Freedom | Two Choices

Good morning.

Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Jason.

I get the privilege of being pastor here.

And we are always uh honored that you would uh spend your Sunday with us.

And so at the end of the service, if this is your first time with us, we're gonna have some next steps for you.

But if you don't want to wait till the end of the service, there's always a uh a circle tap.

It's on the back uh the seat back in front of you.

You at any time you can go ahead and tap your phone on that and you can find out some more information about us.

But as always, we're honored that you're here.

If it's your first time, in fact, Church, can we put our hands together and just welcome everyone who's here with us for the first time?

Awesome.

We are starting a new series uh to this morning.

Um, this is this is something that we do uh only a handful of times throughout the year.

Um, yes, it's a new series, it's a little different than that.

It's a it's an intentional season of growth.

We're calling it our freedom series.

We've never done this before.

We've done series like this, and and essentially what we're doing is it's this unified experience.

And so there's there's a few ways that we're encouraging you to take advantage of that.

One is do what you're doing right now, which is be here, show up on a Sunday and and be a part of the weekend experience with us.

And so good job with that.

Um, then the next thing you can do is out here in the lobbies is you can grab a guide.

If you haven't picked up one of these group guides, um make sure that you do that.

They're$15 out there.

Listen, if$15 is a problem for you, and that's no problem, just let them know.

We we always end up giving tons away every every time we do one of these, anyway.

And so that's no problem.

And so, but make sure you grab one.

In fact, today, I forgot to tell the first service folks this, but um, so you guys, I'm gonna tell you.

Today, um, we're gonna dive into week one in here, and it's a bunch of fill-in-the-blanks in this book.

And so, anyway, you're getting all of that this morning.

And so, if you don't have your books, that's okay.

It's also on the app, and so you can go back to there and you can find all the information there.

But grab a guide.

This the third step is get in a group, and we're gonna we'll talk more about that at the end of the service.

And I know a lot of you have taken that step, super proud of you.

And um, my expectations are high through this series.

I really they really are.

They're high for a couple reasons.

One, because we've done this before, because we've we've taken the an intentional season of growth where we are where we're gathered together, we're we're going through the same material, we're talking about the same things, and and and it happens every season we do that.

There's there's new relationships that are born out of it, and we take steps and we grow spiritually, and that happens across the board.

And and I know that this time and this season over the next 10 weeks will not be any different.

But I'm also I'm also really excited because this is a series that has been honestly years in the making, and I and I'm I'm eager to jump into this because I know for a lot of us, for many of us, we've been following Jesus for a long time, whether that's just a few years or a couple decades or more, and yet there's more, there's like more freedom for us.

And I believe that that's what's what we're gonna step into over these next 10 weeks.

And and at the end of this, uh, toward the end of October, we're gonna have a weekend conference for everyone who has been participating in groups.

It's gonna culminate in a Friday, Saturday weekend conference experience.

And as we get closer to that, we will tell you more about that and kind of roll that out to you.

You know, as we go through these next 10 weeks, a few things are going to happen.

Um I believe that as you as you commit to engage all the way with this series, I think that you will grow relationally.

I think, I think you'll grow spiritually.

But you know, here's the thing about growth.

Growing, growing isn't always comfortable.

Growth, growth is, growth oftentimes comes with a challenge.

I have no doubt that as we go through this series, some of us are gonna be challenged through this series.

We're gonna be challenged to think differently than what we've been used to thinking.

We're gonna be challenged to reconsider perhaps some habits or a way of life that's maybe different than the way of life that Jesus is calling us to.

And it's gonna come with, it's gonna come with a challenge, it's gonna come with some growth.

But here's the other thing I believe it's gonna come with.

I believe it's gonna come with some some real encouragement.

I believe that it's gonna come with some hope, some encouragement that that believe it or not, that God actually has far more for your life than you are currently experiencing.

I believe that.

I don't just believe that because I want to believe that, I believe that because that's what the Bible tells us.

That it isn't just growth for the sake of growth, it's actually there's actually a life that Jesus has for you, and it's it's better than what you are currently experiencing.

And I believe my hope and my prayer through this series is that we begin to tap into that.

This is the way Jesus said it.

This is John 10, verse 10.

John 10:10

He said it this way He says, I've come that they, that's you and me, may have life and have it to the full.

That we would have life and have it to the full.

So here's what we're saying as we go through this series.

Freedom series, freedom is about the life that God has for you.

That's what we're gonna talk about.

For 10 weeks, the life that God actually has for you.

Now, when you read this, when you read a verse like this, Jesus has come that you and I would have life and have it to the full, it almost sounds like in this hand, Jesus has a life that he's preparing for you, a life that he has prepared for you.

In fact, the Bible is really clear.

I mean, there's a lot of things that are in this, even the good works that you and I would do, like he's planned those for us.

And not just life as in the life that gets by, but he said life to the full, almost like a life that like I would I would like.

