Devoted to His People | Devoted | Twin Rivers Church

Next week is the Super Bowl, and it is estimated 130 million people will watch it. Now what's interesting to me is that the majority of those people will not care about the outcome. They're just there for the kind of hangout, the commercials, and the nachos. But there is a small minority of people who care greatly about the outcome because they are followers of these teams. You know, they know, they've watched all the games this season. Their closet's full of apparel. They know what the quarterback's completion percentage is. They know what the injury report says. They even know weird facts about their players. For example, one New England wide receiver is deathly afraid of cats, which I fully endorse. And with that being said, there is this difference. Two people will be watching the same game, but many of them will be casual fans, but some of them are devoted followers. And that is also the way we find the body of Christ. We have a lot of casual fans of Christ. People who don't realize it, but they've settled in their pursuit of Him. Your casual fandom looks like that you love church on Sundays, but it never fully makes it into your living on Mondays. It looks like the fact that you consider yourself a person of faith, but if you're honest, you've never shared your faith with anybody. It's the idea that you want God's favor on your life, but you don't want His leadership. And so you've not invited Him into your decisions or who you date or how you spend. It's this casual fandom that many people are living, but here's the problem, it's dissatisfying. Many people are following Christ and they're dry and lacking, and it's because they've made a casual commitment. The answer to that problem is the word devoted. This year I'm doing my best to help you start off by resigning casual Christianity, devoting yourself to fully following Christ. Not looking for convenience, but really going all in because I think at least once in your

life you should follow Jesus fully to see what the results will be. And I believe a richness and a vibrancy that you've been looking for is what you'll discover. So we've been doing this from a passage of scripture, Luke 24, that kind of shows some of the followers of Jesus moving from associated to devoted. There's this shift in them. And just to give you a little context, Jesus has been crucified, He's been buried. Three days later He raises from the dead. Now we know that because we read it, but the disciples who were following Jesus at the time didn't fully understand what was going on in those three or four days. They just knew that He had been arrested and crucified. There were rumors He had raised to life, but for the truth is, they're gripped by fear that the same fate is going to follow them. So they start to flee and scatter. And Luke 24 zooms in on two followers of Jesus who are leaving Jerusalem where all this has taken place, and they're fleeing to a place called Emmaus. And this is what's amazing about the passage. They are followers of Jesus, and then all of a sudden on the road they meet the resurrected Jesus. Now, but this is the best part, and they don't recognize it's Him. For seven miles, they talk to Him, walk with Him, but do not recognize it's Him. And through this passage, He does a few specific things that open their eyes. And I think it's a beautiful picture of how you could be walking with Jesus and not see Him in your life, but if you too will follow these same kind of truths, you can see Him in a fresh way, moving from associated to devoted. Okay? So I want to take you back in the passage, Luke 24, starting with verse 30. When He was at the table with them, that's Jesus, He took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us when He talked to us on

the road and opened the scriptures to us? They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. So they've left Jerusalem, now they turn around and head back to where they've left. And there they found the 11. Who are the 11? Well, you remember Jesus had 12 initial disciples, and one of them was Judas, who had committed suicide after the crucifixion. So there's 11 left and they're hiding. And it says, and they were assembled together. And these two guys walk in and they go, it's true, the Lord has risen and appeared to Simon. And then the two told them what had happened on the road to Emmaus. Now there's no detail in the Bible that's insignificant, but at the same time, it's common to read the Bible and miss details that matter. And I probably read in preparation for this series, this passage 50 times. And it was on the 49th time that I saw what I'm going to share with you today. Sometimes it's just that the most obvious things are hidden. And this is what I saw. on the 49th reading, that it wasn't, these two didn't grasp who Jesus was. They did not understand who he was until they were together. Let me say it this way. He did not reveal himself to anyone individually. It's not like he came to one and said, hey, this is who I am, don't tell the other. It's not like one of them had this epiphany and said, oh, I better not say nothing. No, no, no. These two are in relationship, and that's where they see him.

