All right, well, guys, welcome. We are actually starting the
second portion of our year series. So
over the last several months, we have been in
the side of abide, and we're about to start with
Arise today. And then in the fall, we're going to be going into
advance. And so I'm excited about where the Lord is
going to take us in this, and I hope that you are, too.
We're gonna read one scripture today. One scripture. And because
it's one, I'm gonna ask you to read it twice. So if you'll stand with
me, we're gonna read that. The first time you read this, I want you to
read it and you go, oh, that's the scripture we're reading. And then
the second time you read it, I want you to read it like, oh, that's
the scripture we're reading. Okay, are you ready? Here we go. Let's read it together.
Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not
receive the kingdom of God like a little child will.
Will never enter it. Whoa. Let's say it again.
Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not
receive the kingdom like a little child.
Father, I thank you for your word. And I thank you for its truth. I
pray, Lord, that it would transform us today. I pray, Lord, that you would speak
to our hearts today, God and Lord, as you do the work,
Lord, help everything that I'm saying, that's nonsense, fall to the ground. But those things
you have stick for eternity in Jesus name. And everybody said,
amen. Amen. So we have spent this year,
the first quarter, talking about the principle of abiding
and abiding. If I were to sum it up in one phrase,
abiding is this. Jesus is your source.
Jesus is your source. John 15 tells us. He says, I
am the vine and you are the branches. And as we step
into arise, what we're looking at is coming from the
vine as we are the branches. We're looking at this budding
that's happening on the branches. And as it starts to
bud, we're going to find out what it is that's supposed to happen during this
season of spiritual maturity in the Lord as
we have surrendered to him being our source. Now, if you're anything like
me, I have the propensity of whenever I'm given a green
light, man, I wanna take off and go, I'm just ready to. I'm ready
to run. And what I believe some of us as
believers have also the propensity to do is to do the same
thing whenever we have surrendered our lives to The Lord we say,
lord, I fully recognize that you are my source.
Now what do you want me to do? Now what do you want
me to do? And so we become, real quickly human
doers instead of human beings.
And we're gonna learn a little bit about what that first step looks like. And
it may not be what you think it
is. As we step into this arise now, if you can transform
your back to the beginning of the year, the beginning of the series. And
let me tell you something, I know you've slept. I know some of you don't
even remember what you did yesterday. So I'm gonna remind you what that looked like
back then. But we were talking about, we live in this Kingdom of
God culture in the context of this broader
world that doesn't want really anything to do with the Kingdom of God. And that
can be hard. That can pose some
challenges because the context with which we live, we're rubbing
elbows at work, at school, at the grocery stor,
people who do not ascribe to biblical principles and wanna
shove their way of living down your throat
every chance that they get. And so here you are trying to really own and
learn biblical truth, biblical standards of living, a
biblical worldview. Yet you're in this context of this world. And
it can be a bit of a struggle at times. But
here's the thing. The question that we have to ask ourselves in the midst of
that as we acknowledge it, is this. Will we be
formed by the world we live in, or will we be rooted
in the kingdom to which we belong? This is the question that we asked at
the beginning of the year. And it's gonna play a role in it. Played
a role in abide, it's gonna play a role in arise, and it's gonna play
a role in advance as well. Will we be formed by the world
we live in, or will we be rooted in the kingdom
to which we belong? And so what my hope is is as we mature and
grow in the Lord in this series, and then we get into advance, we're actually
gonna look when a believer takes a
stand for biblical truth, we're actually going to look at what it actually looks like.
What is the action point that happens that's going to come in advance. But
here's the thing, we got a lot of spiritual surgery that needs
to happen inside us before we get to this place where the Lord releases us
to go. And so my hope is that
as we get in this middle section, that the Lord begins to really do a
work inside us, because we've been In a place where we say, God, I now
fully acknowledge you as the source. That's where it starts,
acknowledging you are the source. I'm not the source. My
friends are not the source. The TV is not the source.
Social media is not the source. God, you are the source. You're the
source of my life. So will we be formed by the world
or will we be rooted in the kingdom to which we belong?
Okay, so we're going from this place of abide to
arise. And in order to do that, I believe we have to go
all the way back to Genesis. We have to go back to
the beginning. Did you know that in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth? In
the beginning, God created. In other words, this idea
was always God's. This idea was always
his. In the beginning, he created. Day one, God said,
let there be light. And there was light. And so he
created day and night. And you know what he said after that? He said,
day two, he created the sky and the heavens. And after he got done with
that, you know what he said? It's good. Then he
created the land, the sea and the plants. And after he was done creating
those things, you know what he said? It's good. You're catching on.
The sun, moon and the stars on day four. And God created it
and said, then he created the fish and the
birds. And after he did that, on that day, he said,
and then day six, he created animals and he
breathed into man. And he said, you know what
this tells me? Everything God created is good.
Everything that God does and has a hand in
is good. Because God inherently,
He is good. There is no strain, There was
no effort. Real effort, no real resistance.
Beginning only authority and completion. With God's sovereignty
on display. God was providing order.
God was the provision. He was the
completion of all things. God creates the world. He
forms man. And he breathes life into
man. And as we see man there laying down, and I want
you to jump and parallel from John 15 to Genesis 1,
he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. In
Genesis 1, God breathes into man. He breathes into man.
And guess what that breath is? It is the source of life. It's the
source of life. So we're drawing from, from the beginning, we've always
supposed to been drawing from God. We've always supposed to been drawing from
God. And here's the thing. He breathes breath into man. Man breathes
and he gets up. And guess what? The first thing
Adam breath gets to experience with God, the
very first thing that Adam gets To experience with God
is rest. What?
