Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] I love Robbie Simons. And what a joy it is to be back here in Canada.
[00:00:09] I want to bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in Christ in America. Right.
[00:00:17] If you. If you hadn't been paying attention to the news or off social media for a while, there are some rumors about what is happening between our two countries. Right.
[00:00:27] And I just want you to know I'm 110% in favor of America becoming the 11th province of Canada.
[00:00:38] Aren't you thankful that presidents come and presidents go and prime ministers come and prime ministers go. But there's a king that is sitting on the throne and he's never up for election. He never takes a day off, he never takes a vacation. He's always large and in charge and in control. Amen.
[00:00:57] So we can have confidence that the king is on the throne.
[00:01:01] It is always great to be at this conference. Every time I come here, I am just amazed that to see the number of men, like there's not an empty seat in this building, like there are people standing. It is just an incredible environment to see what God is doing here. And this is so incredibly special. Robby, this has to be for you, just such an incredible moment to be here and to experience what God is doing in and through this movement. And I pray what the Lord begins to do here would not only touch this city, but would begin to touch all of Canada, North America and the nations for the glory and honor of God. You do know that 2000 years ago, God took a group of people much smaller than this and literally turned the world upside down.
[00:01:48] Why not again? Why not now? Why not us? Amen. May it begin right here this weekend.
[00:01:55] An outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God that would literally turn the world upside down for his glory and honor. Thank you so much for allowing us to come and be back here again. David Killebrew is with me representing. I always have to enunciate. We're with Send Network. I have to be real careful with the word D, the letter D, because if I say it real fast, sounds like I'm president of Sin Network.
[00:02:19] I used to be president of that one, too, Right? You did too.
[00:02:23] Look at me. Spiritual. Before Jesus, we all had that network. But Sin Network, I get the opportunity to lead now. We get to be a part of planting churches all over North America. And it's such an incredible honor to get to serve in that capacity as well. I'm about to lead us in another word of prayer before I jump in, because there are some people in the back of the room back here that work around this. By the way, I was watching the guys that were running the cameras up here.
[00:02:48] Your camera shots are going to be terrible.
[00:02:50] You know why? Because they're so involved in worship, man, they can't hardly hold the camera. I love when even the camera guys are just worshiping Jesus. They're like worshiping Jesus with the camera like this. So whatever videos you get, just take some Dramamine before you watch them because it's going to be moving. But there are people back here that are running tech and all this kind of stuff and they never get appreciated until something goes really wrong.
[00:03:13] And we are so grateful for these men and women that serve in that capacity. Amen.
[00:03:20] And I'm saying that, saying that because I'm about to throw them a huge curveball.
[00:03:27] I had sent in notes and screenshots and all kind of stuff for the conference based on the topic that Robbie had given me to speak on. And sitting over here tonight during the prayer time, during the worship, God just began to deeply convict me to go in a different direction with what I want to share with you tonight.
[00:03:45] So I caught one young lady over here who's responsible for screens and she may be able to get the text up. But the rest of it we're just going to have to go old school. There's going to be nothing on the screen.
[00:03:58] But I just really feel led to go in a direction tonight that's really. It's still in the same idea with this idea of strength and courage. But if we're not careful, we can so emphasize strength and courage that we can begin to look at ourselves and think that strength and courage is found in us and man. We need to make sure that our strength and our courage rests in him and in an intimate love relationship with him.
[00:04:21] That everything that happens out of this happens out of the overflow of our love relationship with him. So I'm going to talk to you about something that I wasn't necessarily preparing to talk about tonight, but I really believe it's where the Lord wants us to go. If you're all right with that, say amen. If you're not alright with that, just hang on because we're about to do it anyway. So let me lead us in a word of prayer. And if you have your Bible, you can go ahead and turn to Revelation, chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.
[00:04:45] We'll get there in just a few minutes.
[00:04:48] Holy Spirit of God, we always need you.
[00:04:53] Lord, I really need you right now in this moment. Because all day long this Week I've been preparing for something tonight and Lord, I feel led to do something different by your spirit.
[00:05:05] Lord, I pray that in these moments that we have together, God, that as only you can in a room like this, Lord, I pray for men here that don't know Jesus.
[00:05:16] And I believe there are some in this room, some are in this room and don't know Jesus. And they know they don't know Jesus. Some are in this room and they don't know Jesus and they think they know Jesus.
[00:05:27] And God, I pray by the time we get to the end of this tonight, men all over this place and watching online would be drawn to faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:05:36] Lord, I also pray for men in this room tonight that know you, but have drifted into a performance mode of following youg, God, that you would, by your Holy Spirit, bring conviction and speak.
[00:05:51] And then I'm going to ask you to pray something in your own heart before I begin. Jesus used a phrase over and over in the New Testament. He would say, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
[00:06:01] Would you just turn that into a prayer right now and say, lord, give me ears to hear what it is you want to say to me tonight.
[00:06:12] It's in the name of Jesus. We pray and all of us say together, Amen.