I would like that life to the full.

But it's almost like it's almost like he has it, and and it's a life that you and I have to find a way to figure out how do we receive that.

But that's not, let's be honest, that's not what life usually feels like.

Life feels like this other hand.

If that's the life that we receive, this over here, this is the life that we make for ourselves.

And that's usually what life feels like right there.

The life we the life we make for ourselves.

Um I mean, for I think, I believe for nearly all of us here, I think it's I think we're making decisions based on the limited information that we have with the experiences that we've had up to this point in our life, and we're doing the best we know how to do.

It's the life that we're making for ourselves, and there's attention here, the life that we, the life Jesus has, and the life that we make for ourselves based on what makes sense to us.

Years ago, over 20 years ago now, I remember I um would have been after my first year in college or during it was probably during that year, and and I needed some money, and so I got connected with a guy who would do a bunch of dirt work, and so he invites me, says, I got a job, it'd take us the whole weekend.

You come over, you can do this work with me.

It sounds great, you know.

So we do this whole dirt work job, and and um, and we we spent all day with him.

We're coming to the end of the day, and he we're it's about time to wrap up, and and he looks at me and he says, Now, Jason, do you know how to drive a stick shift?

And what I really heard him say was more like, Are you a man?

That's really what I heard when he said that to me.

So I was kind of like, you know, like, yeah, I know I'm a man, you know, don't question my manhood, you hear, you know, like of course I know how to drive a stick shift, and and uh, and so you know, I'm all in, you know.

I didn't say that out loud, but I'm pretty sure if I did, he'd looked at me like I was an idiot.

Like, what are you what are you talking about?

He just wants to know if I could drive the truck, you know.

But but I been uh it's my manhood, is what I feel like.

And so so then, so then he he says, I'm thinking, yeah, of course, I can't.

What do you want me to drive, you know, your pickup truck or something, you know, back to the what place we came.

What do you want me to do?

And and see, and and so he looks at me and he goes, That's that's great.

I'm I'm glad that you you know how to do that.

And he says, he doesn't point to his pickup truck, he points to this giant dump truck that he wants me to drive.

I'm like, oh, okay.

See, and I had a moment right there.

I could, I could have like, you know, because here's what he didn't know.

Here's what he didn't know is that I'm telling him I can do this.

What he doesn't know is I have less than 45 minutes of experience in my friend's like 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

That's like that's my stick shift experience.

And and honestly, the only reason I knew how to drive that is because I went to college and I remember my friend had a stick shift, and I just remember hitting the car with it, and I just realized I I no one told me this, but in my head, I just thought, I'm not, I'm I'm still a boy, I'm still not a man yet because I don't even know how to drive this car.

And uh as I said, hey, listen, brother, you got to teach me how to drive your teenage girl car because that's what that's what that was.

You know, by the way, I can say that because I drive one now.

I drive this dinky little Nissan Centro.

Basically, what it means is that if the wind blows more than 15 miles an hour, it's a threat to everybody's life on the highway.

So your car could go here or there at any moment.

So this light, this dinky little lightweight car, and uh, and so he teaches me back to the back to the story, drive the dump truck.

And I had a moment, do I tell him?

I was like, no, no, no, because because there's a story I'm telling myself, right?

My manhood is in question here.

So I'm like, yeah, I got this.

You know, says great.

I need you, you know, a mile down the road, two miles.

No, I need you to drive it to the other side.

This is a big city, by the way, the other side of town to a suburb on the other side of town.

Rush hour traffic, seven-lane highway, it's like standstill traffic, okay?

And I'm just in there, you know, just like air breaks, the whole thing.

I'm like, I don't even know.

I have no idea what I'm doing, you know.

I'm just winging it.

I'm not gonna tell you how the story ended, really.

That's uh that's I'll save that for later.

I'm here.

You do know that.

So you got you get that part.

He survived, but I I had all these moments.

I could tell him.

Do I tell him?

You know, I all these little crossroad moments, but I don't.

I don't tell him.

I just keep doing I just I keep doing what makes sense to me based on the story I believe is true about what driving a stick shift actually means, and and therefore I I put everybody's life in danger.

And there we go.

But that's what it normally looks like.

That's normally what what life looks like.

I I see the path that makes sense to me, or and and then I and then I take it, or or I I hear the voice of my shepherd, and then I and I follow.

That these are the two patterns.

By the way, I didn't just make this up.

This is the this is a story, arch uh story of the Bible.

This is humanity.

We're stuck between two choices.

Now, I don't mean two choices as in to to pretend like life is so simple that it's always just a right or wrong decision all the time.

No, life's good life can be complicated.

But at the end of the day, when it comes to following the Jesus way, there's nuance to that at times, but it really comes down to am I gonna see and take the path that makes sense to me, or am I gonna hear and follow him, even if it doesn't make sense to me?

These are the two choices.

In fact, we're gonna go to Genesis chapter three.

