Letter to the Church | Misplaced Emphasis

It's so great to have you with us, I just want to invite you all to stand up and join in. I know one day, there can't silence your embrace I know one day, there can't empty out a grave I know one day, it's the only thing that saves And it's worthy of all praise I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name I'm ever free With dominion over death He holds the keys In his holiness God hands He's the heal Death's crushed the serpent's head A resurrected grave he hath I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name Chains break, dry bones break Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call your name Chains break, dry bones break Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call your name Glory, glory, glory is now yours Glory, glory, glory is now yours Glory, glory, glory is now yours Well, all that is now yours, yeah, yeah Well, all praise your victory Dead things come alive, dead things come alive, dead things come alive in the name of Jesus I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer ♪ Risen and reigning with power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪

♪ I call you, I call you savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of your love forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you healer ♪ ♪ Risen and reigning with power ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you savior ♪ ♪ Worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you Jesus ♪ ♪ Woo! ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ The wise and generous ♪ ♪ Falling down in worship ♪ ♪ Sing a song of ages to the land ♪ ♪ And all who've gone before us ♪ ♪ And all who will believe ♪ ♪ Sing a song of ages to the land ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ In all thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation rise ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪

♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ If you've been here, if you've been here ♪ ♪ Sing a song forever to you ♪ ♪ If you walk in freedom, if you bear his name ♪ ♪ Sing a song forever to you ♪ ♪ Sing a song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, all creation rise ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Can your people sing holy to the king of kings? ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ All power, all positions, your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name, your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions, your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Faith stands above the law and the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, our creation cries ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Can your people sing holy to the king of kings? ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Can your people sing holy to the king of kings? ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Can your people sing holy to the king of kings? ♪ ♪ Holy forever, you will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ You will always be holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Amen ♪

♪ Amen! Thank you, God! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ What would I give you? ♪ ♪ What would I give you? ♪ ♪ I feel it in the soul ♪ The lowly spirit moves ♪ When you hide away ♪ Something has to break ♪ Tear down every lie ♪ Set the wrong thing right ♪ When you hide away ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Right now in your name ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Right now in your name ♪ Something has to break ♪ It has to break ♪

♪ I feel it in the soul ♪ The lowly spirit moves ♪ When you hide away ♪ Something has to break ♪ Tear down every lie ♪ Set the wrong thing right ♪ When you hide away ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Right now in your name ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Right now in your name ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break ♪ Right now in your name ♪ Something has to break ♪ Something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ Right now in your name, something has to break ♪ ♪ Something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ Something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ I believe you'll bring me to it, I believe you'll lead me to it ♪ ♪ I believe you will do it right now, something has to break ♪ ♪ I believe you'll lead me to it, I believe you'll get me to it ♪ ♪ I believe you will do it right now, something has to break ♪ ♪ I believe you'll get me to it, I believe you'll lead me to it ♪ ♪ I believe you'll lead me to it, I believe that you will do it right now, something has to break ♪ ♪ I believe you'll lead me to it, I believe you'll get me to it ♪ ♪ I believe that you will do it right now, something has to break ♪ ♪ Something has to break, right now in your name ♪

♪ Something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ Right now in your name, something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ Something has to break, right now in your name, something has to break ♪ ♪ Something has to break, something has to break, something has to break ♪ ♪ Feeling in this room, boiling spirit move, swing your life away, something has to break ♪ ♪ Feeling in this room, boiling spirit move, swing your life away, something has to break ♪ Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, when we speak your name, we know that fear does not live here. We know that the enemy flees in just one name and that is your holy name and that is Jesus. So as a church, we speak that name out and we say Jesus. Jesus. We have listened to the lies, we have built up walls and right now in this moment, we are believing and knowing that we are going to dig in your truth and that something in this room has to break and it has to break off right now. The pride has to break, the lust has to break, the greed has to break, the relationships have to break and we do that in the name of Jesus right now. So God, we thank you for your holy presence. We thank you that you are a God that hears us. We thank you that you are a God that sees us and we thank you for your presence here today for in our life and for the conviction that you have placed in our heart, God. Help us to respond to that. Help us to respond to that and to know and believe

