SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say bless the Lord if you say, Oh my soul, bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my soul.
SPEAKER_01: Bless his holy name.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, men.
SPEAKER_01: Great to worship with you.
SPEAKER_01: Great to be in the great state of Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray before we jump in.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just take a deep breath in and exhale.
SPEAKER_01: Try to be fully present.
SPEAKER_01: Ask the Lord to speak directly to you tonight through his word.
SPEAKER_01: You would pray for the man on either side of you.
SPEAKER_01: And I would accurately reflect the Father's heart.
SPEAKER_01: Through his words.
SPEAKER_01: And ears to hear?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, would you go before us in this text and make a way?
SPEAKER_01: And together we say the words that ravage your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Speak, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Your servants are listening.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to be back with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I was here last year.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen each other before.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: We've never met.
SPEAKER_01: I'm no big deal.
SPEAKER_01: Neil is a good friend.
SPEAKER_01: I already had my retreat.
SPEAKER_01: I got two and a half hours in the car with him.
SPEAKER_01: And so I am full.
SPEAKER_01: I have a new set of potty words.
SPEAKER_01: And I could burst at the seams.
SPEAKER_01: Neil found me working youth camps about 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And the second I heard him talk and interact, it called deep called the deep.
SPEAKER_01: And something was dormant or dead in me started to come to life.
SPEAKER_01: And I just I just needed an example of what it looked like to walk with the Spirit and in His power and love people and take a stand for God in ways I'd never seen before.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm honored to call him friend.
SPEAKER_01: I'm honored to be a part of you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Part of our talk was I was supposed to tell you how much you should appreciate him, and you don't know how good you have it.
SPEAKER_01: And just okay, you got that part.
SPEAKER_01: All right, good.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go on to the next one.
SPEAKER_01: But yeah.
SPEAKER_01: As I was praying through our time together and I was talking to Don and delighted to be back with you guys, one of the things I think the Lord put on my heart for our time together is I want to talk tonight just about how we go from just being a crisis Christian to a committed Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you guys, but are you noticing a deficit of commitment lately in the world, especially among men?
SPEAKER_01: Are you noticing it in your workplace with new hires where it just seems that there's not a lot of work ethic or a commitment or people sticking to their word or you're actually asking for something that you've agreed upon and then getting someone to follow through.
SPEAKER_01: You're starting to go into contracts or negotiations or relationships and you're assuming the worst.
SPEAKER_01: Because there just seems to be a lack of serious commitment.
SPEAKER_01: We had an author at our church recently, Stephen Mansfield, and he's done a lot of work in men's group, and he talked about a survey.
SPEAKER_01: Does that bother you as much as it bothers me?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm aware without intentional effort or commitment, I could easily become one of those statistics.
SPEAKER_01: By nature, I isolate, I hide, and I want to be left alone.
SPEAKER_01: And I've convinced myself that I don't need friends, or I only need relationships where I'm the one with the power and the authority.
SPEAKER_01: And I assume since you guys are here this week, and unless you've been coerced or drugged by someone or you're regretting your decision already, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: They don't lock the facility at night.
SPEAKER_01: You can take off if this session sucks.
SPEAKER_01: Um Neil will refund your money.
SPEAKER_01: What if we just stopped playing church for a minute and started telling the truth about who we are and where we're at and what we honestly need as men?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe then we'd have something to offer the other relationships in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe if we validate and acknowledge I want to be seen and I want to be valued and I want to be heard, and I'm sick and tired of hiding sinful and shameful things.
SPEAKER_01: And I want God to call me on a life of adventure and sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: That's my hope and prayer for us.
SPEAKER_01: That you'll be resolved and encouraged and strengthened in your commitment.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do I mean when I say how do we move from a crisis Christian to a committed Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first thing is, what is a crisis Christian?
SPEAKER_01: I can tell you because I spent half my life as one.
SPEAKER_01: See if any of you guys can relate to this.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean by a crisis Christian is I said one prayer one time that took care of my afterlife, but I never said multiple prayers after that to actually live my life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean by crisis Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Crisis Christian is someone who, yeah, I can pray before a meal, but I have no appetite for scripture or the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by crisis Christian?
SPEAKER_01: I mean that I'll do religious services and possibly even give to good causes, but when push comes to shove, I will rely on myself, my resources, and my power to solve my problems, and I will only turn to God once I have no other options.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean by a crisis Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And ironically, usually what it takes, at least what it took in my life, to move from being a crisis Christian to a committed Christian is a crisis.
SPEAKER_01: Where I finally come exasperated, desperate, humbly, needy, plans pulverized, self-sufficiency, demolished, empty, lonely, with nowhere else to turn.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, into your hands, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's yours.
SPEAKER_01: Will you take it, will you redeem it, will you resurrect it, and will you transform it?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's exactly what the psalm that we're going to spend this weekend talks about.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bibles, we'll be in Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_01: And they'll read us the first ten verses.
