In week 3 of our series, The Life of a Jesus Follower, Pastor Scott taught from John 14:15 and we learned why it's important for us to spend time with God in His word. Check out this sermon to learn more!
Hope Church LV Sermons
Spending Time With God
Thank you for joining us today. We're excited that you came across this message. The sermon you are about to watch is from our teaching series, The Life of a Jesus Follower. At Hope Church, we believe in connecting people to live the life of a Jesus Follower. And we do this through abiding in Christ, connecting in community, and sharing in the mission. In this foundational teaching series to the life of our church, we will discover together what it looks like to live the life of a Jesus Follower. If you're joining us for the first time, I wanna be the first to say welcome to Hope Church. Go ahead and open up the Hope Church LV app or visit us at hopechurchlv.com. Click Las Vegas congregation and fill out the short digital connection card so we can get to know you better. Once again, thanks for joining us today. - Good morning Hope Church. My name is Jim Marcus, and my wife Cindy and I have had the pleasure of being part of the Hope family for 20 years. It's our privilege to serve in the mission's ministry. (audience applauding) Today's reading is gonna be from the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 15, and Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." This is the word of the Lord. - Amen, amen. Thank you, Jim, grateful for he and Cindy 20 years. It's beautiful. As we begin today, I want you to think about an invitation that you may have received in your life, a significant invitation. You might have to go all the way back, but maybe it was an invitation in the mail to that birthday party from the popular kid that you were really hoping to get, and it came. Or maybe back in middle school, you were hoping to get an invitation to sit at the cool kids table, and then invitation came. We all love getting invitations. But I wonder, have you ever gotten an invitation that seemed really great, but then it actually ended up not being so great? Take us back to high school. I grew up in Henderson. Many of you know that went to basic high school, and I remember the Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up. Remember the Sadie Hawkins dance? The girls asked the guys, you go get matching t-shirts, and it was a particular girl that I was really hoping was gonna ask me. We're gonna keep this short in case she's in the room and we're watching online, but the invitation came. It was a good day for me. She asked me to say these. The invitation was amazing, but the reality was disappointing. It was one of those days you go on and you're like, are we gonna be here all night? Like this is kind of awkward. You ever been in that situation? The invitation was amazing, but the reality was disappointing. Something happened several years ago in our culture that I think is the perfect picture of this. I watched the documentary on it. Maybe you've heard of it. It was called the fire festival. Yes. Yes. (laughing) Man, she knows about it. There was this massive music festival that was touted as this luxurious thing, 2017. Come to the Bahamas. We got an island set out for this incredible music festival. Millions of dollars were supposedly put behind this festival. They paid influencers and celebrities to promote this thing. They promised you five star accommodations on the beach. They promised you, by the way, tickets were $1,000 to starting up to $25,000. But it's a luxury experience. We're gonna have celebrity chefs. There's a lineup of over 33 of the top artists and bands in the world, all happening at the fire festival. I mean, the promotion of this and the invitation of this was amazing. But the reason I was watching a documentary about it is because the reality was disappointing. From the moment people began to arrive at the Bahamas, they realized they had been scammed. All of the artists had canceled. The accommodations were basically camping tents set up real quick on the beach. There were no celebrity chefs present, no bands to listen to, and people were completely stuck there without anything to do. One of the most famous photos that went viral, one attendee took of the lunch that they received that I wanted to see right here. That was the lunch that they received. I don't know if you're trying to pay 1,000 bucks for a cheese sandwich, I'm not. Several documentaries have been made about the fire festival. One of them has this tagline, "The greatest party that never happens." The invitation was amazing, but the reality was disappointing. This is a perfect picture of false advertising. Put a pin in that for just a minute. We'll come back to that. If you're just joining us over the last several weekends, we have been studying from God's word another invitation. This one actually is amazing that we have all received to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. He has invited us all to this amazing invitation to be in a relationship with him. He's given us several of these invitations all throughout his word. We've looked at some of them and I wanna revisit. In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says