Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Forget a Life Coach, I Need a Heart Surgeon - September 21, 2025

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Forget a Life Coach, I Need a Heart Surgeon - September 21, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

0:00
Good morning. My name is Daniel.
0:03
I'm one of the lead pastors here at Resurrection Church.
0:05
Welcome. Thanks for joining us.
0:06
We're in a series called Why are Things So Bad?
0:11
And we're looking at the three reasons, the three primary
0:14
reasons in the Bible, that Scripture would tell us that
0:17
there's suffering, that there's pain, that there's problem.
0:21
And so last week, Pastor Dave looked at problem #1 which is
0:25
that we live in a fallen, broken world because of sin.
0:30
And so you can't live in a broken world and not expect
0:32
things to be broken. Amen.
0:34
OK, we're all on the same page. I'm glad you listened so well
0:36
last week. Today we're going to talk about
0:39
problem #2 and then next week we're going to look at the third
0:42
problem, which is that if you are a believer in Christ, Jesus
0:46
says there will be suffering. We're going to be persecuted for
0:49
our faith. We live in America, so that
0:51
means they're going to get your name wrong on the Starbucks cup
0:53
because there's not a lot of persecution here.
0:58
But, but, but globally and historically, it's been a lot.
1:00
So we'll look at that next week. Today, though, we're going to
1:02
look at problem #2 according to Scripture.
1:05
And that's called the consequences of my own actions.
1:10
Yeah, No, it's one of those kinds of sermons.
1:16
Now, if you get nothing else out of today, this is the big idea.
1:19
And we're not going to start here, but we are going to end
1:21
here. So write this down because we're
1:22
going to land here at some point.
1:25
Here's the big idea. Forget a life coach.
1:27
I need a heart surgeon 'cause that ain't gonna cut it.
1:31
I was scrolling through social media the other day and I, I saw
1:33
this real and I actually had to like watch it twice 'cause I was
1:35
like, is this real? And it's just this young lady
1:38
and she's sobbing into the camera and she's like, listen,
1:41
you guys need to know. Like, I didn't realize that
1:44
Apple Pay is actually real money and they charge your credit
1:49
card. She's just bawling.
1:50
And she, she thought it was like a rewards program or something.
1:53
She spent thousands of dollars thinking it was fake.
2:00
And I was like, Oh my gosh. And I kept watching.
2:03
I was like, does she really think like, I guess, I guess
2:06
this and maybe you, you've been here before.
2:07
You're like, did you really think that you could do all of
2:10
blank and it wouldn't lead to blank, right?
2:12
We've all kind of felt that way. We're watching someone live a
2:14
life in such a way that we're like, hey, you know what at the
2:17
end of that road is? This is some consequences.
2:21
No, that might be funny when we get to watch it on Instagram.
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But but, but I know that there are a lot of times in my life in
2:30
which I have lived my life in such a way that it doesn't seem
2:33
like I really care about the actual consequences of what I'm
2:36
doing. And that is the biblical concept
2:40
of sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping.
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We through we see this throughout scripture.
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We're going to be in Galatians 6-7 to look at it.
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But but it's, you know, a lot of different places.
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And it's this idea that whatever actions, choices, thoughts that
2:54
a person sows, that means plants they will inevitably reap that
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they're going to you're going to get a harvest of whatever you
3:01
planted. That makes sense, right.
3:03
Yes. OK, two people, excellent.
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Galatians 6-7 says do not be deceived.
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God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap.
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Look, it's a truth alarm. Oh, the harvest, what you get is
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always determined by the planting, meaning that like
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begets like, you can't plant one thing and think you're going to
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harvest another thing. Right.
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OK, so so Andy Stanley would say it this way.
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Your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver
3:45
your current results. Let me say it again, your
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current habits are perfectly designed to deliver your current
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results. And right now you're thinking,
4:00
oh, no. And this applies physically, but
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it also applies spiritually. For instance, if I eat really
4:09
unhealthy things and, and I don't monitor my, my consumption
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and then I don't do a lot for my, my fitness, I did.
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So I don't manage my health at all.
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At some point, right, I'm going to get out of shape.
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I'm going to be mentally sluggish, I'm going to be
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emotionally short tempered. Man, we know now we have a lot
4:30
of science that your sugar intake directly correlates to
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all kinds of stuff, heart disease, diabetes, overall
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lifespan, quality of life. And actually in 2022, we just
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figured out one of the leading causes of cancer is sugar
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intake. It's almost as if I know it's
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going to be crazy. Oh, if it isn't the consequences
4:52
of my own actions. So, so physically that happens.
5:00
But think about two weeks ago, Pastor Vance was preaching out
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of Proverbs and it was all about what what the Bible says about
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work. Man, if we don't steward work
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well, if we don't save well, if we don't plan well, if I if I
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work half heartedly, then I'm going to end up having financial
5:16
trouble and problems later. It's consequent, this idea of
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consequences, consequences. And that applies physically that
5:24
lives in our life, but it also applies spiritually.
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Galatians 5 has this huge description about what what it
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calls the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
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And it's looking at these kind of spiritual things and it says
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this. Now the works of the flesh are
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evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry,
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sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
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rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
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orgies and things like this. I warn you, as I warned you
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before, that those who do such things will not inherit the
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Kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace,
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patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
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self-control. Against such things there is no
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law, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
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flesh with its passions and desires.
