Good morning, church family. My name is Riley Skeen, and I serve in connections here at the Village.
If you want to go ahead and turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 20, we're going to be reading from verses one through four.
"When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priests shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, 'Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint; do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.'"
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Thanks, Riley. Well, good morning! If you have your Bibles, I would like you to turn to that passage. We're really just going to look at verse 4, but I wanted you to see the context because the context matters.
This is our last weekend in our fall series that we simply called "Unearthed," and I want to remind you of what I said in week one. I said that I had a motive as we looked at the 2021 preaching calendar. I had a motive, something that I was after. What I wanted to do in the first part of the year is just put courage and hope in your bones.
So we looked at the book of Revelation because the book of Revelation was given to the church of Jesus Christ to do just that. I wanted you to know that things aren't what they seem. I wanted you to know that victory was sure. I wanted you to know that we have not been forgotten, and actually, we're probably winning more than we're losing despite what it looks like.
Then that led us into the second part of the year, which is this part of the year, the fall, and we launched this series on identity, purpose, and mission. I told you that my hope in building out last year, and honestly my hope going into next year with 1 Peter and then a sermon series we're just calling "Icon," is to unleash you on the world in such a way that you become problematic for the enemy.
So that's what I'm preaching to. If you're looking for a great church to get a coffee and be a spectator in, I hope you hated it. I mean, I hope I just get old and the intensity here gets old for you because what I want to see in our little run together, however long that's going to be—I mean, we're coming up on 19 years some of us here in just a couple of weeks—is to just let you see and understand God and yourself.
In seeing those two things, I want you to be unleashed on neighborhoods and in workplaces and all over the world because I think the devil's never actually safe anywhere.
I got a text last night from a church that we helped plant in Tokyo, Japan, who just moved into their new space downtown Tokyo, right above the second largest train station in Tokyo. I don't know if you're aware of what Tokyo, Japan is. First, Japan is less than one percent Christian. It actually is categorized as an unreached people group—less than one percent Christian.
Tokyo, the city of Tokyo, is bigger than Texas—38 million people. The last time we had a team there, Chad Farmer said, "You will be the only Christians most of these people ever meet." But guess who just planted a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, filled-with-the-Spirit, gonna-save-everybody church right in the heart of enemy-occupied territory, right?
And then the same night, so I'm a little animated today, you're going to find out, I got another text from a family I won't be able to mention, but it's just pictures of them prayer walking a land where they're about to open up a school and use the Bible as a primary curriculum as they seek to find those far from God and invite them into the kingdom.
So sometimes I just kind of feel sorry for the devil, right? He's working so hard, and we're just, wherever we are, we're just causing problems.
Well, that's what I want us to be—a problem. I want you to go make good trouble. I want you to see the world through the biblical lens that should eradicate boredom from your life, should shake you out of indifference, and should have you leaning into assured victory wherever the fight is for you.
And so with that said, I want to end this series hopefully with a bang. I never thought I would say this sentence, so I'm about to read a sentence I never thought I would say. One of my daughter's favorite Scandinavian sociologists summed up identity formation like this:
"It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fear that once controlled me can't get to me at all. It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through. There's no right, there's no wrong, there's no rules for me, I'm free. Let it go, let it go, I am one with the wind and sky. Let it go, let it go, you'll never see me cry. Here I stand and here I stay, let the storm rage on. Why? 'Cause cold never bothered me anyway."
Now, I'm not—why are you clapping at that? So I'm not dogging on the Queen of Arendelle. She beautifully sums up identity formation in our day, and I'm trying to just lay before you the very air you're breathing, whether you're aware of it or not.
I love this man. I'll watch this movie again. This is a great movie, right? But you've got to be aware of what you're breathing, right? Like, "No right, no wrong, no rules for me." This is what we talked about in week one, right? That the primary way you and I are beginning to be discipled by the world, that we figure out who we are and what we are, is to look into our hearts, find our desires, and our desires are janky, man. They're all over the place.
But find that deepest desire, and we own it and roll it forward like it's our identity. So if that's a sexual compulsion, if that's how do you identify—like what kind of question is that? Do you hear the question itself, right? That means I look inside, I find a desire, and then I own it. This is me.
