Christian-ish: Part 4

Christian-ish: Part 4

Exodus 34:6-7, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 63:1, 3, 6-8

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are really just praying that this series has been good for you, it's been good for us as pastors, and by good I mean I hope and pray that God is using it to reveal things to you, reveal areas of your life that might need to be surrendered over to Him and that we could be made more like Him. So that's what I mean. I hope the series has been good for you, I hope it's been challenging in the best of ways.

So I want to start off by telling you a quick story about myself. When I was in junior high, I transferred from one very, very small private school to a bigger private school, and it felt huge to me. I was very nervous, but it felt like going, I hadn't been to public school and it felt like I was going to this big thing. One because I got to take a bus for the first time in my life, I got to take a bus to school and I was like, this is legit, I'm now going to a legit school, I'm riding a bus, this is awesome. And the other thing that I loved was that they had vending machines. I'd never had a vending machine at my school before, and then I was like, man, every day I get the opportunity to buy whatever I want. And there were two, there was one for drinks, one for snacks, and I just thought, man, I've made it, this is the best. And I remember, so you guys maybe know then, having the good of that, of being able to buy whatever I want, but also you have these experiences where you put in your money, 50 cents, 75 cents, you put in your snack, whatever you want, and then you wait for the little thing to turn and it to come out towards you and to fall down. You also know sometimes when that doesn't happen. And the thing turns and it just stops, or it's like nothing happens, you're just sitting there feeling robbed, you're like, what just, what? Where's my food? Where, I just put in money? This is the worst. And for a junior high student, that can be like, that's the end of the day. I'm ready to go home. This was what I was looking forward to, and now I get nothing.

I share all that. Because sometimes we treat our relationship with God as if he were a vending machine. We put in what we think is good, something good from us, what he wants, expecting something in return, something like blessings, provision, whatever it is. And so maybe it's like, hey, God, I've been attending church, or I've been praying, I've been doing my devotional time, I've been tithing, acts of service, and we come to expect this transactional faith. Okay, God, here's my payment. Now please answer my prayer. Bless me. Give me what I want. It's like we're ordering from God, right? We do all those things, and we're like, all right, God, C12, more money, please. Or B2, can I get that new job? Or if you're a student, and I know because I've prayed these prayers of students, like D7, can help me pass that test. I haven't studied, but God, I was going to church all this month, so I think this should equal an A. Now, say what may seem obvious at this point, that God doesn't work this way.

This is not how faith is. It's not some kind of contract. We may not realize it, but we may be living with a cause and effect faith. If I do my part, God has to do His. Maybe you've thought this in the inverse situation, when something bad happens, and you're going through a struggle, and you're like, God, is this because I broke my side of the contract? Is it because I didn't go to church this Sunday, and now I'm dealing with this? Or is it because I haven't been praying to you? That's still a cause and effect relationship with God. And we think, oh, God's holding me to that thing where I let him down, and so now He's not blessing me anymore. We can live with a faith where we are the ones in focus. We are the ones in charge. And really, we think we're on equal standing with God. I do my part, and equally across the way, He does His part. Subconsciously, we can have these thoughts that when that doesn't happen, when God doesn't show up or answer the prayer that we prayed, we can think, God has failed me. I'm disappointed by God. God let me down because He didn't do this, this, and this. And when we voice that out loud, it sounds maybe a bit obnoxious, outlandish, but maybe it's also ringing true for some of us. To be like, oh, you know what, I have prayed that, or I have thought that before. In our faith, we need to recognize that, one, we are not equal with God. And two, if we don't understand what's happening or why something isn't happening, that's for us to find out for what God is doing. Not to be disappointed in God because He didn't do what we deemed best, what we deemed necessary, what we deemed right. If we don't address this and we leave this kind of faith unchecked, it can lead to us feeling betrayed by God, frustrated by God, hurt by God.

And we want to expose this lie today, a lie that keeps us from real faith, that this false faith, a transactional faith, is dangerous. It's an incomplete faith because it leaves us with an inflated view of ourselves, and it distorts how we view God. We lower Him down to be on our level. And after enough disappointment and hurt and frustration, the danger is that people will, with that entitled view of their selves, will just walk away from God. God hasn't been doing what I want. This isn't worth it anymore. This faith that I bought into, that I invested in, that I thought I was doing all these things, I'm not getting out of it what I deserve, what I'm entitled to. And people can just walk away from the faith. So we've got to be careful and vigilant to cultivate and grow a biblical faith in God. So I want to look today at God's Word to see how faith in God, our relationship with God, what it was intended to look like. If you guys would pray with me one more time as we continue in our service. Gracious Father, since our whole salvation depends on true understanding of Your Holy Word, grant that our hearts, freed from worldly affairs, may hear and understand Your Holy Word with all diligence and faith, so that we may rightly discern Your gracious will, cherish it, and live by it with all earnestness, to Your praise and honor through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

That was a prayer by a theologian called Martin Bueser who wrote that. And I love it, and I wanted to pray it today with all of you because it emphasizes that to better understand God and to have a true faith in Him, we need God. We don't come up with that on our own and just say, "God, I'll figure out my side, you do Your side." No, we need God to do our part too. And we need to understand His Word to understand Him and to have a true faith. So let's look at the Bible. When we look at the Bible, we have a bunch of... Life Church has given us a bunch of definitions, and I think they're helpful.

So I wanna share with us today true biblical faith. Do we have a definition for true biblical faith? It's about giving or about knowing and loving God for who He is, not just what He does. There it is. Knowing and loving God for who He is, not just what He does. We're gonna get to who He is in a little bit, but that's so important. I think so often we just do it for what He does. And sometimes that's how we come to faith, we've seen God work, we've seen what He can do, and so that draws us in, and that's good, but we can't stay there. That's drawing a sense that we get to know Him, and we fall in love with Him, and we get, "God, I love you for who you are, not just what you do." We have our Christian-ish definition, right, having a half-hearted faith, wearing the label of Christianity without truly following Jesus. This is what we're hitting week after week of, "We do not want to be Christian-ish." Those who are Christian-ish often embrace and live with a transactional faith, which is a distorted belief that turns our relationship with God into a contract, believing that if we do our part, God is obligated to do His. I just want to just look at that, read that again, and take a moment to see if that's where you're at in your faith right now. Distorted belief that turns our relationship with God into a contract, believing that if we do our part, God has to do His. And I don't want to heap shame on you if you're looking at this definition and you're realizing that you've been living with a transactional faith, because I want to say, I've struggled with this too, I still do at times, and we are not alone. If you're in this room and you're saying, "Yes, this is a struggle of mine. I tend to think that God ought to do something. I expect Him to do something." You are not alone. We are not alone. Throughout history, there have been many with transactional faith problems, and actually we have a lot of examples in the Bible of people who have expected something of God.

So I just want to take a moment to go through some of these biblical examples. Exodus 16, 3 talks about this moment where Israel has been freed from Egypt. They were in slavery, right? I want to emphasize how bad they were in slavery. It was terrible. They were playing with God, crying out to God, "Rescue us." God rescues them, and they're out in the desert. Desert is hard. It's very hard. They're free, but they're in the desert. And they say to God, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate food all we wanted. But you have brought us out," talking to God, "into the desert to starve this entire assembly to death." So you can get the tone of this obligation. They feel like, "God, we followed you out here." And He told them, "I'm bringing you to a place. You're on the way. You're in the journey. You're not there yet. I'm bringing you there." And they were already like, "You know what? Bring us back to slavery. This is terrible. God, you're not meeting. You're not meeting." Transactional faith.

If we go later on in the Bible in Jonah, the story of Jonah is God calls Jonah to go preach to a city, Nineveh. Nineveh is one of the worst cities on earth, absolutely terrible. And Jonah's like, "I don't get this mission. God, I think I know you. I don't understand this." He doesn't want to go, and he fights it. But then God says, "Look, I'm going to have you preach, and if they don't do, then if they don't repent, I'm going to destroy it. If they do repent, but if they repent, I'm not going to destroy them. I'm going to forgive them. If not, I'm going to destroy them." And Jonah's like, "Great. You might destroy them. I'm in." Shows a lot about Jonah's heart there. Not a great moment for the prophet. He goes. He preaches. One of the worst messages ever, because it's just like, "God's about to come." And miraculously, they believe. They're like, "Oh, my goodness. Really?" That really messes with Jonah. And he says in chapter 4, verse 1 through 3, he says, "After God forgave, Jonah says, 'This is very wrong.' And he became angry. He prayed to God, 'Isn't this what I said, Lord? While I was still at home, I tried to foretell this. I knew that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, God, take my life away, for it is better for me to die.'" So he has this very weird moment. He's very petty. He's just like, "God, I can't stand this. Just take me now. I'd rather I die than see these people be forgiven." Again, that's like wild from Jonah. But he has these expectations, and God didn't meet them.

Think of the story in the New Testament of Lazarus. And Lazarus is sick, and Jesus gets word. Jesus and Lazarus are very tight, and Jesus gets word. But it takes three days for Jesus to get there, and in that time, Lazarus has died. And Martha, in John 11 21, says, "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been there, my brother would not have died." Now we look at Martha, and we praise her for the faith that she had, that she knew what Jesus could do. But we also hear an underlying tone of, "I kind of expected you to be here, Jesus. I kind of thought you would have done something to make his death not happen." Last one, prodigal son. You guys are maybe familiar with the story of the prodigal son. His father has two sons. The youngest one wants his inheritance now, and that is a terrible situation. We hear that today, and we're like, "Okay." He just wants a forward on his, an advance on his inheritance. In that time, it was saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead. I want my money now." Father gives it to him. He goes and takes his money and spends it on all the worldly pleasures, wastes it away, and ends up living with the pigs. And he sits there, and he has a moment of clarity. He says, "My life would have been better even just as a servant at my father's house than to stay here and live with the pigs." So he goes back, and before he can even get a word out, his father runs to him, hugs him, forgives him, and says, "I'm so glad that you are home." That's the story that we're very familiar with. What is often forgotten is that there was an older brother who stayed with the father the whole time, and he doesn't like that this happened. He sees the rejoicing of the younger son over the younger son. And he says in Luke 15:29, he answered his father, "Look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you killed the fattened calf for him." I mean, that's some heavy fighting words from that older brother who is saying, "This is not fair, Dad. I've been here loyal to you this entire time, and I got nothing." Well, really, he got the blessing of living in his father's house the whole time, but he doesn't think it's fair.

And in all these examples, Old Testament to New Testament, is a thought that I bet that we have had, which is when something happens not aligned with what we think should have happened or what God should have done, is the thought, "God, I thought we had a deal. What's up? What are you doing?" Maybe some of you are having that conversation with God about something in your life right now. And it's not uncommon, even for those who have been walking with God for years, that the more we seek Him, the more we obey Him, the more we serve Him, to expect a little preferential treatment. Right? We're all sitting there like, "Yeah, yeah, totally. Like the more years I put in with God, the more blessing I should get from God." We treat it like a punch card from a coffee shop, like, "God, look at all these 10 things I've done. Look at all the longevity I've done. And now I would like to redeem it for an answered prayer of just a blank check pretty much, whatever I want, God. But look, look at the 10 holes. All done. I've been here long enough with you." And that thought isn't always overtly loud in our minds or our hearts, the fact that we are viewing our relationship with God as a contract or transactional. It can start really small. It can start with just a feeling of hope. Like, "God, I've been walking with you for a long time now or for a while, or I've kind of given this area of my life over to you. I hope that this blesses me in some way." And I don't think that's wrong. But that hope can grow into expectation.