to all of us, "I came that they, that's us, may have." What's the next word? Life and have it abundantly. Here's the offer on the table people. God came, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came that we may have life and life abundantly. Jesus isn't done. He continues to show us what he offers. He says in Matthew 11, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you what's the word? Rest." How beautiful. We need some rest in our world, yeah? He came to get it. "Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." See these words? Rest, easy, light. Jesus offers overflowing abundant life that is restful, easy and light. But if Jesus was a salesman, he would say, "Wait, there's more." John chapter eight, Jesus says in John 831, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you what's the word?" Free. Freedom is offered. Overflowing abundant life is offered. Easy, restful. Burn free life is offered. How in a relationship with Jesus, this is an invitation that sounds amazing. Here's the question every single one of us has to wrestle with. And by the way, today is about to be really gut level, honest kind of day. If we want to get what we need to get from God's word today, we got to be really honest. Here's the first moment of honesty. If you're a follower of Jesus in the room or maybe watching online, is that how you would describe your Christian life? For some of you, you're thinking, "Yeah, and listen, praise God for that. If that's you today, you should say hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I'm experiencing all of what you've offered to me. But here's what I've experienced personally as I've walked with many people for many years. That is not how people describe their Christian experience. They aren't experiencing what Jesus just said. In fact, they might not say this out loud, but they would probably describe their life as a burdensome existence that feels not like rest, but more like work. And they're barely hanging on to a faith that doesn't feel very free and feels very heavy. Let's be honest. Some of us would never say that out loud, but we're looking at some of these verses and thinking, "No, false advertising. Some of you might even say, I almost feel like I'm walking in a spiritual fire festival of my life. If that's what you're at today, we're so glad you're here. 'Cause here's one of the reasons I think that might be. And I've seen this in my own life. Paul gives it to us in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, "I am afraid. As the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Have we been led astray from the simplicity? Listen, if you're here today and you're not feeling that free, abundant life, it's one of two options. Number one, Jesus was lying when he said that. Or number two, we have been led astray. It's one of the reasons why every four years is a church for over 24 years now. We have revisited the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. We do it in a sermon series called the life of a Jesus follower. We're three weeks in, I encourage you, if you're just joining us to go back online and check out the first couple of weeks, but we're laying down the foundational principle, not just for the series, but for following Jesus. Here it is, the life of a Jesus follower is all about relationships. The life of a Jesus follower is all about relationships. Why? Because the life of Jesus was all about relationships. And now as he lives his life in and through us by the power of his spirit, our lives will look the same. It's all about relationships. We have some relationships here that we'll throw on the screen. Jesus followers has a relationship with God. Jesus had a relationship with God the Father. We use the word abide to describe that. A Jesus follower has relationships with one another. Jesus had a relationship with his disciples. We connect in community. And then if Jesus follower has a relationship with the world, we share in the mission. Again, that's a brief overview. Go back online and catch yourself up to where we've been. But over the next several weekends, we're diving into each of these relationships and seeing how they impact our lives on a daily basis. And was an anchor that we dropped last week. That is a game changer in the life of every follower of Jesus. And I wanna make sure we're all on the same page. Here it is. Everything Jesus desires to do through you. He will accomplish out of the overflow of his relationship with you. This is the life of a Jesus follower. He's gonna do some incredible things through your life. He accomplishes his back out of the overflow of his relationship with you. So with all that on the table, if you're ready to jump back in and learn more, say, I'm ready. I mentioned in week one of the series, we are greatly indebted to the men that I put on the screen earlier, our founding pastor. Specifically our founding pastor, Vance Pittman, he had so much faithful labor in putting this series together over the years. But there is another man who has influenced the ministry of Hope Church, maybe more than any other person. And he has never stepped foot in our church. One of my favorite movies is