And now what I've got to do is find a group of people that agree with me, and then I find a group of people that will agree with me. "Yeah, you are that deepest desire for now." I mean, you have to remake yourself in about four years, but for right now, that's what you are.
And then you find people, and then because we're still looking for something transcendent, we like to sprinkle a little Jesus on top, or sprinkle a little wicked stuff on top, or sprinkle a little bit of new age spirituality on top, or sprinkle a little—right? We've got to have something transcendent.
So I am my deepest desires. Let me find people that agree with me. Let me sprinkle some spirituality on it, and anybody who disagrees is oppressive.
Now, how did that play out for the Queen of Arendelle? Did she not end up all by herself in a castle in the mountains, angry, lonely, prone to outbursts? Didn't that woman try to kill her sister?
Right? This is the lie. This is the lie that find your deepest desires—that's who you really are. Goodness sakes, man, your deepest desire is going to change before Tuesday. That's a terrible way to live, and so much of what's burning in the world is directly tied to this nonsense.
And the biblical worldview on identity formation is that you are not self-created. You're not self-created. Hey, let's just—like you're not self-created. You're God-created. What a terrible thing to tell little kids: "Hey, form your own moral universe." Good Lord, they can't find their shoes! You let them form their own moral universe?
The number of parents that have punted on parenting because of this nonsense—the kids don't get to shape their moral influence. I'm shaping their moral influence because I'm their dad.
Oh man, that's oppressive. It's not! They're doing the same thing to them. What am I just supposed to sit down? I ain't built like that, right?
So this is—you're not self-created; you were God-created. And then even on top of that, listen, I love you, you're not self-defining. You don't have to define yourself; God has defined you. This is great news! I don't have to create or construct my own moral universe, my own reality. There is a reality I get to live into because the creator of that reality names me, calls me by name, and gives me my identity.
I just get to breathe and walk in it, or in the case of this series, try to unearth it because it might be buried, right? And that's what we've been talking about.
I love this passage. Let me just read verse four. So Deuteronomy 20, the context: when you fight—not if you fight, when you fight—when you go into battle. And the Bible is just honest, and you're crazy outnumbered, and they've got horses and chariots, and you can't even count them, and you look weak, and you feel like all is lost.
It's this really terrible kind of list of the odds. And then look just quickly with me in verse four. He basically tells them not to be afraid.
Now listen to this: "For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and to give you the victory." If you write in your Bible, make notes in your Bible, I would, in this passage in particular, highlight, underline, line out to the margin, star, whatever you do, whatever color you like—make note that this text says that God will go with you, and he will fight with you against your enemies.
Now, as Christians, we know our enemy is not flesh and blood, but there is an enemy behind our enemy. The Bible calls these principalities and powers. We'll also do a small series on that in 2022: what is spiritual warfare? What are principalities and powers? So that's coming for us.
But that's what's in view here. We're not talking about attacking the left or fighting those whose ideology—no, no, there's an enemy behind our enemy. And this says when you look at how big it is, don't get nervous, for God is gonna fight with you, and he's gonna go with you.
Now look at me. I strongly dislike this little adage that I see all the time. It's not biblical: "Let go and let God." I think I understand what people are saying when they say that, but that is not what's in the Bible. The Bible is like, "You get in there and fight, but don't worry because I'm coming."
Right? Like the number of us that are waiting for some kind of magical silver bullet is wild to me. No, he says here, "You go fight, but don't worry, I'm coming."
And this is a refrain that's all over the Bible. I try to constantly highlight for you Moses in Exodus, who is the perfect man for this job. Dude speaks Egyptian, knows the layout of Pharaoh's palace, he knows Egyptian culture. And when he says to God, "Who am I that I would go?" God doesn't build up his self-esteem and do what I just did, right?
Well, you know, you speak Egyptian—that's crazy, right? I did that. You know the layout of the palace. I just might have you sneak in there and cow late one night. You know their culture. You're the—he doesn't say any of that. He says, "Moses, you go, and I'm coming with you, and that's going to be it."