And then what once was a subtle thought now has roots and can be a part of our theology and how we live out our faith. We do this and this for God because I expect God is going to do something that I want down the road. And just like that, we have an unhealthy and dangerous theology that we live by. If we serve God, He owes us. Maybe you've had prayers like this recently. "God, why didn't you answer my prayer, God? I asked for this and I've been doing really good. I'm going to church every Sunday and tithing." Maybe you prayed a prayer. "God, I raised my kids right. They went to church. They went to youth group. Why did they walk away from you?" Maybe it's, "God, I've been tithing. I've been worshiping you with my money. Why am I still paycheck to paycheck? Why am I still struggling to make ends meet?" Maybe it's, "God, I've remained pure. I'm living in a way that honors you with my body and my relationships. Why am I not married yet?" Whatever your prayers have been, can you hear the underlying expectations that we have on God in those prayers? Can you recognize the tone of entitlements that we have towards God? And let me be clear. I'm not saying that we shouldn't expect for God to answer. That we can know. God does hear us and He will respond. It's just when we put God in a corner and say, "You can only do one thing. God, this is exactly what I need you to do. And if you don't do it, well, now we got problems." And again, when I say that out loud, I don't think it's something that we would say, "Yeah, yeah, that's how I view God." But the way we pray can definitely say, "That's how we view God, is we expect one thing. It's the thing that I want. And if God doesn't give it to me, I'm throwing a fit. Sounds like my toddler.”

We can have that kind of faith. You see, true faith is not contractual. It is relational. It's about knowing and loving God for who He is, not just what He does. Got this prayer from Life.Church and I think it's really helpful for us. And maybe this is the prayer that's going to help us this week with our transactional faith. It says, "God, help me to know you and love you, not just for what you do, but for who you are." Again, we can love God for what He does. We should love God for what He does, but that can't be the only thing. Because there will be times when we just don't see God necessarily. There'll be days where it's like, "God, I haven't really seen what you're doing." And that doesn't mean that our love can dry up. We need to know who He is. God, help me to know you and to love you, not just for what you do, but for who you are. It's a simple prayer, but man, it can have such a huge impact on our faith. True faith is less about us and more about God. This doesn't come naturally to us. It means we have to be intentional, just as John the Baptist, when he said, "He must become greater, I must become less." That's John 3:30. John the Baptist is realizing the role that he's going to have to become less so that Jesus can become more. Maybe the phrase that you've heard is, "God must increase and I must decrease." Sometimes we hear that and we think, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that I need to have more of God in my life." We forget the important aspect that we must decrease. We just think, "Oh, God just increased in my life. I need more of God.”

We forget the part that we need to become less in our lives and God needs to become more. So one of the differences between a biblical faith and a transactional faith that treats a relationship with God like a contract. A contract focuses on what we get out of it. We are at the center of our relationship with God and it has a way of making us feel like we are on equal standing with God. It's not true. Pastor Lauren just preached a couple of weeks ago on covenantal relationship with God, speaking about unconditional promises and conditional blessings. So I want to reiterate, God loves us no matter what. That is true. No matter how we're living, whether we're following him or we're not, he loves us and he blesses our obedience. We don't obey for the blessing. That's a twisted motivation, right? See how easy it is to corrupt our relationship with God? All of a sudden we can just have a rotten motivation in our heart to say, "Oh, there's blessing? I want that." And all of a sudden now we are at the center and we are looking to like, "Gimme, gimme, gimme. God, I will do this. I will obey because I'm getting something out of it." And you may be wondering, "Okay, being blessed by God upon my obedience, that seems transactional, contractual." And I would say it's not. It's less that it's more covenantal and relational. We are blessed in our obedience to God because obedience means walking with him.

And I've said this last week, I'll say it again. He is the greatest gift in life. He is the greatest blessing. And when we walk with him and live the way that he intended us to live, there is blessing in that. We are experiencing a life the way that it's meant to. That in itself is a blessing. I think understanding that and the way that that blessing means, we think of it as like, "Oh, if I walk with him, I'm gonna get stuff. I'm gonna get more money. I'm gonna have a healthy life. I'm gonna get whatever I want." No, the blessing of walking with God is that he's with us. He is the blessing. And understanding that helps us to break down this transactional and kind of see how it's not a true faith and how true faith is more relational. Another point that helps us is a contract is transactional, temporary, and enforceable by law. A covenant is relational, eternal, and sustained by love. A contract in its essence is transactional. It's based upon protecting yourself. It exists because by default, there's a level of mistrust between the two parties. And you're just trying to shore up for anything that could happen. And we leave room for the fact that something could go wrong.

So I'll give you an example. Contract with rental homes, right? Neither side know each other. You have the people who own the home or the property manager, and you have the tenant. The rental manager owner is responsible to provide a livable space up to certain standards. You have the renter who agrees to pay a certain price and keep it at certain standards, and they drop a contract so that both parties begin a transactional relationship, agreement. But the reality is that it's temporary, it's transactional, and it can be enforced by law. Let me give you an example of a relational agreement that's very different. Growing up, we had, in a church that my family went to, we had this one family who was on the... Fallen hard times, and they were kind of... People in the church were opening up their homes for their whole family to stay with them for, you know, just as you get back on your feet, come live with us. So my parents were very gracious, and they invited this family in and their kids. It was not rent. It was just a relational thing sustained by love. It wasn't eternal. They didn't stay with us forever. But you see the difference. Think of your relationship with friends. You don't enter a friendship with a contract. If you do... It was weird. I don't know. I've never seen that before. But you don't have a paper, and you're like, "Hey, we're both gonna sign this, and we're agreeing to a certain amount of hours that we must spend with each other every week." There's no court you go to to be like, "They did not go to my birthday dinner, and I want to end it. This is the break of our contract." There's no official that you have to go to to say, "Hey, by the way, we're no longer friends. I need to make sure that everyone knows." It doesn't exist.

It's a different kind of relationship. Think of your relationship with God. It should be more like that, right? As a friendship. It's relational, it's eternal, and it's sustained by love. God loves us with a relational, unconditional, covenantal love for eternity. Even when we don't hold up our end, when we fail, when we turn away from God, or like we talked about last week, when we start pursuing idols, He still loves us. He holds onto us and upholds the covenant. And Timothy 2 says, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself." I love that. I love that it's saying that we are going to fail. There are moments where we will not exercise any faith in God, and He doesn't respond in kind. No, He still loves us and holds onto us because it's an unconditional, covenantal, relational relationship. I share this today because knowing this, again, can help free us from the thought of a false faith. The transactional faith knowing that God loves us, and that we should love Him, not just for what He does, but for who He is. Now, I want to get to who He is, because I said this last week, if we better understood God, we'd be more likely to follow Him and keep Him in the number one chair.

But I really want to spend a little bit of today with who He is. We have to understand who He is. That point is just missed if you're like, "Great, I got to love Him for who He is." I don't know who He is. Who is God? Well, I love this question. I love pointing to one passage in Scripture to answer who God is. It's a story of Moses on the mountain. Moses, at this time, had never seen God. He's heard from God, the burning bush, and the voice that came from the burning bush, and he's seen God work some incredible miracles. He's seen the evidence of God. He's seen God as He's led the Israelite people in the pillar of fire by day, or cloud by day and fire by night, leading the people through the wilderness. And they're out in the wilderness, and God is doing His thing where He's like, "All right, they're all gathered. Moses, come up to the top of the mountain. I'm going to give you some instruction as the leader to help Israel be a nation, to be my nation." So Moses goes up to the mountain. It's just him and God. And Moses, after some conversation, is like, "God, can I see you?" And it seems like a simple request, but it's Moses' way of saying, "I just want to know you more. I've heard you. I've heard your voice. I've seen evidence of you, and you in the form of fire and cloud. But can I see you?" And God says, "No." He's like, "Nope, you can't." And we say, "Oh, God, why don't you just..." Because God says, "You would die. If I were to show you my full glory, you can't handle it. It's too much for you." But he says to Moses, "Why don't you hide yourself in the cleft of the mountain? And I'm going to pass by really quick." I don't know what that looks like. I just think I would love to have seen and be there for this moment. But he's trying to meet Moses where he's at, right? He's like, "I can't show you everything, but let me just pass by really quick.”

If you ever want to read this, this is Exodus 33 and 34, the end of 33 into 34. So he's hiding in the cleft and Exodus 34, 6 through 7 says, "And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, that he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents of the third and fourth generation.'" Moses wanted to know who God was, and God in his way answered and said, "This is who I am." Oh, can we bring that back? "Compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness and rebellion and sin, and just." This is, by the way, the most quoted scripture by scripture. What I mean by that is throughout scripture, they constantly reference us. We just read this in Jonah. Jonah was like, "I knew you were this God, and I didn't like it.”

But he's saying all these great things that God says about himself. This is who God is. He's introducing himself to Moses. He said, "You want to know me? Here's who I am." And this is why God has given us his word. All of your Bible, all of this points to who God is. You want to know who God is? This is, I would say, start here. This is a great place to start. But you read all of scripture, you're going to find out more and more about God. It's to help us know who he is and to fall in love with him and say, "Great. Now that I know you more and I want to know you more, God, let me go to your word and find out who you are." If you were to read in order, scripture, you learn, oh, you start at the beginning, "Oh, God, I'm going to learn. God is a creator. He created everything." You read through Israel, "Oh, God is a rescuer. He rescued his people." You go through the prophets and you learn, "Oh, God is more powerful than any other God, anything else in the world." You read through David and Solomon, you say, "Oh, God is the King of Kings. Even the best kings of David and Solomon, they pale in comparison to God. Oh, I learned that he's just. I learned that he is a prophet and priest. I learned that God gives himself through Jesus to his people, that he loves us and he never fails and his words are true and that he is the only way to heaven and that he is above all else.”

You read scripture, you learn that and so much more about who God is. And when we learn who God is, we then learn who we are. In light of him, we understand better our position. And the words from Isaiah ring all the more true. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways are my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Oh, this is humbling. We're talking about praying and not getting what we want. And God says this, "Look, you don't get it and that's okay. I'm doing things. I am at work, but I'm up here and you don't see everything that's up here and it's not meant for you to." We need to remember this. We are not on equal ground with God and our relationship with him is not transactional. And as we covered last week, as we know this more and we live in this truth, trusting God every moment of every day, our relationship with God becomes less transactional and more relational.

David is someone in the Bible who embodies this covenantal relationship with God. He repeatedly writes in the Psalms a line that we now sing at times, "God, you are my God." And he doesn't treat God like a vending machine. "God, you are my God. I need your prayers. I need your blessing. I need your provision." No, he writes, Psalm 63:1, "You are my God. You God are my God and earnestly I seek you. I thirst for you. My whole being longs for you in dry and parched land where there is no water because your love is better than life. My lips will glorify you. On my bed I remember you. I think of you through the watches of the night because you are my help. I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you, your right hand upholds me." This is a man who knows and lives in the truth, who has tasted and seen the goodness of God and understands that God is the best thing there is. Better than his own provision and blessing is the person of God himself who is with us. It really highlights how our relationship with God should be, not transactional, but deeply intimate and personal and relational. So how do we know? How do we know if we have a transactional faith with God? Well, I got a couple of questions.

