Be in the World But not of It | Ps Ryan Brewer

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 that it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

Let's pray. Thank you Heavenly Father, we

thank you for tonight. We thank you for the words that

have been spoken. Father, we pray that you take

them and grow them further into where you got them, Lord.

And we just pray for tonight, the word, the message that

people are able to receive it Lord, and receive what you are

speaking into their life in Jesus name, Amen.

Awesome. Well, I pray that we are

posturing ourselves in a place of receiving like we just prayed

and it doesn't matter if you have being in the words studying

or this is your very first time. What matters is our heart is

open to receive because at the end of the day, this is the word

of God word, the Bible, and God speaks through it for the ones

that are willing to receive it. So the title of message tonight

is called in the world, but not of it, man, I was just spending

time with God going what what are you wanting to speak here

tonight? And just this thing, just this

phrase popped up in the world, but not of it.

And, and to live this type of lifestyle is it's easier saying

it, but to step into and walking into it is a whole nother thing.

And the world doesn't really help with that as well because

they are often going in the other direction and it can be

tricky. And, but before we dive into

scripture, I just, I've got to get it off my chest.

I've struggled. I was struggling.

I'm not going to say anything ridiculous, but I, I struggled

with this simple phrase. And I've chatted with people

like, should I actually bring it up?

But I want to be vulnerable here tonight.

Are you guys OK with me being vulnerable here tonight?

So there's a phrase called. It is what it is.

Has anyone heard this? I generally my wife can.

I don't know what that word is attest to the word to my

frustration with that phrase. Every time I hear this, I

literally look at the fasno. Uh huh.

OK, cool, cool, cool. All right.

And I I want to be a good Christian and I love I love you

guys. If you have said it, I

absolutely love you. I have nothing against you at

all. It literally is the conviction

of myself. So I actually went to God.

I literally had to think about what's going on with you, Ryan,

like you got some issue going on.

Literally something brought up and draw.

I don't know. No, but what it was is there's

something in the word of God that I recognize.

When I hear this word, I hear a full stop.

I hear a full stop in the conversation that or whatever is

going on and what I know in the Word and what it says that there

is power in the tongue and what we declare that we speak life

and death out of the tongue. So when we speak these things,

when we say it is what it is, we put a full stop and we stop what

God can do in this moment. And I don't know about you, I

never want to be in a position when I'm holding back from what

God can do because I know what the Word says, that God can do

all things impossible made possible through Christ Jesus.

When we speak this stuff, when we put a full stop to this

situation, to this moment, we can literally withhold what God

can do and we stop it and we go, God, why can't you move?

Because you stopped it with the words you spoke.

So we got to be wary. And I I don't want to kind of go

that you guys like, hey, you know, just think I want you guys

to be thinking Pastor Andrew Staggs and Bible college says

for us to be thinkers, to be doing is to be thinking about

what we are saying, what we're speaking in our life now.

No, I'm not saying it is what it is, is a terrible thing because

you can say it is what it is, like whatever, like ward off a

duck's back, like things that actually don't matter.

You can go, it actually doesn't matter.

Things to worry about, you don't actually need to worry about.

You can say, but in reference to what you're talking about

matters. But when we speak these words,

we can speak life and death. And so I just wanted to let you

guys know that. So anyway, so I'm glad that you

guys received that, which is great.

So we're going to dive into the word, the Holy Bible.

So if you guys get your Bibles with yourselves, turn to the

Galatians 5 verse 16 to 17. We have our youth here tonight,

Galatians 5:16–17

which is amazing. The huge sounds so good.

So Galatians 1617 and 2223. While you guys are getting that,

I'll give you a bit of back story to what's going on.

This is Paul, mighty Paul. He's awesome.

He's a mighty man of God, completely devoted for God and

he's having a conversation response back to Galatia.

Galatia. So the the we call it the book

is called Galatians. So similar to Kabulcha.

It's Kabulians. I don't know.

It's like those who are understanding what it means, why

they say Galatia. That's what it means.

It's the place. So they were turning away from

God and following the worldly influences at the time.

And as any great leader like Paul is, he's addressing the

issue, which is really good. So the Galatians, they actually

received the good news and witnessed the move of God in

their world, but they had become confused by worldly opinions and

they were trying to work out their salvation by suggesting

they should add rules and legalism of Jewish laws and to

the to add to the saving grace in which God offered through

Jesus death and resurrection. So Paul reasoned that if

believers were required to keep the law and order to be saved, a

savior wasn't necessary, which is no really no gospel at all.

