- Hey, if you join us on live stream,

thank you for being with us today.

Are you guys doing good?

- Yeah.

- All right, it's a good day to be in the house of the Lord.

We've got to get on the horse and start riding

'cause I've got a lot to share today.

So we're gonna stand together and we're gonna read

from Acts chapter 15.

And let's read like you've had your third cup

of espresso this morning.

How about that?

Here we go.

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch

and were teaching the believers,

unless you are circumcised according to the custom

taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.

This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute

and debate with them.

So Paul and Barnabas were appointed along with some

of the other believers to go up to Jerusalem

to see the apostles and elders about this question.

The church sent them on their way and as they traveled

through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles

had been converted.

The news made all the believers very glad.

When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed

by the church and the apostles and elders

to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party

of the Pharisees stood up and said,

"The Gentiles must be circumcised and required

"to keep the law of Moses."

The apostles and elders met to consider this question.

After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them.

"Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice

"among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips

"the message of the gospel and believe.

"God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them

"by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us.

"He did not discriminate between us and them,

"for he purified their hearts by faith.

"Now then, why do you try to test God

"by putting on the necks of the Gentiles a yoke

"that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

"No, we believe that it is through grace of our Lord Jesus

"that we are saved just as they are."

The whole assembly became silent as they listened

to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs

and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

When they finished, James spoke up.

"Brothers," he said, "listen to me.

"Simon has described to us how God first intervened

"to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.

"The words of the prophets are in agreement with this,

"as it is written.

"After this, I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent.

"Its ruins I will rebuild and I will restore it

"that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.

"Even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord,

"who does these things, things known from long ago.

"It is my judgment, therefore,

"that we should not make it difficult

"for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

"Instead, we should write to them,

"telling them to us, staying from food polluted by idols,

"from sexual immorality,

"from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

"For the law of Moses has been preached in every city

"from the earliest times,

"and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you that it brings life.

I thank you that it's true.

I pray, Lord, as we lean into everything

that your word says today,

I pray that my words would fall

and your words would stand for changing us for eternity.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

You get an A in reading, good job.

He asked, did we get an A in reading?

A plus, actually.

We're continuing our series, His Church,

and we are in Acts 15.

I hope that you are following with us in the book of Acts

as it has been rich and it's been transformative,

and we are continuing to be refined here at Springhouse

as the Lord is showing us how the Holy Spirit works in us.

Who here likes rules?

Dun, dun, dun.

Usually, usually rules, when you hear the word rules,

there is a negative connotation tied to it

because our mind automatically goes to,

I don't wanna follow that particular rule

or I don't like rules that bog me down

or provide boundaries or parameters.

And quite honestly, many of us

often just think rules are dumb.

And so we just decide,

I'm not gonna follow the ones I don't like

and I'm just gonna do the things that I do like.

But today we're gonna talk about rules.

Aren't you glad you came to Springhouse today?

Gonna talk a little bit about rules today

and in the context of scripture

and what we're talking about here in Acts chapter 15.

We are a society who looks to break

as many of rules as we can.

But when it comes to living for the kingdom,

what you do and what you say matters.

What you do and what you say matters.

We kinda live in this space that we feel like

we can just do whatever we want.

After all, we do live in America.

And because of the ocean of grace

that I get to experience as a Christian,

those things that I tend to just lean in and do

even though I know here I probably shouldn't do 'em,

God's got it.

I'm in the ocean of grace, He'd cover it.

It's fine, it's not consequential.

Everything's gonna be great.

And we certainly could succumb to the idea

but could I tell you that that is a very dangerous mindset.

It's a very dangerous mindset

because as we've continued to belabor in this series

is that our life is not just this red part of the rope.

It is for all eternity but do you know that the choices,

listen to this, the choices I make in my life right here

will affect my grandchildren.

And their choices will affect their grandchildren.

Long after I'm gone, if the Lord tarries

and doesn't come back,

these small minute choices,

I remember I was at a Captain D's, who likes Captain D's?

Captain D's, I was at Captain D's with my dad

and I was young and I had just turned 11

and the menu was you get a kid's meal if you're 10 or under

and so he said I need two kids meals

and I said but Dad I'm 11.

He said shut your mouth boy

'cause he wanted to save a few bucks.

Was it because he didn't have the money to pay?

No, he thinks the rule is done.

He thinks the rule is outlandish

and so he decides to create his own rule

because of his opinion of the rule.