And then I love this passage again in 1 Corinthians 15:10: "But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, listen to this: I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."
Do you hear it? Like, I worked harder than anyone, but it wasn't me, but the grace of God working at me.
Let me tell you what's got me wrestled: the number of men and women whose spiritual vitality, life, power is so far down their list of priorities as to hardly ever measure it all is super disorienting to me. You're like, "Oh yeah, spiritual vitality, right? The power of God in my life to embrace and live out a profound and powerful identity and mission and belonging and purpose. Yeah, that sounds great, but so does Stranger Things 4."
And I'm pumped about Stranger Things 4, I am, but that is a poor substitute for what's being offered to us. There is no silver bullet here.
I don't know what it is you think is going to happen as you sit on your couch that's going to stir up in you the profound power that God's made available to you in Jesus Christ, but the passage says, "Go fight, and he's coming with you."
So how do we fight? There are two sentences when this series is over I want you to never forget. The first was, "You were made for the day, and the day was made for you." I want you to never forget that because that's true about you. The day was made for you; you were made for the day. That's just absolutely true.
The other one is how this process plays out, right? Which is deep work over time in community. That's what this looks like. If you're like, "What do I do with all that we're talking about?" It's deep work over time in community. I don't want you to forget that.
So let's dive into what I mean by that. Deep work—when we're talking about deep work, I'm not talking about getting you some candles in a quiet space. I'm saying this deep work is bringing our full and honest selves into the presence of Jesus.
Deep work is bringing our full and honest selves into the presence of Jesus. The Bible's littered with these kinds of prayers. Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting."
This is King David bringing his full self honestly into the presence of Jesus. That's where deep work is done. That's where the secret sauce, the magic actually is— you bringing your full, honest self into the presence of Jesus.
Hey guys, the number of us that actually think in a weird way we're deceiving God with where our hearts actually are is crazy. Just be honest! Just pray honest prayers. Bring the nasty junk of your life into the presence of Jesus. That's where it gets healed. That's where it gets broken off.
Now, when you pretend that you're further along to God, like you're not duping him—like, man, if you prayed what was in your heart, people get weird around you in home group, right? They just would.
And we talked about this several weeks ago now, this idea of strongholds—that stubborn disposition, that mindset or value system or thought process that hinders our growth in Christ, right? The stronghold—biblical strongholds—things that we build up, ways of thinking that hinder ways of believing.
We talked about even how those are formed, and I always want to be slower and very gracious in this part and talking about these things. So one of the ways a stronghold forms is through words or wounds.
So somebody said something to you, or God help you, somebody did something to you that was evil. And what happens in that moment is the enemy comes in and whispers to you to make that thing your identity.
You tracking with me? To make you feel like you're dirty or that you're broken or that you're worthless or that you're—if you're not careful, the enemy would have you identifying yourself by what happened to you.
Look at me! You're not what happened to you! You're not! That is a flipping lie! If I could use stronger language, I would. You are not what happened to you! You're not that thing! You are not what that person does!
And I love this last service. This whole front row was filled with a ministry that rescues women out of the sex trade and sex trafficking. And they, man, you know, seen them women worship, bro!
Now, what happened? Because here's what the enemy wants you to identify yourself as—that once you just embrace the victimology of our day, he wants you to embrace that you are what happened to you.
The God of the Bible wants to redeem it, weaponize it, and punch Satan in the face with it. And I'll tell you what I saw: 20 women who have endured some of the most horrific things imaginable just bring reproach on the name of the enemy and praise to the name of Jesus.
See how he flipped it on its head? And what purpose they have and vision they have and zeal they have—not just for the Lord, but for women like them. The empathy for women like them is just a perfect picture of what God is up to versus what the enemy's up to.
They have every opportunity to be bitter and angry and join communities of revenge that just want to burn the whole world to the ground. But instead, Christ has ransomed them, rescued them, saved them, flipped the evil on its head, and now has weaponized it back on a true cause of it.
That stuff's spectacular to me!
So one of the ways, when I'm talking about bringing your full self into the presence of Jesus, maybe you've had some words and wounds in your life. These are going to show up all over the place.
