WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.991 to be in the scripture this morning for our message in Acts, chapter number 13,. 00:00:03.991 --> 00:00:04.761 Acts 13,. 00:00:04.761 --> 00:00:08.791 And we're going to start off with an unofficial FCC survey. 00:00:08.791 --> 00:00:11.365 Unofficial FCC survey this morning. 00:00:11.365 --> 00:00:12.608 Here's a question. 00:00:12.608 --> 00:00:14.643 You guys ready for this question? 00:00:14.643 --> 00:00:16.428 It's a really hard question. 00:00:16.428 --> 00:00:18.265 I'm telling you this is going to be a tough one. 00:00:18.265 --> 00:00:19.268 Here it is. 00:00:19.268 --> 00:00:21.925 Have you ever been disappointed before? 00:00:21.925 --> 00:00:27.477 Okay, looking at it, I think the survey was 100 percent. 00:00:27.477 --> 00:00:29.946 If you didn't raise your hand, you're probably taking a nap or something. 00:00:29.946 --> 00:00:32.466 We've all been disappointed. 00:00:32.506 --> 00:00:35.701 I'll give you an example of a major disappointment in my life. 00:00:35.701 --> 00:00:39.509 It's about a month ago Super bull Sunday. 00:00:39.509 --> 00:00:45.603 All the people that loved Jesus. 00:00:45.603 --> 00:00:51.027 They were disappointed and those that weren't bothered by the results of the game. 00:00:51.027 --> 00:00:53.981 You need prayer, my God. 00:00:53.981 --> 00:00:55.304 Have kindness on your depraved heart. 00:00:55.304 --> 00:00:59.701 Tough game. 00:00:59.701 --> 00:01:01.345 We had disappointments. 00:01:01.585 --> 00:01:11.221 I also remember when I was in college this is circa 2000s year of our Lord I would go to a place right around the corner from our campus. 00:01:11.221 --> 00:01:12.265 You may have heard of it. 00:01:12.265 --> 00:01:16.322 It's called McDonald's McDonald's been there a time or two. 00:01:16.322 --> 00:01:21.085 The thing about McDonald's is something that I feel like is really underrated. 00:01:21.085 --> 00:01:22.569 That this just isn't. 00:01:22.569 --> 00:01:26.787 No, it's a McDonald's ice cream cone. 00:01:26.787 --> 00:01:27.930 It hits the spot. 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:33.123 Can somebody say amen, oh, my goodness, yes, some of you raising your hand. 00:01:33.123 --> 00:01:34.287 You are with me, you're my people. 00:01:34.287 --> 00:01:37.566 You know it's like heavenly goodness. 00:01:37.566 --> 00:01:44.608 And this is in the 2000s, when ice cream cones you could get one for like 79 cents. 00:01:44.608 --> 00:01:46.503 This is amazing. 00:01:46.503 --> 00:01:55.263 Now here's the problem about my ice cream cone, my McDonald's I'll go to Half the time they would run out of ice cream. 00:01:55.263 --> 00:01:58.049 This is a problem. 00:01:58.049 --> 00:02:01.584 So you get the picture here. 00:02:01.584 --> 00:02:13.409 My sweet tooth Anybody have a sweet tooth my sweet tooth has very strong demands at times and my sweet tooth would make this demand to get some ice cream. 00:02:13.409 --> 00:02:24.241 So I'm going to McDonald's and I am ready for an amazing ice cream cone with all of its sugar and cream and heavenlyness. 00:02:24.241 --> 00:02:32.320 And I get to McDonald's and they say we're out of ice cream Dagger. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:41.211 Then it's like disappointment and we would have to settle for plan B, which was Jack in the Box milkshake across the street, which wasn't too bad. 00:02:41.700 --> 00:02:46.364 But when you have your heart set on a McDonald's ice cream cone, right, it is disappointment. 00:02:46.364 --> 00:02:56.944 We have small disappointments in life, like McDonald's ice cream running out, but sometimes in life we have big disappointments. 00:02:56.944 --> 00:03:06.021 You've experienced them and we're going to talk about them today, but maybe not in the way that you think. 00:03:06.021 --> 00:03:19.088 We're going to talk about them within the context of what do we do when we're disappointed by a Christian, by a Christ follower, by church? 00:03:19.088 --> 00:03:27.572 It happens and it's real, and how do we handle it? 00:03:27.572 --> 00:03:33.358 And here's why we're going to talk about this, because this is kind of part of a larger conversation that we've been having the last several weeks. 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:48.610 It's been a series called Permission to Doubt, and one of the reasons that some of us have doubts or were confused or maybe even disillusioned with Christianity or the church is because somebody who claimed Christ really let us down. 00:03:48.610 --> 00:03:52.405 He probably experienced this in your life at a time or two. 00:03:52.405 --> 00:04:02.328 Maybe you had a boss that maybe they had a Bible verse up in their office, or maybe they were a cross necklace or they had a Bible verse tattooed on them or something. 00:04:02.328 --> 00:04:07.830 And they go this guy claims Jesus, but then he doesn't treat you in a very Jesus way. 00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:11.085 You're like, hmm, or you had a friend. 