And then their immediate response is to go back to the 11 who are all assembled, and that's where they recognize he's now resurrected. And so here's the kind of the truth is, living in isolation limits your revelation of Jesus. You are never gonna see all that Christ is if you go at this alone. You are never fully gonna understand all he wants to do if you do this alone. For us, we must become devoted to each other because in that, we see him more clearly. Now, this is a problem because we are a relationally resistant people. There was a Dutch psychiatrist who did a study. He looked at all the nations of the world and the way that they gathered in tribes or communities, neighborhoods, and he created a scale to discover who is the most connected group of people on the planet and who is the most individualistic group of people on the planet. And he put together this scale and he ranked every country. I'm gonna give you one guess. The number one most individualistic culture on the planet, guess where it is? The United States of America. That we are more individual than any other group of people on planet Earth. Now, let me just say, that doesn't surprise me

because that is weaved into the very fabric of our pride as a people. I mean, we want individual rights. We want individual privacy. We love individual accomplishment. We pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. And listen, when the Super Bowl is played, we'll talk a little about the team. We'll talk a whole lot more about the MVP because we praise individual performance. But out of that, what we have to recognize is that yes, we live in a country and I'm grateful to live in America, but we are citizens of a kingdom. And it means that within the country, we live according to the kingdom. And according to the kingdom charter, that is the word of God, your faith is personal, but it can never be private. And that tension is why many of us may not be seeing Christ the way we want to see him. It may all of a sudden reveal why in fact, we are not experiencing him in the way we want to. As a matter of fact, this is such an issue that you don't even realize how much it's skewing your faith. I wanna show you this. I'm gonna show you some of your favorite verses of scripture. And I'm gonna show you the way you read them

compared to the way Jesus said them. I'm gonna go back through several of them. Here's the first one, Matthew chapter five, verse 13. This is from the Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus speaking. You are the salt of the earth. Okay, did you know in the Greek, the original language, the word you is not singular, it's plural. Let me say it this way. If Jesus were from the South, he'd have said, y'all are the salt of the earth. If he was from New Jersey, he'd have said, you guys are the salt of the earth. It's plural, it's not individual. Let me read you another one, the next verse. You, plural, are the light of the world. Now notice this, we read this all the time and then we don't see this. A city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. He didn't say a single apartment on a hill. No one person lives in a city. A city's a place of community. Okay, let me show you some more. John 14, 12, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. And greater works than these will he do. Now, if you've ever read this verse, you're thinking, man, is this true? Because I don't know any one person that's done greater works than Jesus.

I don't either. Collectively though, we have. Because this isn't written, he, as individual, again, in the Greek, it's plural. Let me show you another one, John 15, five. I am the vine, you are the branches. He didn't say you're the branch. Branches, plural. Let me show you another one, John 16, seven. But very truly, I tell you, it is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the advocate, which is the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if you go, I will send him to you. That you there is not you, it's us. The Holy Spirit wasn't just sent to you, he was sent to us. Let me show you one more, John 14, two. I am going away to prepare a place for you, and I will go and prepare this place for you, and I'm coming again, and will take you to myself so that where I am, you will be also. I hate to break it to you. Jesus ain't just coming back just for you He coming back for us Most of what you read as promises to you are actually promises to us Okay Which means if you read through an individualistic lens you're reading an error Which all of a sudden may real reveal why so many of us are dry and dissatisfied Because a lack of community is limiting the work of Christ That there's just some things we only going to get together. There's some views of him We only glimpse when we're together that there's certain things that are only going to come in your life

