The Sift | Ps Rachel Eaton

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of the God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

So you've got that movie, Jerry Maguire.

You complete me and she's like, you had me at hello.

So these human relationships, there's an expectation in the

world that when we find that person, that one person, oh,

that you will complete me. It's actually a really hefty

responsibility. It's like when when I'm empty,

it's your job to fill me. When I'm sad, it's your job to

make me happy. And when I'm angry, it's your

job to calm me down. It's a hefty responsibility to

put on anyone human being and it's actually an impossible one

because we just read in the Bible, God's word, the breath of

God, Jesus speaking himself. Guys, the only way you're going

to find completeness in life, the only way you're going to

find fulfilment is actually in your union with me.

And that word union together with in, in relationship with

not hearing about, but in relationship with, in union with

me. That's where we find

completeness. We are talking relationships

this month that got the theme, you and me and chat GTP.

I don't know why we'd have a relationship with chat GTP GPT.

See, I don't know. My husband's a grok man.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, if you know, you know, this morning I actually want to

talk on the topic of a sift. Now, This is why I have a

spaghetti strainer here, Becca. In my household, this actually

double s as a sift, which is what you put flour into for

baking. It works well in my house.

If you know me, I don't like stuff.

I don't like things. So now I don't have to have a

sifter and a spaghetti strainer. It does both, and I save more

space in my kitchen. It makes for a happier me.

But you don't need to hear about my kitchen practices.

What we're here to talk about is the sift.

Do you all who bakes here show me.

Yeah. Do you sift your flour when you

bake it? And doesn't it make for a much

smoother experience when that flour is sifted through?

If you're not a Baker, hold up. I'm going to help you out and

let you know what sifting does. Sifting.

It breaks up those clumps when you've got flour in there and

they're all stuck together. Stuck it helps because it breaks

up the clumps. It adds air breath.

Who needs Holy Spirit breath in their relationships.

Thank you Jesus, stay open this morning.

It removes impurities other another way of looking back

things that just don't belong there.

So it highlights things when we sift, you go, oh, that doesn't

belong in there. And we can pull those impurities

out. And it also improves the mixing,

which makes for a much smoother experience.

So we as a church are going to go for a bit of a sift this

morning. I know you ready.

We're going to hold on. We're going to sift ourselves

through God's Word, sift ourselves, sift our relationship

with him, and sift our relationship with others through

what God's Word has to say. So we ready?

OK, we're going to start in Psalm 6310.

God, you are my God. I earnestly search for you.

My soul thirsts for you, my whole body.

I want to ask a question this morning as we take a bit of a

sift. Does passion and desire feature

in your relationship with Jesus? As you read this Bible verse in

Psalms, God's Word, does this exist, this kind of passion?

Do you know what it is to earnestly seek God?

Do you have the kind of passion where you can falter your knees,

not just on a Sunday, but on a Monday?

On a Tuesday, does passion overtake you where you remember

that there's two people in the room, not just this outpouring

of God and, and what you need and, and you're constantly

talking and, and, and communicating, but communication

has two people in the room. Even in worship this morning and

and in that lead moment, I had this vision of God where we're

pouring out our hearts. My hand was on my heart.

I'm like Lord, but I just saw God's hand on his receiving.

There's two people in a relationship.

Does passion feature in your relationship with Jesus?

What does it look like? I'm talking to new Christians in

the room. I'm talking to old Christians in

the room. Does passion feature in your

relationship with Jesus? Does it still?

And if it doesn't, what's present?

Would you search yourself for a moment and allow the sift to

take place? What's present when you come

before God? Because God's a person.

Holy Spirit's a person. He's not an idol, a dead idol

that we come and bow down to. No, he's a person who he is.

He's a person who responds. He's a person that wants to

unite. He's a person who can be

offended and delighted. Holy Spirit is a person and so I

want to do this sift this morning and I What is your

relationship like? Building a relationship with Him

is not that different to building 1 with any other human.

It's time spent with Him. It's curiosity, exploring.

It's actually to be vulnerable, which means that you want to

remove the masks, to be open and honest, to be seen and to see.

And this is possible. I love this scripture because it

shows us what's possible in Jesus.

In Hebrews 10/19 it reads. And so, dear brothers and

sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because

of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened up a

new and life giving way, a new and life giving way through the

curtain into the most holy place.

So in the Old Testament, the the Holy of Holies was only ever

accessed once a year. It was a bit like Christmas.

Once a year, one person, which was the high priest got to go

into the presence of God and, and you know, it was like

Christmas that you're counting down, you know, or 4 weeks, 3

days and two days. I'm sorry, two days.

