Christian-ish | Part 2: I Believe In God But I'm Skeptical Of His Will For My Life

Let me catch you up a little bit on our current series I know that you are familiar with this and most of us if not all of us actually use it quite a bit But there is a suffix that is commonly used in Informal English called ISH or ish and when added to the end of a word it turns that word or words into vague approximate Sort up. So I gave you this example last week that if you're trying to describe a color It's not really clear or definitive. We would say something like this. Well, it's blue-ish Okay, or it's greenish that is to say it is somewhat blue or it is sort of green So you get where we're going and today we're in part two of a three-week series that we are calling Christian ish and the driving force behind our series comes from a 2012 Survey that I read years ago. It was conducted in cooperation with three different research groups who came together to form the study And here's what it revealed quite shocking to me Honestly, it revealed that three out of four people in the United States of America say that they actually do believe in God And maybe even more shocking was that seven out of ten Actually said they believe that Jesus was God's son who came into this world But it was the follow-up question that was so provocative that really burdened me And is the genesis of our series when asked in what specific way? That belief affected their daily actions in the way they live their lives The majority of those people had absolutely no answer at all in other words What they say they believe did not actually translate to any tangible life change in any real way So here's how we're defining the term Christian ish if you're a person that lived in Christian ish It's someone who believes in God But actually goes on and begins to live their lives as though he doesn't exist and you and I know this represents a massive Number of people because it has become very very popular in this country to speak about God or to talk about God We hear athletes talk about God at the end of a con a competition We are politicians talk about God at the podium We are business leaders reference God all the time many people do But then when you actually see the way they live their lives and conduct themselves You often see something very different than what you and I know to be a God first Lifestyle and I shared with you last week that we must be careful not to know that this is not new This isn't something. It's recent. It's just happened in our world our country

actually very close to the very birth of Christianity in the book of Acts chapter 2 when the New Testament church was born and The term Christian actually began to be used very close to that There was a group of people and a bunch of people that were living Christian is let me show it to you Paul was writing to a young man named Titus and he had left him in Creek, Greece to pastor A church there that he had planted and here's what he said. He said I've noticed about the Grecians They claim to know God but by their actions in the way that they actually live they deny him Paul was describing Thousands of years ago right at the birthplace of Christianity people who were living Christian ish so here's the purpose of our series. Here's what we're driving and hoping God will do We are hoping that God will do something in our lives that will cause us to live a life that not simply Acknowledge is God that not just with our words or our lips we would say God we believe in you And we believe that your that your son was sent to this world But somehow through our daily lives our decisions our world view The way that we actually conduct ourselves and live our lives that we would live a life that brings glory and honored to God in Everything that we say and do because it is possible to be a fan of God and never be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ it is possible to be a fan of God and never be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and last week We we're tackling big ideas all three weeks and last week we tackled this idea If you weren't here for that I cannot encourage you enough to go back and listen to last week's message We talked about people who believe in God But really do not know him at all and there were three categories of people that we described Biblically and maybe you'll see yourself in one of those three But today let me tackle this idea because I think it's a big one I've encountered over all of these years people who go I believe in God, but if I'm honest, I'm skeptical about his will for my life. I Believe in God But if I'm honest, I'm a little skeptical about his will and his purpose for my life Over these last 30 plus years of ministry I Have seen many people Too many people Embrace what can best be described as customized customized Christianity? It's when we really love certain aspects of the Christian faith. And we choose to live those things. But then we reject the other aspects of the Bible,

