Refiner's Fire | Week 8 | Bill Bush

and I wanna read the first verse here first. It says this, so then since Christ suffered physical pain,

you must arm yourself. See, this is the way to fight it. This is the way to fight life's getting. This is what you do when you're suffering even for doing the right thing. Arm yourselves with what? With the same attitude he has. We need to have the attitude of Christ. And he said, and be ready to suffer too. You need to be willing to turn into the skid.

Turn into the direction instead of turn away, run away. You need to turn into the skid. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have been finished with sin. You have finished with sin. What does that mean? If I go through and turn into the skid and I'm willing to suffer and go where God called me to go, even if it cost me something, he goes, I'll be finished with sin, so I'll be perfect. Right?

That's not what he's saying. He'll go on to explain that what he's saying is you will identify with Christ in a deeper way. You will experience what Christ really wants in your life in a real way. And when you start to experience that, even though you will start to experience that victory,

kinda like in a sport when you go all out and you're bloody at the end, but you won. Yeah. That was painful. That was hurt. But, man, the thrill of the victory, the thrill is like you will start to look at the sin, the things you were running after in your life that you thought were gonna help you, you thought was gonna make life work. You're gonna start to realize that isn't worth it.

You'll start to actually know that, but what you have to do is something very, very counterintuitive, to arm yourselves with the attitude of Christ. And so through verse 11, there's two things, basically. I can break this passage down. There's two basic things we gotta do to be counterintuitive.

These are the two things we arm ourselves with in order to turn into the skid and choose to follow Christ, especially if it's gonna cost me, because I don't wanna do that. I naturally don't wanna do that. And the first thing is this,

we need to live a life of faith, not feelings. A life of faith, not now this doesn't mean I'm not saying we need to become, you know, you know, robotic Christians. You know, I I mean, become a cyborg or whatever. It it means what really is the path what's directing your life? Where do you make the decisions?

You don't let your feelings make the decisions. You let faith make the decision. God's word, you trust God. So if you come to a moment that, alright, God's word says this is what I need to do,

but that seems like I'm turning towards the pain, towards the struggle, towards my feelings say I don't wanna do it. And he goes, exactly. Turn into the skid. Turn into the skid. He goes, live this life of faith, not just feelings. And so let's look at verse two.

You won't spend the rest of your life chasing your own desires. Don't run after the feelings. He goes, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. As you learn to turn into the skid, you'll you'll stop running after your your own your own desires all the time, your own paths. You'll start going after the will of God.

And when you do that, verse three, you've had enough in the past of evil things that godless people enjoy, their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness, wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.

He's saying that as you do this more, you're gonna identify with Christ in a way that's gonna make you go, you know what? I'm actually getting the joy that comes from the Lord more than this, and you'll start getting traction in your life the way God intended for you, what you were created for,

and ultimately not just what you created, like do what God says even though it sucks. When you actually start to experience what he meant for you, you will truly experience a joy and a peace that you will never ever ever ever get running after those other things. You'll have a clarity.

And he says and look what he goes on to say though next. He goes and here's where it could start to hurt. This is where the feelings come. Verse four, of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things

they do, so they slander you. You realize up until this point, we're talking about how you're gonna suffer if you do the right thing, and there's this you know, our next series, we'll talk about there's an enemy. There's someone like sometimes the force behind people giving you a hard time for following Christ is really this this evil behind it,

and you feel that. And so we've talked about they, them. Everything has been we talk about, well, the world out there, they, them, them. He now makes it very personal. He's saying, you know, it's not just the they, the them, the nebulous forces that be out there. It's gonna be the people that were your friends,

your family. And this is when it's gonna be really hard to do faith because when it's close, when it's friends and family, and they start giving you a hard time, your feelings are gonna say give up and just go with them.

And especially, this is important to them when it says now, of course, he says former friends. That means you're gonna lose some friends maybe. They you might still love them. You might still reach out to them, but they can't be your primary go to people all the time. You

can't follow Christ and have no community with Christians, and your primary close go to people are a bunch of people that don't know Christ. You you just can't because it'll lead you astray. And he's talking to them because this is a generation where most of them became Christians as adults.