and truth that there is freedom in you. Amen. God, help us in our weakness. God, help us in our suffering. God, thank you for who you are, God, we praise you, we worship you, we lift you up, God. And all of God's people in the church, they gave it mighty. Can we give God some praise in the house this morning? You can have a seat. Say hello to your neighbor. How's everybody doing this morning? Everybody happy to be here? That didn't sound very happy. Is anybody happy to be in the house today? Welcome home. And we say welcome home because we mean that you are actually home. Welcome home to the first-time guest. If it is your first time, we say thank you. We say thank you for coming in because you have been prayed for. And if you are a guest that just has not been here in a long time, we say welcome back home. Because you have been prayed for. And welcome home to a family of believers. I'm so grateful to be in the house today. I'm so grateful to come from yesterday we had the privilege as our church, our worship team, we went into, I don't know if anybody knows of this place, Chillicothe Correctional Center. Anybody know that place? We had the privilege and the honor to go in there. They packed out a gymnasium of 500 ladies and we were able to worship the Lord. And proclaim truth in that place, amen. Because as we welcome you into our house, you are in a house that we believe in the proclamation of the gospel. And it will be preached with authenticity, genuinely, and with love, amen.

And I enjoy the last Sunday of the year as we are closing out the chapter of 2025. Because I like to look back and reflect. Is anybody with me on that? Does anyone like to look back and reflect? And as I sit back and I reflect, I look at my life and there is one thing that is very consistent in all of my reflection. And that is God's faithfulness in my life. Because the scripture says that even when we are unfaithful, that he remains faithful for he cannot deny who he is. And he is so faithful. And this is funny because I didn't know this because I wasn't a church goer. I got out of prison and I started doing this. And then when I started to give, okay, and I remember the first time in December, maybe it's January when it happens. But they send you your tithing record for the year. And we teach this in class in our spiritual disciplines. And we teach it in tithing is to give in a trackable way. Why? Because when you get it back at the end of the year, you can miss and you can see where maybe you have missed out accidentally. But you can also see, because now I open that email up and I say, wow. Had to check my heart at times because what if one time when I thought, the first time I thought I'd look at the email and I said, do I even want to see that number? And God weighed on my heart and said, what are you giving it for? Email ready. A hunger in my heart to grow deeper with the Lord. I have a true hunger to grow deeper with him. I want to grow deeper with God in prayer. I want to grow deeper with him in meditation of the word. I want to study it. I want to love. Well, I want to give generously. I want to find myself in a place that I am comfortable and do not believe that I could go deeper in a relationship with him. Amen. So I'm ask you, church, as we wrap up this 25 year and we head into the next year and the next season of our life to examine yourself and to examine your heart and to examine your relationship and to ask God prayerfully to sift you and to work on you and to bring up areas of your life that you could go deeper with God.

and let 2026 that word deeper and that word more and that hunger let that resonate with you this year as we usher into the next year amen I'm gonna get us some ushers up we're gonna do this for the last time in 2025 there's many ways to give and you can see it on the screen you can scan a QR code but God we come to you and we are so thankful for what you are doing we so thankful for what you have done what you're doing now and the good good plans that you have God you are faithful and we look back and all I can see is your faithfulness Lord so you have placed inside of me a hunger God I do not light my own fire Lord I bring myself as an offering and you light it so thank you for lighting that within me because that fire that you lit has saved my family that fire that you lit has saved generation has broken curses off of my life God so thank you for that and I wonder if I could sit here and think about where I would spare you from God I'm going to choose to not spare you at all not in the least so as we are a church that is gathered here today God please press it on our hearts where we need to grow deeper with you let us burn with a hunger for you God we thank you for who you are and we praise you in Jesus mighty name amen tree and just giving and just everything that God has done see I went when I know that it can be mixed feelings when Tucker you know is sitting there talking or or we're talking about giving and you know we're looking at some of the things you know in our own financial life and we're just trying to say man how can I give when I don't have anything to give myself and you know but then we always wonder sometimes I think of well what's it go to does it does that whenever I give does it just go to the pastor no it does not you know just so you know a nonprofit organization is not for profit it goes to the organization so that we can see things like that happen okay so that we can see a hundred and something kids I don't even remember you know get Christmas because of the church giving and just being a blessing to the community and to the people and so I'm just excited I love that and she couldn't have put a better rock song behind it it just made me want to get up here and just Rocky