Like some of you have made promises that you can't keep, and you've actually come into agreement with principalities and powers. I know you said, "I will never be hurt again. No one's ever gonna hurt me like that again."
And because you're in church, my guess is you've either armored up with theology or you've armored up with ghostly language. This is called spiritual bypass—it's not actually dealing with the pain.
You tracking with me on this? We have made promises that we can't keep and that are only going to tend to isolate and destroy us, right? "No one will ever hurt me again." How's that going for you?
You want to end up on a mountain in a castle all by yourself? Try to keep that promise. No! We disagree with those words. We embrace what is true: "The Lord will protect me and defend me."
We lean into—not spiritual bypass—let me find some theology where I can—I'm forgiven, let's move forward. I don't want to talk about it.
All right? You know the Holy Spirit says, "No, no, let's be honest and move through it." It's the only way through it. You don't get to go around that stuff; you have to go through it.
And I'm not joking, it's painful, it's disorienting, but it's worth it. So I think if your relationships are always falling apart, if you've got a long story of everybody betraying you, that might be a red flag that you've got some things you need to bring into the full presence of Jesus honestly.
Gosh, I think if you would really get into your Bible, there are some prayers in the Bible that are really—like if you heard somebody else praying that way, you'd get real worried about them, right?
So I was—you know, I broke David all the time. Just, "How long, O Lord, will you forget me?" Like if you're just—you know, you're doing the Baptist prayer where everybody's praying, like squeeze the hand next to you, go around in a circle, and some guy was like, "Why are you always forgiving me, Lord?"
You're like, "Man, circle back around, Dave. He's struggling." Or Jeremiah. Jeremiah uses the word "pata," the Hebrew word "pata," when he says to God, "You have deceived me."
"Pata" in Hebrew is like, "You took advantage of me like I was a weak-willed woman." How about that prayer in home group? Just feel like you roofied me a bit, Lord.
I just—like, whoa! This ain't the place for that, right? But these are prayers in the Bible. They're grimy. They're people bringing their full self as they're not trying to pretty it up and confessing, "God, help me."
If your relationship—all you've got behind you is a billion people that betrayed you, maybe not, but probably that's on you. That's some stuff going on in you, and that if you would heal some of that, would heal, right?
If—let me ask you this: self-talk. How mean are you to you? Huh? I say things to me sometimes that if some other man said those to me, I might be in the paper.
Anybody else? I ain't trying to make a joke. Anybody else? How much grace do you have for yourself? How much patience do you have for yourself?
See, guys, this is bringing our full self. Man, I am struggling here with this. What does it look like to do deep work?
I also think—so that's words and wounds. Another place that we'll see flags and we'll need to have the courage to come into the full presence of Jesus honestly—remember, it's words and wounds—that's a stronghold.
But also comparison. Like when we compare—remember, we said this is an accusation against God.
So if you're looking—can we—let's just have—are you petty? I'm just asking. Like, are you petty? Like, jealous? Are you more aware of what you don't have than what you do? Are you constantly—like seriously, like in your mental world, are you more aware of what you don't have, or are you more grateful for what you do?
Listen, this is—and I want to be real honest about how this works and why so few people will do it. Like when you come—when you're bringing your full self into the presence of God, it's a great idea not to pretty up what you're actually going through.
I'm telling you, you want to know where the work is, where transformation is? You just say what's actually going on in your heart to God and trust that he'll meet you with grace.
So instead of coming in just going, "Oh man, I'm just really struggling. Just need you, Lord. Just—I don't just—I'm struggling." How about going, "God, I'm just really petty and ungrateful. I'm just really petty and ungrateful."
Those are different, are they not? I'm just really struggling with what? Being petty and ungrateful? And that has a weight to it that lets you understand what you're doing.
And then follow me—you can actually receive the grace of God because in your petty, in your jealous, in your ungrateful state, he's still going to meet you with grace and forgiveness. It's crazy!
But you'll never be able to experience that if you're just like, "Just really—it's really struggling right now." No! I ha—yeah, I'm a lustful pervert. Help me!