because it doesn't really appeal to us in some way. We like, sorry, we cherry-pick the Bible, and we pick the things that we love, that we dig, that we think are beneficial to us, that we absolutely are crazy about. But then those things that challenge us, convict us, rub us the wrong way. We don't quite agree with in our own mentality. We just kind of reject and ignore it. It doesn't work. It's customized Christianity. How did we get there? Well, honestly, I'm going to tell you how we got there. We got there because we've grown up in a westernized society that has shaped our consumer minds, and they have discipled us, and they discipled us and our souls to think only about ourselves, and we live our lives that way, driven by me, myself, and I. Let me give you an example. There was a time in this country that if you wanted to eat some ice cream, you were restricted and limited to the holy trinity of ice cream. Chocolate, vanilla, Skrawberry. Skrawberry. Some people say Skrawberry. It's true. That's all you had, bro. That's all you were going to get. That's all you were ever going to get. Then one day, one day, in the 1950s, there were two brother-in-laws that came together named Bert Baskin and Irv Robbins, and they had this idea, and they stunned the world when they opened up their first ice cream parlor and introduced not just three flavors, baby. Oh, no, no, no. These cats came out with 30 one flavors, and not only were there 31 flavors, but then one of the brother-in-laws had this brilliant idea and said, "Look, man, not only are we going to offer the public something they've never had before, but we're not even going to make them buy it on the hope that they don't like it. We're going to make these little bitty miniature spoons, and we're going to put them on top of the counter, and we're going to let you look and see what you like, and then we're going to reach down and give you a little taste of that thing so that we can make sure that you like what you're purchasing and that you don't regret your purchase, because it's not about us. It's all about the consumer. It was brilliant, it was revolutionary, and the business model and the culture of our country began to take a major shift that everybody got on board. There was a time, once upon a time, if you wanted a hamburger in this country, you got it one way, baby, to all be Chinese special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed, but if you wanted to eat a hamburger, that's just how it came. If you didn't like it, you didn't get it, okay? That's how it came. And then one day, another competing franchise rose its head named Burger King, and Burger King said, "No, no, no, we're not going to do it like that." You don't have to have a hamburger the way they tell you you have to have. You know how you can get a baby?

Yeah, come on. Your way, baby. You can get it your way. You can have it your way. And then all of a sudden, everybody got on board and said, "Yeah, man, that's right. Your way, your way, your way, it's about you. It's about you. It's not about me. It's about you." And so all of a sudden, everything in this world got customized. Now, you can go online and get custom shoes, custom clothes. My man's rocking that world. Did you know you can even get custom relationships? You can go to a host of dating apps. This man right here is living in two. You can go to any number of a bunch of dating apps and you can plug in what hair color you're looking for, what eye color you're looking for, what traits you're looking for in a mate, and then you hit a button and it will spit you out 30 potentials that you can choose from just to your specifications. Now, let me stop a minute because I know that you, it sounds like I'm mad about it. I'm not mad about it. I'm really not. I enjoy the customer experience as much as anybody. I like getting hamburgers my way. I like getting shoes my way. I like getting all that my way. Here's why I'm bringing it up and here's the problem. The problem is, is that we have adopted and transferred the same approach to our relationship with God. And it's a problem. It's a major problem without even realizing it. We overlap this mentality into our spiritual lives and we treat the things of God as nothing more than another consumer experience. It vexes my soul. When I hear people in the lobby go, "Good to meet you pastor, we're just church shopping, church shopping." I know what you mean. And I'm not, if you said it to me, I'm not that language proves that we have been conditioned by the world to see the things of God as nothing more than another favorite pair of jeans. It's no good that we see the things of God and the Church of Jesus Christ as nothing more than our favorite restaurant. And as long as they keep serving our favorite dish, that's where we're going to go. And as soon as they stop serving our favorite dish or doing things the way we want them to do it, or do it the way that we want it to be done, then we're out. It's got to be deeper than this, y'all. Well, something's got to be deeper than this when it comes to our relationship with God and Genesis. The Scriptures make it clear that God first created us in His image.

We must be very careful through all of this that we don't try to flip the script and simply create the kind of God we want to serve. It's not how it works. We are here for His good pleasure. We exist for His good pleasure. We are the creation and He is the Creator and we must be careful that we don't recreate a God. We want to serve in our image and that's what all of this leads to. A relationship with God is not like a buffet, man. We get to only take the parts we love and then leave the parts we don't like. Oh, give me some of that love and mercy, but no justice and accountability for me. No, you can hold that. I'll take a second helping of His blessing and favor, but you can hold all that, take up your cross and follow me stuff. It's not how it works, man. This is customized Christianity. I'm telling you straight, it produces nothing powerful, nothing good. There is no power in the partially surrendered life, none. We don't get all of God until God gets all of us. We have a very real enemy who works overtime to appeal to our human hearts and he whispers things to us all the time to make us question God's best for us, to make us question the worth of God, the Word of God and the work of God. He's in our ear all of the time. It's what He did to Adam and Eve in the very beginning and he doesn't have anything new and he doesn't have to come up with anything new because it has worked so well for thousands of years and it still works to this day. I read a scripture and I was studying for this message that when I read it, I just leaned back in my chair and said, "Holy smoke, it's so true." Listen to this. David said in Psalm 36, "Sin whispers."

