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Fierce Church Sermons
How to Heal from Spiritual Perfectionism | No Pain Like Church Pain
⛪💔 “No Pain Like Church Pain” is a new series for those healing from legalism, judgment, and spiritual burnout.
If you were taught to follow rules over relationship, you may have been caught in the trap of spiritual perfectionism—where being good mattered more than being loved.
This message breaks the lie that you have to earn God’s love through religious activity.
Can somebody say grace, please, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. If you need to do it, perfect, baby, it's just going to get too heavy. If you need to do it, perfect, and then you need to do that perfect, then that perfect, then that perfect, it's just going to get too heavy. We're in a series called no Pain Like Church Pain, and last week we started talking about church pain, especially when sometimes within churches, leaders hurt. They hurt people, they hurt one another, and I hope we did a fair treatment of that. I'm sure there's always more that we could say, but I wanted you to know if you weren't here for last weekend, you can definitely go check it out online. But we started with leaders, because that's where you should start. But let's move a little bit deeper into culture, the culture of a spiritual family. So there's a gal named Hannah. She grew up in the church. She gave her heart to Christ when she was just like a preteen and she thought that she was going to marry a great man of God and they would pop out kids. And there's this great story they're all going to follow Jesus all their days. Well, she got pregnant as a teenager and she'd heard her whole life. Hey, man. You know, that's just not what you should be doing. Make sure you stay away from that. And when she got pregnant, she got some looks, she got some disapproval, she got some hey, you know, you kind of let us down type of a thing. Well, that really hurt. She ended up marrying the young man and they moved to a different church and this church was full of grace, it was full of like love and people were super friendly and super loving. But you know, that wound that had been there was still there. It didn't just go away with time. And so, as life went on, and you know and you're popping out, kids and people are going to sports and all kinds of stuff it just gets to the point where, man, it's getting harder and harder to go to church. And the more they don't go to church, the more it's like, well, why should we? Because we're just going to run into that judgment that we did back in the day. Now they're not experiencing judgment at the New Church, but they still remember the old stuff and that wound is still there. And so, week after week, we're going to recommit, we're going to go, but just time goes by and then finally we're like, well, we ain't been there in too long now. So now everyone's going to really judge us because we've been gone so long.
Speaker 1:There's a man who will come from time to time Christmas, easter, occasionally here and there throughout the year, and he loves God's work, loves Jesus. He's also a man who found out when he was very young that he was attracted to men and he really believes that that's not the way God wants him to act out his sexuality. But he can't get away from the fact that when, even from being a very little boy, he looked at guys the way that most guys look at girls, and he didn't want that but it kept coming. And so when it comes to coming to church, he's afraid. He knows if I get into a group, if I let anyone really know me, they're just not going to get it dude. They're not going to know that I love God. They're not going to know that I'm doing my best and sometimes I fail, but I turn away from sin and I come back to Jesus. But they're not going to get that because, honestly, most aren't interested in me. They just want to tell me the line and like get me fixed or cured or something, and so he hangs back and doesn't come to church. And it's super sad because what might God be doing with him over the years if he had more family around him to help him keep progressing in the things of God? And you know, both Hannah and this other young man, they think when I think about going to church, dude, it's just like I've made enough mistakes that unless I get like perfect, I just don't think I can show my face around there. And it's so heavy to try to be perfect, it's so heavy to try to like I got to get my act together. Like what is that? And so today I want to talk to us all about people everywhere, but particularly our church, and how we can embrace a culture that is attempting to heal from spiritual perfectionism, because spiritual perfectionism, baby, we're going to see it's death. It's actually not our friend.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you have any memories like this. Maybe you don't have quite the same memory, maybe this wasn't really a great memory type of memory, of memory for you, but I can remember as a kid, on Christmas morning, being very young, you know you'd run downstairs and there'd be all the toys and they were going to be great, and there's Christmas music on and mom and dad come down and then there's some kind of eventually there's something smelling good coming out of the kitchen and as just a boy, I can remember feeling like, oh, I just feel Christmas is great. I couldn't give it language at that point, but I'd say it's like I'm just hugged and safe. I'm just hugged and safe. You ever feel that way. Are you familiar with that feeling? Okay, so get that feeling in your mind. Now let's pick a different feeling.