Last week in youth, or this last Thursday,

I got to speak in youth and I had a youth come up

and I put a name tag on them and it said Kevin O'Day

and I put it on the youth and I said just because

this youth has this name tag on him

does not mean that he is Kevin O'Day.

He can wear the name tag all day long.

He can parade it, he can put it in your face.

He can try to dress like me.

He can try to sign his name like me, all this.

But just because he has the name tag on

does not mean that he is Kevin O'Day

and guys just because you have a shirt

that says Christian does not make you a Christian.

What you do and what you say, it matters.

Paul and Barnabas are in dispute

with these Christian leaders, the leaders of the way

because they're placing conditions on the Gentiles.

Now there are Jews and there are Gentiles.

Jews are God's chosen people and the Gentiles

are everybody else's not of Jewish descent

and so the Gentiles are there and Paul and Barnabas

are in this dispute because the Jews are saying,

hey, these Gentiles need to succumb to the rules

and the law that we've had to succumb to

in order to be followers of the way.

But Paul and Barnabas are arguing

because they not only are in relationship with Jesus Christ

and know the way, truth and the life

but they also know that God came, Jesus came rather,

to fulfill the law and in fulfilling the law,

what they were doing was asking the Gentiles

to do something that they themselves could not do.

They themselves could not fulfill the law.

Now before we get into rules and we get into

what was required and what they were talking about,

I wanna make sure to cover this.

There is no us and them in the kingdom.

There's only us and him.

There's no us and them in the kingdom.

There's only us and him and that's important

because as believers, we tend, man,

because of denominational barriers or whatever it is,

we tend to look at other people

who are professing Christians and say,

they don't got it, they're not getting in,

they're not Christians because they either do these things

or don't do these things.

But can I tell you guys that the grace of God

and the pathway to salvation is for everyone equally?

That the only one that had the ability

to put criteria to that is Jesus Christ

and he is the way, the truth and the life.

The word says that no one comes to the Father

except through him.

So in context here, they were talking believers

to believers but I even believe that we sometimes

have this idea here when it comes to non-believers.

When it comes to non-believers.

We look at non-believers and we get saved

through an ocean of grace and mercy,

our profession of faith, we get saved

and now I'm a Christian, I'm a born again Christian

and I see some sinners, I see some unbelievers

and all of a sudden, I start to say,

well, they better get their life together.

They need to do X, Y and Z in order to have what I have.

They need to clean up shop in order to be called a Christian.

So Peter stands up in this argument and he says this.

He, God, did not discriminate between us and them

for he purified their hearts by faith.

Would you say faith?

Now then, why do you try to test God?

That is a sobering question.

Why do you try to, stop for just a minute and think,

can you ever thought that your actions

may be testing the God of the universe?

Whew, whew, that's sobering.

By putting on the necks of the Gentiles a yoke

that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear.

And then he continues, he says, no,

we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus

that we're saved just as they are.

The gospel is this, friends, all have sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God.

They who say that they are without sin,

the Lord says that he is a liar.

He or she is a liar.

We all need Jesus Christ to come in

and infiltrate our life.

We need the blood of Christ in our life

because we have all sinned and fallen short

of the glory of God.

This gift of salvation is for everyone.

No certain creed, color, race, denomination,

it is for everyone.

Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.

Over in Romans it says this, God does not show favoritism.

All who sin apart from the law

will also perish apart from the law

and all who sin under law will be judged by the law.

For it is not those who hear the law

who are righteous in God's sight, look at this,

but it is those who obey the law

who will be declared righteous.

God has some words to say about rules.

And I want us to understand that you and I,

we are no better, listen to this,

we are no better than unbelievers.

The only thing that we have going for us

is our death sentence was traded for life.

Because the word says that the wages for our sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life.

But what's more than that, as believers,

we have been rendered capable of offering this gift

to other people.

We've been given the ability to show others Christ Jesus.

And that should be our goal and our aim,

to be witnesses for him.

But we have to go back to understanding

that what we say and what we do matters.

Because unbelievers are watching and they're listening.

Does your testimony line up with what you say

and what you do?

Does the God you say you believe in,

the one you say you love, does your testimony,

does what you say and do line up

with who you say you believe in?

So, what about the rules?

What about the rules?

I mean, if we're saved by grace

and we can swim in an ocean of grace,

man, who cares about rules?

Let's just party and do whatever we want to do.

Let's be honest.

There are rules we like and there's rules we don't like.

In fact, there are rules that we just find plain dumb.

In fact, I've got some dumb rules here.

You wanna hear 'em?

Of course you do.

In Alabama, it's illegal to wear a fake mustache

that causes laughter in a church.