called The Sandlot. Maybe you've seen it, I highly recommend it if you haven't. There's this iconic scene where Babe Ruth comes back to the present time and talks to a kid named Benny the Jet Rodriguez. Some of you know where I'm going with this. He has an iconic line as he's leaving. He says, "Remember, kid, heroes get remembered, "but legends never die." In a sense, there is a legend of Hope Church that has never died because his fingerprints are all over the ministry of this church. He discipled two of our founding pastors. His name is Clyde Cranford. We'd shared about him numerous times. He only lived until he was 38 years old. In fact, he died, I just found this out this week. He died the month before Hope Church began. So he died in August of 2001 and Hope Church was planted in September of 2001. And he went to be with the Lord in the most godly way. Check this out. They say they found Clyde at 38 years old with his Bible and a journal open. He was literally spending time with God when he went to see God face to face. I don't know about you. That's exactly how I wanna go out right there. I can't wait to meet Clyde. I can't wait to talk to Clyde. I've heard so much about him, but I've never met him. But in some sense, I feel like I know him because of my relationship with our founding pastor Vance. He was discipled by Clyde. And so with my time with Vance, I feel like I've gotten to know Clyde. If you know Vance, you know, he constantly talks about his relationship with Clyde. So I feel like I've gotten to know Clyde that way, but also I feel like I've gotten to know Clyde through his book. It's called Because We Love Him. We sold out of this on Thursday. And so we get some more that are coming this week. If you wanna grab one of these books, I highly, highly, highly recommend it. He actually didn't publish this book. Some of the people he discipled took his discipleship resources after he had gone to be with the Lord and put them together in this book. It's his manual for how he used to disciple people like Vance and the hundreds of men that he discipled. So today's gonna look a little different because in some sense, I'm gonna take Clyde and help him, he's gonna help me preach the message because a lot of what we're gonna look at today comes from the way he used to disciple other people. In fact, last week, we looked at two goals of the Christian life. Let me revisit them. We said that the overall goal is to know God. We get this right at a John 17, three. This is eternal life that they know you. The only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is the overall goal for followers of Jesus. Clyde talks about that in this book, these two goals of the Christian life. The overall goal to know God, the daily goal, how we flesh this out to spend time with God. That's what's on the table for us today in this service is we wanna wrestle with the question, why is spending time with God so important? Maybe you've wondered that but you've just never asked it out loud 'cause you feel like that's kind of an awkward thing to ask. Like you're not gonna raise your hand in small group and say, can I ask a question? Why is it such a big deal to spend time with God? Maybe you're here today and you're so glad. We're finally gonna talk about it. Why is it so significant? So important to spend time with God. So as I said, I'm gonna let Clyde kind of help me preach this message. I encourage you, if you don't normally take notes, today's a great day to take notes. We're kind of jumping in the theological deep end. We're gonna read a lot of God's word and we're gonna learn a lot of good things as we answer the question. Why is spending time with God so important? That's how Clyde would begin to disciple people that he disciple. So just like he would, I wanna start where he does on page 111. And he says, let us briefly consider three pointed questions pertinent to the development of an intimate walk with God. He would sit across the table from the people who is discipling and he would walk them through three questions about spending time with God. So that's exactly what I want to do with all of us today. I wanna ask an answer three questions. Here's the first one. Before I say it, don't answer out loud, okay? You're gonna be tempted. You're gonna be tempted. I know the answer, I did too. Don't answer out loud. First question, does a Christian want to sin? Don't answer out loud. Does a Christian want to sin? Pretty simple question, right? Maybe some of you are thinking like I thought, I hate to admit this, but yeah. I mean, let's be honest. If I didn't want to sin, I wouldn't be tempted. And I'm tempted. I mean, come on, James chapter one verse 14 says this, "But his person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." There it is right there. I have a desire. I am lured away. So yeah, I do want to sin, right? Well, let's let the word of God continue to speak because remember, Christian, you don't just have your flesh in you. You've also been given as an assign of your inheritance the spirit of God. The spirit of God dwells in us. And Galatians five helps us understand that. But I say, Galatians five, 16 says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Because