Speaker 1:Let's pretend you have really been looking forward to getting a Peloton bike. If you don't know what a Peloton is, this is where there's kind of like digital coaches that help you, like really go after it and help you get in shape, and all that. You've been looking forward to this. You're like I can't wait, I'm saving up, I'm going to get this thing, and then you get it. But the particular style you got, it's a little bit different. It's a little bit hairy, it's a little bit weird, because as soon as you get on it, you're like, yes, it's going to be so good. You get this little alert that if you get off this thing you're going to get an electrical shock, and so and so you're just like, whoa, good night, I better keep going. So you just keep on. You just keep on pedaling and keep on pedaling. It's getting harder and harder and harder. And then you get another little thing If you stop running, the men that delivered this thing are going to come and get it back because you're not worthy of being on this peloton and you need to just keep running and running and don't stop and don't let up, and do it again and again and perfect and perfect, and it's just endless. You're just going to keep on doing it.
Speaker 1:That is what legalism feels like. Legalism is the idea that I'm doing stuff to keep myself right with God. It's really the opposite of the gospel. The gospel says you didn't do anything right and you're not going to be able to do anything right enough. Jesus just did everything and he loves you. And he comes and he says just as you are, come to me and I'm just going to forgive you and that's the deal. Like that's it. I'm going to change your heart and we're going to work together and you're going to learn how to follow me. But it's not because you're doing anything right, it's just because I love you. That's the real gospel.
Speaker 1:But people can get legalistic. They can get to where they feel like I've got to keep going and I've got to keep doing right. And that's kind of a little bit human, because humans we like to measure ourselves a little bit up against other things, like that's why you want to know like, did I get as many sales this year as last year? Am I getting stronger than I was prior to this season? Am I getting smarter? You know, I'm taking the test. I want to know if I'm getting better. And we can look at ourselves when it comes to spiritual matters and we say am I doing better? But then there's something in our heart that's actually God calls it wicked. It's a pride that says, yes, I am, and not only that, I'm doing better than her and him and her and him. And that leads me to want to measure me and want to measure others. And it leads to this pride coming out and it eventually leads to not only kind of multiple classes of Christian Well, you guys are down here and I'm up here, or I'm down here and I can't ascend to those guys up there it eventually leads to pain and it leads to biting and devouring one another.
Speaker 1:Paul says in today's passage Guys, legalism hurts people. When I say legalism, I mean spiritual perfectionism. That's how we're talking about in this message. It hurts people. It misrepresents the person of Jesus Christ, like that's just not how he rolls. That's not what he's about and he wants us to know. I want you fiercers If you've been in environments like that, I want you to heal. And you fierce folks whether you're digital fam or you're physical fam I want you to intentionally build a culture that is resistant to the disease of spiritual perfectionism. It doesn't mean we don't take obedience seriously we absolutely do but Paul's gonna take a whole letter and focus on getting rid of spiritual perfectionism, and that's what I believe God wants us to do.
Speaker 1:When we think about church pain and just how difficult it is, this is the problem, because it's not just humans that can be spiritual perfectionists. Entire churches begin to drip this stuff and it begins to be the feel of the place, and you might've been to a place like this. Let me tell you some of the things that are common about these places. You might have been to a place where there's just a lot of extra man-made stuff. Yeah, man, like, read the Bible, but then also make sure you do all these other things too, because that's how we do it here, and if you're not doing it, you know God likes the Bible, but he really likes all this stuff too.
Speaker 1:Have you been in an environment like that? You might have been in an environment where there's a lot of shame-based teaching. It's kind of like you're never really doing good enough. Man. You're probably going to suck next week too, but just keep coming. There's not a lot of grace. There's not a lot of space for doubters. There's not a lot of grace. There's not a lot of space for doubters. There's not a lot of space for questions. There's not a lot of place for people that get it wrong again and then again and then again and they're made to feel like, hey, man, you're just not doing good enough to be around here. There's often in these kinds of environments, there's a value. You wouldn't see it, but it's a value of appearance over compassion. We want everything to look good.
