, I want to be healthy.

I want to be in good shape.

But I also want to sleep in and have pizza.

You have to choose what you want most over what you want now.

Paul says we're disciplined in our training.

In fact, the root word for discipline is the same root word that creates the word disciples.

What are we?

We're disciples of Jesus.

We're followers of Jesus.

And then he goes on to say, he says, they do it to win a prize that will fade away,

but we do it for an eternal prize.

In other words, they're doing it for something that won't last.

You know that child soccer team, you know your son or daughter's soccer team that was

successful and they were first place and they got the plastic trophy or the little blue

ribbon, or they got the medal participation.

I mean, heck, even the best of the best of the best in the world that is on TV right

now, what do you get for getting first place?

A gold medal or six.

But let's be honest, you won't remember their names in four years.

But we as Jesus followers, we do it for what?

We do it for an eternal prize.

That's why we run to win.

We're not doing it for some trophy or a pat on the back that's gonna pass away.

We're doing it for what?

To bring glory to the creator of the universe.

Everything we do, the Bible tells us, says do it for Jesus.

Don't do it for human masters, but do it to glorify God.

I mean, the imagery that Paul's talking about here, right?

When he is referring to this, his audience immediately would have directed their mind

to the Ismian games.

And that was a tremendous patriotic event.

It was very similar to the Olympics that are happening right now.

And these athletes, you see, they would go into this strict 10 to 12 month training,

no junk food, no alcohol, no relationships.

They would expose themselves to all kinds of elements, hot, cold, to prepare for physical

battle.

To prepare for physical competition with another and friends.

The Bible tells us we're in a spiritual competition.

The Bible tells us we're in a spiritual battle daily, which leads us to our next thought.

Following Jesus requires discipline, requires it.

Look at Hebrews 12.

I love the author of Hebrews.

He says, therefore, since you are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life

of faith, strip off every weight that shuts, that slows us down, especially the sin that

so easily trips us up and let us run.

Remember what Paul told us, run the wind.

With endurance, the race got a step before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

And the author is telling us to strip off for the race.

And again, going back to the context of who it was written to.

Literally the athletes in the Ismian games, they would take off their clothing because

it would slow them down.

The athletes ran naked, which gives you an entirely different reason to win.

I mean, I'm sorry, but if I'm racing against a bunch of naked men, I'm coming in first.

I'm just saying.

I mean, that's kind of obvious, right?

Well, you guys are like, yep, we're running to win.

But see, in a relationship with Jesus, we're not running for an earthly prize.

We're running for a prize, a high five that's never going to spoil, perish, or fade.

We're running to glorify God.

Can I go on a kind of a rant for a minute?

Is that all right?

Just a kind of a rant.

When you come to church every week, when you come to HCV every week, what do you do?

When you're preparing to come and you're thinking about coming, what do you do?

Because, man, I tell you what, as I was praying this week and preparing and reading and listening

to this song over and over and over again, and almost allowing myself to get into this

negative tone of why the song was written, this expectation just kind of grew within

my spirit that there was going to be life change today in your life.

And then I began to think, what do you think about?

What do the people that come on Sunday morning, what do they think about when they come to

a Sunday morning?

Because if I'm in your shoes, dude, I'm getting here early.

There's no such thing as vineyard time.

I'm getting here early.

And you know what else?

I'm going to be right up here.

You know why?

Because that's where the Holy Spirit is, right here.

It's not back there.

It's right here.

You guys know I'm kidding, but the point is, dude, when you go to a game, I don't care

if it's baseball, basketball, football, you're doing everything you can to get where?

To the front.

I mean, you want to get to the front.

In fact, you'll wait till the end of the game when your team's getting blown out just so

you can get to the fifth row and take a picture.

Why does everyone want to come to church and just slide in and sit in the back?

Because you're not expectant.

Are you expectant when you walk into this place, you're going to be changed by God,

that you're going to get into worship and you're going to come to a point in worship

where you experience His presence and His love and His peace just overwhelm you?

