Side Quest Saints | Pastor Eric Morris

What's up, men of God? Pastor Eric here, and I am so excited to bring this message to you. I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in, let's see what God has for us this week, and I know you'll be blessed for it, and I love you. So we're in the book of Acts, and I'll ask you to go to Acts chapter one. As you turn there, I wanna just, again, frame our expectations around the message today. If you are new with us, we're so glad you're here. If this is your home church, welcome home. As a pastor, I have to hold two tensions and two goals in mind whenever I bring a word. The first one is, and I pray that this happens this morning with you, the first one is, I wanna bring a word from the Lord, from Scripture, that would nourish your soul individually to help you be more shaped by the Spirit of God into the image of Christ. And I pray that through this message today, you individually are shaped by the Spirit of God to continue to walk out your Christian faith as a witness and a testimony to the world at large.

The second thing, which is my responsibility, is to not only shape us as individuals, but to shape us as a collective community. As a community of faith, as the family of God, there's multiple times in Scripture where even Paul is writing, and he's writing in the plural. He's not just writing to individuals, he's writing to a collective body because it's in the collective body that we accomplish the mission of God here locally in Pflugerville. You see, as a church, we are to be a lighthouse to the world about the things of God. When God took Abraham and turned him into a nation, and then the nation of Israel, the purpose of nation of Israel was to be a living, active testimony to the God that they worship so that all the other nations around them would recognize that Israel's God was different. As a community of faith in the 21st century, 2026, our job, not just individually, but collectively, is to be a testimony, a demonstration of the Holy Spirit active and alive in ordinary humans in such a way that shows a different way of living and a different reality to what many people who are outside of Christ would understand. So it's with that in mind that I want to jump into our message today, and I wanna start with a term you might only hear

on a podcast where someone is trying to sound extra smart, and that term is called meta-narrative, meta-narrative. Has anybody used that in the past week? Yeah, I didn't think so. Meta-narrative is simply this, what is the larger narrative that encompasses all the smaller narratives? What's the big picture story going on here? The way I could kind of make this applicable is we've had something going on in North America this summer, it's the World Cup, and today, the meta-narrative of the World Cup will be decided at about four o'clock. Will it be Spain or Argentina? And there have been multiple narratives throughout this World Cup season, how is America gonna do, is Christian Pulisic gonna actually do it for us, and he didn't, he scored more brand deals than actual goals. Will the Mexico national team finally live up to all the hype around, I feel like so many Mexicans are like, we're so good at soccer, round of 16. It was America, too. Is Cristiano Ronaldo, he's 41, is he gonna score, is he gonna do this, and again, this is the little niche, you might not be that into soccer, but ultimately, there's all little narratives, but the big overarching narrative of the World Cup, the meta-narrative is who will be the world champion.

You take away that idea of the world champion, and suddenly, all the smaller narratives don't matter, and for many of us, as Christians, we have lost the meta-narrative of Scripture. We've lost the story that encompasses all other stories, and the reason is, and again, no shame, let's just say, we've lost the story just name the culture we live in, that encompasses all other stories, and the reason is, and again, no shame, and that is we live in a very individualistic society. let's just say, we've lost the story Individualism is the chief aim and priority for many of us. We want to build and create the life that we want. We live in a society where I can curate my online image so that you know a brand, not a person. Many of our prayers, if we're honest, are based around God, will you help my life? God, will you bless me? God, will you take care of me? God, will you solve this certain problem? My point is, none of those are bad prayers, but often it reveals that our own personal narrative is the most important story in our life. Stories are what capture us. Stories are what move us. There are certain stories that you could probably go back to over and over again. Maybe you're a reader and there's a certain book

that you love every couple years. I want to read that book again because that story really captures my imagination. Maybe it's a television series that captured your imagination and the story pulled you in. The summer blockbuster this summer is a story that's over, I think, 3,000 years old in the story of the Odyssey, and that story is still being told and still capturing imaginations. Scripture comes to us in narrative form mainly. There's other literary styles in the Bible. You have poetic, you have prophetic, you have epistles, you have psalms, but the majority of Scripture comes to humanity in the form of a story. Cultures all throughout history and all over the world have organized themselves around certain stories. America organizes its cultural identity around this idea that we fought the British and won independence. It's a cultural story that gets told. We celebrated 250 years as a country, and we tell the story of our country, even in its imperfections, its flaws, and I know its challenges, but the metanarrative of America is the land of the free, and we fought the British to get that. We're formed by stories. We retell stories, and maybe for you,