Balboa this joker today man so we're here and so no I am I'm just thankful for that so that was a recap I know not everybody got to volunteer but but just to let you know there was many families blessed with Christmas because of you guys and so we are thankful for that well hey we are in a series that is titled letter to the church and and we've been going through the book of Romans and just digging into it and man I've learned a lot I hope you have learned a lot maybe you're just starting to join us I would encourage you go back watch all of the series on our YouTube channel and you can get brought up to speed there's a lot of content in there but I want to talk from a message today that I have titled misplaced emphasis a misplaced emphasis last week we looked at a message that was titled there are no leftovers and did you know that you are not indispensable or that you are indispensable there is nothing that anybody can do to take your place they can't write you off that you are indispensable there is nobody else on this earth made the way that you are not one single person is made the way you are valuable you are created on purpose and for a purpose God does not make mistakes when he created you he didn't look at you and say yeah probably could have did better but she'll be alright she'll figure it out she'll she'll she'll she'll learn to manage you know no he didn't he looked at you and he thought I made her perfectly I made her exactly I made him exactly how I wanted him to be even in the blemishes even in the flaws even in the imperfections he made you exactly how he thought that you needed to be made and you are you even though a lot of the times I think we can think of ourselves as disposable like I'm just a throwaway nobody even likes me nobody loves me my past has shown that every person that I've ever been in relationship with has treated me badly every time that something has happened they can just write me off but God does not make leftovers he doesn't he does not make leftovers he makes perfection and when he did it he was pleased when he made you and when he had you in mind he had you with purpose with purpose there are no mistakes in God's workmanship Ephesians 2 10 says this that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works like that's

what we were created for we were created for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them your purpose is literally to walk in good works that he created you for not what we think that we were created for not what we think that we should use our bodies for not what we think we should use our money for not what we think but what he has created us for no matter your background no matter your mistakes no matter your successes those things do not there is an even playing field in the kingdom of God it doesn't matter your wallet doesn't matter how much you have in it how much you don't have in it amen come on I got one where I don't even have to hold money cuz I ain't got no money you know I'm saying like you don't even hold dollar bills but it's just it doesn't even matter in the kingdom of God what you bring what you brought and after looking last week at chapter 9 we seen Paul explaining to the Roman Church that heritage didn't matter it don't because just because there was a Jew didn't mean that that they was favored over other people just because your family for three generations was in ministry does not mean that you are saved because you grew up in a Christian home it just does not that is not what it means it doesn't matter if your dad was a deacon it doesn't matter if your grandpa was an elder of the church none of that stuff matters your heritage didn't matter the rituals didn't matter and and he goes on to explain that the Gentiles the people that did not know God the people that did not grow up in this heritage or or this lineage of Abraham and this line of people that was blessed if you wasn't they was grafted in through faith and it opens up the door Paul is telling them like hey you guys have got it all wrong you're looking at all of the people that are according to your heritage but you're overlooking the ones that actually need to be in relationship with God and there's this there's this thing that is happening that he is talking about in it and he's saying hey that they are grafted in and and he goes to show us that God has no leftovers he created every single person for a relationship with him and he created each one of us with our own purpose and we can't discount another purpose another person simply because of their background

simply because of what you came into this thing with you could walk in here today with carrying all kinds of stuff that you didn't even think that you thought the church was gonna blow up when you walked in through the doors right you thought that you was just carrying so much heathenism in your life that it was just gonna catch fire and that it was all gonna it's alright we got it insured baby you can keep coming back you know cuz if it catches fire we'll just use the money to build the new building amen we'll meet in the park until then or something I don't we'll meet and I don't know where we'll meet we'll meet at your house you know and and so we'll make it work but then he leads into chapter 10 of Romans and chapter 10 if you are familiar with the Bible at all it's it's a part of what is called the Romans road and it's a it's a a navigation of how to give your life to Jesus and he's identifying that even the Jews had it wrong all this time the Jewish Christians because that's who he's talking to remember he's talking to the Jewish Christians in Rome that was disrupting the culture of the church because the culture of the church was primarily made up of Gentile Christians and so he's addressing them and he's telling them hey there is something that you guys need to understand and so today if you're taking notes which gets you a better place in heaven so I would encourage you do it I'm just saying I mean okay that might be heresy but anyways I'm just saying I can't prove it in scripture but I'm just telling you that it's somewhere in there and you can try to find it on your own I dare you and so today if you're taking notes I want to look at three fundamental issues three fundamental issues of salvation that will change our walk with God forever three fundamental issues of salvation of that will change our walk with God forever and the first fundamental issue is this myth misplaced enthusiasm misplaced enthusiasm Paul goes in Romans 10 and he says this in verses 1 through 3 he says dear brothers and sisters the longing of my heart and my prayer to God I intercede for this the end my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved and I know what enthusiasm they

