Engage Part 1 I Pastor Joshua Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh, we'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I wanna thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, I said, how many thankfully for what God did in the year 2025?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we believe that 2026 is even going to be better.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the church says, Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you will, grab your Bible, go to James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: James chapter 4, while you're turning there, we're going to be beginning this new series this morning.

James 4 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes at the beginning of the year, or really leading into the beginning of the year, we really start praying and just seeking what we feel like God is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: to us as a people, as a company, as a church body, for this year, and the more that I prayed and kind of sought the Lord and the more I would just kind of had those like three moments of quiet reflection that I got in December.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_00]: In those few moments I got I kept hearing the same word that just rolled in my spirit again and again and again and again and that word was engaged, somebody say engaged.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe this is a prophetic word.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a now word for us in the year, 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: The God is calling us out of complacency, and He's calling us into a place of radical pursuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's calling us off of the sidelines.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's calling you off of the bench.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I got real quiet already.

[SPEAKER_00]: That He's eliminating our excuses.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's calling us to engage in a fresh and in a new way in the year, 2026 to engage God with every fiber of our being.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me put it this way that they're half-hearted way that you may have been living and gonna cut it anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't really even talk to Pastor Garrett a lot about this or any of the staff just because we were so busy very briefly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think Pastor Garrett's word on Wednesday night was so appropriate to lead in to what we're even talking about this morning is he began to talk about repent.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you need to start the year 2025 with just or 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get you to say an adventure.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to start in the year 2026 by repenting for our laxedasical attitude towards the Lord that we've had.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've thought showing up twice a month, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Voluntary, if it's easy for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, y'all wanted to talk to me just to shout this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to shout a little bit, but we got to get somewhere first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: She said y'all with me this morning, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We thought that was this version of Christianity that's like an a dendom to our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: right this version of of being a part of the church of Jesus that's in a didn't it's like an accessory to everything else well bless God I live in America and I got a nice house and I got a car and I got this and I got that and I you know go to the game and I do this and then if I've got time

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll find somewhere to squeeze in my Christianity.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is calling you out of that and to repent of that and to engage him in a new and in a fresh way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the weeks to come, we're gonna talk about engaging our families, we're gonna talk about engaging the church, we're gonna talk about engaging our community, but this all starts with us engaging God first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything starts with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't engage, the Lord will have no power to impact anything else.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't engage your family if you aren't engaging God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't engage with the body if you're not engaging with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't engage our community if we aren't engaging with the Lord first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything else will be like being a hamster on the wheel with a lot of activity but no forward motion because our priorities are out of alignment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this first Sunday of the year, God, I believe, is confronting any lukewarmness that may have been in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't coast into the year 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to run hard after God's presence and his purpose like we never have before.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is sounding a wake-up call to his people and to the church today, pursue me with everything inside of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: James chapter four verse eight, probably familiar to a lot of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says this, drawn near to God,

[SPEAKER_00]: and he will draw near to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it goes on to say, this, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are two different statements.

[SPEAKER_00]: C cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just, this is gonna come out of how it comes out today, so just,

[SPEAKER_00]: Buckle up, we're just gonna go where we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a lot of times we think because our hands have been cleansed as sinners that we've done everything we need to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's some of us that our hands have been cleansed as sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many you washed in the blood of Jesus this morning, amen?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many redeemed, how many you saved?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many you know, bought by the blood, amen?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many the power of death and hell has been ripped off of your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been cleansed, but some of us have still living in a double-minded manner.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been cleansed of our sins, but we haven't purified our hearts and we're living in a double-minded way because we think we can have one foot in and one foot out We think we can pursue God when it's easy and whenever we feel like it and then whenever we don't feel like it We don't have to and that's not the way this works Persuit is constant Persuit is continual

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been saved for a week or if you've been saved for 50 years, you should still be pursuing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should still be going after him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should still be engaging him.

[SPEAKER_00]: As my fact, the longer you're saved, the more you should engage him, because you have more to be thankful for.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's more that he's done for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen his goodness, listen, history should cause you to engage more, not less.

[SPEAKER_00]: History should cause you to engage more, not less.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I this year, we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in July.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's crazy, so about our 20th wedding anniversary.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I love her more, and I'm not just saying this to get brownie points, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Although if it does, bonus, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I love her more in the year 2026 than I did in the year 2006.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, one reason for that, well, one is she just gets more beautiful every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is for brownie points, but I am also serious.