Boy does it. Sin whispers to the ungodly, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God, we're going to come back to this. They have no fear of God to restrain them. Let me just say this. The phrase "sin whispers" got me, but it not only whispers to the ungodly, sin whispers to all of us. There are whispers to the godly as well. There is something inside me and there is something inside you that prods us and that pulls us towards our own way and away from the things of God. The problem is that those whispers come with a promise of peace and control, but they never deliver. They always end up only in difficulty and pain. Here's what sin whispers, "Hey baby, go ahead and do you." Just live your truth. What are you talking about? There is no your truth and my truth. There might be our experience, but there is only one standard of truth and it is only set by the creator of the universe. He's the only one that gets to say what's true and what's false, what's right and what's wrong. Only him. Sin says, "Go ahead man. It whispers, do whatever you want. Just do what makes you happy today. Hey, don't take all that God stuff so serious. It's your body man. You do you. It's your life man. You do you.

You can do whatever you want. If it's not going to hurt somebody else or hurt you, it's all right. Believe in God. You can even go to church. Just don't take all that God stuff too serious." This is exactly the argument. The enemy used in Genesis with Eve and we're still living in the fallout of that conversation. And I'm here to testify to you that every single time in my life that I have given into this voice, it has not only led to deep problems. It has led to even deeper regret. Every time that I've listened to the voice that whispers in my head to sin, it has led to deep problems and even deeper regret. Now I want to point out again something here this phrase, the fear of God, the fear of God. I get asked so much as a pastor, what is the fear of God? It can be confusing to people and it's founded in many places in the Scripture. Let me do it like this. There have been traditionally two extremes over the years when it comes to church and understanding what it means to be a Christian. One extreme is what we know as legalism and the other extreme is what we would call license. One extreme is legalism. Legalism is rooted in guilt and it's driven by a phobia type And we see God as like Zeus on the throne. I was raised in a church that was kind of like that. And I'm very cautious and careful. I love my mother and father very much and my dad was a pastor for 32 years, but I was raised in a fire in brimstone church, brother. I'm just telling you straight, these people were serious. And when I was literally taught my whole life,

and I remember when I kind of gave up at 12 and 13, they would literally teach us kind of stuff. That if you died somehow accidentally with a lustful thought in your head, you were going straight to hell. And I thought to myself, bro, lustful thoughts are all I think. I mean, I have no other thoughts. I'm 13. I don't think anything else. I'm doomed, okay? So that's the way I didn't see God as a loving father. I didn't see God as a graceful, merciful heavenly father. I was taught to believe that he was judge, jury, and executioner. Jesus, fire in his eyes, lightning bolts out of his fingertips, unpleasable, and especially somebody like me could never please God. So I lived under this banner of legalism and it caused me to give up. The other extreme is what we know as license. License is sloppy agape, okay? The word agape means love, sloppy agape. It's rooted in this loose cavalier attitude towards God and his word. License says God is graceful and merciful and he loves me and therefore I can live any lifestyle I choose and do whatever I want to do because his grace is great and he's okay with it and he condones all of my behavior so it doesn't really matter anyway because his grace is so great lie.