SPEAKER_01: Well, actually, I do 15.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_01: And I need to confess to you guys, I love the Psalms, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is the Hebrew prayer book.
SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons we don't know how to pray fervently, authentically, and with passion and fire and great vernacular is we don't read the Psalms anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Um I think there's an incredible amount of insight, um, and it's where the people pour out their hearts before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Trust in the Lord at all times, O people.
SPEAKER_01: Pour out your hearts through Him.
SPEAKER_01: God is an ever-present refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Uh every week I'll pick a psalm, stay in it, and find a phrase that I continue to pray throughout the week.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've had a two-year love affair with the Psalms and have fallen back in love with them and the intimacy that they bring.
SPEAKER_01: And so I hope uh some of that will rub off on you guys this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Starting verse one in you, O Lord, I have taken refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Let me never be put to shame.
SPEAKER_01: Deliver me in your righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Turn your ear to me and come quickly to my rescue.
SPEAKER_01: Be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
SPEAKER_01: Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me.
SPEAKER_01: Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.
SPEAKER_01: I hate those who cling to worthless idols.
SPEAKER_01: I trust in the Lord, I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction, you knew the anguish of my soul, you have not handed me over to the enemy, but you have set my feet in a spacious place.
SPEAKER_01: Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress.
SPEAKER_01: My eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief, my life is consumed with anguish, and my ears with groaning.
SPEAKER_01: My strength fails me because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
SPEAKER_01: Because of all my enemy, I'm in the utter contempt of my neighbors, I'm a dread to my friends, those who see me on the street flee from me, I am forgotten as though I was dead, I become like broken pottery.
SPEAKER_01: For I hear the slander of many, there's terror on every side, they conspire against me and plot to take my life.
SPEAKER_01: But I trust in you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I say, You are my God, and my times are in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say the word of the Lord if you say thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
unknown: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01: Into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Redeem me, O Lord, the God of my truth.
SPEAKER_01: Um, do you guys remember this?
SPEAKER_01: In 2011, uh 33 Chilean miners were trapped below the surface.
SPEAKER_01: Seven days had passed.
SPEAKER_01: They were all presumed dead.
SPEAKER_01: And then a drill goes down, finds a pocket, and comes back up on top of it is a note written in Spanish.
SPEAKER_01: We are all safe in the refuge.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was a refuge, a place that hadn't collapsed in, those 33 miners were able to stay alive for another seven days on ration food and water.
SPEAKER_01: And one by one, they started coming to the surface.
SPEAKER_01: And when they finally got to the surface, the last miner, a rescue worker, held up a sign and said, Mission accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: They had a refuge and they had a safe place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to submit to you that in these first five verses, there's a key pattern from moving from a crisis Christian to a committed Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And that is they had a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: I love the way Eugene Peterson translates this in the message.
SPEAKER_01: It says, You are my hiding place and my climbing space.
SPEAKER_01: Be my safe leader and my true mountain guide.
SPEAKER_01: In the NIV, you are my rock and my fortress for the sake of your name.
SPEAKER_01: Lead and guide me.
SPEAKER_01: So one of the first things I think that we need is we need a hiding place, a refuge with God.
SPEAKER_01: So, man, here's my question to you, and we're going to ask this in small groups.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I think the time that you guys spend in small groups will be the most spiritually transformative times of this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: It's when you get the process and you get to get right up against your soul and get the sandpaper out and go, look, let's just get to the heart of the matter and tell the truth about who you are and where you are.
SPEAKER_01: So my question is: where is your hiding place with God?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a refuge?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me when and where it is.
SPEAKER_01: When do you have specifically, rhythmically committed to mark out this is how I retreat with God?
SPEAKER_01: This is where I go to feel safe in the arms of my Father.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in here, incline your ear to me.
SPEAKER_01: Where are those places that you know God has your undivided attention and he has yours?
SPEAKER_01: Where are those places that you know you are specifically setting aside time to be in prayer and be in God's word and be held accountable?
SPEAKER_01: What does your refuge look like?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you a crisis Christian that doesn't worry about that until your life starts falling apart?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you someone who just goes, hey, I'll be fine, I'll take it from here unless something really, really bad happens in my life?
SPEAKER_01: I think one of the reasons that we get in trouble a lot of times is because we're not self-aware enough, because the psalmist says, uh, free me from the traps that are set for me.
SPEAKER_01: Other question I have for you is what traps are in your life right now that are consistently tripping you up?
SPEAKER_01: And who knows about them?
SPEAKER_01: Every Friday at freaking Cracker Barrel.
SPEAKER_01: I hate Cracker Barrel.
SPEAKER_01: This just shows you how much I love the Lord, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's just crap-astic food.