So they were kind of actually missing the mark.

They're missing it. So they're being LED astray, and

they're being influenced by the world around them.

So now going into Galatians, Yeah, 516 Paul writes here.

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.

Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is the opposite of

what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires

that are opposite for what the sinful nature desires.

These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you're

not free to carry out any of your good intentions.

There is a tension between the natural and the spirit.

They cannot coexist together. They actually cannot one without

the other. It's like you're going, which

are you feeding? Which area you're walking in?

And these are the things you got to be aware.

And this is what Paul's addressing to Galatians going,

guys, you are operating in the wrong direction.

This is what the fruit is. And then he goes to verse 22.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.

Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

There is no law against these things.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with

its passions and desires. They're not operating out of

what the sinful nature desire, but they're operating in the

Spirit because they've gone. I believe in Jesus.

That means they are going to be called to live in this, and I

love this. Since we live by the Spirit, let

us keep in step with the Spirit. When He says that keeping in

step, it means we're, we're walking, we stumble, but what do

you do? You get, you get back up and you

keep walking in step with the Holy Spirit.

We're not perfect, we are human, we make mistakes.

That's why we have Jesus because we're never going to make it on

our own strengths. And that's what they're trying

to do is they were trying to operate out of their own works,

their own strengths that are human, where God has given us

Jesus, a grace, a gift that is giving out a grace that we did

not deserve. And by grace we have been saved

and by faith we are able to receive Jesus.

And that's what as simple as it is.

But then they twisted and often we can twist things that are

actually quite simple. So it's interesting how the

influence is influences of the world is pretty much the

opposite of what the fruits of the Spirit are.

Often you find the things of this world are literally

countercultural to what they the spirit is.

And for instance, the world will say you need to place yourself

first above all things and you deserve this.

You deserve this. This is what she deserved.

Whereas the word says seek first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness. See, it is better to give rather

than to be given to, to serve rather be served.

And to live this lifestyles is pretty difficult.

And I have a story that I'd love to share.

Do you like stories? I love sharing stories that you

used to have so much fun. It's anyway I have a story and

anyone that's in a trade type of workplace, they have stories

because it's interesting. My trade was painting and

renovating, painting, decorating, whichever and I had

a Co worker, let's name him Davo.

So Davo was this Co worker. He was a very quick witted,

fast-paced fella. He was very quick with his words

and how he communicated and we we worked together for six

years. Through those years, there was

continual jokes and try and make me snap or react or deny and

reject my faith. So I was very young.

I was about 15 when I started. And I was also very quiet.

My pastors know they've been on the journey with me.

And so it was not the most enjoyable time, I can tell you

that. But I'm so grateful for the word

of God. This is your foundation.

Live by it. Oh yeah, and he's stormed by the

word of God. Oh yeah.

All right. So But during these moments, I

would love to share a part because I am human.

And obviously there is these moments in your life where you

were close to breaking. And so I'll share this one

moment in this time, which is fun.

But this moment happened when I was over in Red Cliff doing a

house and it was smoker, which is what we call a break.

And what we go, no one smokes or anything, but we go on a break

with word anyway. So we go on this break, this 16

year old going on smoker and we go to the Cafe and I get this

coffee And I liked coffees during that time as well and got

some food. And this coffee was like $8,

like it was expensive. So I got, I'm going back and I

take a sip and I'm like, it's actually pretty good.

It's actually really good coffee.

And I was like, this is actually quite nice.

So I make it back and what I discovered is my toolbox opened

and all my tools, my, we call it keys and a couple of my stuff

were completely sprayed by a spray gun.

One of the guys decided to open my stuff and spray it all and I

was like what? I was like I literally was like

Oh my goodness. I was like who did this?

And they're like, I don't know. There's literally 2 of them

working there and one of them's already holding this.

I don't know. How do you respond?

So anger started to come in. And with that, you're getting

flustered and frustrated. And what happened was I knocked

my coffee over. And the worst part is I drank it

and it was amazing and it was expensive and I knocked it over

and I was like, I'm a very peaceful and calm person.