You know, they didn't grow up with with Christ in this cult. This is that first generation, that first thirty years. They don't have the Christian schools to, you know, go hide out in and do all that stuff. They they were they were

so they're dealing with you know, a lot of them, it's even in your marriages. Like, you know, a spouse becomes a Christian, the other isn't. That was big time that he's talking about. And he goes, and you know what? It's gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard because they're gonna slander you. They're gonna attack you.

You know why? Because if you truly turn into the skid, your life will start to reflect Christ, and you're gonna become a mirror. And no matter how hard and how lovingly you do that, don't go look for an enemy, but you will be a mirror.

And that's why some of you, if you followed Christ and maybe you're trying, and then you get together with your friend group that was crazy or wild, and they start to act, and some of especially when you're like that college age, young adult age happens a lot, your friends start to say, well, you've changed, and they say it as a derogatory thing. Like, they're acting like you betrayed them.

Like, what happened to you? It used to be fun. It used to be this. Now you're all, like, blah blah blah. That's their first level of slander. They're actually not really attacking you as much as they're attacking that faith and trying to drag you back. And you know why? It's because they see in the mirror.

And they're and our broken, fallen, sinful nature is at war with that whisper of the holy spirit.

And you either some friends are like, what is it that you have that I don't, but others don't like what they see in the mirror. Just like when you get up in the morning, you look in the mirror. Some mornings you get up and you say,

good morning, Lord. Other times you look in the mirror and you say, good Lord, it's morning. Maybe I should get the salad from last night out of my teeth. Probably shouldn't wear what I'm wearing today. Maybe I should comb my hair. So I mean, like, well, COVID was rough. Maybe I should go back to the gym.

But you know what's weird when it comes to looking in a mirror? And we do this literally. A lot of us just avoid mirrors.

I don't like what I see. So rather than deal with it, I just don't wanna see it.

That's what we're tempted to do as followers of Christ when it comes to friends, family, people close, is we're tempted to give in to the feelings. And if I give in to the feelings, they're bothered by it, it makes me uncomfortable, I'm just gonna cover my mirror.

But if you don't cover the mirror, they're gonna throw rocks at it. You gotta know that's gonna happen, and you gotta know that there's gonna be some friendships that you you should stay friends with people that are not Christians, especially if it's your spouse. You can't say, well, you're now my former friend,

because the bible says the Christian should never be the one that leaves. You have to love them and engage, but you can't let their advice, their lifestyle, their way of seeing the world you can't surround yourself with a bunch of people that wanna pour into you that have a very contrary view of how to live life

than those who know Christ. And that's why if you're gonna live a life faith not feelings, you need real community. That's why we say get in a small group. Get in don't just sit in rows. You gotta get in a circle because you're gonna need that. You're you're gonna need this other family. We'll see that in a minute.

Because he goes on to say they they will slander you. But then verse five, look what he goes on to say about this idea of of living by faith, not feelings, especially when it comes to our relationships. Because it goes, but remember this. Remember that they will have to face God

who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. So he's saying, you gotta remember that. Why are you more fearful of their opinions and where they wanna go? Because they think it's right and they think what you're doing wrong. He says, you know, the end, you're gonna face judgment and they're gonna have to stand before God, and their way of living might look like it's more, you know, you're gonna be happier, you're gonna feel better right now, but in the end, you're gonna stand for God and go, wow, you wasted it. And he's really actually saying, and if these friends don't see Christ, you have a chance to mirror Christ. If they don't engage and see Christ through you, they're gonna they're gonna end up

crashed in the end of all eternity, and you're not. So he's saying, don't wish them all to go to hell. Don't cover the mirror. Love them in a way that you might be able to lead them to Christ, but in the end, if they don't,

you're gonna go on suffer for a little while, go on to an eternal relationship with God. They're gonna have fun for a while and go on to an eternal separation from God. So fear God more than you fear their opinions, and love them more than you care about their opinion of you is what he's saying. That's what we need to do.