Christ has changed my heart and your heart as a follower of Jesus. He has given us his spirit. There's a war happening in us, the flesh and the spirit. That's what Galatians five just told us. The flesh is really trying to do something though. It's trying to stop you from doing what you want to do, which is not sin, but walk by the spirit. So does a Christian want to sin? The reality is, no, a Christian does not want to sin. Then Clyde would move to question number two. Does a Christian have to sin? Don't answer out loud. Does a Christian have to sin? Again, maybe you're like me and you're thinking, I don't like to admit this, but yes, you just talked about it, that pesky flesh. Because of my flesh, I have no choice but to sin. Again, let's let the word of God speak. Romans chapter six, verse six. Says we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Okay, that's helpful, give us another one. First John chapter two, verse one. John writes, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin." But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. I've highlighted that to get into a little bit of nerd speak right here for a moment, theological nerd speak. In the original language, that is in the subjunctive mood. You're like, what does that mean? It means you may or may not. That's why it says that you may not sin. It's subjunctive meaning you can sin or you cannot sin. The Christian does not have to sin. We have a choice. If you're like me, my little theologian rose up and be like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. What about my depravity? I'm totally depraved. Some of you are thinking that right now. He better talk about depravity. Others, you're thinking, what on earth is depravity? If you're there, I may help you, what is depravity? Apart from the grace of God, we are utterly hopeless and susceptible to every form of wickedness. This is depravity. Apart from the grace of God, we are utterly hopeless and susceptible to every form of wickedness. This is what depravity says. The depravity says the fundamental problem with the human race is not what's happening outside of us. The fundamental problem with the human race is what's happening inside of us. Some of you are looking at me like, you don't believe me. If you don't believe me, just go hang out with some toddlers for a minute. If you ever had kids, you are not arguing about depravity. Why? You don't have to teach those things to be bad. You got to teach them to be good. Why? Because they're already bad. They come out bad. Some of you are not convinced. Let's walk over to Hope Kids Preschool as soon as the service is over and you'd be like, man, total depravity is real. I know your family looks beautiful on Instagram, but I know what happened right before that picture was taken. I've been there. Why? It's not just my kids that are to pray. It's me, because something fundamentally crazy happened in Genesis chapter 3 that fractured everything. And we've all been infected with sin. And apart from the grace of God, we are hopeless. Praise God. As followers of Jesus, we do not have to ever live apart from the grace of God. This is why we celebrate the good news of Jesus. What's the good news of Jesus? The gospel is that he saw us in our depravity. He saw us in our helpless and hopeless state. He put on flesh. He came to dwell among us. He lived a perfect life. The Bible says he died on the cross for our sin. He was put in your place for your sin. And he rose again three days later. And now stands ready to give grace. And we don't have to walk in that depravity now. We can walk in his grace. I love our second Corinthians chapter 5. Put it. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. Love this verse, so simple. If you underline things, this is a good one to underline. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. Theologians call this the great exchange. What's the great exchange? He gets our sin and we get his righteousness. And we didn't earn it for nothing. We get his righteousness because he took our sin. This is the great exchange. This is what happens in the good news of the gospel. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you have obtained that. Let me show you in Romans 5, too. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith. Access to what? Into the grace in which we stand. Doesn't matter how you feel, Christian. Doesn't matter how your performance was this week. Listen, if you are a follower of Jesus, you stand in his grace. Why? Because of the great exchange. He took your sin and you got his righteousness. So there's never a moment as a follower of Jesus. We are outside of his grace. It has been placed on us. So does a Christian have to sin? No. A Christian does not have to sin. Then Clyde moved to a third question. If we don't want to sin, and we don't have to sin, why do we sin? I don't think I have to convince anybody in the room that we sin. For every follower of Jesus, between the moment, the already moment where we met Christ, gave our lives to him. And the not yet moment where we see him face to face, this middle is a struggle. We sin. We miss the mark. We don't do the things we know we should, we do. And we do