I love everyone knows I'm very patient, but there was a moment

when my hands were shaking and I felt my natural flesh taking

over and the Spirit was leaving the door and I started feeding

the natural by going. Come on man, do one more thing,

see what happens, See what happens.

I'm young, I'm a fastest kid. I've been holding it back.

So in all reality, I wouldn't have actually, I would have

snapped, but I would have just grabbed the pole and throw it on

the wall and call my boss and go, I'm going to have the day

off. But they didn't do anything and

then they just went away. I think they could tell by my

shaking hand, but but most people would have snapped in

that moment. But for some reason, during that

whole time, I could have snapped and I could have sorted it out

with anger or violence like how often people do.

But for some reason, I felt led to live a life where I'm showing

patience. I'm showing literally that I can

control my emotions, that I can control the way I live.

And, and through these conversations, through all these

jokes and all these literally like things thrown at whichever

ultimately end of all of it, for some reason, this guy Davo for

some reason decided to go to church and get his daughter

baptized. And I was like, and he told me

how they were making fun of it all about the past and

everything going on. But in the end, I believe

through all the stuff he spoke against me, something shifted,

something shifted within. And I, and I hope to believe

that was the lifestyle that I was living through just the

steadfast conversations and going, I literally have no idea

how to answer that. And all these moments, something

shifting went maybe he's onto something, or maybe they're just

maybe because he, he was baptized and his wife was

baptized. And he's like, because I asked

him one time, I was like, what if you're wrong?

Because what if you, you die and you're wrong?

That would be a bit awkward. And he's like, we chatted in the

area and he's saying all those things.

But for some reason he baptized his daughter.

And, and even though he didn't make a decision to believe in

God or that I'm aware about, this was a seed moment in his

life. And I believe he will remember

it and carry it and his daughter will remember the moment and the

being baptized as well. And you never know, church, you

never know how you're going to be a part of someone's life.

Maybe you're the first seed or maybe you're the 20th seed that

you've spoken as someone's life and maybe you get to see the

fruit of it. But the part of a journey of a

Christ well is that we obedient through what God has called us

to do in the lane. He's called us to walk as well,

that we go, God, you've called me here to just be steadfast and

just long-suffering the whole time.

But if this was a seed moment that someone down the track will

speak into his life and he goes, that's right.

This young man, he continued just constantly on fire, just

focused on God. And he did not waver.

He did not shift. Nothing could shake him or break

him. And I could not believe it.

And for some reason, that moment from that seed to that seed to

that seed, that man's life gets transformed and his family gets

transformed. And this is the journey that we

never know what these steps that we can make and how it can

impact someone else's life because it's not about us.

It's about what we are doing for Christ.

We are living for God, which is powerful.

And so you might think as well, you're too young, you don't know

it all and no one will listen or even follow you.

But it says here in the Bible that one Timothy 4 verse 12, let

no one despise you for your youth, but set the belief as an

example in speech, in behaviour, in love, in faith and impurity.

When you position yourself in a place, when you position a place

of leaning in leaning into the word, leaning to God because

being in the world and not all of it can be tricky, but you can

make a lot of difference when you go God, here I am.

What do you want me to do in this place?

I've got a handful of people that don't know who you are.

I don't even know how to communicate to them.

I struggle with my words. Doesn't matter.

Gods will use you. Use your life, use your words if

you just trust them and go, God, give me, give me a moment, give

me a question. Give me a door that can open up

into someone's life that I can speak into.

And this can be powerful in there.

And so there is this wrestle in our spirit and in our flesh.

And often we can think we are operating in our spirit, but we

can be misdirected by a decision in our past in a moment, which

happened later on. And so going back to Galatians,

there's a verse that I, I skipped over many years, but

God's highlighted this and I was like, oh wow.

I actually didn't really recognize it.

And I hope you get a revelation out of it like I have.

But we can be operating in our past and where it says here in

Galatians 5, verse 7, you were running a good race, who cut in

Galatians 5:7

on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

And I remember I had, I literally was like, whoa, hello,

hello, verse. I didn't see you there.

And it kind of hit me and you were running a good race who cut

in on you from keep you from obeying the truth?

You were you were there, you were doing a great job.

Who cut in? Was it someone else?

