Sandra Bretz - Knowledge vs. Action

Sunday, January 11, 2026 - This Sunday Sandra shares how insight is the beginning of transformation but ACTION is the fulfillment of transformation.

"because the intention and will is fused with the totality of the soul which creates action."

"Choose this day who you will serve"

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, this morning I was uh tasked with responding to last week. I see some new faces here, so not everybody was here last week. Um, so I'm gonna do my best to summarize it, uh, what we experienced last week. Um, so y'all are welcome to correct me, those of you who were here. Um, but last week R.C. read out of Joshua 24. And he began with reciting the things that the Lord had done for the Israelites, because they had just finished seven years of conquering the land and then seven years of settling the land. So they're getting their feet wet. And if you read Joshua 23, it's basically a repeat, but there's a big separation between 23 and 24. And in 24, Joshua is coming to the end of his life. It's the end of the book of Joshua. And he calls the people together because he sees something is happening as the leader. He sees the infiltration of things that are not of God. And so he reminds them of the goodness of God. And he brings them to a place where he makes a declaration. He draws a line in the sand and he said, basically, I see, I see those foreign gods. And I tell you, as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord. And they had a decision to make. Right? So that was the dis that was the call on the table last week. This is what R. C said. He reminded us that Joshua called them out to fear the Lord, to serve him, and to throw out their gods. And by the time he was done, I don't know about you guys, but my heart was like, yeah, I want to do that. I was full of emotion. I was full of good intention. I was full of wanting to serve the Lord only. There was a heart emotion response. Anyone else? Anyone else felt that way? Like I really wanted him to say, come on, stand up, who wants to do this with me? And it would have been easy to do that. And he left me hanging. And he didn't do that. I was a little unsatisfied. But he did something a little bit different. He gave us time to pause and to think. Because it's not a light decision to make, it's a covenantal decision. And if you know anything about the covenants of old, they ain't no joke. I will, as the historian briefly describe it, for those of you who do not know, there would be two parties who need to make an agreement. There is a greater party and a lesser party. The lesser party takes animals and cleaves them in half, lays half on one side and half on the other, creating a walkway. The greater powered party stands at the end. The lesser powered party has to walk through these animals that have been sacrificed. And as he does, he says, May it be to me what happened to these animals. That was some serious business. So as RC was talking last week, I went off on my own little tangent, because I do that, I'm totally confessing that to you guys. I read on. He stopped at verse 15, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I wanted to know the rest of the story, so while he was talking, I was reading. Then the people answered, Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. I was feeling that. I was right there with them. It was the Lord our God Himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt from the land of slavery and performed those great signs before our eyes. We too will serve the Lord because He is our God. Verse 19. Joshua said to the people, You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you after he has been good to you. Whoa. He just called them out. Because it's really easy to say we're going to serve the Lord, but are we really ready to make that covenantal relationship? Then the people said, No, we will serve the Lord. And I was thinking, sounds like Peter when Jesus said, but do you love me? Right? No, I'm sure I do. I want to do this. And then Joshua says, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord. That is some serious business. And if I had time, I would riff on what it means to be a witness. I don't. I'll let you guys do that. And they said, Yes, we are witnesses. And they fully understood now how serious this was. Now then, said Joshua, throw away the foreign gods that are among you, and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, We will serve the Lord our God and obey him. And on that day Joshua made a covenant for the people. And there at Shechem, he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. This reaffirmation, this covenant is much like when we stand before the altar and declare in marriage that we're going to unite as one. It's really simple. Maybe planning a wedding isn't simple, but standing before the altar, if you don't write your own vows, what do you say when you're asked? What's the answer? Come on, y'all have been married, you know this. I do, thank you. I do. It's very simple to say. Is it simple to do? It's simple to say yes. It is different to act on your yes. That's what was in my heart last week because we walked away. Like this, yes, I wanted to say yes. I wanted to cross the line, I wanted to throw down, I wanted to bring the baton, I wanted to do all the things. But what happens when we walk out of here? What do we do with that? Anyone else feel that way? That was big. It was big for me. I told R. C. the next day, so it's not a mystery to him. There was another thing that R.C. brought up that I want to highlight really quickly because I believe it's the impediment to us moving from I say yes to I do yes. And that is us examining our foreign gods. Does anybody remember what he talked about as our foreign god of this age? Secular humanism. Secular humanism. I'll give you the I'll give you it real quick, what he said. A non-religious philosophy and life stance that emphasizes human reason, ethics, and compassion to build a better world, rejecting supernatural beliefs and religious dogma. That got my attention. I don't know if it got anybody else's attention. I think I'm pretty good at not having foreign gods. He talked about today's culture through programs, he didn't say this part because where my brain went, programs and politics to create a world where we right wrongs, where we exact justice in our human form, and we try to create a world without God that reflects the garden intention. Is that bad? No. It's good intentioned, but without God, without God, it is at the very least imperfect. If not, it is corrupted. It can't fulfill what God wants to do. So what if you and I already know that?