00:04:11.085 --> 00:04:28.028 They said they love Jesus, but then you saw how they live their life and how they treated people and how they talk to people and their integrity or maybe their lack of integrity, and you thought, hmm, I don't know about that. 00:04:28.028 --> 00:05:04.711 Or maybe there's a pastor or a church leader that you really looked up to, that influenced you, that you listened to them, that they helped guide you spiritually in some way or another, but you find out later on that they were living a double life, that there was duplicity in their life, and it hurts and it's hard to reconcile and it's like I don't understand In a church context, where this is supposed to be a place of mercy and grace and healing and love. 00:05:04.711 --> 00:05:13.642 Often a church is seen as a place of hypocrisy and scandal and corruption and sometimes abuse. 00:05:15.687 --> 00:05:16.749 What do we do about this? 00:05:16.749 --> 00:05:31.507 There's an author that gave a stinging rebuke about this very thing, about a world that kind of looks at the church and they're like scratching their head, like is this really happening? 00:05:31.507 --> 00:05:32.408 Did that? 00:05:32.408 --> 00:05:34.649 This is what Brandon Manning says. 00:05:34.649 --> 00:05:49.307 He says the single greatest cause of atheism in the world it's Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door of the church building and deny him by their lifestyle. 00:05:49.307 --> 00:05:58.591 That is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable. 00:05:58.591 --> 00:06:05.341 My man, brandon Manning, is spitting facts right here Unbelievable. 00:06:05.341 --> 00:06:07.826 So what do we do? 00:06:09.050 --> 00:06:10.473 Here's the title of the message this morning. 00:06:10.473 --> 00:06:15.103 We don't do titles a whole lot here, but the title of the message this morning is when Christians let us down. 00:06:15.103 --> 00:06:18.370 When Christians let us down. 00:06:18.370 --> 00:06:22.533 If you've been confused or hurt or disappointed or disillusioned by this, you're not alone. 00:06:22.533 --> 00:06:26.137 Even Jesus talked about this in Matthew, chapter 23. 00:06:26.137 --> 00:06:32.560 He talked in other places about how there's this disconnect between what Christians say and the way Christians live. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:36.276 In fact, in Matthew 23, verse 27, it says this woe to you. 00:06:36.276 --> 00:06:38.564 This is what the ologians call the seven oils. 00:06:38.564 --> 00:06:39.406 This is like a rebuke. 00:06:39.406 --> 00:06:41.182 Woe to you. 00:06:42.266 --> 00:06:43.850 Scribes, pharisees, hypocrites. 00:06:43.850 --> 00:06:53.211 You're like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 00:06:53.211 --> 00:06:55.305 Jesus, tell us what you really thought. 00:06:55.305 --> 00:06:58.603 He says in verse 28,. 00:06:58.603 --> 00:07:08.622 In the same way, on the outside you seem like righteous people, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 00:07:08.622 --> 00:07:19.564 Now, multiple times in the scripture you see the word hypocrite and every time you see that it was Jesus correcting somebody that presented themselves as one thing but lived something else. 00:07:19.564 --> 00:07:23.545 And this doesn't mean that somebody's, that we're going to be perfect and we're never going to fail. 00:07:23.545 --> 00:07:24.367 No, we all are. 00:07:24.367 --> 00:07:28.949 But it's when we present ourselves as something and live in a duplicitous way. 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:31.545 This word hypocrite in the scripture. 00:07:31.545 --> 00:07:33.290 It came from this idea. 00:07:33.290 --> 00:07:35.887 The word hypocrites were Greek actors. 00:07:35.887 --> 00:07:45.403 What they would do is they would they would portray a character and wear a mask and then they would take that mask down and then they would portray another character over here. 00:07:45.403 --> 00:07:50.324 They were hypocrites, right, they were two different things. 00:07:50.324 --> 00:07:56.382 So people understood this and Jesus is communicating that and he's saying hey, that's you and your spiritual life. 00:07:56.382 --> 00:07:57.408 That ain't good. 00:07:57.408 --> 00:08:05.310 It's not good to act as one thing and live another way. 00:08:05.310 --> 00:08:21.625 So we're going to do today is we're going to be in Acts, chapter 13, and we're going to look at two guys, paul and Barnabas, about how they handled church hurt, how they handled some people that said they were Christians. 00:08:21.625 --> 00:08:22.869 That disappointed them. 00:08:22.869 --> 00:08:24.603 What do they do about it? 00:08:24.603 --> 00:08:26.329 What do we do about it? 00:08:26.329 --> 00:08:27.884 Because it's probably happened to you. 00:08:27.884 --> 00:08:30.427 If it hasn't happened, it's going to happen. 00:08:31.802 --> 00:08:38.706 I'm going to do this this morning, before we get into our scripture, and I'm actually going to pray and just pray that God would use this message in our hearts and in our lives. 00:08:38.706 --> 00:08:42.144 Let's pray together, lord, as we get to your word. 00:08:42.144 --> 00:08:43.908 Your word is a healing balm. 00:08:43.908 --> 00:08:49.009 Your word is a comfort to our hurting souls at times. 00:08:49.009 --> 00:08:51.048 Your word is a challenge when something is going to be challenged. 00:08:51.048 --> 00:08:54.711 I pray this morning as we just look biblically at your word. 00:08:54.711 --> 00:09:04.172 I pray that this literally for some people would be a game-changing message as we would learn and see biblically like how do we work through these things and we need your help. 00:09:04.172 --> 00:09:06.065 I pray that you would open up hearts. 00:09:06.065 --> 00:09:10.068 I pray you to open up eyes, that the spirit would bring understanding. 