I don't know why, but we're not allowed to talk that way, right? Because this—I mean, it's not you. I mean, bless your heart, he's struggling. Yeah, with being a pervert!
And so we confess that, and the Spirit of God begins to heal. Unwilling to confess that and pretty enough as though God's been deceived by your church attendance, it's killing us.
And then there's perfectionism. Are you paralyzed? Do you believe—let me just—do you believe that you're a better God than God?
Like, I mean, you would trust him, but man, he needs—you know, you got to help him out a little bit here. No, no! This is—again, these are red flags and things that we need to bring ourselves into the presence of Jesus fully, honestly, and say, "I don't trust you. I feel like I did trust you, and you let me down, and here's where you let me down, and I don't feel like I can survive that again, and so I don't know how to do this."
That's an amazing prayer! That is an amen! That is so much better than kind of the surface-level, thin ridiculousness that sometimes comes out of our mouth. It's not matched to our hearts. It's not our full self.
Now you bring that into the presence of Jesus. Now why is this—why is this stuff so hard to do? I think two reasons. Let me start with the lesser of the reasons and then get to the primaries.
The first reason we don't want to do deep work, we don't want to do this, is we have a scarcity mindset. We think we're going to miss out on or we're going to lose, or we're gonna—so we don't do it because we feel like God's not going to be enough on the other side.
Because what if we do this? What if we bring our full selves into the presence of God and we find out God's not enough? What would that do to our lives? What would that do to our worldview?
Like, what we—it's a scarcity mindset. And then the major one, I think the major one is fear. As I sit down with men, and they want a silver bullet for this stuff, I think men who are a little bit more distant from their feelings, a little bit more difficult in navigating the parts of the soul than women are, I would say by and large, they're just afraid.
Like, how about this? What if I actually am a fraud? What if I am dispensable? What if I get down there and all my fears about me are true? And so they're afraid, and they don't step in.
And yet I want to remind you of this, brothers and sisters: this Psalm 51:17—I love this: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
Full self, honestly in the presence of Jesus, God says, "Oh man, I'll never despise that. The broken and contrite in spirit, I will never despise."
Deep work over time. I love this little phrase by Eugene Peterson. Eugene Peterson called the Christian life a long obedience in the same direction. Isn't that great? Just a long obedience in the same direction.
I want to convince you, as we think about all this stuff, that there are a multitude of seasons in life. Look at me! None of them will define you; all of them will shape you.
So let me say it this way: here, let's look at me. It will not always be like this. The first—I've said this before. I just want to keep saying it because I think it's helpful. The first seven years of my marriage with Lauren were awful. I mean, nightmarish.
Oh my God, is this the rest of my life? Awful! I know some of you are like, "Bro, she's right there." I know she—listen, Shane laying next to me going, "Oh my girl, dreams have come true." It was awful!
And because we were committed to not yell and scream, we just iced each other out, right? It was just icy. She had places where she would get all kinds of information, affirmation, and praise. I'd have places where I got all kinds of affirmation and praise, and we just get home and be icy.
It was awesome! Seven years! I don't know how long that feels for you. Seven years is a long time—a painfully long time.
And God, in his mercy, began to pull us out of that season. And although it wasn't overnight, and there were still bumps along the way, what a gift to be married to the wife of my youth, deeply engaged in gospel ministry with her, alongside of her.
If my words resonate with you, you need to thank my wife. You feel pierced in heart by the proclamation of the word that comes from me up here? Gosh, so much of that is pulled out of my relationship with my wife and the conversations we're having about this or that or how this works.
That was God's gift. It was a terrible season, and we weren't in it forever. And then, if you don't know, I'm about to celebrate 12 years after I was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor that was meant to kill me in two or three.
And so for 18 months, I did not have my normal energy, not have my normal vibrancy, not at home, not at work. And it was just a season. It was an 18-month season.
And just for full transparency, between the years of 2015 and 2019, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this anymore. I was dangerously close on a couple of occasions just going, "I'm done. Not worth it."
It was a season. And the Lord brings renewal, and the Lord brings a kind of revival into each of those spaces. And I don't know what season you're in. I just want you to know you won't always be there.
