Don't be a Professional Christian

3:31 This is a test.

5:20 Would testify. Blessing on blessing poured in my life, I'll start remembering. How good you can be. Please turn to worship, tears turn to praise, Change the pression broken by grace, I'll start remembering how good you were You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah Enemies' weapons fall to the ground Armies of heaven always surround me I'll start remembering How you carried my thoughts You called me by names You loved me like I was you You didn't leave me that way Was that now or then?

6:36 Yeah, that's what you did Oh, you've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Come on, say it out You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah From morning to night The lows and the highs I look on my life and all that I see And you've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Come on, is that anyone's testimony in this place?

7:18 Oh, we've experienced the goodness of God Yeah Come on, let's do it like this When I say God is good You say all the time When I say all the time Oh, you say God is good When I say God is good Come on, you say all the time When I say all the time Oh, you say God is good When I say God is good Oh, you say all the time When I say all the time Come on, you say God is good When I say God is good You say all the time When I say all the time Oh, you say God is So, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah You So, so, so, so, so, so good to me Come on, sing your testimony From morning to night The lows and the highs I look back on my life and all that I see From morning to night The lows and the highs I look back on my life and all that I see That you've been So, so, so, so, so, so good to me Oh, we thank you, Lord We thank you Yeah Come on, it needs to be good

8:52 to you Let your voice Sing it out You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah You've been so, so, so, so, so, so good to me Yeah You may be seated.

9:40 Very briefly, very briefly, I'm just going to interject. We're about to endeavor to really touch God's heart today. And I don't want you to be interrupted by anything When you worship do not look to your left and look to your right Don't worry about what anybody's thinking even you don't even judge yourself what you look like Just connect with the God of heaven. Amen man Like I want this to be a moment for you. Listen, you didn't brave five degree weather To get here and let it be for nothing So make sure that you connect with God and you get exactly what he has for you this morning.

10:25 Amen All right Now so in that vein, let's get some practical business out of the way so that we can worship through song. Amen My name is muhammad. I'm one of the pastors here. It's my privilege to welcome you this morning Just want to point your attention to the qr code that's there We want you to connect with city light church even the connection card that's on your seat I want you to fill that out that is going to be your access to the church if you have any questions at all if You want to meet with a pastor you want to sign up for a volunteer team? You want to sign up for the growth track, which is meeting? Next sunday on the 15th Tonight is super bowl sunday. Amen. We we're not going to fight against the super bowl So growth track is going to continue on the 15th But if you want that because our growth track is a really powerful and amazing thing It's not just a membership class per se but there's spiritual gifts assessment a personality assessment It really gives you insight into who you are and how you can fit into this thing called the local church So we want that for you Maybe you want to sign up for a life group again Fill out that connection card or fill out the life group insert that's on your seat Life groups are coming up at the end of the month.

11:33 They're starting february 23rd So we'll meet here on sundays collectively But then during the week midweek from house to house we'll be growing together learning together Just again praying together getting accountability and community actually being with our friends being a family and not just a Religious thing on sunday mornings. Amen So if you want that then I invite you sign up for a life group sign up for the growth track And have a tremendous time with God and the people of God, amen All right stand to your feet and let's not forget why we came here Let's really dig in and connect today So again, don't look to your left.

12:13 Don't look to your right look up Praise God We are an altar of broken stones Where you lie in the offering Home You have a heavens to call your home Were you delighting in the song Bring you praise that will never cease Home We sing Hallelujah

14:01 To the fire I will remember Your sacrifice I will abide Hallelujah One voice I All the praise More

16:10 Oh what a wonderful day to come We'll never meet us before your name But we will not wait until it does

18:01 Is To the worthy one When our eyes Hallelujah

19:38 When I see the stars So This To Me To

21:15 Me Can't take My To take Is Is When

24:13 grief shall have acclamation And take me home What joy shall fill my heart I shall bow in humble adoration And there proclaim My God, how great Thou art When Christ shall come This is all our hope We shout a reclamation And take the needle What a torch shall fill my heart And I shall bow in humble

25:48 adoration And there proclaim My God, how great Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art How

27:19 great You are Oh, how great You are No one compares to You No one compares to You Oh, how great is our God Come sing with me How great is our God And oh, we'll see How great, how great This is why we declare That all may know Oh, how great is our God Oh, sing with me How great is our God And oh, we'll see How great, how great Is our God Yeah, sing how great Come on lift it up You alone are worthy Oh, it all will speak How great, how

28:49 great Is our God How great is our God How great is our God Come on sing with me How great is our God And oh, we'll see How great, how great Jesus, You're the name Jesus, You're the name Oh, You're the name of God There is no other name But Yours alone You are worthy Oh, praise You We'll sing How great