unknown 10:30

Right?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

This is the part where I get to how do we really figure out what me, what Sandra, what are my foreign gods? Because they're in there. Guaranteed, because I walk in this world. It's in there. So where's yours? So if we think, sitting in this room, each one of us thinks, I believe God needs to solve all these problems. God has to be the one to solve these problems. We cannot do it through politics, we cannot do it through programs. We cannot just keep throwing money at it and hope it fixes it. What if we think God is the only way? My question to you is where do our actions show the world that I believe that? Is it just in my head? I wish Vera was here, I would totally highlight what she's doing. Her actions are a representation that she believes that God is going to right the wrongs. She acts on what she truly believes. Puts me a little to shame. Just want you to know that. So super quick, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but the root of secular humanism is Greek thought. Western culture is founded, the foundation of Western culture is Greek and Roman thought. Greek and Roman thought separates the heart from the mind. It is logic-based, it is analytical, it is information, it is it's it's bisected, it is not unified. This is the cultural architecture that we operate in. So when I have a heart response and I don't partner it with action, I'm honoring a foreign God. It's true. This is what I've been ruminating on all week. Hebrew thought. This is the Hebrew foundation. And it's a little bit familiar to us because it is part of the Judeo-Christian experience, but it's not the foundation where we operate. It is covenant-based, it is driven by divine law, it looks for personal presence of God in all things. Hebrew worldview is interconnected, dynamic wholeness. It is a holistic orientation of the body and the soul and the spirit and the heart is not an emotional center, it's the center of will. It is what caused Eve to reach for that apple. It's what caused Cain to kill his brother. It's what caused Gideon to hide, but then to say yes to God. The heart is the will center. It's where we begin to make decisions. We think it's an emotion. Yeah, I want to cross the line, but it actually is also the one that says, I can do this because my body is separate from my spirit, and God will forgive me. We can casually take on to our bodies sin because we don't understand at the very core of who we are, that it is all one and it's all united, and it one affects the other. You cannot make a heart decision and it doesn't affect the mind. You can't do something to the body and it doesn't affect the heart. You cannot do that. It is not how we were designed. The Hebrew mindset is marked by the complete fusion of concepts so that man can only conceive of action and outcome as unity, not a cause and effect which demands further investigation. For the Israelite, there is no such thing as good intention, because the intention and will is identical with the totality of the soul which creates action. So in short, it is knowledge versus action. That's what they're talking about. Culturally, we often stop at insight. Last week we had some awesome insight. Foreign gods, cultural humanism. It's like, wow, that is amazing. And what happens is we think that that actually transforms us. And it doesn't. We require action. When we want to get closer to God, we will pray more. We won't just intend to pray more. When we want to give generously to God, we will write a check and give generously to God. We won't just intend to do it. When we want to build community, we will invite people to break bread with us. We won't just talk about it. That's the difference. So it brings me back to the question or the statement that RC threw down. Choose this day whom you will serve. And throughout the week, God has been talking to me. Choose this day. Who will you serve? Cross the line drawn in the sand. At step. Step into spiritual fidelity. Examine your heart, Sandra. Check out what is causing you to make the choices that you're making. Where is your will oriented from? This is such a light topic. Are you guys excited? This is fun. We begin with fear of the Lord. We serve Him and we throw away our foreign gods. But then what do we do? Scripture tells us that when you throw out one evil spirit, what do you have to do so that seven don't return? You guys are awfully quiet. We have some work to do. We've got to clean some house. We have to shore up the walls. We have to build a fortification. Because the God of this age wants us. Wants us distracted. Wants us serving something else. Does not want us plugged