If you have your Bibles, we'll go there in just a moment.

This is a story, this is we see this at the beginning of the Bible.

Now, we've spent a lot of time in Genesis as a church.

And the book of Genesis, especially those those first few chapters, so many times we approach them like cute childhood stories about who are the major characters and who is in the garden and how many animals and how did that work?

And we we just sort of like look at it, and we just like tell these like kind of cute childhood stories.

Felt characters.

Anybody grew up in the felt character dance?

When I was a kid, that's what it was.

It was felt character boards.

You slap them up there, that's how it was.

It's bigger than that though.

It what it what it is, is it's telling you a larger story about how you and I got to where we are right now.

It's telling you, it's telling you a much bigger story about how humanity got to be the way that it is.

It's giving you, it's giving you the bones, it's giving you the framework, it's giving you some insight into how it is that we tend to make decisions and live our life.

And so here we are in Genesis 3, and God's made humanity and Adam and Eve, and they're in the garden, and it's everything's great, and they got jobs and they've got vision for their lives and their friendship, and they got they've got that they're married, it's like this, it's this thing, and it's working.

And then Genesis 3 shows up, and here we'll pick up verse 1.

It says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

By the way, that's a whole nother story.

Talking snakes, anyway, that's a whole other thing.

Verse 2 The woman said to the serpent, We have we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.

Verse 4, you will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman.

For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the fruit by the way, see if you can pick up the pattern.

Maybe you can see it, it's pretty blatant right here.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it.

There's the pattern.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fiddle together and they made coverings for themselves.

Now, normally when when people read this story, I've even heard it preached this way.

I I it usually gets it usually gets told some variation of God drops two people in a garden and he and he puts them to the test.

And if you pass this test, then you'll have eternal life.

And if you fail this test, you'll have eternal death.

And we just sort of assume that that's what the story's about, and we never really bother to think.

It's like, but what if I did that to my kids?

You ever think about that?

There, here I'm gonna put a poisonous tree in it, and I'm gonna send my kids out into the playground and I'm gonna tell them, now don't eat that tree.

And then if they eat the tree, then they die.

But if they don't, then they get to live.

You'd be like, I'm calling the CPS.

That's what I'm gonna do.

We're gonna call the we're gonna call the police on you, you know.

Which is why I don't think that this is an accurate interpretation of the story.

I don't think that's what God is doing.

He's a good father.

You know, here's what God's really saying.

He's saying, This is a dangerous tree, right?

He puts a tree in there, says it's dangerous.

You go, well, why did he put the tree there in the first place?

I don't know.

I don't know why the tree's there.

In fact, the Bible doesn't say why that tree is there.

We just know that it is there, and God's like, hey, it's dangerous, don't eat it, it will kill you.

Now it's very similar to what I do with my kids right now.

So, you know, I've got five.

With the first four, we never locked the cabinet under the sink.

They all survived, they're all they're all thriving.

Even though the chemicals are pretty, they smell good, you know, it's very attractive, but it's like, don't drink that, it will kill you.

You know, that would that will kill you.

Now, the fifth one came along, and it's funny, you know.

I always think, you know, when you get to like kid three and four, you're like, I feel like I got this parenting thing figured out, you know.

And then you have the next kid and you realize I don't have any idea what I'm doing.

Anyway, that's at least what you feel like.

And so then the fifth one came along, and I'm just like, he ain't nothing like the other ones.

He's just like his, he's crazy.

You know, he just like he climbs everything, he does whatever you want, he's crazy, okay?

So we decided, let's put lock, let's put a lock on this kid.

I feel like a lock is appropriate for this fifth kid.

He's crazy and so.

But you said, Don't drink the chemicals, they will, they will kill you.

That's a more accurate telling.

Serpent comes along.

The serpent comes along and he says, No, no, no, it's a good tree.

Because, like he would say to my son, he'd say, Don't you say mom and dad, they're using the chemicals and they they got access, but you don't have access.

It's a good tree.

You gotta eat it, you'll be just like God.

Now, now, if you if you're familiar with your Bible and you've read this story before, you probably go, Well, they were already like God.

They were made in his image, and that's true, sort of.

They were made in his image, but they're not like God.

Not like this, anyway.

Because he is still God and he's the creator, and you and I are still the created, and we're not like God in this way, because he it's not just you'll be like God, it's like you'll be like God and you'll know good and evil, meaning you'll be like God, and now you get to determine for yourself what's right and good and beautiful and true and the right path to take for your life.

You'll know.

That's what he's saying.

Eat it, and then you get to, you get to finally call the shots for your own life.

Now, I'm just gonna go on a limb and I'm gonna guess that the times in our lives when we're faced with these two choices of what path to take, the the the conversation that a talking snake is having with Eve is probably not the language we're usually using about which way to go with our life.

That's not that's that common language, but it does come out in its own way.

It usually comes out with this like sense of like, hey, I know God said that, but I think in it time we can we we can all be adults here, right?