Was it yourself? See, sometimes we can be running

our life on our past success, yet we can be further from Jesus

than we ever have been. This is a life where we can

sometimes be deceived what's happening around us, and we can

be operating in what we used to live our life by and what we

used to be. I'm a Christian, devoted for

God. I've been, people have been

saved, miracles has happened. I've been operating, God's been

flowing through me. But are you still in that

position? Are you still with God in the

same way you were, or something happening in your life where

your life got busy? Have you yourself got in the way

of you and allowing God and you've been pushing God out of

the wind, out of your life and you don't even realize it.

And that's deception. You don't realize it until

something or someone reveals it. And you're like, oh, this is not

good. And to help unpack it a bit

more, I've been, we call it inspired by our pastor, Pastor

Graham. And he's been doing push ups,

which has been amazing. I was inspired and to use this

as an example, we're not doing push ups.

That's all. I don't know, I will probably

lose, but to use an example I used to actually, and this is

true. I used to do 100 push ups in a

minute and my life group boys can testify that because they

were there. But this was when I was had my

life group boys, which was 10 years ago.

Sheesh. It's actually better go.

So I used to do it in the mail. I used to boast about and I used

to actually keep boasting about it.

But did it ever occur to me, could I still do it?

Until my pasta started doing pushups and I was like, Oh yeah,

I could do some pushups. I start to do pushups.

I only got to five. I was like, Oh no, my pasta.

I can do more push ups than me right now and I'm younger and

I'm like, this is not really good.

I can't boast about this anymore.

And here we go. Going back to that verse.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you from keeping

you obeying the truth? And I in that moment I've

realized somewhere on that line I missed the moment.

And I used to be doing a lot of push ups.

I used to nail it, but some lot in my life I got busy or

something happened and I was still operating in that mindset,

but my body wasn't there and it was drifting further and weaker

and weaker away. Now let's look at in our

relationship with Christ. Now when we live our life with

God, we can be living a life that we are devoted to Christ.

We're operating in it and we've gone.

Look at what I used to do. Look at what I've achieved, the

fruit of my life. Yes, you were running a good

race, but what has happened? What has taken you out from

where you were? Because you could be feeding

your body, You could be feeding these things like you could be

going to the gym and you're like, look at my muscles.

I'm so strong, but you've forgotten to feed your spirit.

But you're like, I used to be good.

Well, cool, that's good. But it's now weak because where

are you right now? Where?

Where? Where is your spirit right now

with Christ? Because I've had to have these

revelational moments in my life multiple times.

I am human. I literally have gone, oh, I'm

doing all great, I'm great. But then there's these moments

in my life where I'm like, hold up.

Yes, I used to know all this stuff.

Yes, I have the knowledge here, but am I actioning it right now

in my life? Am I actually putting it to the

ground and I'm actually moving it and seeing fruit going out?

Or am I just got it all up here because there's no point having

all this knowledge yet. You're not using it and you're

not activating it in your life. We can read a book, a good book,

but if we do not action in our life like the word of God, we

can read it all we want, but if we do not apply it in our life,

we're not going to see fruit. We're not going to see the 100

push ups. We're not going to see that

stuff. So this is the what happens is

you've got to actually recognize where you're at.

So if we want to be in this world, we got to recognize where

we're at and we got to go, OK, I'm here right now.

I'm up to 1 scripture a day. Let's do it.

I'm up to one minute of just silence, just quietness.

One minute I can do this and it recognizing that man.

And what you do is you recognize and you start to retrain, you

start to grow and you start to develop your journey.

And before you know it, you start to build these muscles,

these spiritual muscles that you once had.

And believe it or not, it grows stronger and stronger because

now you are where where you are at, because what can happen is

we can lose sight of what's happening.

And and I love this verse in Matthew, this paragraph in

Matthew 26. It's a part where they talk

about Peter. He was one of Jesus 12

disciples. And Jesus told him that he would

actually Peter would deny him three times before the rooster

cries. And this is Peter.

And he said to him, he's like, I would go to prison.

I would even die for you. Jesus, I love you like you are.

I'm on fire for you. I'm completely devoted for you.

But when the moment came when Jesus was taken away away by the

Pharisees, Peter followed from a distance.

And this was one of the first moments.

See those steps in our life. And there could be good steps

and there can be bad steps. And when we take these steps,

these steps ultimately, even even if they can be a small

steps, each small steps lead to a big impact in the future.

And so we got to be wary where we're stepping.

And what happened was Peter followed from a distance and

distance from fellowship with the Lord is at heart of every 4

is that heart of where we fall there.