And again, like last week, I just encourage you to don't get defensive. You're not answering out loud. This is between you and God. So the first question is, "Do I follow God because of what he does for me or because of who he is?" All right, starting off soft there. Number two, "Do I still trust God when he doesn't answer my prayer the way I wanted or do I feel betrayed?" Okay, now we're getting real. Have you ever felt betrayed by God? Probably yes. And do we still trust him even when we don't get what we want? Number three, "Do I serve God because I love him or because I'm hoping for something in return?" All right, that last one hits hard. There are times. I find myself serving in a way that I'm like, "God, I really hope there's something good at the end of this. I really hope that I get something." And it's, man, that's not the best faith. That's not what God... That's not what the Bible says a faith should look like. But that, I know it's real. From experience, I know it's real that we can be disappointed, frustrated, and feel betrayed by God. I was having a conversation this week with a pastor. We were commiserating on the reality that woven throughout our Western evangelical theology and church practices is a transactional faith. It's everywhere. There's this hope, this wrong hope and motivation that we get something out of it. That's not what the Bible says. Now let me say, we do have good moments. Our hearts can be in the right place. We can love God genuinely and sincerely and worship him with all that we have. That exists, and I know that many of you are in that. That's great, and praise God for that. But it's hard because literally the very next moment you could be struggling with, "God, all right, do I get something now?" That thought just creeps in so easily. And maybe you pray, "God, why haven't you answered my prayers? Why didn't I get that new job? Why hasn't my family member experienced healing yet? Why haven't you fixed my marriage yet? Why am I still struggling to put food on the table?" We're wanting God to do something for us. We're disappointed in unmet expectations. We're feeling frustrated, hurt, or even betrayed. And we ask those questions to God, and we say, "God, why haven't you?" And church, I don't have that answer. I do not know why God hasn't answered your prayer in the way that you wanted besides to say God hears you, he loves you, and his ways are higher than ours. We may not understand, but that doesn't mean that he isn't walking with you. Doesn't mean that he doesn't feel everything that you're feeling. He's hurting alongside you. We just may not know what he's up to.

But I want to encourage you and to warn you, if you're following God just to have your prayers answered, you're missing God's heart. And you're missing the relationship that you could be having with him. Your relationship with him isn't what it needs to be. It's like in Luke 6, when the disciples are following Jesus right after he's fed the 5,000, and that whole crowd follows him. And Jesus turns at a certain point and says, "You guys are just following me for more food. That's all you really want, is more miracle food. You don't know that I'm the Messiah. You don't believe in me." We don't want to be like those disciples. We want to be true disciples abiding in him because we love him and we know him. Yes, we see what he does, but even when we don't, we know who he is. God is not a tool to use, not a means to an end. He's a king that we worship with all of our lives. We do this because God loves us and he is the very best thing there is.

Let's pray. God, thank you for your word, for your truth. And God, we need you. And I pray that you would forgive us for moments where we have a transactional faith, where we come to you and you know our hearts. You can see right through us and know that really we're just wanting something selfishly. God, thank you for the patience and the compassion that you have with us in those moments. God, I pray that you would help grow in us a faith that is true, that is based on who you are. Help us to know you more. And as we fall more in love with you and worship you, God, I pray that we would experience the blessing of walking with you in your presence and we would just come to appreciate your presence in our life. So God, we pray that simple prayer. God, I pray that we would know you and love you not just for what you do, but for who you are. May that be true in our lives today. Amen.

Christian-ish: Part 3

Christian-ish: Part 3

Exodus 34:14, 20:5, DeutERONOMY 4:24

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I've got another easy question for you, if you are a follower of Jesus, what should or who should come first in your life? Don't overthink it. Say it out loud, who is it? Yeah, God, Jesus, great, perfect, good job. Sunday School answer for the win. Yes, who should come first in our lives? It should be God. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God." He also says in Matthew 22, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” In that verse, he's actually quoting from the Old Testament, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.” And so we know that as believers, as people who have a relationship with God, God should come first. The sad reality is he often doesn't. We make the claim that he is, but the way we live our lives does not reflect that Jesus is number one. What are some other categories in our lives that are important? You guys can see the shout it out. What are some other things in life? Family, yes, good job. Yeah, anything else? Health, yeah, money we need. Yes, good. These are all good things. Yeah, very important.

I have a demonstration to help us with seeing this behind the magical door are things that, thank you, perfect. Alrighty then. I don't know if you can all see this. I'm bringing out chairs. If you cannot see, I'm bringing the thank you, sir. All right. We have here all sorts of different chairs. Maybe you know where I'm going with this. Let's imagine your life full of all your different priorities, all the aspects that you have are different chairs in your life. In real life, you probably have 10, 15, 20 different things that you're balancing, that you're prioritizing. I don't have room for 10 or 15, 20 different chairs. We're going to go with the four that I have right here. You have to prioritize your chairs with the importance. Chair number one, obviously, be the most important above everything else. Chair number two, very important, just not as important, and so on and so forth. If you're a father of Jesus, you guys don't fail me now. You guys are good. Who should go in chair number one? Yes, Jesus. Okay, it was a little weaker. Don't lose conviction now. We're only five minutes in. Like, God, Jesus. Okay, yes, God should be number one. And then if you're a believer, if you're a Christian... Oh, yeah, there we go. Yes, more chairs, five chairs. If you're a follower of Jesus, what should go in chair number two? Yeah, I think good. I think family is a good number two. And we could keep going, but you guys get the point. We'll stop there, and let's process together. If this is... I picked the biggest, nicest chair, right? This is the God, number one God chair. Is this a reflection of most... Okay, don't answer this one out loud. Self-reflection time, answer inside your head. Is this a reflection of most of your lives, that God is number one? And when I ask that, I mean not with what you intend, not with where your heart would be, but if you were to take an honest look at your life in the 24-hour day, day after day, week after week, is this a reflection of your life, that God is number one?

I can't speak for you, but I see in a lot of people, even in my own life, there is often something else that takes the number one seat in my life. One of the common things that I think takes the first chair is your job. Using just time alone, how much you have to work, it's a majority of your life. Your career takes up a lot of time. You come home, and with whatever energy you have left, you then try to be with family or do whatever else it is you're doing. But if you have kids, maybe you're interacting with your kids, and maybe, if we're honest, we're a little bit short because we're just exhausted and tired. Hopefully you have a healthy marriage, but maybe there's stress there and it's under duress. Do you have to pay bills? You got all these other things, projects that you have to do? You have to work hard to have a nice life, however you define that. You got to have money to, someone said that earlier, you got to have money to survive, but on top of that, to do anything casual at all, you still have to have money to do that. Maybe you have hobbies that are important, that you're passionate about, that you enjoy. You got to have money to do those. So maybe that's something like CrossFit or video games or watercoloring or competitive speed puzzling. That's a thing. And it's real, and I'm interested, so I'm looking for a partner and would love... Talk to me afterwards. And if we were to go in order, maybe it's job, and then it's family, and then it's hobbies, and then at the end is maybe God. Maybe. I think some weeks he's left out of the priority list altogether. What happens in our lives is we say God is first, but our actions say something different.

And so we're continuing our Christian-ish series, and today we're talking about a faith that puts God second. Or you could fill in third, fourth, fifth, just anything but where he should be. I want you guys to go ahead and pray with me one more time. God, thank you again for our chance to be together today. And I pray that through the preaching of your word, God, that you would, through your spirit, speak to each of us where we need to be realigned, where our hearts need to be brought to the right place. And God, I pray that we would be willing, that we'd be open, that we would not be defensive of how we're living our life, but we would allow for your spirit to work in us, to transform us, to make us more like you. God, I pray that you'd give us clear eyes to see how we are living our lives right now. And if there is room to improve, to grow closer to you, to shed some things that are not good, God, I pray that you would give us the strength to do that. So be with us right now, and again, speak through your word, God. We pray this in your name. Amen. So we have, we're in our Christian-ish, and Christian-ish is having a half-hearted faith, wearing the label of Christianity, without truly following Jesus. And one of the most common qualities of someone who is Christian-ish is that they have a faith that puts God second. Pastor Craig Groeschel says that a faith that puts God second reflects a divided heart, where God is first in your words, but not in your life. We have the heart, we have the intention, we have the desire to honor God, to live for God, to please God with everything that we have. And you might know that, you might say to yourself, "I know that Jesus gave his life for me, I want to live for him.”

But then you start to live your life, you go about your day, your job, your school, your family, and so quickly, Jesus gets dropped down the priority list. Did you know that the Bible has a term for when this happens? The Bible calls putting anything ahead of God "idolatry." It's a heavy word. It's an old school word, we don't use idolatry a lot, but it's idolatry. And I believe that idolatry is a common struggle that all Christians face. If you look at the Old Testament, it is like as soon as Adam and Eve fall in the garden, and through Israel, all the way till Jesus comes, idolatry is just a reoccurring thing. They just continue to struggle with it over and over and over again. And it has not gone away. We don't necessarily use it in our everyday language amongst each other, even as Christians, but it's still prevalent today. Let me show you some verses where God addresses idolatry. Exodus 23 says, "You shall have no other gods before me." This is the first commandment, if you know your 10 commandments. And so he's saying that there shouldn't be anything higher than him. Nothing. He's not just talking about other gods, it says other gods, but in that, if we were to unpack that, that would just mean anything that is in the place of God. Nothing should be higher than God in your life. We also see in the New Testament, 1 John 5:21 says, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." So this is thousands of years later of people having a relationship with God, and they're still struggling, and the need is still there for it to be said, "Keep yourselves away from idols. Do not put anything in the place of God.”

Now we hear idol today, and what do we think of? Maybe you think of a little wooden trinket, or like a statue of some sort, of something. Maybe you think of the biblical examples of like the golden calf. And to be sure, those are definitely idols. Maybe you think of idols in relation to other gods, and you think, "Well, we don't really have other gods here. That's a third world country thing. We don't have other gods here." Quick story, there was a missionary from another country that came to do the tours of America to speak to different churches, and someone brought that up of like, "What is it like to live with other gods? We don't have that here." And he said, "Oh, you do. You have other gods here. Consumerism, you have money." And he named all these things that we struggle with. We just don't view them as they're not embodied in some little thing that someone bows down to. But they are incensed in the place of God, and we worship them with our lives. Idolatry, according to God's word, isn't just bowing down to an idol. Idolatry is putting anything before God. Anything. Even good things. God is clear in his word. He wants to be first in our lives. If we look at it from his perspective, this makes sense. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator, the Sustainer of all. And if he is who he says he is, then he deserves to be first, right? If we look at it from our perspective, that's a big ask from God to be number one. We could say, "God, don't you know how much I have going on? All the good things that I'm trying to do?" Like we already covered, we have a lot going on in our lives. We have a lot of priorities to balance. We have a routine. We have work. We have dreams and passions, things that we have to pay for. And that's why it's so common that many Christians agree in word and in theory, and I believe that they're genuine, that they want to put God first, but their lives just don't reflect it.

So we might ask, "Why is God being so demanding? Why does God want to be first? Couldn't he just be happy with simply being in my life?" Now, again, when we say that out loud, we start to feel some of the conviction of like, "Oh, that's not great. God shouldn't just be satisfied with being a part of my life." So why does God want to be first? Well, simply put, God is a jealous God. Now how many of you have heard that or when you read that in Scripture, it just doesn't settle well with you. God is a jealous God. That was me growing up. I grew up in the church. I grew up reading the Bible, and I was always taught, "I cannot be jealous. Jealousy is not good." And so I didn't get, "Why can God be jealous and I can't be jealous?" And I was jealous of God being like, "Oh, you can be jealous." When we look at Scripture, it's very clear. God is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14 says, "Do not worship any other God." We know that. God wants to be first. "For the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." Oh, okay. That's referencing Exodus 20, again, the Ten Commandments, and he says, "You shall not bow down to them or worship them," talking about other gods, "For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God." This is where God is introducing himself to the Israelites. He's rescued them, but he hasn't had a lot of interaction with them. He's just rescued them. He sustained them. But then on the mountain, when Moses goes up, he gets to explain himself, and he gives himself to the nation by giving them these commandments and says, "This is who I am. This is how I want you to be in light of who I am." And he's saying, "I am a jealous God." Deuteronomy 4:24 says, "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." That adds a little bit more to the picture of God, consuming fire. That kind of gives us the idea that he's never satisfied. He wants more and more of us.