In fact, one of the things God wants to do today is pull you out of the season you're now in and start to move you into the next season he has for you. It won't always be like this. The Spirit is always wooing us towards what is next, always willing us out of the present place.
So let me—what does it look like for you to come out of the season that you're in? What does it look like for you to take some tangible steps to move to what is next for you as far as the Lord has made it available to you to know and understand?
Deep work over time. Here's my last one: in community. Community is essential for embodied practice. Community is what forms us. You start spending a good amount of time with other people, you will pick up on little things they do, for good and for evil. Amen?
You start—you got a crew. That crew has a shared language. They have shared jokes. They have a shared depth. It's what it is. It's embodied practice.
Do you know that we serve a God that is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—three in one? The very creative essence of reality is communal. We need one another. We were designed for touch, for presence, for eye contact.
Let me talk for just a moment about digital versus live. I love me some digital access. I'm gonna lie to you. I love me some digital access. Gosh, hey, hey guys, digital access—love it, love it, love it, love it!
Digital access, whether it's augmented reality or just viewing something on a screen, is a poor version of what's real. Real! And humanity will never flourish without face-to-face interaction, without physical touch, without you being able to look at my face and me look at your face as we mourn together and rejoice together.
So where we need to take advantage of digital technology, let's harness it for the kingdom of God. But let it not be normal for the people of God to prefer screens to presence.
And you know this. You know it. Thanks, Mark. You know it! Like my daughter just went to a concert a couple of weeks ago, and man, she was just—she sent like videos and pictures. Like, it was incredible!
I was like, "Well, we—I mean, we could have just watched it on YouTube." But that ain't the same, is it? You ever been to a sporting event? But that's different than watching it on TV.
And even people like that, they can't make it—like, "Well, I mean, I don't have to worry about the traffic, and I sit here and just go to the bathroom when I go back." Being there is better! It's just better!
Hey, thus is the design of God! Like, let's leverage technology. Oh my gosh, let's leverage it! Let's also be careful. Let's also be—we're not far from augmented reality, right? Meta being as normal as free Wi-Fi.
You watch! I mean, I guarantee it won't be long until you go to church, putting on your pickaxe, step into church. There'll be a greeter there: "Where would you like to sit?" "Oh, up front, let's go!"
And it'll be so novel and so cool and so ultimately damaging to your soul. Let's use that stuff as the tools they are, but I want to look you in your face, and I want you to look in mine, especially when it's time to weep together and mourn together.
I want to show you—let me say this: by and large, Christianity in the West has very much taken on a kind of cruise ship mentality, hasn't it? And why not? It doesn't feel like we're at war most of the time.
So it's like, "Hey, what kind of cup of coffee can I give you? Where's your favorite place to sit? What programs are you looking for? How are you?" Like, it's just like a cruise ship.
Anybody been on a cruise? Always get something to eat, always something to do. Nobody's been on a cruise here on the yellow line? You're like, "Oh, I thought it was rhetorical." Great!
But I wonder—and I think that's why that mentality is why so often we're not living into all that God has for us, and we're not the problem for the enemy that we were designed to be.
So I've got a couple of images I want to show you because I wonder if we think about the Christian life like this, if we would get a better—if we'd kind of really be able to understand what we're actually caught up in.
So, this brother has just lost several of his friends—was killed. This is the Vietnam War, and this brother here is just trying to comfort him in his loss.
And then here's the second one. This is a guy—I don't know if this guy makes it or not. I literally couldn't—I don't know where—how this guy turned out. I just see two brothers on the ground trying to keep him alive.
I love this quote by Ray Ortlund. He said, "What if our friendships start looking like this, with every one of us both giving support and receiving support? Let's dare to live dangerously and give our hearts away."
See, Ray is trying to call us up. I'm trying to call us up into a more wartime mentality where you might understand that what we're caught up in is no cruise to the heavenly city, but a battleship on the way to glory.
And that our enemies are not flesh and blood, but they are real enemies. You and I were meant to be together in this.
So I think my question is, who are your people? Like, who are your people? You're going to need people, man.