[00:06:18] I'll tell you a little bit of my testimony.
[00:06:21] I became a follower of Jesus when I was a freshman in college at the University of North Alabama. I know you thought I was going to say somewhere in New York based on my accent, but I'm originally born and raised in Alabama and I went to college at the University of North Alabama and I became a Christian when I was a freshman in college.
[00:06:40] I was raised in a Christian family, but not a long line of Christians. My mom and dad were the first Christians on either side of my family. We would call them first generation Christians. So I got to lead some of my own grandparents to faith in Christ. My grandparents great grandparents were not believers. My mom and dad came to Christ. Then they met, got married. My dad was a pastor. So I not only grew up in a Christian home, I grew up in a pastor's home. Meaning I've been in church all of my life. I don't know what it is not to be in church, but here's what I had to understand.
[00:07:12] Being in church and being around Christianity and being a Christian are not the same thing.
[00:07:22] Being around a Christian environment, being around other Christians, being at a Christian conference and being a Christian are not the same thing. It wasn't until I was a freshman in college that I came to the place in my own life that I knew what it meant to be lost. I. I knew that my sin had separated me from God. I knew that my sin had kept me from knowing God personally. But I also knew that God loved me so much in my sin that he didn't want to leave me there. He sent his son Jesus into the world to take all of my sin and all of your sin on himself and on the cross. Jesus died for my sin. But the good news of the gospel is he didn't stay dead. He rose again from the dead as a testimony that God had accepted his sacrifice for our sin. So that now all I had to do was turn from my sin, put my faith and trust in Jesus and be born again into relationship with God. That's exactly what happened to me when I was a freshman in college.
[00:08:22] I came to know Christ because I'd been raised in the church.
[00:08:29] I made a mistake very early in my Christian journey.
[00:08:35] Here was my mistake.
[00:08:37] I equated spiritual maturity with spiritual activity.
[00:08:48] Meaning the more things I did for Jesus, the more spiritual I was. I read a.
[00:08:59] I read a devotional written by a good Canadian, Henry Blackaby. Henry Blackaby has a free devotional online called Experiencing God Day by day.
[00:09:09] In the May 4th edition of that devotional, Henry Blackaby said this. He said, we are so activity oriented that we assume we were saved for a task to perform rather than for a relationship to enjoy.
[00:09:30] Let me say that again.
[00:09:31] We're so activity oriented that we assume we were saved for a task to perform rather than for a relationship to enjoy. And we even have spiritual ways of saying it. I would say things like this, man, when I look back on my life, Jesus has done so much in saving me that now I want to give him my life and I want to do something great for God.
[00:09:56] That sound spiritual.
[00:10:01] It's almost like we have this attitude that everything on that side of salvation was all Jesus.
[00:10:08] But now on this side of salvation, it's Jesus and me being committed enough to live for him.
[00:10:16] That's even a word we love to use in the church.
[00:10:18] Commitment.
[00:10:20] I grew up in a church that loved commitment. Like, every time we had an event, we had a commitment card.
[00:10:27] I filled out more commitment cards. I could dam up the Mississippi river with commitment cards that I filled out in my lifetime.
[00:10:34] You know the problem with the word commitment, right? It's not a New Testament word.
[00:10:40] Commitment implies I got something to bring to the table to commit.
[00:10:44] You know what the New Testament word is?
[00:10:46] Die.
[00:10:48] That's a very different word.
[00:10:51] Death means all I can do is die to myself. That the one who's already alive, Christ, can live his life through me.
[00:11:01] But for the first decade or so of my Christian life, man, I tried hard to be a good Christian. I tried hard to live the Christian life. And it seemed no matter how hard I tried, I could never measure up. I was always defeated. I felt like I couldn't be the Christian that I was supposed to be.
[00:11:19] Often I was discouraged. I would come to church and I would compare myself to other people around me. And I thought I was the only one who was messed up. Everybody else had it all together.
[00:11:29] You know what it's like when you come to church. Everybody puts their church face on.
[00:11:33] You can ask somebody at church, how you doing? Listen, all hell can be breaking loose in their life, and they're going to say, oh, brother, I'm doing fine.
[00:11:42] Praise the Lord.
[00:11:45] God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good.
[00:11:51] It wasn't good for me.
[00:11:54] I felt like every time I took two steps forward, I took three steps backward. I was disappointed. I thought, in my own heart, man, I should be a better Christian by now. Stuff that was tripping me up, stuff that I was stumbling over, I thought, man, I should be past this by now.
[00:12:11] I was disillusioned. I thought, man, is it even possible?
[00:12:16] Is it even possible to be the kind of Christian that I think I'm supposed to be?
[00:12:24] I was so off track. There were verses in the Bible that I would read that didn't even make sense to me. Now we're not going to. This is not going to be on the screen. You have to look this up in your Bible. If you got your Bible or turn your phone on.