Scripture is very clear. God is a jealous God. So why does God get to be jealous? I'm going to nerd out for a second. I'm going to show you some Hebrew. Are you guys okay with that? Pastor, again, Pastor Craig Groeschel helps put this together. I think it's really helpful. I'm going to put up a Hebrew word here. It's called "kna." That's how you would say it. That's the Hebrew up top. You see that middle letter with the little dot in there? That is what the ends are. That's called a "nun." That's a Hebrew "nun." Usually when we found it, and it's regular, keep that up there for a long time. Okay. Usually when we see this word, "nun," there's no dot in the middle. Okay? Does that make sense? There's only one "n." So it would be Q-A-N-A. "Kna." In our passages that we're talking about... Let me back up. That "kna" is the word for jealous. We talk about human jealousy or the sin to be jealous. You're going to see it in that fancy thing, another fancy thing with no dot, and then another fancy thing. You're going to see "kna." Now... I'd be a terrible Hebrew teacher. This is not... Just realizing this now. Any dreams I had of being a Hebrew... They're out the window. Fancy thing, fancy thing. "Kna." So the dot in the middle represents the fact that there has been two ends. There's an extra end that's been added to "kna." And it's called an intensifier. It's meant to communicate to the reader that this is an exaggerated amount of jealousy. This is an even greater amount of jealousy. This is the most amount of jealousy possible by someone. So if you were to see it with the no dot, you're like, "All right, jealousy." You see it with the dot, you're like, "Oh my goodness, this is the most jealous that someone can be." Now what's cool is the Hebrew language, the language that God's people spoke, that "kna" that we see right here with the little dot with the two "nuns" is only used to describe God's jealousy. You will never see it in the Bible used to describe a human jealousy. It's only used for God's jealousy. So if you were to read that, you'd pick up like, "Oh my goodness, we're talking about God's jealousy right here." And it is a holy jealousy. Unlike our human jealousy, which is flawed and self-serving and speaks to insecurities, you think about the times that you're jealous. It reflects something of your heart that at the root is sinful.

When we talk about God's jealousy, it is a righteous consuming, covenant keeping jealousy that relentlessly pursues and protects his relationship with his people. It's a jealousy that is holy and pure and passionate and protective. And it comes from a place where God, who gave all of himself to you, wants you to give all of yourself back to him. Why? Because he loves you. And he wants what's best for you. And what's best for you is more of him. This gets back to living with God as the number one priority. We think of, again, Adam and Eve in the garden. And as soon as they flip that script and they put something else in the place of God, and all of sin entered the world, we realize that God intended humanity to live with him as number one. And anything else is a life that comes up short. It's a life that leads to problems and more sin and struggle. Anytime you put something, anything before him, it ends up hurting you. And it may not mean like an actual hurt that you're feeling, but you're just not living life the way that God intended. He knows this, and he wants better for you. Psalm 16:4 says, "Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more." Psalm puts it very plainly. If you continue to put something else in front of God, it will only lead to more and more pain, more and more brokenness. So if you are struggling, hurting, dissatisfied, maybe it's because something is out of place in your chairs, in your life, in your priorities. Something else is in the place of God. And maybe it's because idolatry is taking its toll on your life.

You may not have thought about it in that way before, but if you start to look at your life now with this context and with this conversation, maybe you do have an idol. You do have something in your number one chair that isn't God. If you often feel overwhelmed or anxious, if you feel a lot of tension in life, maybe you feel tension or disconnected from God. You just can't see his presence or feel his presence, or maybe from other people. Maybe there's just a distance that you can't ever seem to close with people, that you can't trust them. You can't bear your soul to them because you don't know if they're going to love you or support you. Maybe if you're lacking purpose or meaning in life right now, you might look at your chairs and say, "What's my order right now? What are my priorities?" Maybe if you find yourself spending a lot of money to fill a void in your life, or you look to different vices to avoid a numb pain, maybe you often get angry and lose your temper. Maybe you get bored and lonely, so you look at things that you shouldn't. Whatever it is you do, maybe it's an idolatry problem. I'm not saying that those things aren't bad. Those are problems that you should give to God and have God address in your life. But maybe the real problem, maybe that's just a symptom of a deeper problem, and maybe the deeper problem is idolatry. I want to reframe our minds right now to think of what is the biggest issue that we have going on in our life. Maybe the symptoms come to the surface really quick, and you're like, "Yeah, I got to work on that stuff." But I want you to push deeper and say, "Maybe below even that is something is just not where it should be." Maybe you're sitting there trying to justify whatever your thing is, whatever is in your number one chair, because it's not bad. Maybe it's not drinking or smoking or whatever that is. Maybe it's a pastime that is nice and good in theory. Maybe it's something like gaming, and you have an online community, and you're like, "I get to talk with people. I'm social. I even get to share the gospel with people." I don't know. Maybe it's your house. Maybe you put a lot of time into creating a home that is welcoming, and you want your family to enjoy it. You want other people to be there, and so you just put a lot of energy and focus into your living space. Maybe it's your image. You want to be presentable or fashionable or attractive, and so a lot of your time and life and thought and heart go into how you look. Maybe it's your kids and your family, and you give so much of your heart, your time, and mind revolving around your kids' schedules and their activities and their schoolwork and their development. And you're sitting there thinking, "I know I got some stuff, but those are good things. It's a good thing that's in the first chair." And I would agree.

Those are some of those are good things, but we have to remember anything in the place of God is an idol. It's idolatry. Even good things become idols when they take the place of God. Anything in this first chair that is not God is not where it should be. It has become more important in your life than God has, and I think we need to hear that. We need to slow down and hear that and really dwell on if that's true and what needs to happen. If anything is more important than God in your life, automatically we should say, "That's not okay, and I need to address that." So how do we know? How do you discern if things in your life have crossed that boundary into becoming an idol? Because again, maybe it's something you're good at. Maybe you have natural God-given skills, and you're exercising that. You're like, "Well, God gave me these things, God gave me this passion or this interest, so shouldn't I exercise that or use it and involve myself in it?" Or maybe it's something that you get joy from, you're passionate about. Maybe it's something good like your career. You're like, "I can't just stop working. I got to provide for my family." How do we know if something has become an idol? Well, instead of leaving it up to us to just say, "No, it's not," because again, we will. We'll just kind of like slough it off and be like, "Eh, we'll work on getting more Bible time in the morning, 10 minutes." God, you get 10 more minutes. Let's let the Holy Spirit assess our hearts and our lives and convict where necessary.

And I want to ask three questions, three idol identifier questions. And again, don't be slow to answer these. Let the Spirit answer these for you, reveal the truth for you. So first one, does this thing, whatever is in your first chair, maybe your first couple chairs, does this lead me closer to God or does it distract me from God? Again, think to yourself, whatever that is, is this activity, is this thing, is this whatever I'm giving myself to, my time, my energy, my thought life, is this bringing me closer to God or is it distracting me from God?

Number two, do I rely on this more than God for my comfort, my identity, and my worth? These are starting to get a little heavier now, a little more serious. Do I go to this thing in times when I'm hurting before I go to God? Is this something that I crave way more than I crave God? Do I find that when I am connecting with people, I cannot wait to share about this thing or should I talk endlessly about whatever that is more than my identity with God?

Number three, if God asked me to give this up, would I give it up without hesitation? Oh, that one kills. That one's hard. It's the last part, without hesitation, right? Some of us would always be like, yes, I would get there, God would help me, I would eventually give it up. But without hesitation is like, could I just do it right now and realize that God should be first and I'm just done with that thing?

So I'll share mine. And this may seem silly, and it kind of is, but my idol, one of the things that I've had in my past life, you've heard me share about some of my hobbies. It's a hobby for me, and that would be disc golf, okay? I'm already fearing the judgment. You guys can judge me, it's fine. I brought this up before, but I found it during COVID, right? I was like, oh, I want to get outside, my friend and I connected, and it was like, oh, let's get outside, let's play something in it. Just checked a lot of boxes for me. I grew up playing sports and I love competing and I could play by myself and just compete against myself. I'm just going to try to better my score next time. So I was like, oh, this is really fun. I just got hooked and I love being outside and I did the whole justification thing. I'm in God's nature. I'm spending time with God in the trees and walking around. This is so great. And there was truth to that. There were times where that was legit, but there were other times where I found myself trying to excuse why I was going out so often to be like, well, it's just more time with God. Obviously, God loves that for me and I love it for me. So God and I are both happy right now. And I played a lot. And when hard things, when I was going through challenges, I would notice that I was like, man, I just cannot wait to get out there. I want to escape. I want to go do my own thing. And before my desire was to talk to God or to pray with God to release, whatever that is, I found my identity and my worth in trying to be a good disc golf player. I was like, oh man, this is really fun when I'm good. So let's just try to be good. And I found a lot of pride. I'm like, man, I'm halfway decent. That's pretty cool. And so there were moments where I recognized in different stages where I had to give it up and it was that without hesitation that like it was not without, it was a lot of hesitation. And I realized like, man, this is a thing and it's not a good thing. Like disc golf is not evil, but this, what it has become in my life is not good. That's a more lighthearted one.

Another one that I'll share is maybe church. And I, as a pastor, I think it can be a thing. Church is obviously amazing. It's good, but church is not God. Right? And so I can, in my desires, I can find my worth. I can be putting God's second in place of church and what I do and how I care. Like all these things of the pastoral role should be second in my life compared to my relationship with God and even church, something so good as this, you guys can become first. And as great as you are, you can't be first in my life. So there's been times where we have idols and we have to, I've had to lay them down before Jesus and honestly have Jesus take them and so that he can, I can live more fully with Christ. Giving that thing up or that priority up. I haven't, I still play disc golf occasionally now, but I'm giving that up so that Christ can live more fully in me. And so in this time that I've been sharing, hopefully you have been thinking about your own life and what is God trying to reveal to you?

If God is showing you, revealing something, there's something out of place that there's an idol in your life. I want to encourage you to listen to him. Listen to the spirit and where he's trying to convict, where he's trying to show you where to change. Don't get defensive with God. It's just between you and God. You don't have to share with me or anyone else. In fact, our defensiveness is often a clue as to something that has a really strong hold in our hearts and lives. So that might be a place where you want to dig some more in your life. Say, okay, I'm getting really, I keep avoiding this one thing in my life when I think of my priorities. Why is that? Maybe it's in a place where it shouldn't be. When you realize and acknowledge and begin to understand that you're putting something before God, don't just fight the symptoms. Don't just say, all right, let's do a rearrangement of things. Also, you can't just take this thing out and just be done with it. That doesn't really work because more often than not, it'll just come back. It's like a weed. It'll just grow back in time. You have to fill that void with something else. So I would say, don't just remove the idol. Replace it with God. Put God first. Now let me ask you this question. Why haven't you done that already? If it's so easy, like let's just put God first. Just do that guys. End of sermon. Just go home. Do it. Now why haven't we put God first? Maybe because we naturally, as humans, we pursue what we want most. That's just in our nature. We want something. We will go do whatever it is to get that, involve ourselves with it. We want something. We pursue it.