00:09:10.068 --> 00:09:13.327 I pray for the person in the room that is not yet a follower of you. 00:09:13.327 --> 00:09:16.269 Maybe they're just here because somebody invited them or whatnot. 00:09:16.269 --> 00:09:20.629 I pray that you would work in their hearts and in their lives and we're believing you this morning. 00:09:20.629 --> 00:09:21.270 You do great things. 00:09:21.270 --> 00:09:23.383 You do great things in Jesus' name. 00:09:23.383 --> 00:09:23.924 Amen. 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:26.942 Chapter 13, verse 47,. 00:09:26.942 --> 00:09:30.909 If you're ready for the word this morning, would you say amen, let's go, amen. 00:09:30.909 --> 00:09:34.039 I really believe through this text and through God's word. 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:39.028 I don't say this very often at all, but I usually say this like one or two messages a year. 00:09:39.028 --> 00:09:50.791 I think this, for some people, is going to be the most important message you're going to hear this entire year and I really believe that for some people in this room, verse 47, verse 13 says this for this is what the Lord has commanded us. 00:09:50.791 --> 00:09:58.253 I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:01.385 So this is two guys, paul and Barnabas. 00:10:01.385 --> 00:10:02.448 Paul and Barnabas are friends. 00:10:02.448 --> 00:10:06.546 They're going around, they're traveling, they're making Jesus known to people. 00:10:06.546 --> 00:10:10.327 It says here that God commanded them to bring light to the Gentiles. 00:10:10.327 --> 00:10:17.388 Question for you guys out here Gentiles are Gentiles Jews or are Gentiles non-Jews? 00:10:17.388 --> 00:10:19.171 They are non-Jews, that's right. 00:10:19.171 --> 00:10:23.369 They're non-Jews and anybody who's not a Jew is a Gentile. 00:10:23.369 --> 00:10:30.725 So God had commanded Paul and Barnabas to get out of what was comfortable and to go and make Jesus known. 00:10:30.725 --> 00:10:37.863 So he's going to bring light to them, for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. 00:10:37.863 --> 00:10:46.211 So they're going around telling people that salvation is available to anybody who turns from their sin and puts their faith in Jesus Christ. 00:10:46.211 --> 00:10:49.125 Not by good words, not by being a good person. 00:10:49.125 --> 00:10:50.582 It's through Christ alone. 00:10:50.582 --> 00:11:01.410 And this is what they're doing and they're meeting all these people and new people and people that look different to them and act different and eat different food and smile a little different. 00:11:01.410 --> 00:11:05.865 Just talking to these people and look how they responded in verse 48. 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:11.996 When the Gentiles heard this, it says that they were joiced and honored. 00:11:11.996 --> 00:11:18.753 The word of the Lord and all that had been appointed to eternal life, believed, interesting. 00:11:18.753 --> 00:11:23.350 These people heard the message of Jesus and they were joiced in this. 00:11:23.350 --> 00:11:24.681 You know why? 00:11:24.681 --> 00:11:33.207 Because the message of Jesus is good news and the message of Jesus is everything our hearts long for, whether we realize it or not. 00:11:33.207 --> 00:11:39.730 In the gospel of Jesus there's unconditional love and mercy and grace and forgiveness and acceptance. 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:40.633 It's all in Christ. 00:11:40.633 --> 00:11:58.589 And these Gentiles, who lived a certain way their entire lives and done a certain thing and worshiped all these different gods and pursued all these different things, they are hearing about a God, jesus, that resurrected from the dead, that loves them, that accepts them, that welcomes them into his family when they will simply come to him by faith. 00:11:58.589 --> 00:11:59.410 And this is what they did. 00:11:59.410 --> 00:12:00.592 They were joiced in that. 00:12:00.592 --> 00:12:02.865 They were like this is too good to be true. 00:12:02.865 --> 00:12:04.009 Are you serious? 00:12:04.009 --> 00:12:15.604 They were joiced, it says they honored, and many of them they believed, they trusted, they said we want this message and they began to follow Jesus. 00:12:16.460 --> 00:12:18.365 In verse 49, this is what happened. 00:12:18.365 --> 00:12:23.229 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 00:12:23.229 --> 00:12:25.341 So what started? 00:12:25.341 --> 00:12:37.148 With Paul and Barnabas going to a place and talking to a couple of people and talking to a couple of people over here and a couple of people over here, an entire region was hearing the word of the Lord. 00:12:37.148 --> 00:12:41.081 That's crazy, y'all Like? 00:12:41.081 --> 00:12:41.865 Think about this. 00:12:41.865 --> 00:12:47.389 An entire region of people hearing, hearing the good news of the gospel. 00:12:47.389 --> 00:12:57.828 Would it be to God that our entire region Fairfield, sassoon, vacaville, travis, air Force Bay of Sloan County that everybody hears the good news of Jesus? 00:12:57.828 --> 00:12:59.635 What's a God that would happen. 00:12:59.635 --> 00:13:00.759 That would be amazing. 00:13:01.405 --> 00:13:02.919 And it didn't just happen by Paul and Barnabas. 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:10.933 It happened by everyday people making Jesus known in the everyday and ordinary places of life. 00:13:10.933 --> 00:13:12.722 And it's amazing. 