These are real laws.

These are for real.

I didn't make these up.

In Alaska, you cannot push a live moose out of a plane.

In Colorado, it is illegal to keep a couch on your porch.

In Connecticut, pickles must bounce

in order to be considered safe for human consumption.

In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays

can be fined or jailed.

So, you better get married

if you're gonna parachute on Sunday.

In Georgia, carrying an ice cream cone in your back pocket

is illegal.

In Hawaii, coins are not allowed to be placed in your ears.

In Idaho, riding a merry-go-round on Sundays is illegal.

In Illinois, it is illegal to take a nap

in a cheese factory.

In Louisiana, mourners at a wake

may not eat more than three sandwiches.

One, two, three.

In Missouri, a single male must be charged an annual tax

for not being married.

You better get married quick if you're living in Missouri.

In Nevada, it's illegal to lay down on a sidewalk.

In New York, it is illegal to throw a ball

at somebody's head for fun.

Better have a reason to throw that ball at their face.

In Pennsylvania, it's illegal to catch a fish

with your mouth.

In Arizona, donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs.

And in Kansas, hitting a vending machine

that stole your money is illegal.

Lots of dumb rules.

All these laws that are here,

what are you gonna do with them

when you're confronted with them?

You ever hear one of these rules,

you're like, what made them have to write that rule?

Somebody had that donkey in that bathtub

and they were like, we're not doing this again.

When we disagree with rules, we often redefine them

or we just obey, just disobey.

Now, if I could rewrite a rule, this would be all day long,

I would definitely rewrite this rule all day long.

This would be like, this would be my favorite rule ever.

Just right here, you know, I would push it down

and I would be happy to follow this rule all day long.

And sometimes I read this, even though it doesn't say this.

This is what my eyes perceive

whenever I look at the speed limit sign.

We are people who have the propensity

to make up our own things based on our own agendas,

our own opinions, and what we want

with no consideration for others.

The Lord said to me this year at Springhouse Church,

we are being refined.

We are being refined.

And refined means, in the terms with which we're using it,

is that we're becoming more like Christ Jesus.

We're becoming more like the God who saved us,

the Jesus who saved us.

And when we are less of ourselves,

we can become more like Him.

We can sound like Him, we can look like Him,

we act like Him.

And this means we're becoming more like Jesus

and less like us.

And in this refining process, we look more like Jesus, why?

So that we can present the gospel.

We look more like Jesus so that we can present the gospel.

The word gospel means good news.

The word gospel is good news.

And what I'm about to say is gonna shock some of you.

The gospel does not require obedience.

Silence.

The gospel does not require obedience.

Here's the gospel.

We couldn't keep up with the rules.

So Jesus Christ had to die for us.

We have a propensity to make it about rules

once we're on this side of salvation.

And we expect those who don't know Christ

to follow Him and follow His rules.

What about the times when we look at non-believers

and we make, in our mind, we expect non-believers

to live a biblical standard,

though they don't believe in the Bible.

That doesn't make any sense.

But the gospel does not, within itself,

the gospel does not require obedience.

This is what the scripture says.

If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that He's raised Him from the dead,

you will be saved.

That's what the scripture tells us.

So the gospel requires two things.

It requires repentance and it requires faith.

That's the requirement for the gospel, not obedience.

Isn't that the whole crux of the story,

that we tried to work so hard?

If the gospel required obedience,

then we would not need Jesus,

because it would be attainable.

The only way to be saved is by living,

deciding in your heart, I'm gonna repent

and believe by faith that Jesus did what He said He did

and He is who He says He is.

Somebody asked a pastor once,

I've shared this before I saw it on a reel.

He said, "Do I have to stop smoking marijuana

"to be a Christian?"

And the pastor said, "No."

He said, "No, no, you don't understand."

I said, "Do I have to stop smoking like marijuana,

"like getting high, do be."

He said, "No."

He said, "No, no, you don't understand.

"If I pull out a fatty and I'm a roller,

"like literally, if I smoke marijuana,

"do I have to give this up to be a Christian?"

And the pastor said, "No."

And he said, "I don't understand."

And he said, "Exactly, you don't understand,

"because you don't clean yourself up

"and then go take a shower.

"You go into the shower and then you are rendered clean."

And when you come to Jesus, you come to him dirty,

and in that process of meeting the Lord and Savior

of your life, the one who loves you more than anybody else

on the planet, all of a sudden you become motivated

to clean your life up.

We don't understand it pre-salvation.

We begin to understand it post-salvation

because we are motivated by Christ.

We are motivated by Christ.