So then the question becomes, why don't we want God as much as other things? If we were to want God the most, then he would be first in our lives. Why don't we? And I think, I reason that it's because we don't know how good God is. We don't know, we don't truly understand how amazing, how wonderful, how fulfilling, how incredible and loving and compassionate and kind and all the good things. We don't fully know how good God is. If we did, we'd be much more likely to keep him in our number one chair. Even then, just knowing isn't enough, knowing more information or an awareness of God's goodness isn't enough because information does not equal transformation. Just because you are informed does not mean that you will be transformed. It's helpful, it's good, but it's not everything. Just because you hear God on a Sunday does not mean that all of you are living perfectly the rest of the days of the week. You have to practice putting God first and living with him in the number one seat. When we do that, then we'll know and experience the goodness of God. Or as the psalmist says in Psalm 34, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." It's not just knowing, it's living accordingly and living in God's goodness. It's when we live by faith with our trust in God, not because of what he can do for us, we don't do it as a transaction saying, "God, I'll live for you because I know that you're going to better my life." No, we live giving ourselves to him, again, because he gave all of who he is to us. That because without him, there is nothing good. And we are more likely to fight to keep him as the number one in our lives if we know and live in his goodness.

And that means that we have to submit to him. We have to yield to his will. That means going about every day intentionally with a heart that is aligned with his heart. And we enter every conversation, every work situation, whatever it is, you walk in and you're saying, "God, I want, help me right now. I want to live for you. I want to, as I talk with this person, help me to speak in a way that is honoring you, that is loving, that is kind. As I parent right now, as I just do something by myself, help me to do it in a way that is glorifying to you. Be with me. Invite him in to that situation." If something is distracting you from God, replace it with Jesus. And understand this, God's not trying to take something away from you as much as he's trying to give you something better himself. I think sometimes we get a little defensive, we get a little nervous because you're like, "God, I really like this thing. And I think ultimately it was from you, but I, yeah, sure, I messed it up a little bit, so don't take it away." And we get scared and then we kind of avoid it. We're like, "God, I'd just rather not. I'd rather keep my life the way it is." But if we understand it in a way that actually it's something better, again, then we're more likely to engage and say, "Yes, God, I do want that. I do want more of you." He's trying to give himself to us. Again, because he loves you, he cares about you. He's trying to give you the best thing that there is, himself. And again, this goes back to the garden in the Old Testament when Adam and Eve thought, "You know what? I think there's something better other than God, and right there is the mistake." And we would think, "Oh, guys, why'd you do that?" But we do it every day. We think this other thing is better than God. And so we need to put God first and understand and live and believe and know God is the best. He is the best. There is nothing better. He hasn't called you to be Christian-ish just by name, following Jesus when you feel like it, when it's convenient. And he isn't content to be just any one of your chairs. And we should love him for that. We should thank him that he is not content to just be in our lives. He wants to be in the right spot where he created himself to be. This chair is where God made for himself to sit in our lives. That's right relationship. That is living with God is when he is in that number one seat. We don't want to love him partially or halfway. God is a jealous God who wants all of us. And he's called us to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. And he wants us to seek first his kingdom. So the question for you this week is, will you live each day with God first? First and foremost on your heart, your mind, your soul, will you live with all of who you are before him as a sacrifice to him? It says in Romans, live with your whole life for him. Are you ready to put God first?

Let's pray. God, we come before you Lord and we first want to just come before you with an apologetic heart. And God, we are sorry. We apologize for living a life where something else is in your place. For living and worshiping idols. Maybe they're good. Maybe they are things that are not good inherently. But God, we just acknowledge that, that we are living in a way that is not how you intended. And we also know that we can only live the way that you intended through your help, by your spirit. And so we pray that this week, today, now, as you reveal things to us that are out of place, that you would also provide the steps to take to then live with you in the number one seat. God, help us to see and know how good you are. God, I pray that for those of us who have been walking with God, I pray that you would bring those memories fresh to our mind of how good you are. That it would anchor us as we go forward. And for those who are newly following you, God, I pray that you would bring about experiences, that you would show your goodness to people. And so we both know with our head and our heart, your goodness, and we want to keep you as a priority in our life, that we would be Christians who live with you first and foremost. We need you, God. We depend on you. We want to love you with everything that we have. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Christian-ish: Part 2

Christian-ish: Part 2

1 Samuel 15:7-9, 20-22; 1 John 5:3-4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Man, we just kicked 2026 off with a bang last week. If you were here, we came out swinging. So I hope your toes have recovered from being bruised by Pastor Chris last week. But I hate to tell you, they're probably going to get a little bruised again today. And that's the Lord, not me. So don't know what to tell you. But we are excited for this Christian-ish series. We are just really believing that God has something for all of us in this series as we learn what it looks like to be surrendered fully to God and to walk in His way rather in this Christian-ish kind of sort of way. So I'm excited for that. I do apologize in advance. We did some bedroom rearranging yesterday and had a dust allergy attack. So my breathing's a little rough today. So if I cough, I apologize. Got my water, so hopefully we'll be okay, but just wanted to give you a heads up on that. You know what? Let's pray. Let's pray as we get started. Jesus, we thank you for this time. God, I just pray that you will give me your words, give me air in my lungs. And I just pray that you will bless our time in your word as we seek to be more like your son Jesus in your name.

Have you ever found yourself tempted to kind of finagle the rules a little bit? Maybe the express check out where you're supposed to have ten items or less, but you only have like 11 or 12. It's only two more. No one's going to know. It's fine, right? So you just kind of slide on in there and hope nobody actually counts all your items. Or the onramp, like getting on the freeway, the onramp meter, maybe you take that as a suggestion rather than like a general rule of the road. Or my personal favorite, or maybe I should say struggle, is keeping my library book just a couple extra days past Tuesday because I'm so close to finishing it and I know they're not actually going to charge me until it's like really, really late. So I don't know about you, but I struggle with that one. But these are all silly examples, but you kind of get the idea that we have a way of justifying some of these small things in our lives. I mean, some of us are rule followers by nature, and some of us think rules are just dares in disguise. Right? We just want to see how far we can push the limits.

But when it comes to the Christian life, when it comes to being obedient to God, the small things matter. And so that's our focus today, is that small choices can keep us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. We tell ourselves that we're a good person, we do mostly good things, sure we mess up, but we're human, it happens, but we're mostly good people. And maybe in general you do do the right thing. But you aren't fully surrendered. You're Christian-ish. If you missed last week, we defined Christian-ish as someone who has a half-hearted faith, but wears the label of Christian without truly following Jesus. It's a kind of sort of Christian, an almost Christian, an if it feels good Christian. Pastor Chris last week talked about different signs that you might be Christian-ish. And for many of us, one of those things that we struggle with is the idea of selective obedience. This is one of those things that can be small. It can be a small thing or small choices that add up over time and make us Christian-ish. Maybe we think we'll obey if it's not too hard or if it's not too inconvenient. We'll obey unless we have a better plan or unless God is asking just too much of us. Maybe we'll only obey if we're not in a hurry. Today we're defining selective obedience as the dangerous illusion that doing some of what God commands is enough when it's really disobedience in disguise. The Bible is really clear on obedience and the consequences of disobedience. We're actually going to be in 1 Samuel 15 here in a bit. If you want to turn there, it will be on the screens, but you're welcome to get there.

First, I want to look at the Bible. I want to look at the Bible as a way to give us a sense of what God commands us to do. I want to look at three verses that talk about obedience. We're going to look at some things these verses have in common. The first one is Deuteronomy 5.33. It says, "Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land you will possess." Walk in obedience to all. How many is all? All that the Lord your God has commanded you. Exodus 19.5. "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." If you obey me fully. Job 36:11, "If they obey and serve Him, Him being God, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment." Another translation says, "If they listen and obey, they will be blessed." So two things these verses have in common. One is that God is asking for full obedience. He doesn't want half-heartedness or partial obedience. He wants full. It says, "Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, if they obey and serve Him," full and complete obedience. It matters if we're being fully obedient. The second thing that these verses have in common is that some of God's blessings are conditional. If you look back at the verses, most of them have an implied "if-then." Walk in obedience so that you may live. If you obey me fully, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. If they obey, an implied "then," they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity.

Now please hear me. I am not saying that our salvation is dependent on our obedience or our actions. If you're sitting there thinking, "Is Pastor Lauren telling me I have to earn my salvation?" Absolutely not. That is bad theology. That is not what we're talking about. We're talking about two different things here. The first one is that with God, there are, I guess both of them, unconditional promises and conditional blessings. So unconditional promises, it's this idea that we are saved by grace. We are offered this gift unconditionally. It is only by the perfect work of Jesus on the cross, His death and resurrection, and His offer of salvation that we get to be free, we get to be saved from sin, put on His righteousness, and have eternity with Him. That is His unconditional promise to anyone who chooses to receive that. The conditional blessings are that when we are, out of our love for God, obedient to Him fully and completely, He will often bless that obedience, that faithfulness to Him. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. I want to be clear on that. But He does want to bless us. He wants to give good gifts to His kids. So there is unconditional promises and conditional blessings. It's like a parent with a child. I love my kids unconditionally. They may frustrate me, they may disobey me, they may make me mad, but I will love them no matter what. But we also have conditional blessings that if they do their homework and they do their chores, they can have a friend over or get some screen time. Those blessings are conditional based on their behavior. Another little caveat for us this morning is that I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel. This is not me saying that you fully obey, you will get everything you ever dreamed of. You will become rich and successful and have everything your little heart could desire. That is not what we're talking about here. Now the Lord does bless us with material things. That is true. But blessings can also look like being more like Jesus. A blessing could look like experiencing His presence in a more tangible way. His blessing could be being able to look at yourself in the mirror with integrity, knowing that you fully obeyed despite the hard or the circumstance or the situation. So I'm not saying that you will become rich or get to buy the new car or get the house because you fully obeyed.

But the thing is, we see being Christian-ish a lot because we think that the Christian life equals the prosperous life. We think that the Christian life, if we do it right, if we're checking all the boxes and doing all the things, that we can have a prosperous life, the American dream, that God will give us everything life. But the reality is that the Bible calls us to take up our cross daily. The cross is an instrument of torture. That's not exactly the prosperous life I was hoping for. The Bible calls us to die to ourselves and live for Christ. We're called to bear each other's burdens. That's the life that we're called to. Is there blessings in following Jesus? 100%. Do those blessings always come in the package we think they will? Nope. Often not. But that's okay. Because if we want to get out of the Christian-ish lifestyle, we must choose full obedience and understand that some blessings are conditional. Real quick, let's look at it this way. In the Bible, theologians talk about covenant theology. Now the covenant, God made the covenant as his plan to redeem mankind. And so he structured his plan around covenant. So throughout the Bible, we see covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, so on and so on. And a covenant is this divine agreement between God and mankind where ultimately, although we're supposed to keep our end of the deal, ultimately it's God who keeps the end of the deal for both of us. And he did that by putting his son on the cross. But we are now under the new covenant through Jesus. When he came and he died and rose again, we have a new covenant that we are under. And so the unconditional promise, as we said, under this new covenant is that he died and rose again and offers us salvation. But the conditional blessing is that our obedience will allow blessings to flow from God to us.

God saved us by grace and then blesses our full obedience. That's why God doesn't want partial obedience. He wants full and complete surrender. And frankly, there's a lot of partial obedience in the global church, but also specifically in the church in the West. We want the benefits of the Christian life without the sacrifice. We want the blessings without the surrender. We pick and choose what feels good to obey, what we think is right and wrong. And we just leave the rest. We compromise, we justify, we excuse, especially the small stuff. But we still call ourselves followers of Christ. And frankly, it is dangerous. It is dangerous to call yourself a Christ follower and live the Christian-ish life. So now that we've set our groundwork for understanding the importance of obedience, I want to get back to that main idea of that small things can leave us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. Because the thing is, small things and small choices can seem insignificant, but they can have really big consequences.