00:13:12.722 --> 00:13:15.009 The word of God is being spread. 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:20.408 Think about the power of people that just make the decision. 00:13:20.408 --> 00:13:22.332 I'm just going to make Jesus known. 00:13:22.332 --> 00:13:29.690 Imagine what would happen A small church of FCC, 275 people that gather on a typical Sunday. 00:13:29.690 --> 00:13:31.659 Imagine every one of those people. 00:13:31.659 --> 00:13:36.291 So I'm going to make Jesus known in the ordinary and everyday place of life. 00:13:36.291 --> 00:13:40.945 This is what's happening here and the word of God is spreading. 00:13:40.945 --> 00:13:44.744 But some people didn't like it. 00:13:44.744 --> 00:13:50.932 In fact, some unusual people didn't like it. 00:13:51.922 --> 00:14:01.389 It says in the next verse, in verse 50, it says the Jews incited the prominent God-fearing women in the leading men of the city. 00:14:01.389 --> 00:14:03.683 Hold on. 00:14:03.683 --> 00:14:08.081 You're God-fearing women, leading men of the city, wouldn't these be? 00:14:08.081 --> 00:14:11.433 If you feared God, wouldn't you be okay with this? 00:14:11.433 --> 00:14:13.240 Wouldn't you be happy with this? 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:14.003 This is what they did. 00:14:14.860 --> 00:14:20.291 They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and they expelled them from the district. 00:14:20.291 --> 00:14:21.173 They kicked them out. 00:14:21.173 --> 00:14:24.802 They said get those guys out of here, these leaders here. 00:14:24.802 --> 00:14:28.544 They're losing power and authority and they're like I don't like this, get out of here. 00:14:28.544 --> 00:14:33.587 They persecuted Paul and Barnabas for what they were doing. 00:14:33.587 --> 00:14:34.984 They kicked them out of the district. 00:14:34.984 --> 00:14:40.905 They're like in hunger games Go to a different district, verse 51,. 00:14:40.946 --> 00:14:42.090 This is what Paul and Barnabas did. 00:14:42.090 --> 00:14:47.471 They got kicked out by some church people, not for anything they did wrong, for making Jews known. 00:14:47.471 --> 00:14:55.501 But Paul and Barnabas said if this is what Christianity is about, do so as I'm done, then do that. 00:14:55.501 --> 00:15:01.956 But Paul and Bartobit said leave in the church, then do that. 00:15:01.956 --> 00:15:05.309 They shook the dust off their feet. 00:15:05.309 --> 00:15:09.947 They shook the dust off their feet. 00:15:09.947 --> 00:15:11.672 In fact, we say that underline phrase together ready. 00:15:11.672 --> 00:15:15.791 Shook the dust off their feet against them and they went to Iconium. 00:15:15.791 --> 00:15:20.351 They said okay, this has happened, but this is what we're gonna do. 00:15:20.351 --> 00:15:28.092 We're gonna shake the dust off of our feet, we could say we're gonna heal a little bit and we're gonna go into Iconium. 00:15:28.092 --> 00:15:33.999 And when we look at this passage we see some reasons why Christ followers disappoint us. 00:15:33.999 --> 00:15:39.952 And then we're gonna end with giving a four-step path to healing when we are disappointed. 00:15:39.952 --> 00:15:50.648 Here's the first reason why sometimes we're disappointed by Christians If some people claim to follow Jesus but they aren't actually followers of Jesus. 00:15:52.163 --> 00:15:56.232 They claim to be a Christian but they aren't actually a Christian. 00:15:56.232 --> 00:16:07.171 Jesus says that on Judgment Day, whenever that's gonna come, that many people will say I knew you, lord, I did this in your name, I did that in your name. 00:16:07.171 --> 00:16:10.423 And Jesus is gonna say never knew you. 00:16:10.423 --> 00:16:15.863 Depart from me, depart from me. 00:16:15.863 --> 00:16:35.873 The way somebody becomes a follower of Jesus, a Christian, is by understanding that there were a sinner and that we need Jesus, and turning from our sin, understanding that Jesus came, he died for us, he was God in the flesh, he died for us, he took the penalty of our sin and we believe in him to become a follower of Jesus. 00:16:35.873 --> 00:16:42.618 Jesus is gonna say one day man, yeah, maybe you claim to be a follower of me but you weren't. 00:16:42.618 --> 00:16:45.570 Maybe you got baptized when you were baby. 00:16:45.570 --> 00:16:47.799 Maybe you went to vacation Bible school. 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:50.708 Maybe maybe you were at church every single Sunday. 00:16:51.049 --> 00:16:52.293 I was joking around a few weeks ago. 00:16:52.293 --> 00:16:54.068 I told y'all I was a drug baby. 00:16:54.068 --> 00:16:56.340 I was drugged to church every single Sunday. 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:58.183 I guess me right. 00:16:58.183 --> 00:17:07.208 In fact, in the church I grew up in, we didn't just have church Sunday morning, we had Sunday morning, sunday school, sunday night, wednesday night. 00:17:07.489 --> 00:17:08.471 Any of y'all know what I'm talking about. 00:17:08.471 --> 00:17:09.214 Okay, you know. 00:17:09.214 --> 00:17:10.419 Y'all know what I'm saying. 00:17:10.419 --> 00:17:13.007 Right, that's my background. 00:17:13.007 --> 00:17:14.330 Right, that's where it is right. 00:17:14.330 --> 00:17:15.795 We have revival meetings. 00:17:15.795 --> 00:17:17.440 They're about every single night of the week. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:21.416 It's like man, where a guy would get up and scream real loud and veins would pop out. 00:17:21.416 --> 00:17:21.960 He'd be red. 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:22.943 Yeah, that's God. 00:17:22.943 --> 00:17:24.561 Yeah, well, I've got it. 00:17:24.561 --> 00:17:27.288 Any of you guys have been in one of those before man. 00:17:27.288 --> 00:17:31.147 They're fun, right, good God, I'll honestly use those in my life. 00:17:31.147 --> 00:17:39.468 But going to being in a church building doesn't and going to church a bunch doesn't make you a Christian any more than me. 00:17:39.468 --> 00:17:44.586 Standing in my garage makes me a car and I go in there all the time. 00:17:46.560 --> 00:17:58.839 It's a personal decision to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and it's at that moment that the Holy Spirit takes residence in us and the Holy Spirit starts transforming us and changing us and working in us and leading us. 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:07.371 And if we don't have the Holy Spirit in us, all we have is our sin nature in our flesh that's going to produce the fruit of our sin nature in our flesh. 00:18:07.371 --> 00:18:20.900 So if somebody claims to be a Jesus follower but they've never truly turned from their sin, they've never truly put their faith in Christ, send their life on him, then all they have is their flesh and their sin nature and they're going to produce the fruit of their flesh and their sin nature. 00:18:20.900 --> 00:18:25.352 And it could be that the person, the leader, the whoever that disappointed you. 00:18:25.352 --> 00:18:29.615 Maybe they weren't even a Christian at all and I don't know anybody's hearts. 00:18:29.615 --> 00:18:30.859 But that's what Jesus says. 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:37.693 Number two there are some people who follow Jesus but they're just immature in their faith. 00:18:37.693 --> 00:18:40.702 There's some people that disappoint us. 00:18:40.702 --> 00:18:44.353 They are genuine Christians but they're just immature. 00:18:44.353 --> 00:18:47.308 They're young in their discipleship journey. 00:18:47.308 --> 00:18:55.519 It's 100% possible to have been a Christ follower for years and still be immature. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:19:00.720 Years in the Christian faith does not equate to maturity in the Christian faith. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:04.779 Years in does not equate to maturity when it comes to Jesus. 00:19:04.779 --> 00:19:05.647 In fact he was. 00:19:05.688 --> 00:19:06.980 Chapter five talks about this. 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:15.119 It says, everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness because he is an infant. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:23.779 But solid food is for the mature, for those who senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:24.846 Man, this is so good. 00:19:24.846 --> 00:19:27.298 Look at the picture that's painted. 00:19:27.298 --> 00:19:36.680 It's like if you're an infant, if you're Bailey that was up here just a few minutes ago getting dedicated would I give Bailey a tritip steak? 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:41.587 You can't do that, man. 00:19:41.587 --> 00:19:45.778 I would like a tritip steak, but you can't give Bailey, just an infant. 00:19:45.778 --> 00:19:53.029 And the analogy of the picture is this is that if you're spiritually immature, you can't handle the meat. 00:19:53.029 --> 00:20:04.059 All you can handle is the milk because, in other words, you're a baby Christian, even if you've been a Christian for a really long time. 00:20:04.761 --> 00:20:09.392 It says here that they can't distinguish between good and evil, so it's like you don't have the discernment right. 00:20:09.392 --> 00:20:13.576 So maybe you've been hurt by somebody that they're immature in their faith. 00:20:13.576 --> 00:20:17.578 They don't have discernment on how to handle things and how not to handle things. 00:20:17.578 --> 00:20:20.769 They don't have the discernment on when to say something and when to just zip their lip. 00:20:20.769 --> 00:20:33.028 They don't have discernment, so sometimes maybe they acted in the wrong way or they said a hurtful thing, or they maybe betrayed your trust, or maybe they did something morally. 00:20:33.028 --> 00:20:36.008 That's very confusing and you're like why did they do that? 00:20:36.008 --> 00:20:45.528 Maybe they're just immature and solid food this text says in Hebrews five is through training. 00:20:45.648 --> 00:20:48.678 So the way we mature is by training. 00:20:48.678 --> 00:20:50.345 Right, I know some people. 00:20:50.345 --> 00:20:51.349 They're crazy people. 00:20:51.349 --> 00:20:53.599 They run marathons. 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:56.788 Oh gosh, we'll pray for people out there. 00:20:56.788 --> 00:21:01.200 Honestly, I'll be honest, guys, it's always been on my bucket list to run a marathon. 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:02.884 It has. 00:21:02.884 --> 00:21:09.318 And then I run a mile and I'm like, no, that's not going to happen, not happen, not run a marathon, don't run a marathon. 00:21:11.646 --> 00:21:13.372 Those people that run a marathon, they train for that thing. 