Here's the thing, the gospel produces obedience.

The gospel produces in us a willingness and a desire

to be obedient, because we are motivated

by this exchange, death to life.

If obedience was the requirement,

then we would attempt to do it without Jesus.

When you realize that you are loved

more than you've ever been loved,

you are motivated to obey.

Here's what 1 John says,

"No one who lives in him keeps on sinning."

Let that marinate for a second.

If I were to say, show of hands of those

who are living in him, many of you put your hands up,

no one who lives in him keeps on sinning.

What I'm talking about is I'm pirating this movie

proactively, I know I'm pirating it, I'm not paying for it.

I know that I'm breaking, I'm proactively doing,

I'm continuously doing things over,

no one who lives in him keeps on sinning.

No one who continues to sin has either seen him

or known him, what else does it say?

"For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh,

"the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,"

are what, are not from the Father, but from the world.

Look, we are called to live like, look like,

sound like, and be like Jesus.

And we don't want anything that is not from Father God.

We live in America.

And America has been dubbed as the greatest country

in the world, the greatest country in the world.

And many of you would believe that we are

the greatest country in the world.

I could understand that and I could get a lot behind

some of that thought process as well.

But here's the problem that I have.

Do you know that America, from its very genesis,

its foundation was bathed in rebellion?

Like the reason that we are the greatest country

in the world is we decided we didn't wanna follow rules.

That's why we're here, okay?

And so we are now the greatest country in the world,

but here's my problem, we're the greatest country

in the world.

I don't belong to the world, I belong to a kingdom

that's outside of this world.

So the real question is, is America the greatest country

in the kingdom?

And guys, unfortunately, I have a lot of things

I could stand on to say, I don't think so.

Because the very anthem of America is do what you wanna do

when you wanna do it, no matter who it hurts,

no matter who it is, it's all about you.

So the very genesis of the country we live in

is bathed in, we're not gonna follow rules.

We're gonna rebel against rules.

So Kevin, is there an expectation to be perfect?

Like is there an expectation, how many have heard

from Christians, perfection is not the goal?

Raise your hand.

Have you heard, perfection's not the goal,

perfection's not the goal.

I beg to differ.

This is what Jesus said, read that first two words.

- Be perfect. - Oh, y'all didn't read it.

Obey what I say, okay?

Read those first two words.

- Be perfect.

- I'm not saying this, okay?

This is Jesus Christ.

He says, be perfect, therefore,

as your heavenly Father is perfect.

If Jesus is saying be perfect, it tells me

there's a pathway to get there.

There's a pathway to get there.

What else does it say?

Jesus says to the rich ruler, the rich guy

who wants to come and follow Jesus,

it says, if you want to be perfect,

well, if Jesus is saying if you want to be perfect,

it tells me there must be a way.

If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions,

give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then it says, then come and follow me.

Come and follow me.

Okay, let's continue.

But just as he who has called you holy is holy, what?

So be holy in all you do.

Be holy in the things that you agree with.

Be holy in some of the things.

No, be holy in all.

Be holy in all the things you do.

Be holy because I'm holy.

We are called to look like Jesus and Jesus is perfect.

Who's arrived?

None of us have arrived.

This is where grace comes in.

Grace is not permission to back out of the continuation

of the sanctification process.

Grace is there to cover us on the journey

as we trip up and try to work out flesh versus spirit.

Flesh versus spirit.

I'm gonna choose the flesh today,

I'm gonna choose the spirit today,

I'm gonna choose the flesh today,

I'm going to choose the spirit today.

And guys, we can't do it by ourselves.

We can't do it on our own.

So what is the motivation, Hannah?

What is the motivation, Justin?

Landon, what is our motivation to get up each morning

and say, I'm going to try and follow Christ

and look like him?

Our motivation so often is, I wanna do the right thing.

Or this is wrong, I don't wanna do the bad things.

That should not be our motivation.

Our motivation to obey is a person.

And that person is Jesus Christ.

He is our motivation to follow the rules, to obey.

If I don't, listen, I'm married to Sherry.

Do you know I have every opportunity

to step out of my marriage and do a whole bunch of stuff?

Every day, I have that choice.

If you're married, you have that choice as well.

Why do I obey the rules of marriage?

Is it because I said something here at the altar?

No.

Is it because it's written down as a rule

on a piece of paper?

No.

I even think that some of the rules of marriage

might be dumb, but it doesn't matter.

The reason I obey the rules of marriage

is because I love my wife.

Because I love my wife.

Let me ask you something.

Does your lifestyle indicate that you love your savior?