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If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
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It's giving us a detailed description of both some of the
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sowing and some of the reaping. Spiritually, it is simply saying
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this. If I in my life create a lot of
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strife, as a result, I'm going to have a lot of strife.
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If I act in a lot of anger, I'm actually going to experience a
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lot of anger. However, if I grow in kindness,
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you know, people that really grow in kindness tend to
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experience a lot of kindness in their life.
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If I grow in gentleness overtime, I experience a lot of
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gentleness spiritually speaking, We also tend to reap what we sow
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Now here here's what the I would tell the believer kind of two
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little statements just just to kind of sum up this idea.
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If I seek the flesh, if I'm constantly sowing, planting
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these things of the flesh, sinful internal desires, I will
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constantly be impacted by the sin of myself and others.
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That is just a sort of a universal law in the Bible.
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And and the opposite is true too.
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If I seek the Spirit, I will continue to grow in and
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experience the Holy Spirit and his fruit.
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OK, both sides now and then. Galatians 6-7 goes so far as to
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say God is not mocked. See, we're supposed to pursue
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holiness. But wouldn't it be crazy to
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think that that's not how it works?
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That I would just live however I wanted and then I wouldn't
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actually receive the consequences of what I'm doing.
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Like like, like if somehow I could like game the system.
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You ever been an arcade and someone's trying to put their
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hand up the little prize machine, right?
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But sometimes we live our life that way.
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Like I don't want to, I don't want to live out these things.
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I just want the reward of them at the end.
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Like, like I'm going to trick God and, and Galatians 6-7 is
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saying God is not mocked. You ever had a 2 year old try to
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trick you and you're just looking at him the whole time?
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Like bro, I, I feel like a lot of my life has been God.
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Look at me and going, bro, let me give you an example.
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I've had the privilege to walk with a lot of people, different
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walks of life, different backgrounds in discipleship over
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the years. And one guy in particularly this
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is years ago, I was walking with he had just I just met him.
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He just started coming to church and he was recovering from like
8:39
really serious drug addiction and just absolutely covered in
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tattoos, including some across his face that expressed his
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thoughts about law enforcement and, and he couldn't drive to
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church because he had multiple DU is.
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And so he would come, you get a ride and he would sit with his
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pregnant girlfriend on this side.
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And then his friend who was female on this side, who it
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turns out he was cheating on his girlfriend with this one.
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And they would, they would come in together and oh, and he had
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an explosive temper. And so like it's a mess.
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And then he would, you know, I got to walk him a little bit and
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then he'd get mad at God. He's like, I think God hates me.
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And I was like, what do you mean?
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He's like, why can't get a job? And my girlfriend broke up with
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me. I was like, well, Juan, you
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aren't you cheating on your girlfriend?
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And he was like, well, yeah. And I said, you can't get a job.
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He said no. I was like, what did I say?
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F the police on your eyelids. Do you think that might have
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something to do with it? No.
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I think God hates me. What he was experiencing some.
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Not even all, just some of the consequences of his own
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decisions. By the way, that's normal,
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right? That's just, that's normal.
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It turns out that what happens in Vegas does not in fact, stay
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in Vegas, right? No, no, no.
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Maybe we got, we got lots of people in here from lots of
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walks of life. And so maybe you grew up kind of
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like I did. I had a phenomenal upbringing,
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far better than I deserved. Maybe you didn't.
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Maybe you grew up and, and you were brought up in a family that
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was dysfunctional. Maybe there's a lot of abuse.
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Maybe you, you just grew up in a, and your background is a lot
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worse than you deserved as a child.
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And, and if only there was a way to kind of level the playing
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field regardless of your background, right?
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So, so that even if you didn't have a great upbringing, we
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would all be able to learn or have an understanding of what,
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how to make good decisions, what good decisions were.
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If only maybe, you know, those have got like a, like a guide or
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maybe a maybe a manual of some sort to kind of set us all right
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about, you know, every decision, every attitude, every, every
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posture from physical to to thought life to to spiritual to
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eternal. If only there was, if only there
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was something that could address all of those things for us.
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And I don't know, maybe they could, they could type it out or
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put it in an app on a phone so you could easily get a hold of
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it. Well, gosh, it's handy that this
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is just right here. I mean, imagine having a guy
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that that addressed every part of your life from physical to
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spiritual, emotional, what's good, what's not good.
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Maybe it could be so accessible that you could find it anywhere.
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In fact, it'd be so accessible, maybe the if you couldn't read,
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you can just go to your phone and hit play and it would read
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it to you in hundreds of different languages so that we
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would have no excuse. Well, that 'd be convenient.
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We'll keep our eyes open for that, right?
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Really, if we had that and we didn't have an excuse, being a
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pastor would be pretty easy because you know, I would have
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to do is that I go like, hey guys, here's here's the rules.
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Here's the great advice. 12 minute message.
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That's a new record. Make good decisions, don't make
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bad ones. Read the guide.
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I'll see you next week. We're going to be early to
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brunch, right? How come it doesn't work that
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way? It seems like this should be
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really easy. I mean, you know, I'll be
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honest, my pastoral job would be a whole lot easier if it did
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work that way. 12 minutes sermon.
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This is great. I had a friend named Forrest
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years ago. Super great guy, loved his wife,
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loved his family, just just love the Lord.
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And I'm, I distinctly remember a really, really interesting
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conversation I had with him one day.