Wait a second. I mean, I would
think if God is breathing into Adam for the first time,
I mean, if it was me and I'm laying there and he's breathing into Kevin
for the first time, I want to get up and start running. Let's go, game
on, Start taking on. Let's start doing stuff. Let's start doing stuff. I want
to do it. I want to get. I want to get into it, right? But
the very first thing that humankind,
mankind gets to witness is listen to this.
A completed creation
and a God resting. Not because
God was exhausted, not because God needed
to take a break. He was resting so that
he could enjoy the beauty of what he had
created. God is resting from a place
of enjoyment of his creation, and man
comes on the scene, and the first thing man sees is God
enjoying the beauty of what he created. I want to
suggest to you today that the first man, the first
thing that takes place as you have submitted and surrendered your life
and said, he is my source, the very first thing that happens is God
invites you on a journey of rest in him. The very
first thing that takes place is not take up your swords, look at your
ability, look at your talents, look at the platform. He
says, no, the first thing that we do is we rest in everything
that he's created. He is the source. He is
God, and we. And we are not.
God's intention was always this. You
don't carry this.
You are supposed to trust me, says the Lord with it.
See, when it comes to rest, guys, we tend to view
rest through the lens of the, of recovery.
In other words, okay, if somebody says rest, it's, I'm tired,
so rest. I'm exhausted, so I'm going to rest.
I'm anxious, so I'm going to. I'm going to rest. I'm empty, so I'm going
to rest. Guys, can I tell you, Adam was not tired. He was
not overloaded, he was not empty. He was not anxious.
And this tells us that rest is a part
of God's design. Rest is a
part of. In other words, your creator
created you. And an aspect of you from
the very jump is supposed to be this rest,
this beautiful, wonderful rest that
happens naturally. But here's the thing. We live in a
culture that fights tooth and nail against this principle of
rest, tooth and nail
against rest. I've been on staff
in some way for about 15 years here, but for the last five,
a little bit over five years, I've been in this position. And
after year one, I remember we were going to an admin board meeting,
and we've got a fantastic admin board here at the church. Really
has served us well for a very long time. And we're going in there
to do the year review. Now, I'm walking in from the lens of, okay, this
is the first year around the. You know, this is my first circle around this
thing, and we're reviewing how things are going and all that stuff. But the Lord
says to me, kevin, when you go into that admirable meeting, I want you to
tell them that you're supposed to take a month off. And I
go, oh, I can't do that. Who goes into a new
position? And after less than one year, you go, hey, guys, I just
want to let you know, I'm supposed to take a month off.
I was nervous, and now I know these brothers, but I'm like, what
are they going? Lord, I can't go in there. And can we wait at least
five or six years in. I mean, go in there. I mean. Or, okay,
how about a week? Can I take a week off? You know? No. He said,
I want you to go in there, and I want you to tell them I
want you to take a month off. So I went in there. I
was so nervous. I don't know that they know this, but, I mean, I was
sweating. I was like, in there. And I said, okay, guys, well, thank you. We've
reviewed the whole thing. Things are going well. And I said, okay, I don't really
know how this works, but God told me and
Shari that we're supposed to take an entire month off this next year.
And do you know, like, the minute the sentence left my mouth, there
was an amen on the table. Like, it was as if the
Lord had already prepared their heart in their mind, like they had already gotten
there before I had gotten there. And I want you to know that it
wasn't me presenting this because I was exhausted. I wasn't.
In fact, I was actually opposite. I was geared up and I
was raring to go for the next year. I'm like, what are you
talking about? Rest? Here's the thing.
Sabbatical. The principle of sabbatical, typically culturally,
is assigned to someone who gets identified. As you're worn
out, you're depleted, and so now you need to take some time off.
But how much better is it for the pastoral team to serve you
from a position of proactive rest than reactive
whenever there are down in the ditches, worn out?
And so we went on this sabbatical and can I tell you, for the first
time in my life, I remember turning off my cell phone,
completely backing out of everything. And it
was the most wonderful time that Shari and I have ever
experienced with each other and more importantly, with the Lord.
And the Lord downloaded me to me principles and things
that I needed for this house. And I came back
and I was ready to march into that admin board and say, I think three
months will be the ticket next year.
I was so thankful for that time off. I was so thankful
for that time of rest. Now I went to the staff and said, the admin
board has also given permission for you to take off. And guess what? It was
met with resistance. Some of the staff said, I don't want to do it.
I'm not going to do it. This is. I don't know that to say this
is dumb. But they said, you know, this is weird. Do you know what
FOMO is? Right? I mean, I don't want to miss
out. Okay? And so there was a little bit back and forth about this whole
principle of rest. But here's the thing, that's a natural response
because we are culturally conditioned not
to rest. We are culturally
conditioned not to be able to slow down
and actually take time. And as these staff members began to
get into a place of sabbatical, guess what they realized,
Whoa. What is it like to go into a place of
rest when you're not depleted? What can the Lord actually speak to you during
that time to get you ready to come back and really run?
I'm so grateful that we go to a church with the leadership that sees the
value in the leadership resting in the pastoral
team, resting guys culture says it's
uncomfortable to rest. When somebody comes to us and
suggests, hey, you need to take some time and rest, our
defense mechanisms kick right in. It's like
we've been wronged in some way by somebody saying, you might want to consider
resting guys, we were never designed to manage
our life's outcomes. We were designed to live dependent
on the one who already holds everything together.
And if you don't understand that basic principle,
you will spend your entire life trying to do God's
job for him. Here's the thing.