Because here's the thing, I don't have the propensity

to go rob a bank today.

Now John, he's struggling with it.

We're gonna pray with him later.

But I'm not gonna go rob a bank this afternoon.

I actually don't really think I'll kill anybody

in the near future.

I mean, I'm pretty good on some of these things.

Here's the thing, we tend to take these big, bolder sins

and we say, I've got those in check.

But it's not those big things.

Why are we willing to compromise our relationship

and love for Jesus over small things

such as pirating a video?

(audience member speaking faintly)

Or not following in line with whatever, you name it,

there's a variety of things I could say.

Why is it that we are willing to,

because this is what we do.

Think about it in the context of your marriage.

I can hold this other girl's hands, that's not a big deal.

It's a small thing, I'm not doing it.

I'm just holding her hand.

I'm gonna go on a date with this other lady.

I mean, we're just hanging out.

- Absolutely not. - We're just hanging out.

I mean, it's not, you look at me and say,

that's ludicrous, is that correct?

- Absolutely not. - Why?

Why would you say that?

You would say that because your fuel and energy

toward anger toward me isn't having anything to do with me.

It has to do with everything about Sherri.

And the fueled energy that we ought to have

when it comes to us breaking small rules,

things in place should be the energy

of how it affects our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Because supposedly, we love Him more than our spouse.

Supposedly, He is number one in our lives.

Love is the motivator.

Here's what Jesus said, Jesus said,

if you love me, if you love me, keep my commands.

If you love me, keep my commands,

and I will ask the Father, and He will give you

another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

Guys, that last part is so important

because we can't be perfect

without the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to do hard things.

I need somebody who's willing to say,

hey, you know, just the other day,

somebody was texting me and they were telling me

kind of an excuse of why they weren't doing something,

and then they followed up with the text of the truth.

And I said, hey, thank you for telling me the truth.

That's hard, it's easier just to justify,

it's easier just to explain away.

I also have another friend who told me recently,

they were like, man, there are some times

when I'm with people, certain people,

and I will act one way 'cause I don't want them

to see me in a bad light, but I'll do the same thing

in front of other people and it doesn't matter to me.

That conveys the level of love and respect

that you have for each of those parties.

And it also tells me that there's probably

one side of that faction that's not making you

look like Christ, and you might wanna evaluate

that relationship, those relationships.

Isn't this fun?

Okay.

We have the Holy Spirit.

We do not have to understand everything to obey.

I think the rule is dumb, so what?

Understanding is not the prerequisite to obedience,

trust is.

Trust, trust is the prerequisite to obedience.

Dustin Minchi got up here a few weeks ago

and he shared during the offering time,

he said, man, I heard a message several weeks prior,

and he said, man, I used to go to the Dollar Tree

and we would buy candy and stuff it in our bags

and then go to the movie, and he's like, man,

I just, I felt convicted, so I went and spent

more money on candy than I'd ever spent on candy

at the movie theater.

And guys, how many think, well, don't raise your hand,

who thinks it's highway robbery paying those prices

for the same nope-dugs that you can get down the road?

You know, it's kind of, it seems to be a silly dumb rule.

Okay, yes, it certainly is.

But here's the thing, the justification in that

is, man, I don't wanna pay that much money,

or I don't have, listen, I don't have 45, $50

to lay out on candy, so I'm gonna go and try

to figure out another way.

Might I reframe your mind?

As opposed to breaking the rule and breaking the law,

and I'm just gonna call it what it is,

instead of sinning, what if you reframed your mind

and said, God, increase my trust that you will actually

provide the funds to pay what they're asking for the candy?

Because so many of us are actually relying

on a large bank account rather than the God

who owns the cattle on the hill.

And in justification for not spending the money

is to build the large bank account,

because our security isn't in Jesus Christ.

It's in what we can do with our hands

and how much we can earn, and how silly it is.

Jesus said, give Caesar what is Caesar's.

In other words, obey the rule, obey the law.

And there's a myriad of things under that umbrella

that he asked us to do, so is it that you just don't want

to do that, or is it that you don't really trust the Lord?

You don't really trust him with your life.

You know, as long as I got this big bank account,

it doesn't really matter.

Or if I don't have any money, I have a God

who can supply all my needs.

Maybe, maybe the Lord is saying, Kevin,

you don't need to buy another pair of shoes.

That's why you don't have money to buy the candy

at the movie theater, right?

He actually cares about all of the finite details, why?

Because as he works out those finite details,

I become more like Christ.

Well, why do I want to become more like Christ?