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We're just sitting together and he just said Daniel, so
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frustrated, man, like I, I'll go to like a marriage retreat or a
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men's retreat, right? And I'll be so fired up to like
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pursue holiness and, and serve my wife and disciple my kids.
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And I'll come back and I'll do like really good for like a week
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or 10 days, maybe even 2 weeks. And then it seems like it like
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it like it fades and I and I can't, I can't do it.
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And I, and I am so frustrated because I want to do it, but I
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can't keep it up. And I don't understand, like,
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what is it that I'm actually supposed to do?
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Have you ever felt that way? Anybody?
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Oh, got some honest people in church.
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That's cool. I would say I felt that way so
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many times in my life. Like that might have actually
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been the norm. I gave my life to Christ.
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I surrendered my life to Jesus. I believe everything in the
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Bible is true and perfect and I want to live this thing out.
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And yet for like these huge portions of my life, I feel like
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no matter how hard I try, I cannot seem to consistently be
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selfless, be humble, be gentle, make sacrificial decisions.
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I know I'm supposed to love my wife like Jesus loves the
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church, so how come I lash out in anger at her?
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I, I, I listen most of the time. I know I'm supposed to keep my
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mouth shut. I do not keep my mouth shut.
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Why? How come I know I'm supposed to
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grow impatience and yet I'm, I'm just so off and I refuse to wait
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on the Lord in in relationships with my kids.
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I, I rush in and I demand I get my own way.
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I want to make something happen and I just mess it all up.
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Can you feel me? It's like, oh wretched man that
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I am, who will save me from this life of sin, this body of death?
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That's Romans 724. So we're going to look at 2
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questions today. 2 questions. Here's the first one.
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What do I do when I cannot seem to make good decisions?
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I feel like it's just such a big question.
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If you're anyone here feel this in their bones, Like I feel this
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question in my bones. OK, so I want to talk about this
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like, like, and I think that in order to answer this question,
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we're going to have to cover some distortions, some, some,
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some areas where we're looking at something the wrong way and
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it's sending us down the wrong path.
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And, and, and the truth is this, forget a life coach.
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I need a heart surgeon. See, the problem isn't not
16:00
knowing what to do. It's right here.
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The problem is wanting to do it. Amen.
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Like, hey, doctor, it's not my head, it's my heart.
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It's it's not a lack of knowledge that's hurting me
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right now. It's a lack of want to and so I
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I want to explain the first distortion.
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I think that we, we we run across all the time and it's
16:23
this idea. It's righteousness as a list,
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righteousness as a list. And I like whiteboards.
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Anyone else like a, like a good whiteboard session?
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I love a nice big whiteboard, right?
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And I could, and I, I imagine this list is like this giant
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checklist on this whiteboard. And, and I think what happens is
16:43
it, you know, listen, if you're reading the Bible, if you, if
16:45
you're familiar with the Bible at all, you know that a lot of
16:47
the Bible is about right living, about moral living, about
16:49
guidelines, about things that are good and things that are
16:51
bad, right? But but the Bible was never
16:53
intended to be this giant set of rules that someone, maybe God
16:59
would sit there and he would grade you on.
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Went to church today. That's a Gold Star.
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But most of us have come to an education system where we're
17:13
used to grades, right. And so, so like we, we a lot of
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us imagine that somewhere, somewhere, maybe in heaven,
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there's this giant checklist and God is grading our performance.
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What's the problem with that? Well, let me tell you what the
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problem is for me and maybe you can relate to this.
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The problem for me is it's not very long of me trying to follow
17:31
the check boxes before I begin to realize I'm missing a lot of
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check boxes. Like a lot like, OK, I'm going
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to church and I gave some tithe and I was nice to my neighbor.
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I'm trying to read my Bible like I want to do good.
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And then all of a sudden I snap at my wife and I lose my temper
17:52
at my Co worker. And I don't think the best of
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somebody that I'm interacting with.
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I think the worst of them all. Things that have happened to me
18:00
in the last two weeks. But I'm not talking about
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ancient history. And I'm going why man?
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How many, how many of these check boxes can I even?
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I can't even keep up for I do not understand my own actions
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for I do not do the thing that I want.
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I do the very thing that I hate. That's Romans 715 private, the
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desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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Amen. That's Romans 718.
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Can you relate to this struggle, man?
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I this is the heart of the human problem, right?
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Like you don't come to church because we're all nailing the
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checklist. I stumble into church going dear
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Lord help me. So I find it to be a law that
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when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
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Romans 721. It's almost like, it's almost
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like, and just just just walk with me here that this, this is
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the default state of a Christian after they give their life to
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Jesus, that, that, that Christ has saved me and, and in the
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moment that he saves me, I actually see how terrible I
19:24
really am. You come to Christ and for a
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moment there you almost feel worse because all the lights
19:29
came on and all the sin I was hiding in the corners.
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I can see it. All of a sudden I go, Oh, I look
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in the mirror when I wake up like whoa, I did not know it was
19:37
that bad. And I want to do right.
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And I begin to realize, my goodness, this is freaking hard.
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It's almost like that's so normal that the Bible wrote an
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entire chapter about it. Romans 7.
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So, so I just want to tell you this, if you're here today,
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you're watching online, you're watching this on YouTube later,
20:11
whatever. Before we go any further in
20:14
here, like like if, if, if this is your struggle, if you're
20:16
feeling this, if you walked in today feeling discouraged
20:18
because yet again, you have failed in some some checklist in
20:22
your life. Don't you hang your head because
20:27
listen, the very fact that sin is convicting you, that your
20:32
poor choices are actually showing you and highlighting you
20:36
that you are weak, that should actually encourage you.