[00:12:36] I'm going to show you a verse that made no sense to me. Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28. 30. Matthew, chapter 11, verse 20. You're going to know it when I begin to read it. Listen what it says.
[00:12:48] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you. What did Jesus say?
[00:12:55] Say it again.
[00:12:57] That's a good word. Amen. Rest, then. This is what he went on to say.
[00:13:02] Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find. He said it again. What's the wor?
[00:13:09] Rest for your souls. Then he said, for my yoke is what's the word?
[00:13:13] And my burden is.
[00:13:16] Now I want you to say those three words out loud. Are you ready? One, two, three. Rest easy. Light. Let's do that one more time.
[00:13:25] Rest easy, life.
[00:13:29] I don't know about you, but you couldn't have picked three words further removed from my experience of Christianity than rest, easy and light.
[00:13:47] Matter of fact, if you're going to let me pick three words, I got three words for you.
[00:13:52] Work, hard and heavy.
[00:14:00] That's what Christianity felt like to me. It was hard work. It was a heavy load. Trying to live up to all the expectations that I thought I was supposed to be.
[00:14:12] Here's another verse. Didn't understand it. You will know the truth and the truth will set you what?
[00:14:19] Free.
[00:14:22] I didn't know freedom. I'd exchanged one set of bondage for another set of bondage until finally, 10 years into my spiritual journey, I reached a place of brokenness. It was one of those valleys that God takes us through. Aren't you thankful for the valleys in life? Listen, I know we all love being at conferences like this is what the Bible would call a mountaintop experience. We love mountaintops. But listen, the real growth comes in the valley.
[00:14:47] I was in a Valley about 10 years into my walk with God. And it was in that valley that God began to really break me. And he taught me something that forever changed my life. And here's the principle I want to share with you. And then I'm going to look at Revelation chapter 2 to unpack it. Here's the principle.
[00:15:03] Following Jesus is not about a life of doing things for Jesus.
[00:15:12] Following Jesus is about being with Jesus so He can do something in and through my life.
[00:15:22] Let me say it one more time, because it's not on the screen. You can't take a picture of it. Following Jesus is not about a life of doing things for Jesus. Following Jesus is about being with Jesus so that he can do something in and through my life. And listen, that's not just semantics. That's the difference in religion and relationship.
[00:15:46] You see, what God has invited us into is not a system of do's, don'ts, rights, wrongs, rules and regulations. What he's invited us into is an intimate love relationship with Himself whereby we come to know him out of the overflow of knowing Him. He begins to change us on the inside, conforming us to his image so that what comes out of us is not a better us. It's not a more committed us. It's literally Christ in us, living his life through us.
[00:16:16] And when I begin to experience that, then I begin to experience rest.
[00:16:23] Then there was freedom.
[00:16:26] But here's what's unfortunate. My mistake is a common mistake.
[00:16:31] There are A lot of you in the room that are exactly where I was.
[00:16:36] You're going through the motions. You're trying hard to be a good Christian, but you always seem to be failing.
[00:16:43] And this is not a new mistake.
[00:16:46] It goes all the way back to the first century. If you got your Bible, turn to Revelation, chapter two. I've told you to warm up there. Get ready. Revelation chapter two.
[00:16:54] In the Book of Revelation, Jesus begins it in chapter two with seven literal letters.
[00:17:07] Seven letters that Jesus is addressing to seven literal churches. These were not just fairy tale figurative illustrations. These were literal churches in the first century made up of believers who'd come to faith in Christ, been baptized, and were now joining together to live on mission with God. And these churches, Jesus had a message for each one of them that was specific to them. But because these are also inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and contained for us in His Word, these were not just messages directly to those churches 2,000 years ago. They all have spiritual application in our lives today.
[00:17:48] This first letter deals with this exact mistake.
[00:17:54] That was my mistake.
[00:17:56] Revelation, chapter two. Beginning in verse one, the Bible says to the angel of the church in Ephesus, write.
[00:18:08] That's an address. Really? Most people believe the angel. There is more, most likely the pastor. It's the Greek word for messenger. Most people believe he's writing there, addressing this letter to the pastor to be shared with the church. So do the angels. Angel of the church at Ephesus. Right. We're giving this letter to the pastor. The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Now, we're not going to take time to do it, but if you go back to chapter one, that's a description of the person of Jesus himself. So what this first verse is telling us is this is a letter from Jesus to the church given to the pastor or the messenger to be addressed and given to this local church. Now let's get to the heart of the letter. Verse number two.
[00:18:50] What are the first two words of the letter? Say it out loud if you got it open.
[00:18:53] I know. Say it again.
[00:18:56] I know.
[00:19:02] It's not really a good thing to get a letter from Jesus that begins with two words.
[00:19:10] I know.
[00:19:17] I know.
[00:19:20] In reading those two words, it's actually knowledge that is not a knowledge based on experience. It's not a relational knowledge. It's not something that he came to know.
[00:19:34] It's a Greek word that literally means it's knowledge that he has because of who he he is.