It's a lie. And the enemy, listen to me about this, the enemy loves to cause us to live in extremes and what the Bible does so brilliantly, so beautifully through the word of God is it causes us to understand that we must get out of the extremes, not live in any of the extremes and walk in the central balance of his grace and truth because that's what it actually is. God's grace and love and license is viewed as a free pass. Just do whatever, man. You'll make it, not really. This is extremely dangerous, absolutely not true. So let me just tell you where do we land on this? Let me show it to you, John chapter one. The law was given to us through Moses but watch what came through Christ, grace and truth. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. This is the beautiful biblical balance that Jesus walked in. He walked in grace, certainly. He loved people right where they were. He didn't condemn them or run them down. That were not like him or bound by sin or had issues in their life. We see it all the time in the Bible. He embraced to be ate dinner with them. He showed kindness to them. He forgave them and he walked with them

but he never condoned on godly behavior or encouraged anyone to continue in that lifestyle. He faced it, he dealt with it. He always challenged them towards a life that got on and everything. I want to show you this one place where these two things come together. I don't know anywhere in the Bible where they come together more perfectly or beautifully than in this situation in John chapter eight. In John chapter eight, Bible tells us that while Jesus walked on this earth, the religious leaders hated his guts. They just did, he was a threat to their power and a threat to their control. They hated because he didn't follow the religious patterns and the normal laws. He was actually a revolutionary bro. He was an outlaw really. He was a rebel to them and in their eyes, they were constantly trying to catch him in a trap to find a reason to get rid of him. And in the book of John chapter eight, the religious leaders had caught a woman in the very act of adultery and they brought her to Jesus because they were familiar with the law of Moses, the law of Moses, but Jesus walked in grace and truth. So they came to him and wanted to try to trap him, watch this teacher, they said. This woman was caught in the act of adultery

and the law of Moses says, we're supposed to kill her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus, and this is a big point of speculation by many, but Jesus stooped down and rode in the dust with his finger, they kept demanding an answer. So he stood up and he said, all right, I'll tell you what, they let the one who has never sinned, beamer with the first rock. And when the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, I think this is telling, beginning with the oldest. Why they had lived a little bit longer is just me. But she was caught in the act of adultery and it was just a bunch of men around her fixing a killer. And I think he wrote sat down and said, and he just wrote Martha and appointed a dude. You remember Martha, don't you big though? And he went, oh, man. Yeah, I remember Martha. I'm getting on out of here. Sally, that's you in the back, big dog. You remember Sally? And one by one with the oldest until Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus said, here we go. Then Jesus said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord. She said, neither do I condemn you grace. Go and sin no more truth. Neither do I condemn you grace. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not sending you to hell for this. I'm not going to be judged, jury and executioner over this. Don't, I'm letting you off the hook. I'm forgiving you. I'm not, I'm not going to hold this over your head. I'm going to let you experience grace, but please understand truth. Go and sin no more. He didn't say, do not see this moment of grace as condoning your behavior or approving a lifestyle that dishonors God. I want you to see this moment of grace as an opportunity to start over, begin again, a chance at a fresh start to recalibrate your life and get moving in a direction that brings glory and honor to God. He didn't say, I keep on, go right back to him, but he said, no, I'm going to give you this moment of

grace, but I want you to understand what this moment of grace provides. It's providing you an opportunity to never go back to that lifestyle again and with your life bring glory and honor to God. Truth and grace. So let me do this. What does it mean to live in the fear of God? We're not terrified of God. We're not horribly afraid of God and his judgment and his, here's what it means. The Bible, when it, when it, when it harmonizes it and it says it everywhere, we're going to get into it. To fear God is to have the deepest of respect for who he is and a passionate commitment to live out his purpose for our lives. To fear the Lord is to have the deepest and the most profound respect for who God actually is and then to have this deep-seated driving passion to want to live out his will and his purpose for our lives. Fearing God is not about being scared of his wrath or judgment. Fearing God is simply about having a deep-seated respect and a reverence for who he is. And so now that we have this definition and understanding of what it means to fear God, I'm going to wrap up our message, start to lay in his plane by showing you three things that the Bible says that the fear of God produces in our lives. That when we have this, there are three things that are the natural production of this in our lives. Let me show you three right here as we wrap it up. Number one, a deep reverence for God is where wisdom the Bible says in life actually begins. You can't even have with, you don't even know with, you can't even have a modicum of wisdom until you first acknowledge God and have a deep reverence and love for God. Let me show you the Bible. Proverbs 9, "The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all wisdom. Knowledge of the holy one results in good judgment." I heard Adrian Rogers say it like this one time. He said, "If a man doesn't even have enough sense to acknowledge the creator of the universe, how in the world could he possibly have enough sense to manage his creation?" It's a truth. "If a man doesn't even have enough sense to acknowledge the creator of the universe, how in the world could he possibly have enough sense to manage and handle his creation?" When we first begin to understand and honor the who behind all of this, we open the door to then begin to understand the why and the how and the what of life. You will never know the what of life, the how of life, the when of life, the what of life until you first acknowledge the who that made it all possible. It starts with a deep reverence for God. How better to learn how something works and to understand it than to spend time and get close to the one who created it. If you want your marriage to be at the top tier and the highest level it can possibly be, you need to get close to the one who created marriage. He knows how it best works. Don't listen to Oprah