have for God but it is misdirected zeal for they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself refusing to accept God's way they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law see zeal feels holy zeal can feel holy it's it's loud it's decisive it can be fully confident sometimes and you can look at somebody and think that they have this spiritualness about them and it moves quickly and it will often rarely even doubt itself because this zeal that these people have for God and it can it's misdirected zeal that can be so dangerous though because it often looks like faithfulness while drifting away from God's heart slowly zeal can get you in a situation let me prove it Saul which was the guy who wrote the book of Romans right he was Saul before he was converted over to Paul in Acts 9 but Saul found himself and he was convinced that he was serving God when he persecuted the church Philippians 3 says this I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church and as for righteousness I obeyed the law without fault he said I had it all right if you looked at my life you would have thought Saul's passion was real I mean you would have thought man that dude was sold out why don't he go start a church of his own he is just sold out for God but it was misplaced and his prayers were sincere I guarantee it but his actions were devastating his actions were devastating Saul's story reminds us this that being intense for God is not the same as being aligned with God being intense for God is not the same as being aligned with God it gets two totally different results misdirected zeal often shows up when passion outruns love or when conviction outruns humility or when certainty outruns listening you know the person that can never be corrected the one that's always got it right come on we all know that person if you don't know that person you are that person amen yes honey sorry I didn't mean to blast you like that you don't quit talking about me from the stage but but you know I mean it's just the way that it is because oftentimes our passion can outrun our love we get so consumed with serving God that we forget to actually sit with God our passion outruns our love our conviction outruns our humility we will have such a

conviction in our heart for a passionate purpose to serve God that we completely forget the humility part we completely forget the honor part we completely forget the authority part or certainty when it outruns because but I know what I'm doing I ain't got to listen to nobody I know what I'm well if I don't like serving at this church I'll go start my own church I'll go serve at a another church know the church I'll go I'll find a church that fits me no you won't if you've been to ten churches and they all have a problem honey you are the problem it didn't have the problem till you came to the church amen I'm just kidding I didn't mean that yeah Wow exactly but as what happens is misdirected zeal it often prioritizes being right over being faithful right it defends the truth while forgetting people in the process and when Saul met Jesus the fire that once destroyed the church became the light that actually guided others God didn't just extinguish Saul's zeal he redirected it the same energy that wounded the church was actually transformed into endurance and sacrifice and love for the church he is basically like the prayer of Lord don't just purify my passion aim it like show me a direction that you want me to go redirect my seal for what matters to your heart not my hand to see that's what oftentimes I think that we get we get in this this misdirected passionate zeal for God so that it can benefit us and it can benefit our life and is what has happened in the 21st century as we has created a consumeristic Christianity because what can the church do for me when the question actually needs to be what can I do for the church what did God send me to do what does he see zeal guided by truth produces fruit but zeal guided by pride produces damage that's why you can see zealous people that you would have thought was Christian that you would have thought was actually aligned with the heart of God damaging people from the body of Christ damaging the church as a whole but zeal surrendered to Christ becomes a powerful force for life I think honestly it would be beneficial for us to ask ourselves these questions like where am I most passionate right now where am I most passionate I would challenge you ask