the exact things we know we shouldn't. We sin. But if we don't want to and we don't have to, why do we? And in the book, Clyde says it plain. He says the answer is simple but painful. Here's why you sin. We sin because we don't love God. You say, wait a minute, Clyde Cranford. I do love God. Like I really, really, really love God. So you may like rise up in protest and say, wait a minute. I do love God in the book. Clyde says, now I know you may protest. He says, you may think I do love God. And then he says this, he says, yes. But do you love him enough to obey? Which leads us to the verse that Jim read earlier. John 14, 15, Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now I gotta be honest with you, this is the last service. And I have read this verse out loud, probably over 50 times this week, 'cause I tried to emphasize different parts of it to see how it made me feel. That's how it works, language, right? You read something, you say something. What you emphasize kind of changes the meaning of it. Let me show you. Some people read this verse and you read it like this. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, right? The emphasis is on keeping the commandments. So if you love me, you better obey me. So that's how some of you have read that verse, maybe your whole life. That's how you think Jesus said, if you love me, you will prove your love for me by your performance. If you love me, you better keep my commandments. You know what that feels like to me? Heavy and burdensome, not light and free. Maybe it's read like this. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. What if the emphasis was not on what you do, but the emphasis on who you love? The emphasis is not on keeping the commandments. The emphasis is on loving. That's what Clyde tries to argue in the book. In fact, he says this. He says, our obedience get this is in direct proportion to our love. What if our obedience is in direct proportion to our love? And in other words, what if what we do is directly linked to what we love? I think that's true. Let me try to illustrate it for you. Many of you know this, but I grew up here in Las Vegas and for basically my entire teenage life, I lived on a skateboard. If you live out in Henderson, Nevada and your neighborhood existed in the early 2000s, I promise you, I probably skateboarded on your curbs and on your streets. I was all, all we ever did was skateboards, skateboards, skateboards, skateboard. And much to the chagrin of my mom, she was in the last service. When we skateboarded me and my brother that much, let's just say she had to remind us as 13 year old boys to take a shower every once in a while, okay? Little TMI, I get it, but specifically I have vivid memories of my mom trying to figure out how to get the smell out of the house from our skateboard shoes that for whatever reason, we decided not to wear socks with, okay? I know, too much, too much. Trying to paint a picture here, it's gross. And then you add on top of that, I'm a part of this skateboard culture, punk rock culture. The cooler you were was the dirtier you were and the more gross you looked. I don't know why it's weird, okay? This was my life. And then everything changed in 2004. Everything changed in 2004, you know why? 'Cause I met a girl named Candice. By the way, not the same girl that took me to Sadie Hawkins, just so we're all on the same page. I met a girl named Candice, listen, when I started falling in love with Candice, listen, you didn't have to tell me to ever take a shower again. I, Mom didn't ever have to say, "Hey, she probably cleaned up, why?" 'Cause I just did it, why? 'Cause her, I was falling for this girl. So I spent my money different, I dressed different. Listen, I even went and got myself some cologne, Pastor Ricky, you love some cologne, I love some cologne. You're like, I don't get it, like skateboard punk rock guys don't wear cologne, so you know what I did? I went to Ross. And I got $10 worth of cologne, listen, a little behind the scenes in The Worthingtons, 20 years later, I still wear that same cologne, why? 'Cause she likes it, shout out to Curve, if you know, you know. Some of you know. (congregation laughing) What's the point? When you fall in love, you don't gotta tell people to do anything, why? 'Cause what you do flows from what you love. We hear words like obedience, we get all tripped up, like all obedience, listen, what you do flows from what you love all over your life. Let's not separate that when it comes to our relationship with God. What we do is directly link to what we love and the same is true as a follower of Jesus. Let me say it to you this way, obedience is not the focus of the life of a Jesus follower. Obedience is the fruit of the life of a Jesus follower as I focus on intimacy with God. Obedience is not the focus, it's the fruit, as I focus on loving God. This is a huge, huge, huge concept. In fact, if our obedience is in direct proportion to our love, here's what this means. It means when I choose to sin, when I cross that line and choose to do what I know I shouldn't do, here's what it's saying. It's saying, I love this thing more than I love him. I love this thing more than I love him, why? Because