[00:19:42] It's intuitive knowledge. It's. It's knowledge that he possesses because he's God himself. You get a letter from God and God says, I know.
[00:19:55] He actually opens all seven letters with those same two words, I know.
[00:20:03] When you hear that phrase, there's something both incredibly encouraging and yet extremely horrifying at the same time.
[00:20:15] It's encouraging when you hear him say, I know. Here's what that means. It doesn't matter what you're walking through right now. It doesn't matter what you're facing in life. It doesn't matter what your family's going through. It doesn't matter your job situation, your health situation, your financial situation, whatever you're dealing with right now. Here's what you need to know. Our. Our Father in heaven knows. He is aware of what's going on in your life. He's present in your life. He's engaged in your life. He's involved. Whatever you're dealing with right now, you are not alone. Jesus says to you tonight, I know.
[00:20:51] I know.
[00:20:54] But it's also horrifying.
[00:20:59] He knows everything.
[00:21:10] Every thought, every desire, every intention, everything in my browsing history.
[00:21:32] He knows every action. He knows every reaction.
[00:21:38] He knows.
[00:21:43] You see, you can fool your pastor.
[00:21:49] You can fool your small group leader.
[00:21:53] You can fool your friends, you can fool your kids. You can even fool your spouse.
[00:22:06] But he knows.
[00:22:10] I know.
[00:22:15] Look at the next two words.
[00:22:17] I know your what your works.
[00:22:23] Now, this is a word that speaks to performance. It's a Greek word that deals with activity. It's something that people do. Jesus says, let me tell you what I know about you. I know your works. Here's what he's saying to these people. These people were busy for Jesus.
[00:22:43] Like, these would have been the kind of church members that we all wanted to emulate.
[00:22:49] These would have been called the most faithful people at church. Like, every time the doors were open, they were there. They were there even on holiday weekends when everybody else is doing something else, they still go to church. Man, these were faithful. These were people serving on ministry teams. They were volunteering their time. They were going on mission trips. They were giving 10% of their income. Pastor Robbie Gross, not net.
[00:23:21] These were the kind of people church planters would be like, man, I need them on my core team. I want these people engaged with me. These were good husbands and fathers and wives and mothers and sons and daughters. They were loving their neighbors. They were serving the homeless. These were people that were busy for Jesus.
[00:23:41] But then look what he said. I know your works, your toil That's a word that means wearisome effort. It means these people weren't just busy for Jesus, they were literally working themselves to exhaustion. These were some committed believers, man. These were the kinds of people we would tell our kids, man, when you grow up, I want you to be like this brother or this sister. They are so faithful, serving Jesus, he says, and your patient endurance. It means that they were facing hostility because of their faithfulness to Christ, and they still didn't stop.
[00:24:25] And then he said, how you cannot bear with those who are evil.
[00:24:30] If we were going to put that in our English vernacular today, one commentator says, you could use this phrase, they didn't put up with sin, they didn't tolerate sin. Meaning this. These people not only were doing all the dues, they were donting all the don'ts.
[00:24:50] You know the list, right?
[00:24:53] Here's all the things you're supposed to do to be a good Christian. And, oh, here's all the things you're not supposed to do. Now here's the problem with the don't list. I grew up in Alabama. I spent 25 years serving in Las Vegas, Nevada.
[00:25:03] There's some stuff on the Don't List in Alabama for Christians. It's not on the don't List for Christians in Las Vegas, Nevada.
[00:25:09] Depending on where you grow up and what culture, context you're in, the Don't List is a moving target, right?
[00:25:15] Don't look at me spiritual.
[00:25:18] The Don't List changes on the rows in this room.
[00:25:21] You see, here's how we measure ourselves against each other. You got some stuff on your don't List. And you judge another brother based on him not having that on his don't List. And you somehow think you have a more favorable position with God because you're more spiritual, because that brother's doing stuff that's on your don't List. And you don't do that.
[00:25:43] That's these believers.
[00:25:45] They didn't put up with people that did stuff on their don't list.
[00:25:50] Then he says, you've tested those who call themselves apostles and are not meaning this. They didn't put up with false teachers. They held people to the book. They valued right people teaching and sound doctrine.
[00:26:07] Then he says, Verse 3, I know you're enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you've not grown weary. These were people that were facing incredible persecution for their faithfulness to Jesus, and they still didn't let up.
[00:26:26] Now, up until this point, we're reading this and we're like, dude, these People got to be on cloud nine. Like, Jesus is just telling them all these wonderful things about what they're doing.
[00:26:43] And then you get to verse four.
[00:26:48] What's the first word?
[00:26:51] Depending on which translation you're reading, either but or nevertheless or one of those.
[00:27:00] What the. Yet it depends on the translation. In the Greek language, it's what's known as an advertising particle, meaning things are about to change.
[00:27:11] It's a word of contrast.
