The Danger of Doing Nothing

Hey, good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us online for our service today. It's such a privilege to have you with us online. Hey, if you haven't already, go ahead and just comment in the chat where you are watching from and just greet one another today. It's great that we can just be online together in obviously the middle of a snowstorm. We're so happy for the power of technology and that we get to worship together. Let me just remind you of this. Next week, we will be back in person for our services. Super, super pumped. We're starting a series through the book of Colossians. You don't wanna miss it. We also have Party with the Pastor and Baptism Sunday happening. It's just gonna be an amazing, amazing Sunday. And so don't forget to join us in person. Today, I'm closing out our series called Higher Heights. And it's really just been this thought that God has more for us. God has more. It's not enough to just say yes to Jesus and say the prayer one time. It really is the spiritual journey of following long and hard after Jesus. And I just wanna challenge you that God has more for us.

Week number one, I talked about this. It's just time. It's just time to go. The light is green. It's time to go. Let's repent. Let's turn back to God. And then let's really go all in. Let's declare in 2026, we are all in team Jesus and his ways and his direction for our life. Week two was then talking about, all right, if we're all in for Jesus, now we're going to heaven, but we wanna live a life that's victorious here on earth. We wanna be vessels that are fit for the master's use. And we talked about how to become fit vessels in 2026. Last week, I talked about how to find freedom from the areas of sin that have been holding onto us. If it really is a new year and a new start, it's time once and for all to settle the things that have held us for so long. Today, I wanna talk about how to have endurance and grit to keep going. How to make sure that your life really has a purpose and a mission that is making a difference. It's not just enough to say yes to Jesus. It's not just enough to repent and start pursuing him. It's not just enough to beat some issues and some struggles. You gotta use your life now to make a difference.

And today I'm finishing our series talking about the life of David. Now, if I were to give you a pop quiz to the class today, and I would say, class, what was the sin that took David out? I think everyone would say, oh, I know what it is. Pastor Dan's gonna preach a sermon on adultery. You know, he's gonna preach a sermon on David and Bathsheba, or he's gonna talk about lust, or he's gonna talk about, you know, how he ends up facilitating the execution of a guy named Uriah, one of his mighty men. Maybe he's gonna talk about murder and the fact that David played a part on it. What I'm talking about today is not any of those things. I'm actually talking today about the spirits of a sloth. Go ahead and show that picture. The spirit of a sloth. Somebody's saying, what's wrong with a sloth? Aren't those just cute, adorable little animals? No, when I'm talking about the spirit of a sloth today, I'm talking about the sin of a sloth mindset, not an animal, all right? Somebody like, what in the world is he talking about? Let me explain, all right? What I'm getting ready to read in 2 Samuel chapter 11 is actually where all of the dominoes start to fall in David's life to then have the affair, to commit adultery, to lie, to cover it up, to murder, to be rebuked by the prophet Nathan, where his whole family starts coming undone.

There's a verse at the beginning of this text that everybody misses, but it is so important and it shows that one decision set up all of the other decisions. As if this one decision had not been made, none of the other decisions would have been made. So this is 2 Samuel chapter 11, verse one. When I read it, you as the Bible reader today online at your house, try to go, oh, I see it. This is where it happens, all right? Check this out. This is where the story starts. In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, now you gotta let me know in the chat today, pop quiz for the class, was David a king? Yes or no, was David a king? The answer is yes. So at the time when kings go off to war, at the time where David was supposed to be waking up, lacing up his boots, getting ready to go, getting ready to do something that matters, fighting battles, David instead sent Joab, one of the king's men out. He went, bro, you got it this time. And the whole Israeli army, they destroyed the Ammonites and they besieged Rabbah. Here's the ominous sentence, but David remained in Jerusalem. Go back, do it again. Show me that next picture that we got of the sloth right there.

Show me that next picture of the sloth. Oh, that's such a cute little sloth. Now what could be wrong with the mindset of a sloth? You can take that picture down now. Thank you so much. It's very distracting for me to just see that sloth up there all the time. What could possibly be wrong with the mindset of a sloth? See, when we're talking about the word sloth, I'm sure that you figured out. Now we're not talking about an animal, but when I'm talking about a sloth, I'm talking about this mindset of idleness and laziness and not doing anything. Yes, I am talking about those things, but I want to read you one of the definitions that I found studying some passages of scripture this week. Here's some definitions of the word sloth. It's not just merely physical idleness. It's not just merely not doing something. It's not just being a little bit lazy, according to some biblical scholars and some commentaries that I read this week, it was seen as spiritual apathy. Another scholar said a neglect of one's duties to God or to others, or listen, a failure to engage with your life's purpose. Think of it as willful disinterest in the good that you know you're supposed to do and you actually are able to do. Here's another definition that another Bible scholar said, like not bothering to care when caring actually matters, sloth, sloth. Now if you don't think this is such a big thing, you might say, Pastor Dan, why are we talking about this today? There are far more other biblical things that you could be focusing on. There's far things that could be far worse to my Christian life than I need to be aware of.