Through another person and through you to another person that the body of Christ is how you experience Christ let me say it this way a few weeks ago I was in a another city and I had six lanes of traffic and to the I mean it was like standstill but there was this far lane on the left side and it had big letters painted on the Asphalt HOV high occupancy Vehicles and what that meant is that everybody else who wanted to drive alone had to stay stuck But if you decided to take this journey with other people in the car You could get in that lane and that lane lets you go faster and further than the other lanes that were there Community is God's HOV lane for your life that when you decide to go alone You you're slow and you often do not go as far as he wants you to go but if you decide to engage in the community that he has created if you decide to Authentically and devotedly come in with his people you get to go faster further your character gets developed quicker Your gifts are used in a faster way. You get to go further in life and get there quicker There's an acceleration on the life of a believer when they choose to be devoted to each other Okay. Now here's what I want to do. I want to I want to do something very kind of theological today I want to show you why God has decided to make relationships so significant in revealing himself And and I want to show this to you because for many of you I think you see them as optional But I want to show you that this is something that God has weaved into his plan and that we either Receive it or in fact, we reject it and that determines how much just like on the road to a maze how much of him? We see so here's the first one Relationships are a tool to craft character a few years ago. I was at the British Museum Which is amazing. They were the Rosetta Stone They have the gates of Babylon and they also have a vast collection of Greek and Roman Marble statues and I know you've probably seen pictures this I mean the detail is unbelievable I mean you can see the the shape and tone you can see literally muscles and in the hands. It's unbelievable I mean I sit here and I go this guy did this 2,000 years ago And I can't even make something that my kids recognize with play-doh. I mean, it's just incredible Okay, I don't know if you know this but the word character in English is derived from the Greek word that means to engrave or etch It's the same type of wording that would be used for these marble statues

And it's a picture of an artist who shows up to just a block of marble and through continual and painstaking Intentionality he etches away chips away at what's not needed until the vision in his heart is revealed in this masterpiece Okay Now we know this the Bible tells us that it is God's goal to shape you into the image of his Son That he's trying to chip away all the parts of you that look like you and he's revealing What scripture calls the hope of glory or Christ in you? Okay, but have you ever asked yourself what tool he uses to do it? See he uses scripture and circumstance But scripture shows us that overwhelmingly one of his greatest tools to etch away at your character our relationships Listen, it's slow people that he uses to chip away impatience It's difficult people he uses to craft grace It's a bad boss that he uses to to craft in self-control It's bad employees that he uses to craft in mercy It's people who've offended you that he uses to to craft in the forgiveness It's your spouse that he uses to chip away selfishness. It's your kids that he uses to craft into you Unconditional love that it's people who are depending on you that he uses to craft in you There's this strength that helps others a servant heartedness Now with that being said we recognize from scripture It's his desire to shape you into the image of Christ and we also understand he uses relationships. So here's the only question How's the progress going? When you look at your life, are you more like Christ today than you were a year ago Than you were five years ago, and if you look at yourself and you go, you know, I kind of look the same There's a good chance. It's because you took the tool out of his hand by disengaging relationships You You're not gonna become who God wants you to become by yourself. He uses those people to craft in you what he's looking for. Now, let me say this. That's why this year, I think it's so important. What we learned from these two guys is this.

Verse 33 says, the very first thing they did at recognizing Jesus is run to relationship. They didn't go to temple. They didn't go to prayer. They didn't go to make a plan. They found the 11 who were assembled. They made these relationships. So to get this, they said, God's on the move. We gotta get with people. Okay, so here's your challenge. This year, I want you to make godly relationships your top priority. Godly relationships your top priority. Now, you can have ungodly relationships. I mean, we're helping some people come to the kingdom, but I'm talking about the top priority are people who are godly. And now, this is gonna take a little bit because here's what's happened many times for you. You met someone and you thought, oh, I'd really like to spend more time with them. There was like some natural chemistry or you kind of just felt like this could be something. And then what you said is like, hey, we need to get together. When things settle down, let's get together. And that was seven years ago. Because here's the truth we're just gonna have to face. There's no such thing as when things settle down. No such thing as not hectic. No such thing as empty schedule.

No such thing as lack of opportunity. Every single person's life is full. And therefore, we have to understand that if we are going to have these relationships, we're gonna have to choose to make them a priority. And a lot of people today talk about, well, we need to go back to the Book of Acts, the Book of Acts, you know, they had this deep community and this deep. Let me just say this. Most of the problem we have is we want the first century's community on the 21st century schedule, and that don't work. You're not gonna have what you see in the Book of Acts unless you set aside all the schedules and demands and actually set at a table consistently. Because community only comes from a lot of unhurried time together. A couple years ago, I was in, I think it was 2019, I was in Mobile, Alabama. I was gonna be speaking at a church the next day. I was in the hotel and I was praying about the service. And then out of nowhere, I just felt like the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. And he said this, he said, he said, in the Old Testament, people prayed alone. In the New Testament, they pray assembled. Now, if you wanna ever study something, go look at that. In the Old Testament, Moses goes up on a mountain alone. Elijah goes on a mountain alone.