[00:27:14] It's kind of like my oldest son got married a couple of years ago, and he and my wife did the. The mother son dance at the wedding, you know, and it was one of those. They're doing the mother son dance. It's very slow and appropriate for a wedding. And then all at once, they had it planned for the DJ to kind of right in the middle of the song, rip the song in a different direction. And the next thing you know, my wife and son are out there. They're doing the. What do you call the. Something in the nene. The whip and the nene, or whatever that thing, the dance craze that went around. So, like, that's what's happening here. There's this nice, beautiful song. And all of a sudden.
[00:27:47] And Jesus says, but.
[00:27:52] And then five words you never want to read in a letter from Jesus.
[00:27:58] I have this against you.
[00:28:13] It's Jesus saying there's something not right in our relationship, something is broken in our fellowship.
[00:28:30] What does he say? I have this against you. That you have abandoned the love you had at first. Here's what he's saying.
[00:28:46] You're doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
[00:28:59] Did you know that you could be doing all the right things and yet be doing them for all the wrong reasons?
[00:29:13] You see, the enemy doesn't care whether he gets you distracted on all the stuff the world has to offer, or if he gets you distracted on just trying to be a good person.
[00:29:27] As long as it's not Jesus, he wins.
[00:29:33] And here were these people going through all the motions, and listen to what Jesus said. He gives them a challenge. Remember, therefore, in verse five, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. So in the minutes that I have left, let me give you two statements. Number one, I want to talk to you about the problem that they had. Here's the problem they had.
[00:29:57] They'd abandoned their first love. The word abandoned means to leave, to quit, to desert, to neglect, to move Away from here's the bottom line. They had drifted away from being with Jesus and had made it all about doing things for Jesus. They made the mistake that I made. They made the mistake that I still make to this day. You see, it's the same mistake many of us make. The natural tendency of our flesh is to drift towards performance, thinking somehow we earn favor with God or we show God how faithful we are by the lives that we live. Think about it this way. If I was going to ask you tonight to answer this question, what does it look like to faithfully follow Jesus? How would you answer that question?
[00:30:43] What does it look like to faithfully follow Jesus?
[00:30:47] For most people, the way we answer that question, we immediately start, well, you know, you got to read your Bible every day. You got to pray, you got to give, you got to go to church.
[00:30:55] Just start with the first one. Read your Bible every day.
[00:30:59] I mean, how many Christians do you know? My goal this year is to read through the Bible in a year.
[00:31:05] Has it ever dawned on you that for 1600 years, Christians followed Jesus intimately without the ability to carry around the copy of God's Word with them daily?
[00:31:15] I'm not saying they didn't value the Word. They had to pass it on through an oral tradition. They did value the Word, high priority on the Word, but we've almost made an idolatry out of Bible reading.
[00:31:26] We don't read the Bible to check off a list to say, well, I did my Bible reading today, so I've earned some points with God. No, we open the Word of God daily because the author, the one who wrote it, has invited us into fellowship with Himself. And we get to open this book and the Word becomes the centerpiece of a conversation that we have with the Father. And we grow to know him through His Word. And he changes us through His Word and he conforms us to his image through the Word. But the Word is the means by which we grow to know God and fall more in love with Him.
[00:31:57] But when we make the Word just a checklist that we go through, well, I read my Bible the day I prayed. I read through my one year Bible plan today.
[00:32:08] The Pharisees in the New Testament knew the Bible backwards and forwards and yet they missed the God of the Bible.
[00:32:17] We have all these things we're supposed to do and then all these things we're not supposed to do. Let me ask you a question. What is marriage?
[00:32:25] Is marriage opening a joint checking account?
[00:32:30] Is marriage sharing meals together? Is marriage planning retirement? Is marriage having children? Is marriage going on vacation.
[00:32:40] No, it's silly, right? Marriage is a love relationship between a man and a woman. All those activities only make sense in the context of marriage. Matter of fact, if you don't believe me, go down here to Tim Hortons after we're done tonight, walk in, meet the first stranger that you find, and say, hey, would you like to open a joint checking account together and plan our retirement after they call security. Right.
[00:33:03] Why? Because those activities make no sense apart from the context of the relationship.
[00:33:09] Here's what we've done with Christianity in North America. We've made it about a system of activities. These things you do, these things you don't do. And if you do all of these things and you don't do these things, then you're acceptable to the Father. What we've created is what I call Evangelical Catholicism.
[00:33:28] We believe some basic tenets. We go through certain rituals, and we hope for the best in the end. But what Jesus has invited us into is something so much more than that. He's invited us into an intimate love relationship, relationship with himself.
[00:33:42] One of the things that I get asked often. I lived in Las Vegas for almost 25 years. I now live in Atlanta, Georgia, in the buckle of the Bible Belt. And I get often asked from people, what's it like being back in the Bible Belt after being in ministry in Las Vegas for over two decades? And it's an easy answer.
[00:34:01] The easy answer is where I now live, there is an abundance of what's called cultural Christianity.