Today we're going to look at the life of Saul in the Old Testament in a story we find in 1 Samuel 15. Now just to give you some background, Saul was the first king of Israel. And to be fair, he started out genuinely wanting to serve God. He loved God. He was humble. He wanted to obey and do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But then one step at a time, he started choosing partial obedience. He started choosing his own desires and rationalizing his own sin, eventually leading him to listen to the demonic whispers of the enemy instead of the voice of God. It's a slippery slope. It can be just a slow fade. But if a ship or an airplane is one degree off course, they're going to end up miles away from their intended destination. So even if you think you're doing all the things, but you're one degree off course, you're not going to end up where you want to be. Saul wanted to do things his way. So we're going to look at this interesting and honestly pretty devastating story here in 1 Samuel 15. So just again, some back or some context for us. God told Saul to take his army and to go completely destroy the Amalekite people. The Amalekites were a nation that were just evil. So in God's righteous judgment, he used Saul and the army, the Israelite army, to go and completely destroy them. And he told them to destroy everything, every living thing. Man, woman, livestock, everything. But Saul had other ideas. He obeyed at first, but then he made a small choice. Then we pick up in verse 9. It says, "Saul and his men spared Agag's life. Agag was the king. They spared his life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves and the lambs, everything in fact that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.”

Saul had selective obedience. He obeyed to an extent by destroying almost the entire nation, but he kept the king alive. We see the problem with this, right? Keeping the leader of the nation alive is kind of a big deal. And they kept the livestock, which they were able to justify in their minds. Perfectly good livestock. It's food. We can trade it. We can kill it. We can use the skin. We can do whatever we need. Why kill perfectly good livestock? But it wasn't full obedience. God gave a clear command and he chose to listen to the whisper of the enemy instead of the voice of his God. And you know, that same whisper I think a lot of us are familiar with. It's the one that rationalizes and justifies and tells us it won't hurt anybody. It's not that big of a deal. No one's going to know. You deserve it. It's just this once. The whispers, the lies, if we listen to those, even in small things over and over and over again, instead of the voice of our heavenly father, we will continue to choose disobedience.

The problem with disobeying in the small choices repeatedly is that it compounds over time. And so what you allow in the moment often owns you in the future. It could be that the small choice is to have one more drink, eat one more serving of dessert even though you were full a long time ago. Look once, just a peek at that website you know is not a good idea. Read that romance novel that's pretty explicit but you heard the story is really good. Yell at your loved one again because they kind of deserved it. It's one small choice. It may not seem like a big deal but it compounds over time in what you allow in the moment often owns you in the future. So I want to ask us, where are we letting the enemy of our soul whisper into our lives? Where are you letting the enemy, letting Satan tell you these lies and whisper to you so that you are tempted to listen to his voice over the voice of your heavenly father? I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you. What areas are not surrendered to him? What things are you not being fully obedient in? And to be honest, it may not even necessarily be a sin issue but maybe you're not being obedient in something that you know God is asking you to do. Maybe you're not taking revenge but you're also not forgiving. Maybe you are trying to spend time in the word, trying to have some, you know, read your Bible or get that verse of the day but it's just a checkbox. You aren't fully surrendered to being with Jesus every day. Maybe you're not maxing out the credit cards but you're getting more and more in debt and not practicing biblical tithing or stewardship. Maybe you're not having an affair but you're getting a little too comfortable with a co-worker or a family friend. It's not full obedience. You're only going part way. It could be whatever area it is for you, it could be different for everyone in this room.

We don't all have the same struggles and honestly we don't necessarily all have the same convictions on non-sin issues but we all know what it's like to justify behavior and choose not to call our sin a sin. We aren't perfect. We're gonna mess up but we do serve a God who is. He already saved us from that sin. He has already put on Christ's righteousness onto us. That is not what is in question here. But we all have struggles. We all have these things that we try to justify and we are called to confess those things to God. I encourage you to also confess them to another person, a Bible believing person, a mentor, a pastor, a friend. We confess to God for forgiveness but we confess to people for healing. So I encourage you to do that but if nothing else confess it to God. He forgives and he restores. Ask him to help you live fully surrendered and fully obedient in that area. See Saul got called out on his disobedience later on in chapter 15. The prophet Samuel came and talked to Saul and called him out on his selective obedience and instead of confessing and asking for forgiveness Saul chose to double down. Let's look at verse 20 through 21. Saul says, "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. We have different definitions of obedience. "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. "I went on the mission. The Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

Saul does several things here. First he minimizes his own disobedience by making it seem like it was part of the plan. I completely destroyed them and I brought back their king. That was the plan all along. Then he passes the blame onto his soldiers saying they were the ones who brought the livestock back. It wasn't my decision. They did it on their own. Then he rationalizes and explains that well they're just going to use it to sacrifice to God. That's a good thing, right? And finally, he distanced himself from God by saying that the sacrifices were to the Lord your God. He doesn't say the Lord my God or our God. He says to the Lord your God talking to Samuel. When we minimize, when we pass blame, make excuses, rationalize, when we do those things it puts a wall between us and God. It puts up a barrier. We distance ourselves from Him because nobody wants to be found out. Nobody wants to be called out for their sin or their selective obedience. So we put some distance between us and God. We say I follow God but He's over there and I'm going to do my thing and we'll be fine. We choose to live in our Christian-ish world where we make the decisions and decide what we will and will not obey. But selective obedience is disobedience even in the small things. And it's going to keep us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. Even if it means you're just one degree off course. It's a problem. And once again, to be abundantly clear, we're not talking about your salvation here. God is freely given by God's grace. But you can experience conditional blessings that come from your obedience. And I would say, although He blesses us for a variety of reasons, if you are not being fully obedient, you are missing out on God's blessings.

1 John 5:3-4 says, "Loving God means keeping His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world and we achieve this victory through our faith.” He's not asking too much of us. The boundaries that He's given, the commands that He's given us, they are for our good and His glory. And they are not burdensome. They are not too heavy for us to carry. And in fact, when we are obedient, we get to be active participants in defeating the evil in the world. We get to be part of the victory, which is played out through our obedience. So maybe today it's not a sin issue for you. Maybe it is. Maybe that is something you need to confess to the Lord. But maybe the problem isn't the action. The problem is the lack of action. The problem is the partial obedience and whatever it is that God is calling you to do and to obey. And we know that He's asking us to step out in faith in some area. Small, big. I imagine most of us have something that comes to mind. Maybe it's to be more vocal about your spiritual life around your non-believing friends and coworkers. Maybe it's to quit an unhealthy habit or to start a healthy one. Maybe it's simply to be in the Word more consistently, not out of obligation or to check a box, but because you want to spend time with your Heavenly Father so that His voice is louder than all the other whispers. So whatever that thing is for you, are you willing to fully surrender to it, to God? To stop playing this Christian-ish game and start walking in full obedience? So that's my question. That's my one takeaway for you today. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where you are choosing selective obedience and then go all in on obeying God fully in that area. He is good to gently and kindly convict and to remind us where we are struggling, to help us see where we need to press into Him, where we aren't being fully obedient, where we're choosing selective obedience. So ask Him, ask Him to reveal that to you. It may not be an audible voice, it probably won't, but He'll tell you, He'll show you and then go all in on choosing full obedience. There is goodness and there is blessing on the other side of our obedience, friends.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank You for who You are, for Your goodness. We thank You that You make a way for us to be obedient. I just pray that You will reveal to us what it is that we are choosing to be selective obedient to. And God, help us to go all in on that. Help us to go all in on You, that we put our faith in You and that we are able to walk in freedom and victory because we are walking in full obedience. Thank You for who You are, in Your name, Amen.

Christian-ish: Part 1

Christian-ish: Part 1

Revelation 3:15-17,19-20

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm so glad you're here. Happy new year. And we're excited to get going on a new series this January to kind of kick off 2026 together. And have you ever had a time or a moment where you were meeting somebody new and you guys were just hitting it off? You ever started that? You're meeting somebody brand new, you've never met them before, and you're just like, you're totally hitting off. You're jiving, things are going great. You're talking about your family. You're talking about life. And things are just going really, really well. And there's times as a pastor, I love meeting new people, but then there comes a moment that I always hate. And that's the question, what do you do for a living? And the problem is with that, is that it always gets weird. No matter what happens, it either gets Christian weird, or it gets unChristian weird. And what do I mean by that? Well, Christian weird is we're having a conversation, things are going, what do you do for a living? Oh, I'm a pastor. And then all of a sudden a switch flips inside of them, and they're like, hallelujah. Praise the Lord, brother. That is such a good word for me this morning, thank you. It just gets weird. I'm like, no, don't do that. Or it gets unChristian weird. And you tell them I'm a pastor, and they're just like, oh, cool. And then sometimes, most likely, they just usually walk away and they won't talk to me again. I will say, I have never lied, but I can't say that I haven't thought about it. I mean, that's, can I be honest with you guys this morning?

So recently I had this opportunity, I met a guy who lives here locally, and I've known him for a little bit, and we were talking, and he's not a Christian. And we were having a good conversation, and we were just talking about life, and he would say how he's a good person, and he tries not to judge people, and he tries to be generous how he can. Maybe it's someone on the street, or a family member, or a friend. And from afar, it's so funny, he loves our church. He talks to me all the time when I see him. He loves our sign on the corner. He loves the jokes. He loves our church. And we're having this conversation, and he literally turns to one of the other guys in the room, and he goes, you know what, if I go to church, I'm going to that pastor's church. He calls me pastor, it's the funniest thing, but he doesn't go to church. I invited him for Christmas candlelight service. This was a good conversation. He was totally open to it, but he did not come.

After high school, I moved to the Midwest, to Indiana for college. And if you've ever been around the Midwest, you know it's an area called the Bible Belt. And it was a culture, I would say a reverse culture shock for me to go back to Indiana after living in California, and to see so many people there in the Bible Belt that would call themselves Christians. I'd have conversations with people, and it would be great. They'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, where do you go to church? Well, you know, it just, my grandma took me to church back in the day, and I probably go like Christmas and Easter. You know, like the big holidays, like the big ones. And it's so funny to me that they would call themselves a spiritual person, but yet you might ask somebody in their lives of, would you say, hey, so-and-so, are they a Christian? And they might answer, I really don't know. And that's how I would probably define this term, Christian-ish.

And as we start a new year in 2026, I wanna give you a new word for your vocabulary, and that is Christian-ish. I would define it this way. Christian-ish is having a half-hearted faith, or wearing the label of Christianity without truly following Jesus. Something like Christian in name only, sort of Christian, Christian-ish. And I will say very honestly, from a pastoral perspective, to be Christian-ish is to embrace a superficial watered-down version of Christianity. It's not the real thing. You get enough of Jesus that it makes you kind of feel better, but not so much of Jesus that it changes your life. Happy New Year. Welcome to church in 2026. My heart and my goal here is to make you feel better about your faith, but I heard a professor quote once, and it said this, it says, "The role of an effective pastor is to comfort those who are afflicted, "and at the same time, afflict those who are comfortable." Ooh. My heart, my desire today, I just want you to know this, is to maybe push you a little bit into 2026, and believe that you can be closer to Jesus this year than you ever have before, and to be more effective for his kingdom than you ever have been in years past.