Speaker 1:I remember being at a few years ago. I was at this famous church Many of you would probably recognize the name but I was noticing something about all the staff. They were all dressed like really trendy, cool, and I was like I've never seen this before and I asked one of the guys what am I seeing here? Is this on purpose? Like why are you guys all doing this? And he's like, yeah, I don't know, like we just all kind of compete to see who looks sexier. And I was like, dang, I don't know that that's healthy, bro. Like I don't know, like what about all the people? He's like I don't know, I just work here, dude, this is just what we do. But I just remember thinking I can't imagine that's going to stay good for the congregation. And it might not have been clothing, but you might've been in a place where you've got to do it just so, or you're not as good as the rest.
Speaker 1:Have you been shaped by spiritual perfectionism? Have you been shaped by environments where you really have to embrace a form of legalism? How does God feel about that? He doesn't like it. He does not like it. We're going to see in today's passage. He's super against it. See, Jesus wants everybody to be free from the law. We're going to see it right in the passage. He wants everybody to be free from the law. When I say the law, I mean we're not living under the burden of having to get it all right, whether it's the actual Old Testament law, or it's little laws that we give ourselves, little like, oh, I'm never going to do that again. Or oh, now I'm really serious, I'm never going to do it. No, jesus doesn't want us to be living under that pressure and under that weight. Instead, he wants us to, in love, serve other people and make that the focus of a spiritual family, instead of having to get it right about everything.
Speaker 1:Are we hearing this yet? So I think it's a fair statement to say if you've been in environments like that. It was not always, I don't believe intentional. Sometimes it was just careless. But God wants to heal us of any version of that. That was so heavy that it was spiritual abuse, and I just want to let you know if that was your experience. I'm sorry that you experienced that.
Speaker 1:That is not the heart of God. That is the twisting of God's ways from a human heart, and he invites each one of us to make it about the primary thing, which is walking in deep loving relationship with your best friend, jesus Christ. That's what it's about. You don't need to jump through hoops to do it. All you need to do is say I love you, lord, I'm sorry, forgive me, let's go Now. That doesn't mean, you know, we don't ever have messages on sin. It's not like we can just say we don't want to embrace a culture that says, anytime anybody ever does anything wrong, they're just like olly olly oxen, free, Like I'm good because I'm just forgiven, and they never like process anything they've done that hurt people, like we're not talking about that, but we are talking about what Paul was talking about to the Galatians.
Speaker 1:So here's what's happening for these folks. Paul calls them the Judaizers. They've kind of snuck into the fellowship. They came in saying, hey, we're just like everybody else, we believe all the same things. But the problem is they didn't really believe all the same things. They believed it was oh yeah, trust Jesus. But then also you got to, essentially got to become a Jew, because you need to get circumcised and you need to start obeying some of these laws. And Paul's like whoa, dude, guys, you're beginning to swallow some poison. That is not the gospel. Instead, what you need to do is just trust God. That's how you started. That's how it's going to finish.
Speaker 1:Let's pick it up right here in Galatians 5, verse 1. So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. Make sure you stay free, because these Judaizers and they're going to want you to get circumcised. Now, that's not really a pressure we put on you here at Fierce, but there's just a lot of little religious laws that we could say, hey, this is a good idea, this is a good practice, and you might hear it.
Speaker 1:If you've been trained by legalism, you're going to hear it as a law of like, god's kind of mad at you if you don't do this pretty soon. That is just not his heart and it leads to fear and it leads to comparison. Listen verse two. I, paul, tell you this If you're counting on circumcision or any of the other laws we would embrace to make you right with God, then Christ will be no benefit to you. I'll say it again If you're trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. If you're trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you've been cut off from Christ. You've fallen away from grace.
Speaker 1:Now, before you get too nervous and be like you mean every time I get legalistic, god's just like we're done. No, when we fall away from grace a way to understand that is, we lose the grace flow. So Jesus is so loving, he's just flowing grace into our lives every day and as we walk in relationship with him, it's like we're just getting a direct line to Jesus. Sometimes we're getting so close to him and when we begin to think legalistically and he's like, oh, I got to keep God or somebody else happy, we get a kink in the hose. And now it's like, well, god's trying to give us his grace, but we've fallen away from the grace flow that would come into our lives. And here's how you know it's happening.