Because look what he says next. Said, because you know you have this hope, because he says in verse six, that is why the good news was preached to those who are now dead. He's not gonna now people that died, then they wouldn't get the news. He's referring to the generation, because it's been about thirty, thirty five years since Christ. There's been people that have now died,

because he says, but they they knew Christ. He goes, yeah. They died. So although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with with God and the spirit. What he's trying say is, I get it. You're saying, but is it really better to live for Christ and suffer through this? Because there's other people that believe in Christ, and and they believe that they had eternal life, but they still died. They were still a little bit confused at times in this this first generation of what did that mean? Because as people that become Christians started dying physically, they're like, well, Jesus said we would never die. We'd have eternal life. They were confused. They were thinking, I I some of them thought, wouldn't that mean that we would be eternal, that we would never die? We'd be like Edward on on on the the twilight series where we wouldn't die? We just glisten in the sun or something like that?

Man, I am actually ashamed that I even know that.

I do not wanna look at that mirror. Now in defense, my two daughters loved twilight, so I had to know a thing or two about it, but what a lame illustration.

So those of you that hate it, lost some respect in your eyes. And those of you that love it, I just made you mad. So sorry. Not sorry. But you know what I'm saying? They they were afraid, he's saying, no. You don't get it. Yeah. Your physical body might die,

but when you turn this kid, when you trust Christ, you're gonna live a life that he meant and then have all of eternity to not suffer. You so to have the attitude of Christ is to see things from the eternal perspective, to make decisions based on not

right now or when and then. When this happens, then I'll follow God. When? Do then and now. Based on what's gonna happen then. Based on this is where the story ends, I'm gonna make my decisions now based on where I know this goes. A life of faith, not feelings. It's

like I said, this is a lot easier for me to say than for us to do when the when when it really gets kinda tense, when it when it really gets there. But here's he says here in verse seven, here's the weapon we have.

The end of the world is coming soon,

which is interesting. This is why everyone says, why don't you preach the end of world? Peter was saying that. What he meant is we're going into a transition that this is the the this is the end game now, you know, and and and but yet he knew there were still things that Jesus predicted had to happen. We're a day closer than ever. We should always be prepared for the end.

And he's saying, hey, but something's definitely changing. He also knew a greater persecution, a fiery trial was about to start. So he's saying this is the end of some of this. But if you think about the end, you gotta understand you have to always be ready for the end. Because in God's economy,

what we think of as a what what what what what he thinks of as a short period of time could be a long time. Think about it this way. When God says something could be like, to him, you know, a day is like a thousand years, Here's the best way. Husbands. It's when your wife says she needs five for minutes. Your

sense of five minutes is a lot shorter than her sense of five minutes. Right? To you, five minutes is literally sixty seconds, five times. To hers, it could be up to forty five minutes. Does that make sense now? But you gotta be ready because you never know when she's gonna be ready.

If, ladies, if you're offended, I just compared you to god. Okay? You're you're the heroic one in this scenario, but don't try to use that. I'm just being like the Lord.

Well, we're late.

So that's what he he's saying, but but he goes, the world's ending soon, so therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Earnest and disciplined means clear minded and sober minded. He's saying prayer is our best weapon in this.

But when he says this clear minded, this earnest and disciplined type of prayer, he's saying pray about the end. Pray about the end in mind. Pray that you have the clarity of God's will and the courage to turn into the skin.

The reason where prayer doesn't work for a lot of us is, to be quite honest, we turn prayer into our honey do list for God.

Prayer is should be a result of being in God's word. If you don't know what to pray about, you should spend time in God's word. And as God's word speaks to you through the spirit about where you need to go or what you need to stop going and and and where life and find that wisdom, you then pray about that. God, I'm sorry. I'm not doing this, but here's what I need to do. Give me the clarity on this. Give me the courage to do it. Give me the courage to turn into the skid. And give me that's what prayer and God says he will empower you. And you know what? You know the best way to get your way is want God's way.