[SPEAKER_00]: One reason is this, we have a shared history.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been through some things together, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We have this history that's with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with God, whenever you've served and for a long time, you've got some history that should cause you to love him more, not less.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're getting bored with God, you don't know the God that I serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just kind of bored with all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I don't know who you're discovering, but it's not your hope of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because whenever you really begin to discover him more, you become more enamored and more engaged, not less so.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: God's promises is if you make a move towards Him, He makes a move towards us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it says in James, Drone here to God, he'll draw near to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we have to repent of divided hearts and get serious about really seeking Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: God makes his first cochlear.

[SPEAKER_00]: We must take action and draw in here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So often we are waiting for God to do everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, where are you at?

[SPEAKER_00]: He hasn't moved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you feel further from God today than you did last year, God didn't move, you did.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where he's at.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where did you go?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's in the same place, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: People who like to make these type of statements, well, I'm just waiting for God to show up.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is where he's at.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you pushing into him?

[SPEAKER_00]: God isn't moving.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not changing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is the same yesterday today and forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not experiencing him, maybe your priorities are so out of whack and out of alignment,

[SPEAKER_00]: that you've stopped drawing near to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I even think this statement drawn near to God and he will draw near to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not understanding here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying that statement is infactual because it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe that's the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is this thing of whenever you draw near to God, God doesn't move.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am that I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you eat drawn near to him, there is this feeling that he is drawing near to us, but really he is solid, he is stable, he is immovable, and as we draw near to him, there is this sense of nearness that we have to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense to you this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: That whenever we draw near to him, we're like, there he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been there the whole time.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't change, he didn't move, you did, and that's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But likewise there are people that move away from him, they go, I don't know where God went, he just disappeared.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like God is a magician who pulled a disappearing act.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not who God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is still there, but you've got to push into him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 116 says this, without faith, it is impossible to police him.

[SPEAKER_00]: for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward or what of those who diligently seek him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a reward or of those who diligently seek him.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, it's really interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Without faith, it's even impossible to police him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't have time to really unpack that right now, but there's a lot of people who live faithless lives and think their lives are policing to the Lord, but they're not.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then he goes on to say this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If, hear me, I'm going to get to this in a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of believers today that want the reward without the seeking.

[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times they seek the reward rather than seeking him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We chase the reward rather than chasing his face.

[SPEAKER_00]: We chase the reward, rather than chasing his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the reward we think impresses our friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think the reward gives us status in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We think the reward gives us power, but listen, all of that is vanity and empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't first sought him and sought his face.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Jesus, and I'm gonna get way ahead of myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Jesus says this, seek ye first the kingdom of God in His righteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all these things shall be added unto you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a lot of people who have sought the things rather than seeking him and they've called seeking him going after the blessing or whatever and don't get me wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe God wants to bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to favor you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to prosper you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We say yes and amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But where does that first?

[SPEAKER_00]: the kingdom of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're seeking anything other than the kingdom first, you need to re-engage.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to get your priorities in alignment, and you have to go after him, because if you seek things, you might get things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if it doesn't come from a place of the outflow of the blessing because you've sought his face, it's all going to be empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are billionaires who are depressed, because things don't satisfy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does.

[SPEAKER_00]: because money is not the answer to every problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard my dad say it for years.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could live under a bridge with no home and be a blessed man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't necessarily believe that's God's will.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not calling any of you to live under a bridge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the church says, hey, Ben, thank you, God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, if everything crumbled, if there were, I mean, some of y'all lived through this in 2018, where you kind of lose everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God is a restore, and we believe that he builds back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, in the midst of that, you don't stop your pursuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It causes you to pursue all the more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you all with me this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Same where I like, we just wanted to hear about how God's going to make us all millionaires this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Persu.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, you're as close to God as you choose to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really a simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are as close to the Lord as you choose to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's thrown open the door and he's invited you in.

[SPEAKER_00]: How close you choose to get is your choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not, I'm not more annoying to be close to God than Jerry is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jerry's not more anointed to be close to God, than money him is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, God has called all of us to be close to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a matter of how much we choose to pursue as to how close he's saying engage me, come closer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm calling you in and we just got a break out of lazy Christianity and draw near to the Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop waiting for a better time.