Speaker 1:You start to get frustrated. You start to feel like, oh my gosh, do I got to do this too? I got to do this again. What I got to pray 15 more minutes, oh, what am I going to even say Like, what are we doing here? And when you start to get that kind of a mindset, you just put a kink in the hose and we're going to see. All we really need to do is say that's dumb. That's dumb, lord, I'm sorry, I shouldn't walk in. Legalism, Forgive me. Oh, great, no, no longer do you have a king. Back comes the grace. Come on somebody.
Speaker 1:Paul has been saying this through the entire letter. This is not just even like one passage. Look at the beginning of Galatians, chapter one, verse six and seven. Listen to the language, like the ferociousness that he describes this with. I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people now there it is some people, there's some forces among you, there's some folks sneaking in. They're throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ. He doesn't say hey, you know, they've got a version and that's just. That's less helpful than this version over here. It's not less helpful, yo, it's an entirely different thing. Do not embrace it. Get rid of it and when you're around it, find a way away from it Verse five.
Speaker 1:But we who live by the spirit eagerly wait to receive, by faith, the righteousness God has promised to us. We're gonna come back to that one. It's huge, for when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there's no benefits in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What's important is faith expressing itself and love. Here we go. You were running the race so well, so you can backtrack in this, yo, you can get, you're doing great, and then you get a little bit worse. You were running the race so well. Who held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn't God, for he is the one who has called you to freedom. You'll see this in religious circles. Sometimes.
Speaker 1:People will come along similar to these Judaizers and they'll say here's some special rules for the really deep, for the really spiritual. Do the best you can over here, but then go back and start obeying some of these Old Testament laws, because that's what God really loves. That is another gospel and that is no gospel at all. So anytime someone says to you I've got some secret knowledge, I just want to let you know. Okay, I'm just using a picture, I'm not trying to patronize you at all as a shepherd. Okay, I'm telling you that is poison grass. Get away from it. You do not need extras, you need Jesus and nothing. Jesus and nothing. Jesus is enough, dude. He's all you need. He's all you're ever going to need. Why would you need more than Jesus?
Speaker 1:This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough. I'm trusting the Lord to keep you from believing these false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever it is, who has been confusing you. That's strong language. What is he saying? He says you know, dude, for those who presume to represent God's message to people, if you get this wrong, you start teaching poisonous stuff to my people. God's like I am very not okay with that and there's going to be consequences for that. And so if you've been hurt by legalistic culture, I just want you to know like God's not fine with that, he's not okay with however that went. He's like yeah, there's an answer for that. If they don't turn around, if they don't come back to the true gospel and help people know they're just loved, just like Christmas morning, they don't need to be on the Peloton all day. If they're not preaching that first message, woe be to us teachers.
Speaker 1:Yikes, for you've been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command love your neighbor as yourself. But if you're abiding, here they are, here's the results of their legalism. But if you're abiding and devouring one another, watch out before you destroy one another. So, guys, we've got to get this down. This is big stakes. If you've been affected by legalistic thinking, I just want to say I'm sorry that that happened and I'm not saying we get it all right. We don't get it all right. We're all going to model the wrong thing sometimes, but I want to invite you come with us to build a culture that resists legalism. Here's how we're going to do it, how to heal from spiritual perfectionism.
Speaker 1:Number one resist religiosity. Religiosity is just a lot of activity the Bible calls it dead works. A lot of activity to try to like somehow make up for sin. That's not going to work. Don't do it. In fact, resist it. This word resist it means stand firm, persist or hold your ground. It's like a military force that says we are not moving this line, we're staying here, we're not backing up at all. If we resist religiosity, we're protecting the gospel for ourselves. See, we're going to come and have these feelings. I should do some more stuff, just so God's really okay with me. No, no, no. Resist that, stand your ground, push back on that thing. That's not what you need to do. Instead, you actually need to rebel against it. Rebel against it. That means some of you know what this is like.
Speaker 1:I was a bit of a rebel, okay. So that means when someone tells me to do something, the very fact that they want me to do it makes me not want to do it. Well, there is, there's like a kingdom translation of that. Okay, you can keep a little bit of that, as long as you direct it in the right place. When the law tells me you must do this, dude, you must read an hour of the Bible every day, or you're just not going to keep pace. You're not going to be like these people over here.