[00:34:08] Where I was for the last two decades, there was no cultural Christianity. Nobody went to church on Sunday because it's what you did on Sunday.
[00:34:15] Nobody in Las Vegas wakes up thinking, man, it's Sunday, I gotta go to church today.
[00:34:19] Wasn't our culture, man. It wasn't. There was a messiness about the matter of fact. My favorite Las Vegas story that I love to tell is about a lady. She was 70 years old, and she came to Christ in our church.
[00:34:30] She had been raised in a hard Vegas lifestyle, so I'll just let you figure out what that means. But at 70 years old, this lady comes to faith in Christ. I mean, she gets radically saved. And I'll never forget the day I was going to baptize her. We were doing baptisms back then. We had to do it outside and show it on a screen inside because we didn't have a building with a Baptistry. So I'm outside with this lady, and I said, ma' am, is it your testimony that you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And before I could say anything else, she said, hell, yes.
[00:34:58] And I got her underwater quick as I could before she said anything else.
[00:35:06] But here's the deal. She didn't know she wasn't supposed to say that, yet that was her hallelujah. Like she didn't get the don't list yet. She'd just been so changed by Jesus, the only expression she knew from the life that she lived was what she shouted, here's the beauty of coming to know Jesus. When we come to know Jesus, he invites us into a love relationship with himself. He doesn't leave us like we are. He begins to change us from the inside out. But if we're not careful, what we do with cultural Christianity is we substitute behavioral modification on the outside and exchange that for a radical transformation that's happening on the inside. You see, what he's invited us into is a relationship with himself, whereby he begins to change us on the inside so that what comes out of us is literally Christ in us.
[00:35:56] Why do we drift?
[00:35:59] Here's why we drift. The natural propensity of our flesh is to perform.
[00:36:07] You see, we think God made human doings, but he didn't. He made human beings.
[00:36:14] What we do flows out of who we are.
[00:36:18] But unfortunately, we measure who we are based on what we do, especially men.
[00:36:24] That's why you let some men meet each other, give them 30 seconds, and the first question they're going to ask is, so what do you do?
[00:36:32] We define ourselves based on what we do. It's how our flesh is wired.
[00:36:37] We're wired to work, to perform, to do. We bring that into our spirituality and we think, man, because I'm so committed, I'm doing all this. I'm not doing all this, man. I have a arrived spiritually.
[00:36:50] And then we get a letter from Jesus that says, man, you've abandoned your first love.
[00:37:00] I want to show you a verse of scripture that really how you read this verse of Scripture will give you a great filter into how you translate what I'm teaching tonight.
[00:37:10] It's John chapter 14, verse 15.
[00:37:16] John chapter 14, verse 15. Now look it up. Get that verse. Give you a second to get there.
[00:37:23] This verse of Scripture, actually Jesus repeats what he's about to say in John 14:15. He repeats it four times in John 14 and then gives an entire chapter's illustration of it in John chapter 15.
[00:37:38] But how you read this verse shapes how what you're hearing me say tonight hits you.
[00:37:42] Here's the verse. John 14:15.
[00:37:45] If you love me, you will keep my Commandments.
[00:37:55] Let me tell you how I heard that verse for the first decade of my Christian journey. Here's how I heard it.
[00:38:04] If you love me, you better obey me.
[00:38:13] If you love me, you better show me that you love me by the way you live your life.
[00:38:20] Now, when you hear it like that, where does all the emphasis go?
[00:38:24] I better obey him because I want to show him I love him.
[00:38:28] So all the emphasis, all the focus becomes obedience to Christ. Let me ask you a question. When you focus and try hard on obedience, how does that work for you?
[00:38:39] Not so good, right?
[00:38:41] I mean, we'll come to an event like this and we'll make a couple commitments and we'll hold them for a week, 10 days, we're good.
[00:38:49] Then we fall again and we're disappointed in ourselves again. You know why we get disappointed in ourselves spiritually? Because we had confidence in ourselves spiritually.
[00:39:02] Then you go to another conference, you make another commitment. You're good for a month this time. You think, man, I got this licked. I'm going to start teaching a class on this.
[00:39:10] Then there's another failure, and you begin to spiral again.
[00:39:16] Can I tell you what Jesus said in John 14:15? Here's what he said. Listen to me. Listen, listen, listen. Here's what he said.
[00:39:27] If you love me, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
[00:39:39] Meaning emphasis not on obeying him, emphasis on loving him.
[00:39:45] The more we grow to love him, the more he begins to change us from the inside out so that what spills out of us is Christ in us. And you know what that looks like?
[00:39:55] Keeping his commandments.
[00:39:57] It's what the old songwriter said when he said, the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
[00:40:09] The more I get consumed with the person of Jesus, the more I fall in love with Christ intimately through devotional pursuit of him. The more what comes out of me is Christ in me. Me.
[00:40:25] When I understood this principle, it rocked my world.
[00:40:30] I felt like. Robbie, you quoted the classic Gladiator earlier. There's another classic movie that all young men should watch called Braveheart.