Do you come here believing that you can impact other people, that by a simple prayer, healing

can come, that by a simple shake of a hand or a smile or a hug, people are changed?

Do you come here expecting God to speak to you?

Or do you just kind of say, yeah, it was okay today?

I went to church.

It was good.

It was okay.

See the difference?

No, you come here encountering God, hearing from God, desiring to be transformed.

I mean, I'm just being honest, there's some of you here today, because you're in these

seats, because of the presence of God in this place, the trajectory of your life is going

to change this morning.

You know who I'm talking to.

In fact, I'm talking to all of you.

But I promise if you open to receive what God has for you this morning, your life will

radically change, because there's a divine moment waiting for you, an encounter with

the Spirit of God that's literally going to change you, which leads us to our next question.

Not a thought, a question.

What do you want the most?

I need your help here.

I need a little audience participation.

I want you to think about what you want most in life right now.

And don't tell me something stupid like, I want to win the lottery.

I'm going to win Publishers Clearing House.

I'm going to make it on American Idol.

No, you're not.

Let me just go ahead and break your bubble right now.

No.

Let me tell you, if Rick Vance isn't on American Idol, you're not even going to come close,

because that was pretty impressive.

I want you to give me something real, and I don't care how old you are.

I want you to give me something godly.

What do you want most?

And you say, well, why are you asking me this?

Because look at Jesus' words in John 14.

You can ask me, you can ask for anything in my name and I'll do it.

So that the Son can bring glory to the Father.

Just ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

Again, he says in John 16, two short chapters later, you haven't done this before, ask using

my name and you will receive and you will have abundant joy.

For some of you here this morning, you're beginning to recognize it's time for me to

take Jesus seriously.

Chris, I want to get close to God.

Someone else here this morning is going to say, yeah, it's time for me to get in better

shape.

I want to live longer.

I need to quit smoking.

I'm going to lose 25 pounds.

For some of you, I need to pay my credit cards off because I'm drowning in debt.

For some of you, I need to get my marriage right because this is getting boring and average.

And we can't tolerate bad.

We need intimacy.

You name it.

I don't know what you're going through.

I don't know what you brought in here, but I want you to be careful of something because

some of you are like, well, Chris, I got a bunch of things.

I got a laundry list of things I need to change.

I'm undisciplined.

I need to quit smoking.

I need to quit doing crack.

I need to quit gambling.

I need to quit sleeping around.

I'm a mess.

Choose one.

Right?

Choose one.

You try to do all of them, guess what?

You're going to epically fail.

You're going to spiral out of control and you're going to hit rock bottom.

But if you choose one and God supernaturally sets you forth on the trajectory of your life

that you overcome that struggle, the next one's going to be a little easier.

And then the next one's going to be easier.

And then suddenly there's this snowball effect where you're cruising down this hill and that

snowball is getting bigger.

And when it explodes, you're going to change someone else's life.

So I want you to start with one this morning.

Like for example, if you're here and you're hungover, you might want to choose, I'm not

going to drink tonight.

Just saying.

Now what I want you to do is I want you to write it down.

Write it down.

Humor me.

Come on.

If you don't have a pen, use your finger.

Dip it in the ink.

Write it down.

Write it on your little piece of paper, whatever it is.

Write it down.

What do you want most in life right now?

Now that leads us to our next question.

Oh, not a thought.

What do you need to choose now for success?

What do you need to choose now, right now for you to be successful?

Because after all, we're disciplined people.

What do you need to choose now to achieve what you want the most?

What do you want the most?

You already wrote it down.

You want to be close to God?

That's an easy one.

You need to get on your phone.

You need to download the Bible app.

You need to begin listening to God speak to you through the Bible.

You need to get yourself a reading plan and begin to follow that plan so God's word begins

to change you.

You need to gather in community.

Church doesn't become an option.

It becomes a priority.