Speaker 1:That's a spirit of religiosity. And a wise person says I'm going to access my old school spirit of rebellion and say forget about it. Here's what I'm going to do. Instead, I'm going to ask the spirit of Jesus to soften my heart and make me so wanting to spend time with him that I'll come and I'll eat at God's word until I'm done and then I'll walk away. And that is resisting religiosity. Anytime we feel any way about that, we say I'm going to imagine a defensive line in football. Okay, these guys have one job. Essentially it's a little bit different depending on the guy, but their one job is stop the other team from moving at all, like, get them to back up if possible. That's the kind of stout hearts we need against religiosity. When we sense it, when we hear that we're like no, that's not true. No, you're right With God by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. That's it and that's all. So let's take warning.
Speaker 1:You might be like a young woman I know in high school who looks at some of her spiritual leaders and says they're so sincere and I'm just not. I'm not sincere enough. And what does she need to do? She needs to resist religiosity and say you know what? They're on their own track with God. I'm on my own track with God. He's going to be faithful. He's going to be the same God to me as he is to them. He's going to sanctify me into who I'm supposed to be. I'm going to resist religiosity, not feel bad about myself, and I'm just going to get on to the business of loving.
Speaker 1:I know another young man. He feels bad because he's like oh, I've been going to church all these years and I don't know what my call is and I just feel like I'm not really good until I know my call. All these other people seem to know their call. I don't know what's wrong with me. I probably just need to try harder. Oh, I'm going to fast every week now for the next month, so I will finally get my call. Hey bro, fast.
Speaker 1:If you want to like, do it, that's great, but don't get into religiosity, buck against that thing and say no. Look, god is going to reveal to me what he wants me to do when he wants me to do it. God is very smart. He knows how to glorify himself through me. He doesn't treat everybody with the same exact plan. I'm all good. God is a good father and he's going to take care of me. So the devil shut it. Guys, I don't know if you know this.
Speaker 1:This church was once two different churches. It was Torch Church and it was Faith Church, and I was on the team that started Torch Church and when we did that, we built in resisting religiosity right into the very foundation. It was in the vows. It was in the vows. It was in the kind of things we would do. Here's one thing that we decided we were going to do Unimpressive prayer.
Speaker 1:That means no one should ever feel like like if you're praying with somebody here at church or you're praying out in the hall, you're praying out in the world. You don't have to feel like, oh gosh, now I got to make this eloquent, gosh, now I got to make this eloquent. What am I going to say? I got to be poetic or something? No, you don't. You can just be totally uninspiring, unexciting. You know, you can just be like God, I don't know, thanks. Unimpressive prayer, that's totally good, as long as it's you, as long as it's you. Just be you, all right, resist religiosity that I got to like do this thing for God. Here's another one.
Speaker 1:I've tried to model this. I hope you've seen it from time to time. Many of us on our preaching team do this really well. We try to model telling on ourselves and do that interpersonally. Here's why when someone up here on stage or someone who's a ministry leader out there or just anybody, says, hey, here's where I jacked it up today, or here's what I did wrong this week, what you just did, you think it makes you weaker, but it actually strengthens everybody around you because they go, oh, phew, because I jacked it up too, or I jacked up something very similar to that. Oh, but you're okay, like God still likes you, he must still like me too.
Speaker 1:So let's have a culture that tells on ourselves quickly and then, finally, maybe don't wait to participate. That means there's some church cultures and I respect that there's different reasons. But there's some places, dude, unless you like, get a seminary degree, you can't even serve. And guys, there are some places in Fierce where, yeah, you have to have a little bit more specialized knowledge but for the most part you could just jump right in. Just jump right in, dude, wherever you are, just jump right in, because it's a big stinking job and we need a big stinking army to do it. So just go ahead and jump right in, please.
Speaker 1:So we resist religiosity. We specialize in irrational grace. Somebody say irrational grace, it's irrational, it's irrational, it's irrational. If we're irrational with our grace, we're protecting the gospel for others. Some of us have experienced some legalism because no one was protecting us from it. No one had the thought. I need to make sure they get this and I model this the right way. They need to see some irrational grace. They need to see hey, you're just forgiven for something giant. You're just forgiven because you are. There's no consequences for just coming back to the table. It's all good, you're fine man.