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Here's why. That conviction means that you
20:42
are spiritually alive because spiritually dead people don't
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feel conviction because spiritually dead people don't
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feel anything at all. So, so that very conviction is a
20:54
sign that God loves you. He's pursuing you, He's chasing
20:57
you, He's correcting you, He's pulling you toward holiness and
21:00
righteousness. So, so if so, if this is you
21:05
today, like let's let's get into the first person.
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Say me OK, listen, three things. 3 encouragements.
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I just want to give you 3 encouragements if you, if you
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really feel this too. Here's the first.
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It's actually not a list, It's learning a new lifestyle.
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It's not a list, it's learning a new lifestyle.
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Here's what I mean by that. For the believer, there's this
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thing called the law of Christ and, and the Bible says in the
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New Testament that if you and I have been saved by Christ, that
21:35
we're actually under the law of Christ.
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So, so it's not some list of the 10 commandments because it's
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both 1000 times harder than the 10 commandments and
21:44
simultaneously 1000 times more liberating.
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Pastor Dave talked about this last week in his sermon.
21:50
Like, like about, you know, we want to learn how to hate sin
21:53
because God hates sin, but you don't learn how to hate sin.
21:56
That's just wrong decisions for choices by staring at the sin
22:01
you learn to hate sin by staring at Jesus when?
22:07
So when we get saved, the Bible says that we were given a heart
22:10
transplant, a new heart, a heart of flesh that can feel Man, a
22:13
heart transplant is a pretty major surgery.
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Amen. But the amount of rehab, if you
22:19
actually go and got a heart transplant, the amount of
22:21
rehabilitation that you would need, the physical therapy that
22:24
you would need to learn how to do life with this new heart is
22:28
pretty significant. We got a guy in our church right
22:30
now named Dennis Harvey earlier this year.
22:32
He had a lung transplant. I'll be honest, I didn't even
22:35
know you could transplant a lung, but apparently you can.
22:37
And he had one. You got a new lung.
22:46
And, and, and I was thinking about, he's been down at Cedars
22:49
Sinai for like 6 months in recovery.
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And I was thinking kind of about his situation because we've been
22:54
praying for him a lot and his family.
22:57
And the first is this, it's so similar to what we go through
23:02
when we come to Christ because the first admission that that
23:04
Dennis had to make is that he couldn't give himself a new
23:08
lung. He needed somebody to do it for
23:11
him. And it's the first admission
23:13
that you and I make when we come to Christ is that we can't fix
23:16
ourselves because we have a bad heart and we need someone that
23:19
has the power to actually give us a new heart.
23:25
And the secondly, the hardest part for Dennis was not that the
23:30
surgeon gave him a new, a new lung.
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He, he was, he was passed out for that.
23:34
He was under anaesthesia. That wasn't hard.
23:36
The hardest part was waking up and learning how to live with
23:38
the new lung. His, his rehab over the last six
23:44
months has been brutal. It has been intense, man.
23:46
It has been so hard that over and over again, he's actually
23:49
he, he, he's, he's been really tempted to give up.
23:54
And what I, what I want you to hear is that after God saves us,
23:58
sometimes we stare at the mess that our life has become because
24:01
of our own choices. We, we, we, we stare at some of
24:03
the sin and the poor choices. We get a better realization of
24:06
how bad and terrible we really are.
24:08
And we look at that amount of work and, and we almost want to
24:11
get discouraged and give up because man, following Christ,
24:15
that life is going to be so much different than our life before.
24:19
You might even convince yourself that it's going to be impossible
24:22
to get all that work done. And so I want to encourage you
24:24
the same way I want to encourage Dennis.
24:26
Hey, it's worth it. That new life is worth it.
24:33
You see, you had no chance with the old heart.
24:37
He had no chance with the old lung.
24:40
But now there's a new life ahead.
24:43
And it may start in every one of our lives.
24:45
It may start with some really difficult moments, a difficult
24:47
path, a difficult journey of walking out what it looks like
24:51
to live. But the man, the end of that
24:52
path is beautiful. So, so don't lose heart if
24:56
you're struggling right now, don't give up.
24:59
Don't become exhausted. We're learning a new lifestyle.
25:03
You're learning how to live with a new heart.
25:06
Secondly, the one of the things that we have to do move away
25:09
from this idea of a list is this.
25:12
We're learning the difference between emotions and the Holy
25:16
Spirit. And so that means as you begin
25:21
to realize that, that means that that my default state after I
25:25
come to Christ is I'm probably wrong.
25:29
I know, I know Americans hate to say this.
25:30
Say it with me. I'm probably wrong.
25:32
I'm probably wrong. See, now you've said it once, at
25:35
least in the last 10 years, I'm probably wrong.
25:42
Look, I should be really good at apologies because I'm probably
25:46
wrong. When I came to Christ, which was
25:48
an admission that I couldn't fix the problem, that Jesus had to
25:51
do it, that God had to give me a new heart, then all of a sudden
25:54
everything changes. And so with that, what should
25:58
come for you and I is a full confession and a full admission
26:01
that everything we learned about how to do life before Christ was
26:06
being, was based on being spiritually dead in a
26:10
spiritually broken and fallen world.
26:12
And so, like logically, it should make sense to us that we
26:15
probably learned a lot about habits.