You need to get yourself in a group around other people where you're getting prayed for.

You need to serve the community here at the church and outwardly.

You say why?

Because that's what Jesus did.

What do you need to choose right now?

You want to get in better shape?

Quit smoking.

Lose 25 pounds.

What do you do?

Well, chances are you're going to need to join the gym or you can download Beachbody, great

app, transform your life.

Perhaps you need to get a trainer.

We got tons of Beachbody coaches in our church or you can just go on Google and Google give

you a plan.

You're going to need to get some good advice.

You want me to give you some?

90% of your problem is your diet.

You need to lower your carbs, get rid of desserts and sugar and increase your protein.

And then you apply it.

You begin to do that.

You begin to do what I just said.

You begin to apply it.

Listen to them.

You do that for one week, you're going to lose 10 pounds.

You do what I just said.

One week, you'll lose 10 pounds.

So don't tell me you can't do it.

I know what it is.

You apply it to your life.

You want your marriage to get better?

Start communicating.

Talk.

Hey, husbands, if your wife says, how was your day?

Good's not a good answer.

Okay.

It was fine.

You need to communicate with each other.

You need to go on dates.

You need to get the kids watched and you might have to pay some money.

It's okay.

If you need a big tweak, you need to invite a third party in to get a little counsel to

save your marriage.

And you might have to pay for it, but guess what?

It's cheaper than divorce.

Hey, you want me to be real honest with you?

Some of you married couples, you need an NIB conference.

And you need to tell your kids, hey kids, you're going to go to grandma's for a few

days.

You're going to go to your aunt, your uncle for a few days.

Me and mom, we're going to an NIB conference.

We're going to better our marriage.

You want to know what an NIB conference is?

Naked in bed all weekend long.

Go ahead and high five your neighbor and say, I love being at HCV.

Now you all do notice that I was talking about married couples, NIB conference.

And you say, Chris, well, why would I do that?

Because Jesus wants you to.

Jesus believes in intimacy.

Remember, there's a whole book of the Bible.

You could go back and listen to it.

You can go back and listen to it on our podcasts.

I did a whole series on Song of Solomon.

Make the choice.

Now I get it.

Some of you are sitting there and say, well, that's hard, Chris.

I know.

That's the pain of discipline.

Praying is awkward.

Then it gets easy.

Just like I said, counseling is expensive, but you save it.

You don't live with regret.

What do you want most?

And what do you need to choose now to experience it?

That's what Paul guide us.

He continues with this imagery of a race.

In 1 Corinthians 9, 26, 27, he says, sir, I run with purpose in every step.

I'm not just shadow boxing.

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.

Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.

I'll be honest with you.

I'm known as a person that's disciplined.

Chris, you're very disciplined.

It's taken years to get there.

I'm undisciplined in my human nature.

You heard, I like Cherry Garcia, and I'll eat a whole stinking carton.

I like to sleep in, but I got a bunch of kids that won't let me.

I mean, there's times that my kids are fighting and arguing.

You know what I want to do?

I want to give them some boxing gloves and say, figure it out.

But see, you know what the problem is with my kids?

Sometimes I'm gonna get really hurt.

I'm just like you.

I don't want to deal with stuff.

But that's why I have to run with purpose in every step.

In other words, I need Jesus more and more and more in this moment than what you could

ever imagine.

I need him all the time.

Because without him, I'm just like Paul, and we can all relate.

I want to do what's right, but I do what's wrong.

I keep doing what's wrong, Chris.

That's why we need him in every moment, every single day, because of our fallen nature,

we are very undisciplined people, and we're gonna always gravitate towards the apple.

And all of us know that the apple brings death.

Hebrews 12, 2.

We do this, remember he just said, strip it off.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiated and perfects our faith,

because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross disregarding its shame.

He endured it, the pain, the suffering, the anguish for you and me.

I mean, I'll be honest with you, man, I was up early this morning preparing for this talk,

and I thought, oh my gosh, it's Crumpy Sunday.