what you do flows from what you love. I wanna try to illustrate this for us in the way that Clyde does in his book. It's easier to see it, so I'll put a word up here, sin. We just said we sin because we don't love God. That's John 14, 15. Well, why don't we love God? Because we don't know God. Again, you're going, wait a minute, man, you're stepping all over my toes today. I do know God. I'm not saying you don't know God at all. I'm simply suggesting that maybe you don't know God in the way you could know God. I mean, again, try to illustrate. Fast forward a few years. Candace and I dated for four years. I don't recommend that, but we were 17 years old. And on November 7, 2008, I stood before my family and friends and God Himself. And I looked at her and I said, I love this woman. She became my wife on November 7, 2008. I said, I love you. And listen, I did. With everything I could in that moment, I loved her. But here we are 16 years later, 20 years of being together, and I love her now more than I could have ever dreamed of loving her then. Why? Because I know her like I could have never dreamed of knowing her then. This is how relationships work. All of us who have been in the long-term relationships know there are different levels of knowing. So we sin because we don't love God. Why? Because we don't know God. Why? Because we don't spend time with God. What made the difference in those 16 years of me knowing Candace at a level I could have never known her then? What made the difference a ton of time with this woman? I've seen her now be a wife and a mother and a daughter and a friend and a mentor. I've seen her love and serve and give of herself and walk through the highs and lows, the good, bad and ugly of life. I have spent a ton of time with her. And that's how our relationship grows. Time together. I mean, could you imagine when I proposed to Candace just a few months before we got married? Actually, I wanna play this out. I want you to imagine that day. I proposed to Candace June 18, 2008. And I got on that knee like we all do when we propose. And I said, "Candace, I wanna spend the rest "of my life with you." But before you answer, I wanna tell you how I think this is gonna work. Babe, every single Sunday morning, we are gonna spend 90 minutes together and it is going to be unbelievable. I'm gonna be all in. You will have my entire attention. Well, unless the Dallas Cowboys are playing and then we might have to figure out another solution. Maybe we can hang out Thursday night instead. And of course, if there's things that go on in my life, like if something pops up that I really need you, I'm gonna be following you around 'cause there's gonna be times when I need you more, that's gonna how our relationship is going to work. Will you marry me? Listen, there's nobody in their right mind that would say, "Candace, you should accept that proposal." Why? 'Cause that's not a relationship. I don't know what that is, but that is not a relationship. We laugh because that sounds so ridiculous when it comes to human relationships and yet how many followers of Jesus play the same thing out on the relationship with God. God, here's my life. But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, before we get this thing going, can I just tell you how I think this should work? Every Sunday morning, we're gonna spend 90 minutes together and I'm gonna be all in. I'm gonna give everything I got in those 90 minutes and let the Dallas Cowboys are playing and then we might have to figure out a different time. And then of course, if something pops up in my life, God, I promise you, I'm gonna be following you around, bombarding heaven with prayer 'cause I'm gonna need you at specific moments in my life. Listen, nobody would say that is a relationship and yet so many followers of Jesus, they don't spend any time with God. Why? Let's be honest, we don't see the need. Again, this requires gut level honesty. But I doubt if I pulled anybody in the room right now and said, hey, let me ask you a question. Don't raise your hand, but let me ask you a question internally answer. Do you think spending time with God is a good thing? Everyone in the room, yeah, of course. Spending time with God is a good, okay. Do you think spending time with God is a life-changing thing? Yeah, my gosh, of course. So if you think spending time with God is a good thing and you think spending time with God is a life-changing thing, let me ask you this question, answer only in your heart. Do you think spending time with God is an absolute necessity like you can't live without it? See a problem in the church today, probably in the church forever 'cause we've always drifted away from that simplicity. Is it followers of Jesus look at spending time with God as a really, really, really good option? But let's remember what Jesus said in John 15.5, apart from me, you can do nothing. He didn't say apart from me, you got some options. Apart from me, you can do nothing. You know what that sounds like to me? Absolute necessity. 