If if your will is God's will, your will will always happen. That's the point. But how many of your prayers, there's a honeydew, you're trying to convince God to own your passions and your desires that he said quit living for that. So

he's saying that you gotta pray about this. And the reason he said prayer first is because when he transits the next, you better be praying about this because if that you know, that's counterintuitive,

to live by faith instead of feelings at time, but at least we get it. I think everyone in this room that knows the Lord, like, I get it. There are so many times I know I'm I know God says go this way, but my feelings say this. So at least that that makes sense. This next thing he says to do doesn't even seem like it would be practical

at all. It almost seems impossible. It almost seems like, how dare God ask me to do this when my life is skidding, when I'm suffering, when I'm struggling? How dare there there he doesn't get it. There's no way. This one makes even less sense. And that is the second point, which is

be the church. Don't just go to church. Don't just go to church. Be the church. What do mean by that? A lot of us just go to church, but we're called to actually be the church. Because look look what he says in verse eight.

Where is it? There. Most important of all. Okay. I'm no linguistic expert, But if you say most important of all, what does that mean? If you say to your kids, this is the most important thing of all I need you to do, does that mean it's an option for them? Does that mean hopefully you might listen?

If your boss tells you most important of all, I need you to get this done today, does that mean I could wait till next week?

Most important of all means what Peter's about to say is this is even the most critical thing you have to do, especially when you're struggling. What does he say? Continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

So he's gonna explain what that looks like, but he says continue to show a deep love for now he's talking to us as the church, the family of God. He says you have to have a deep love. Well well, here's the thing. That word for deep in the Greek means stretched out. So it means it's a love that's gonna get stretched.

It's a love that's gonna be challenged. It's a love that's gonna be difficult. He didn't say, love the church as long as they're lovable.

Love people is like, you know, but but if they mess up or they hurt you or you feel like that didn't work right or you it didn't work out, then you're you're out. Just just ignore. Don't don't connect. Don't disengage. He didn't say that because it's a deep love. It's a word for stretched out. It has to stretch but not snap. It has to go wider than you think, and to stretch is is is is is something that that that can cause pain. You can get stretched out. Matter of fact, it's almost an illusion to when it says Jesus died on the cross. What did they do to him? They said, he was stretched out for you and I. And

we have to take on the attitude of the Christ. That means I gotta be willing to love someone who's unlovable. I gotta be willing to forgive some. It doesn't mean I have to trust them again, but I gotta be willing to have forgiveness. I also have to be willing to serve them.

But in order to love that way, there's there's a couple things here that we gotta do to explain that. He says this. He says, first, it covers a multitude of sins. That doesn't mean you cover up the sin.

It doesn't mean you ignore it. It means you speak the truth in love. It means you don't go blow people out of the water, but you also don't ignore it. But by covering it, it means it allows you to have a conversation without just annihilating things. But don't run away. Try to cover it. Try to come with the cover of love and the cover of truth and work it out. It and, you know, if someone can't be trustworthy, can say, forgive you. I'm gonna love you. But maybe I have to back a little. We have to have some boundaries here. Don't get me wrong. But it doesn't mean that you, like, you either ignore it or you just completely run away from it.

I mean, how many of us in our culture, there are so many churches that if you get mad, if somebody hurts your feelings, you leave?

How does that work? We're supposed to cover the multitude of sins. We're we're we're called to encourage and help each other,

and you have to do that up close because verse nine says, cheerfully share your home with those who are in need a meal or a place to stay. So share your resources, share your time, share your life. What he's saying there is, yeah, we should open up our homes, but it goes beyond just that. He's given a principle. He says, you have to be an actual relationship. You can't just sit in rows. You have to be in circles to be at the church.

You can't just go to a church once a week.

Coming to church is is coming here and and getting this is a great moment. This is a powerful moment that we hear God's word. We we praise God together. This is a very much needed part of our faith. But but but in truth, this is not where we truly, truly live out this deep love. This is where we find out about it. And here's the problem. Many of us say, I'll come to church every week. I'm challenged by the message.

Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I go, I got I gotta wrestle with this. And you hear these deep truths and you just wanna think it. And we make this mistake that sometimes we replace feelings with actions. If I felt something strong enough, then I did something.

And we'll come and you go, well, that was a challenging message. And you think about it all week and you dig in, you find out more bible information,

and you know this stuff, but it you don't actually do what it says. You don't actually go out there and live it. You just like to chew on it. You like to debate it. You like to look at other verses, and and and you never get to the point of action because you felt so strongly. You almost feel exhausted from the feelings, and you think you did something.