26:17
We learned a lot of bad reasoning, a lot of bad logic,
26:21
and we probably relied on our emotions a lot too much.
26:30
And so it should come as absolutely no shock to any of us
26:33
that again and again and again in our in my life, I'm going to
26:36
start to lean on my old rationale, my old heart, my old
26:40
reasoning, and head down the wrong path.
26:42
Like I, I'll try to do things like I did them before I was a
26:46
believer and I'm going to need to be corrected.
26:50
So it's almost like my default state is like I'm probably wrong
26:53
and I got to learn how to do it the right way.
26:56
Now. You know, the problem with that
26:58
is we all hate being wrong. Amen.
27:02
That we hate being we hate admitting wrong.
27:04
We hate being wrong. We hate being called out,
27:05
corrected about being wrong. At least I do.
27:10
You OK, All right. It might sometimes for some of
27:14
us, like the hardest thing to do in our entire life would be to
27:16
admit that we're wrong and apologize.
27:18
Hey, can you forgive me? I messed up.
27:22
But that also means that I I went from living a life based on
27:26
emotions, how I feel, to a realization that the moment
27:29
Christ saved me, I should not be trusting my emotions.
27:34
I tell you this all the time, the Christian life is not a
27:36
Disney movie. Don't follow your heart, it will
27:42
get you in trouble. The Bible says the heart is
27:44
deceitful above all else. Who can know it?
27:50
So I can't trust my emotions. The Bible says that to follow
27:54
Christ, I must die to myself. That means over and over and
27:59
over and over again. I'm going to be tempted to
28:00
follow the old way of life and not Jesus.
28:04
So we got to get really quick at realizing, hey, that that thing
28:09
I just thought about that thing I just started to do the way I
28:13
spoke to that person that's taking me off the rails, that's
28:15
taking me off the you ever been driving on the freeway and you
28:18
drift a little bit and you hit the rumble strip.
28:23
Yes. What are they there for?
28:26
They're a warning, right? They're a warning.
28:29
Well, they might wake you up too if you're tired.
28:31
They're a warning. You're going off the road.
28:37
And because our emotions and the way we thought before Christ
28:39
often do this, the list isn't going to help us.
28:42
We need some rumble strips. And a lot of times the advice in
28:45
the Bible is a rumble strip. It's trying to tell you, hey, if
28:48
you keep down this path, you're going to end up off the road.
28:50
Let me give you 5 real quick rumble strips in my life and
28:53
maybe you'll find one that you can relate to.
28:55
Here's the first one. In my mind, it's a thought that
28:58
starts this way. It is so unfair that that's a
29:04
rumble strip. I'm about to think something in
29:09
which I have lost gratitude for the mercy and grace of Christ
29:14
because I've decided what is unjust and unfair in my life and
29:17
I'm not that judge. Second one, I just can't believe
29:21
that they would rumble strip. The moment you catch yourself
29:27
thinking it, hey, you're headed out of the lane.
29:29
You didn't even put on a turn signal #3 I don't deserve that
29:35
kind of. Let me be really clear, I
29:40
deserve death, hell, and damnation for my rebellion
29:44
toward God. But God, that's what I deserve.
29:50
So the moment you decide that you don't deserve blank brother,
29:54
you are on the rumble strip. 4th 1.
29:58
I just have to get this off my chest.
30:01
No, you do not. For the love of Jesus, keep it
30:04
on your chest. That is the precursor to an
30:11
excuse to say something simple or in a sinful way.
30:16
You want to get it off your chest.
30:18
It's a there's this thing called prayer.
30:22
You can yell at God, you can argue with God, you can get it
30:27
off your chest all you want that way.
30:34
Stop using that as an excuse to say uncharitable things. 5th I
30:40
know what the Bible says, but I feel y'all, y'all, y'all don't
30:54
trust your feelings. They're liars.
30:59
Those are rumble strips. OK, just for later, there's a
31:02
little nugget. You wrap that up in a napkin and
31:03
put in your pocket for, for afterwards.
31:05
Just a little little treat. All these types of thoughts.
31:11
OK, These are all every one of these things I've thought like
31:14
150,000 times, right? Every one of these things I've
31:18
thought, and it's a precursor to something that takes me off of
31:22
this path of pursuing Christ. And, and So what I'm trying to
31:24
tell you is all of these are based on emotion feelings in my
31:29
life. And what I have learned over
31:32
time in pursuing Christ is every one of those is a rumble strip
31:34
that will lead me off the path of pursuing Christ.
31:37
So I want to be really careful when when anything starts kind
31:41
of like that. Here's the third thing.
31:44
All the measurements have changed.
31:45
OK? This is actually an
31:46
encouragement for you because often times the reason you're so
31:49
discouraged is you're measuring the wrong thing.
31:52
All the measurements have changed.
31:54
Here's what I mean by that. One of our biggest frustrations,
31:57
I I know for me and probably for for many of you because I got to
31:59
talk to you, one of our biggest frustrations as a Christian is
32:01
we thought that it would get easier, faster.
32:06
Amen. Come on.
32:08
Like, like, OK, everything changed, but not everything's
32:11
fixed, Amen. So, so we thought like I came to
32:15
Christ and now it's like, I don't know, fairies and unicorns
32:19
and rainbows. And it's like, no, this is hard.
32:22
I mean, the Bible talks about a spiritual warfare and a trench
32:25
warfare. So I don't know where you got
32:26
unicorns from. Not me.