Why are you focusing on this today? Listen to me. I'm saying this because we're talking about being in higher heights and being a church that deals with our issues and being a church that repents and goes all in with God. And I'm just telling you, you will never go to higher heights in 2026 if you still remain in that sin, that temptation, that addiction, that foolishness that could wreck your life. And here's what you need to see from this passage today, that the only reason that David was ever in the space to lust after that woman, to commit adultery, to murder his friend, to lose the anointing and the hand of God in his life and to destroy his family was because he had created space for that mindset through sloth, through sloth. So today, here's what I want to do in this message. I want to show you how you can recognize it. And then I want to show you how you can overcome it. I want to show you how you can recognize it and how you can overcome it. Why? Because God has more for your life. God has higher heights for you. God wants to use your life to make a difference. Number one, the first thing, if you're going to notice the spirit of sloth in your life, you have to notice that number one, the spirit of sloth, it will distract you. It will distract you. It will distract you. And I got a picture of one of the biggest distractions of all time. This is the demon of all distractions. Go ahead and throw that next picture up on the screen. Look at that right there. I'm having way too much fun with chat GPT and AI image generators. Okay, I'm just having way too much fun and they're getting better too. But no, no, no. Listen, if the devil can't destroy you, he'll just distract you.

And I'm telling you in our pockets today, we have the greatest distraction of all time and it's our phones. It's our phones. Have you ever noticed one day, maybe in these last couple of days of 21 days of prayer and fasting and you sit down to pray and you determine I'm going to be a man of God in prayer or I'm going to be a woman of God in prayer and you sit down and you just start blessing the Lord and you start lifting up the Lord and suddenly you just start praying our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Let his kingdom come. You start praying his agenda. You start praying for the nation. You start praying for America. You start praying for God to have their way and about a minute into it, you just start praying for the other nations of the world and then you start praying for China, one of the nations of the world, and then just in your mind out of nowhere, your mind goes from America, then to China and then China. You just start thinking about what's going on in China. You go, oh, China, China owns tick tock. I should check tick tock right now and you pull out your phone and before you know it, you were supposed to be praying, but now you're on tick tock or how about this? You wake up in the morning when your brain is just always sluggish and you're trying to read your Bible and the second you read your Bible, you have a hard time focusing. You can't even make out what the Bible is even saying, but, but, but as you start to just read the Bible a little bit more, suddenly there's clarity in your mind and your to-do list just starts populating before you of everything that you have to do and before you know it, you're not reading your Bible. You're writing your to-do list throughout the day that you have to get done in that moment. The devil doesn't have to destroy you from your life purpose if he can just simply distract

you. So the spirit of sloth will distract you, number one. Number two, it won't just only distract you, it will divert you. It will divert you. Number two, it will divert you. This is really interesting. All of David's inner traits that made him a great king, when he stays back in sloth and doesn't go to battle, those traits don't go away. They just get channeled from a redemptive purpose to a sinful one. David was a man of action. David was a great leader. David was a guy that woke up in the morning and he got after it, whatever he was tasked and supposed to do. And listen to me today. I want to use this language very carefully, but when he stays back, all he did was traded conquests. Listen to me today. I want to say this so lovingly and honestly. He traded war for women. And what the devil will do is he'll divert you from the thing that matters to do something else Sometimes sloth is is an activity. It's not doing anything, but sometimes sloth also looks like tons of activity busyness Aggression, but it's going in the wrong Direction from the purpose and the calling of God and the ministry that God is actually calling you to do I love 1st Corinthians chapter 9 the Apostle Paul was a man that conquered the sloth mindset This dude know how to grind and had a grit for the purposes of God. I love what he says in 1st Corinthians 9 He says do you know that in a race that all runners run? But only one runs to get the prize so run to win He says therefore I do not run like somebody else running aimlessly