for God's sake or Dr. Phil for crying out loud. You ain't got to go to people who are speculate. You need to go to the one who created it, the one who originated it, the one who birthed it, watch what happens. When we get close to God in reverence him it just makes sense that we would grow in wisdom. You want to be able to handle your finances better and actually live in wisdom financially and know some freedom. He created the financial system. Get close to God. Read the Bible. Do what it says about generosity, about debt, about wisdom, about how to spend and how not to spend and what to do. Follow the financial advice of the Bible and God's word and watch what's going to happen. You want your relationships to be healthy and whole. You want your children to love and respect you. You want your children to grow to glorify God with their life. Read the book and do what he says about it. You want your business to flourish? Follow the scriptures about what it says about business and about revenue. He created it. If you want to grow in wisdom about all of these things and more and live at their optimum level get close to the creator of all of these things. Learn what he said and do it and watch what begins to happen. The deep reverence for God is where all of wisdom in life begins. Number two, deep reverence for God invites his protection and his provision according to the word of God. I can show you 10 verses. Let me give you one. Proverbs chapter 14. Those who fear the Lord, there it is again, no security. He will be a refuge for their children. The fear of the Lord is life giving fountain. It brings escape from the snares of death. What he's saying is there's a lot of things in this world that can bring destruction into our lives. But when we have a healthy reverence for God and as well for us, we learn how to avoid these things and make the kind of decisions that actually generate life and not death. They produce life and not death. When we do things, God's way, what we find is protection and provision. I want to say this to you. See, what we're talking about today is people who say, I believe in God, but I'm skeptical about his will and his purpose for my life. The only reason you are is because the enemy has lied to you. And he's lied to you like he lied to Eve. Remember what he said to Eve? God said, I think I've done this with you before, but I researched it. There was like, I'm trying to remember, forgive me if I'm getting this wrong, but there was like 3,600 species of fruit in the earth, okay? And God had created a garden. And he said to them, knock yourself out, bro. 3,599 times of fruit. It's all for you. I built it for you. I created it for you. I want you to have all you want as much as you want as often as you want. There's just one that I don't want you to touch. Now, bro, that's not unreasonable.

It's actually, I don't want to get off on this. It's actually a tithe. It's the first time you see the principle of a tithe. God said, this is mine. I don't want you to touch it. And the enemy shows up and says, I know you got 3,599 piece of fruit. And I know it sounds like a sweet deal, but you got to understand why he don't want you to touch the one. The reason he don't want you to touch the one is because he likes lording over you. He likes the fact that he's up here and you're down here and he knows that if you eat it, you ain't no more going to be down here. You're going to be up here with him and he don't want that. He's trying to keep you down. He's trying to keep you under his thumb. He's trying to keep you. He is not looking out for your best interest, Adam and Eve. He's trying to pull a fast one on you. It's the same lie the enemy tells people today. You don't buy into all the Bible. God's just trying to keep you down. He's trying to kill your joy. He's trying to take away your joy and limit your experience. Listen, the Word of God is not there to limit our experience. He is a good heavenly Father who knows the repercussions of what sin can do. And in his Word, he gives us guardrails to protect his children. He's giving us guardrails to protect his children. Matter of fact, let me just give you this last one. I'm going to deep reverence for God fills our lives with contentment and peace, contentment and peace. Watch this scripture, the pale for humility in the message translation. And the fear of the Lord, there it is again, the fear of the Lord is plenty and honor and a fulfilling and satisfying life. A fulfilling and satisfying life. Do not read anything into that. We're not all going to drive BMWs. He didn't say, "Boy, if you fear me, I'm going to love you." No, he's saying fulfillment. He's saying you will know peace. You will know peace that passes all understanding. Everyone in this room, including me, has this desire to live in a sense of peace and fulfillment. It's universal, we're born with it. Lasting peace and fulfillment starts with honoring God with all of our lives, coming to a place where we accept and embrace that he is a loving father