32:30
But it turns out that it's actually pretty hard, Amen?
32:34
Spiritual change takes real time, like real time.
32:36
And we live in a culture that expects instant results.
32:40
So you've been trained by living in this culture that everything
32:42
was just supposed to be fixed. Like you went through the drive
32:44
through it in and out, that it might have actually taken a
32:47
while. But but you know what I'm saying
32:49
right now, here's the thing. I just want you to think about
32:52
this and this. I want this to encourage you.
32:54
Thank God that it takes time. OK, If him changing one small
33:00
thing in my life feels this disruptive, Can you imagine if
33:03
he changed everything at once? He corrects you on one little
33:06
thing and you're like, right, if he had corrected everything, I
33:11
don't think I'd survive. My pride couldn't handle it.
33:18
So that's, that's the first measurement that needs to
33:20
change, right? We, we measure in years, not in
33:22
days. So stop measuring like, oh, it
33:25
hasn't changed. It's been three whole days.
33:30
Here's the second thing. We don't measure from a list.
33:33
We measure from the fruit that is produced.
33:36
That's what Galatians 522 and 23 was telling us.
33:39
We're measuring it. Are we increasing in love,
33:42
increasing in joy, increasing in peace, increasing in
33:44
self-control, increasing in kindness and goodness and
33:46
faithfulness? Not a check box.
33:49
It's are these things happening in my life and beginning to
33:52
spill over into other people's lives now?
33:56
Three things I want to encourage you.
33:59
There's a small group of people and it's not really a type of
34:01
person. It's just a season because I've
34:03
because I've been both of these people at different seasons in
34:05
my life. So there's a small group in
34:07
here. And maybe you're in this season
34:08
right now where you don't feel like this at all.
34:11
And so like this hasn't really resonated for you.
34:13
You're like maybe for someone else because you actually feel a
34:16
little bit differently than this.
34:18
You also have turned righteousness into the list, but
34:20
instead of feeling like you're failing your distortion is this.
34:23
I don't know what the problem is.
34:25
I don't know why everyone else can't live like me.
34:29
Now, you don't say it that way because you're really good at
34:31
false humility. I know I'm a false humility
34:35
expert, but but your real issue is you're like, look, I am
34:40
crushing this thing. If people would just watch me,
34:43
they'd figure it out. And you think I'm exaggerating,
34:49
but you turn in the Bible and Jesus talked to this guy.
34:52
He's called the rich young ruler and he comes to Jesus and he's
34:54
got everything going for him. And he says, Jesus, what must I
34:57
do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, you know the
34:59
law, like there's a whole checklist of stuff, right?
35:02
You know the law. And he goes, oh, yeah, I've kept
35:04
every single one of those since birth.
35:10
Does anyone in here believe that guy never broke a single rule in
35:15
Judaic law since broke up? Come on, man.
35:26
Man, there have been seasons in my life where I've been this guy
35:32
where I look at the list and I go, Yep, killing it, killing it.
35:37
And then it's like gossip and I'm like skip over killing it,
35:42
killing it. And it's like, think the best of
35:44
someone. I'm like skip over and and then
35:47
I just, you know, I just kind of erase.
35:49
We put it on a whiteboard for a reason, right?
35:51
So I can. And then all that's left on my
35:55
checklist is the boxes that I've checked.
35:57
So I'm pretty much perfect. I mean, I'm not perfect, but I'm
36:00
better than, you know, Gary and, and we play the comparison game
36:07
where we're not actually looking at righteousness anymore.
36:09
We're just look, as long as I can find somebody that's
36:11
struggling more than I am, then I'm good, then I'm good.
36:18
And so any area that we fall short, we just, we conveniently
36:21
build a blind spot and we and we act like that that isn't really,
36:23
but very important. We find some justification, some
36:25
excuse for why we're, we're, we're not really sinning and we
36:29
just live in denial. It's not just a river in Egypt.
36:37
That one takes a while. But here's the reality of living
36:42
that way. OK.
36:42
And I'm just from from from experience.
36:44
I was to tell you from my life, the reality of living that way
36:47
is there's very little joy in your life.
36:51
And the reason there's not a lot of joy when we begin to live
36:53
like that, we have this, this, this, this self righteousness
36:57
that cut when we cover it up with this false humility is that
37:00
I haven't repented of my sin in years.
37:04
Because what is there to repent of when you're crushing it like
37:06
I am? And we call that legalism.
37:15
But The thing is that even after coming to Christ, when you begin
37:17
to live that way, it it never produces joy because to feel
37:24
self justified to to feel like, like I'm actually doing right
37:28
even though I'm not pursuing holiness, it requires me to
37:31
constantly excuse or turn a blind eye to the sin and listen,
37:35
sin is poison whether you close your eyes while you eat it or
37:39
not Amen. Hear me, sin is just as
37:45
dangerous whether you acknowledge that it's sin while
37:48
you do it or not. It doesn't become less sinful or
37:52
less poisonous or less dangerous if you live in a self justifying
37:55
little bubble where you act like it's OK.
38:00
It's just as harmful to our relationship with God who wants
38:03
us to walk in freedom, where we make honest mistakes and we
38:06
repent. And it's a common practice to
38:09
confess sin and repent that I'm wrong and turn from it and enjoy
38:12
the mercy and forgiveness that God extends.