you were captured by certain biblical stories early on in your journey with Jesus. Maybe the idea of David defeating the Goliath was a story that captured your imagination and told you that no matter what giant stood in front of me, God would be able to help me overcome that. Maybe it was the story of Daniel in the lion's den. No matter what dangerous and scary situation I find myself in, God is a God who will protect me. Maybe it's the story of Jesus walking on water, and you thought to yourself, man, one day in heaven, that'd be really cool, I wanna walk on water. Whatever it is, there are certain stories that capture us. There's a narrative to the biblical message that if we reduce its grandeur, and we flatten the Christian experience into just our own personal story, and God is helping us with that, we reduce the beauty of the Christian story. We flatten it out to behavior modification. We flatten the Christian experience down to rules we have to follow, or else we get in trouble with the cosmic principle. And because many of us in America, in the West, in an individualistic society, have flattened down the story of the gospel, have flattened down the Bible narrative, we are now living with what feels like self-made stories. And the problem with living a small, self-made story and trying to fit God in it,

is we realize that because we have organized our life around those smaller stories, they're not big enough to contain the human soul. The human soul was designed for eternity, to live beyond our own natural lifespan, to live in eternity with the Lord, to be in relationship with our creator. There's a term called soul amnesia, and many of us have experienced this where our soul is remembering, even vaguely, Even if there's difficult moments to see it all, we're remembering what life could be like when we feel whole. When there's no more pain. There's no more worry. But for many of us, we have curated our own story in hopes that we'll live a good life. Think of that individual who graduates college. They've got a degree. They did the thing that the world told them to do. Go get a degree, and you'll get a good job, and when you get a good job, you'll find a good spouse, and when you find a good spouse, you'll have some kids, and life will be happily ever after. And then you wake up, and suddenly it's 11.15 p.m., you're 41 years old, you've got the job, you own your second wife, and you got some kids that you really don't like anymore. I mean, you're supposed to like them. And you ask yourself, is this it?

You told yourself on the front end, it was a beautiful story. The daydream of getting the job, finding the spouse, building the family, buying the house, and life would just be happy. And then you went out on that journey, and the story doesn't turn out that way, and for many of us, we're looking at the story of our lives and we're wondering why it's not enough. Why it feels mundane. Why is there still something deep inside of me asking, is there really more to life than this? The number on your paycheck could be more than you've ever earned. You look at your children and you say, I should be happy, but you can't even really answer why you had kids. Why did we get married? What is the purpose of all of this? Is it literally just to exist for 87 years and go back to dust? And the reason is, again, is because we have flattened the biblical story down to just our own individualistic, personal stories where we ask God for blessings, and the church should be held accountable for this. Men and women who have stood in churches and preached messages should be held accountable because we have reduced the Christian story to live your best life now. Three tips, life hacks,

how to live the most blessed life right now. We've turned the Christian story into one of utility. Here's some tricks to help you along the way. And because of that, the human imagination has lost its wonder in the biblical story. It's lost its, oh my gosh, I am a part of something so much bigger than me. And it's in that vastness and grandness that can inspire the human soul to greater things than just mere Tuesday morning existence. There's more out there. Acts chapter one begins in narrative form. And we're not gonna spend a long time here. Actually, let me rephrase that. I just have one sentence for you in the book of Acts that has some depth to it that I wanna unpack. It says, in the first book, O Theopolis, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. Can everybody say began for me? Began. You see, if you're new to scripture, the author of Luke and Acts is the same person. It's Luke. And Luke wrote them as a volume. The first was the story of Jesus. The second was the story of Jesus animating human beings to continue his work. And that's why it's really important that we focus on that word began. Jesus' life in the book of Luke is amazing.

You see him born in a manger. You see him turn water into wine. You see him walking on water, calling dead men out of graves, going to a cross, walking out three days later, and then ascending to heaven. Wow, he lived an amazing life. But what Luke is actually trying to tell you and I is that was just the beginning. The book of Acts is the narrative of Christians continuing the work of Jesus with the. Spirit of Christ on the inside of them. So all the things we saw Jesus do in the book of Acts is Jesus still doing through you and I. And this suddenly becomes a grander narrative. So what is the narrative of Scripture? What is the single biggest story? What is the meta-narrative of the Bible? We're gonna put it on the screen. I'm gonna talk about it for just a second. Guys, can you throw that up for me? The meta-narrative of Scripture is this, is the whole Bible story is right here. One story. The God of all things. He is the God of creation. He is the God who spoke the universe into existence. He has given us human consciousness which science literally has no idea. They cannot come close to explaining human consciousness. They can't even come close to explaining