Something tends to happen to believers who have been around
the track a number of times, who have heard the word, who have gotten into
a Bible reading plan. We begin to understand
the language, we begin to see the patterns, we begin to
recognize the platitudes, we begin to get into all of the
minutia, and we end up, listen to this if we're not careful, we
end up moving from a place of dependence from confidence to
understanding, and from understanding
to confidence. But the confidence is
not in him. Our confidence, listen to this.
Is what we think we know about Him.
And so we begin to order our life, not dependent on the
Lord, but out of the confidence in what we think we know about
Him. Are you with me? And so, so
this, I believe, is where the disciples are. And so the
Lord took me to Luke chapter 17. If you have your word, you can go
there. Luke 17, 18. And what I wanna pay
attention to here we've done on Thursday nights, the letters in red.
Well, today I wanna look at the letters in black. So the letters
in red are what Jesus says, and that's where we really need to
draw from. But the letters in black actually give
not only context to what Jesus is saying, it also is the response,
response of the disciples and the people around on what
Jesus is saying. And we can fit into the shoes
of the people and the writing in black. Okay, and so we're
gonna get there in just a moment. But so the reason I'm picking up in
Luke 17 is because the previous chapters, Jesus is
building and building and building a case for who he
is, what he's doing. We see the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep,
the lost son. He's building all of these things. And Luke 17 is the
first time we see these black letter come up. And there's a
response from the disciples. And I want to start, I want to start in Luke
17 because of that. So we open in
Luke 17. Jesus has been walking with the disciples.
He's building a case for himself. And let me say this first. I have
been so noticing the thread of God in my life lately.
I want you to know that if you will open your eyes, you will see
the thread of God in your life. Our
God, the one we serve. The God we serve, the God who breathes stars. He
is super. He is ultra intentional.
If you will pay attention, A connects to B connects to C, if you
will pay attention. And what we tend to do with these scriptures is we take
a parable and we plop it out of the context and then we teach on
it. There's nothing wrong with that. We dive deep in that way. But I want
you to understand, I believe that Jesus was on a mission with these
disciples and he was showing them something. He was dismantling
things all along the pathway that were not
isolated moments. It was a journey together
because he was trying to get them to a Place of utter
dependence on him. Utter and complete dependence
on him. And so we're opening Luke 17, and
Jesus is here. And it is the part of Scripture where he's saying, if a
brother sins against you, you ought to forgive him over
and over and over and over again. How many have
had to forgive somebody over and over and over again? And did you have to
do it over again? And did you have to do it over again, again? And
did you have to do it again, again, again? Here's the thing. It's okay. We're
okay forgiving. We're okay forgiving again
until the again comes. Are you with me? And here's what
Jesus is doing in this moment, okay? He's saying, you need to
forgive again. Okay? But here's the deal. I don't know about you.
When I've gotten to a place where I have to forgive again, again,
okay? I am sussing
through such hurt, such woundedness, such
brokenness and all this, that for me to forgive again, again,
I actually have to draw from the source of God. So what's
happening here is Jesus is saying, forgive again, again,
again. But in order to forgive again, you're going to need to draw from
me. Cause you're not going to be able to do it on your own strength.
And let me tell you something, if you do it on your own strength, you're
probably gonna have strings attached. Jeremy, I forgive you, but I expect
you to do X, Y and Z. No, that's not the forgiveness he's talking about.
Forgive again, again, again. You're gonna need his
strength, the source of life, to
fuel you and work in your brokenness so that you can walk in true freedom
and liberation and forgiveness. And so he's
saying, forgive again, again, again. And here's where we see they say something
for the very first time. They say this, Lord, increase
our faith. That's the response. Lord, increase our faith.
Now, I used to read this. I used to read this
from the angle of. I thought this was a quantity thing, but I
don't believe it is. I used to read this. In a way, it's kind of
like, Hannah, you got faith at level five, so you need
actually faith level seven to do this. Okay? You're not quite there. So just get
some more in your tank and then you'll be able. Sam, you're at level three,
and you need, like level eight to get here. So you need something to happen
so you can kind of measure. And the reason
I quantified it is because of what Jesus says next. He says if you have
faith like a mustard seed. Right? Okay, I don't read it. This is
how I kind of. I've kind of begun to read this. In this way
they say, lord, increase our faith. And Jesus is saying, if you have faith like
a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. In other words, you're not focused
on the right thing. This isn't about you. Listen to
this. This is the point. This isn't about you accumulating
enough faith so you don't have to be with me anymore.
Are you with me? It's not about quantity. It's not about, okay,
my faith tank is full enough. So, Jesus, I don't need you until my faith
tank is empty. He's saying, no, you must be dependent
on me all of the time. You can't forgive again,
again, again. Unless I'm the source.
Faith, all you need is a little bit of faith. You can move a mountain.
That's not even a big deal. Don't connect your. Don't
disconnect yourself from me is what he's trying to do. Listen, he's taking them
on a journey. These are that have walked and lived and
breathed with Jesus, okay? So they're walking with him. He says, listen,
listen, you need me as your source. The
issue is not how much you have. The strength of your faith is
revealed by the object of your trust. Because
faith is revealed by how much you depend.
Think about it. Your faith is revealed by how
much you choose to depend on the source.
I decided about five, six
years ago, I decided I was gonna get some muscles. And they were
selling these muscles at Lifetime Wellness, you know, on a package, you know,
annual package, monthly package. And so I went over there and they
said, you know, in order to get you some of these muscles, you're gonna have
to meet with a guy named Spike. And Spike's gonna help you out. He's gonna
do a consult with you. And so I went down to Lifetime Wellness
and, you know, I sandwiched it. In my day, I had a meeting, like at
12 and a meeting at 3, and I was at 2, and
I get down to Lifetime Wellness and I'm like, okay, I got this tight window,
but I'm gonna go in here and do this. And I go in there to
the gym and I go up to the receptionist and Spike has
left a packet of information for me to read. So I get up
there and the lady says, if you'll just have a seat right here, here's some
information for you. Spike will be right out. Now, I'm thinking To myself.