00:21:13.372 --> 00:21:16.077 I don't even know how they do it. 00:21:16.077 --> 00:21:24.720 They post on their social media like casual 10 mile run today, casual 10 mile run today I would die. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:33.327 And it's like oh well, 13 mile run, casual weekend, whatever Casual weekend that would put me in the hospital. 00:21:33.327 --> 00:21:39.630 I'm like I'm not going to run a marathon, whatever casual weekend that would put me in the hospital. 00:21:39.630 --> 00:21:49.428 Man, they're training for maturity, they're training to be physically matured, whatever with their running to get to that place. 00:21:49.428 --> 00:21:53.351 There's some practices and rhythms that they do to get there. 00:21:53.351 --> 00:21:55.989 Me, I ain't there, I ain't even close to there. 00:21:57.020 --> 00:22:12.376 And here's the thing in our spiritual life there's some practices and some rhythms we have to develop to get here to maturity and many of us are one or two simple but hard decisions away from growing towards maturity in our Christian walk. 00:22:12.376 --> 00:22:21.644 We're one or two simple but hard decisions away from moving towards maturity in our spiritual walk For some of us. 00:22:21.644 --> 00:22:25.619 We need to make the decision honestly to prioritize the local church. 00:22:25.619 --> 00:22:35.814 The local church when it is a healthy, unified, word-driven church, it is a spiritual greenhouse for your growth. 00:22:35.814 --> 00:22:46.077 It's through the local church we are growing in the Word, we're serving each other, we're loving each other, we're building each other up, we're being comforted, we're being challenged, we're being prayed for. 00:22:46.077 --> 00:22:56.321 It's a place of growth in our lives and for some of us, if you would, it's a simple decision but it's hard because then you have to start prioritizing things around it. 00:22:56.321 --> 00:23:01.965 That would be a huge key for you to grow into your spiritual maturity. 00:23:02.734 --> 00:23:10.922 This is one of the reasons why we have one of the best nights we have of the year team night coming up next week it's next week at five to seven o'clock. 00:23:10.922 --> 00:23:12.065 We're going to have food. 00:23:12.065 --> 00:23:13.336 We're going to have Hawaiian barbecue. 00:23:13.336 --> 00:23:16.625 Everything's better with Hawaiian barbecue, we're going to have games, we're going to have all kinds of stuff. 00:23:16.625 --> 00:23:17.227 What is it about? 00:23:17.227 --> 00:23:18.884 It's about you being equipped for service. 00:23:18.884 --> 00:23:20.560 It's about you growing in service. 00:23:20.560 --> 00:23:25.467 It's about us coming together to say listen, we are better than me, we want to grow. 00:23:25.467 --> 00:23:29.243 We want to do this because we want to make Jesus known to others. 00:23:30.255 --> 00:23:35.767 And for some of us in the room, maybe you've never been connected and really fully engaged in the church. 00:23:35.767 --> 00:23:38.784 Yeah, you went to church if you had nothing going on that weekend. 00:23:38.784 --> 00:23:41.463 Yeah, you went to church if you woke up and you didn't have a cough. 00:23:41.463 --> 00:23:44.730 Yeah, you went to church if there was something cool happening on Sunday. 00:23:44.730 --> 00:23:48.222 But it's never been like church, like this, is a priority in our life. 00:23:48.222 --> 00:23:50.721 Maybe for some of you it was like that a long time. 00:23:50.721 --> 00:23:53.941 Here's how I would challenge you to do to make that a rhythm. 00:23:53.941 --> 00:23:55.063 Why, why, why? 00:23:55.063 --> 00:23:56.726 So we can grow towards maturity. 00:23:56.726 --> 00:24:01.146 The next step we need to take is we need to take the step of being in church, another step. 00:24:01.409 --> 00:24:06.522 For some of us and I say it all the time, I feel like y'all might get tired of it sometimes but like to be in this book. 00:24:06.522 --> 00:24:09.538 Like to be in this book like for real. 00:24:09.538 --> 00:24:18.240 There's a there's a direct connection, y'all, between your spiritual maturity and your relationship with scripture, like there just is. 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:20.720 It's directly connected. 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:34.126 And, as your pastor, if you would get in this book like regularly, every single day, maybe even like studying it sometimes, I'm telling you it would be a game changer, it really would. 00:24:34.126 --> 00:24:38.765 I mean, a lot of us would get, like, the verse of the day on you version and that's amazing. 00:24:38.765 --> 00:24:46.986 It's such a good snack I eat an apple every day and it's a great snack but it ain't enough to sustain me the whole day. 00:24:46.986 --> 00:24:53.220 Right, it's not enough to grow me into maturity and what I'm saying is it's for some of us. 00:24:53.220 --> 00:25:01.227 If we would start prioritizing this, the word, and maybe through a devotional or something, it's going to allow us to grow towards maturity. 00:25:01.974 --> 00:25:05.800 Maybe others in the room, maybe you're already engaged in the church there's so many are you're engaged in scripture. 00:25:05.800 --> 00:25:12.702 Maybe there's another step you need to take in your life that the spirit has led you to take and you know you need to take it. 00:25:12.702 --> 00:25:17.122 But maybe it's hard because it's something new, maybe it's out of your comfort zone. 00:25:17.122 --> 00:25:19.321 And can I say, take that step. 00:25:19.321 --> 00:25:22.897 Others of you in this room like you're not a Christian yet You're not a follower of Jesus. 