Because there's a dying world out there

who needs to see Jesus Christ.

11 years old, I'm 42, I remember my dad saying,

shut your mouth.

So the decisions we make, the small ones

when we're laying on our couch at home,

the small in our house, in the intimate setting

with the people closest to us, we're oblivious

to the things, we're not really oblivious,

but we're just moving forward, it's not a big deal.

We're gonna have ramifications well into the future.

Do you look like Christ?

And the enemy's just laughing, 'cause no,

you're not gonna go murder anybody,

you're gonna go rob a bank, but boy,

you sure do have a lot of small things.

Do you trust them?

These are my kids, and I won't tell you which one,

'cause I don't want to out her, but the other day,

we were walking down the road, and I said, get up here,

and the cars were coming down the road,

and she chose not to listen, and I said,

get up here with us right now, we need to hold hands,

and she chose not to listen, and so I said,

I'm gonna count to five, now, this is very abnormal to me,

'cause I'm usually a once, I said it, it's done,

but third time, I'm gonna count to five,

get up here, count to five, she didn't come,

and I said, on the count of five, I'm gonna spank you

if you don't get up here, well, guess what I did,

right there in the middle of the road, I spanked her.

You know that God spanks you?

Do you know he's not afraid to spank you?

Why did I spank my daughter?

Because I don't like her, 'cause I think that she's awful,

'cause I don't think that she's capable of, no.

I spanked her so that she remembers the pain in that moment

will far supersede a car hitting her in the face

whenever I tell her to come up to me,

I need her to listen to me,

because I know it's in her best interest,

and God Almighty knows what's in your best interest,

even when you don't understand, even when you're like,

God, I don't understand, this makes no,

this is meaningless, this has nothing to do with anybody

as he's watching the little kid watch you

make the decision you're making.

God's care is so much larger, expansive,

than anything we can imagine, he does care.

He wants you to look like his son.

He wants us to look like his kid.

So I asked you the question today, do you trust the Lord?

And don't be quick to answer the question, think about it.

Do you actually trust the Lord?

Which areas are you struggling and trusting him?

That's part of the journey.

Guys, you didn't wake up with holy amnesia

the day you got saved, and now all of a sudden

everything's gone, you're just perfect and completed.

No, guess what?

You're set free from those chains of bondage

so that you can begin living an abundant life

that looks like Christ Jesus.

But a part of that evolution and that story,

until the day he comes or the day he takes you out,

is do you trust him?

And honestly, the barometer is are you following the rules?

Are you following, are you doing what he's telling you to do?

I don't feel convicted about that, Kev.

Your feelings are fickle.

What you feel about something, the person next to you

doesn't feel the same thing.

And let me speak for just a moment

for those self-righteous people who follow all the rules.

Your job is not to put a big glaring spotlight

on everybody who's not doing the right thing

to make sure they know they're not doing the right thing.

Your job is to continue to walk in righteousness

so those people can see the blessing on your life

and God can love them up to the place that they need to be.

Do you trust the Lord?

I don't like what I'm being told to do,

but my love for Jesus supersedes what I think

and what I feel, so I'm going to make a choice,

my choice today is to obey.

Love the Lord God with all your heart

and all your soul and all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment

and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.

I would say do you love the Lord

and hands would fly up all over the place here.

I love the Lord because we have so perverted

the word love here that it's all about,

I feel like I love the Lord.

I felt that goose bump this morning

after my third cup of coffee,

I really felt the love of the Lord, it was great.

It was fantastic.

Love is a choice.

Love is a choice.

Paul says that we should be all things to all people.

You know what that tells me?

That tells me if Kurt comes into my life

and I'm sitting here and I'm doing something

that he considers a stumbling block,

that he considers sin and I learn about it,

I don't get the privilege of looking and saying,

Kurt, it's no big deal or get over yourself

or I'm just gonna continue doing it.

Because I say I love him, love your neighbor as yourself,

I now have to make a choice to love him

to change my behavior even if it's none of his business.

And I wanna do that because my love neighbor,

love your neighbor is fueled by love the Lord your God.

Love the Lord your God is if you love me, follow my commands.

Follow my commands is love your Lord God,

love your neighbor, pray for the authorities over you.

God, I don't understand, my boss is telling me to do stuff

and I just wanna punch him in the face, God.

My boss is telling me to do stuff and I can't stand it.

But because I love you, God, I'm going to submit joyfully

because I don't wanna taint my witness for you, God.

And I'm gonna trust that if there's anything going on here

that you wanna fix, God, then you're gonna do it.