[00:40:40] It's another one of those guy movies. You know what I'm talking about? And there's that scene when, at the end of the movie, William Wallace in one moment, there's that scene where he just says freedom.
[00:40:52] Like, when I understood this principle, that's what I felt for the first time in my life.
[00:41:01] Rest, easy and light.
[00:41:12] It had been simplified down to a simple pursuit of Christ.
[00:41:19] Well, then, what was the solution? Here's the second. What's the solution? Jesus offered three words.
[00:41:26] Number one, remember.
[00:41:29] He said, remember from where you've fallen.
[00:41:32] Remember from where you've fallen.
[00:41:35] It's a phrase that means to recall, to mind, to think back. Here's what I want you to think about. If you can think back on a time when your life that you were more in love with Jesus than you are right now. Now he's written this letter to you.
[00:41:49] Listen.
[00:41:50] If you're not walking as intimately with Jesus as you were in the past, hear this.
[00:41:57] He has not moved.
[00:42:06] I'm the one who's drifted.
[00:42:09] I'm the one who's abandoned. I'm the one who's walked away, who's quit.
[00:42:15] He says, remember back to where you were. Remember back to those early days in your walk with God when you were consumed with a passion to know him, this God who changed your life. I remember when I became a believer as a freshman in college. I woke up the next morning for the first time in my life. I opened a Bible. Not because it's what I had to do to be a good Christian. I opened a Bible because I wanted to know this God who changed my life.
[00:42:43] And now, having been walking with Jesus for 30 years, it's so easy for me to drift back into just performance. And I have to constantly relearn this lesson over and over again that what he brought me into was not something to do something for him. He brought me into relationship with him. He says, remember from where you've fallen. Then he said this word repent. That's not a word we like much in the church anymore, but it's a Bible word.
[00:43:09] The word repent describes a change of heart that produces a change of action. It's a change on the inside that produces a change on the outside.
[00:43:20] Repentance is a moment of decision when I decide to give up my way and surrender to his way.
[00:43:28] He says, to repent and do the deeds you did at first. What does that mean? Go back to an intimate love relationship with Jesus where you're just living out of the overflow of a fellowship relationship with Him.
[00:43:41] Jesus summed this up in another place in the New Testament, in John 17:3. Listen to what Jesus said in John 17:3. He said, this is eternal life. Now, if I were to ask you tonight to define eternal life. What is eternal life? Most people say eternal life is going to heaven when you die.
[00:44:01] That's not eternal life. Whoa, wait a minute. Are you telling me we don't go to heaven when, oh, if you're a Christian, you go to heaven when you die. Amen. That's a good part of the package. If you believe that, say amen.
[00:44:12] But that's not what eternal life is.
[00:44:14] Jesus defines it in John 17:3. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
[00:44:28] Eternal life is coming to know God. You know what makes heaven heaven? It's taking the relationship to a whole new level. You see, now I only know him by faith. But then the one I know by faith, I'll know by sight.
[00:44:46] Jesus said, repent, go back to the first.
[00:44:49] So with that, let me give you two goals.
[00:44:53] If you really want to go back to just an intimate. I'm going to give you two goals that really summarize the whole Christian life right out of John 17:3. Here's the two goals. Goal number one is the overall goal. It's the big goal. Here it is. You ready? The overall goal is to know God.
[00:45:11] That's it.
[00:45:14] Here's the second goal. It's the daily goal.
[00:45:18] The daily goal is to spend time with God.
[00:45:26] Listen, everything Jesus desires to do through your life, he'll do out of the overflow of what he's doing in your life as you pursue knowing him by spending time with him daily.
[00:45:43] We do that through His Word. We do that through coming to church. But listen, we don't read His Word or come to church because we have to to be a good Christian. We read His Word and we come to church because those are the means by which we grow to know God. And the more we know him, the more we love Him. And the more we love him, the more Christ begins to live his life through us.
[00:46:03] The last word.
[00:46:06] Remove.
[00:46:09] Jesus says, remember and repent, or I will remove.
[00:46:17] Louie. You can go ahead and begin patting whenever you're ready. At this point, we'd worked out a point in the other sermon, but when am I preaching that sermon? So he don't know when to come, so he can just come pad whenever he gets ready.
[00:46:29] Third word is remove. Jesus said, remember where you've fallen. Repent and do the deeds you did at first. Or listen to this warning.
[00:46:35] He said, or else I'm coming to you and I'm going to remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.
[00:46:49] What does that mean? Sounds pretty serious.
[00:46:52] Well, in the first century, the lampstand had to be on a lampstand. A lamp was literally a little dish with oil and a wick.
[00:47:01] And they would light the wick to light the lamp.
[00:47:04] But then they had to place them. That's why in another parable, Jesus said, when you light a lamp, you don't put it under a bushel. You don't hide it. You have to put it on a lamp stand. Why? Because it's useless without the lampstand. The lampstand gives the lamp a position of usefulness. When the lampstand is on the lamp now, it's used shining light for all to see. Jesus said, you can go through all the motions, you can do all the right things.