who only wants what's best for his children. Let me go back to the guardrails. You know this, but you only really know this when you have children. Because you have had conflict with your kids. If you are a good father, if you are a good mother, you have had conflict with your children who thought that you were just trying to cramp their style, kill their joy, and limit their experience. The problem is you've been 16, they've never been 40. And you know good and well, nothing happens good at 1 a.m. in the morning. Now you, trouble is what happens at 1 a.m. in the morning. And you would say, "No, you're going to be home at 11.30." And they go, "Bro, none of my friends have to be home at 11." And you go, "Good for your stinking friends." And then it just goes downhill from there. And they pout, and they're mad with you. And they won't talk with you. And they won't talk with you, and they'll come to breakfast, and you won't slap them in the face in Jesus' name. (congregation laughing and clapping) And anoint them quickly and suddenly. But you're willing to have conflict with your children, even though they don't fully understand it, because you know what they don't know. You understand what they don't understand. And because you love them. Your boundaries are not driven by your desire to keep them under your thumb.

Your boundaries are not driven because you hate them, or you despise them, or you just want them to know who the boss of the house is. Your boundaries are driven by love and protection, and a desire to see them do well. Then why do we get so bent out of shape when we read things in the Bible that rub against our flesh? When our heavenly Father is doing the very same thing for his children that he loves so deeply, because we are speculating that we're gonna be the first ones that could do this and get away with it and not get burned, and God said you won't. How can a man take fire and do some problems and not show the effect thereof? God said you're not gonna be the first one in history to have your cake and eat it too. I'm telling you I'm giving you these boundaries. In my word, because I love you and I protect you, and if you'll do it my way, you will know plenty, and you will know honor, and you'll know a satisfying life. Ignore my words, what does the Bible say? There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but what is the end? The end thereof is death. You can think you're getting everything you've ever wanted, but you won't want what you actually get, and God knows it, and so deep reverence for God fills our lives with contentment. We'll say this and I'm gonna close.

Never, Holy Spirit make this real. If you're in this room and the subject today was exactly you, please hear the Holy Spirit. Never, ever, ever be skeptical. Of God's desire and will and purpose for your life. Don't ever doubt it. He loves you more than I could ever articulate to you. He loves you more than any language could ever express. He cares for you, and he wants what's best for his children. So I'm gonna leave you with a couple of questions, and my prayer is that all week long you would wrestle with this, the Holy Spirit would tangle with you. You would truly sincerely contemplate and prayerfully consider these questions. What area of my life have I not fully surrendered to God and his will? What area of my life? I've said, okay God, you can have this and this and this. I want that, but man, I like this, and this one's mine and me, and you try to compartmentalize your life, and you say, okay, I'm gonna give you keys to every room in my heart except this one. This one, I don't want you to mess with this closet. And God said, but that's the very closet that I need to get into to heal you. But that's the very closet I need to get into to free you. That's the very room. To bring you peace and fulfillment and you don't know it What area of your life?

Have you not fully sure to God or let me say it like this? Here's another one. What am I still doing my way? instead of gods What am I still doing my way and just asking God to bless that? When the truth is God has a completely different way biblically and I'm just not going his way I'm asking him to bless my way because I want him to bless the way I want to do it What is it in your life? That you're still doing your way and asking God to bless it and it ain't working The sooner we surrender The sooner that we trust That our father loves us And that he wants what's best for his children And we trust that The sooner we know peace that passes understanding and freedom See for some of you man There's either in this room or watching online. You're putting a piece of together right now You're going wow man there there's stuff for ten years that I've been struggling with and I have often wondered if I have given my life to Christ How come this is not farther along right here? You lived a partially surrendered life and there is no power in the partially surrendered life You never get all of God until God gets all of you