But more than that, here's my prayer, God,

give me eyes to see the situation the way you do.

Because my opinion really doesn't matter in this,

I wanna become like you, Christ.

But it's not fair, God, that they get to do this

or they got that promotion or they got that razor,

I'm overlooked and God says,

will you continue to be faithful?

Will you continue to, will you trust me enough

to know that I've got you in the end?

That I've got you in the predicament

or in the situation for a reason.

Do you trust the Lord?

Obedience is motivated by love.

This is my friend Vonda, many of you know Vonda Coble.

And she didn't come to church today,

so I'm gonna talk about her.

We went to, we take the students at the school

to New York every now and then.

And there was a trip that we took them to New York.

And we got to New York and we're going to a Broadway show.

And we took about 20 students to this Broadway show.

And we got there and there were only 18 tickets

and there were 20 of us.

And they made a mistake.

And so I'm over at the box office

getting it all straightened out.

Well, they give us two, obviously they give us

the two tickets that we need to get in.

And so we get there and they've got all of the 18 tickets

are on that second tier and there are two tickets

that are in the very front row, front two seats,

dead center where you're looking at the stage like this.

Well, guess who took the two tickets?

Vonda and Kevin, right?

Okay, so the kids are up there and Vonda and Kevin

are going to come down here.

Well, I like to get concessions.

I like to, I don't like to pay $10 for peanut M&M's,

but I did.

I got the M&M's and they had these pink slushies

and we both wanted a pink slushie and we wanted M&M's.

So I got M&M's and pink slushie, Vonda went to the restroom.

So I'm paying for the food or whatnot.

We're getting the kids settled and we're making sure

that they're where they're supposed to be.

Vonda comes out of the bathroom.

I give her her slushie and her M&M's.

I take mine and we're walking down the side of the aisle

and we notice there are no other seats sold

in the front two rows except for Vonda and me.

So we're walking here and all of a sudden I look up

and the people in the third and fourth row,

they all have their cameras out like this.

And they're, because Vonda tends to dress like Janet Jackson

like she's like famous, you know?

So, and I just was her wody, you know?

I've just got them all kind of with her.

I'm like, they are taping us right now, you know?

So we sit down and we're in the front

and the show hasn't started and Vonda takes a big old drink

of this slushie.

Big old gulp.

And her eyes flare open just as big as they can get.

Now Vonda is, you know, she's just wired

that she's gonna take you down with her if she goes down,

okay?

So she looked at me, she said,

"Kevin O'Day, take a drink of your slushie."

She said, "Kevin O'Day, take a drink

"of your slushie right now."

And so I was like, what, is it good?

Oh, it must be good.

So I took a big swig, it was alcoholic.

100% alcohol.

And so we're there in the front and we have these things.

Now I want you to understand the setting.

We are front and center.

We are being taped by people we do not know.

And we have 18 students looking down at us right now.

Vonda looked at me and we looked at each other and said,

"We're gonna set these on the floor.

"We're not gonna finish this drink.

"We're gonna wait till the show's over

"and in front of the students,

"we're gonna pour this out in front of them

"and tell them what happened."

Okay?

Now, many of you would have just said,

"Well, it's a drink, it's one drink, it's not a big deal."

Okay?

Many of you would have been like,

"Hey, especially you paid 20 bucks

"or whatever it was for the drink,

"you're gonna, I'm licking the cup."

You know what I mean?

It's like, it's that, it's gonna happen.

Do you know that during the entire play,

the kids were talking about the fact

that we were drinking alcohol?

We didn't know about it until afterward.

Do you know how important it was that we showed them

and told them the mistake and poured it out in front of them?

'Cause we don't wanna ruin our witness.

We don't want, it doesn't matter if it was dumb

that we didn't drink the drink,

it doesn't matter what our opinion was.

Oh, but if you only drink one drink,

you won't get drunk, it's fine.

You can justify yourself out of a paper bag.

There are people watching you that you do not know

and there are people watching you who you do know.

And your witness is always, always, always

right there front and center.

And so we poured it out in front of them

and we were so glad because they came out

before we could even show them.

Oh, Miss Coble, you getting twisted,

you getting turnt up.

It's literally what they're saying.

Thankfully, we were able to tell them what happened

because we didn't want our witness destroyed.

Do you believe what you say you believe?

This is the cornerstone of the chapters

we've been reading.

Washington, you can come on back.

This has been the cornerstone of the chapters

we've been reading.

Guys, do you really believe what you say you believe?

Is Jesus Christ the lover of your soul

and do you love him back?