We can kind of grow up, can't we?

Like that's a little bit childish, isn't it?

Can we can we just be adults and thinking about it like adults?

We can kind of grow up.

Remember, that's for the felt characters in Sunday school, and that's great.

And God said it's like, yeah, I know, but we were kids, but now we're adults.

Think about the cultural response to sex and sexuality.

That's pretty much the narrative around that.

It's like your churchy Jesus Bible ways were great, and I'm sure they make great grandma really happy that you would follow the Jesus way, but we can kind of all grow up, can't we?

We're all adults here, aren't we?

Do you see that?

He just kind of flips it on its head a little bit.

Now, here's the tension because we all every one of us, every one of us, at some point or another, have taken the path of what seems right to me, and then take the path that makes sense based on my own understanding.

We've all done it.

We've all been there, we've all we've all taken that path at one time or another, or maybe even more currently on that path right now, and now there's a tension that builds that's created when you do that.

And it's this tension between my heart and my obedience.

This is again, God didn't create this tension, we created this tension when we choose our own way.

It usually goes something like this.

You know, for those of us, maybe maybe we find ourselves in that predicament and we and we might we might say something like this well, you know what?

Nobody's perfect.

Nobody, nobody's perfect, nobody's nobody's gonna get it all right.

I mean, after all, have you read the Bible?

It's a lot of stuff in there, and nobody's perfect, and so and then we go, listen, I'm uh me and God are are good.

Nobody God doesn't expect me to be perfect.

Me and God are good, He knows my heart.

Cool, you you don't have to raise your hand, but y'all know you don't know who you said that.

You say that, okay.

We say that stuff.

God knows my heart, but then you go to the other side, there's another group.

I got the the the God knows my heart, therefore I have a little bit of permission and an excuse to sort of kind of live my life my way, and then you go to the other ditch, and there's those that get all wrapped up in our obedience.

Oh, I follow the rules, and I know what good Christians do, and I certainly know what good Christians don't do, right?

That's usually the crowd Jesus was always having to navigate.

That really religious leader kind of crowd.

It looked like this.

This is Matthew 22.

He, one of those religious leaders, they came to him, an expert in the law, and they tested him with a this question.

And it's not like religious people still religious people don't do this anymore, just in the Bible times.

Yeah, right.

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

They dare they think they got him with this one because there's a lot of laws.

No, I would surely he we've thought about this.

I doubt Jesus has.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and your mind, and this is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

He just flips that on its head, they don't even know what to say in this moment.

It's an incredible moment because he doesn't just say, he doesn't just address their behavior, he also addresses their heart all at the same time.

There's almost this sense he's addressing a group of people that think that somehow it all just comes down to whether you keep the rules.

And he flips it on its head, he flips it on its head.

See, they do stuff like this.

See, they They've elevated their own rules above God's law.

That's what they've done in this moment.

They've elevated their own rules above God's law.

It looks something like this.

I've got, I've already told you, I got a one-year-old, and then I also got a four-year-old.

And we'll tell the one-year-old, we'll say, we'll say things like, now, Walker, you're not going to go outside.

We're not going outside.

You're going to stay inside.

And then the four-year-old hears that.

And now she thinks that that's like we've laid hands on her, prophesied over her life, and has said, you are now the mother of this one-year-old.

That's what she thinks, anyway.

And so she just like takes it on herself, and she's just like, Here comes Walker.

He grabs his shoes and she's like, No, we are not going outside.

You know, it's like he's just grabbing his shoes.

You know, he's one, you know.

He looks over there, he comes over to the window, he starts hitting.

No, no, no, we are not going outside.

You can't even don't touch the window.

We're not going outside.

You know, then they're playing, then he's playing with his toys and he looks up, looks out the window.

It's like, no, don't even look out the window.

Don't even look out there.

Mom and dad said, You are not going outside.

It's like, yeah, but he can't, right?

You can look out the window.

But we you can you can even put your shoes on if you want.

He's one, you know.

But we but we make up our own rules because we go see, because you know what, you know what she you know what she usually says to me, my four-year-old, after she does that, she looks up and she goes, I'm a good sister.

That's what she said.

I'm a good sister.

I'm like, you are a good sister, you're a good religious pharisaical sister.

No, no, just they'll learn, you know, they'll learn.

But she says that because she thinks that her obedience is gonna make her accepted.

That and that's what our religiosity does.

Can let me be honest with you, let me be straight with you.

Here it is.

God isn't after your obedience without your heart.

God isn't after your heart without your obedience.

God is after an obedience that comes from your heart.

That's different.

That's a that comes from a different place.

I'll give you some distinctions and see how this sort of plays out in our lives.

This is Romans chapter 10, verse 9.

Romans 10:9

He said, look how the writer of Romans says this.

He says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

Well, that's that's power, that is good news right there.

I mean, that's that's a that's a pretty concise sentence right there.