You can be running a thousand miles doing a thousand different things You could just be headed in the wrong direction. And what good would it be for man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? Because what Satan will try to do is he'll try to divert you from the purposes of God So you can't make a difference for God. Here's the third one Here's the third one is that for sure the spirit of sloth will try to discourage you It'll discourage you see when you start trying to live fully for God When you really decide this is a year that I'm going all-in for team Jesus. I'm gonna pursue God I'm gonna pursue righteousness. I'm gonna pursue being in church. I'm gonna pursue getting in community joining a small group I'm gonna pursue reading the Bible daily and being in the Word I'm gonna pursue serving the Lord and serving my local church. I'm telling you when you decide to go all-in Oh watch beware because Discouragement is gonna come your way Discouragement is gonna come your way Thoughts feelings of what am I doing with my life or this is boring or this is drudgery Or do I really want to do this or man? It would just be a lot more fun if I just went after the things of this world if I went after sex Status and money if I just went after all those things, I would just be so much more happier But guys, can I point this out if success and status actually made you happy the New York City and Hollywood They'd be the happiest people in America But I love what Jim Carrey says He says I wish everyone could be rich and famous so they could see that money does not buy happiness Oh hear me today It's not wrong when to have stuff but it is wrong when stuff has you and what Satan will try to do as soon as you decide to go all-in as soon as you decide that this is year of higher heights as soon as you decide that it's a year where God has more for your life is he'll try to convince you That man actually living for the things of this world matter more than living for God It matters more than living for God. Listen to me today following Jesus is difficult Following Jesus is not an easy road Following Jesus is hard. There's trials. It's not easy to serve. It's not always fun to serve

It's not always fun to choose the hard right over the easy wrong Just because something is hard does not mean it's from the father and does not mean it's not right to keep doing Some of you just need to know this work is hard today Serving the Lord is hard today living for God and living for his ways is hard today But as Galatians 6 9 says do not grow weary in doing good for at the proper time You will reap a reward if you do not give up don't get discouraged today Calvary Church Now this is really important for me to say if you find yourself today a little bit older in years a senior saint I would call you and your age is a is a couple years more than mine I need to know I need you to know this today Satan would love to discourage you and make you feel like you have no purpose That your best days are actually behind you and here's what I actually think happened to David in this story Bible scholars think that when 2nd Samuel is written David is probably pushing 50 at the time where life expectancy is 52 to 55 And I wonder if David reached the point in his life where he thought all the battles that mattered in life were behind him and his season of Significance had come to an end and so he got discouraged and he just stopped fighting But listen to me in the economy of God things have Expiration dates, but people don't listen to me today If you've got a pulse God's got a purpose if you're not dead God's not done with you you wake up You've got a reason to serve God every single day Listen to me those who feel old and advanced in years Every time that phrase in Scripture old and advanced in years issues God's greatest work for those people was still in front of them. You keep running your race Do not grow weary in doing good for at the proper time You'll reap a harvest if you do not give up you link up with some people here in our church who are younger than you And you mentor them and you show them the way of following Jesus You see people run races by running hard in the last 10 meters go all the way With the last years that God has, however long that is for your life.

So those are the things, the mindsets of the sloth. So I wanna close today by showing you how to kill it. How do you kill it? Number one, you gotta kill condemnation. You gotta kill condemnation. See, I believe this, half-hearted Christians are the most miserable people in the world because they know enough about God to feel guilty, but not enough about the gospel to feel happy. Because here's what happens, right? Satan wants you to think about your relationship with the Father as dependent on your moral performance rather than the finished work of Jesus. If you've said yes to Jesus, the work of Christ has already been accomplished once and for all. Jesus paid the price for your sins, and it's never about performance or perfection or striving. You can never do it on your own. On your best day, your righteousness is like filthy rags in the presence of God. Now, there is this lifestyle of pursuing God. There's this lifestyle of righteousness, sanctification, right, living for God that should follow in our lives. But it's going to have to be this daily decision of, God, even though I messed up again, I'll still follow after you. God, even though I missed the mark today, I'll still follow after you.