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason people love it, and you walk through Disney World just to get there and buy more crap.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
SPEAKER_01: But I meet Davy, soul friend of mine, Friday mornings, eight o'clock, that's our time to hear each other's soul.
SPEAKER_01: We catch up, we speak into the other's life, and then he has three very specific questions that are designed for me because he knows the traps that are set for me.
SPEAKER_01: And he asks very specific questions about my week.
SPEAKER_01: Has this trap been tripped?
SPEAKER_01: And has this trap been tripped?
SPEAKER_01: The last question he says, have you been honest with me?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's how much of a liar and a hider I am.
SPEAKER_01: Say yes.
SPEAKER_01: And so we go through weekly confession with each other back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know something that's really interesting?
SPEAKER_01: Confessing my sin is not that big a deal.
SPEAKER_01: I've got a lot of practice at it.
SPEAKER_01: Confessing who I am in Christ is when I start losing my junk and my eggs every time.
SPEAKER_01: Like our waitress probably thinks I have emotional issues.
SPEAKER_01: But David, here's my confession, and he says, This I hear your confession.
SPEAKER_01: God forgives you, and so do I.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I just need a priest to stand and tell me that in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Like, because I'll hear lies that say, no, you're not loved, you're not valued, not forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: And then he looks at me and says, Now confess who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the toughest part to remember who I was designed to be.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: I am God's beloved in whom he is well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: I've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I don't no longer live, but Christ lives in me and through me in the life I live in the body.
SPEAKER_01: I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
SPEAKER_01: I am free and light in God's sight.
SPEAKER_01: I am his mighty warrior, I'm his weeping prophet, I am his tender son, who will not stop coming before him every day, no matter what happens.
SPEAKER_01: That's who I am.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a faithful husband and I am a loving father, even though my actions have betrayed me this week.
SPEAKER_01: But by the power of the gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ, through this Holy Spirit living and working in me, I can become who my father says I am.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of refugees that we need.
SPEAKER_01: We need a hiding place, we need a refuge.
SPEAKER_01: I think uh we constructed sometimes, I don't know about you, but I grew up in Christian subculture, and um we had this idealistic view of a super Christian, right?
SPEAKER_01: That you never got tired, you always had the right Bible verse, you were always patient, you never lost your temper.
SPEAKER_01: And if you did, you would just hide that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I think when we look at, I wanted to be Superman, like I thought, hey, once I said this certain prayer, I would stop sinning, I could leap frustration in a tall bound, like other people's disappointment would just bounce off me like bullets, and I would be fine.
SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting, even Superman needed the fortress of solitude to go be reminded about who he was and what we were supposed to be about.
SPEAKER_01: Where is the place of solitude in your life that you can constantly and consistently retreat to to hear the Father's voice and be heard and seen and valued in the context of biblical community?
SPEAKER_01: Um, Jorge Galergios was one of those uh 33 uh rescued minors.
SPEAKER_01: Time magazine went back a couple of years ago and did a follow-up story.
SPEAKER_01: They found out this about the Chilean minors.
SPEAKER_01: Most of them have post-traumatic stress disorder.
SPEAKER_01: And while there are a few success cases, most of them are part-time or unemployed trying to cobble together a living.
SPEAKER_01: Most of them are under psychiatric care, most of them are medicated.
SPEAKER_01: One of them was found building a wall around his house, and when asked why, he couldn't explain it.
SPEAKER_01: And Jorge was interviewed, and he said this, and it stuck with me.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God that I am alive.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful that I'm alive.
SPEAKER_01: But I should be doing better.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody feel like Jorge's story is your story?
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God, I've been saved and I've been forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: But I should be doing better.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder, especially for us as Christians, we just got to remind ourselves, we're not just in the get people out of death business, we're into the get people into life business.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't want to look at my church or my own life and just go, hey, Christian just simply means my life looks like everyone else's life.
SPEAKER_01: I just hold up a big sign that says I'm sorry at the end of it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's not appealing enough to me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I wonder sometimes, maybe if we need to realize, uh, I know you know how to be forgiven, but do you know how to live free?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what the psalmist is saying when he says, lead me.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying you're my climbing space, you're my safe mountain guide.
SPEAKER_01: I think we've moved from a crisis Christian to a committed Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Not only do we need a hiding place, we need climbing space.
SPEAKER_01: And God is calling us up and out and in to the unknown, to risk things, to find adventure, to expand his kingdom, to discover brokenness that we want to redeem in the name of Jesus, to go back to our edict values, right?
SPEAKER_01: When he commissions Adam and Eve, I want you to go and subdue.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bring order where there is chaos.
SPEAKER_01: There's something intrinsic about the image of God on us that likes to go out into the wild and go, let's bring order and peace and redemption to this chaos.
SPEAKER_01: I practice it every night with my kids.