Like put your hope and your trust and your faith in Jesus and you'll be saved.

Now, we usually have a different way we do this.

We go, we we have our way, and then there's God's way, and our way tends to go, yeah, but you got to do something.

You got to do something.

And God's going, no, Jesus did everything.

And again, you got to do something.

This is this is the rules we make.

This is the stuff that we add to our faith.

This is the part of us that goes, that goes, yeah, yeah, I get that.

But you know what?

Um, you know, we we measure, we measure the the health of our relationship, our spirituality, based on whether we're keeping this sort of unspoken three or four or five or six rules that we've sort of put in place to sort of like, you know, because I know I'm just not supposed to go outside, but I just don't even want to look at the window, right?

So we just start creating arbitrary rules in our life.

Well, I, you know, I, you know, I've been a Christian for a while, and so I know that all good Christians don't fill in the blank.

We get super moralistic.

We start projecting that on the people around us.

Well, I know I a good Christians, if you're a real good Christian, you'll definitely do this.

Fill in the blank.

And it's just and it becomes things where Jesus, I think Jesus is gonna look at us and he's going, I never, I never said that.

I think this I didn't say that.

Well, why why you why are you telling him he's new to this?

Why are you telling that?

You don't again, our way tends to be we got to do something.

Jesus goes, No, I've already done everything.

Look at this, Romans 5.8.

Here's another one.

He says, God demonstrates his own love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now, this is a tough one because I think we have to be honest with ourselves.

There, I mean, it it sometimes it's hard, it's hard to even like yourself.

There's some of you that you don't even get good sleep at night because from time to time you'll start reeling about decisions that you made years ago and how you could have done that differently, and how a different life would be today had you done things differently, and that just torments you.

It's hard to even like yourself sometimes because you have this vision and this version of yourself that you that you want to project and want to be true, and then you do things and you're like, I am not that person, and it's hard to even like yourself, and so when and then then a God comes along and he goes, and and see that that's the part of us that feels like we got to earn God's love, that's our way.

And then God comes along and he goes, Oh no, no, no, I actually loved you, I loved you from the beginning, and and that that just becomes I I I would imagine there's a some of you right here in the room, it's just falling on deaf ears right now, you know.

It just sort of like it doesn't even land because the idea that God loves you has become so cliche that God loves you, but He does.

I can't tell you how many pastoral counseling appointments I've sat in, and I've had somebody sit across from me and I usually open up the same way I always do, just you know, hey, what can I do for you today?

And they look at me and they just go, you know, I just pastor, I just need a little bit of input.

I just need some, I just need a little bit of advice because truth is is like I'm I'm in a bit of a mess right now, but I got myself into this, and so I'm gonna take responsibility, I'm gonna get myself out of this.

It's I gotta get myself out of this.

I hear it.

I mean, honestly, too many times.

I don't even know.

I hear it all the time.

Could I can I be real with you?

Um, we all got ourselves in all of our messes for the most part.

Welcome to life.

It's like, oh, Jesus came to save me from the messes I didn't actually make for myself.

No, he came to save you from those messes.

Like that's the stuff he came to save you from.

He saves you from yourself.

It's like, well, you know what?

My life would be really good, and Jesus wouldn't, maybe he wouldn't even had to die for me had it not been for those great, great, great, you know, fill in the blank parents down the way back when, because I I inherited the sin, and had it not been for them, then I would be okay.

And it's like, well, yeah, you did inherit that, but at the same time, it's like, trust me, you made it, you made up for it on your own.

Because we all ended up doing the same thing.

I saw the path that made sense to me based on my own understanding, and I took that path.

It's like, yeah, listen, you don't you you and I we're not earning his love.

He already loves us, he died for you.

Like why but listen, while you and I were his enemies, not when you were ignoring him, not when you were on the fence with him, when you hated him, when every fiber of your being didn't want anything to do with him, he died for you anyway.

He died for you.

Okay, you don't have to earn it.

Here's another one, first John 5 3.

This, I mean, I'm I'm just I'm trying to give you some distinctions here as to what these choices look like in our life, our way and God's way.

1 John 5 3.

In fact, this is love to keep his commandments.

And now, if you for some of us, we might read that and we feel like, oh man, there it is.

Do follow the rules, follow the rule.

That's what we're hearing.

But look what he says.

He says, Oh, his commandments are not burdensome.

Well, that's a little, that's probably a little bit of a different way of thinking about it.

I mean, you read the Bible and you're just like, this is a lot of rules.

All the do's and the see what he's getting at here, he's getting down to motivation.

What God asks of us is not a lot.

It's really not.

I know we we because we don't approach our relationship with him like a relationship, we approach it differently.

We feel like it's a lot.

It's not.

God doesn't actually ask a whole lot from us.

He asks for some humility.

He asks for, he asks for a willingness to listen, to follow, a humility, to go, you know what?

It's possible.