30:47 is our God Oh, sing with me How great is our God Lift it up And oh, we'll see How great, how great Is our God Come on lift the praise In this place We sing of Your greatness We sing of Your greatness There's no one like You, Lord There's no one like You, Lord From generation to generation How great is our

32:39 God Jesus, we worship You And we give You glory today Hallelujah We thank You for Privileging us with Your presence Help us today, Lord To truly receive What You're speaking to our hearts We ask in the mighty name of Jesus, Father The mighty name of Jesus Amen Good morning, church You may be seated Praise God, who is worthy Hallelujah So, let's just Right off the bat, we're just gonna Declare that you guys are the real Christians Because right now There are some people Shout out to y'all Pillow ministries Bishop bedsheets They have tuned in for streaming And God bless you But for the real Christians in the building Let me stop But no, I do thank you Because it fits with what we're singing about right now How great is our God That not even five degree weather Is gonna stop us from coming That we might exalt His

34:11 name Collectively with the saints Come on For the God that we serve Who is perfect and worthy He's worthy That we should offer Him this type of Service and sacrifice and praise Amen Because He sacrificed so much for us Hallelujah So I'm grateful to see you here today Would've been pretty sad if it was just me and my wife here Along with Dallas But I gotta say, the Lord You are in for a treat And I know this is a good word Because my son said I'm not going to City Kids today I said, what happened, no City Kids today? He said, nah man, I just wanna be close with you I said, oh Praise God High five, buddy He didn't hear the message though So I don't really know why he's No, I do feel like it's a treat though God has given me a good word for you But before we jump in I wanna send a special word From Pastor Bo He right now is with a team of 20 of the saints They are in Guatemala as we speak They left on Wednesday And they're doing a tremendous work on A different continent, if you will It's amazing because They are ministering in the mountains of Guatemala Away, like hours away from Guatemala City So this is

35:41 not like a touristy Guatemala Like they are on the dirt road hills Climbing up a mountain for four hours In a tumbling bus And they make their way there And the work that we've done in Guatemala We've opened up over 40 churches That double as community centers And I'm not talking about we went And we put a doorknob on Like we set the foundations and built this thing up So that the people there can have a place Where they can go and congregate And worship and even midweek Be there together, amen Well let me not say we, you did that As you give to our missions program Global Compassion Every single dollar that you've given Has gone towards that aid And that service that they receive monthly We have a missionary family there The McComb family They've been there for over a decade Just serving the indigenous Ixil people These are direct descendants of the Maya Like when the McCombs got out there Some of them had never seen white people before Like that type of indigenous rural Like A lot of them like no taller than four foot And they're just looking up It's a spectacle whenever Pastor Bo shows up Cause you know God bless him He's a very loud and rambunctious man And we love that, he's filled with the Holy Ghost So when he shows up with the anointing and the power of God Able to serve the people It's a tremendous thing for them to receive And they're out there for over a week Just really pouring into the people Growing them in the faith, amen

37:12 So be praying for them As they are out there ministering Praise God So today I feel like the Lord has given me A message And I want to talk about something This is the type of thing that creeps into Every believer's life if you let it If we're not careful And it's the performance mentality We show up, we serve We sing, we post We volunteer But inside it's all starting To feel like a job Starting to feel like a chore Like we're just clocking in for God Am I the only one who's ever felt this way?

37:54 I guess it's a little weird because This is my job But praise God I'm not ignorant of that fact But I don't want that for you We've turned Christianity Into a profession instead of a relationship And when that happens We lose the heart of what God really wanted All along which was intimacy I mean this starts back All the way from the garden With Adam and Eve What God really wanted Was his family Joined together The Bible says that the voice of the Lord Was walking in the cool of the day Because he wanted to be with his family It's a funny thing It's a funny thing when you read the scriptures And sometimes you miss it Because it's like God questions and goes Adam where are you?

38:43 Some people think that Adam was just The world's greatest hide and seek artist But it's not really true Because understand that the God we serve Is a God of omniscience Knowing all things Knowing the end from the beginning So it's not like he didn't geographically Know exactly where Adam was Adam wasn't that good at hiding But he was speaking To the state of where Adam was Man, where are you? And I feel like God is still today Asking the same question For a lot of us Because we're doing The things of God We're in the house of the Lord But yet God is still asking Where are you?