So, been here 19 years. Here's how people vanish. Here's how people get destroyed by the enemy. He just starts to isolate them.
If you're looking for a fun book to read, you should read "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis. So what happens is the people will come in, they'll love Jesus, they'll be a part of the church, they'll be growing in their faith, they'll find a place of belonging, and then Christians will start bothering them.
That guy in your home group, he's just a hypocrite. It's just a hypocrite! Not like you! You're not just completely unaware of your own hypocrisy, but man, does that guy stand out!
This guy over here sings terrible. I can't worship because this guy won't hush it up. And oh, what about her? You—and we just get all judging.
What happens is we start to isolate ourselves. We begin to withdraw from the difficulty of life together, and isolation is what ultimately leads to us being devoured and our faith shipwrecked.
Like, a very real thing that's happening right now is doubt is being sown as quickly as a 60-second TikTok. And if there aren't environments where it's okay to ask hard questions and it's okay to wrestle, then man, we're going to lose a lot of people to doubt and fear.
So we could literally—I mean, this is the stuff that I feel like I'm dealing with all the time now, where somebody just sees unreals on Instagram that the word "homosexuality" didn't appear in the Bible until 19-whatever, right?
Now, like, people have to know, "Okay, like, okay, what do I do with that? Is there an answer to that?" And yeah, there is!
Or, you know, my favorite is when somebody gives you their credentials before they tell you something that's ridiculous. "I've got an M.A. in this, and this is clearly what's true, despite the fact that all Christian history disagrees with me. This is new revelation that God wants to give the church as of nine months ago."
There are answers to these questions. There are ways to talk about these things. The gift of community, the gift of doing this together, understanding that we're in a war and there is a lion that seeks to devour us creates a kind of seriousness that we can have with one another and I think moves us into the things that God has for us.
Let me close with this. Several weeks ago, I was getting ready to go to a daddy-daughter dance with Nora. And so we were gonna go buy her a dress, and we went to the Cheesecake Factory over in Frisco before we went to find the dress.
Anybody been to Cheesecake Factory? How many pages do you think are on that menu?
Anybody? 947,000!
And so my sweet 12-year-old daughter is like, "I bet you we ate faster, got our food, and ate faster than we decided on what we were eating."
Life can kind of feel like that. Like, even all these things that I'm talking about, just like, "Okay, what do I do? That's great. What's the next step? I'm not sure where to go next here."
Just look at me because I've got just a perfect answer for you. You ready?
Something! Just do something! What if you went to your people? I got people. Matt Murph's one of my people. Lance Autry's one of my people. Josh Patterson's one of my people. Brian Miller's one of my people. Michael Bleeker's still one of my people, even though he—anyway, I'm just kidding. He's off, right?
These are my people. They care about my soul. I've invited them in. Have you ever done that? You ever said, "Listen, I love our inside jokes. I love all the gifts or gifs or whatever that we're sending each other, and I love our fun and our sense of humor, but what would it look like for us to just be a little bit more serious about, you know, spurring one another on in the deep things of God?"
What about husbands and wives? What if you brought that to the next date night? What would it look like for our world to be more oriented around the things of God?
And that's an incredible start! It's an incredible start! What if you downloaded the worksheets that we did so that you might kind of look at identity and purpose and mission? You got with your people and you said, "Was it—what is that? Do you see this in me?"
Do you think—like, that's amazing stuff! It's just a step—long obedience in the right direction, in the same direction. Deep work over time in community.
You'll commit to that in this season of your life. There's probably a billion things going on that kind of restrict this season, or maybe you're in a season where the gates are open.
Let's just maximize the season we're in. And let me say this to you: if you're hurting, it does not have to be this way. It will not always be this way.
Let me pray for us.
Father, I bless these men and women in the name of Jesus Christ. We thank you that you fight with us, alongside of us. We thank you that victory has been given to us.
I pray now we have the courage to live into it. Father, I pray even now that you'd put in our spirits, in our souls, that something—that step, that meeting with our people to say, "We want more. What does it look like to orient all the more around the things of God?"
Help us! We need you! It's for your beautiful name I pray. Amen.
on Nov 05, 2023