And Peter was still falling from a distance.

And even though some of the disciples, they weren't even

there, but he was still away. But when you fall at a distance,

you increase your vulnerability. Now think about it.

If the devil sees everyone moving together, if we are

together gone, God, we're all for you.

We're side arm by arm, our brothers and sisters in Christ

lifting each other. When we fall, whichever we're

strong, we're held together. But when we separate ourselves

from a distance, it can be hard, it can be separating.

And what can happen is the things around you can get you.

And pity is the one who falls down and has no one to lift them

back up. And the next step he did is he

joined the enemy's fire, the these guys, he joined this fire

while I was having a little, little fire pit going on.

And what was happening, he was he in the wrong place at the

wrong time? He said, Jesus, I'm with you,

I'm with you. But now he's away.

He's hanging out with the wrong crowd of people.

And when you hang out with the wrong people in the wrong

places, it's just a matter of time before you do the wrong

thing. And that's what happened.

There was moment after moment someone's like, hey, you look

like one of those. Sorry.

It's like, bro, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,

I'm not. I was like, hey, you got it was

like, no, I'm not. And then the third time he said

no. And just as you're saying, the

rooster crowed anyway, no, how did this happen?

Each one of our steps, each one of our choices that we have make

an impact in our life. And I look at Peter and go, bro,

why'd you like literally why you're with Jesus?

Like, why are you afraid? But fear can creep in and lead

us away. When and I thought about it, I

was like, there's these moments where I've lived my life where

I've had these opportunities and to speak into someone's life and

fear crept in where I've missed an opportunity.

I'm like, God, no, how did I do this?

And that's where it's going. God help to continue sowing into

me to give me boldness. Give me the spirit of boldness

that I can trust you and trust you that you will speak through

me and and the past can't be changed, but our response to it

can be. See, God can take what we

believe is our end and turn it into a new beginning.

He can turn all things into a newer beginning.

What we, what Peter thought was the end, Jesus took it to a new

beginning and revealed to him the fear that he had.

Sometimes these things and challenges in our life can be

just a stepping stone for us to revelation, for us to reveal to

us an area that we've got to grow in.

That can be fear. That can be doubts.

That can be these areas and what it grew for me in the six years

of trade was developing my foundation and confidence

through Christ. And then with that as well going

God, I just trust you. I'm not going to know the

answers, but I'm going to continue pursuing you and God

had that moment like why is this happening?

Why do I have to go through this, but God was revealing the

strength that he's growing and equipping me for my season ahead

and the continual to the next and the next.

See, we need to be spiritually aware of our walk with Jesus and

Romans 12 verse 2 says do not be conformed to this world, but be

Romans 12:2

transformed by the renewal of your mind that by the testing

you may discern what the will, what is the will of God, what is

good and acceptable and perfect. Our church vision is to

unmistakably influence our world for good and for God.

This happens by living our life, which is countercultural from

the world. But to be in the world around

people who are yet to know Jesus, yet to be free from the

things that only through Jesus they could be set free.

We get to be a part of this mission.

We get to be in the world, but not of it.

But we get to be a part of the mission of God, to see people

come to Jesus, to be a witness and to go, God, use me right

now, partner with me. I want to partner with you, God,

to see people's lives be transformed, to just direct them

to Jesus and keep going. Where do you call me right now?

Because we're a part of this mission altogether in all

different areas. We're called in all different

areas, and we're all gifted in different ways to speak

directly. And so God, what have you called

me into? What have you called me to do?

How do you want me to speak into this person?

Is it the first seed? Is it the last seed?

What are you wanting to do? And by living that life, God

will move through those. And, and because the world can

easily be LED away from the truth and often people are left

being confused and not confident in what the truth is anymore.

So if you're here tonight and you're seeking what the truth

is, I want to let you know. In John 1416, Jesus told him, I

am the way, I am the truth. I am the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

That's the truth. It's as simple as that.

It is as simple as that. That is the answer that we are

looking. That is the answer that we can

give, that we can direct them to Jesus, not through, not to us by

God. Help them help use me as a

vessel for them to receive Jesus, not receive me in my

words and how great I, but how great you are God.

And when we make that decision to follow Jesus and we give our

heart to God, we have already separated ourselves from the

world and now we get to be in a relationship with our heavenly

Father. And I just pray.