It's like when you watch those commercials late at night about poor dogs or kids all throughout the world, and you tear up. You tear up so much, you don't want anyone to know it, especially guys, and you're you're emotionally moved by it, and you go, wow. I am a good person because I care, and then you change the channel.

Because, man, that emotion took so much out of me. Our faith is not same back to the first point. It's a deeper understanding of live a life of faith, not feelings. Don't confuse strong feelings with actually stepping out with faith. You can come in here and cry all you want when we sing a song.

You can come in here and hear the story of God's word and go, that was powerful, and then walk right out there and ignore it.

But because you had such an emotional moment, you thought you did something. You're like the we we turn our faith into, like, you know what? There's all these issues out there. I know I'm called to do something, but you know what? You know what I'm gonna do? Thoughts and prayers. I'm gonna feel bad for a minute.

In relationships, you hurt your spouse. You feel terrible about it. So you think they should just be nice to you now. I felt terrible. Well, did you apologize? Did you make a plan? Did you make amends? Did you do anything, or did you say, hey, I'm I'm done feeling bad? And

if you think of that, that's how you end up in a more fight. I felt bad long enough. You're making me feel bad. Maybe if they keep bringing it up, but what if it's maybe because you never actually made amends or apologized or tried to do anything about changing the behavior?

At that point, you're just sick. You thought feeling bad should change it.

You see, we we have to live a life of faith, not feelings, and we have to choose to be the church, not just go to church.

It's kinda like this idea that you you don't we're we're we're described as a family, and and you don't just you don't go to family. You either are family. You know what I mean? Some of you do go to family. Some of you grew up in a family

that you really don't like that much, but you you're connected enough that you still get together at Thanksgiving,

you know, Christmas, a holiday, a wedding, maybe a funeral. And you know what's funny? As you get together, and you know what's gonna happen because it happens all time. Everyone falls back in their classic roles. You got that one cousin you kinda like. You got the uncle that gets too drunk and yells inappropriate things.

You you and your brothers and sisters fall into your birth order roles right away. You know, the oldest starts being bossy. The the the youngest is like what this is is you think, oh, they're spoiled by everyone in the middle says, what about me? Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. You know, and and you're 50 years old and you're still doing this.

And it's it's a it's it's crazy. You got your kids with you now, and and you just and what you do is you're like, it's family. We just go and we do it, then we get back in the car and get on a plane, and we get the heck out of Dodge. Wash, rinse, repeat. There's a noise beeping. Right? That's not just me.

And it did go away?

It's not like I hear things all the time, but but you know what I'm talking about? And you know what? Some of you in this you've tried really hard to take your family and your kids and break that mold, haven't you?

Then why do we bring that to the church?

Because look what he says. If you're gonna love that way and connect that way, you gotta have community. And how that community looks as he says in verse 10, God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Each of you. So if you know Christ, does that include you? Yes.

He says use them well to serve one another. So if you know Christ, do you realize the holy spirit has given you a supernaturally empowered gift that he empowers through you for the sole purpose of serving your family and sharing Christ? So the question is, don't take this wrong. This is a throat punch with a hug.

Let's hug. And now that we're all cuddly and nice, can you tilt your chin a little higher? But this isn't supposed to be shame. This is supposed to show you why you keep spinning out. If you wanna get traction in your life, if you are a Christian, you have a spiritual gift.

You need to know what it is and you need to be using it. So how many of you in this room call this your church, you don't know what your spiritual gifts are, or even if you do, you don't serve? You're doing it wrong. You're not getting attraction. He said this is most important of all.

I wanna put this phrase up here. Come to serve, not just be served. This is most important of all. And you know why? What I in in all my years of ministry, thirty years as a pastor, I'm gonna be honest with you. Can I be honest with you? Like, I haven't been honest the whole time, but

ninety nine point nine nine percent of the time, the person that gets their feelings hurt and wants to complain about this ministry failed me or this didn't call me back or why do you do it this way or why do is a Christian that's been a Christian a long time and you don't serve.