39:24 Because a lot of people have fallen Into this trap Of performance So the title today is simple Don't be A professional Christian Which is only funny Because he looks super professional And I don't want you to become A professional Christian Because professionals perform Lovers connect And God is not looking for performers He's looking for people who want to be with him So I'll start with the first point Performance The performance mentality specifically It's a lie Because we tell ourselves If I do enough good things for God If I pray enough If I read enough If I serve enough If I give enough Then I'll be okay Then he'll accept me Then I'll feel close to him That's rubbish I'm going to say something right now That's going to blow the whole thing out of the water Right now Where you are Despite what you think about yourself If you call yourself a Christian If you have been washed in the blood of Jesus You are supremely loved You are loved I mean right where you are right now Aside from your performance You have received the

40:57 zenith level of God's love There is not one single solitary thing That you can do to increase the love of God on your life Everything about him right now Is for you I'm thinking back to the scriptures The Bible says that He rejoices over you with love When you study you do the etymology of the language It means that he spins around like a top With excitement and joy Because you're alive He rejoices over you with singing When was the last time This is a real question When was the last time you loved somebody so much That when they were sleeping You just stood over their bed like I can't wait for them to wake up Never?

41:57 The Bible says that that's the type of love That he has for you Here you are drooling on the bed sheets And he's just like 5am is coming Clock is going to wake up But you know what's lost on us We feel that That type of love can only be achieved For the super Christian You know the super Christian The one that wakes up at 4am Spends 2 hours in the scriptures Reads 10 chapters Does Bible study Writes their notes Talks in a weird reverb voice No it's an annoying And a hilarious thing Because we feel that if we do A certain amount of things That will equate to us being okay with God And being loved by God And how many people know that That is absolutely a lie You didn't get saved Because of your performance You are not loved Because of your performance No matter how good it may be And I guarantee you This is not a super amen sermon And I'm okay with that Because we need to be Awoken to the love That belongs to us We need to be

43:32 awoken so that we can appropriate Just how cared for We really are Because if you finally get that I'll never have to worry about you being a strong Christian again Right now there are pastors All over the world Especially in this country And what they're really doing is They're priming the pump to get people on the hamster wheel Make sure you read your Bible Make sure you pray Make sure you keep coming to church I know it's cold outside But just keep coming Keep volunteering Keep giving Keep doing all the things I'm like chill I want you to do all of those things But I know that the way to get you to do those things Is not to tell you that it's right to do those things There has to be this internal switch And it only comes by revelation When you get it that I get to do these things And I don't have to do these things And a lot of pulpits are not preaching that Because they don't want to lose the people They don't want to lose the control Or the illusion of control that they have of the people Well I'm here to tell you Listen you don't come to church You're still going to heaven You don't give You're still going to heaven If you believe in Jesus You're going to heaven Scandalous Pastor Bo when you were gone Pastor Mo told everybody Just to stay home To never give again I'm not saying that But what I am saying is When you understand that you are loved Not only will you do those things You'll

45:06 do them in greater measure Than every religious person ever could The moment we start treating Obedience Like a transaction You know I did X So now you owe me Y Or you owe me closeness Or you owe me your presence Or you owe me the stuff that I'm praying for We've lost it, we've stepped out of grace And into the performance trap Ephesians 2 Verse 8 says this For by grace you have been Saved through faith And that not of yourselves It is the gift of God Not of works Lest anyone should boast For we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them The Bible says that you were created For those good things that we talk about The good things that we laud The good things that some people on the hamster wheel Are running after in religion The Bible says you were created for them But it doesn't say That you get there by just doing them It says that you get there Only by grace through faith So my way Into right Performance Is actually in right believing This makes me think of Moses Everybody Familiar with Moses?

46:40 Praise God I always count on Cleo He's a man of God With Pentecostal roots So he knows me well But it's funny Because I read something in the Old Testament And if you're not Fond of reading the Old Testament It's because you actually haven't connected with Jesus Because he is all over the Old Testament Amen Don't just stay in the New Testament thinking that is cute Because you know you're reading about your Jesus Your Jesus, your lover No, your lover is in the Old Testament hidden In the New Testament revealed In the Old Testament concealed That was a bar But one of the ways of the stories That he's concealed in the Old Testament Is when he speaks about Moses taking the children of Israel Through the wilderness To the promised land They get to this point And the people are thirsty To the point that they feel like they're going to die And they literally go to their leader And they go, listen We are thirsty and we will kill you If we don't get something to drink Which is just a funny thing Because it's not easy to lead people I mean, not me Because our people are amazing Praise God But to be a leader of people Especially when it comes to the things of God Is very difficult Sometimes you can equate it to herding cats Only the haters Of cats will

48:12 understand how funny that joke is All the cat people are like, I don't understand But it's funny because You get to this one situation where he says, okay The people want to stone me They're thirsty, there's about a million of them How do I give them something to drink And God says, I want you to strike the rock And Moses obeys He strikes the rock Supernaturally Because he hit the rock Water flows out of the rock Enough water To quench the thirst Of a million people This is a supernatural occurrence Because I don't know if you know this about geological stuff But water doesn't live inside of rocks Somebody in the back going, what?