Speaker 1:Some of you are familiar, especially if you're a theater person or you like this kind of thing, you know about Jean Valjean from Les Miserables. So there's a really powerful and important point in that story where he's released from prison. He's been a criminal for like a very dumb reason to go to prison, but he was released after many, many years and he's just out for himself. He's like look, look, no one's going to take care of me, I just got to take care of myself. This priest invites him in to spend the night to get some good food, and so he eats some good food, but during the middle of the night he sneaks out of his room and he grabs a whole bunch of just valuable utensils and candelabras and that kind of thing. He's like I'm going to take this and just go sell it now. Well, he gets down the road and the police catch him and they bring him right back and the priest comes out and he says oh, thank you, you came back. I wanted to give you all this other stuff too. Thank you, you came back. I wanted to give you all this other stuff too.
Speaker 1:And it's irrational, like it doesn't make any sense. It's irrational. Generosity has a profound effect on Javelin. John changes this whole story for the rest of the deal, because that's an example of this. Dude just wronged me and now I'm going to give him a bunch of stuff and get him off the hook with the people that want to punish him for it. That's irrational generosity.
Speaker 1:When you and I show irrational generosity, we're not just being nice. Listen to this. This is what we're doing. We're building a culture where it's okay to make mistakes. We're building a culture where people don't have to hide. We're building a culture where people can just be okay to just. Can you just sit for a while and just heal? Can you just hear that God just likes you because he does and you don't have to do all the extra things?
Speaker 1:So when the single mom who's always late to the small group and she was supposed to bring the treats tonight and then she forgot and there's some in the group that are tempted to be like man it's Jake. She gets away with everything. But there's another wiser woman who says you know, honey, it's just okay. None of us are here because we got a great score. Jesus went out and found us. That's the only reason any of us are here.
Speaker 1:That's grace. Are we hearing that? That's what grace is when someone's working in the nursery, perhaps, and they overslept and they're not there, and they run in, they're in tears and they're, oh, I'm so sorry I missed it. And instead of like, yeah, well, get better next time, just give them a big hug. You're like baby girl, it's all. Good man, jesus likes you the way you are and we don't exile people that are forgiven by Jesus. Radical grace, y'all, radical grace. Can I just apologize to you? If you didn't receive that kind of a grace from some spiritual leader, it might not have been me, but can I just kind of proxy ask your forgiveness for them? Would you forgive them? I'll bet you, most of them didn't even know they were doing it, but it was still wrong and it's still messed with you and it's still hurt. It wasn't the heart of God. I'm just super sorry that that happened. Would you please forgive them, or forgive me if it's me. Try to, with God's help, let that go and embrace the true way, the real way of scripture. Here's number three. This might be well, they're all my favorites. So let's go to number three.
Speaker 1:Anticipate final freedom from sin. Anticipate final freedom from sin. But we who live by the spirit eagerly wait to receive, by faith, the righteousness God has promised us. We eagerly wait. By the Spirit, not by our own works. By the Spirit, we're believing that the day is going to come. As we trustingly wait, we're going to get to the day where our heart motives are always like Jesus, our actions are always like Jesus, and it's going to be a little place called heaven.
Speaker 1:Use your imagination to imagine a time when you're not here. Here's how that affects legalism. See, if you walk, if you keep on walking with Jesus, if you keep getting mature and you stay close to his word and you fail, but then you get back close over years, you begin to figure out your biggest problem is not everybody else, it's my sin. I'm in my own way, but it's not even just that it's making my life less helpful or less effective. I'm in my own way, but it's not even just that it's making my life less helpful or less effective. Oh, I'm hurting the one who loves me most. And so, when you fail, you begin to like grieve. Oh God, when am I going to be delivered of this? I hate this. I get psycho and I give myself to sin, but I hate it.
Speaker 1:There's the new me that looks at that, like what are you doing? But as I put my hope in the gospel that says, hey, man, you're still waiting the completion of the process. God has made you legally completely free, sin-free. He's made you. That's how he thinks about you. Spiritually, you're completely sin-free, but practically, in your everyday life, your body is still here and it's still sinning. And it's still sinning.