'Cause I don't know about you, but apart from breathing, I can do nothing. Apart from water, I can do nothing. Jesus just said, apart from me and abiding relationship with me, you can do nothing. And yet how many of us try to live our lives apart from him? Why? Let's look at the bottom line. It's pride. We would never say this out loud. What does pride say? Pride says, "God, I don't need you." Can you think, "Oh my gosh, I would never say that out loud." We're saying the quiet things out loud at Hope Church today. God, I don't need you. Listen, we would never say that with our lives, but so many Christians live that with their lives. I don't need you. Clyde in his book says, "We need to reclaim "some child-like humility." Best illustration to describe this is when your kids start figuring out how to do things on their own, that's like parents, it's painful. 'Cause you're like, I could do it so much faster, but they've got to learn, right? One of those things is tying their shoes. I just want to say thank God for crocs. I'm so glad we had crocs in my family. But every kid has to learn to tie their shoes. We all learn to tie their shoes. You've ever been in that situation where you're getting ready to go, you're 10 minutes late, and you just want to get all the kids in the mini van. You're like, "Guys, get in the car, "we'll put our shoes on in the car." Like, "No, Dad, I need to put my shoes on." And you're one kid sits down to try to tie their shoe and you're going, "Hey, let me just do it." "Look, no, Dad, I've heard this a thousand times. "I got it." You're like, "You ain't got it, this is going to be painful." (audience laughs) What do they do? They sit there and they try to tie up their shoe. They're trying to remember the song and the bunny goes around the bush and blah, blah, blah. They're trying to remember it, but it's a hot mess. They're tying their lace all over their foot. It's getting wrapped around their ankle, and you're like, "This is like watching paint dry. "Would you please let me help you?" You don't say it though. You let them be and what happens? Eventually, they come to the end of themselves and they say, "Dad, will you help me?" In that moment, as parents, we don't go, "No, you said you could do it." We don't shame them, I hope. (audience laughs) What do you do? You grab that little kid and you put him in your lap, grab their little hands, and you walk him through the song. I don't remember it, I've been out of the game too long, but you walk him through the song, bunny goes around the bush, you tie the shoe. You let the hands go, they look up at you, they say, "Daddy, I did it!" All the while, you're thinking, "No, you didn't." (audience laughs) You don't tell them that though, why? You did it, you did it through them. It took them coming to the end of themselves and realizing they couldn't do it for them to say, "Dad, I need help." Some of you are picking up what I'm putting down. Listen, every single day, Father of Jesus, your Father in heaven is leaning on the edge of heaven, waiting to help, waiting to live His life through us, but how many of us right now are in our lives saying, "God, I got this!" And guess what? We're wrapping up our lives in all kinds of knots. And maybe today is the moment you realize your not life is all knotted up and you just need to come to the end of yourself. And say, "Dad, will you help me?" What is this? This is childlike humility. And when we're humble, guess what? He gives us grace. That's what the dad does in that moment. He doesn't condemn his child. He gives him grace and he helps them. Guess what? Our Father gives us grace. Look at James chapter four, verse six. It says, "He gives us a greater grace." What a line. It's not just a little bit of grace, Father of Jesus. It's a greater grace. For God, it says God is opposed to the proud. It's a word in the original language that literally means stiff arms the proud. I don't know about you. I don't want to live a life with the God of heaven. Stiff arms me. He stiff arms the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, praise God. And when we're humble, listen, this whole thing flips on its head. Let me show you. When we start with humility, what did James four, six says? When we're humble, he gives grace. And guess what happens when he gives us his grace? We see the need. And when we see the need, guess what happens? We spend time with God. What happens when we spend time with God? We know God. We get to know him on a deep level. What happens when we get to know God? We love God. And what happens when we get to love God? We obey God. Everything happens in reverse. Not because I'm focusing on obedience. I'm focusing on humbling myself before God and loving him. And he's the one through me and the fruit comes. And guess what, it's not over. Few verses later, Jesus is continuing in this discourse to talk about this in John 15. And he actually says in John 15, 21, that when you obey me, the Father reveals me more to you. So guess what we just heard? When we obey God, there's a revelation that comes. When we get to see God more, we get to see him more when we obey him. And guess what happens when we see him more? The Bible says we get to know him more. And guess what happens when we get to know him more? We get to love him more. And obedience flows from our love. So this beautiful cycle happens in the life of the follower of Jesus. How? By trying really hard? No, but by simply humbling yourself and saying, "God, I can't do it. Help me." And this is how the free, restful light following Jesus was supposed to work the whole time. (congregation applauding) Here's how I want to close. We're out of time. 