49:09 No Water is not naturally occurring inside of rocks But it's funny because this is a picture Of the crucifixion Who is the rock? Christ The rock was struck And because the rock was struck Life Came forth And satiated the people Now a little bit of time Goes past and you look at numbers 20 And they're thirsty again And they're on that same trip Like listen, give us something to drink or we gonna kill you bro And God tells them to do something different He says, I want you to talk To the rock Now here's the funny part Not so funny if you're Moses Moses is so frustrated With the people That he strikes the rock Again And God is like The faithful man of God Is barred entry From the promised land Because he struck the rock A second time And you might say, whoa I don't even understand That's a little severe don't you think Like he's had to deal with these people Bringing them out of slavery Crossing the Red Sea Yada yada did a lot of good things All of a sudden he can't You know you start advocating for people He can't get it Why he can't get in the promised land God Like But

50:46 it's actually a beautiful picture About what we're talking about today God tells him You have not honored me in the sight of the people A.K .A I was trying to teach them Something about the cross I was trying to teach them that nothing Can be added to the perfect Crucifixion of the rock He says, I need you to talk to it now Because the first time you hit it And Jesus only needed to be hit one time For the life to come out He only needed to be sacrificed one time For the eternal life that would Quench us all to come out Anytime you try to add to the perfect Work of Jesus You're barring yourself Out of the promise He says, I want you to talk to the rock I want you to believe, I want you to have faith I don't want you to strike the rock I don't want your religious behavior I don't want you adding anything To what he already Did perfectly Nothing can add to his Perfect work, Amen We have to get it out of our minds That we're helping a savior out We got this thing Where behavior modification We want to be better, we're going to do better We set these resolutions in our heart That we're going to walk like this For the rest of the year God never asked you to do that He asked you to love me He said look at me Look at me Not realizing that when we look At

52:21 him, we are transformed Into the image of Christ, the bible says So we're not doing enough looking We're doing too much religioning We're trying to modify Ourselves when God is just looking at us Going, I never asked you to do that though You ever do something for somebody That you thought was cool but it wasn't Their love language and it really backfired I learned about love languages On my honeymoon I know right, like damn you got that far And you ain't no God bless the woman of God for putting up with me So I have this thing Where I don't really like party planning But I kind of have a grace for it So I'm really good at it And I like to plan things and prepare And just do things for other people And go ha, here you go Because there's something about the planning That makes me feel good on the inside And my wife is an acts of service person So you would think that these two things Go together really well But the only thing is, if you just do things Based on what you think Instead of what the person needs to receive It's a miss And we were on our honeymoon right And it was an all inclusive resort And there was this one server He was like on the ball Like if my drink would go out He would just come I wouldn't even see him

53:54 at some point He would just come There was only one problem I got this nasty green juice That I didn't want And I was like damn I gotta empty this out Because this ain't it So I let Tiffany drink one and she drank it And then he came and put another one in And I was like oh God I don't want this juice And this went on for about 10 minutes Where he just kept filling it I'm like throwing it on the floor I'm feeding it to the dog I'm putting it in her cup And then it dawned on me right in that moment The disconnect because I like to plan And do all these things for my wife And my wife is just like But I never asked you to do that You can be performing And doing things that you think Are the right thing But they're not actually connecting with what the person wants Imagine you put so much time Effort and energy Into doing something And the person goes Wow I really don't like those things It's not that they're ungrateful But imagine if you went through Time, effort and energy And you went and found a Siamese cat from the Himalayas That has no hair And you're like Pastor Mo here you go All the people who know me are going to be like Not only is he not an animal person But he hates cats And now you present You've gone through

55:26 the trouble You've ordered it, you've made sure it's got all the shots You've poured thousands of dollars in And you present me with this cat And I'll be like Thanks? We have done this We have done this to God We have acted like If we do these things These religious things for God It puts us on the inside When he invited us to the inside All along already You can't buy intimacy Is what I'm trying to say You can't buy intimacy With religious routine How about this For those of us who live in suburbs And I put in quotes because this is New York City So even the suburbs are very very Compact with people So if you live in a suburb Or you live in a house Then you have a garbage collector Certain days they come through for normal garbage Some days they come through for recycling Amen?