You have a fast food mentality of the church. I came here. I want it my way. I want it quick. I want it inexpensive. I want it to cost me little, and I want it be the way I want it. And you're spinning around and not helping. Not helping at all. You're just wasting space, time, resources

causing dissension. You're not loving deeply. You're not being stretched. You expect everyone else to stretch for you. And this is why it's counterintuitive. Some of you are mad at me right now for saying it because you have an excuse in your head on why it doesn't apply to you. He is talking to Christians

that are suffering to the point of being put to death for their faith. What's your excuse?

I don't mean that to shame you because look what it says here. He says, he's given you these gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Verse 11. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. That's the gift he gave me.

And if I don't tell you what God says, this is the way to get traction, this is the way to find real life, this is the way that no matter what your issue is that you think you can't trust god, he says you need to do this, this is the most important thing, this is how you love, this is how you're the family, this is how you're doing it, then I'm failing in my job.

I want us to experience it. I want us to be the church, not just have a big group of people coming to a church because we need each other. Do you know what's the most important thing is? The biggest problem in a church growing, like, even right now, we had a newcomers dinner last night, had 300 people at it. That's

300 more people with kids and stuff, and they're getting engaged. They gotta learn. I'm gonna jump challenge. They're sitting in the room. I'm telling them the same thing. But the problem with most churches, why you think a church failed to serve you, is because 20% of the people in a typical we're about 35, 40%

of the attendance actually serves. We're double the national average, but still only 40% of the people that say they're a Christian, they call this their church home, are using their spiritual gift to serve in this church. Why do you think things aren't getting done?

If everyone gave and served, our budget would probably be three, four times that. We'd be reaching more people, and we would not have the issues we have. That and then we pray, god, send us the god, let us get this done. God and god's like, I already gave you all the resources. You just need to use them. See,

that's his timer going off.

God's sitting in the car. Let's go, people.

In other words, be the church. It's interesting. I got a great example, it sounds weird, that I think shows us what a church should be. In many ways, it's doing it better, and it's my sister-in-law is a part owner of a CrossFit gym. You guys know what CrossFit is?

Everyone probably does because the first rule of CrossFit is always talk about your CrossFit. But there's a reason they always talk about it because they do fitness different.

And and here's what they do. My sister I don't if they're all this way, but they have an amazing one. Go there all time. Matter of fact, that's how my oldest daughter got her her husband, David, our worship pastor. He was a coach at this CrossFit,

and my sister-in-law says, I think there would be a good match, and she was right. So

but anyways, in CrossFit, it's different than the the regular gym that you go to. See, CrossFit started off for military people and all that kind of a form of it's a very organized, this is what fitness is. They have a defined principles of what you're trying to accomplish here. Unlike if you go to a gym, it's much more nebulous. Everyone that joins a gym on their own figures, I just wanna be healthier, and that looks really different for other people. Some people are always on the treadmill. Some people are always lifting heavy weights. Some people, you're looking at them and you go, I don't know a lot about fitness, but there is no way that's how that machine works.

So they have this general idea of what they want, but no specifics and no one agrees and they're not doing it together. You're just working out. You're going to a building and working on your fitness next to other people.

And and in CrossFit, you sign up, you do it, you have a coach, you have a group, you do the same workout,

tended to head towards these same principles that are already agreed upon. This is what we believe the truth of fitness is. We're all heading towards this. They do it. They all do it together. They have their scores like how strong they were, how fast they were, and they put it down and it seems competitive. You're a competitive person, you like it, but if you're overly competitive, at least in this CrossFit gym, you're gonna get picked on too. Don't do that. Don't be because the whole idea is you might be the strongest, but we're here for the whole group. So

every time my my sister-in-law, she's coaching, showing you how to do technique, but even the better athletes, the ones that have been doing it longer, they finish first, then they go back and they start cheering for everyone else. They're coaching them. They're cheering them on. They're not saying I'm better than you. They're showing if someone's far behind, they they they rally for them, and they try to show them, and if someone's doing bad form or getting it wrong, they'll coach them.