So we go to Yom Kippur. Unless you like Pastor Mel.

And you'd be counting in what, February.

Yeah. When?

I'm just curious, when is the earliest that you have ever

looked for Christmas presents? Maybe July.

No earlier. January.

There you go. January.

She looks forward to Christmas in January.

No one loves Christmas more than Pastor Mel.

But Yom Kippur was like this in the Old Testament.

There was this excitement, this buzz, irreverent fear even of

coming into the Holy of Holies. Only one person got to go, but

there was a buzz and an excitement around it.

Did you know that we are now able to access the Holy of

Holies whenever we want to because of what Jesus did?

And he tore that curtain wide open and went, No, you can come

into my presence whenever you want to.

But church, do we want to? Do you want to?

A lot of our relationship with God can be centred around should

I should want to, I should pray, I should be in your presence.

But do we want to? Do we want to come boldly?

Has access reduced desire? Has access reduced reverence for

this, this moment of raw, unfiltered adoration before God?

It's a bit like at the dinner table.

You know when when you're your kids, they sit down and, and

you've spent hours preparing this meal for them.

You've gone shopping, you've prepared the food, you've

probably done the dishes before you've even served it.

And they sit down to eat this dinner.

And then you're faced with, and then dad will come in and say

something like eat it and be grateful for it.

And they're like, thank you, Mom.

You're like, yeah, great. It's awesome thanking you

because you have to. And then you'll have a child

come in who's maybe a little bit older.

And then you hear this. Oh Mom, you're the best.

I love this meal. And they'll come and they'll hug

you and they'll think you, oh, it smells amazing, can I get

into it now? And they sit and they inhale it

in one mouthful. And you're like, oh, you go and

try and pick up your heart off the floor 'cause it's melted in

this moment. And then you might be like, you

can have anything you want up to half my Kingdom.

There's this, this response, but there's this unfiltered, raw

gratitude and adoration. Does God ever get that from us?

Does he ever get that from us? Raw, unfiltered, real, honest

adoration. He deserves it.

But just allow yourself to be sifted and go.

If this desire doesn't actually exist, why not?

What does exist? What's present when you come

before God? There are some blockers to

intimacy in relationship. I'm going to just speak about

one in our relationship with God.

It's actually sin. Sin blocks us from being

intimate with God. God's like this hopeless

romantic that he wants to be close to you.

He doesn't actually want to judge you.

He didn't come and die on the cross because he wants to give

out judgement. He came and he died on the cross

because he wants to cover you, because he wants to be in

relationship. He is a hopeless romantic.

If you don't believe me, go and read Hosea.

He is desperate for you. He's not about religion, he's

actually about the relationship. I want to be close to you.

That's what he wants. And then sin can get in the way.

I often think sometimes like God is so wants to lavish love on

us. He's so desperate to lavish love

on us and, and as he as he pours out his love and as he as he as

he sends his son, I think he actually knew the whole world

right at the beginning, what was going to happen.

He knew all of the horror. He knew all of the cruelty that

was going to exist through every generation.

He saw it all. He knew it all and he went, I

love relationships so much it's actually worth it to me.

How much more than does it mean when we have this moment of

roar, unfiltered adoration to God?

Could you think it through for a moment?

He saw all of it and he went, I I'm going to choose to do this

anyway because when you love me, when you show this gratitude,

when you connect with me real, it's all worth it to me.

That's crazy. That's that's a hopeless

romantic right there. But sin does get in the way.

Sin doing the wrong thing actually gets in the way of

every relationship. Am I right?

When someone's done the wrong thing by you, instantly there's

a block, but it's the same with God.

And so when sin comes in, just give me a second.

When sin comes in, we've we've got to first of all own it.

And then there's got to be this repentance and then this

receiving of forgiveness. James 4 actually says that God

is passionate. It uses those words, God is

passionate and that the Spirit that He's placed within us

should be faithful to him. It goes on to say come close to

God and then he will come close to you.

Can you hear his? I just want to be close to you.

But then it goes on to say, can you please wash your hands,

Sinner, purify your hearts. For your loyalty is divided.

Your loyalty is divided between God and the world doing the

wrong thing. It blocks intimacy.

It blocks it in our human relationships, and it definitely

blocks it with God. And so when we do the wrong

thing, there's got to be ownership on our behalf.

OK, I've got a story here. My, my beautiful son Jamie,

who's on lights at the back there.

Yes, we all know Jamie. He came to me as a little preppy

5 years old. He was the cutest little preppy

and he comes home and he's all frustrated and kicking things

like mom this girl she got me in trouble today.