56:33 What if one day your garbage man And he's an amazing garbage man Every day without fail He's there picking up, putting it out And he's not like one of the whack garbage men Where they pick up and they just throw the can in the middle of the street So another car can drive over it So you gotta buy another one Talk to me New York City But he's a good garbage man He picks it up, he puts it back on the curb safely So that you can retrieve it, put it back in the house He's there 52 weeks a year Boom, boom, done Boom, boom, done You never have to think about the missed service Because he's always there Rain, sleet, hail, snow, doesn't matter Holidays, I don't care, I'm coming in on my day off Boom, boom Garbage man is on point What happens if one day the garbage man Says Hey man I uh I've been putting away your garbage for many years now And I was just wondering If I could come inside, sit down Play with your kids and have some dinner I don't know you brah That's the polite thing to say If you don't get up Outside of my face right now At all that But this is what some of us are doing To God We are religiously Throwing out the religion Of our lives We're making sure that the behavior In the

58:04 streets are looking tidy In our life And then we want to come to God and go See God, look, I got all this stuff right Come on, give me some of your presents and your good stuff Blessings please Which is such a A misnomer and a fallacy Because from the very beginning He invited us to be kids So why are we acting like garbage men We see it in the prodigal son In Luke 15 This is someone who was already A son And he does his own thing, he rebels He turns away If you really looked at the history of what that story is It's crazy, it shouldn't be called the story of the prodigal son It should be called the story of the prodigal God Because prodigal means to spend With no thought or regard And really what the father did is He spent his love with no thought or regard Because the son goes To the father I want my share of the inheritance Now See, Hebrew culture In essence what he was saying is I want you to drop dead And die and give me your stuff We're talking about a Gregorian culture The only thing that he had was livestock and land So in order to give the inheritance While he was alive He would have needed to destroy his life And rip apart his stuff But the bible

59:35 says that the father said yes And he gives him a portion of his inheritance Which People are always mad at the older brother The older brother had a right to be upset As the oldest brother He was going to get a double portion Of all of what belonged to the father And now all of what belonged to the father Just got cut So the older brother is out here Working and working going You're selling what? What happened? And the younger brother goes He spends everything Now here's the wild part He comes to his senses Because he realized like yo I have made a terrible mistake Even the servants in my father's house Are living and eating better than I am So I'm going to return Oh God I feel the anointing I'm going to return as a servant I'm going to return as a garbage man I'm going to religiously just serve And that'll be enough And we know that his heart wasn't truly repented Because he has the speech And he literally is only just trying to get back To the level of eating well enough He's not really concerned with the heart of the father He's not concerned with connecting Because he doesn't want to return as a son He doesn't come back and say Father receive me as a son He returns and says Receive me as a servant and I'll work for you But I love the prodigal father's response He puts a ring on his

1:01:13 finger Shoes on his feet He puts a robe on his back Kill Slaughter the fatted lamb We're going to have a party And celebrate for my son which was dead Is now alive Stop throwing out the trash And expecting to be a kid You're already his son You're already his daughter Let go of the religious performance And come into intimacy Today the call And the challenge is very simply To put down your performance And receive the love of God Preparing all week And my wife would just walk in and see me like Staring and muttering Because I couldn't get it Why do we keep doing this To ourselves His invite is to be a child Just to receive And we keep trying to be so Professional And then it hit me There's a very hard part Of this sermon We think service Equates into intimacy But we're in for a rude awakening If we approach God like that We have to take Relationship past performance Because

1:02:48 professional intimacy Has a name When someone gives you everything that they think you want They give you attention They give you service They give you acts of devotion But they keep their heart at a distance It turns into transaction When they take their most intimate moments And make them professional Well again we have a name for that It's called prostitution Have you been prostituting Your intimate moments with God Have you truly kept your heart away And said well here God This is the things that you need Read my Bible, check Go to church, check Serve in a volunteer team, check But the real thing that he acts for From the beginning Was simply your heart All that other stuff Comes after out of An abundance, a wellspring Of appreciation and gratitude Don't get too professional When it comes to intimacy with God Don't turn your quiet time Into a checklist Don't turn worship into performance Don't turn serving into a way To earn favor God is not God is not

1:04:19 looking for professionals Who know how to quote unquote Do church He's looking for sons and daughters Sons and daughters That want to be with him Sons and daughters that have a raw Real intimate relationship Listen I literally am A Christian professional I hope you know I don't volunteer here This is my job This is what I do for a living And despite that I constantly Have to make sure That I'm carrying the tension And keeping the balance between Not being a Christian professional But a child of the most high God I can't tell you how many times I've prayed this prayer Where I go into the presence of God And I go hey I'm not here for a new sermon I'm not here for a prophetic word I'm not here so I can get fresh Counsel to bless the people with Because it can easily become that Where the only interaction I have with him is to make sure That I get something to give to the people So that I look like I'm doing What I'm supposed to do It's a weird thing being a pastor Because think about it like the Bible Calls us to live off the gospel So now imagine if I got into