'Cause if you're anything like me, I hear a message like this and I just want to run through a brick wall. I'm like, yes, I'm going to spend so much time with Jesus, I can't wait. I'm going to go out and buy a Jesus Father devotional right now. I know it's day seven. I'm starting on day one tomorrow, 42 days straight. I'm even going to buy this new merch so I feel a little more holy as I read the Bible. Yes. And listen, that might happen and go out and buy the devotional. That's awesome. Listen, but remember what I said last week, most attacked thing in your life from the enemy is going to be your time alone with God. Because he knows the truth. That's how we live the life we were meant to live, spending time with God. So there will be temptation. Listen, follower of Jesus, it doesn't matter if it's tomorrow or a few days later, there will be temptation to not spend time with God. And I want to show you something that a couple of options of how you can respond to that. If you respond to this temptation by rolling up your sleeves, tightening your bootstraps and saying, "You know what? "I'm going to do it. "I know I'm tempted to not spend time with God, "but I'm going to do it." I've been there. You've been there. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to actually experience some temporary success. You've been there when you're walking around and asking people, "Hey, how many, "what's your streak on the Bible out?" Mine's six. Oh, two, no worry, you'll get there. Maybe some of you are really holy. May I spend time with God every single day this year? Listen, you'll get some temporary success, but ultimately when you're trying to do it yourself, what will happen is you will fail. They will be failure. Some of you know this, right? When you start the Bible in a year playing in January and by February, you get to Leviticus and bail, you're like, "What is this?" And then what's going to happen is you're going to feel some very disappointed. Man, I could have done better. God's probably ashamed of me. I'm not a very good Christian. And then the cycle continues. What's the cycle? This is a cycle of pride. Clyde called this the merry go round of the flesh. And some of you have been living in that in decades. Can I give you another option? The other option still includes temptation. Listen, we will be tempted on this earth until we get to heaven. Jesus himself was tempted except without sin. Temptation is a part of the human experience. But instead of saying, "I got this," here's what you say, "I can't do it." When I'm tempted to not spend time with God, when I'm tempted to run from God, God, I can't do it. I can't do it. What do we learn God gives when we're humble like that? God gives grace. And when he gives grace, guess what? We experience victory. And when we experience victory, I'm not trying to flex 'cause I know it wasn't me that did it. So when we experience victory, he gets the glory. And guess what happened when he gets the glory? We continue to be strengthened when we get tempted. You know what this is? This is humility. This sounds like freedom. This sounds like dependence on God. Clyde called this the ascending spiral of grace. When you know these things, John 14, 15 doesn't sound that bad. It sounds like an invitation to intimacy. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Obedience is not the focus. Obedience is the fruit as we love him and spend time with him. I pray that over these 40 minutes or so, you have started to feel the freedom, the freedom that exists in following Jesus. 'Cause he says in John 8, "If you abide in my word, you truly are my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Amen, amen. Let's pray Jesus, thank you for your word. God right now, I pray it as I began this day, as I walked into this building, that you would just do a work Holy Spirit of God in every heart. So Lord, I wanna let you do that. Would your spirit right now speak louder than any man? Would your words speak louder than any man? And God, as we respond now with people, your people just respond, however it is, you're leading them to respond. But I know what it will include for all of us. It will include humility. Being humble under the mighty hand of God and you give grace, Lord, thank you, that that is available for every person today, grace upon grace upon grace. So God, as we respond, would you be honored? If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, we'd love to talk to you about what it looks like to follow Him. If you are a follower of Jesus, you've got things going on in your life. Listen, we're gonna have pastors and pray volunteers down here, we'd love to pray for you. Let's just follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit as we stand and sing. God, you are good, we're grateful for who you are. Move now by the power of your spirit. We wanna obey in Jesus' name. Amen, let's stand and respond as the Lord leads. [BLANK_AUDIO]