David's in the wilderness alone. But in the New Testament, you ain't gonna find anybody praying alone. Even when Paul's in prison, he's praying with somebody. And he said this, I want you to invite five, and he gave me five names, to go with you and pray. Now, first of all, I just, I said, God, you obviously don't know what you're talking about. Because two of those guys I don't even know, and I'm an introvert. Like two of them, I didn't even have their phone number. I had to slide in their DMs, okay. And then number two, God, I know you, but I'm busy. I don't have time to go find, you know, just get a bunch of people together and trying to pray. And here's the thing I've learned about God. He's not much for arguing. He tells you what to do. If you choose to do it, you end up blessed. If you choose not to do it, you're frustrated. And so, ultimately, I learned enough of that. It stayed with me, and I reached out to these guys. And I said, hey, here's what I feel like God said to me. Would you be interested? Luckily, all five of them said yes. We went and prayed together. That prayer, now, let me say this. The five people who were there all lead big ministries, and every single one of us said,

of all the services, of all the conferences, of all the places we've ever been, that was the most powerful God encounter we've ever had. There's just certain parts of experiencing God you don't get until you're just in relationship. And we started doing it every year since. Today, those five people are my five closest friends on the planet, and most of the significant decisions that I've made in this ministry and in my life came from one of those retreats. Some of you are praying, God, I want more of you. I want to experience more of you. But what you're thinking is through an individual lens, you're thinking, that's gonna happen in a conference or a service or through a podcast. And God's saying, you're not going to experience more of me somewhere, you're gonna experience more of me through someone. And the more you make godly relationships a priority, the more of God's activity you're gonna see in your life. Okay, here's the second one. Second one is this, relationships are a source of strength. Recently, my algorithm started feeding me people doing dumb things. Very entertaining. There's a video of a guy who cut down a tree and it fell on his car, because he didn't angle it the right way. There's another one where a guy set a ladder on the banisters over a case of stairs

to change a light bulb that was over the stairs. And he ended up at the bottom of the stairs. who took a broomstick and tied a chainsaw on the end of it to try to cut a branch. Now, what did all these people have in common, besides the fact they were men? Okay. Here's what they had in common. They were all alone. And you're dumber when you're alone. No, that's not just my opinion, that's true. Studies show that you staying in an isolated state, your IQ decreases by 30%. Cortisol increases. Cortisol is a stress-releasing hormone. It means your critical thinking's not as sharp. We're dumber when we're alone. You know what else you are when you're alone? You don't have as much capacity. You can't carry as much. You're not as strong. One of the things I love about the Bible is just that it's so honest about human nature. Now, let me say, some critics of the Bible will say, well, you know, the Bible's just a bunch of stained glass heroes, and they're just perfect people, and they're pious, and when someone says that, it lets me know they've never read the Bible. Because if you read Genesis alone, it is very clear those are some messed up people.

I mean, you get into, and that lets me know that God wrote the scriptures and we didn't. Because I'd have put the most messed up people at the back of the book. He puts them in the first few chapters. I mean, you read Genesis, it is colorful. You're like, what in the world? Okay, why would God do that? Because he make an important theological truth right out of the gate, and here it is. We all have weaknesses. That we all have appetites we can't control. We all have habits we can't overcome. We all have battles within us that we can't conquer alone. Okay, and so one of the things that I just, I think is so beautiful about these two guys from Emmaus is this, they come back to Jerusalem, they find the 11, and they walk in and admit their weakness. No, no, no, seriously. They walked in as followers of Jesus and said, yeah, we walked with him for seven miles and had no clue who he was. That is not how you get promoted from junior disciple to taking Judas' place. Like, one of the basics of getting promoted is you recognize who Jesus is, okay? But it's interesting, isn't it, that Jesus revealed himself to these guys and not the 11? I think it's because he knew these guys would be authentic and the 11 always tried to keep up appearances.