Because he is with us.

The bridegroom is with us.

I've asked Cole Burkett to come and share

a little bit of his testimony as it relates

to where he's right now because it relates

and connects so clearly to what we've been talking

about today.

Would you guys listen to Cole?

- I just wanna first say I've been in a certainly

a tough season in my life and it took me so long

to surrender in a lot of ways.

And because of the surrender that I finally kinda came to,

I'm like, all right, Lord, only you can work this out.

I'm now being, things are being revealed to me

and one of those things is what I'm gonna talk

about this morning.

I just wanna say that first that you gotta surrender

sometimes for the Lord to reveal things in your life

that you would be so blind to unless you had surrendered.

That thing is this, me and my wife have been married

for a year and three months, four months now

and there are things that I did prior to being married

with my wife that I had no idea would hurt her

the way that it has hurt her.

And the question that I have been pondering

is would I have done those things if she had been there

right with me?

If I had been in relationship with her knowing

that one day she'd be my wife.

No, I wouldn't have done those things.

I wouldn't have willingly hurt her.

And in the same way, let me ask you this,

maybe you've heard this prayer or maybe this hurt

or heard in a singing of a song.

Jesus, break my heart for what breaks yours.

Break my heart, Lord, for what breaks yours.

It's through that mechanism that you grow

in a deeper relationship with Christ and in the same way

with my wife, my relationship with her has deepened

and it's not been through how well I follow the rules

with her.

The mechanism has been I want to love her

and through that now I'm following rules that I didn't

when before I had known her.

So in my life, in my relationship with Christ,

I want to love Jesus first and through that mechanism

of loving him, he's making me perfect.

It's through that that he's making me in right standing

with him.

And so in my marriage with my wife, it's showing me

that Jesus might not be physically here in this moment

but this is preparing me on how to love Jesus right now

through the privilege of loving my wife

and laying my life down for her, laying my destiny down

for her and it's a beautiful thing.

But man, it humbles you and it breaks your heart

for what breaks hers but it breaks my heart

for what breaks Jesus's.

And so that's the question that I want to ask you guys

this morning at Springhouse.

Jesus break my heart for what breaks yours.

- And Kaylin has certainly forgiven Cole,

she's not forgotten.

She's not forgotten.

Guys, our choices and our actions have consequences

whether we like it or not, sometimes they're small,

sometimes they're pretty big.

And when we grapple through the consequences,

we learn, right, we learn but man,

why not lean into Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit

and grapple with the positive consequences

of living for a kingdom that's which you belong to.

And that's his desire for us, that's his desire.

So Gentiles need to be circumcised, no, no.

You need to do X, Y and Z to earn,

no, you don't need to earn your salvation,

your salvation is free, cost him something, it's free to you

but beyond that, becoming like Christ Jesus,

it's gonna cost you everything.

Cost you your pride, your arrogance,

it's gonna cost you the willingness to say,

yeah, I do think that that rule is dumb

but I'm gonna submit to it

and I'm not gonna make a big stink about it,

I'm not gonna say, look at me, I'm following this dumb rule,

I'm just gonna do it.

Because at the end of the day,

I want no one to have a reason to look at me and say,

I don't look like Christ Jesus.

Jess, stand with me this morning.

You know, the call this morning, this is a heavy word

but the call this morning really is one to say this,

Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours.

And maybe as a step of faith,

some of you may need to come to the altar and say,

God, I need you to break my heart for what breaks you,

I've been serving myself way too long in small things

and what an amazing way to chip out pride

for those of you who are too proud to admit

that there are small things,

'cause man, everybody looks at me,

if I go forward, man, they're gonna think that I do X, Y and Z

it doesn't matter because you do X, Y and Z.

And the one you say you love most knows it.

So what would it look like to break down the barriers

and walls of pride and say, man,

God, I need you to break my heart for what breaks yours,

help me Lord in these small areas where I'm giving in

and I'm compromising my love for you,

I need you to help me, I need you to infiltrate my heart

'cause I wanna be like you, Lord.

That's the call this morning

and with those who are gonna minister, come on up

and we can agree with people,

maybe you just wanna come and get my altar space,

that's totally fine too,

we're just gonna worship for a few moments here.

If you have a prayer need,

you can come and join with someone

and if you're a leader,

because here's the thing, we're authentic here,

if you're a leader, I'm talking to you guys

that are gonna pray for people.

If you're a leader and you need to bow your knee

and not being prayed today,

you absolutely have the freedom to do that

because nobody's exempt, right?

It's not us and them, it's us and Him.

Let's worship.