I'll be honest with you, I felt guilty that we're having Crumpy Sunday this morning.

Like, here I am throwing this out to people to eat when I wouldn't touch it.

Why am I doing this?

And then I thought, well, it's moderation, there's only three.

It's only once a month.

So will you help me, should we keep Crumpy Sunday going?

Oh, okay, there you go.

Your community has spoken.

September, please join us again the first Sunday of every month for Crumpy Sunday at

HTV.

A great way for you to invite your friends to experience a delicacy that will kill you

from the inside out.

Right?

It's choosing.

And some of you are thinking, man, I have this great opportunity to spend this fellowship

time with my family and to build relationships with my sons and daughters.

I just need to go buy this boat or this camper.

Okay, well, does that boat or that camper justify the debt you're going to be under

for the next 10 years?

That suddenly you realize that boat or that camper is causing you not to be able to be

generous with people and not to live a generous life and not to see God's kingdom explode

into other people's lives and you're not able to give and you're not able to live like Jesus.

See the difference?

It's a choice.

Because let me be honest with you.

If you're constantly choosing now what you want now, you're going to be living with regret

the rest of your life.

Because there's one thing that I refuse to do, I already lived 22 years of my life with

nothing but regret.

I'm not going to live with regrets anymore.

And that's a choice all of us have every single day.

I refuse to be the father who says, I'll give back anything to go back and have time with

my kids.

I was too busy working or dear I say I was too busy playing, doing my own thing.

Give us God for the culture that we've created and currently live in.

Living with regret is a choice.

And the amazing thing is here's this guy, Sid Barrett, that will be forever remembered

as the founding member, the founding artist who created the sound of Pink Floyd, has a

song written about him that his name is spelled in the very song and yet his life is a complete

disaster full of regret.

Sid Barrett spent the last three decades of his life isolated in a one bedroom apartment.

No one even knew that he died.

Is that how you want to live?

So let's look at five simple ways to choose to shine on one daily.

Because I love the title.

I mean, I'll be honest with you, I'm a crazy diamond.

And Jesus wants me to shine.

And all of you are crazy too.

You just got to tap into it.

That's what my wife says.

My wife says, everybody's got a little crazy in them.

Right?

She wanted it to be our tagline.

Hub City Vineyard.

Just come share your crazy with us.

So let's not do that.

I'm not ready for everyone's crazy on a Sunday morning.

So how do we shine daily?

Number one, you got to stop living in routine.

Look at 1 Corinthians 6 19 through 20 from the message paraphrase.

Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?

Don't you see that you can't live however you please squandering what God paid such

a high price for?

The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part

of you.

God owns the whole works.

So let people see God in and through your body.

Say, Chris, what's that have to do with routines?

Stop doing the same thing every single day.

Get out of your routines.

Because you know what routines create?

Routines create walls.

Routines create you from the opportunity of seeing other people and their needs because

you have this little sphere of people that you hang around that you connect with and

no one else.

God says, get out of your routine.

You know, do a different exercise.

Start biking, start walking on the canal, do a yoga class.

Go to a different coffee shop.

Begin to meet different people.

Shake up your normal.

Because when you get outside of your daily routine, guess what?

Joy begins to happen.

You begin to experience freedom and then you can bring other people along with you.

But it's a choice.

For example, today is start with why.

Every first Sunday of the month, we do this thing called start with why.

Some of you have never been to it, but you're new to our community of faith and you begin

to think, well, how in the world did this building get here?

How long has this church been here?

Who is this person speaking to me?

Well, go spend 30 minutes of your life at start with why and you'll learn all that.

And you'll learn how you can partner with us to transform the tri-state area because

I believe that's what you're called to do.

And does that mean you're going to have to break up your routine?

Yeah, it just means that you're going to have to go to Mission Barbecue 30 minutes later.

You're not going to change where you go to eat because you're all hungry.

Just means it's going to be a little later.

But that's okay.