You see, there's a great chance that you don't have the depth of relationship you want because you've kept that relationship superficial. And I wanna say for many of you, you're actually, like, you go, yeah, I'm all about relationship, but I'm still dry. And maybe you're in a life group, maybe you've been in life groups, you've been leading a life group, and you're like, yeah, but I just don't seem, this doesn't seem to be working. And it's not because you don't have relationships, it's because all of them are superficial. Let me tell you how you can know a relationship's superficial, first of all, you don't really exchange feelings, you just exchange information. Here's another one, you've never had enough, the relationships never got deep enough that you shared personal conflict you had to resolve. Another one would be that you basically just don't really share details. It's kind of all surface, what's the weather, what's life, what's work schedule? I remember when Kayla and I first got married, I'd go spend time with my friends and I'd come back and she'd go, well, how are they doing? I'd be like, I don't know. She'd be like, well, how's their family? We didn't talk about it. Well, how's their kids, what's going on at work?

I don't know. She'd say, you just spend hours with these people and you don't know anything about them. I'm like, yeah, I guess not, we just stand there with each other, you know? Okay, now listen, here's the number one way that you can tell if a relationship's superficial. When you need help, you don't call them. Galatians 6.2 says, carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. The word burden there in the Greek means excessive weight. Now listen, if you've ever had something delivered to your house, like an appliance or something like that, and it's really heavy, there's usually on the side of a box there's an image of two people picking this up, like two little stick people picking this up. That's a warning, this is too heavy to carry alone. And what I really feel like some, because if you choose to ignore that warning, you're gonna injure yourself. I'm gonna be watching you on my algorithm, okay? Listen, some of you need to be warned, a diagnosis is too heavy to carry alone. The grief that you're going through, it's too heavy to carry alone. That a addiction's too heavy to carry alone. Parenting's too heavy to carry alone. That navigating this economy in your business, it's too heavy to carry alone. That ministry is too heavy to carry alone.

And all you're gonna do is injure yourself and you're not gonna end up moving forward like you want to anyways. I remember years ago, Kayla and I were on a missions trip with a, and we were having dinner with a big. group of pastors and everybody was kind of just having a conversation and, you know, pastors are sometimes the worst at being authentic and kind of, you know, expressing themselves. And, you know, people were going around sharing kind of about their season and, you know, one pastor, oh, we're blessed and highly favored, and another pastor's like, we're just going from glory to glory, you know, and this. And then another one's like, oh, it's never been better. And then it got to us and I was like, probably one of the hardest seasons we've ever been through. We're really struggling. And everybody's face turned and looked at us like we were aliens. And then afterwards, they just kind of got quiet. And after the meal, one of them came up to me, his name's Travis, and Travis said, he said, thank you so much for being authentic. And then he said this, how can I help? Now listen to me. Some of you are exhausted and you're worn out. And it's not because there aren't people around you to help. It's because you won't ask for help. So here's the challenge for you. Not just to make godly relationships a priority, but here, listen, for many of you, this is the step. I'm challenging you this year to be more vulnerable than ever. Let me say that that went over well, I can tell everybody's like, okay, let's pack up and head home. Listen, listen, you can't always be the strong one.

Some of you pride yourself on you're the one, I'm always the one that helps people. You're not helping people because you're servant hearted, you're helping them because that's the way you protect yourself. It's an expression of pride. And here's what I found about God. He destroys pride. So this year, don't ask for help. God is going to give you strength like you've never seen. He's going to navigate you through circumstances you think you can't come out on the other side of. He is going to help carry loads that are so far beyond your ability, but he's going to do it through people. So that means you have to push past the trust issues, you have to step over the excuses, and you have to tell someone, I need your help. And as your vulnerability increases, the power of God's going to increase in your life because God gives us strength through relationships. Here's the last one. Relationships are the way you exercise your gifts. Now the Bible says clearly that the room the 11 are in is not faith filled. They're downcast in doubt, trying to figure out how to basically survive. And this is interesting. So God knows the condition of these 11, and he doesn't send a postcard, he doesn't send a plan, he doesn't even send a miracle. He sends two people. And they walk in and they share that the resurrected Christ they have encountered, and 11 go from doubt to full faith. Okay, I'm going to give you three facts of life. You ready for them? Number one, you have a gift that you are carrying. So you don't even know me, how do you know I have a gift?