Like wow this is a story I want to I want to hear about this

one. So annoying.

I was actually only trying to help her and went OK, I said

what happened? He goes, well, I was just trying

to comfort her. I went, OK, tell me the story.

He goes, well, I kind of really liked his prep.

He's five years old. And so in his mind, he thought

that the best way to get close to this girl was to be able to

go and comfort her. Thing is, is that she didn't

really need comforting. And so he's an opportunist.

So he saw opportunity. If I create opportunity here for

her to need to be comforted, I can be that person to come on

in. And so he threw a pineapple at

her. We had a little conversation on

ownership. He could have own your sin.

Own when you've done the wrong thing.

It's our job to own when we've done the wrong thing in human

relationships indefinitely with God.

Just confess it. Just get it out.

It's our job to humble ourselves, you know.

It's not God's job to humble us. That's actually our job to

humble ourselves. Say sorry.

Say sorry, ladies. Is sorry a normal part of your

relationships? Emotionally healthy

relationships? Say sorry.

Get it out in the open. Let confession come and

forgiveness come. Say sorry.

No, repentance actually attracts grace.

Repentance attracts grace. You know God doesn't.

He doesn't want to judge you. He wants to forgive you.

He's here. You got to hold him back.

He's just waiting for that confession.

He wants to show you grace. He wants to extend mercy.

He wants to forgive you. But it's our job to confess

where we've done wrong and own it in the natural, in our human

relationships. An unrepentant heart.

It creates distance when someone's done the wrong thing

by you and they're not sorry. Instant distance, right?

Why can't they just say they're sorry?

Instant distance when we just don't own it.

It also creates blindness. Can't see anybody else's

perspective, only yours. And it also creates judgement.

When you don't own it, others are going to judge you.

They just do. It's actually just the way that

it is. And it's the same with God.

He doesn't want to judge, but when there's unrepentants there,

that's the next inevitable inevitability.

Someone please. You know what I mean.

An unrepentant heart is going to create distance between you and

God. It also creates spiritual

blindness for you're only going to be able to see things from

your perspective instead of a God perspective.

Intimacy requires confession and forgiveness and he's so good for

the forgiveness. He wants to forgive you.

Let's take another sift here. We ready.

OK Hebrews 6-7 to 9. It says for the Lord disciplines

those He loves, and he punishes each person he accepts as His

child. As you endure His divine

discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own

children. Whoever heard of a child who was

never disciplined by its father? If God doesn't discipline you as

He does all His children, it means that you are illegitimate

and not really His children at all.

Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us,

shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of

our spirits and live forever? How's your sift going now?

Oh, it might be good for some people.

I'm just going to call it and go.

We may have found a few clunks because there would be people in

this room who heard that, and that's not sitting so well with

you, am I right? There would be people in this

room that have a real problem with hearing that.

It might make you squirm in your seats because God's Word says

natural fathers should be respected because they've

disciplined so well. But over here we're like that,

that, that is not my experience. So is God's word wrong?

I'm not trying to be insensitive.

I'm trying to show you something.

I know for some people in this room, this, this passage in the

Bible, it's, it comes with a sting.

I'm actually going to ask to allow it to sting a little bit

as we just sift this through God's Word.

Because when we read something in God's Word, which is truth,

which is wholeness, which is life, which is healing, which is

hope, which is perfect. And when we read something and

we take it through the sift and we go, oh, I don't like that.

This isn't sitting so right with me.

This is showing fractures and breaks.

It's not God's Word that's broken.

It's not God's word that's broken.

Those fractures and the brokenness it, it's usually in

US. And so when we do the sift, it

highlights these fractures, sifting our relationships with

our parents and then with our children through God's Word.

It's going to highlight fractures, small ones and big

ones, areas that require a bit of attention, understanding or

repair. It's not your fault.

It's usually not your fault, but it's there.

Our filter is our normal, OK, And we think that our lived

experiences are normal because they're our normal.

It's it's what happened. It's just normal, but our normal

can be formed through trauma, loss, hurt, abandonment,

culture, abuse, pain, or neglect.

And so everyone's normal can look a little bit different.

Now, why is this important in relationships?

Because how we do relationship with other people comes out of

the framework of our lived experience.

But now we're at an impasse. We've got God's word up here,

but we're down here and there's this, this mis, this misfit.

It's not, it's not fitting. So God's Word that's perfect is

up here. But we're like, but we're so far

from it. God, that was not my experience.

If I can even just give you an example, I'm going to just do a

silly little example. We might have a man from Burma

who's just migrated to Australia, let's call him Han.

And then you've got a guy Aussie named Jack.