1:05:54 that Dirty nasty place where I now started Treating people differently because I know that The people who give make up the salary That I receive God forbid But I've seen it done Before where pastors are afraid To tell the truth because if they tell the truth Well the people will leave and if the people leave Well how will I have a living and a support Man bump that You know why they're laughing Because The people are laughing because they understand Oh yeah Pasmo's a little rough He told me if I kept doing that I was going to go to hell Listen my job is not to coddle you My job is to make sure you make it to heaven I need you to be Intimate lovers of God Not just religious workers So many places They want people to be workers I need you to volunteer I need you to give I need you to do do do do I don't want a bunch of do do Christians That stinks I want On fire lovers of God Who appreciate what he's done for them Listen If I can't tell you the truth For fear that you might not give I might as well go home My intimacy always has to stay pure Because

1:07:28 what we do We can't do it for an audience of people This is what I said in the beginning When it comes to worship Don't look to the left or look to the right Just focus on him You can't live for the applause Or the rejection of other people If you live For the applause of other people You will die by their rejection I'm not trying to die because you reject me I got the acceptance of God And Tiffany I'm good Because people are fickle I know this from social media Everybody lives off of their highlight reel Look how good I'm doing But inside you're dying Inside you just wish That you were somebody else That's for the birds God wants you to be secure In his love So that you don't have to go Chasing after validation From all these negative sources I wish For you that you would just be A lover of God and watch what he does With that because I do understand There is a tension because It's not just behavior modification You want good fruit The bible is very clear that you need good fruit But I'm asking you to be a lover What do I do?

1:08:59 James 1.22 says this Be doers of the word And not hearers only Deceiving yourself I do understand that there is a tension I do want you just to be a lover of God And not worry But I know very clearly That the bible says If you don't do what I say You will suffer the consequences of such disobedience Hearing is easy We can sit through sermons Sit through podcasts Sit through bible studies And we can feel spiritual because of it But hearing without doing is self-deception You can know all the right answers Quote all the verses Have all the bumper stickers And still be miles away from God's heart And that's the scary part Being a doer isn't about perfection Or religious activity It's about direction It's about posture What is the inclination of your heart?

1:10:13 Is it toward God and for God? I want the posture of our hearts to say God I'm not going to listen to what you say About love, forgiveness, humility, generosity I'm going to live it Even when it gets messy Even when no one's watching That's the part right there Because are you performing for an audience? Or are you doing things for an audience of one?

1:10:54 When God asks you to do certain things When he asks you to love When he asks you to give Are you doing it to be seen by people? Or are you doing it because you want to connect with your father? That's a hard thing because If we're all honest Everybody in here on some level You've done things to be seen There's a funny quote out there It says we buy things we don't need With money we don't have To impress people we don't like That's so real That is America But we're not called to be Americans We're called to be Christians Being a doer isn't about Perfection or religious activity Again I want us to be in a place where We examine ourselves How about that?

1:12:17 Because you know practical application You can talk about all this lofty stuff But at the end of the day How do I work this out in real time? Rubber meets the road The number one thing that you can do Examine yourself so that nobody else has to You can't correct what you don't inspect Inspect your life And not with a fine tooth comb Looking for sin, guess what? You'll find it very easily But Inspect your intention I had a funny moment with my wife I said to myself out loud I wonder if I should wear My leather pants on Sunday I had never owned a pair of leather pants And I recently bought one She's had multiple I'm going to put her on blast just so you know it's not me I had never owned a pair of leather pants before And I was very excited about them And I just said it Just because I do think about Man, what do I wear?

1:13:20 What do I And the sentence didn't even come out You better not! What did I do? I said what? I was just asking a question to myself You got a problem? What's the problem? She said don't you dare wear them leather pants out there I said what? She's like you know yourself You know you're going to be preaching out there And you're going to start making jokes about the leather pants And the attention is going to be on you and not the Lord Don't you wear them leather pants And I said hey I was just asking a question about fashion You know when somebody you love speaks the truth And you got to just like bite the bullet and go Alright, you're right Gotta examine yourself church Because although my intentions And my motives Might be pure In wearing my fresh leather pants Somewhere deep down The enemy might use it To keep me in a place Where I'm not supposed to be How you preaching you all the way over here So the people in the back can see it So I said duly noted Gotta find the Least leathery pants outfit I have And put that on Keep me humble before the Lord Mind you this is from the lady with Multiple leather pants

1:14:50 Looking like Eddie Murphy at a Raw But number one Examine your motivation Ask yourself honestly am I doing this And this can be whatever Prayer, serving, giving, attending Are you doing it to feel close to God Are you doing it Because you think that God will feel close to you Or even worse Are you doing it just so that it can be seen By other people Or are you doing it out of a sincere Desire for connection with him Only you can answer that truthfully After you examine yourself I want you to move from Transaction to relationship Stop treating God like the garbage Man at the curb Invite him inside Invite him into your thoughts Invite him into your fears Invite him into your failures Invite God into your every ordinary moment This is what God designed Christianity to be Where you would keep relationship And hold his hand And walk with him through life You know it's a funny thing My prayer life today looks a lot different Than when I first got saved When I first got saved It used to look hilarious Because I would roll out of bed And just drop to my knees Just to make sure I got it done And out of the way I couldn't pray more than About two