Because if you're a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit in you, and the Holy Spirit possesses all gifts. You have a gift you're carrying. Number two, somebody needs the gift you're carrying. You have a gift and somebody else needs it. Now number three is the one you don't know, but it's the most important one that I want you to get today, and it's this. You will not be satisfied until you give what you're carrying. We recognize at times like, oh, okay, God's put something in me, and we recognize other people need it. What we don't recognize is our satisfaction comes from giving it. Kayla was listening to a minister the other day, and she shared with me, she said that they were talking about that they, over the years, they've learned when they wake up kind of blah, down, not a lot of faith, not a lot of joy, they used to say it would ruin their whole day. They said, now I've learned that the minute I recognize about myself in the morning, I immediately ask myself this question, who can I bless? It said even the thought of helping someone else flushes that out of my system. It says, well, I'll pick up a phone and call someone and just pray with them, I'll send someone a gift, I'll call and encourage someone, because I recognize that the minute I start thinking about helping someone else, that lack of joy, it's gone, and all of a sudden, I start to feel it welling up in my own spirit. Now why does that happen? Why could you just the thought of helping another person cause you to experience joy? Here's why. Because wherever there's a need, that's where Jesus is. The minute you start focusing on what somebody else needs, you just stepped into the presence of Jesus, because he's always where people are hurting, always where people are broken. For many of us, we don't experience his presence because we're never focused on another person but ourselves.

So you need this, but let me say, this is also where meaning comes from. Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist who was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Adler. He did a lot of study on basically the core values or meaning of life. and Nazi Germany Basically began to invade different parts of Europe and they came in to Vienna where he was at and arrested he and his wife his Mother his father his brothers and sisters they were transferred several times through different camps until eventually they were separated and Victor found himself at Auschwitz and Everything that brought pleasure in life was stripped from him His purse his possessions his freedoms his family His ability to do What he loved in any measure and and in addition to that he saw unspeakable evils At somewhere along the way though He recognized that everything had been taken from him But one thing and he writes about this he says everything can be stripped of you except for one thing the choice in your attitude and He decided in the middle of this concentration camp that he would do what he has always done. He is going to treat patients he began to Look at everyone that was in his cell block as his patient. He looked at them as Those who needed encouraged he encouraged those who needed comforted comforted those who needed to be learned He learned taught people to read taught people to write any way he could serve physically He would help them complete their tasks anything he could do and help people he did There were mass amounts of suicides that took place in concentration camps because people could not handle the despair and When the war was over not a single person in his cell block committed suicide Every single one of them were preserved because he was there He went back to Viennese for the next 25 years researching meaning now Freud says the meaning of life is pleasure but

Frankel discovered this he said the secret of life is meaning actually its purpose that there's at some point you can actually obtain pleasure and still feel dissatisfied and empty and He said the true meaning of life is meaning or purpose knowing that you have a greater calling something. He took those Insights and wrote a book called man's search for meaning which is one of the most Published books in human history It's one of the most significant books in psychology and it's seen as one of the history's great literary works Here's one of the quotes in the book Viktor Frankl writes the meaning of life is to help others find the meaning of theirs The meaning of life is to help others find the meaning of theirs Some Of you are in this room and you've attained a whole lot as a matter of fact the life you live other people dreaming about living You're you're you've got a certain level of income. You've had success in your career. You're esteemed by people You you've had a lot of experiences Have you accumulated a lot of things you have people that love you and yet there is something on the inside of you that feels Lacking and it's because you have a gift that is unused You have tried Freud's theory of pleasure and you have found it dissatisfying and So what I'm saying is why don't you try? Frankl's theory of meaning and give yourself to helping someone else 2,000 years before Viktor Frankl experienced his epiphany Jesus said it this way It is more blessed to give Than it is to receive Literally meaning Happier are people who bless others than those who are always looking to be blessed So you don't need a community just because of what you need. You need a community because of what you can give Now listen to me if you do life alone, you're gonna miss out on all God has for you God didn't just create community He didn't just create community as a place for us. He created it as a place he meets us So whether it's a tribe or a clan or a group you need one

Because you will not see all that Christ has You will not see Christ fully Until you devote yourself to one another