That's called intermittent fasting.

You're actually burning some calories and losing some weight.

Which leads us to our next step.

Not only do you change your routine, but you got to spend more time with God.

Just being honest here.

When I was sharing on my rant about expecting to be here, so many people just go through

the motions of Jesus.

I shared it last week.

Just give me a little Jesus.

But we won't go all in.

And God's inviting you to go all in this morning.

Can you all stand with me?

We're going to do communion this morning because one of the best ways to spend time with God

is to recognize what he did for us.

And that's what communion is.

So if you didn't get your element, put one hand up, wave it all around like you just

don't care so everybody can see.

Man, a lot of people need them.

You need to pick up your elements before you come in.

Come on, people.

You know what that means?

That means you need to get off of Vineyard Time and get on time.

Just saying.

If you need gluten-free, put two hands up.

But I have no idea how these little wafers aren't gluten-free because they're cardboard.

Now spend more time with God.

Communion's a great start.

And listen, you don't have to just do it here.

You can do it at home.

You can do it with your family.

What is communion?

Communion is recognizing that we're inviting the Spirit to connect with us.

That's all it is.

The wafer or the gluten-free cracker represents Jesus' body that was broken for us so that

we could have a connection with the living God.

And the juice represents the blood that He shed for you and me for what?

For forgiveness of sins so that we can be forgiven so that when we stand before God,

God doesn't see our sins, He sees you as a son or daughter.

So what an incredible opportunity to spend time and connect with God this morning.

Amen?

Has everybody got their elements?

We need some up front here.

All kinds of up front here.

There we go.

See what I mean?

We need more people on the welcome team so we can get this done quicker.

There we go.

Everybody got them?

There we go.

We're covered.

All right.

Thank you, Nicole.

All right, everybody take out your wafer or your cracker.

Jesus said these words.

He took this bread and broke it.

He said, this is my body which is broken for you.

Take, eat, and do it in remembrance of me.

Let's eat together.

Then you peel back the top to get to your juice.

Jesus took the cup of wine.

He blessed it.

He took this of my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Drink it often when you do it.

Do it in remembrance of me.

Now before you drink, I want you to think about that one thing you need to get rid of

as for forgiveness from it.

And then drink.

Holy Spirit come, seal in our hearts how close you are to us and give us the ability to connect

with you on a daily basis.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You can be seated.

So it's not just communion, like I said, that you can do at home on your own.

Jeremiah 29 says, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

There are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.

In those days when you pray, I will listen.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

You know, are you stuck in your routine?

Are you at that place where you're like, I'm making these bad choices.

I'm down, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed out.

Go to God.

Spend time with him.

Invite the Holy Spirit to surround you.

And there's lots of ways you can do it, but I already shared, you got to get into the

Bible.

The Bible is nothing but encouragement.

It's a roadmap for those that are in a relationship with Jesus that when you dive into it, you

begin to walk in all that he has planned for you.

You begin to change those things in your life that aren't right.

Hebrews 412.

The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword cutting between

soul and spirit, between joy and sorrow.

It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

You know, another way is to just be expecting in worship.

Come in here expecting to meet God in worship because he'll show up in your life.

And then begin to create a playlist in your car, on your way to work, on your way home

from work, where you're connecting to God in worship and you're allowing his Holy Spirit

to fill you.

And then share those songs with other people as encouragement.

And then pray.

I mean, the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing, and that means you pour out your

heart before God.

Tell him if you're mad.

Tell him if you're happy.

He wants a relationship with you.

Right?

Every first Sunday of the month, which is tonight, we do pray first from six to seven

right here.

And some of you, right, you just need to come to hear people pray because you're like, I

can't pray.

It's awkward.

I don't know what to do.

Just come hang around people.

Just begin to pray.

Just begin to talk to God.

And if you come here tonight from six to seven, you begin to pray for our church, for one

another, for our community, for the nation.

Prayer works.

But you need to begin to put it into practice, which leads us to our next step.