Speaker 1:And as you focus on, there's going to come a day and it's going to be so dope, I'm going to be with Jesus and sin is going to be gone, meaning in your worst moment. Okay, so the man, or probably many that I know in our church that are wrestling with porn right now, and you feel so dirty afterwards and you're like I thought I'd be done with this by now, how am I still in this thing? Can I give you hope? Hey, man, let's keep going, let's keep plugging away at it. But also know my friend, your deliverer is coming, he's going to get you out of that entirely. Okay, there's going to be a day you're going to be looking in the face of your God and you're going to see his beaming smile and he delights in you. 100% is going to be, because Jesus did it, not you, and you're going to know it, and that's one of the benefits of like.
Speaker 1:Continuing to stay alive and realize that you're a sinner is like good. Golly, I am not saving myself, I can't even do this. I'm jacking this up and so we begin to imagine what is it going to be like to think about how much my God is enjoying me not only my God in heaven, but I'm enjoying everybody else. See my relationship with my brother. There's no sin in it anymore. In heaven, the person you know. We got a divorce and it was so bad and it was so painful and I wish it would have gone different. But in heaven we're going to be so in love with each other and everybody else that it will all be but a distant memory, because our sin will be gone. Are you feeling that and I mean practically gone, it's already gone if you've trusted Christ in your heart. Can I encourage you this is a little side note. This might sound like that's too ethereal for me. I want to let you know you should like, want to go to heaven and you should think about heaven Like it's super important, but it's also super life-giving and empowering.
Speaker 1:People of other generations knew about this. Let me read you a quote from CS Lewis. This is what he said. He said the apostles themselves who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven, and since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you get the earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither. I like the way John Calvin said this. Now you might trip up over this one a little bit, but let me just encourage you just to stay here with me, because we're in a culture that is so like afraid of death. We don't want to see it, we don't want to be around it, but just if you're in Christ, listen to what John Calvin says about this.
Speaker 1:No man who's made much progress in the school of Christ who does not look forward with joy to the day of death and final resurrection. Look forward with joy. Is that where you're at yet? If you're not, that doesn't mean if, kurt, I'm afraid if I look forward to heaven I'm gonna die, right then. That's not how it works. God's already numbered your months. That's not how it works. God's already numbered your months. He already knows exactly when. But you can enjoy now more if you fill your imagination that God gave you with God. I want to know and think about and dream of my heavenly home. And, guys, even let's just talk about God, he's a supernatural God. You can pray for dreams of heaven. You should. Just you should ask you probably got a lot of years left. Just pray God, give me over the years, help me see. Help me see what I'm looking at, help me see where I'm going, even if only figuratively, in some way that only I understand. Reveal to me how awesome it is where I am going. Guys, this is Bible and somebody should be saying amen right now. Here's one last one, and then we'll be done.
Speaker 1:Celebrate loving service over spot. Done. Celebrate loving service over spotlessness instead of spotlessness. Esteem and clap and applaud for the ones that are hidden, that are serving under the radar, meaning they don't have like a reputation for, oh, they're so godly, they're so spiritual man, they just know the Bible so well, like sometimes in Christian circles. That's like how we categorize people. Let's chuck all that. That probably benefits them tremendously, but nobody needs to know that. Instead, look for the hidden ones, the ones who are behind the scenes, the ones who are doing what's important, which is faith expressing itself in love.
Speaker 1:See, religiosity is always working on itself and, guys, that's what I don't want for our church. Religiosity is really always kind of navel-gazing. It's always kind of like, whatever we do, we're just looking at ourselves. I gotta get better, I gotta get better, I gotta get better. The truly mature have left that behind, because they're no longer walking in legalism. They're saying, okay, jesus, you got me good, let's go serve somebody in love, let's go help people. That's the focus of the people of God. That's what. What's God's favorite kind of church? His favorite kind of church is filled with sinners who know they're sinners but then gives themselves to serving in love. They know they're sinners, like they're yep, absolutely, but then they serve in love.