It's just it's possible.

This might be true, could be could be possible that he sees our life, past, present, and future, from from a perspective that you and I are incapable of even comprehending.

And it's just possible that he might know a pathway, the life he wants to give you.

He might know a pathway forward that in the current moment doesn't quite make sense to you.

I mean, just possible.

Just possible.

See, this comes down to motivation.

See, our our way says this let's obey out of fear.

And then God's way goes, no, no, I want you to obey out of love.

See, this is this is motivation.

So you you you and I, we will move toward that which we believe.

We will we are motivated by what we believe.

And and if you have a corrupted and incorrect perspective on the character of God, it's going to change your motivation for what it means to actually follow the Jesus way in your life.

It will change that.

This is motivation.

If you believe that God is a judge in the sky, ready to hit you over the head with his gavel every time you mess up, it's going to change the way you approach God.

No wonder you don't want to talk about him.

No wonder you don't even want to talk about Jesus.

No wonder it's so uncomfortable.

See, it reveals something in us or motivations.

It reveals to us what we actually believe about God.

Obey out of fear versus obeying out of love.

And I'll I'll tell you that here's we're gonna I'm gonna give you four responses.

Not just for us this morning, how we how to respond today, but also how we're just gonna choose today, how we're gonna respond over the next 10 weeks as we go through this series together.

We're gonna respond toward the challenges, the encouragement, the the course corrections that we're gonna, that we we're inviting the Spirit of God to make in our lives.

We're just gonna choose today.

How are how to respond?

How do I respond in light of what I'm hearing and and and what God is confronting me with?

And I and here's the first response.

Here's the first response is, and it sounds so easy, but it's this fall in love with Jesus.

Fall in love with Jesus.

Now that doesn't, maybe that doesn't sound too practical.

You're like, fall in love with Jesus.

Okay, this sounds like a pop song.

I don't know what this is.

But um but actually it's not that far disconnected, you know.

Just imagine for a second, somebody later today knocks on your door and they're just like, Hey, I'm your I'm your I'm like your great uncle, three times removed on your mother's side after they got divorced, and then they remarried, and that was me, and I didn't have any kids.

I don't know if that's a real thing or not, I just made that up.

But imagine that guy, that guy that you have no idea who he is, it knocks on your door and goes, Hey, listen, you don't know me, but uh you're I don't have any kids of my own.

And so you don't know this, but I've actually been saving and accumulating and building my own private empire.

And you know what?

I've since retired and I've just got about to I I decided to hand it all over to you.

It's worth millions.

Be like, whoo, brother better tithe.

No, I'm just that's not, but I know you'd be like, let's throw a party.

That's what you'd be saying.

You'd be like, that's amazing.

You don't even know this guy, but you're like, I love you.

That's a come on.

You will you'd be like, you might even build a shrine for this guy.

You'd be like, I don't, I known him for a few days.

This is what we've built to honor his memory because we're you'd be like losing your mind.

You'd be like, this is amazing.

I cannot believe that this guy did this for me.

It's amazing how easy it is to begin to conjure up a love for another person when you get a better revelation for what it is they've actually done for you.

And I'm telling you that you can fall in love with Jesus when you get that revelation.

You know, I for too many of us, Christianity is just this like rule keeping business.

It's a it's a fill, it's an exercise in like philosophical behavior.

It's about self-improvement and how I'm gonna live a better life.

It's good for the kids.

You know, after all, I didn't grow up like this, and so this will be good for them.

It just becomes this exercise in whether or not I can actually model my life after somebody that's worth modeling their life after.

And then that's the extent of it.

Can I just break it down for you?

See, that's that's not what this that's that's a rule-based, religiosity-based way of living.

Let me break down Christianity for you.

It's about a real person, a a real person who originally was the second person of the Trinity and embodied humanity and became the person of Jesus, living and breathing, and he lived, and he lived a perfect life.

And then he dies, and he dies because he absorbs all of our junk, all of our sin, all of our brokenness, all of it.

He absorbs it into himself, dies on a cross.

Listen, goes into a tomb, comes out of the grave, and then walks the earth for 40 days.

I'm talking about a real person, walks the earth for 40 days, and then ascends to the right hand of the Father, where to this day has his hands firmly on the wheel of the local church, even today.

That's who are serving.

When you can, when you can get your hands, your head wrapped around the fact that we're following a person, you'll find it a lot easier to fall in love with that person.

Here's the second response that we're gonna do.

We're gonna serve God through relationship, not rules.

Through relationship, not rules.

I I I was thinking about um Bethany when I when I wrote that down.

It's like I love my wife and I'm faithful to my wife.

I'm not faithful to my wife because I know the rules.

And if I'm not faithful to my wife, it's like I'm gonna break the rules, and then all hell's gonna break loose.

And that that would be bad news.

It's like, no, I'm faithful to my wife because I love my wife.

Right?

I'm I'm committed to my family because I love my family.