We're gonna be in Revelation chapter three this morning, and this early in the book, Jesus, he's giving custom messages to seven different churches, and one of these churches is the church that you may know as the church of Laodicea, and when talking to the Laodicean people, Jesus isn't pulling any punches or holding back. He's coming right at him, and he says this in Revelation chapter three, Jesus says, "I know your deeds, that they are neither cold nor hot." I know your deeds, I know your good works, and they're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one of them. So because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. What you wanted to hear is coming to church this morning, right, right? You say, "I am rich, and I have acquired wealth, "and do not need a thing, but you do not realize "that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Jesus, a few verses later, says, "Those whom I love, "I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent. "Here I am, I stand at the door and I knock. "If anyone hears my voice," Jesus says, "opens the door, "I will come in and eat with that person, "and they with me." Jesus said, "I would rather you be one or the other. "I'd rather you be cold, or I'd rather you be hot. "But the fact that you are lukewarm, I'm going to, "for a lack of a better term, vomit you up." But Jesus isn't playing. I wanna give you a little context. That's why Jesus brought this spiritual intensity to Laodicea. See, Laodicea was one of the wealthiest cities in the entire Roman Empire. And 30 years prior to this, they had a massive earthquake that ruined the city. And unlike what would be custom in that culture, where neighboring towns and families and cities would come together, Laodicea had so much wealth that they just themselves took care of their city. This is completely unheard of. They were loaded. And when they rebuilt their cities, they built extravagant coliseums, theaters, shops, markets. Think of like a modern day Las Vegas. Might as well look something like this. There's a picture I put up here. It would have been extravagant for that time and that age. Modern technology like you'd never seen. But when Jesus says, "You think this wealthy "and your self-sufficient community are," he says, "You are lukewarm.”

And this analogy would have been so striking for this city. Because even with all of their wealth and everything that they had, their biggest problem, their number one thing was they had an inadequate water supply. And so the only solution they had was to actually bring water into the city. And so I got a map here of where Laodicea is. And what they would do is up in Hierapolis, they would bring down hot spring water. And then from Colossae, they would pipe through these kind of old school aqueducts that would bring in this cool spring water from the underground. So might here be thinking about H. Hierapolis, H. hot and Colossae C. being cold. And so they would have to bring in this water. But the problem was, because these cities were so far away, by the time the water, the hot water from Hierapolis would get to the city, it would have cooled. The hot mineral spring water that had these healing capabilities wouldn't be hot anymore. And then the cold water from the underground springs in Colossae, by the time it made it through these aqueducts and this gross piping, it would arrive tepid. It would just be lukewarm. And so these people would understand when Jesus says you are lukewarm, they would very well know exactly what Jesus is talking about. Because this water, by the time it got to them, being lukewarm and going through all these minerals and sediment and all this long travel, it would be gross. It would be filled with sediment. It would be calcified and it would make people sick. Jesus is saying here that you are lukewarm. You're not hot, you're not cold. You are not serving any real purpose and that makes me sick.

See, the spiritual interpretation here for lukewarm is occasionally misunderstood. I think when Jesus says this, you're not cold, you're not hot, he was not just talking about their spiritual passion, but he was also talking about their spiritual purpose and impact because the hot water had purpose to heal and the cool water had purpose to refresh and cleanse. And Jesus is saying you are not fulfilling your purpose. May I say this humbly and with a heart to heal and a desire for hope to bring to your life, as you enter a new year looking back, you may have not fulfilled your spiritual purpose. See, God has given each and every one of you a specialized gifts. He's created you in a special certain way. Some of you are so good with people. Others of you are so other oriented. Some of you are incredibly generous towards others. Others of you know how to organize in a way that is like scientific. Others of you know how to serve in such a great way. Something about you is different. And if you didn't use that gift and the way that God gave it to you to fulfill your spiritual purpose, creating a spiritual impact to make a difference, Jesus might say to you, "You're lukewarm.”

See, there's a word here in the Greek called emeo. And this is the action that Jesus is talking about. And it's a pretty aggressive word, I'm not gonna lie. But the word emeo means to vomit, to throw up, to spew out forcefully. If any of you have ever been around a baby after you fed them, some of them are just like a ticking time bomb, right? You don't handle them too rough. You don't move them around too much. Dare say you ever lay on your back and go, "Wee!" Like this, 'cause it is going to come out. Emeo here is almost to this level of a projectile vomit, a strong visceral response. And Jesus says, "I am vomiting you out." God can't stomach comfortable Christianity. He can't. And it's not just undesirable to God, it's intolerable. Christian-ish. Suggest this half-hearted, convenient, comfortable, committing to receive the benefits of Jesus without fully surrendering to the call of Jesus. Suggest a half-hearted faith that's repugnant to God and reacts in a visceral way.

But Jesus says this in Revelation 3:17. He says, "You say I am rich." That's what the people of Laodicea would say, "I am rich." Well, today, I wanna let you know that maybe this correlation would be you have an iPhone or a smartphone. You can go on Amazon and you can shop and you can get it in two days or less. You came here in a car. From the perspective of the world and the eyes of the world, you are rich. You live in the top percentile of people on this entire planet. You are rich. You have maybe even a house for your car that you go home and you drive and you park it in. It's called a garage. You have not only a house, but a house for your car. Jesus says, "I have acquired," Jesus, that you say, "I have acquired wealth "and do not need a thing." Maybe you know somebody who doesn't need anything from God. Maybe you don't think you need anything from God. You think, "I don't need anything." Maybe you're like this guy that I continue to have these conversations with who says, "I'm just a good person. "I got it figured out. "I went to church when I was a kid. "I got my Jesus. "I'm good. "I don't need that anymore." Or maybe you're one who goes, "I got it figured out. "I don't need anybody to tell me how to live my life. "I don't need some outdated, archaic religion "to make me have to feel better about myself." Maybe you don't need anything from God, but the problem is you may feel that way until you do need something from God, until you get that medical report, or until something happens in your life. And maybe you weren't a person who prayed the day before, but it sure can tell you when you get some bad news, you turn into a praying person, right? Until your spouse leaves you and you don't know what to do, or until you have a broken relationship, maybe with a friend or child or family member, and then you feel broken and hopeless. Or maybe you're a situation where you finally got everything that you wanted. You finally got there. You got the job. You got the house. You got the six-figure income. You got the boat. You got the vocation. You got it all. And you sit there, and then you begin to realize, yeah, I might be rich in stuff, but I'm spiritually empty. I'm poor in spirit.

Revelation 3:17 continues on. It says, "And you do not realize." Don't realize. I may not realize. You do not realize. "Wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Have you ever been out to dinner, maybe with some friends, and you're having a good time, you're having a great conversation, and then you go to the restroom, and you look in the mirror, and all of a sudden you realize you've got food in your teeth, right? You got a little piece of meat stuck right here. Maybe you got a little bit of cilantro or pepper or something, and you're just like, "Oh my gosh. "I've got stuff in my teeth." Last year, right up here, one Sunday I led worship. It was great. It was an awesome Sunday. The band was rocking. You guys were worshiping. I didn't make any mistakes, which is impressive. I usually make mistakes every Sunday, just to let you know. I got done, I walked in the back, and what I realized, my zipper was down. I led worship up here for the whole service with my zipper down. I didn't realize. It was recently I got a haircut, and I got my beard trimmed up. I was feeling good. Life was great. I had a big meeting with some other pastors. We were having a good conversation. Was doing just awesome. I felt like a million bucks. I don't know, a new haircut, right? It can just make you feel like you're just killing it. And then I get home, and I look in the mirror, and what happened? I had these nose hairs that I felt like went all the way down to my mustache. They probably didn't go that far. But then there was like a little booger hanging in there. The whole time, I'm so focused on this up here and the sideburns and all the beard and everything. And yet the one hairs that needed to be trimmed didn't get trimmed. I didn't realize.

What if you are lukewarm and you just don't realize? What if you are not fulfilling your God-ordained purpose and you don't even realize it? You think, you know, I'm okay, I'm good. I'm a spiritual person. I believe in God and everything. I'm all right. I got my Jesus, I'm good. But you don't even realize that you're spiritually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and you got your zipper down. You're naked. Or you got a booger hanging in your nose hairs. See, lukewarm Christian-ish faith is perhaps the greatest and ultimate form of self-deception. It's enough of Jesus to soothe your conscience with some good word and encouragement and some music every Sunday, but it's not enough to make you anew. What if you're lukewarm and you just don't even realize it? Christian-ish. How do you know if you're lukewarm?

I kind of put together five different thoughts and signs that you might be lukewarm. This isn't an exhaustive list, this isn't an end all be all, but this is kind of maybe a place to start to check our hearts. The first of which would be you might be lukewarm if you crave acceptance from people more than acceptance from God. More than trying to live a life that is pleasing to God, you actually just wanna be liked by people. You wanna fit in, you wanna be popular, want everybody to like you, you wanna be long, and that's fine, that's natural. We have that inside of us, but you end up just going along with the crowd. It's easier just to go along than to fight against, right? It's easier to go along than you have to stand out and to do something that Jesus has called you to this. Jesus says this, "Woe to you, "who everyone speaks well of you, "because if you're truly following Jesus, "you will be persecuted." That's the reality. You may be lukewarm if you're seeking acceptance of people more than acceptance from God. Number two, you may be lukewarm if you rationalize sin. If there's sin in your life, something in your life that's displeasing or dishonorable to God, but you explain it away. Hey, everybody else is doing it, so it just, is it really that big of a deal? Nobody needs to be in my business, that's me and my own business, stay out of it. I'm not hurting anybody, but God's word in Isaiah says, "Woe to those people who call good evil and evil good." You might be lukewarm, and you don't even realize it, if you rationalize or explain away your sin.

Third one, you might be lukewarm if you rarely share your faith in Christ. You say, "Oh, I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus. "I know I'm called to be a light in this world, "but it's just not my gift. I'm just not wired like that. "I'm not very good at it. "I don't want to offend people. "I just, I'm better at other things, "so I'm gonna focus on those things, "so I just, I don't share my faith." Maybe you're so timid in your faith that you've been working with someone in your job for seven years, and they would be surprised to find out that you're a follower of Jesus. I can be convicted of this one as well. Sometimes I myself forget to invite people to church when I'm the one that is kinda doing a lot. You rarely share your faith in Christ. You don't want to offend people. You don't even realize. Number four, you might be lukewarm. You only turn to God when you need something. God is your emergency 911. He's that call when it all hits the fan. Instead of seeking Him every single day and letting His Holy Spirit guide your life, letting His Word come into your heart and build your faith, would you renew your mind? You call on Him when you're in trouble. Maybe like a tool in our toolbox that we pull out when we need it, and then when we're done with it, we put it in the drawer, we close it, and we know it's there when we can go back to it, but we only really use it or pull it out when we need it. Something that we use instead of a God that we truly honor and worship. You might be lukewarm when God is someone you call on when you need something.

The final thought, you might be lukewarm when you're not much different from this world. So you call yourself a Christian, but you talk like you're not. Maybe you gossip just like everybody else at work. Maybe it's under the guise of I'm gonna gossip because I need to pray for my brother or sister in Christ. Or maybe you cuss, I don't know. Maybe you take the Lord's name in vain. Maybe you're critical of other people. You're judgmental with your words. Maybe you're watching the same shows on Netflix and TV, shows that take God's name in vain and are horrible stuff that is just completely dishonoring to God, but you rationalize it. Maybe you're rationalizing some sexual sin and you say, it's just not that big of a deal. I'm not going that far. I'm not hurting anybody. Or maybe you're hanging out with friends and you just have a few too many to drink. Just a little tipsy, just a little buzz. I'm not like pass out drunk. Or maybe, I don't know, you're doing drugs and you know you shouldn't, but you're doing it because everybody else is doing it. You're living for the things of this world. Maybe you're living for money. You're clamoring for success for yourself. And yet at the same time, you claim Jesus is all your success. But your actions say something different. Your actions say that you love the world. What if you're lukewarm and you don't even realize it? You claim Jesus yet. You love this world. 1 John 2:15 reminds us to, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. "If anyone loves the world, "the love of the Father is not in them.”