I love what Proverbs 24, 16 says. It says, for the righteous falls seven times and rises again. It's gotta be this mindset that says, I'm gonna keep getting up and going after God every single day. Why, because successful people do consistently what average people do occasionally. Successful people do consistently what ordinary people do occasionally. The second one is this. Not only do you need to kill condemnation, number one, but number two, you gotta learn to live by habits, not by feelings. You gotta learn to live by habits, not by feelings. This is not a fun one to talk about. You're not gonna love this one, but you gotta learn to live by habits, not by feelings. I wanna point this out to you today. The text says this, at the time when kings go off to war. In other words, it's saying that David's habits in being king, one of the responsibilities of being the king and the leader of army was when there was a battle, he would go out. I counted this week. There's almost 20 battles before this moment, and David led every single battle before that. And when you get to this one, it was saying that David was in the habit of doing what he was supposed to do,

but he got out of his habits, and that's when destruction came. You know that every season of your life of immense destruction will start with something like this. At the time when Sarah was normally reading her Bible, she was doing blank instead. At the time when Sean normally went to bed, instead he stayed up late and started blank. At the time when Jim usually booked a flight home to be with his family as fast as he could, instead he blanks. And that's how all of the paths that lead to destruction will start. The New Testament says it this way. It says, make no provision for the flesh. In other words, stay in your habits in 2026. When you read the Gospels and you see the life of Jesus constantly as talking about Jesus's life, it says, as was his custom. In other words, Jesus was a man of consistency and a man of discipline. I love what James Clear says. He says, every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Why? Because successful people do consistently what ordinary people do occasionally. You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your rhythms. And David got out of his rhythms.

And when he got out of his rhythms, all of those things that he was supposed to be doing that were right, stopped. Let me land the plane right here. Point number three. Let me share this with you today. If you want to defeat this thing, if you really want to make a difference with your life, if you want to go to higher heights in 2026 and be all that God has called you to be, number three, you've got to elevate your vision. You got to elevate your vision for your life. I think David lost his spiritual vision for why these battles actually mattered. So he just stopped fighting them. See, in 2 Samuel chapter seven, God establishes with David what is called the Davidic covenant. He gives them all of these promises, all of these things that are gonna happen in David's life. And I think David forgot all of the promises of God. And I think he just started thinking, oh, these little battles, this little squirmish that we have with the Ammonites. Our team's got it. They're already got it. They're going ahead. But if David had instead been thinking, instead of a squirmish with the Ammonites, he'd been thinking, nope, me winning these battles,

I'm claiming the promises that God has for me personally, the promises that God gave to me in this Davidic covenant. I'm protecting the messianic line from which a savior is going to come who will be the savior of the entire world, who will come to seek and to save those who are lost. I'm securing the spiritual inheritance of my great grandchildren. And I think if David had been thinking that way in the promises that God had given from and remembering the vision that was placed Over his life. He would have gotten up off of his butt and led that battle But he lost the spiritual vision for why these things mattered and so we got out of it You think that Jesus? When he said to Peter these words follow me The implications that that would have on Peter's life in impacting our world today. I mean just think about Peter Just think about him. He thought he was leaving fishing when Jesus called him. He had no idea He was stepping into changing history. He didn't know that he'd preach and 3,000 people would be saved in one day He didn't know that God would use him to shake up an entire Empire He didn't know that his life would be echoing into eternity that we would still be talking about Peter today Because of his yes to Jesus and I'm just here to tell you this today when you say yes to the purpose of God in your life when you say yes to the calling of God in your life when you say no to sin and yes to God and Yes to be obedient and following long and hard in the same direction after God. He expands your vision Small yeses placed in the hands of a big God. It changes everything Listen to me today online God puts you on this planet and he put the spirit of the Living God inside of you to minister to the people of God and When you go forward for the purposes of God with the people of God in the power of the Spirit of God Something eternal happens in your life. Oh Calvary Church I want you to go to higher heights in 2026 But you've got to elevate your vision for your life what God might do through you So I want to close this message today actually hilariously enough