Right?

And and it's like, well, do you yeah, but you know the rules.

It's like I don't really even care what the that has that actually has nothing to do with it.

Do you see?

Do you see that?

This is what this is what I'm saying.

If if you're if your version of Christianity isn't anything, is anything other than I follow the man who went into the grave and came out of the grave, I follow the guy who came back from the dead, if your version of Christianity is anything other than that, this won't make a lot of sense to you.

So it's relationship, not rules.

Now, here's the thing.

If you if you make it about rules, if you do make it about rules, and which we all kind of tend to do that, right?

Especially the longer you do this, we tend to do that from time to time.

Because we like structure.

We like that.

But if you make it about rules, you you'll find yourself battling things like condemnation.

In fact, you'll feel a deep sense of shame and condemnation because you'll come up with rules and you don't even realize they're rules until you start feeling a sense of condemnation and shame come on you.

And it's just like, hold on a second.

That's not the Jesus way, that's the rule-based way.

In fact, that's what Romans 8 says.

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is none.

There is none.

Here's a third response: we're going to respond to all sin with repentance.

With repentance.

Now, let's be honest, that's not our first response all the time, is it?

With with repentance.

Usually the response goes like, Well, who do you think you are?

That's usually the response.

Oh, oh, I there we we're your friends, we're your community group, um, and we just noticed that that you've begun to make a habit of you know filling the blank.

And we just thought, we just thought, man, are you aware?

We thought, man, I think God's calling you to a higher way of thinking and living and behaving and modeling your life.

And I just, you know, and then you're like, well my goodness, what like like you're perfect or something?

Like that that becomes the standard.

It's like perfection.

I was like, oh, okay.

What you're saying is that nobody gets to speak into your life.

That's what we're that's what we're saying.

No, we're gonna respond with repentance.

Do you know why?

Did you know that did you know this?

The Bible says that when you correct a wise person, he loves you.

Think about this.

Not not correct a wise person and they'll go, well, you know, that's that's an interesting point that you make there.

I think I'll go ahead and maybe I'll write that.

I'll take that into account.

I'll pray about that this this week.

I, you know, haven't really thought about it quite like that.

I'll think about it.

No, no, no, no.

They love you for it.

That's wise people.

Correct a fool and they hate you.

Why?

Because there's a life that God is offering you.

And it's life to the full.

And there are ways that we have chosen to follow our own path based on our own understanding.

And when we have moments where we're confronted with those ways that are counter to his ways, listen, let's be wise people.

Let's be people who love Jesus.

Let's be people who are not, who are, who are about the relationship, about following the one who came back from the grave.

Let's let's be those kind of people.

And it's like, oh, you're right.

Let's respond to all sin with repentance.

You're right.

I'm going the other way.

Here's the last one.

Here's the last response.

We're gonna guard our hearts.

Guard your heart.

Guard your heart.

Guard your heart.

You know, this one normally comes up, the response like this usually comes up with we we feel this when we feel like when we feel pain, feel pain points.

Maybe somebody does confront us.

Maybe we find ourselves in a moment where we were honest and we feel like somebody's throwing that back in our face, and we feel like yeah, oh yeah, we feel like, oh man, I I just gotta do a better job.

I gotta guard my heart.

I I put myself out there, and then somebody just punched my heart right in the face.

It hurts.

I don't like this.

I gotta guard my heart.

I was honest, I was open, I gotta guard my heart.

That's not what it means.

It's not what it means.

Hardening your heart to avoid pain is not the same thing as guarding your heart against corruption, against corruption.

The Bible's really clear the things that get us, the things that rob us of the life that God has for us, the things that the things that cause us to go sideways and wayward in our life are not things that come from outside of us.

It comes from inside of us.

So guarding your heart isn't about like, oh, we're we're good if we can just keep the big bad world out of here.

No, that's actually not true.

It's us.

And we gotta guard our, we guard our hearts.

We we we we we guard our hearts against the things we we guard our hearts by by by guarding what gets our attention, by guarding what what we think and what we're dwelling on, and what we're what we're meditating on, and what we're prioritizing.

And these are all things that we do to sort of guard our hearts.

I'll say this, I know it's we're going back to school.

A lot of our kids are back in school right now.

And I and I talk to parents who have a lot of anxiety about the fact that maybe your kids going to public school this year, maybe for the first time.

Maybe your kids go to school just in general for the first time.

And I know for parents we have some anxiety at times, and it's like, I feel like I feel like I'm sending my kids to the wolves.

Not no, my kids are in public school, I'm not calling the wolves, but you've you're following me.

But that's because that's what we feel like, right?

We feel that emotionally.

Can I just tell you you can parent through all that?

You know, I can tell you why you can parent through all that, and you don't you can reject the fear, you can reject the anxiety.

Because I'm just telling you right now, the things that are gonna corrupt our kids are not the things that just come from the outside and they somehow found their way and they got into our kids.

