H.O.T. - Humble, Open, Transparent | The Great 8

Hi, my name is Charles, and today we are talking about what kind of church we are. So what kind of church are we? We are a church that values being hot, humble, open, and transparent. We like to say God does not bless who you pretend to be. He blesses who you really are. I don't know about your experience with church, but I grew up as a pastor's kid, and I'll never forget a specific Easter where my dad took me to the mall. I'm not going to lie to you. The only way to describe it was it was a very ratchet and a little bit ghetto mall, and we walked into this store where they had these long suits with plastic over all of them, and I bought this all white long, like I looked like a 2005 NBA draft person, and I got these white gator shoes, and I remember getting all dressed up, and that was a picture of kind of what church had been known to be, which is on this day of the week, you put on your best, and there's nothing wrong with putting on your best, but there's a part of that that makes us feel like we have to present a certain way, we have to act a certain way, and you have to be a certain way if you're going to go to God's house. Well, here at Transformation Church, our vision, one key part of it is representing, and what that means is showing God in a new way, and being hot is a key part of that. It's being humble, open, and transparent people of integrity. We like to say it's about progression and not perfection, that when you come to church, you're not showing up trying to act a certain way, trying to make people think you're someone that you're not, but you can come being honest, being humble enough to say, you know what, I didn't have a good day, or I didn't have a good week, or I don't know what you're talking about, or what does that song mean, or I'm honest, and I'm trying to be honest with, I'm struggling with my faith. Wherever you are, we are saying that God doesn't bless who you pretend to be, but he blesses who you really are. You know, this idea of being hot, I love it, and specifically the two ideas of open and transparent. You know, when you think of a house, or a window specifically, at our home, we have

a little tiny backyard, and pretty much there's a play set that takes up a lot of the backyard that the kids have, and our two bedroom windows are right by the backyard. So very much so, this morning, the kids woke up, they got dressed, got ready, did all their morning routine, and then we said, hey, you still got some time before school, so you can go outside, and they're in the backyard playing, and they're running around, and me and my wife always crack open our little back window, so we can hear everything that's going on. Well, here's the idea with an window. There's a difference between an open window and a transparent window. So when the window is just open, and the blinds are open, I can see out to everything. So it's transparent, and I can see what's going on, but the openness is a different level of access. What am I saying? When we say we are open and transparent, what this plays out in our lives is, hey, we're transparent that we share, hey, I'm struggling, and I'm going through something, but we're also open to let people in to help us, because sometimes pride will tell you that you can do it by yourself, you don't need anybody's help, you got to get it all together, and then you're at a certain point where then you present, but that's not true. We're transparent, so we show, hey, I have weakness, hey, I'm struggling with my faith, hey, I'm trying to figure out what I believe about God, hey, I prayed and it didn't happen, and so now I have questions, that's the transparency, but the openness is when you go to the friend, and you say, hey, can you help me with this? I need accountability, or I need you to pray with me, or I need someone to help me with my kids because I'm a little overwhelmed right now, and here's the thing, that only works with that first part, humility. If you're not humble enough to be honest, to be open, to be transparent, you will never find some of the most beautiful relationships, the most beautiful friendships, and some of the biggest transformation in your life will happen when you are hot, when you are humble, when you are open, and when you are transparent. So here's my challenge for you today, being hot is not something we just say, but it's

something that we live. What would it look like for you today? I'm talking about right when you stop watching this video, what would it mean for you today to be one area, one step closer in being hot in your life? Here's what I want you to do, here's your challenge, I want you to pick one thing, not a million things, I'm not talking about a massive confessional where you come up and tell everything you've ever done, no, no, no, pick one thing that you can be honest First, with God about, and with another person. What is one thing you can first be honest with God about? Here's the funny thing about God. We like to act like we're tricking God. He already knows. So sometimes we come to church performing like, no, I'm fine and I'm good. He already knows you're not. But there's something special that happens when you say, I'm honest. God, I'm not okay. God, I'm struggling. God, I need you. What is one thing you could be honest with God about, and then take the step of courage to be honest with another person? The Bible says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. The last portion of that scripture that many times goes missed is, it says we overcome by the blood of the lamb. That's what Jesus did. The word of our testimony.

And there's a third part to that scripture. And it says, and they did not hold on to their lives too tightly. Says how these people overcame was the blood of the lamb, the word of the testimony. And what is it? They were humble enough that they weren't holding on to their image so much and trying to protect so much that they weren't honest. So you have no idea what could happen if you would be honest with someone else. What I want you to know is here at Transformation Church, who we are, we are a church that values being hot. And my prayer would be, is that it would not just be the organization, but it would be me and you, the organisms that would live this out. We love you so much. And like we always say, go out and live a transformed life.