1:16:29 to five minutes when I first started But that was that, I made sure I got it done and it was out of the way Check Now Prayer looks so much different Because the posture is so much different Because I'm constantly Checking in with him Constantly keeping life with him You ever have conversations with God Like God look at that That's hilarious, look at this, look at this, look at this Jesus look at this Be having whole conversations with the Lord About random stuff And God People don't know that this is the relationship That God wants you to have I remember the first Year of my marriage, six months Into my marriage I got laid off from my job I had never been without work Since age 14 And all of a sudden I find myself with that I finally get into this privileged position Called husband where I'm to be a provider And a protector and a husband and do all these beautiful Things and then God, no job And here I am I'm praying, I'm fasting, I'm on my knees God open the doors I'll go work at McDonald's if I have to Jesus And I remember the Lord Saying something that baffled me I said Lord what do you want me to do today Because it was such a weird thing Like my wife would wake up And go to work and I would be home

1:17:59 And feeling the weight And the pressure of that She was such a loving and gracious wife Bye hon, see ya And I remember one day I woke up I said Lord what do you want me to do He was like Yo I really want to watch this movie On Netflix with you The devil is a liar Jesus Could you please speak more clearly into the microphone He's like no seriously I want you to Put on Netflix, I want to do some Netflix and chill And the craziest part is I remember my wife on one day Before she left she goes And it had to be the Lord Because I didn't share with her that he wanted me to watch a movie She looked at me she was like You realize that if the Lord wants you to rest You should probably rest And she got up and she went to work just as happy as ever And I sat down And I watched a movie with the Lord And it felt like he was sitting right with me We laughed We cried It was one of the most beautiful prayer experiences I've ever had Because we were just watching a movie And it wasn't as super spiritual as one would think But it was the intimacy And the connection of being together My prayer life Is so much stronger now Than it was then Because I've let go Of the religion of what

1:19:33 it needs to look like It's important that we pray And spend that time with God So that you can know how to navigate Every moment That's what he's calling you to Relationship Amen So I want you to examine your motivation Move from transaction to relationship Now here's a big one that people don't Honestly want to hear with a message like this Obey Obey quickly Especially in secret Be a doer where no one sees Because that's where real intimacy grows Not on stage But in the hidden place Because God asks us to do a whole host Of different things He asks us to love He asks us to forgive He asks us to be generous To be humble, to be meek Teachable And he wants to see you do these things Outside of the applause of people You know there's a reason that the scripture says Don't let your left hand know what your right is doing There's this idea That when you do something in secret Where he tells you to do it And you obey That he blesses you openly on the other side Sometimes

1:21:05 God tells somebody to give And they get their three by four check Three foot by four foot You know the big ones that they give at the The races or whatever Here you go Hey clock Hold that please Praise God I gave him that Cut a little bit off the top Praise God Doing a little bit of giving today Just you know And it's so sad because the bible is very clear You have your reward That cringe moment That everybody looked at you and thought Your reward But you know what Real giving looks like sometimes You guys ever heard of the Pentecostal handshake Some people I'm not the only Pentecostal in here Dallas you're going to do me a favor Hold this for me Hold it right like that I still need to talk Hold it Alright don't move You're doing great by the way So the Pentecostal handshake looks Something like this You take some money Preferably hundreds or better It's a Pentecostal handshake Pentecostal handshakes usually don't Invite ones and singles or fives I'm just saying All the Pentecostal handshakes I've given or received Are good money So you take that money And you fold it up really small To the

1:22:38 point that it can fit In your hand like this Like with a thumb Thank you son This is crazy because most people now Every time they get a handshake they're going to be like Relax When I pull you in for a hug Don't you be looking at my hand now But you do that And then you just go up to somebody and be like Hey what's going on brother Here's the kicker You do that and then you be like I don't want to talk about it I don't want to do nothing just enjoy that Praise God I'm out Because you don't want your right hand to know what your left is doing You're literally following and obeying The scriptures not looking for the Applause of people You're doing it for an audience of one This is the way That he wants us to live Obeying the things that he tells us to do Because we truly believe it Not because it looks good on the gram It's almost impossible now To do anything without people going Here's my selfie We out here feeding the poor They so hungry Because Here's a nasty truth that I've learned in the church world If you don't take pictures Did it really happen But yeah Sometimes you need to do things that Are not seen by people Because it'll test If you truly believe that this is for Only you and him What intimate Moments has God given you that he doesn't Want you