yourself these questions later on in the day and really look at what it really means where am I passionate where am I most passionate at right now is my zeal is my passion is my zeal that I have producing love is it producing humility is it producing fruit come on somebody is it producing good fruit not bad fruit I mean we all produce some fruit but a good tree can't bear bad fruit remember Jesus talked about that he said that a bad tree can't bear good fruit so we got to know exactly where are we aligned what is our our stuff where are we at and the last one that we should ask yourself is am I more focused on winning arguments or reflecting Christ I had an apologetics teacher teach me this one time he said you can win the argument and lose the soul so what does it matter why are we arguing why are we arguing over some of these things because I can I can convince an atheist that God is real or I can try and convince an atheist that God is real and he still walks away believing in evolution I walk away mad as heck you know what I'm saying like I did I don't know about you but I get I'm family orient like I'm territorial when it comes to my people and so like when you talk about my father you know I'm saying like there is just something that makes me like I have this like righteous anger where all of a sudden I just want to like fight people that disagree with stuff over there's no I'm just kidding I'm just I mean the people that know me need to shut up right now okay just kidding but for real and so they're like he's not playing he's he's for real he's very passionate he's zeal hopefully my zeal is aligned okay hopefully it's not misdirected zeal hopefully nobody's in here like pastor you need to hey listen I preach to myself sometimes too okay and so we're gonna go into the next point which is judgmental heart no I'm just kidding it's not I'm gonna stay right here because Saul Saul was fiercely devoted to God I mean fiercely by his own testimony he was not lukewarm he was not casual he was on fire he said I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church i didn't care what i did was hurting the thing that god actually sent me to i'm so zealous i'm so on fire i'm so passionate that i obeyed everything without fault you could not find nothing wrong in me according to the law like i was walking this

thing out and believing that he was defending god's honor saw hunted down followers of jesus and he he approved stephen's execution in in uh acts seven and dragged men and women to prison and traveled with official authority to crush what he saw was dangerous heresy from paul's perspective this wasn't cruelty this was faithfulness but that's the tragedy because he was sincere and wrong all at the same time and yet so often we go unchecked because we're walking through thinking that my sincerity my passion my zeal is something that is actually honoring god when it's not and we get in these moments and i wonder if there are passions or zeals that we have that we are holding on to thinking that they are beneficial but like saw have actually been working to destroy the thing that god has been trying to build which is his church and i don't think honestly that we do this intentionally who wakes up in the morning is like you know what i'm gonna destroy the church everything i do today i mean there's probably some demonic people that are doing that but we ain't talking about them we're talking about the people that are thinking that they're serving god passionately but actually are doing everything you know what i'm talking about like like when you're calling everybody and gossiping about other people in the church you know what i'm talking about when you're actually trying to destroy people's opinion of the pastor or other people that are serving or other people like the girl that was down giving their life to the lord or whatever and then they see them doing something different you know like that kind of stuff you know you know what i'm talking about like yeah you know if you don't know you're that person remember but paul he knew what it looked like to actually have this misplaced zeal that he was talking about in the beginning of romans 10 he wasn't just addressing the israelites he was telling those in the church hey i know what it's like to have misplaced what it's really all about like i know what it's like and i heard a lot of people because of it it's like that check my file you know like you better go back and ask some people about me and and let them tell you what it was really all about because i know what it is and sadly i know that there are a lot of people today not just here today but in society today that have hurt the church thinking that they are doing what they believe is right and unfortunately many of these folks will justify their actions and blame a church when we have the responsibility to honor god and honor leadership ourselves and so often we will blame a church and and i mean we'll talk about church hurt we'll talk about all these things listen if you are church hurt you are hurt by somebody that you wasn't even supposed

to be putting faith in anyways you were believing that a man or a church could do something for you that only god can do and when that person let you down you was offended and now you're hurt it's misplaced zeal it's misplaced misdirected emphasis i'm not saying that the people that hurt you wasn't wrong they could have been very well wrong maybe they should have been removed from ministry maybe all of these different things but it doesn't mean that we could turn against the thing that god created to send hope into the world where does that where does it say well if they hurt anyways misdirected emphasis we we've got to get back and i look at paul and where this was all turned around and there's this turning point for saw saw in acts 9 where we see zeal meet truth because he was encountered on the road to damascus i mean literally paul was stopped literally knocked to the ground by a blinding light and a voice that said saw saw why are you persecuting me and he said who are you lord he recognized him he knew who it was but he was asking who are you because i thought that i had this all right but now you're saying that i'm persecuting me who are you because i need to understand who you really are and the shat the answer shatters his framework and he said i am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Well, how am I persecuting you? Because I'm going after, like I'm serving God faithfully. And in that moment, Saul realizes that his zeal meant for God had actually been aimed at God. Have any of us ever been in that position where we were trying to serve God and then we got angry and we actually started aiming things back at God? We started blaming God for things that was happening. His passion wasn't the problem, his direction was. He was headed in the wrong. Zeal isn't bad if it's placed in the right direction. Like you can give somebody that's really headed for God, God doesn't, the thing that I find interesting in this is God doesn't just extinguish Saul's fire though, he redirects it.