the origin of life. Scientists right now are having to rework their evolutionary theories because science has discovered that the universe has a beginning. And in order to have a beginning, you must have a mover outside that beginning. He is the creator of all things. And the story of the Bible is this creator God right now is trying to restore the world. To redeem the world. We call it heaven. Heaven is not a place we go. There's not another planet that God is going to transfer us to. Heaven is here and God redeems the earth. The rock that we're living on right now, God is trying to restore that back to perfection. That's why he sends his son. That's why he sends the spirit. That's why he sends the prophets. That's why he's gifted the church with spiritual gifts because he's going, I am trying to restore the world. It says that a new Jerusalem will come down to the earth and God will remake this globe that we're on right now. And because the church has believed that somehow heaven is some other planet, their Christian walk has become a waiting room. I'm just sitting waiting till I go off to Valhalla. As the Vikings would say. Isn't that right, Marika?

Here's the thing. God, the whole story of the scripture is God is restoring the world. Now listen to this. To dwell with you. A God who spoke the universe into existence wants to be with you. In your own uniqueness, in your own giftings, in your own personality style. He wants to know you. And Acts chapter one is the spirit age. Now lean in with me. Here's what we have to see. Acts chapter one is going, hey, the first book I covered, all that Jesus began. And then he takes ordinary humans like you and I and he fills us with the very spirit of God and he invites you into participation with this grand design. You see, the story of the Bible is not how do you live your blessed life now. The story of the Bible is not how can God give you a comfortable life. The story of the Bible is not God keep us safe. The story of the Bible is that humanity gets invited into a narrative that is so much bigger than their own narrative and gives them purpose and gives them meaning and gives them distinction in such a way that gives them more meaning to life.

Praise God, thank you. Some of you are like, I don't know what this dude's talking about. Talking about metanarratives and stuff. I'm just trying to get through Wednesday, yo. I'm trying to help you get through Wednesday. But to walk into your Wednesday not thinking your life is mundane because it's not the very essence and spirit of God lives on the inside of you. And the book of Acts got it. They lived with a whiffum. You know what a whiffum is? What's in it for me? And some of us, we live with a very, very, very, very tiny whiffum. But what's in it for me is something so insignificant because we have lost the grand metanarrative of Scripture. That God truly is remaking the world and death will not stop us. Next week I'm talking about the metaphysical. The physical reality beyond the reality we live in now. We live in what's called the overlap between earth and heaven. And they're blending and blurring constantly until God remakes the world. And heaven overtakes. And there is a metaphysical reality that we live by. But because of the enlightenment we've been reduced into our thinking that the only thing in life that can be explained is that which can be measured and scientifically tested. And now we've lived with 300 years as science as a religion. And we're empty. Science can't explain suffering. And so what ends up happening is because we live with smaller stories that are so fragile.

When they don't work out the way we saw them working out. We ask what do I do now? And so if you're young you have time to make edits. Don't worry it'll still end up good. When we have the story of our life that's smaller than God's story and then all of a sudden the diagnosis hits. I didn't see that coming. And what we've done is we've created really small fragile stories that any type of bump in the road or suffering or difficulty or human failure. Because they're so fragile they crumble. And if we're young we keep believing that's okay it'll still work out. But if you got a little gray hairs you might think to yourself. Maybe my story's not a happy ending story. Maybe my story's a tragedy. Maybe you believe today that the story of your life is one of tragedy. You see to the naive who think that they can write their own happy ending story. And to the broken who says my story is a tragedy. God in the book of Acts is going I'm inviting you humans ordinary people. To carry the very spirit of God to participate in the remaking of the world. Can I tell you that that suddenly reframes your Tuesday? You're not just punching a clock anymore. You're carrying heaven on the inside of you. You're an ordinary human being invited into the story of God. And I know you might look at me and go Eric you're just crazy bro. I am. When I preach I feel his pleasure. Because I have been grafted into the story of God. I am flawed. I am human. People don't like me. They leave really mean reviews. The whole idea of yelping a church. Should a church be four stars or five stars? I don't know. Maybe two and a half stars because we should be making some people angry.