1:24:12 to share with anybody Sometimes that might be in your prayer Closet where you're getting deep Revelations and he tells you That's for us Because God forbid I told you I'm a Christian professional but I got to fight My way against that So now God gives me this Beautiful pristine moment Let me tell you About how me and God Was getting it on There's like Imagine how weird if I came up to you and tried to talk about My marriage bed Ill The Bible says that the marriage bed is holy and undefiled You don't have Access because you don't got a covenant Not with us In the same way when the Lord Asks you to do certain things I want you to be so willing to keep it Between you and him In obedience Amen Examine your motivation Move from transaction to relationship Obey quickly even in secret Now here's the conclusion And worship team You can come on up and get ready Jesus gives us this beautiful warning And for me it's some of the Scariest words I've ever read in the Bible Let's go to Matthew 7 Because Jesus

1:25:48 himself looks straight into the eyes of people who Looked very religious on the outside And he gave these terrifying words Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord Shall enter the kingdom of heaven But he who does The will of my father in heaven Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord Have we not prophesied in your name Cast out demons in your name And done many wonders in your name And then I will declare to them I never knew you Depart from me You who practice lawlessness Therefore Whoever hears these sayings of mine And does them I will liken him to a wise man Who built his house on the rock And the rain descended The floods came and the winds blew And beat on that house And it did not fall For it was founded on the rock But everyone who hears these sayings of mine And does not do them Will be like a foolish man Who built his house on the sand And the rain descended The floods came and the winds blew And beat on that house And it fell and great was its fall These are not fringe people That Jesus is talking about These are people who Called him Lord People who did Impressive ministry They looked like professional Christians Yet he says I

1:27:25 never knew you You did the job Well enough but you've never been Inside my house The last thing I want for any of us Is that we do this thing Now imagine Pastor Bo and the team They're out there in Guatemala They're doing this amazing work Ministering to the Ixil people And then they get to heaven and God is like And? Because they never did it with the right heart God forbid God forbid that any one of us Would commit to doing this thing Called Christianity and not get the True benefit. Let me tell you right now If you are looking for anything Other than Jesus Christ you have missed it I've said it before And I will say it again If I get to heaven And Jesus is not there I'm burning the place down Jesus Is my reward He is my crown He is eternal life The Bible says What is eternal life that we might Know him the one true God And the one whom he sent Christ Jesus this is eternal life I want you to Know God to love God and be Intimately equated With him because that is The Christian behavior modification That you're looking for to be that better You it's only going to come through intimacy With God Real intimacy So I don't want

1:28:59 you to be A professional all suited up and Buttoned up I want you to be a professional lover I want you to be so close and Intimate with God and then start doing Whatever it is that he tells you to do So much so that you're going to Look back on your life and you're not going to recognize Who you've become for the better Man I can't believe I'm Moving in selflessness I used to be so Selfish My God I'm going to the gym I used to eat so much cake Oh that was Just for me sorry So my impassioned Plea because I'm begging you Stop Stop performing and start Pursuing Stop impressing And start obeying Stop Deceiving yourself with religious Busyness Get to know God and Really know him and let that knowing Change the way that you live Close your eyes and pray with me Father we don't want to Stand before you with a list of accomplishments Of the different things that we've done And hear Those terrifying words that you never Knew us Let it be that everything that we do We do from the purest of hearts

1:30:29 And intentions that says I just Want to obey the God who saved my life Fill us With a sincere pursuit Of you a hunger that could only Be satiated in doing your will Let us be professional At one thing seeking after you So give us Grace Lord Father we ask you in Jesus name We are going to Continue to worship God through song We're going to continue Worshiping right now with the Receiving of tithes and offerings But take heart to what we're saying Because even in this moment you have an opportunity Don't Give because eyes are on you Don't give even because I say it's time to receive Give Because he said in his scriptures That this is the way Ask what he would have you give And watch him bless you The giving information is on the screens to my left And right you can if you came prepared To give a traditional gift we have Offering boxes by the exits You can give online the QR code will take you to our Secure online giving page But Don't do it to be seen Don't do it for any other reason but Then to obey The one whom

1:32:01 you love Ministry team when you've done giving please go to My left your right in the Blue lit area if you want ministry for Anything Our team has been trained to lay hands On you and release the presence and the power Of God we got life Groups coming up you can sign up Got growth track continuing Next Sunday on the 15th We really want you to get The most out of being at city like this is Not just a Sunday morning thing This is real community real Friends real family doing life Together connecting growing Bearing fruit We love you here And the best thing that we want for you Is to know God For yourself don't be so Professional at doing the things That you miss the one that you're doing it for Be

1:33:32 blessed