No, it's in them, and we can parent through that.

I hope you see that.

Guard our hearts.

We're gonna fall in love with Jesus, we're gonna serve God through relationship, not rules.

We're gonna respond with repentance, we're gonna guard our hearts.

And and I'll end with this right here.

When when you when you go, I want to choose the Jesus way.

Can I I will tell you that that's a challenge, it's a challenge.

To follow Jesus even when it doesn't make any sense.

It really is.

And the idea that you're just going to do it on your own and you don't need anybody and you're just going to do it by yourself, you're fooling yourself.

Which is why for some of you, you are in a roller coaster of like, it's like a spiritual roller coaster.

I'm good and I'm not good.

I'm good and I'm not good.

I'm good, I feel depressed.

I'm good, I feel like, I feel like Jesus does like abandoned me.

Like we just go through these rolls.

It's like when you're doing it by yourself, it's it's that's a hard way.

There are rhythms and habits that God wants to invite us to as we go through these 10 weeks.

And not just stuff that you do on your own and ways that you live your life on your own.

No, no, no, no.

It's meant to be done in community with other people.

I mean, with people who can look at you and you can go, you can be honest with where you're at, and you can have somebody next to you, and they can go, you know what?

I realize the things you're being challenged to don't make sense, but but I did that.

And guess what?

It does make sense.

It does work out.

Jesus is in that.

And then maybe you sit next to somebody else and they just go, you know what?

I agree.

But I didn't do it.

I decided to do it my own way, and it didn't work out so well.

And here I am, we're all together now, and encouraging each other, spurring one another on, like building each other up.

And it's amazing.

I'm just telling you, you do it alone, you'll quit.

We all do.

We quit when we're alone.

You do it with other people.

You can run your race, you can do this, you can do this.

We can do it the Jesus way.

Let's pray.

Father, we need your help.

We need your help.

We want we want to follow your way.

We want to we want to do things your your way.

We do.

We want the life that you say that you have prepared for us, the life that's to the full.

We want that.

We want that life.

But if we're honest, the pathway doesn't always make the most sense.

It's not always convenient.

In fact, it usually feels pretty inconvenient at times.

So we need help.

By your spirit, we need help to see clearly, to see clearly, to understand better.

To to have courage.

Courage to follow you when it's hard.

We need that.

Some of us in here, you haven't even crossed the line of faith.

You've been on the fence about Jesus.

You've been on the fence about following him, about the whole Christianity thing in general.

And you're you're just sort of you're on the fence.

And and I there's a moment though, there is a moment where we go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow him.

And I'll and I'll I'll be really honest with you.

Following Jesus isn't about knowing your Bible from cover to cover and knowing everything it says and understanding.

No, no.

It's what I said earlier.

It is about following the person who died for you and came back from the dead.

That's what Christianity is.

It's following him.

And so I'm gonna encourage you that if you haven't crossed that line of faith this morning and you've been questioning, you're wondering why this is your moment.

This season of freedom over these next 10 weeks is for you as it is as much as it is for everybody else in here.

And so I'm gonna encourage you to make this moment the moment and to commit your way and your life to him.

Surrender your life to Jesus.

And for the rest of us, I think it's inappropriate from time to time to just go, you know what?

I'm I'm recommitting, I'm reaffirming the commitment I've made to follow him, the covenant I have had with him for some of us years and decades.

I think in this moment we can all just take a moment and reaffirm that.

And for those of you that haven't done it before, maybe even for the first time, and so make this prayer your own.

Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I don't, I may not even understand all of it, but I do believe this.

I believe that I can't do it on my own.

I believe that my way has been a broken way, my way has been a faulty way.

And so I choose to trust your way moving forward.

I trust you that you died for my sins, all my brokenness, you died, and you came back from the dead.

And even though I don't understand all there is to know and understand about Christianity right now, I do choose this.

I choose to follow you.

I choose to give you my way.

I choose to be humble.

I commit to come to you with open hands and open heart, ready to be changed, transformed.

I give you my life and I thank you for saving me, for changing me and making me more like you.

I thank you that I can trust you with my whole life.

I give you my, I give you my whole life moving forward.

I love you, we love you, we love you.

And I pray one more time, I'll pray one more time for all of us here.

As we commit these next 10 weeks to you, Father, we trust you.

We trust you, and we and we expect and we and we're asking that for all of us here that our lives would change in a dramatic and tangible way over these next 10 weeks.

That things that we have carried with us, would you teach us and show us how to finally release some of these things and let these things go?

Would you, would you turn a new leaf and turn a turn the page in our life so that we can begin to walk in a freedom that we've only, that we've only even thought about, maybe not even thought about, a level of freedom we have at least, at the very least, never experienced before.

Would you show us?

Would you make that known to us?

And we trust you, we love you.

And it's in your name we pray.

Everybody says, Amen, amen.

Come on, put our hands together, tell Jesus thank you.