And he said, hey, I wanna take you and I wanna turn your name into Paul and I wanna rewrite your same story in the same intensity that once tried to destroy the church, I want to now build it. And the one that was actually sent to destroy the church planted more churches than anybody I know personally. And he went through, wrote half of the New Testament. I mean, he preaches tirelessly, suffers willingly and ultimately gives his life for the gospel. Paul reflects on this theme when he's speaking about Israel to the Roman church when he said, I know what enthusiasm they have for God. I know what it's like to be there. I know what it's like to think that I'm serving God, but it's misdirected zeal. You're facing it in the wrong direction and the Bible doesn't condemn zeal itself. In fact, it often praises it, but what it does warn against is zeal without truth, humility, or love. Here's what I know is that the story of Saul teaches us this passion can coexist with blindness. Huh. What if we was passionate about something and completely missed what it was all about? What if? Like sincerity, it also teaches us that sincerity doesn't guarantee righteousness. It just doesn't.

Because you can be sincere about something and unholy about it at the same time. And it also teaches us this, is that God often corrects direction before he corrects behavior. That's why you can just come, come to the Father. Come to him messed up. Come to him jacked up. Come to him just how you are. And guess what? When you lean into the Father, he will begin to rewrite your story and the things that you used to struggle with. You won't have to struggle anymore. I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's an identity issue. I don't care if it's something you thought you was born with. God can rewrite your story. And I was born like this. That's why he said, be born again, honey, because you need to come and you need to be born again and let God rebirth the passions in your heart so that you can align with who he has called you to be. Zeal surrendered becomes power. Zeal unchecked becomes dangerous. You know what it teaches us? Is that we can have a long relationship with God and completely miss the point of what it's all about. It's crazy. That we can have this long relationship.

Like are we living by what history has taught us or are we really pursuing the things of God to identify what it's really all about? Because at the end of the day, the primary reason that we do what we do, that I believe that we are even here is to walk in full relationship with God personally and see that others walk in that same relationship. Anything outside of salvation is a secondary issue. Salvation is primary. That's it. I preach Christ and Christ crucified before I preach anything else. Like that's what I want. I want people to come and know the Father. So what does salvation look like, Lynn, if we thought what it was all about was actually wrong? If what we thought was all jacked up and well, you just messed up everything I thought. Like what am I even supposed to believe? Listen, there is nothing that you can do to impress God. Paul beat this theme like so hardcore throughout the entire book of Romans that as I'm preaching through it, I'm trying not to preach about that every week. But he beats it into them. And so what if we abide by all the rituals and the rules? We're still not perfect. And in fact, the only way that the law would have been able to redeem anything

was if somebody was perfect. And the only way to inherit the kingdom through the law was perfection and nobody but Jesus obtained that. And so when we're trying to create relationship with God by checking boxes, well, I gave my life to the Lord and I quit smoking the same day. Good for you. Somebody else did it. it and that's okay because God is gonna walk with them and I believe at some point God will convict your heart he convicted my heart four years in to quit smoking cigarettes and maybe that day is today for you come on somebody I believe somebody in here's gonna quit smoking cigarettes right now you can just throw them to the front no don't do that cuz you're gonna hit me with them somebody's like throws one of them big vapes you know God told me to quit right now but if that's our goal right to try and be better than everyone else at walking this thing out guess what we have misdirected zeal we need to return to our first love we need to get back to the fundamental issues of what it's really all about so the first fundamental issue is misdirected emphasis the second fundamental issue is it's a personal issue it's a personal issue like it's not just about anything else but you in this moment Romans 8 or 10 8 through 10 says this for in fact it says the message is very close at hand it is on your lips and it is in your heart he's telling me said hey you guys have thought that you was getting saved by what you was doing for God you thought that you was displaying salvation because of what you was doing for God but the message is very close at hand it's actually on your lips and in your heart and that mess that message is very the very message about faith that we preach if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved for it is the believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is openly declaring with your faith that you are saved salvation is a personal issue God