[00:47:30] But if you're doing it out of a sense of obligation, if you're doing it out of a sense of performance, if you're doing it trying to measure up to be a good Christian, Jesus said, I need you to get back to loving me, otherwise you lose your usefulness to me.
[00:47:51] What does that mean? Here's what it means. Did you know the only thing that pleases the Father out of your life and my life is one thing.
[00:47:59] You know what it is?
[00:48:00] It's Christ.
[00:48:03] The only thing that I can't bring glory to God. Christ in me glorifies the Father.
[00:48:10] Christ in me pleases the Father.
[00:48:14] I don't bring him glory.
[00:48:16] I reflect the glory of Christ in and through my life as I die to myself so that Christ may live through me. And Christ in me pleases the Father. Christ in me glorifies the Father. When we're living out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship with the Father, we find a place on a lampstand where through us our lives are literally emitting the glory, glory of Christ. They're shining the light of Christ. They're spreading the fragrance of Christ in every place. But when I'm going through the motions of religion, when I'm trying to perform as a Christian, Jesus said, you need to repent or I'm going to take your lampstand. You'll have no usefulness.
[00:48:55] Shouldn't surprise us. It's the same thing Jesus said in John 15. When he said, I am the vine and you are the branches.
[00:49:05] He said, he who what abides in me, and I in him. He what bears much fruit. Did you know that? There's not one Command in John 15 to bear fruit.
[00:49:19] Not one command in John 15 to bear fruit. The only command in John 15 is to abide.
[00:49:25] He who abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit. For apart from me. You can do what? Say it out loud.
[00:49:32] Studied that word in the Greek language. You know what it means? Nothing.
[00:49:37] Here's the Problem. We think Jesus said, apart from me, you can't do big things because let it be a big thing. And we pursue intimacy with God.
[00:49:48] But here's what that means, guys. Today you can't be the husband, the father, the neighbor, the co worker, the boss, the employer, the classmate, the student.
[00:49:57] We can't be any of that today. We can't. Please. There's nothing of eternal significance today that happens in my life apart from Christ, in me. And that only happens out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship with him.
[00:50:10] So here's the challenge. Tonight. It's twofold. Number one, do you know Jesus?
[00:50:19] I'm not asking if you know about Jesus. I'm not asking if you. If you've been to church. I'm asking, do you know Jesus? If you were to die tonight, if Christ were to return tonight, do you have a relationship with God? I'm not asking if you know some facts in the Bible.
[00:50:35] Do you have a personal relationship with God?
[00:50:39] I love First John, chapter five. John writes this verse, these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. Notice what he didn't say. I'm writing to you who believed. Past tense, going back to some moment somewhere in the past, he said, no, I'm writing to you who believe. How do I know today that I know him? Because today I woke up in a relationship with God. I'm growing in fellowship with God. I'm communing with the Father. I have a love relationship with God because I've been born again into that relationship in Christ.
[00:51:09] Do you know him today? If you don't know him today, we're about to sing a song in just a moment. And you can come to Pastor Robbie or some other pastor here at the front and say to them, I need Jesus today. And they'll show you from the Bible how you can have a relationship with God. Just like I did as a freshman in college. But here's the second challenge. If you do know him, are you focused on doing or being?
[00:51:36] You look back in your life and see a time you were more in love with Jesus than you are right now.
[00:51:40] Here's what I want us to do. I want us to turn this place into an altar.
[00:51:44] You can take this front area up here and turn this into an altar. You can turn your seat into an altar. And I think it's time for a bunch of us to just get down on our face and repent. Say, God, I'm tired of trying, and I'm ready to start trusting.
[00:51:57] I'm tired of trying to do something. And I'm ready to be something through Christ in me.
[00:52:02] Lord, I want to go back to a place of intimate fellowship with you.
[00:52:09] Let's bow our heads, Lord, all over this building. God, would you have your way tonight? God, I pray by the power of your Holy spirit. Lord, I tried to be submissive to you. There's even a part of me that's even uncomfortable in teaching because I had something else prepared. But, God, I believe this is the message you had for your men tonight. So, Lord, I pray you'd take it. I pray you'd speak to men. I pray there'd be conviction in this room. I pray for men that need Jesus, that today they'd be saved. They'd come to know Christ. Lord, I pray for men in this place that need to rekindle a love relationship with you in a fresh way. God, that they would kneel before you tonight. That they turn from their way of trying to be something, trying to become something on their own strength and their own power. And that they would find the strength and the courage that can only be found in you.
[00:53:00] Lord, have your way tonight.
[00:53:03] Use this as you see fit.
[00:53:06] It's in the name of Jesus. We pray. Let's stand together. Our team's going to lead us. This altar is open. You can turn your seat into an altar. Pastor Robbie, other pastors are down here at the front. You respond right now as God speaks to you.