And they love that. That's part of what they expect to have happened. They expect to be coached because they already agreed on what the goal is, and they want help getting there. You go to a regular gym, you're just working out next to people. Like I said, you're doing your own thing. Yeah. You kind of want fitness, but you don't know. Everyone has a different idea, and the last thing you want is someone to come and start coaching you in the middle of a regular gym, especially if you're a lady.

You don't want that gym guy that is huge, but you don't know if he ever works out that walks up to you.

You're doing those squats wrong. Let me show you how. I've got to put my hands on your hips.

That's awkward. It's even more awkward if you've had that happen. The last thing you ladies want is some guy coming up and talking to you in the gym.

You see, sadly, more churches and more Christians wanna go to that kind of a church. You wanna come work out your spiritual fitness in your own way just next to people, but then when the gym's crowded, the machine you wanna use, the the shower's broken, you're mad.

We need to be more like a CrossFit. We need to have CrossFitness. There you go.

This is our principles of how to be in spiritual shape. We agree on this. The goal is this, and if we are really gonna be the church, we're gonna some of us are stronger than ours, and we gotta cheer for each other, but we also gotta coach each other. And you gotta be willing to be challenged,

and you gotta be willing to listen. And the truth is if you wanna really be in spiritual shape, gotta listen to God's word, and he just said the most important thing of all, especially when your life's getting out of control, when you're busy, when you're hurting, when you you don't know is to not to isolate, that's why I need to back off and have some time. That never works. It

never works. No one in their life ever says, you know, the best thing I ever did was not live like Christ told me to live unless you became an atheist. But then he already warned. Yeah. It might feel good for now, but at some point, you're dead, and then you're really dead.

He's saying, you know what? Be the church. Don't just go to church. So here's the the the question. What's your community? Do you have a circle?

What are your gifts? Where do you serve?

And that's what you need to do next if you want traction in your life. We'll help you. You can go to rockpoint.io and you can find the community tab and we'll help you find some community.

You can go to you you under there, can also go to the notes. There's a section that they actually put the outline here and the passages I look at under notes in there, and they listed a link to a spiritual gifts test. So you can go try to find out what your spiritual gifts test. Now I prefer just serving and finding my gifts that way, but some of you, you like to do things like get a driver's license before you drive a car. But if that's your cup of tea, then go ahead and do it.

Or you can do both.

Or if you wanna find a place to serve next weekend, Saturday, sign up. We have a behind the scenes tour. We do it frequently where you'll meet with you. They'll it'll let you talk to some of the staff people. They'll show you a few of the areas, and let's talk about all the areas of needs, and one will jump out and go, you know, could do that.

I could do that. See, this is where you you gotta choose to live by faith, not by feelings. Because I can guarantee I'm gonna speak my gift. I'm gonna speak as if god himself is speaking through me because I'm telling you exactly what god's word says to do here.

If you're a Christian and you come to the church, this is not optional,

and you will not continue to grow. You will not get traction. You'll not experience what God wanted for you without it. It's what he wants for you, not from you. You can actually be used by God to have a front row seat in him changing eternity in people's lives. Why wouldn't you give your time and your money to that?

Because you know when he goes on, he says this. He goes, when you do this,

he goes, do you have the gift of speaking? Speak as though God is still speaking to you. Do you have the gift of helping? Do it. With all the strength and energy that God supplies, then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.

All glory and power to him forever and ever. The next verse, 12 through 19, goes on to reiterate this idea. He says, first of all, don't be surprised when it's hard.

Don't see purpose surprise. Every challenge you have, every thought in your head on why you can't do this, he goes, yeah. That's gonna happen. That's the attack. You're gonna and then people are gonna push back. You're gonna have every reason in the book to not do it. You're just gonna hear it over and over again. Don't be surprised. And, actually, if you get attacked for doing the right thing, if you suffer for doing the right thing, you should be glad because you are now identifying and you are closer to being like Christ, which was the goal in the first place.

And then finally, he says in verse 19,

he says this, so if you're suffering in a manner that pleases God wow. That's a scary phrase. If you are a helicopter parent that won't let your kids suffer through anything, you hate this verse.