doesn't just save crowds he saves individual hearts he can save a crowd by saving individual hearts you can be sitting in a room full of people like you are today and he is still actively seeking each one of us individually and that's what's crazy is you can be in a room full of people and still feel lonely but did you know that God still sees your heart individually he doesn't miss you he doesn't go through and say I don't like her no no no he smells funny and no no don't like that no no no he looks at you through all of your facade through all of your pain through all of your struggle and he looks at you and he says hey you know what I love you individually I want to give you quick five reasons of salvation of why salvation is a personal issue that I'm gonna run through these really quick so I can't I can't keep repeating them but number one is it requires a personal response salvation it requires a personal response no one is saved by proximity just because you're in a church don't mean that you're a Christian you can stand in a garage but it don't make you a car I know we're in the society of identification and I can identify as whatever I want but when you get to the gate you say well I identify as a Christian you can try it if you want to but it's the definition to mess around and find out family don't save you church don't save you culture tradition doesn't save you scripture consistently moves the responsibility inward he said if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead guess what you will be saved faith can be taught and it can be modeled and it can be invited but it cannot be inherited it's a personal response you have to respond personally each person must respond to God for themselves being in church doesn't save you Christ in you is what saves you that's it that's it it requires a personal response one to Christ and to conviction you can't get away from it no matter how bad you want to save somebody you can't can't save her she don't want to be say can't save her no sorry see y'all mess me up like number two number two number two it addresses a personal condition it addresses a personal condition sin isn't just out there right sin isn't just out there in

systems and societies guess what it's in here in motives and desires and in our church Voices, it's personal. It's a personal issue Romans 3 23 says for everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God's glorious standard every single one of us salvation speaks to guilt shame fear and brokenness that an Individual carries themselves. God doesn't just offer a generic fix. He meets each heart at its point of need And he's like, hey, I got the solution. Hey, I got the antidote. Hey, I got what you need Hey, you don't have to worry about that. Hey, I got I got that. It's a personal condition of each one of our hearts That's why it demands a personal response because there is no one else and nothing else that can forgive this inward condition It's only God that can come in and actually change Everything inside of us we all fall short It's okay. What are you gonna do when you fall though? Are you gonna stay down or are you gonna allow God to pick you back up and say you know what? I'm not gonna make that mistake again. I'm gonna keep walking with the Lord. I'm gonna make the decision better next time He's not gonna defeat me because God has identified. He's helped me identify the lure of the enemy in that area of my life I'm not going back there I'm not gonna hey, you can call me what you want, but you won't see me make the same mistake twice. I Promise you that I I will make a lot of mistakes I will let you down But I won't make the same mistake twice in my own life for we have all sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard number three. It involves a personal relationship Salvation is not merely a legal transaction. It is the beginning of a personal relationship Revelation says look that I stand at the door and knock if You hear my voice and open the door. I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends We ain't even to the third issue in the sermon yet We're just to the third principle of how this is a personal issue So I apologize if I'm getting in it listen God will never force a door for you to open. He always invites you He Stands at the door and knocks see relationship requires consent It requires trust it requires ongoing

Surrender things that can only happen personally see you want God to do something for you You want God to take something for it from you? But it's because we're so customized and traditionalized to an abusive relationship But God don't do that He stands at the door Who's there I Ain't opening this door. I don't know who's there my ring camera ain't working right now Why because a loving relationship invites consent It's like hey, baby. What do you think we should do? Do you think that's the direction that we need to go and see far too often we try to kick open a door only God has access to open and then we get into our a situation that we wasn't prepared to walk into and that's why the door was closed and Then we ain't prepared for what's happening He's standing there and waiting for something to happen number four. It leads to personal transformation Salvation leads to personal transformation. Guess what? Nobody else can repent for you That's why I don't have to come lay hands on you and pray for you I don't have to Douse you with anointing oil No You it can happen in your car on a back road nobody else around you and Jesus with a with a sorrowful country song playing on the radio Come on, that'll lead everybody to repentance, you know like God I lost my tractor. I lost my dog. I lost my wife I lost everything, you know, Lord. All I need is you who you know, all I need is you. Oh, sorry Philippians says this work out your own salvation With fear and trembling work out your own salvation. It's a personal transformation. This doesn't mean that so a salvation is Self-made it means that it's personally embraced and lived out Sort of means we have to we can be passionately doing things for God and still miss the heart of God It's a personal transformation And then last is number five salvation will be personally accounted for Romans 4