I've got an appointment coming up right behind this, so I need Spike to be
on time, okay? Now Spike is five eight, I'm five' eleven, I'm a little taller,
but Spike is like, he walks like this. I mean, he's got the muscles on.
He got muscles for sale, okay? He's just walking over, okay? And
Spike, I'm waiting for Spike to come out and it's 20 minutes. And what I
do is I sit down, listen to this. I sit down
and I want to be productive.
I want to do something. Like I'm not wanting to just sit.
And so what I do is I grab my phone and I start to go
through and answer emails and start to set up appointments, and
guess what? About 2:10 I start getting upset. Why? Because Spike has not shown up
yet. And so I'm like, I'm answering emails and I'm getting things done. I'm like,
listen, I don't care if spike comes at 2:20, I'm not leaving here at 3:20.
I have an appointment. He's got to get done in the 30 minute time. I
mean, I'm like, what's going on? Okay, so I'm scrolling right here about
2:20ish, Spike comes out the door. Now this is the first time I met Spike.
First time I see him, he's walking out like this. Now here, when you see.
I don't care how tall they are, you see a guy like this, you don't
tell them you're mad at them. You just go, hey, hey, nice to meet you,
Spike, you know, nice to meet you. Now internally I'm kind of like, man, you
wasted 20 minutes of my time. What's going on? Right? So he comes out, he
introduces himself, and we go down into the gym and he asked me, have you
ever done a lunge? Okay? So he said, I'm gonna have you do these
lunges, okay? So I said, okay, now here's the thing. I'm wired to be an
overachiever, okay? So I'm gonna do the best lunges
I can do as fast as I can do them, right? So I get down
and I'm like, whoosh, you know, whoosh, you know, I'm doing it
all the way down and come all the way back. I'm like, yeah, here we
go. He said, okay, great, do it again. Oh, okay, okay,
yeah, let's do it again. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Back and forth, all the way back.
Great. Okay, I need you to do it again. Oh, okay.
Thought to myself, I'm gonna slow down a little bit this time.
Whoosh. You know. Okay, so I'm
doing it. He has me lift some things. He has me do some leg exercises.
3 o' clock on the dot comes. He says, thank you for coming. You're just
gonna need to go down the two flights of stairs to the bottom and get
your checkout slip. And I will be emailing you what you need to do. Now.
I had a couple things going off in my mind at that time. Three o',
clock. I thought to myself, first of all, you cheated me on my hour. But
I'm not saying that out loud. The second thing I thought to
myself is, I'm so glad this is over, because I am tore up from the
floor. I am so sore. I got over there to.
And I tried to step down the first step, and
I could not lift my leg.
I mean, I'm serious. I could not lift my leg. So Here
comes Spike, 5, 8. And he says, are you okay? I
said, I can't lift my leg.
Spike picks me up like a baby and
walks me down five, eight, walks this five,
eleven man down the two flights of steps in front of all of these hunky
guys walking in, just ready to work out. I was so embarrassed.
I said to myself, I will never be at the gym at two o' clock
again. And so I get to school
that day and I'm in so much pain. And how many know that you have
friends in your life that like to broadcast your pain? Anybody? Okay, this
is my friend.
Have a good day. Oh,
Shut up.
We have adopted this mindset. I want to do it myself.
See, here's the problem. That paperwork that Spike
gave the first 20 minutes, it literally says in the
instructions, take the first 20 minutes and do these stretches
so you will not be in pain.
You see, there's something that's supposed to be done before
you get moving. There's a process. The Lord
is intentional with our lives. He's intentional with what he's
doing in our lives. And then that place of rest, there is
stretching of your muscles. That's happening. There's things that he's doing
to equip you and prepare you to advance. You can't
skip from abiding to advancing. There's gotta be a place in the
middle, which is the place where. So we start with
this thing that says, I want to do it myself. Now, the disciples are
unintentionally working their way toward this
I want to do it myself mentality. And Jesus is
teaching them that the only way that this works
is by depending on him. That's
literally the lesson. He's saying, I need you to depend on me. So
we then go into the story about the servants,
and he talks about servants who don't demand reward.
Why? What he's doing here is he's dismantling
this idea of entitlement. Have you ever met anybody
who seemed entitled? So here's the thing.
Listen, I've read the Bible a few times. I've been at church all my life.
I've been around Christians, you know, so, yeah, I should have that
special seat in the congregation. I should have that special notoriety.
They should be giving me a platform. They should be doing. There's this sense of
entitlement. I say it out loud and absolutely sounds ridiculous,
but let me tell you something. There's so many actions out there that match those
words. Just because you don't say it off the cuff
doesn't mean that your actions are not mimicking this. And here are some
disciples. And it's kind of like he's dismantling this idea
that if you get it right, you get a pat on the back. What
he's actually saying is, if you do it right, your
posture should be, I'm unworthy to have even been chosen to do it.
That's the heart posture. Because you understand if you do it right, it's
actually that you were drawing from the source. That you were
drawing from the source. Are y' all picking this up today? Okay,
so he's dismantling his entitlement. So in other words. Okay, guys,
I did not earn this position as lead pastor. It
wasn't like the elders got together and said, okay, here's the way to
achieve the title of lead pastor if you just meet these benchmarks. In
fact, I think I'm God's greatest joke to this church, honestly. Okay, but
here's the deal. There is a call on my life.