And these two, they, they kick off and they start being friends

and, and Jack goes, let's go and play a game of cricket.

Summertime storms rolling in. And Jack's like, here we go.

Come on, Han, we're all going out to play cricket.

And the guys head off and go out to play cricket.

And Han's over here and going, Oh no, there's, there's a storm

rolling in. I, I don't he, he doesn't want

to go. He hasn't verbalized it.

But for him, he's just come from Burma and nearly lost his sister

because when a storm came in, it came in so quickly and the

rivers, they, they came up so fast.

And he, he lost his house and he nearly lost his sister.

And he's looking at these guys going out in an open field and

going, it's too open. Someone's going to get shot.

He lost a family member only a few weeks ago because they went

out into an open space and someone got shot.

And so Han is now looking at Jack and going, you're

insensitive. Han is angry, he's frustrated.

Jack is insensitive and he doesn't understand.

This is Han's experience. I think you're reckless and he's

sitting here and he won't go and play cricket because he's living

in his experience. This can happen at big levels

and it can happen at small ones. Now, yes, Jack could definitely

be more sensitive to the situation, but Hahn, he's living

out of fear. He's living and it's not his

fault. He's not to blame for what's

happened, but it is his lived experience.

The Bible actually says not to live in fear.

He says that we can laugh for fear of the future without fear

of the future, which is what Jack and all his friends are

doing. They just want to gain a

cricket. They're like he's overreacting

and there's a disconnect. So you've got God's word that

says laugh without fear of the future.

I have given you, I haven't given you a spirit of fear.

I've given you a spirit of love and of power and of a sound

mind. But Han, he, he, he can't reach

that because he's in, he's in this lived experience.

He's he's stuck in this place. Our filter is our normal, and so

we think that our lived experiences are normal, but our

normal. It's not necessarily God's way.

Now, this isn't a place of judgement, but a place of

understanding. So God's not insensitive when he

says that he wants fathers respected, that he wants godly

discipline. It's actually his way.

But there might be a disconnect. And so if you find that as we

shift our relationships through God's word and that you've come

up and you're like, actually, there's a few fractures here.

I've got a big clunk of, of flour, I'm stuck.

There are three things that you can do #1 you can ignore it.

Many people do. You're your own person and you

actually get to make that decision.

You can live with your fractures and just hope that you don't

break, but just understand that they're there and it's not what

God's called you to. He's actually called you to

wholeness. He's actually called you to to

heal. He's called you to fullness.

He wants you thriving in your relationships with your

children. He wants to break the cycle #2

you can start the process of alignment, change,

transformation. And this is done very gently.

The Holy Spirit is gentle and it has to be done in faith.

Because when God says that it's possible for your children to

respect you as a father, but your lived experience is, oh, no

discipline. I don't have any any good

association with that word, but we can start to align and allow

him to transform us so that his word now becomes our lived

experience. And #3 if you find that you're a

bit stuck in this place, if you like, actually this fracture's a

bit a bit heavy, this clunk, this one's not coming through.

How? Get some help.

There's no shame in getting any help in these spaces.

All of your relationships that you do with your best friend,

with your siblings, with your parents, with your own children,

they come out of the framework of your lived experiences.

It's OK to go and get some help if I can be vulnerable.

Every one of our pastors in this church have actually taken this

process. We have done done some work here

and continue to go back when things come up, when clumps come

up, it's a phone call. I just need to to get some

understanding and some reconciliation in these places.

There's no shame. It's not your fault.

It's not your fault. God's word here is, is not here

to bring judgement in these spaces.

It's here to highlight, Hey, I have a much better intention for

you. I have hope that I want to

breathe into this space. I have healing that I want to

bring. I want you thriving in your in

your relationships. And this is the way.

So where there's the disconnect, allow him to to transform you.

And if you need to go and get some help, Godly disciplines and

boundaries. They actually create safety.

We have boundaries because there's safety in there.

He's a good God, He's a good father.

When people come to my home, they like bringing their small

children because there are fences they can go and play in

the backyard without harm. They're not going to run on the

road because there's boundaries. Godly boundaries are healthy,

and everyone who's emotionally healthy lives within boundaries.

Godly relationships experience rebuke, intimacy, honesty, real

communication, real conversations.

They experience forgiveness, accountability, sexual purity,

stewardship, rest, and refreshment all possible when we

do things God's way. I want to bring out one last

sift and it's a nicer one, I promise.

Let's read in God's word here it says 1 John 416.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his

love. God is love and all who live in

love, Sorry. All who love live in God, and

God lives in them. And John 15-9 reads, I have

loved you even as the Father has loved me.