00:25:22.897 --> 00:25:24.021 You're checking things out. 00:25:24.021 --> 00:25:26.742 Can I say wonderful, we're glad you're here. 00:25:26.742 --> 00:25:38.076 The best decision you will ever make is to come to Jesus by faith, because he will accept you just as you are, and sometimes in our lives there are people who disappoint us because they're spiritually immature. 00:25:38.076 --> 00:25:46.757 That's a reason why Third reason why people disappointed sometimes is because they are maturing, but they still mess up. 00:25:46.757 --> 00:25:52.065 So some people who follow Jesus are maturing, but they still mess up. 00:25:52.855 --> 00:26:05.237 I want to give you an example of this in my own life, an example of when I've messed up and the awesome thing about when it comes to me sharing content on Sundays about places I mess up. 00:26:05.237 --> 00:26:07.022 I have an ample selection. 00:26:07.022 --> 00:26:10.403 I have so many things to share because there's so many times I mess up. 00:26:10.403 --> 00:26:16.546 I remember several years ago now, I was working for my dad. 00:26:16.546 --> 00:26:35.164 My dad was a pastor for many years and I worked alongside him on his staff, and something I try to do at the end of every year is I try to go to people that are close to me, people that know me, people that are around me a lot, and I ask them what's a blind spot in my life Like, where's a place in my life that I need to grow? 00:26:35.164 --> 00:26:43.599 What's a place in my life where, man, maybe there's something I don't even see how many of you know Can be kind of scary to do? 00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:46.153 You're kind of like making yourself vulnerable. 00:26:46.153 --> 00:26:48.481 I don't really know what they're going to say. 00:26:48.481 --> 00:26:53.625 I do it because, well, I like to torture myself at the end of every year. 00:26:55.037 --> 00:26:59.797 So I ask people that are close to me hey, what are places of growth I need in my life that you see? 00:26:59.797 --> 00:27:02.777 So once I'm with my dad, I work with him, I saw him every day. 00:27:02.777 --> 00:27:04.596 It's a place of growth. 00:27:04.596 --> 00:27:07.479 I asked him. 00:27:07.479 --> 00:27:09.785 I was like what's he going to say? 00:27:09.785 --> 00:27:14.185 And I'd done like some self-evaluation of into that question. 00:27:14.185 --> 00:27:16.502 So I'm like I think he might say this. 00:27:16.502 --> 00:27:25.019 I think he might say that I was like 24, I think I just made a little order in that, and I was kind of prideful too. 00:27:25.019 --> 00:27:27.299 So I was like you know, there's probably not a lot he can say. 00:27:27.299 --> 00:27:35.746 He said I'll tell you one thing, one thing. 00:27:35.746 --> 00:27:39.359 Okay, he said you need to tone it down. 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:44.355 What does that even mean? 00:27:44.355 --> 00:27:47.299 I was like okay, I was like receiving this. 00:27:47.299 --> 00:28:01.575 I was trying to listen, you know, and trying to hear him out, and I was like, okay, I was like what does that mean? 00:28:01.575 --> 00:28:02.778 I don't know what that means. 00:28:02.778 --> 00:28:03.340 Tone it down. 00:28:05.336 --> 00:28:16.104 At that time I was on staff at a church and passionate about church and the gospel and God and still passionate about that as I've ever been today. 00:28:16.104 --> 00:28:19.163 And he said here's the challenge that you have. 00:28:19.163 --> 00:28:33.915 And he said you are so passionate about ministry and about, like, moving forward, moving the kingdom of God forward, that you forget that people are the ministry and you can run over people. 00:28:33.915 --> 00:29:08.318 And I looked back at that and I was like he was so true and because in my mind, I'm going forward for the kingdom of God, let's go like, come on, everybody, right now, this is what I would do, instead of meeting people where they were and loving people well and listening to people, understanding people and walking with them and caring about people, out of tendency to be like let me grab you, come on, let's go Get things, get yourself together. 00:29:08.318 --> 00:29:09.303 We got to do something for God. 00:29:09.303 --> 00:29:11.461 It's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 00:29:11.461 --> 00:29:14.719 People are the ministry. 00:29:16.498 --> 00:29:20.847 And while I was growing and I was in the word every day and I was seeking counsel. 00:29:20.847 --> 00:29:30.404 There was a pocket there of immaturity in my life, because I had that pocket of immaturity of not loving people. 00:29:30.404 --> 00:29:42.723 Well, what had happened is, no doubt I had unknowingly not with bad motive, but unknowingly probably hurt some people, because there was a place in my life of immaturity. 00:29:42.723 --> 00:29:51.260 And it could be in our lives, guys, that we've been disappointed by somebody because they're growing and they're trying to develop in their faith but they're not perfect. 00:29:51.260 --> 00:29:57.126 Like there's some immaturity in their life and we all have it in our life. 00:29:57.126 --> 00:30:04.181 Like we are all every single one of us in this room, like we are all susceptible to temptation, we are all susceptible to failing. 