And the reason that's important is because, I mean, none of y' all do this.
But I get these emails and these opinions. It's never y'. All, but I get
these emails and these opinions and these thoughts, you know, that are
targeted, that are. That are left field. Like, I don't think you should have done
this. I don't think you should. And I'm so grateful for the feedback. Again, all
y' all only give me positive stuff,
right? Okay, but you get these. I get these
emails and I get these opinions. Because here's the thing. And here's the thing. Do
you know what? I'm actually Supposed to get those things
because I'm the leader, and leaders have fewer
privileges than followers. Okay, leaders have things. But here's the thing. You
know why my peace is not disturbed when somebody sends me something that is
kind of out left field, or maybe as a. I don't take
it as a personal attack, but maybe it's meant that way. I don't know. You
know why my peace is not disturbed? It's because I have a call on my
life today, this position. And so if I'm drawing from the
source, which is Jesus, then what you say to me is not
my source, which means it doesn't affect how I feel or how I walk or
what I do. Does that make sense? Now? It doesn't mean that it's not
valid. Doesn't mean it doesn't have to be addressed, all of those things. But
emotionally, it's like people are like, can you believe they said that about you? Well,
yeah. I mean, I've been a doormat for a long time in my life, you
know, to certain people. But guess what? I draw from the source. I
draw from the source. Now, here's the problem. When he lifts the call and I
continue to be in this position, then we're in trouble. I'm not just in trouble.
Y' all are in trouble, too. You don't need a pastor. You don't need any
of your pastors to be in the position without the call. You need
God to anoint the people who are leading you. You need to recognize
that anointing. But here's the thing. You need leaders in your life who lead from
a posture of, I cannot believe God would choose me worthy to do this. I
cannot believe that the Lord would choose me to do this. So, Lord, I want
to be. You need to be. You need me to be drawing from the sour
source. If you want truth in your life conveyed from any
of your leaders, you need them to be drawing from the true source. Not from
their ideas. Not from Facebook, not from Facebook,
not from Facebook,
not from Facebook. Okay,
so then we go into the story of the ten lepers. You see, ten lepers
are healed. Ten are healed from Jesus, and only
one comes back. And here's the thing. Everybody
can receive from Jesus. Everybody's able to come and
receive from Jesus, but very few are actually made whole. You
see, here's the thing. The 10 experienced the healing, but only one in that moment
was made whole because that one came back.
So the principle here is, I don't just need what Jesus
gives. I need Jesus. So the Principle
here, disciples, as you're walking is you don't just need the things I'm giving
you. This isn't like a three year window for you to get everything I give
you and then adios, okay? I don't have anything to do with your life
anymore. I hope you learn what you learned and do it. No, he's like, I'm
going to be with you. Like, the idea is that you need to depend on
me. And so that leper comes back completely healed, but doesn't just
receive healing, receives wholeness. And guys, you will receive
wholeness. If he's your source, if you go back to him. Jesus said,
whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, but whoever loses their
life will preserve it. In other words, when you proactively
surrender to this king and say, I surrender to you, Jesus,
and I acknowledge you as my source, you will have life, and you'll
have life abundantly. A life that you can't even. It's so extraordinary,
the peace that he gives you. And so if Luke 17 kind of
defines faith, Luke 18 demonstrates it. And so,
so Jesus takes everything he's just exposed and he
begins to walk them through what it actually looks like. And so this is
where we're gonna go to those words in black. And so in chapter 18, verse
1, it says this. Then Jesus told his disciples
a parable. Now, parable means story. Jesus told his
disciples a story to show them that they
should always pray and not give up. Okay,
so when you see this parable of the persistent widow, what are we supposed to
be taking away from it? We
should always pray and we should not give up. Okay,
so he goes through this story with the widow. She
has nothing. She has no power, no leverage, no influence, just need, just
dependence. And here's what dependence does. Dependence will keep
you going back to the source. What Jesus is teaching here is
when you depend on him, dependence, repentance is
infectious. You depend, you get, you go back. You
depend, you get, you go back. You depend, you
receive and you go back. This widow keeps
going, keeps going. Don't you think that Jesus is okay with
you continuing to come to him over and over and over
and over again? Some of you are one over again away
from a breakthrough in your life. Some of you are one
more persistent prayer away from God shattering the
ceiling and everything breaking free in your life. Some of you have
given up on this God who breathes stars by saying, well,
I guess he doesn't see me, I guess he doesn't know me, and I'm gonna
Draw to my own way of doing this. But he's saying, come back again, come
back again, come back again. His source never runs out. His source
never runs out. You might not have the breakthrough yet, but I'm gonna give you
the sustainability to walk until the breakthrough comes. Y' all aren't hearing what
I'm saying today. He is the source that we depend on.
And she keeps going and going. One of the largest indicators.
Listen to this. One of the largest indicators of independence
is a shallow, non prayer life. One
of the greatest indicators. If you're wondering am I independent or I'm dependent, how
often do you talk to God? If you do not talk to God, if you
do not have a prayer life, active in your life whatsoever, you
do not talk to him, then you are the source of he's not.
Prayer unlocks all types of pathways to the king
who breathes stars. And guys, we've got to start talking to him.
We've got to be going to him. We got to be bringing our hurts, our
wounds, our confusion needs to be going to him. Our distractions.