Remain in my love. It's one thing to be told you're

loved. It's another thing to be able to

receive love. I want to address this morning,

Are you able to receive love? You've got people who might have

walls up. Men, they call it emotionally

unavailable. You've got your walls up.

Nothing's getting in here. God might say he loves you.

Yeah. Yep.

That's good. How's your relationship with

Good? Good.

Good. How are you going?

I'm good. How good is that word?

Good, Right. You got you got these walls up.

Everything surface. Everything's just here.

Nothing's getting in. Oh, I love you.

Yeah, Love you. Yep.

Good, Good. We're good.

Are we good? Yep.

Good. It's great.

We ladies like to use the word fine.

Yeah, we're fine. Great.

Yes, fine, fine. I'm fine.

Didn't you hear me the first time?

I'm fine. Wall up.

Don't come in here. There's a nice, big, clear,

definite wall. Or for ladies, it might be the

opposite. Sometimes you're overly needy.

You're so needy. Need to constantly be told,

constantly reassured, constantly got to check that text message

to see if that person's replied yet no 30 seconds later have

they replied yet? They must hate me.

No one's liked my post yet they must hate me.

Maybe I've done something wrong. Is someone not going to love me

now because I said something constant?

You need constant reassurance. Constantly told constant words.

I actually have a small beef. All right, I've got to be

careful here because I'm like borderline heresy.

I so I have. I know, I know.

I've just said this. Now you're all paying attention.

Let's catch her out. I want to dug her into the

elders. I've run it past John.

I have a small beef with a Christianese statement that we

say where it's heresy. It is actually kind of from the

Word of God. My beef is not with the

statement so much, but on the assigned meaning.

OK, so when you hear this come from the platform, from any

other pastor, listen, because they've got a very important

point to make. But I'm going to ask you to hear

mine for a moment. John, will you come on up here

with me? My beef is with our assigned

meaning that we give to the words be washed in the word.

And I have a beef with it because we assign it meaning and

start treating God's word like a shower.

And so God's word, we're just going to pretend that the

pillows are God's word. We're not up here having a

pillow fight. It's OK.

So just pretend that these pillows here are God's word and

he starts throwing them at me. Rachel, I love you.

Keep, don't, just don't destroy my hair.

And it's Rachel. I love you.

I've died for you. I want to forgive you.

You are worthy. And these words keep coming at

me and at me and at me. But I start treating God's word

like a shower. Oh, that's nice.

I'll come in. Yeah.

You want to start something here, husband?

But they do. They come at you.

And actually, Yeah. Go back there.

Keep going. His like, I love you, I've died

for you. I want to forgive you.

You're worthy. And I'm like, oh, these are nice

words. Keep them coming.

Keep them coming. And it's a prophecy.

Oh, another prophetic word. That was nice.

Let's come and get another one and another one and another one.

And we treat God's word like it's a shower.

Yeah. Keep it coming, Lord.

Keep it coming. Did you not stay there?

It's actually his birthday today.

He's doing good. You've got God's word and it's

at you. God's Word is not a shower.

Actually, Jesus said I am the bread of life.

I am the cup. I am the blood.

You are to partake, ingest, digest, consume.

Allow it to transform and get it in you.

You've got to throw it at me. You've got to receive.

Stop letting it wash on over you.

Thank you, love. You can get off.

Stop just listening to God's Word and start to hear it in

faith. You've got to reach out and grab

it and go. You what?

You love me. What is that?

What is that? And go home and start digesting

and start eating and start meditating, mulling over His

Word. Lord, I've got to get this in

me. I've got to let it transform me.

I've got to digest it. I've got to ingest it.

Stop treating God's word like a shelver because you will always

come up empty. It's not God up here and you

down there, It's union with. Allow His words to transform

you. He loved the world so much that

He gave His only begotten Son. He wants to do life.

He wants to abide. He wants you in him.

In him. He wants to do life with you.

We do this all of the time. Forgiveness.

I'm sorry God. I'm sorry God.

I'm sorry God. I'm sorry God.

He's like, would you stop being sorry and receive my

forgiveness? We have to receive His words and

we do this in faith. We do this in faith. 1 John 419

says we love each other because He first loved us.

How we love each other is out of our love for Him and being loved

by Him. Your union with Jesus will

affect how you do every other relationship.

If you've got fractures in your relationship, why don't you just

come straight back to the heart of Jesus, Straight back to what

he says. Allow him to sift you.

Allow the fractures to highlight.

Allow him to pour himself in His love, His mercy, his

forgiveness. Would you allow your walls to

come down? Would you allow him to see you

this morning?