into the power of the kingdom of heaven. I just want you to know I'm preaching to myself. I'd love distraction. So let me add one more challenge. It's found in Matthew 4.19. You guys might know this. Come, follow me, Jesus said. And I will send you out to fish for people. And then what'd they do? Did they just hang out there? They're like, cool, that was a great invitation. I say, yeah, I want to do that. At once they left their nets and followed him. It's an invitation, it's a response, and it takes action. Many of us have already made this decision, but if you're sitting here today and you have yet to make the decision for Jesus Christ, I invite you. Not just to think about it, not just to go, maybe one day I gotta, I might need to check this out just a little bit more, but to just say, I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring, but today I choose this day to serve my Lord. I say yes to you, Jesus. I'm gonna figure out what it means to lay down my foreign gods, and I'm gonna walk with you. For those of us who have already made that decision, Jesus is not just inviting us to be thinking about him. I think about him all a lot because I'm a thinker. I like to think. I like to play with thoughts, I like to play with words, it's super fun. But he is actually calling me into apprenticeship under him as a rabbi. And what that means is I need to walk with him. I need to be like him. And more than that, I need to do what he does. This is actual spiritual formation. Emotional responses to, as for me and my house will serve the Lord, they're awesome. But it's not spiritual formation, it's not transformative. I wrote this in my journal, I'm gonna share with you guys. When my entire being is focused on him and him alone, I can do nothing else. My affections are devoted to him, and I lean in to him. There is no room for dalliances with other gods, sin against my body, misalignment of my will. There is only one, my beloved Jesus, who looks on me with devoted love. And in our relationship transforms me into the loving being that will be his hands and feet and create the world that secular humanism is attempting. But I will do it with the king of the kingdom and with the power, and it will transform the person standing next to me. I may not be able to transform the world, but I can transform the person standing next to me. So that brings me back to our sheet. Like, what does this have to do with our sheet? I'm so glad you asked. So last week, if you guys don't have this, because you weren't here last week, it's right there on our table. RC left us with some questions to go before the Lord and ask. What's on his heart? You led with that this morning. God, reveal your heart to us. What do you want to do in me and through me? What do you want to do to partner with me? What do you want to do in New Heart Collective through New Heart Collective? Reveal your heart. I don't know if any of the rest of you walked away last week. It's like, you can't just leave this. I want to know what my family is experiencing in this. And I said, RC, can we please come back together? After we have massaged this and worked with this and share with each other, what does God want to do with us? Because we are united as one. We are the body of Christ. I can act on myself, I can act alone by myself, but when I am partnered with the body, it's synergistic, it's multiplied. I need you. I can't sing. Lord knows I need you. I need people who believe that healing is gonna happen. Because Lord knows my faith falters. I bring to you guys something that I don't know, you don't have. But we need each other, and God will speak through every single one of us. So if you guys have not yet, with all enthusiasm and complete devotion, gotten to your questions yet. I haven't either. I had some others. Just, you know, I'm gonna confess that. So sweet. I'm gonna invite you guys to do this seriously. Because I need to know what God placed on your heart and your heart and your heart. I need to know what he's doing with you because I want to partner with that. I want to partner with what God is doing with us. He has brought us from the wilderness. Yeah? Those of us who were in the wilderness, he has brought us out of the wilderness and into the promised land. That's the excitement that we're feeling. But we need to walk with him in complete spiritual fidelity for the power of God to fall. And we'll all get distracted. It's all gonna happen. He knows we're human, but correct our direction as quickly as possible. So I just want to invite you this week to take the time. Review, ask, seek, because he'll answer. When we sincerely ask him to reveal his heart, boy does he. In such a beautiful way.