SPEAKER_01: It's bedtime, it's the most chaotic time in my entire life, and I have to amp up for it.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to pray gospel prayers before I go.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to watch Netflix and have sex with my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Not in that order.
SPEAKER_01: But it's just, no, let's be fully present.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's trying to fight against it.
SPEAKER_01: We are to bring peace.
SPEAKER_01: We are to come and in the authority and power of Jesus as men who have the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, we should have areas that God is giving us to climb into.
SPEAKER_01: So my question for you is where is the climbing space in your life right now?
SPEAKER_01: Is there an area God's calling you to go on an adventure with Him, but you've looked and said, I'm too tired.
SPEAKER_01: I had enough going on.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, that sounds great, but I think a lot of us have been sold half the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you have half the gospel, you just have a hiding place and no climbing space.
SPEAKER_01: If you just have a hiding space, then you don't know how to walk out in adventure with God.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't know how to find, you know how to find safety, but you don't know how to find strength in God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're a doer and you're just like, hey, I love going, going, going, going, but sitting alone with God, that's not really my speed, that's also half the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you have climbing space, but you don't have a hiding space, chances are your identity is in your success and your achievement, and you need to learn submission.
SPEAKER_01: I had somebody once say it to me this way, especially for those of us who are in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Chris, you do a great job working for the king, but do you know how to be alone with your father?
SPEAKER_01: So you can keep that to yourself, buddy.
SPEAKER_01: I'd rather do do do, especially in front of other people, so I can get all my hidden approval needs meet, rather than sitting alone with Jesus and him asking me, I see you, is that enough to move from a crisis Christian to a committed Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I think we need a hiding place.
SPEAKER_01: We need calming space.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the prayer that I want all of us to practice praying this weekend is simply this into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And what in your spirit holds back when you pray that?
SPEAKER_01: What in the back of your mind scratches like a cat on the screen door going, wait, but not this?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we could, but you don't want to let go of this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to give up this.
SPEAKER_01: But what about this?
SPEAKER_01: But what if it was conditioned into us every day?
SPEAKER_01: I've been trying to pray this before my feet hit the floor in the morning and before I go to sleep at night.
SPEAKER_01: Just, Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: My times are in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: This day is in your hand.
SPEAKER_01: My resources are in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Show me what you have for me today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to miss one bit of it.
SPEAKER_01: In the night, into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Constantly making sure I'm with him in the hiding place and in the climbing space.
SPEAKER_01: The only reason we can do this, man, is because Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's charged with bringing the kingdom of God here to earth.
SPEAKER_01: He's got relatively a short span of ministry, as far as we're concerned.
SPEAKER_01: And yet consistently the gospel tells us he retreats to be alone with his father.
SPEAKER_01: Because he says, I can only do what I see the Father doing.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like to live like that?
SPEAKER_01: To be so in constant conversation with the Holy Spirit that everything that you're doing, you're running through the filter with your Father.
SPEAKER_01: Not, hey, I'll take it from here and then I'll apologize for all the things I did wrong.
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like to stay in constant conversation with them?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus had some climbing space, especially when he had to climb straight up Golgotha, place of the skull, and carry his cross.
SPEAKER_01: And he walked freely into the trap that was set for him by his enemies to glorify the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And the burden and the weight of the sin of the world comes on his back.
SPEAKER_01: And he cries out from the cross, into your hands.
SPEAKER_01: I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And the evidence of what happens when you pray that and live that is three days later when he rose from the grave as the strongest version of humanity we've ever seen before in a resurrected body.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the life he's calling us to live.
SPEAKER_01: Is it without suffering and sacrifice?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: But it's dripping with significance, even in the most mundane, boring tasks that we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we give it all to God and into his hands we commit our spirit, there will become a connection in the hiding place and in the timing space.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So let's pray that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have Clyde sing us a song over us, and then we'll break into small groups.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think while we're praying here and while we're singing, what's the one thing that had my name on it tonight?
SPEAKER_01: So let's just take about 120 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: And go, Father, what's the one thing you brought me here tonight to hear?
SPEAKER_01: Let it just rise up in you.
SPEAKER_01: And then ask him, what do you want me to do about it?
SPEAKER_01: So that's revelation and response.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it takes for intimacy to occur.
SPEAKER_01: What did the Father reveal?
SPEAKER_01: And how does the Holy Spirit want to empower you to respond?
SPEAKER_01: When we start to ask those questions and we start to talk with our brothers, a collective power and wisdom begins to emerge in the community of God.
SPEAKER_01: So wherever you find yourself in your story or this weekend, know that God is going to use your circumstances, your insights, and your story in your group.
SPEAKER_01: To withhold it is selfish.
SPEAKER_01: I'll never get tired of what happens, how the Holy Spirit starts firing through men when we start being honest and open with one another.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, on behalf of my brothers, we want to say this weekend, into your hands, we commit our spirits.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.