Ironically given the nature of this sermon and distractions. I actually saw this video on social media I'm fighting I'm fighting against distractions too. All right, how about you? It was before 21 days of prayer and fasting though that I saw this video. I'll just interject But there's a church in London called Holy Trinity Brompton and you're gonna see this guy his name Steve and he described Exactly this phenomenon that I'm talking about discovering your purpose so you can make a difference in this 60 second video I want you to see what happens when you connect what's in you to the people of God With the purpose of God check this video out right now. I'm honest. I never really liked the church I didn't even really like Christians that much I used to think of it like a package deal Like you get Jesus and so you get the church and Christians thrown It's just part of the package and there are some bits you like Jesus some bits You don't like so much was like the church and Christians used to find that a bit annoying But I'd turn up the church and go through it I don't really enjoy getting a church and then one day I was at the back of our church in East London and Someone said to me. Oh, we need help to Run the coffee team. I was like working like 70 80 hour week I'm like what and they were like, yeah, we see we really do help running the coffee team on a Sunday That's the key. I'm a pastor. I'm not a barista. I've got a job I don't need another job to run the coffee team. I just you know, sometimes you just can't even think of what to say So I was like, okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. Okay, and and I instantly why did I do that? So I turn up next week like, you know trying to get the cups and everything get the coffee, right as I handed these cups to people Something really changed in me. I found myself as I handed coffee to these people Growing in love for that. I was like these people are amazing Like this is this extraordinary diverse community It's been gathered from across the area probably not another place that looks as diverse and integrated as this This is a miracle and then even people I found a little bit more frustrating and complicated as I handed them their coffee I kind of grew in love for them and I kind of basically fell in love with the church Then I kind of went back to the person who'd asked me to I said we need new coffee machine We need better beans. We need better months that we come on. These are amazing people I want this to be the best coffee that they get, you know, they're coming to church on a Sunday morning

I got more and more passionate. I started to build a team to serve coffee on a Sunday morning I sometimes say making coffee changed my life Because I fell in love with the Church of Jesus Christ. I didn't realize why it was special I didn't realize why it matters and As I made coffee for people I Celebrated other churches like the Bride of Jesus Christ. It's like the thing he gave himself Like the church is God's plan for the salvation of the world There's no plan B and God is gonna build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So like God is putting all his eggs in the church basket. I Realized over those few weeks. There's a beautiful thing here. Yes, it messes up. Yes, it makes mistakes You'll never find a perfect church, but it's a beautiful beautiful thing. And I thought that's what I want to spend my life building. I love that. He said, making coffee changed my life. And I fell in love with the church. Now, listen to me. Don't ask for better mugs here at Calvary Church. We got other expenses coming up, all right? But for real, for real, see, I want you, I want you to connect what God has for you, the people of God and the purpose of God. And I'm telling you, when you do that, there's a joy in your life. And it's a purpose that floods your soul and it changes everything. And that's why I'm inviting you right now. If you never have to come to Lifetrack, February 10th, you can sign up for it right now on our app, on the website.

You can sign up and take that next step to discover your purpose so you can make a difference. I'm telling you, I'm telling you this, I'm telling you, when you elevate your vision, you have no idea what God can do with one ordinary person when he just simply says, yes, he says yes to the things of God, the purpose of God, the calling of God. I'm telling you, if we're gonna be a church that goes to higher heights in 2026, if we're gonna be a church that reaches more people, if we're gonna be a church that continues to see all that God has for us continue to unfold in reaching Burlington County for Jesus, I'm telling you, you're going to have to lean into God's purpose for your life. Step into it and make a difference here at Calvary Church. Okay, right now, I wanna pray for you. I wanna pray that God will bless you in this endeavor as the Lord is just moving in your life right now. And so Father God, I ask, I ask Lord, I ask Lord, God, that we would offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to you because of the mercies of the father who gave himself in the body of his son, because Jesus saves sinners. God, all to you we owe because of everything that you gave. And so God, here we are now saying to just give our time and to give our money and to give our energy and resources back to you. That's the least that we could do.

Father, I pray that we'd be a church marked by incredible focus in 2026. God, we would not be sad that we're people who are lazy or idle or sit by, or Lord even people that are running hard but just running in the wrong direction. Lord, we'd be people that know our purpose and we're connected to you to make a difference. We pray this in Jesus name. Maybe you're watching online this morning and you're hearing me talking about being connected to a purpose of God, that God has more for your life and real purpose and real plans, but you realize you can't fulfill your purpose because you're not even walking with Jesus. You don't even have a personal real relationship with Jesus. I'm here to tell you on this snowy Sunday that you can make Jesus Lord of your life and it's the best decision of your life. And not only will God have a specific purpose and plan marked out for your life to fulfill here on earth, but you can know him in a real intimate way. Your sins can be forgiven and your future can be heaven. If that's you today, hey, pray something just like this. Romans 10 says this, if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Pray with me something like this. Say, Jesus, say, I come to you today. Say, God, I know that I have sinned, but I believe you're the son of God.

Say, you died for my sin. You rose from the grave. Today, Jesus, I invite you, be the Lord of my life. Change me and from this day forward, I'll follow you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.