[SPEAKER_00]: right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just waiting for the invitation of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already invited you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already said, come, I'm waiting for him to draw my spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's on you to engage.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's time to move in God's direction and he promises to respond whenever we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to seek him with all our heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me engaging God is not a casual past time.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I've got hobbies and if I have time for my hobbies I do those things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I like to go play top golf and if I have time to go play top golf, I'll go play top golf.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is not an all-consuming priority in my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a hobby and the problem is some of us have treated our relationship with God the way I treat my relationship with top golf.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we have time and can fit it in the schedule, then I'll pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I have time and I can fit it in the schedule, then I'll crack up in my Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I have time and can fit it in the schedule and the weather's not too nice and the weather's also not too bad, I'll go to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: If nothing else is all my schedule and everything's clear and it's easy and convenient, we don't really want relationship with God, we want convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you've learned this about any relationship, they are not, if you base any relationship based on your own convenience, it won't last.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what we've done.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have equated our relationship to God, but he understands it's not easy for me right now, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we completely miss where Jesus is calling people to do radical things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever he shows up to the fishermen and says, follow me and I'll make you fishers and men, they leave their nets, they leave their boats, they leave everything and they follow him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the ones who didn't get the blessing on the other side was the ones who thought the cost was too great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go sell everything you have, give to the poor, and you give all of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't give the blessing, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jesus asked a hard thing and he wasn't willing to do the hard thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus saw something in his life that he would be unwell.

[SPEAKER_00]: He challenged the thing in his life that was the priority.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was his number one thing in his mind because Jesus will not share the throne of your heart with anything else.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anything else is there, he says, you gotta get rid of that first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I will not sit in a shared occupancy with somebody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: I share in the chair of your heart with someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we've thought, Jesus, primary thing is to bring us convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus isn't there to bring you convenience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is there to make you holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is there to make you look like him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is there to call you up to a higher place in a higher realm and a higher dimension than what you currently been at.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what he's doing all through the gospels.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's challenging them constantly out of their comfort zone.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does this in a multitude of ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does it whenever he tells him, hey, if somebody slaps you on the cheek, give him the other two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you know one of the priorities of their hearts, violence and vengeance.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus challenges that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm seen in your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna challenge you now and say, if somebody slaps you on the cheek, give him the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they ask for your coat, give him your cloak too.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they ask you to carry your pack for a mile, carry it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's challenging what's in their hearts, and he's saying, listen, if you're gonna follow me, this is an all-in kind of thing, but we have made our Christianity an accessory to our Americanism.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have made our Christianity an accessory to our Southern culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not from Florida, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: LA, lower Alabama.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Casey feels at home, praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not from the South, bless God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And part of that means that whenever it's convenient to me, I go to church and I'm a Christian, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what we're called to.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are called to this radical abandonment of everything other than Jesus and Him first, that there is no other culture that I'm like, well, I'm a part of that culture and that culture embraces Christianity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, I'm a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, we are Christians.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are citizens of a different kingdom, and that is who we are, and everything else is subordinate to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Christian before I'm from the South.

[SPEAKER_00]: This really should not be that controversial this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Christian before I'm a citizen of America.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thankful to be an American citizen, but first and foremost, I'm a part of a kingdom, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Christian before I'm a white male.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing is Christ and Him crucified, and I'm part of that kingdom, that is the identifier of who I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: My Christianity is not an adindum on to some other cultural identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let him who has ears to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let's just, let's be honest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us have been seeking everything, but God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We saw career.

[SPEAKER_00]: We saw comfort, we saw wealth, we saw entertainment, and we've given God the leftovers.

[SPEAKER_00]: In in 2026, we're saying no more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says first pursue God, and he'll handle the rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, pursue God and heal him to the rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Half heart is seeking, just isn't gonna cut it in this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe we're God wants to take us in this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that's even part of the word that's even, and I haven't talked to mom and dad at all about what I felt we haven't just had it even an opportunity to discuss it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I believe this is part of the word that God is saying is where we are going as a body.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be a people who are fully committed to him first.

[SPEAKER_00]: A Luke warm, part time desire for God

[SPEAKER_00]: But when you decide, Lord, you are my one desire.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven takes notice.

[SPEAKER_00]: David said in Psalm 27 verse 4, there's one thing that I've desired to the Lord that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Psalms 27:4

[SPEAKER_00]: David reduced his life to one priority, living in God's presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everything else is going to flow from them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And any time David gets in trouble in his life, is when he stops making that his one priority and gets sidetracked with something else.

[SPEAKER_00]: We would say it all the lot of trouble if we wouldn't get sidetracked with other things and make them the priority.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to have this one thing desire that our greatest aim each day is to be with the Lord, is to be in His presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we can't say that's who we are, then it's time to realign.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because God is calling us in this year to a single-hearted pursuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really feel God is telling us today, stop dabbling and start pursuing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop dabbling and start devoting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Seek me with all your heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: where we want his presence above everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Exodus chapter 33, when God is telling Moses to lead the people, and Moses, basically, I'll just kind of paraphrase what he said.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, God, if you're not going with me, we're not going.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd rather say right here in the desert with you, than interdestiny without you.