You got to be countercultural.

And what does that mean?

That means you go against the grain.

Romans 12.2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your

mind.

Newsflash.

We live in a dark world full of lies, hate, confusion, deceit, and negativity.

I mean, I already said that you're going to have trouble.

But you know what the Bible says?

The Bible says in Romans, remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining

armor of right living.

Don't worry about success or physical pleasures or selfish gain.

If you're in a relationship with Jesus, you're called to live a different way.

Romans 13.13, continuing on, because we belong to the day, the light, we must live decent

lives for all to see.

Many of you know, you heard in the announcements our backpack giveaway is only 11 days away.

Currently, well, at least before this morning, we had 550 backpacks.

Right?

That's a great start.

What's our goal again?

Do you think we can get 450 more?

Well, that's up to you.

Right?

That's up to you.

I'm just being honest here.

It's up to you to go out and buy 10 backpacks, fill them with paper and pencils.

You're like, whoa, wait a minute, Chris, 10 backpacks, paper and pencils, that's $100.

That's a lot of money.

I know.

But all you have to do is not go to Starbucks for two weeks, you're covered.

True or false?

Thank you.

Amen.

Or Dunkin' Donuts or whatever it is.

See there's a space where we spend $100 on what we need now, when in reality we could

spend $100 on changing a life and it just means we choose to give it up.

So let's partner together and make a difference.

This is the largest community outreach we do every year.

And let me tell you something, there's story after story after story after story of people

where these little kids' lives are changed.

You don't want to miss it.

Which leads us to our next step and it goes right along with it.

You got to put yourself out there.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, in the same way, let your good deeds shine for all to see.

He's explaining no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

The lamp is meant for what?

To give light.

To impact people around you.

Well, Chris, I'm shy.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if you're shy.

It doesn't matter if you're outgoing.

It doesn't matter who you are.

You need to interact with people.

I mean, you just heard the story of a man that basically killed himself with loneliness

because of his choices.

It's your choice to be in community.

We're six weeks away from our launch of growth groups.

And God put on my heart that we're to launch 10 new groups this fall.

10.

And so far, we've targeted from the first service six.

So that means I need a minimum of four groups to come out of this gathering this morning.

And it doesn't matter if it's one person or a couple.

I want you to open your home up.

I want you to invite people in and I want you to build some relationships and speak

into people's eyes.

Well, Chris, I don't know how to teach about the Bible.

Good.

Because the Holy Spirit does.

And then suddenly you're going to be teaching people and sharing with people and going through

a devotional that will give you, that will empower you with.

And then you're like, oh my gosh, God is using me.

Because you guys didn't come here to hear the gospel of Chris, right?

Dude, please say right.

Because if you came here to hear me, you got problems.

Because I already shared I was a train wreck.

Okay?

Now you came here to hear God and I'll tell you week after week after week after week,

it's not me, it's God.

Man, you're a powerful speaker.

You got a gift.

Yeah, I got a gift.

God's given me a gift.

And what am I doing?

I'm tapping into the Holy Spirit, allowing him to use the gift that he's given me to

transform lives.

And you can do the same thing.

So I've marked you.

And if I happen to say something to you on your way out, don't say no, because you know

it's from God.

If I say I feel like God's calling you, call a good starter growth group.

Don't be like, uh-uh.

Just be like, okay, what do I do?

Which leads us to our final step.

Just point back to the source.

See, this is where we quite often get it wrong.

We think it's us.

And when we do it in our own strength, we always mess up.

Jesus continued in Matthew 5 16, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that

everyone will praise your heavenly father.

Our goal is not to bring recognition to me.

Our goal is not to bring recognition to this church.

Our goal is to bring recognition to Jesus.

That's it.

And does that mean we need to have a growing church with multiple services and a packed

room?

That's not what the corn right it is.

We will continue to grow and reach people because that's what God calls us to do.

Read the book of Acts.