I don't want to go to that church. But we shouldn't be making people angry for silly things. If we preach the truth it's going to offend people. But you can do that in love. You don't have to beat people up. You hear what I'm saying? I don't want to like punch down. But I am. I have been grafted into the story of God. My life has meaning. But that doesn't mean that you have to be a pastor to have the same meaning. And when you work, when you live, when you testify, when you show up in your everyday. You can feel his pleasure too. When you go to school. And I will age one day and I will die. And I will step into glory. Because this life is not all there is. And the book of Acts, they knew this because they saw Jesus. I saw him die. I saw him come back. Whoa, metaphysical. So you're telling me that can happen with me too? Oh, I don't care if I die. That's why Paul says, to die is gain. If I die, I die, is basically Paul's saying. But what happens when a world lives without that story? You see it in Judges. In the Old Testament, the scripture says, in Judges, it says that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. That's the world we live in. Everyone is living their own truths and own narratives as if the actual narrative and the actual truth doesn't exist. And there is nothing but more destruction and pain. How crazy. We live in a world now that you can literally manufacture your own identity and people still

aren't happy. Tech companies are building algorithms around you. Everything in your life is bespoke to your preferences. Your YouTube algorithm is based around cats and Diarmuid's CEO, or something else, I don't know. What's your algae look like right now? Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu. Right. Here we go. Mine's golf. More swing tips. We live in a world that wants to design its own utopia. We don't need God. The pain in our world is a structural one, not a moral one. If we had a better economic system, it would eliminate greed, really? If we went to democratic socialism instead of capitalism, if we went to communism, somehow, if we just build a better system, no. Humans are selfish and no matter what system you put them in, greed will exist. We now live in an era of AI. If we could just have AI. AI does all of our thinking. Some of you pray to chat, not to Jesus. You do the voice feature and you're dumping your soul's problem on a large language model. Great prayer. Want me to break that down? Want me to create a spreadsheet for you? Ah, great prayer. How is it so affirming all the time? We like it because it doesn't challenge us.

When we get on our knees before the Lord and begin to cry out to him, sometimes he talks back and sometimes he puts his finger on things in our life and he goes, that is not my way. And we take that to chat and go, is this biblical? We're trying to engineer Eden. Humanity will never create utopia. The Soviet Union promised it when it introduced communism and tried to eradicate religion from its population and communism killed more of its own people than any war. Go look at it. But what about the church? Because Malachi has something to say to the church. The church forgets the grand narrative. We become mouse wiggling Christians. You don't know what mouse wigglers are? You know when you have an online work from home job and you've got to keep the mouse moving so your boss knows you're online? Come on, how many mouse wigglers I got in the house today? I'm going to go make a coffee. Just wiggle the mouse. I'm still online. Malachi chapter 1 verse 6 says this, that you've been doing all the religious activity. Look at the very last one where it says, but O priest who despised my name, but you say how we despise your name. What they were doing was they were doing all the religious activities. They were doing the sacrifices. They were doing the worship, but they had forgotten why they were created and why God established the nation of Israel to be a testimony. They turned inward. They turned into a country club. You ever do the Saturday night math before church? Do I really want to go?

You can take the scripture off. You don't know what I'm saying about Saturday. Your Saturday night math reveals the narrative you believe about church. I'm not saying don't skip church. I skip church occasionally, but the Saturday night math reveals oftentimes how you see yourself in the narrative. I'd rather have mimosas than Moses. Come on. Y'all know on Saturday night, you're like, oh wait, we have church tomorrow. You guys, you don't think about it until like 5 p.m. and you're like, do I really? I've had a long week. He's doing a money series, so like I'm not gonna get anything out of that. I don't really know anybody. I've been there for like three weeks and you do the math. Who's preaching? I got a friend of mine, he's in the service right now. He'll text me, hey, who's preaching? You preaching tomorrow? I get it, it makes sense. I mean, we've got a plan to go to six services. We wanna do two Saturday nights down the road and I'm just gonna go ahead and tell ya, I'm not gonna preach all six. I gotta raise up other pastors and I think there's other pastors who God's given a voice and so I wanna continue to raise pastors up. But the Saturday night math reveals, are you just coming to church as an event?

Will I get something out of it? You see, the narrative is still built around me. Not I am a part of a community of faith that God has filled with his spirit and now I am responsible to be a light to my world. That's why we say every week you've just been to church, now go freaking be the church. Go be the church. I just said a Christian cuss word, I'm sorry, freaking. Darn it. Why, because I'm trying to get you to see that God is inviting you into a grander story that gives your life more meaning than your career, that gives your life more meaning than your hobbies, that gives your life more meaning than your social network. But to stand before the Lord at the day of eternity and him go, well done, good and faithful servant. And you see, the story of God actually survives suffering. It survives loss, it survives death. In August, I'm starting a new series and I'm laying these two messages down as foundational because when you see in the book of Acts starting in chapter three through chapter eight, you see this new fragile, what appears fragile, church just starting out. Imagine just for a second if we were the only Christians in Pflugerville, just this room right here. And oh, by the way, if they found out you were here today,