00:30:04.181 --> 00:30:14.974 There's a real enemy that wants to wage war and wages attack on us, for all of us, and maybe that somebody. 00:30:14.974 --> 00:30:20.214 Maybe they genuinely love Jesus, but maybe they had some peer pressure and they lied. 00:30:20.214 --> 00:30:27.090 Maybe that person genuinely is seeking Jesus, but their flesh rose up because they got mad and they spoke harsher than they should have. 00:30:28.346 --> 00:30:28.912 Here's the reality. 00:30:28.912 --> 00:30:40.865 Like all of us are gonna let each other down at times and in that moment when somebody lets you down, it's actually an opportunity for you to grow spiritually and for you to be more like Christ. 00:30:40.865 --> 00:30:41.848 And this is what I mean. 00:30:41.848 --> 00:30:53.451 When somebody hurts you, right, whether intentionally or unintentionally and I'm not excusing that, but it's an opportunity for you to extend forgiveness to them and for you to extend grace to them. 00:30:53.451 --> 00:31:03.431 And every time we extend forgiveness and grace, we're actually maturing in our spiritual walk, so that hurt can actually be a source of spiritual growth in our lives. 00:31:03.431 --> 00:31:13.612 Now, none of us get this right 100% of the time Not me, not you, none of us do and in those moments when we choose forgiveness to choose forgiveness is gonna allow us to grow. 00:31:13.724 --> 00:31:14.750 Now here's the problem with this. 00:31:14.750 --> 00:31:21.750 Here's really the challenge at least for me and I know for some of us is when we fall short, we often blame our circumstances. 00:31:21.750 --> 00:31:27.009 So, like, we spoke harshly, we mishandled this situation, we did the wrong thing. 00:31:27.009 --> 00:31:36.672 We're like well, my circumstance was I was tired, or I had some peer pressure, or I had a bad day or a bad week or things at work. 00:31:36.672 --> 00:31:37.890 It's cray-cray right now. 00:31:37.890 --> 00:31:39.430 Things at home is kind of crazy. 00:31:39.430 --> 00:31:40.265 Like. 00:31:40.265 --> 00:31:42.031 This is why I did this. 00:31:42.031 --> 00:31:48.153 But when somebody else falls short, we have a tendency to blame their character. 00:31:48.153 --> 00:32:01.351 So if we fall short, we tend to blame our circumstances, but when somebody else falls short, we tend to blame their character. 00:32:01.351 --> 00:32:06.012 The reason I did this is because I was in this situation. 00:32:06.012 --> 00:32:08.692 The reason they did this is because they're a terrible person. 00:32:08.692 --> 00:32:14.548 The reason I did this is because I was stressed and had a lot going on. 00:32:14.548 --> 00:32:19.970 The reason they did this is because, internally, they are just terrible people. 00:32:19.970 --> 00:32:30.151 And this is another we struggle with and we gotta remember, guys, we all have flesh, we all struggle at times. 00:32:30.224 --> 00:32:34.242 In fact, the Psalmist says that we are but dust in Psalm 103. 00:32:34.242 --> 00:32:41.130 It says in Psalm 103, verse 14, for he knows what we are made of Remembering that we are. 00:32:41.130 --> 00:32:45.732 Let's say that word together that we are, we are, we're a big pile of dust. 00:32:45.732 --> 00:32:47.616 That's what we are. 00:32:47.616 --> 00:32:54.634 We give insipid pressure, we give insimitation, we're vulnerable, we wanna be light and God knows how weak that we are. 00:32:54.744 --> 00:33:00.641 In fact, I think the person next to you needs to be reminded that they're just dust. 00:33:00.641 --> 00:33:01.484 This is what I want you to do. 00:33:01.484 --> 00:33:06.554 I want you to look at the person next to you right now and tell them in a very loving, christ-centered way you're dust. 00:33:06.554 --> 00:33:07.316 Go ahead and tell them right now. 00:33:07.316 --> 00:33:11.214 Tell them right now, yeah. 00:33:11.214 --> 00:33:21.692 Now look at your second option the person you didn't choose the first time, the other neighbor and tell them that they're dust. 00:33:21.692 --> 00:33:23.127 Go and do it right now. 00:33:23.127 --> 00:33:30.133 And before you're dust, good news God loves your big dust balls, all right. 00:33:30.133 --> 00:33:36.388 And before we place too high expectations on other people around us, we just gotta remember we're dust. 00:33:36.388 --> 00:33:40.469 And before we place too high expectations on ourselves, we gotta remember we're dust. 00:33:40.469 --> 00:33:43.132 Did Jesus die for us and redeem us? 00:33:43.132 --> 00:33:43.926 Absolutely? 00:33:43.926 --> 00:33:46.534 He did praise his name, but ultimately we're dust. 00:33:47.644 --> 00:33:54.244 In Acts, chapter 13, when Paul and Barnabas were hurt by these people, they didn't say like I'm quitting the church, I'm leaving Christianity. 00:33:54.244 --> 00:33:55.169 They didn't do that. 00:33:55.169 --> 00:33:57.248 They moved forward. 00:33:57.248 --> 00:34:07.051 And I think something that's important to remember and somebody told me after the nine o'clock service praise God, he's 80 something years old. 00:34:07.051 --> 00:34:08.690 He was a pastor for a few decades. 00:34:08.690 --> 00:34:10.989 He said this was a game changer. 00:34:10.989 --> 00:34:17.987 That was said and I wanna say this this is really big is that when you get hurt in the church, you need to remember this. 00:34:17.987 --> 00:34:20.489 The church didn't hurt you, but a few people did. 00:34:20.489 --> 00:34:25.498