There's a reason that 3000 were saved on that very day.

They counted because they want to know, God wants to know people is coming into his kingdom.

Who are you bringing in?

Who are you pointing to Jesus?

Who are you being the light to so that other people are transformed?

Or you allowing your your comfortability or your sin or your choices to just coast through

life.

Let me be honest with you, man.

That's not living abundantly.

Living abundantly is seeing lives transformed, seeing marriages healed, seeing, seeing Katniss

cancer destroyed, seeing drug addictions ended, seeing people set free.

And that's what God's calling us to do.

Will you stand with me this morning?

You know, I shared earlier, I don't care how old you are.

I don't care how young you are, how old you are.

I shared earlier that today could be a day that changes the very trajectory of your life.

And I mean that.

I meant that with all my heart.

Because I believe that if you take this outline and you apply it to your life over this next

year, guess what?

You will be radically different.

You will be radically different to the point where you're pointing so many people to Jesus

and living an abundant, overfilled, joyful life.

You'll be like the podpiper just leading people into this place.

Let me get on your trail.

I need a little bit of that Jesus thing.

But it's a choice, man.

Isn't it amazing that it comes down to that simple word, choice?

Sid Barrett had a choice.

He could have been one of the greatest musicians in the history of rock and roll.

But a lot of people didn't even know who he was because he chose death over life.

And this morning I'm challenging you.

Stop choosing death.

So right now, whatever it is that you chose this morning that you want most, I want you

to picture it in your mind right now.

Picture it.

Now, I'm going to pray the Holy Spirit empowers you with what you need to do next.

Holy Spirit, come.

God, you know what each and every person wrote down.

You know what they were thinking.

You know what they felt.

I pray right now you just reveal to them their next step, their next choice, that they begin

to lay out the groundwork for a life of abundance, that they will no longer settle for just coasting

through life, but they will choose abundance.

May this be the day where many of us change the very outlook of our lives so that Jesus

can be glorified.

I'm thankful, God, for what you're doing in this place this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, if we could all go to that place of prayer, you know, I'm not going to share a message

like this without saying, hey, I'm just being honest here.

Some of you are here this morning and you've walked away from God.

Some of you right now are weeping on the inside, maybe even tearing up because you know God's

calling you home.

You're home, man.

You're supposed to be here.

And if you haven't began that relationship with Jesus yet this morning or you walked away

from him, no one's looking around.

I'm not going to bring you up front here where the Holy Spirit is.

I'm not going to ask you where your name or anything like that.

But I am going to say if you're here this morning and you need to recommit or you haven't

made that commitment yet, just slip your hand up right now so that we can all pray together.

Is there anybody here?

No one looking around.

This is a personal thing.

Yes, Lord.

Come Holy Spirit.

You know, we all pray together.

This is a family in this place.

We all pray these words together.

Jesus, I'm a broken person.

Full of sin, doubt, shame, negativity.

I believe you died for me.

I believe your God son who rose to new life.

Change me.

Fill me with your spirit.

Overwhelm me with your love.

Empower me to change others.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now listen, again, if you prayed that prayer, you know the deal.

Change me to 9700 because we want to pray for you this week.

We want to follow up and just let you know that you're loved and appreciated.

Let me be honest with you, man.

Hasn't this last month just been amazing?

Like summer jams has just jammed out at HCV and I'm just thankful for the worship team,

for everybody that had their hand in it because I tell you what, it's a challenge, right?

It's a challenge.

You're like, yeah, it's a challenge.

It's a challenge.

Listen, I didn't choose those songs someone else did.

I had to put a sermon to them.

All right?

It's a challenge.

Let me be honest with you.

So I'm just thankful that we're able to pull this off, that we're able to do this.

And let me tell you something.

It's going to come back bigger and better next summer.

And I'm already looking forward to it.

All right.

So can you give a round of applause to our worship team, to all those involved?

There's no impossible.

I believe that you are working now.

So pour it out.

Pour it out