Because God says there's a type of suffering that's good. And you know, parents, there's a type of suffering that's good for your kids. Matter of fact, if you don't let them have that kind of suffering, you're gonna have a type of suffering the rest of your life that you cannot handle.

He goes, but there's a suffering that pleases him. Keep on doing what is right through that, and trust your lies to the God who created you, for he will never fail you. He'll never fail you. You get to see and experience. Well, you know, speaking of being a parent, let me close with this.

Being a parent, if you've been one or are one, is one of the most incredible, awesome experiences in your life and the most soul crushing at the same time. Because it's up and down. It's all over, and and, know, if you have multiple kids, like my youngest kid's about to move out actually, move out of the country,

and and and I'm onto the grandparent phase. That's a lot nicer. You do what you want, send them home.

But in raising my three kids, it's funny. You're the same parent, and they come out different no matter what you do because they have their own personalities, they have their own free will.

You just try your best to give them the principles and guide them. Well, my son was very different than his his two sisters, probably because he's a boy, the only boy, and he's right in the middle. And and and so he had an older sister to to to humble him and a younger sister to annoy him. But he, of all my three kids,

showed the most natural feeling heart towards God, the quickest, the fastest,

and he has a brain the way he got this this mix of his mom and for me that that that that he's just smart like his mom, but, you know, will just, like, say whatever he's thinking and be really bold and argue even if he doesn't really have all the facts straight like his dad. You know? So he'll

he can he could be very infuriating. But he was my first kid to, like, be bold about who got he he got in fights at school and classes and debates about about things, and he would defend, and he knew his bible more than them. He did all that. But you know what's different than him and them is he was super impulsive.

We now know it's ADHD, like, diagnosed. And he said I could tell this. It's one thing I do love about him since he was six years old. I always ask all of my family if I can use a story. He gave me carte blanche. He just said, if it helps the people. See, that's what him is. Dad, if it if it helps the people.

But he has these impulse. So it's like funny thing. He could be the one that knows the bible the most, be the most bold about saying it, but then be with his friends ten minutes later and do the most knuckleheaded things you've ever heard of.

And I didn't get it. I was like, what you're the one that's like acting like a little preacher kid, and then you're acting like Satan ten minutes later. That is frustrating.

Matter of fact, his mom coined it best when he was younger and could start talking. She said, watching his life, said at one point, this kid's going to one or two places. He is either gonna be in the pulpit or in the penitentiary. He's either gonna be a pastor or in a prisoner, and and and

he's either gonna have a calling or or a number

because the way he was.

But you know what? He so wanted to. This is why this is grace. So many times, he says, I just wanna turn into this kid. I wanna and then he would fight himself and fight himself. But you know what? Through prayer from his mother and I and through even him, he wouldn't give up. He would repent and just he would try, and he would just he'd just be a knucklehead again. He kept trying. We kept praying. He kept going, and he just wouldn't quit and wouldn't get. And even though he doesn't have it altogether, he's 22 now, he's on staff at this church in our children's ministry. Yeah.

And God gave him a gift like mine. He has a mouth, but is he gonna turn into the skid with it or make me want to punch him into oblivion with it?

I'm proud of him the last few years.

And because he's battled that battle and chose to go against his feelings over and over again,

even when he's struggling with anxiety, even when he had this impulse, even when he had he just says, you know what? I'm gonna turn into this kid. Turn into this kid. I turned away, kinda wiped out, got back, I'm gonna turn back into this kid. God has used his ability to speak

between here at the church and the couple camps he got asked to speak at. In the last month, he has led 77 children to Jesus. And

this is what he gave permission to say. He will look you in the face and say, if I can do that, anybody in this room can do that. So if you don't wanna listen to me, listen to my knuckleheaded son because he's a living example of what this means even when it is super, super, super hard. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Father God, thank you, Lord, that you love us. Lord, I pray this simple prayer. I pray for myself, everyone watching online, everyone in this room, that we could experience what our life would be like, the traction we would get that you would so desperately want for us if we just decided in this moment

to turn into the skin. Give us the clarity. Give us the courage. Get us past the crying.

But may we have a front row seat of what you want to really do. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Amen. That's fun. God bless you guys. Thank you for joining us online today. If you need prayer, connect