Speaker 1:So, as an example, I know a man in our church. You might even think he's spiritually passive the way that he carries himself, sometimes Like he's not the guy who's going to be raising his hands, no matter how much I say, please say amen, he's not going to say it Like you. Look at me like I don't think this guy even cares. But what you don't know is that he's mentoring three young men every other week over breakfast. He's doing it behind the scenes. He's doing it behind the scenes, he's doing it under the radar and he's the one who should be applauded. He's the one that we should say hey, you're doing an awesome job, Keep it up.
Speaker 1:I know a woman in our church Dude, she does not have the Instagram polish. Okay, she doesn't have like all the things she doesn't look like. Oh, their posts are so beautiful, like. That's not what she is. She can't hold like a theological conversation with somebody. She'd be like like she can't do it. But you know what she is. She's super sensitive to people's feelings, and so you'll find her praying with somebody you know, like in the back of the church or in the hallway or around the corner, because, like you're hurting, aren't you? Can we pray right now? Because she doesn't care about applause, which is the very reason we should when you see that you should be like baby girl, you rocking, I love it. Keep it up.
Speaker 1:I know another woman in our church. She has gifts that could be on stage all the time. She's not, though. She doesn't want that spotlight. Instead, she wants to spend time with volunteers. She wants to be getting to know their story. She wants to be encouraging them. Here's how you do the thing. Why does she do that? Because she doesn't need any of this. She wants to be behind the scenes, under the radar, using the fact that she's already been justified. What does that mean? That means her, like us.
Speaker 1:God has delivered you from the law, in the sense that you don't have to carry around the weight of trying to fulfill the law all the time. You don't have to be worrying about. Did I do this? Did I do this? No, that's all done. Jesus did it. Now I can focus my time on loving and helping people.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think we get too focused. Don't hear this wrong. Hear this in balance with other messages. We get too focused. I'm not. Don't hear this wrong. Hear this in balance with other messages. We get too focused on dude. I just got to get better. I've just got to worship more. Dude. Get better, worship more, but then get on with it and get onto the business that Jesus was about when he was on earth.
Speaker 1:Here's what I want to do. We're going to do something a little bit different as we end this. We're going to do something a little bit different. As we end this, we're going to sing a quick worship song. We're going to do it, we're going to mean it. We're going to be like, yes, Jesus, I speak, jesus, woo. Like we're going to mean it. We're going to enter in. It's going to be in spirit and truth. And then we Because there's people that are really going to be there's going to be people come to our church next week and they're going to be in line. They don't even be in church, they're just going to be in a line waiting to get a backpack because they need one.
Speaker 1:And as we're filling up these backpacks, here's what I want to ask you to do. If you're grateful that Jesus has forgiven you, pray over that backpack, god, with every hand that touches anything in this backpack. I pray that they would have a radical encounter with Jesus and with the gospel. I pray that you just totally change. If they're like in anything dark, I pray they like wake up, even as they touch this thing the whole year long. If a kid's walking around with this thing, I pray just Jesus, your favor would be pouring out on them and they're understanding, like I understand, the gospel.
Speaker 1:Now, for some reason, you're praying that over, because that's what we're for, and if you're watching online, you can't fill a backpack. I'm sorry, but I'll tell you what you can do. You can invite somebody to watch this message, you can share the church pain series, or you can invite somebody for next weekend to come to the Backpack Festival. Guys, let's do that. I'm gonna pray us into this song. Then you're gonna get some instruction after the song of what to do and after the song of what to do, and then we'll be done. Sound like a deal.
Speaker 1:Jesus, you alone are powerful, and we just want to together say we resist and reject religiosity and legalism. We don't want it. We thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pure, unadulterated Jesus alone saves and that's it. And we want to be a place that's safe and healing for people that have been wounded, even in this church, people that have been wounded.
Speaker 1:I'm asking God whatever it takes, however long of time, whatever messages they need to hear, whatever hugs they need, whatever emotional rearranging they need, whatever it is, god, I pray they get it, I pray they don't give up and I pray you'd help us to model this to our kids and grandkids and great-grandkids and all the way down in Jesus' name. Hey, thanks for tuning in today. If God has used the ministry of Fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fiercechurchgive. If you want more resources like this, check out all of our channels at YouTube, tiktok and Instagram. Check out our podcasts and check out our blog at fiercechurchblog. If you haven't already, please consider sharing this to help people you know take their next step. We'll see you next time.