We need to be going to him, not to the person next to us. We
need to be going to the source. Prayer. Prayer is the indicator on whether
we're depending on God. So she keeps coming back. She
keeps coming back. Then we see the story of the Pharisees and the tax
collector. Let's read those words in black. And it says this
to some who were confident of their own
righteousness and looked down on everyone
else. Jesus told this parable. So when we read this
parable, it is to those who were confident of their own
righteousness. What does that mean? I'm confident? Hey,
I'm doing everything right. Have
you ever talked to somebody and they're never wrong?
Like, it doesn't matter what you say to them. It's like they're never wrong. They're
never wrong. They're confident in their own
righteousness. Confidence in all the things that they
say and they do. I mean, they listen. They've read this book a couple times
and they've got the law on this book. They know exactly what's
supposed to happen. They're so confident
in their righteousness. And then he says this. He says,
and look down on everyone else. Here's the thing. This is
how this works. When you are so confident of your
own righteousness, then the only one you can see is yourself.
So then by proxy, you are looking down on everyone else, but you can't tell
that you're looking down on everyone else because you're too busy looking at yourself.
Are you with me? So when you're looking in the mirror and all you see
is yourself all of the time, and you go, I don't look down on other
people. Yes, you do. Because all you see is a version
of yourself everywhere you go. And God is
saying, put down the mirror and start looking at me. When
you look in the mirror, you should see Jesus. If you don't see Jesus, you're
not there yet. Y' all are quiet
today. Okay, here we go.
Jesus says, the one who walks away right with God is the
one who knew he needed him. In other words, the kingdom
cannot be earned. It can only be received.
It doesn't matter how gooder you are, how much you've worked, no
matter how much you've put in. I've been. Man, I've been going to this church
for 25 years. I'm just a little bit higher now. No, it doesn't matter.
There's no earning. Let me give us something that
will help us in this culture. Okay? I want to earn my
way into the kingdom. I'm going to give you an antidote. I'm going to give
you a pathway. Okay, here's the pathway. If you want to earn your
way into the kingdom, then the way to do that is
equivalent to your level of surrender. If you want
a mathematical equation, then surrender more, and then
you will receive more of the kingdom. Surrender more. Let go of more.
Let go, let go, let go, says the Lord. Okay, so he's
walking these guys. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is for us today. But
he's walking with these. His friends are right there, and he's taking.
This is like, boom, boom, boom. And he's like. He's
literally nailing all of these things on the head. And he's like. So if he
says to some who were confident of their own righteousness, it meant that
there were people there who were confident of their own righteousness
and looking down on other people. Are you with me? He's speaking to these
people. That's the whole reason of telling this story. Okay,
Then something interesting happens. Okay, now I wanna
say this first. Connected to this, I'm
gonna say something that some of you are gonna email me about. You ready? Okay,
here we go. The greatest barrier
between you and God is not sin.
It's not sin. Sin separates us from God.
But God sent Jesus to give us a pathway right
to the Father. In fact, in Hebrews, there's a verse that says, because of what
J, not only do we go to the Father. It says you can go to
him with boldness. So if sin is not
the barrier between us and God post resurrection,
then I would suggest today that the biggest barrier between you and
God is your independence. The biggest barrier
between you and God is when you decide, I'm gonna do it on my own
strength. I know enough, I've seen enough, I've heard enough. So I'm
gonna do it on my own strength. That's the biggest barrier between you and
God. Jesus said this, for all who exalt
themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted. There was a pastor that said this. God, I am so glad
when you correct me in the privacy of my own mind.
There are times when he will correct you in the privacy of your own mind,
and then there are times when he will put it on display for everybody else
to see. If you humble yourself, he will lift you up.
But there will be a point where you will be humbled if you're going on
your own strength. And let me tell you something, it's a lot easier to let
man humble you than it is. It's a lot better for man to humble you
than for the Lord to humble you. And
so then this wonderful, interesting thing happens. And this is kind of
gets us to the crux of where we are. He's traveled through all of
these things, and then something happens. The Word says
that they brought the children to Jesus. Now, I looked this up and
I learned something new as I was preparing for that. I learned a lot of
things new when I prepared. But one of the things I learned is the word
that's used there for children is the word breathe. And the word
breathe actually translates into the word infant.
Infant. So when they're bringing children to Jesus,
it's not necessarily they're bringing 7, 8, 9 year olds. They are
bringing infants to Jesus. They're bringing babies
to Jesus. Why is that significant?
The infants are brought to Jesus and the disciples stop
them because they don't see value
in the infants. Here's what they see. Listen, with the
infants, they can't contribute, they can't
perform, they can't understand. In other
words, the babies are inconvenient because all
they're doing is there to receive from Jesus.
Now listen, this is my baby. Oh, yes, she's cute. Okay, here's the thing.
She poops, we clean her diaper, she
cries, we give her a bottle. All Eliana can
do at this moment is sit there, sleep, eat and
breathe because she is completely Dependent
on us. The babies are being
brought to Jesus and they say, don't worry
about these babies. They can't do anything here. They
can't do anything here because the culture says it's based on
what you do instead of who you are. And who you
are is who the source says you are. And he
says, listen, let the babies come to me.
Bring those babies to me. Because here's the thing. If you don't
receive the kingdom like a baby, you don't get the kingdom at all.
Which means unless you have utter dependence
on him like a baby, until you become like
Eliana, until I become like Eliana in the kingdom, until
I'm laying there going, gah ga goo goo, God, please,
please change me, feed me, help me. Until we can get to
that mentality, we're not going to receive the kingdom.
Are you with me? He's saying, let them come. I've just taken
you on this journey I'm trying to dismantle. It's not about.