[SPEAKER_00]: boy, some of us were more enamored with the promise than we are with the promise giver.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses is making this statement, the promise is great.

[SPEAKER_00]: The promise is wonderful.

[SPEAKER_00]: The promise is good, but if you aren't going with me, I'll stay right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the type of heart we've got to have God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm with you and I'm not moving an inch.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going anywhere unless you're in it with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you're going with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know where you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna stay right where you're at.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are y'all with me this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: God is looking for people in this year who will cry out like Moses.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your present isn't present isn't in it, I don't want it.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your presence isn't in it, I don't want it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Lord give me more of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need a desperate hunger.

[SPEAKER_00]: With everything going on in the world today, we need a desperate hunger.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be people who pray like Jacob, I'm not gonna let go of you until you bless me.

[SPEAKER_00]: People like Moses show me your glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need this kind of heart to arise within us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not, I made a post yesterday.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in one sense, it was more about generational legacy and the flying, but listen, you aren't self-made.

[SPEAKER_00]: You aren't self-made.

[SPEAKER_00]: This American individualism I'm a self-made person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Know you're not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody in the world is a self-made person.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're no more the reason, because first and foremost, you would be nowhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: without God.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would be nowhere without the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anything, God has literally made us, fashion us, kept us, walked with us, and these ideas are like, I'm self-made, literally spit in the face of a God whose guided you and kept you all at every step of the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not to mention people who help set you up, shepherd you guide you, et cetera.

[SPEAKER_00]: You with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to engage God with a level of passion, and then he'll reveal himself in new ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm going fast today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe this is part of what we got to do this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to catch fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why it's so important for us to engage like never before, because if we do not engage God, we will slip into lukewarm complacency.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have seen more people, for if it destiny to complacency than sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, again, I mean, complacency is sin, but when I mean when I say sin is, I mean, the gross kind of sin that we ascribe, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen more people forfeit destiny from just outright complacency rather than gross sin and like, oh my gosh, their lives have fallen apart and they're living under a bridge somewhere or in a ditch and they're in this that and the other and they've left their family and yada yada yada.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen more people forfeit what God has for them because they simply got way too

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus directly confronts the Luke one believers and his words are fiery about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, this is Jesus talking to a church in Revelation 3.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're probably familiar with it, but in Revelation 3 he's talking to the lay of the sea in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: These people who name the name of Jesus, these people who actually show up to hear the word, and it says to this, you thought upon the Spirit of me, it says, I know your works, which by the way, that means this, what you do matters, don't tell me what you believe,

[SPEAKER_00]: show me what you believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know your works that you were neither cold nor hot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could wish you were colder hot.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, I wish you would be one of these two things, so then because you were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's strong, but Jesus here is saying that this lukewarm attitude is nauseating to him,

[SPEAKER_00]: He prefer you just actually say what you really think, rather than talk to the game, but not back it up with the way that you live.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: God detests Luke warm Christianity.

[SPEAKER_00]: A complacent man.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I got time, if it's easy, if I can make it, if it doesn't crack my style, it doesn't require too much of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: that half-hearted kind of faith makes him nauseated.

[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it should make us nauseated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Jesus is, I feel like Jesus is looking at some of us saying, I know your works, and I'm not impressed by your neutral apathetic stance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be harder cold, but don't sit on the fence.

[SPEAKER_00]: don't sit on the fence, get off of the fence, lukewarmness happens when we think that we're okay without passionately pursuing God.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the biggest things that is this proponent of lukewarm Christianity is this cultural Christianity I'm talking about, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, grandma went to church and she said, that's just what we do, so that's what we're gonna do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's great that you are just imitating and that you're here, but it can't stop there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can't stop there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can't stop just with presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: It has to continue into getting into his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: It has to continue to a passionate pursuit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Complacency is deceitful.

[SPEAKER_00]: It tricks us into thinking, and I'm good, I got enough of God when in reality we're starving spiritually.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, he goes on to say that precisely to the legacy and church in the next two verses, which I don't have time to go into.