38:15
And listen, it is hard to enjoy that when you think you don't
38:17
need it. Legalism is a lonely affair, I
38:23
will tell you, because I can't ever bring anyone real close
38:29
when I'm living this way because they might see all the eraser
38:32
marks on my checklist. And so it gets real lonely.
38:39
In fact, it's it's cold, windy and lonely up on the moral high
38:43
ground at night. Tough place to live.
38:48
Now here's the interesting thing for both groups of people, the
38:51
answer is actually the same. The solution is the same.
38:56
Even though those seem like such opposites.
38:58
We are not looking at and enjoying God enough.
39:03
So, so so here's what I mean. When I'm down on myself for
39:05
missing the mark and I'm and I'm kind of in this self
39:07
condemnation and I'm discouraged because I can't seem to check
39:10
all the boxes. It's because I'm staring at the
39:12
list, not the one who authored the list.
39:17
And when I think I'm crushing it because, like, you know,
39:19
everyone else is falling short and I'm kind of doing well, it's
39:22
because I'm still looking at the list and I'm looking at others,
39:24
but I'm not looking at Jesus because I would realize if I
39:28
did, how far from him I really was.
39:31
So. So whenever I'm falling into one
39:33
of these distortions, even though they seem like they're on
39:34
the opposite ends of the spectrum, the solution to both
39:38
is actually the same. I need to invest more time and
39:41
energy and affection and attention into knowing Christ.
39:45
And I know that that sounds like a Sunday school answer.
39:47
Like if you don't know what I mean, back back when they had
39:49
Sunday school for kids, you go into Sunday school and if you
39:51
didn't know the answer, you just go Jesus.
39:54
I'm like, you were right like 75% of the time.
39:57
So I know that sounds like that. But listen, hear me because this
40:00
is like the most important thing that you're going to hear about
40:02
the gospel, probably about about the sermon today.
40:05
If I desire to be transformed into Christ likeness like if I
40:10
desire to make better choices. And I have at least the logical
40:16
understanding that I don't seem to be able to do it.
40:20
Here's what I want you to know. God has a plan for you to do it,
40:26
like He has a plan for my inability to rise above my
40:29
emotions. And I want to show you that He
40:32
actually wrote that out in Scripture so that when you got
40:35
discouraged, you would see it and realize He did not leave you
40:37
where you're at. If you turn to 2nd Corinthians 3
40:42
verse 18, God is going to describe for you the process by
40:46
which to begin to improve, making better choices even when
40:50
you feel like you can't. Here's what it says and we all
40:55
he's talking to believers. So if you put your faith in
40:57
Jesus and we all with unveiled face, that's a weird phrase.
41:04
He's using some symbolism that simply means this.
41:07
It means that unveiled face, before Jesus came, we could not
41:11
see what the solution for man's depravity, for all this
41:14
brokenness was. We didn't know we were, it was
41:16
veiled from us. But now if Jesus has woken you
41:19
up from spiritual death to spiritual life, you can see it.
41:22
So you have an unveiled face. And we all with unveiled face,
41:27
beholding the glory of the Lord, the goodness of God, the beauty,
41:33
the character, the faithfulness, like the reverence in awe of who
41:36
God is, are being transformed. Current tents.
41:43
It's happening right now into the same image, into Christ
41:47
likeness from 1° of glory to another, not 30° at a time, not
41:57
giant leaps, 1° of glory to another.
42:02
The way to become like Jesus is to focus on Jesus and it takes a
42:06
lot of time. I want you to think crock pots,
42:08
not microwaves. You ain't getting, you ain't
42:12
getting the microwaves, Christian.
42:14
It's a mess. By the way, they explode.
42:18
For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
42:20
Now how do we do this? How do we focus on the glory of
42:23
God? Well, all you have to do is skip
42:27
down 1 chapter, second Corinthians chapter 4, and he
42:29
tells us. Here's what it says for God, who
42:32
said let light shine out of darkness?
42:36
That's a quote of of God from the creation story when he made
42:40
light out of dark, right? For God, who said let light
42:42
shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light
42:48
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
42:52
Like, whoa, whoa, what does that mean?
42:53
OK, first of all, I don't know if you catch this, but he just
42:56
said that our hearts were so dark that it was the equivalent
43:02
of when light didn't exist. That's a pretty dark.
43:07
If you're wondering on the scale of darkness, light not existing,
43:10
it's pretty dark. He just said before Christ, your
43:14
heart was so dark, so evil, so depraved that there was no
43:18
light. And God not only at the
43:19
beginning of creation, said let there be light.
43:21
When he saved you, He went into your dark heart and said, let
43:24
there be light. And then he says God's glory.
43:35
So the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
43:38
What what, what does that mean? God's glory is expressed to us
43:42
in the face of Jesus Christ. OK, It's it doesn't mean like
43:48
you have to actually know specifically what Jesus face
43:51
physically looked like. That would be tough because we
43:53
don't have Google Photos from back then, right?
43:55
Nobody went back that far. Mine go like 11 years,
43:58
definitely not making it 2000. So it's not physically the face
44:00
of Christ. What is it saying?
44:02
Listen, if you want to understand what the physical
44:07
manifestation of all of the glory of God is, all of His
44:12
character, all of His perfection, all of His goodness,
44:15
all of His power, all of His mercy, all of everything that is
44:18
good about this universe and creation, He took all of it and
44:22
put it into a physical man, a baby born of a woman, wrapped in
44:26
flesh. And He walked amongst us.
44:28
And that is the glory of God. And if you would get infatuated
44:35
with that, it'll change your life.