Not about good works. It's not about entitlement. It's not about all these things. It
is about you becoming dependent on me. John,
Luke, Thomas, Vonda, April, Deanne,
Keith. It's about you becoming dependent on me. Jesus says,
let them come. Whoever does not receive the kingdom
like this will not enter them. Listen, the kingdom belongs to those
who depend on the Lord. The kingdom of God depends
on. Depends, belongs to those who depend
on the Lord. Babies don't strive, they trust.
Babies don't perform, they rest.
They don't manage outcomes like we talked earlier. They
depend. And Jesus says, this is how
we enter the kingdom of God. This level of
dependence. Now, I'm going to say this, and this is another email. You
ready? There is a boldness rising up
in the church. Big C. There's a boldness happening right now, okay?
And that's not wrong. And how I know there's a boldness is
because Instagram and Instagram has these little things that
pop up and it tells you. It gives you one little snippet of a little,
like, sharp sword that says, churchgoers, believers should believe
this, and this is what we should do. And I don't necessarily think
isolated. Those little micro things that we see on
Instagram, they're not necessarily false. In fact, a lot of justified
right through the word. But here's the problem. The problem is, is we got
dependent statements in the hands of independent believers.
And what happens is when we get dependent statements and independent
believers, what they do is they begin to depend upon their own Idea of how
we should execute the thing that they're reading. And that becomes
dangerous. That becomes. If boldness is not rooted
in this infant style dependence, it becomes
dangerous to us and to believers all around us.
Boldness with dependence becomes spirit led power
and spirit led power leads to transformation in people's lives.
Spirit led power leads to transformation in people's
life. If it's not flowing from him, it's not worth it
if it's not flowing from the Lord. Listen, guys, I'm going to suggest something.
The process of discipleship can become an
idol in your life. The process
by which we call out other people's faults can become an
idol in your life. Why am I saying that? Because some people
live their day in, day out, breathing life, trying to
make things happen, manipulate situations, tell people what they're going
wrong, and they have not spent any time with the source. They're deriving
their information from the right place, but they're not being led
by the Holy Spirit. In other words, here we go.
Dependence feels like loss when your identity is built on
control. Dependence feels like
loss, like I've lost something when your identity is built on
controlling the outcomes. It's so
easy to masquerade dependency when your security is your
own sense of control. Like maybe for your finances. I
talked about our admin board just a little bit ago. Here's the
thing. Our church, like when we review the financials and stuff,
there is Holy Spirit led intervention when it comes
to stewardship that allows us to have
wisdom, exercise discernment and having some cash over here
in case something goes down or goes wrong. When the air conditioning goes out, we
need to have money to fix the air conditioning. Okay, so. And that principle
can apply in your house. But here's the tension that we work with
all the time and we got a great group doing this. The tension is we
don't need to be a church that's sitting on $5 million in the bank account
when there's a dying world out there. We don't need $5 million to fix
air conditioning. Because what that says is we're relying on our bank account. We don't
need to trust the Lord for our finances. There's wisdom in figuring
out where that balance and tension is, where you don't have the tools
in front of you to control the situation. You have to get to a place
where you understand, listen, I'm exercising discernment in this situation.
I'm being steward in this situation. I'm doing and saying what I'm supposed to do.
Based on what I've seen in scripture. But there comes a point when I go,
I surrender. You're the source. I surrender. You're the source. I
surrender. What you tell me to do? Guys, Shari and I used about three years
ago, I was like, I'm gonna start saving up our bank account. I'm literally gonna
start saving. And I start saving, I get up to a certain amount, and you
know what the Holy Spirit says? I want you to give it all away. I'm
like, what? Okay, I started storing up. Storing up, give it all away.
He did that about four times to me. I said, forget it. I'm not saving
up any. I'm done. I'm done. I don't wanna wait on the
blessing for when I got that much money. I want the blessing now. Lord, just
use me today. What do you need me to freely give today? Because every time
I try to stock up, you know what he's doing? He's saying, kevin, if you
start saving up, you're gonna rely on your bank account. And you're not gonna rely
on my voice. Now, that's for me. For you, he might have you do
5 million. I expect your tithe check next week. Okay, so
now Peter does
something here that is. Is just outrageous. Okay. If
you know the story. Oh, my goodness. It's that time. Okay, Peter does something outrageous.
Okay, we're about to close down here. Peter does something
here. Okay, I'm gonna tell him my sister. Is my sister here? Is Alexis
here? Oh, good, I can talk about her. Praise God. Okay. All right, here's the
deal. Now, my mama raised us pretty much.
My mom was a single mom for a while there. And she raised my brother
and I, and my brother and I. I mean, we got away with things, but
we also knew who brought home the law. Is that right, Joey?
We knew. Mom's in charge, Right? Okay. Have you ever had a
moment where your soul left your body? Okay. We were on
an airplane coming back home from vacation, and
we're adults. My brother and I are adults. And my sister's in middle school. And
my mom's on the plane, and we're all on vacation together.
And we're there, and my mom's standing. I guess we're getting situated. Cause I remember
I. I was in a standing position. And my mom said, alexis,
sit down. To which Alexis turns around and says, mom, you sit
down. And I believe she said, and
be quiet. My soul left my body, went around
the airplane and came back, and I fell down in my
seat because all I could See, was my mama's hand coming across
the seats and smacking her. I was beside. I mean, it sucked
the air out of the room. Okay, was that true, Joey? I mean. I mean,
we were sitting there like, what is about to go down here? Now, here's the
thing. Youth get ready. As your parents get older, they get softer. See,
let me tell you something. Alexis got out of that so easy.
She should have been beaten down. And we didn't. She was just like, sit down,
man. I was so unfair. But
I read this scripture that what Peter says here. And my
soul left my body because Peter
has something to say. We get through all of these things. I want you to
picture Peter here. Okay? Peter. Now, Peter's stepping out of the boat.