[SPEAKER_00]: complacency is the enemy of spiritual growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: AWS said this, complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot afford to be comfortable and passive in the year 2026.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to kill your spiritual life.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the urgent call from Jesus, repent and be zealous again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you, whenever you got saved, a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, whenever it was, 50 years ago, you were on fire for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one of the silliest things we do, one of the silliest things we do is we talk about young believers like, well, you know, they're just zealous, because they're a young believer.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should be more zealous than them.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a young believer is more zealous than we are, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: If they're more on fires than you are, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they're more quick to pray than you are, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen God do things for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why in the world have you throttled off whenever you need to be putting it full speed ahead?

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe the Spirit is saying today, we're pin of your luke warmness and engage again, passionately, wholeheartedly, repent and do the first works.

[SPEAKER_00]: Repent and do the first works.

[SPEAKER_00]: No more riding the fence, no more of this casual Christianity.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's all or nothing time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus wants a church that's on fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know about you, but between nothing at all and fire, I'm on choose fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: between doing this thing halfway or going all the way, I'm saying all the way, which means God get out of me whatever you need to get out of me, God rip out whatever isn't like you until I look like you, God I want to be like Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to look like him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be an expression of his hands and feet in the earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that certainly is good that we smile and are nice to people.

[SPEAKER_00]: But being his hands and feet in the earth is a lot more than just smiling and being nice to the waitress.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although if we can't do that, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: But being his expression means this, that whenever I saw Jesus that he went to the outcasts of society,

[SPEAKER_00]: And he ministered to those people that Jesus went and laid hands on the sick and sold him recover, that demonic principalities and powers had to run whenever Jesus just showed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus told us disciples, the works that I do, this is what you're going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our Christianity has to move beyond just this casual cultural thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it has to push into something bigger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that starts with engaging him with everything inside of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's our mandate for 2026 in gauge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know this is the first Sunday of the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a bit in your face and confrontational.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I really feel this is what God's put on my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: That the Spirit is drawing a line of the sand.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we remain lukewarm, or we

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we going to say straddling the fence, or are we going to go all in?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we going to keep pursuing the blessing, or are we going to pursue the blesser?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe high praise is that high praise is called to be a church, a people who are pursuing him passionately, in prayer, in worship, in obedience, and complacency, has no place here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we begin, this year each of us is going to have to make a personal decision.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is asking you today, will you seek me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you prioritize my presence?

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you give me your whole heart?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the question for you is how are you going to answer him today?

[SPEAKER_00]: My call as a pastor of this church is the call of God's own heart, engage.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the year to engage, engage in prayer like never before.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the silly things we say is I don't have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have time, you hear me, you have time for whatever you want to have time for.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you want to have time for, you'll have time for.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And that could be anything because we will make time for silly things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then the thing seeking the gobre like, I just ran out of time, you didn't run out of time, you didn't prioritize it properly.

[SPEAKER_00]: You with me, engage with prayer like you never have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You take a shower, I hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have time to pray, because this is what we do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We convince ourselves because we don't have an hour to pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know I don't have an hour like no one's asking you to pray for an hour I'm not asking you to pray for an hour I'm asking you to take a couple minutes a day I just pray right beyond God is good God is great God is good let us thank him for our food right that we earnestly pray that you begin to actually read the scripture that dad talks about I think he talks about this in the new book

[SPEAKER_00]: As a study, we've probably quoted before, but Barna, one of the largest church research groups out there, says that the church of America is completely and totally biblically illiterate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have the scriptures available to us more than any generation ever before.

[SPEAKER_00]: You literally walk around with a device in your pocket.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you have access to the scripture?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, you can download apps that will read it to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: in a James Earl Jones voice, if you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: Morgan Freeman, whatever you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Having Morgan Freeman read it to you just kind of like having God read it to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We have all of this available to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our excuses, I don't have time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, they're, I don't, I gotta go.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to engage in worship with a band and like you never have before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because pressing into God will produce power in your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now believe this, if we respond to this call, we're going to see God's glory in our midst.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see miracles, we're going to see signs, we're going to see wonders.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see prodigals, come home, we're going to see marriages put back together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see our city reached for Jesus, but we can't reach our city if we aren't pushing into Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we aren't pursuing Him, drawn near to God,

[SPEAKER_00]: and he'll draw near to you, that's his promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe this is a year where we draw close like we never have before, where you draw near like you never have before, a year of encounter.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we do our part, because that's the one thing about God, this one thing about our faith, is passivity is not part of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're always being called to action.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to do your part and seek care.

[SPEAKER_00]: So right now, we're making this fresh commitment, no lukewarm faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: no half-heartedness, no half-the-and-half-out were all the way in kind of people you send up to your feet this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here for high praise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you can follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and don't forget to go subscribe to our YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.

[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.