44:39
You can get infatuated with fantasy football won't change
44:42
your life. You can get infatuated with a
44:44
new hobby or a relationship won't change your life, but man,
44:47
if you will begin to be devoted to that, you'll begin to
44:52
experience the glory of God. What the Bible says is if you
44:53
will begin to experience the glory of God, you will start
44:56
getting changed 1° at a time. That's how transformation works.
45:07
That if we would get, if we would fall more deeply in love
45:10
with Him, it would change us. Hey, guess what, that's good
45:13
news. Amen.
45:15
Because that means there's hope for knuckleheads like me who
45:18
can't seem to make the right decisions.
45:23
What I have to do in my life is now architect a way to focus on
45:28
Christ more and on lists less, focus on Christ more and
45:32
comparing myself to other people less.
45:34
So I wanted you to consider two things today, Two ways to do
45:36
that. One thing you start doing, one
45:38
thing you stop doing. We'll make this really easy.
45:40
I put a list in your bulletin. Here's the first.
45:42
I want you to make a list of this.
45:44
What are things I can do to grow in Christ?
45:48
Man, there's so many ways to grow, right?
45:50
The Bible talks about all these different ways we get better at
45:53
prayer or pray more, build a good Christian community around
45:58
us or or learn how to serve other people, build generosity,
46:02
work on our on confession, reading our Bible, building
46:06
gratitude and thankfulness, all reverence and on and on and on.
46:09
There's lots of good things, say me, you could put yourself in
46:14
environments and communities, in moments and disciplines to help
46:18
in the rehab process of what it looks like to live with this new
46:21
heart. And that's what this is.
46:23
We're doing rehab. We are all doing rehab from our
46:28
addiction to sin. Church is a recovery center.
46:31
You're an addict. I'm an addict, addicted to sin,
46:37
but God, now I can make a list of, of these things that I want
46:42
to do, right? And, and, and how do I, how do I
46:44
make a list and it not become legalism?
46:47
If I make a list of stuff to do and I get back to the check
46:49
boxes, didn't I get back to the place I started?
46:50
Oh my gosh, here's here's how I can help you with that list.
46:54
OK, whatever you're going to write down to your list, I just
46:56
want you to think there's one thing, OK?
46:58
Every time you look at a doing a thing, I want you to think, how
47:02
does this stir up my affection for God?
47:05
How does this stir up my passion for God?
47:07
OK. And this is the difference.
47:09
So if you put read my Bible daily and then you read your
47:11
Bible for 15 minutes, then you check the box and you walked
47:15
off, we've missed the mark. But then if I open the scripture
47:19
and I get one verse in, but it begins to stir in me an
47:21
affection for Christ. Now we're getting somewhere.
47:25
So it's a it's not just a what I'm doing, it's a how and why I
47:28
do it. I'm trying to meet someone and
47:30
know him better. OK, So what will stir me up?
47:33
What will help with my humility? What will strip away my pride?
47:35
What will grow my generosity and gratitude?
47:37
It's a relationship, not a robot.
47:41
So one thing to start doing, right?
47:42
You're going to make a list. One thing to stop doing.
47:45
How do I strip self from every part of my life and replace it
47:50
with Jesus? AW Tozer says that the primary
47:53
thing that holds you and I back from truly experiencing the
47:55
goodness and presence of God in our lives is self life.
47:59
So, so where in my life have I been relying on my own feelings,
48:03
my own emotions, my own sufficiency?
48:05
And let us confess that and repent and instead be desperate
48:09
for God in that area of our life.
48:11
Because if you will start to to answer these questions, right,
48:14
if you will, you'll begin to add some things to your life to stir
48:16
up your affection and strip away those areas that where you're
48:19
focused just entirely on yourself.
48:20
You'll do that Monday through Saturday.
48:22
Let me tell you something, your life is going to change.
48:28
Maybe you, you've been listening online or you've been hanging
48:30
out with us today and, and you've never heard most of this
48:35
stuff, right? This is kind of foreign to you
48:36
or, or you're just skeptical of, been skeptical about it.
48:39
And maybe you've never realized that it's not a life coach you
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need, it's a heart surgeon. Maybe maybe you've been looking
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for advice, therapy, comfort, knowledge, gimmicks, lots of
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things, and none of them seem to work.
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And so it's just for the last moment or two as we wrap this
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up. I just want to, I just want to
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ask you if God has grabbed a hold of your attention today,
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it's because he wants to save you.
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And He is at this very moment awakening your soul to the
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things of heaven. He is replacing your heart of
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stone with the heart of flesh. So I want to give you a chance
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to respond to the call that God has on your life today.
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The Bible says in Romans 10/9 and 10 Because if we confess
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with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart
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that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.
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For with the heart 1 believes and is justified, and with the
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mouth 1 confesses and is saved. And so if you would like to
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surrender to God today, I want to give you that chance.
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Will you bow your heads with me? Close your eyes if you're
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willing to ask God for forgiveness for salvation.
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I just want you to repeat this prayer after me.
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You do it silently. You do quietly, however,
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whoever's comfortable. Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner who
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can't save myself and I want you to save me and adopt me into
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your family. Be my Lord, Please.
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Jesus, have you said that prayer for the very first time?
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Will you be brave and raise your hand for me to see?
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Thank you, thank you. You put your hands down in Jesus
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name. Amen.
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Amen. Real quick, if you just gave
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your life to Christ, welcome to the family.