So you may say, okay, Chris, you're obviously coming out swinging in 2026. You're not holding anything back. But I feel convicted. Is Jesus mad at me? I wanna tell you right now, and I wanna promise to you that Jesus loves you more than you can imagine. He does. He loves you way more than you can even think or fathom in your life. And when Jesus was calling out the Laodiceans as being lukewarm, he was not to shame them or to make them feel guilty. He was loving them. He was loving them. It says this in Revelation 3:19, "I correct and I discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” Jesus is saying, I'm not angry at you. I'm not mad at you. I love you. Just as if a parent correcting a child. You're loving them. You're trying to help them. You're trying to guide them. You're not mad at them. I got some kids in the audience this morning. Where a parent is guiding them and leading them, loving them. I've been convicted by the Holy Spirit on this story myself. I heard an analogy from a, I think it was an author, a Christian author, and talks about how our heart is like rooms in our house. And I think sometimes that we're good to let like Jesus into the living room, but that's it, right? Maybe he makes it to the kitchen, heaven forbid, maybe the hall bathroom, but he ain't going in the bedroom, right? And he's really not going to the closet and he's really not going for that box that I've got deep back, deep, deep, deep back in there in my heart. I'm not opening that box for him. Newsflash, Jesus knows the box is there. That's the reality. You're not hiding anything from him. But I think there's just something about this word here, this word indifference.

The scripture is saying, Jesus is saying, "Be diligent, turn from your indifference." I find this striking because there's, I think, this one word truly captures a lot of Christian-ish people when it comes to the things of God. They're just indifferent. Take it if it helps, leave if it doesn't. Call on Jesus when you need him. Live comfortably by yourself when you don't. And so maybe you're feeling a little bit of the conviction of the Holy Spirit right now. And that's not because God has managed you. It's because God is loving you. So what do we do? What do we do this? How do we grow out of this Christian-ish life? I was there probably middle school, high school of my life. And I was in church every Sunday. I was there for Bible studies. I was there for youth group. I was there for service projects. I even went to a Christian school. And when I was around all the Christian people, I spoke all the Christian stuff. I lived a life, I said the right things. I do the Jesus stuff. But then when I was around my non-Christian friends, I was so far from Jesus, it wasn't even funny. I was living this lukewarm, hot, cold life. And God got my attention one year at youth camp. And he says, "What are you gonna do, dude? "You gotta choose one. "Either in or you're out. "I'm done with this lukewarm garbage in your life, Chris. "You gotta choose." And I remember sitting on a rock overlooking this lake, having this argument with God. And he said, "You just can't keep living like this. "Can't live over here like this "and then go do this stuff over here." I was living Christian-ish. But I had to make a decision. And God may be like me right now. He might be convicting you in his love.

So what do you gotta do? I have some good news for you this morning. And I could give you a list of 21 things for you to start today to live out of your Christian-ish and step into a Christian faith. And I think there would probably be some pretty good stuff. I talk about reading God's word daily because when you do, it changes and transforms who you are. I would say you need to pray and talk to God every single day. You need to be in Christian community and accountability. You need to get in the Word of God. You need to be in Christian community and accountability. You need to give and to trust God by faith. You need to worship. You need to be in church every single Sunday in 2026. I could give you a whole laundry list, but if you're probably like me, maybe just even a little bit, sometimes when you're given too much, you end up doing nothing at all, right? It's 2026. You're supposed to be doing all this new stuff. You're supposed to be working out, eating better. You're supposed to be going to bed on time. You're supposed to have less blue light at night. You're supposed to be doing this. You're supposed to be doing that. Eat your vegetables, right? No more sugar. Everybody's telling you to do all this stuff, and then what happens? Tomorrow. Right? So I don't wanna do that.

I wanna be honest. I wanna give you one thing today. Here's your one thing to walk away from today. Are you ready? If you wanna grow out of your Christian-ish illusion of self-deception to be truly a follower, devoted disciple of Jesus, I suggest this. Do something every day that requires faith. Do something every single day that requires you to trust in God. And take time each day. I don't know, write it down. Start a note on your phone. And start tracking. And if you miss one day, whoop-de-doo. Start the next day. And then do it again the next day. And do it the next day. Every single day, do something that requires you to put your faith in Jesus more than you did the day before. Maybe for you, it's to do what is right, even if a friend might make fun of you. Maybe it's to worship God even when you don't feel like it. That by faith, you worship Him. Maybe you need to forgive somebody. We just came through the holidays and the season of family and all the fun that comes along with that. Maybe you need to forgive somebody, ask for forgiveness. Maybe it's somebody who hurts you really deeply. Maybe it's a friend, a family member. Maybe you need to give sacrificially above a tithe. Maybe you need to tithe for the very first time, 'cause that's gonna take a whole lot of faith. Maybe you need to invite somebody to church. Maybe you need to share your faith in a way that isn't just like, hey, good to see you, bye. Gave him a little Jesus, didn't know it. Maybe you need to pray to ask God to do something impossible in your life that you're like, why do I even begin to pray this? This isn't gonna happen. Maybe you do.

Do something that requires faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith, it is impossible to please God." Do something that requires faith. Please, God, do something every day that requires faith to put your trust in Jesus. 'Cause when you do that, you won't be Christian-ish. You can't be Christian-ish if you're doing that. You won't be lukewarm. You know what, you won't be tepid. You will be hot in your faith. Why? Because you're serving God. You're glorifying him. And when you do something that requires faith, you're depending upon God, not yourself. You're depending upon God. And suddenly you're just not concerned with the world around you and what they think. Your one concern is an audience of one. I'm glorifying God, I'm honoring God. That is what matters. You're living for his approval. Maybe you'll stop rationalizing your sin because why? You will be confessing your sins to Jesus. And Jesus says, "When you confess your sins, he being God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness." Be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God. Instead of hiding in your faith, you will be bold. You'll start sharing your faith with others and you won't care what they think. And they will see it. They will be lit up like a light in a dark place and they will be drawn to the savior. Mary, for the very first time, through the power of the gospel. And you don't just turn to God when you need something, but you seek him, you prioritize him. Pastor Andreas said it beautifully before, church on Sunday starts on Saturday. You don't just wake up and accidentally fall into church, right? You made a conscious decision last night or maybe earlier in the week, maybe you need to back it up a few days. You made a conscious decision to be in church today. And I think you are here for a purpose and a reason. And God has a word for your life. You design your life around him. And you know what'll happen? You won't look like the world anymore. You will be different and people will know it. Others will respect it. You are not Christian-ish. You are dead to yourself, but you are alive in Christ.

So what if you find out you got some stuff in your teeth or your zipper's down, or you might be a little bit lukewarm, and you don't even realize it, what do you do? Jesus says here in Revelation 3.20, look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we'll share a meal together as friends. Jesus is knocking. You let him into your life. See this word here, this knock in the Greek, it's what they call like a perfect tense. It means it's an active, ongoing thing. Jesus is just knocking. And he's knocking. And he's knocking. He's not trying to sell you anything. Not getting you to sign up for a home warranty. He's just knocking. But in a way that is so loving and caring that says, will you just let me in? You know what's even greater is that there's only even a door there because of Jesus. And that it's only by the grace of Jesus that we can even open the door. But there's a door and Jesus is knocking. And Jesus has created and made a way for you to have a life like you never experienced it. To live life with purpose in the way that you were created. So what do you do? I'd encourage you open the door. I would encourage you to go all in. What if 2026 was the year that you stopped holding anything back? And just see what happens. Just see what happens. Just let God come into your life. Just let him have access as the story I was saying. Your home is like your heart. Have access to everything and just let him do his thing. What would that look like in your life? 'Cause I wanna be a follower of Jesus that's not gonna settle for a faith that looks the part but lacks the power. I wanna be a fully follower of Jesus, a disciple of Jesus in the everyday stuff of life. To let him come and saturate my heart and my life and transform me into the person he has created me to be. Luke Warm doesn't just grieve God, but it robs you of the life that God wants for you. He doesn't want half of your heart. He doesn't want a little bit of your heart. He doesn't want just this over here and this over here and this over here. He wants your entire heart. He wants it all. He's standing at the door, knocking. No one's gonna stop him from knocking. He's just there. The question is, will you let him in? Will you let him come in and bring full purpose and meaning and life to you so that you can experience the life that he desired and created for you? So what if you don't realize it? You might be Luke Warm. What are you gonna do? You're gonna do something every day that requires faith because without faith, it's impossible to please God. And more than anything else, what do we wanna do? We wanna please God with everything that we are and everything that we do.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would stir God deep within us, that we would become the people that you created us to be. And right now, I wanna take a moment. I just wanna, I wanna talk to those in this room who are a Christian. You know you're a Christian. You're not just Christian-ish. You know that you're a Christian and you have maybe become a little comfortable in your life. And I wanna try to help stir you up in your faith. And I wanna challenge you that every day this week, for the next seven days, you would write something down. You would maybe put in your phone, put it somewhere. I don't know where you wanna put it. But I want you to do something that requires faith. And this is for those that you're a Christian and you don't want to become comfortable that every day this week, you're going to look for that moment at least once a day, maybe more. I don't know, but you just are gonna say, "Yes, Chris, I want you to pray for me this week "as I step out in faith." Is that you? I just want you to raise your hand 'cause I wanna pray for you this week. If you would say, "I'm gonna be one. "I wanna step out this week. "Every single day I'm gonna do something in faith." I see you guys, thank you. Yes. God, I pray for those, Jesus, that as they raise their hands, that maybe that was their first step of faith to go, "God, I don't know. "I'm trusting you. "I don't know what this looks like. "I don't know all the details of it, but I'm trusting you. "I am going to step out this week, "and I'm gonna do something every single day "that requires faith." God, I pray that you would be with us, that you would be with those who right now just raised their hands, that you would help them and give them a boldness. They would give them faith, not to live by sight, but God, to depend on you. 'Cause we know without you, we don't have anything. So God, I pray that you would stir up a boldness. You would forgive us, but when we are comfortable, you would teach us, God, to live by faith every single day.

And as we continue to pray, maybe you would say, "Chris, I'm like that guy "that you were talking about. "Maybe I've been coming to church just to be social, "or maybe just be spiritual in general. "I think it's a cool church or whatever." But you're not really walking with Jesus. You have not taken that step of faith to put your full trust and your full self in him. You hear Jesus knocking at the door, and you might've been convicted a little bit this morning, but you would say, "For the very first time, Chris, "I want to let Jesus into my life. "I want to open up the door." If you would say, "That is you, "I wanna put up a salvation prayer on our screen, "and I would encourage you to pray this prayer. "I'm gonna say it out loud. "I want you to pray in your heart, "but I want you, in this prayer, "for you are opening up the door to Jesus." And this is the prayer. It says, "Father in heaven, "I know that I've lived for myself instead of you. "I have sinned against you, "but I believe that Jesus died for my sin, "so I confess my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. "I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. "Help me to live for you from this day forward. "In Jesus' name." If you were one who prayed that prayer, you would say for the very first time, "I want you to look up. "I wanna be able to celebrate you. "I wanna pray with you. "I wanna lift you up in Jesus' name, "because I am so excited with you "that you're leaving your Christian-ish behind, "and that you're stepping to a relationship with Jesus "for the very first time. "Jesus, we thank you for this morning. "God, I thank you sometimes even for the hard sermons. "God, as you've put this on our hearts "over a month ago, God, "that knowing that this wouldn't be the easiest thing "maybe to hear in the first week of January in 2026, "God, but it was what you wanted us to hear. "So God, I pray that as we step into faith with you, "as we leave our Christian-ish behind, "as we take a step of faith "and to do something each and every day "to trust in you a little bit more in 2026, "God, may this be the year that we go fully all in "in our faith for you, God. "God, transform us. "God, shape us. "God, give us purpose and meaning "for what you have for our life. "We thank you, Jesus. "We love you. "Amen.

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