they would fire you, they would kick you out of your home, they would try to kill you. How many of you would show up next week? Oh, come on. Like some of y'all are like, I would, Pastor Eric. I'm like, really, okay, maybe you would. Some of y'all would be like, I'm watching online. And the series is called Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Hell Will Never Stop Us. And here's the thing. We live a narrative where we can be broken. Stephen was stoned. Paul was whipped. You see Peter and John thrown in prison. Then you see internal failure. You see Ananias and Sapphira, they lie around money, and the Lord kills them. Imagine if in the 11 o'clock service, someone, because someone lied, and God just went like. All the first time guests would be like, we're finding another church. Then you see the Hellenistic widows be overlooked in chapter six, and division started because there was favoritism. My point is showing you this. Even with human failure and persecution, and some of you, you don't trust the church because of dishonesty around money. Some of you don't trust the church because maybe you were a modern-day Hellenistic widow

where you were overlooked. But yet each time the enemy and human failure seem to trip the church up, the church continues to grow. It's almost like every time the church gets hit in the mouth, whether by outside persecution or inside failure, the Holy Spirit continues to cause the church to flourish. That's what the Lord is inviting you and I in. There's a story in the Old Testament about a man named Isaac. A prophet who's trapped, there's an army surrounding him and he's got a servant. And the servant is crashing out. He's going like, hey, we're gonna die, this army's surrounding us, they're gonna kill us because of what you've been saying. Why didn't you just shut your mouth? Now we're gonna die. And the prophet just looks at his servant and prays a simple prayer and says, Lord, will you open his eyes? And then the servant looks up and he sees the same hills that were surrounded by an enemy army is now filled with angels. Metaphysical. What I'm asking the Lord to do today in you is to open your spiritual eyes. To go into your week this week, go to the same job, the same routine, but with a different narrative,

with a different story, with a different spirit, that the Spirit of God and the fullness, the fullness of the Spirit lives in my soul. Can I tell you that'll change how you pray in the morning? God, just keep me safe today. No, God, fill me with your Spirit so that I can be a light to the world. God, fill me with your Spirit so I can pray for the sick and see them healed. God, fill me with the Spirit so I can declare the truth to those who are lost and they come to know faith. God, fill me with your Spirit so that on the Zoom call, I can be a hope to those at the HEB or Dell or at the school district or wherever I find myself in employment, there is a grander story than just $15 an hour. Amen. God, let me see my children as not just things that I thought I was supposed to do, but truly as disciples. I am raising up Christian children in Jesus' name. God, you have given me these children to raise them up and to multiply the church. God, you've given me a spouse to make me holy, not just make me happy. Let me get this, no, your spouse sees you for who you really are and can pray for you and call you higher. But more than that, if you are here and you are far from God, you have not stepped into relationship with him.

You have not surrendered your life to his plan. Today is the day of salvation for you. And I wanna declare to you the truth today that this is Jesus is the only way, he is the only way. So if you're here with every hand closed, you are far from God and you are living an unsurrendered life to Jesus. Today is the day of salvation and I pray that you will make a confession of faith. On the count of three, will you put your hand up and I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. One, two, three, if that's you, just put your hand in the air. Yes, I see you, praise God for you. Yeah, I see you on the right, praise God for you. Yes, I see you in the middle aisle. I see you, praise God for you. I think there's like four or five, yeah, I see you in the back middle. There's like six people that just raised their hand. Come on, that's amazing. You just raised your hand? Yep. Let me lead you in a prayer. I'm gonna pray a prayer. I want you to take this prayer and make it your own. Then Natalie's gonna give you some next steps. When I lead you in this prayer, I'm gonna say amen and then I'm gonna pray for the whole church. So if you raise your hand for salvation,

pray this prayer right here. Say, Jesus, today I surrender my life to you. I name you the Lord and King of my life. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you, Jesus, for walking out of the grave showing me life is eternal with you. Today, Jesus, I am deciding to follow you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. God, I pray over my church in Jesus' name. God, I pray that you would begin to help them see the meta-narrative of scripture and that you are inviting them into that. God, let us lay down our own narratives. Let's lay down our own desires. Let's begin to live with the spiritual reality that we are Christ-carriers full of the spirit and Jesus is not done working on earth. He's just working through us. Jars of clay. Imperfect vessels carrying a perfect God. I pray that you would transform their Tuesday, that you would give them spiritual eyes to see a greater reality, Father. I pray that you would fill them with your Spirit. And God, I pray that they would see that you have invited them into the story of global redemption through simple obedience. In Jesus' name we pray, everybody said together. Church, I love you with all my heart.