Romans 4 14 says this, yes, each one of us will give a personal account to God. We won't answer as a nation. We won't answer as a church. We won't answer as a family, but rather as a person known and named by God. Says your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? We're going to be known as this. I've heard people say, well, only God can judge me. And that is so true. And that should scare the hell out of you, literally. Well, only God can judge me. Okay. Okay. Because you ain't living like it. Like we got to get to a place where we actually believe this salvation is deeply personal, but never meant to remain private. Never. It begins in the heart, then flows outward into community and mission. Salvation is a personal issue in the sense that it is walked out in a personal relationship with God. However, it's not just a personal issue. It's a kingdom issue. Which is the third fundamental issue that I want to talk about today real quick. It's a kingdom issue. Romans 10, 13 through 15 says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? How can they believe in him if they never hear about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells about him?

And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why scripture says, how beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news. Romans 10 makes one thing unmistakably clear. Salvation is God's work. But the proclamation of the gospel is the church's responsibility. Like you wasn't just saved for you. You were saved so that you can tell everybody else about him. So that everybody else can know about what it's really about. Like what is this all about? It's a kingdom issue. Paul lays out this divine sequence that cannot be skipped. People must be sent so they can speak. They must speak so others can hear. And they must hear so that they can believe. And they must believe so that they can call on the name of the Lord and be saved. When the church neglects to declare the gospel in a fashion that reaches those that are far from God, it interrupts this entire process. This is why the church does not exist merely to serve believers. This is why consumeristic Christianity don't work. Teaching strengthens the saved, but outreach reaches the lost. Worship renews the saints, but evangelism rescues the sinner. A church that only looks inward can be healthy for a moment, but it is not faithful to its mission. Jesus never said, go and gather. He said, go and make disciples. The gospel was never designed to just stay within these four walls. It was designed to move outward, to go into homes, to go into workplaces, to go into schools, to go into the streets and all throughout every single community. Every believer is a recipient of grace and a messenger of it.

We all have a personal responsibility to it. The church speaks because silence leaves people without the opportunity to believe. It will leave people without the opportunity to ever be able to see it. Romans 10 reminds us that God has already made salvation available to everybody, but he has entrusted the delivery of that message to his church, to his people, to be sent. It's not a special calling for just a few. It's a shared responsibility for all who believe. That's why reach is committed to reaching the one that is far from God and helping them become a passionate follower of Jesus. That's why we teach on fundamental principles. That's why we don't major in the minors. What we have done, what have we done if we got to the end of the road and have neglected the core principles of what it's all really about? honestly that's why to me we're building bigger buildings that's why we're doing I don't care about the limelight I don't care about this show I don't care about we do it so that we can make room for people to come in and get saved because there's a radical move of God that is taking place and that is happening and we want to open up the doors so that we can be a messenger that is sent to proclaim the good news of the gospel so that people can be who God has called them to be and that is saved and sanctified and filled with the Spirit in their life what if we made this kingdom issue a personal issue for each one of us what if what if all of a sudden we start invited those who was in close proximity to us to church what if we quit gotten intimidated of them what if we just started doing it and not only invited them but the personal issue in our life actually displayed the change in our life and they could see the love of Jesus long before they ever heard about the love of Jesus right what if we looked at this as an opportunity to see people saved what if we all started living on mission until every city has heard the gospel until every community has heard the gospel until every hood every prison has heard the gospel why because God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life this is the good news this is the gospel and guess what that opportunity exists right here today maybe we've got it all wrong maybe we've had misdirected zeal maybe we've never made it a personal issue in our life maybe we just thought because we hung out with Christians that we would say maybe we just thought because we attended around certain places that we was saved but we've never actually allowed it to transform our life well if you got notes today then you can go back and you can work through all five of those things of how to make this a personal issue so that you can walk closer with God a man if I can have everybody stand with me for just a moment hi thanks for watching us we're so grateful that you've been a part of our church we don't take it lightly that God is using unlikely people from overlooked places to do extraordinary things for the kingdom of God and you are a part of that