All of the things. I mean, Peter, we like Peter, okay? He's the pronounced
one. But Peter actually stands up to
Jesus. He says, look,
look, Jesus, we've left all our
family for you. Now, here's the thing. The reason this doesn't
escalate is because he was talking to Jesus. Now, Jesus is compassionate. He is
kind, he is patient, right? But when I read that
in the context of this buildup here, and Jesus
said. And Peter's like, look, I'm gonna say. I'm gonna speak on behalf of everybody.
Look, let me tell you something. We get to places in our life where we're
looking at the Lord and we're like, look, Lord. We buck up to him and
we say, now, we might not say it out loud, but I've been around some
people. I've literally been around some people, and I'm like, let the lightning
strike tomorrow. I rebuke that in the name of Jesus.
Okay, here's the thing.
He's not rebelling. He's reasoning. But here's the danger. And
this is if you don't leave with anything else, this is what I want you
to leave with. When you think you understand how God works, you stop
depending on how God will. When you think you understand,
Peter's coming. Listen, Peter wasn't. It wasn't like Peter
decided, I'm going to stand up to Jesus. It's what he did.
But it's not like he's meditating on this. Peter believes he
understands what's going on. Peter. And so Jesus is making
the assertion, here you've got all your family's got to leave, and brother
over sister, all this stuff. And Peter's sitting here going, look,
we've done this. Did I get it right, Lord? I mean, what's going
on? It's the same Time when he, it's the same thing as, you're not gonna
wash my feet, you're not gonna wash my feet, you're gonna wash
my whole body. Soul sucking
out of the room. Peter had been with Jesus, but now he's interpreting everything through
himself. And we read and say, how could he say that? But we
do it all the time. Every time we evaluate our lives based on what we've
done instead of who, who we trust. You can
leave everything and still be depending on yourself.
Peter approaches the kingdom like a contributor. A baby approaches the kingdom
like a recipient. Peter says, look what I've done. A baby says,
I'll trust what you will do. Listen, Peter
didn't need to do more. He didn't need to say more. He didn't need to
be more. He only needed to rely
on the lord more. Proverbs 3, 5 says this,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on
your own understanding. Guys, all is all, all
is all. But what we do, instead of relying completely
on him as we do this, we say, it's going to be Jesus and
Jesus and
Jesus and leads to destruction.
It's Jesus, period. Eliminate
the and in your life. Eliminate whatever that and is,
eliminate it. And lastly, in this worship team, you come on back and get
prepared. The blind man is the story. Next, all of this
happens and the Word says that Jesus approaches Jericho.
You know what Jericho means? Jericho literally translates to the word walls.
Jesus is approaching walls, and at these walls, there's a
blind man. I love where this is in the story because he's gone through all
of this with the disciples. And it's like, I want to show you a blind
man. I want to show you a wall in your life. And guys, some of
you came here this morning. You've got walls in your life. You've got blind spots
in your life. And this blind man has no choice. He
can't see with his natural eyes. So he has no choice but to
depend on people, to depend on others. So he's
fully dependent. And he cries out and they try to silence him, but he gets
louder. And Jesus asked him a question. He says, what do
you want? And he says, I want
to see. Guys, I think some of
us need to acknowledge that we are blind. And I want
to see God. I know the scripture,
I've been around church, but God, I got blind spots and I
want to see from the source. Because here's the thing. Dependence often
comes before clarity. See, we want the
clarity first. We want to see what the plan is. And then we'll depend.
But God says, no, that's not faith. I want you to depend on me, and
then I'll show you things that you've never seen before.
Dependency often comes before clarity.
So what if we actually lived what Corinthians says, We walk by
faith and not by sight. What type of
exponential things would be happening in our lives?
So we abide from a place. We abide from a place of knowing he's
the Source, and we arise in this place. And the very
first step, friends, is to rest and depend on Him.
I found this video on Insta and I want to play it for you
because I believe it might connect to our hearts, on how our. Our
posture should be with worship.
What if today was a breathing moment for you
where you looked at your circumstances, your
situations, the things that you've been holding on to, and
you said, lord, make me an infant. Make me like a
child in this.
What would it look like if you approached what you're going through
with total and utter dependence on the Lord? Would you
guys stand with me and those who are going to minister? Would you come forward
this morning?
Guys, the God of the universe, he is on the throne
and he knows you. He cares about you. He sees
you and he says, come again. Just like
that widow. Come again. Come again. Come again. Come.
Come to me. Come to me, those who are weary and
brokenhearted. He is the giver of rest. He is the giver
of strength. He is the giver of peace.
But when we say we draw from the source, we're not
drawing from the source. As people who bring our own ideas,
our own methods, we're drawing from the source. Like
infant babies who say, God, I actually think I know what
to do. I think I know what's going on. But God, actually, you have the
answer here. And I can totally, fully trust you. That's my
faith stuff. I trust you. I lean into you. And I believe
that you will radically transform anything going on in my life.
Because you care about me that much. If we don't take care of Eliana,
she will die. You have a heavenly
father that does not want you to die. So believe
me, he's looking to feed you. Stop eating the crap the world's giving you.
He's looking to sustain you and to hold you. He wants to hold
you. Stop being held by other people who aren't God.
He wants to breathe life into you. Jesus says, I am the
way, I am the truth. I am the life. I love that
it's the and not a He is the way so come this morning
if you have anything at all all remember that verse in Hebrews Come boldly
and let's agree together that this guy can actually do what he said he'll do
he's the source, let's worship.