CR Monday Nights ft. Lindy Cofer & Nick Brennt

welcome to monday nights hey everyone can i have your attention up here how's everybody doing tonight you guys doing good you feeling good how was the weekend here's what i want you to do can everyone stand up out of your chairs i need everyone up here really quickly can you guys stand up and come up to the front if there's room up here you guys can make your way down fill in around we got we're going to get it right into worship and kick things off i don't know about you guys but i'm super excited and expecting tonight who's here is ready for a special touch from god guys if you want to just make a uh some space keep coming around that way man we want to jump straight in tonight i know i've got a little bit of a sneak peek on what you guys are in store for i'm telling you it's going to be a wild night so i'm ready i'm ready for something special from god so can we just jump straight into things and pray today you guys ready for that all across this place can you just lift your hands with me we're going to pray we're just going to give honor to the lord we're going to welcome his presence here even with your own voice would you lift your own voice right now begin to ask god his presence to come god we say you're so worthy we ask for your presence right now across this place in jesus name god we pray that you would be magnified and glorified through our lives tonight we pray that through worship god we would give you high praise that you and you alone are worthy of we thank you that our hearts will be pierced with the word of god tonight we pray and we say we're expectant we're expectant for a touch from heaven in jesus name so god we give you all the honor we give you all the praise in jesus name who's ready to worship tonight let's go can praise just leave your lips right now just sing to him say something dude we're doing thanksgiving oh glory and honor and power there is a sound i love to hear it's the sound of the savior's as he walks into the room is sing us praise it's is is is is is is with him engage with the courtroom of heaven imagine is is is hey let the king of glory enter in let the king of glory enter in let the king of glory and let the king of glory enter in the kingdom let the king of glory entered oh glory and turn is oh your heart say to him just tell him that we love him like the key of glory we love you we love you we love you we love you king of glory jesus you're the beautiful one we love your name and how we love your name jesus jesus jesus you're the beautiful jesus and how we yes and how we love your name jesus jesus you're the beautiful one we love your name one more time and how we love your name our jesus you're the beautiful one we love your name thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus we honor your presence that's in this place tonight jesus thank you jesus god we to say we are a people hungry for the presence of god oh hungry when we opened up tonight and ian was was speaking i just kept saying the word hunger over the room tonight i feel there is an impartation for all of us for the gift of hunger for the presence of god and the person of jesus so lord we receive tonight a fresh baptism of hunger as we lift high the name of jesus as we just come to worship one king as we behold the lamb of god are a voice crying out in the wilderness cause we can't take the king the king is as we behold we we are foreign we lift our eyes is is yes oh oh he's more oh than silver more costly than gold he is our king jesus the lamb we behold precious he's more precious than oh can we oh concealer is nothing back from your jesus is it is our king jesus the king is calling the king is calling and we say yes to the lord the most high the king is calling the king is calling and we say yes to the lord the most high we give you our yes tonight we give you our guests tonight we give you all of our hearts oh jesus oh there's fresh surrender to the king you are worthy of everything everything jesus is jesus oh there's no plan b you're my everything jesus you're beautiful jesus beautiful jesus you're beautiful jesus you're beautiful and jesus you're beautiful in jesus your beautiful jesus you're beautiful oh find a people in love with you i know your eyes are like flames of fire your head is is and there is no one like you in the heavens and there is no one like you in the heavens or on the earth is there is is is jesus you're beautiful jesus you're beautiful you're the one thing i desire you're the one thing i seek just to know you to love you and look upon your beauty jesus jesus you're beautiful there is no one like you jesus you're beautiful jesus so beautiful jesus so beautiful jesus so thing he's more precious more precious than silver more costly than gold he is my king be jesus you're more precious than silver you're more costly than gold he is my king jesus the lamb we behold take the world just give me jesus give me jesus give me jesus me jesus more precious captivation thank you jesus we're gonna do one more song tonight before nick comes and preaches it's a really simple song called jesus the healer we've been in a season of contending for brian brent to be healed and this actually started we were praying when covet and it was our very first greenhouse set and this simple course just came out your jesus the healer your jesus the healer your jesus the healer and by your stripes we are healed we're gonna sing this tonight and i just believe if there's anyone in this room who needs healing and i also feel anyone who needs emotional healing healing in your family healing from something in the past whether it's a trauma i just saw it's jesus the healer he is the only name he is the only one and as we lift high jesus the healer we say jesus the healer would you make yourself known tonight in jesus name if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray you will heal our land if we turn from every week eat away and turn to seek your face you will heal our land oh yes your jesus the healer your jesus the healer the healer we are it's me the heal we are your jesus sickness bondage and disease that must balance me it must bow its need the name of jesus oh jesus we pray right now for a healing anointing to begin to break out in southern california we just healing we pray pray pray we pray to jesus the healer we pray we pray to jesus the healer come on friends let's pray let's press in just for 30 seconds anyone you know that needs a touch from the only one you can heal not by the works of man it's not to us the two his name glory to his name be the glory to his name be the glory and by your stripes we are healed and by your stripes we are healed away for us all lord we stand in away for oh yes you made a oh jesus and by your stripes we are healed you made is the healer your jesus the healer jesus thank you jesus we thank you for your praises for your goodness for your healing jesus jesus we say you're worthy we call you worthy right now we call it an honor to behold you jesus and we don't just read about you or hear about you god we call it an honor to behold you we call it an honor to see you we call it an honor to meet you on a monday night we call you worthy of all god we say you're worthy of all and god we take a moment to realign our hearts with yours we ask you now in jesus name god for anything that we've put on ourselves when we should have expectation and faith in you we ask jesus the healer would we get a revelation god that the highest form of faith is not shouting it's just expectation that jesus the healer is in the room jesus the healer is in the room we call you worthy of all right now all across this place if you have something that you need healing for in your body right before we transition here's what i want you to do we're not going to go into some special moment we're simply going to put our eyes of expectation on god the highest form of faith is expectation knowing that what he said will be true and so what we're going to do is we're going to align our hearts with his and we're i'm just going to pray a simple prayer i want you right now if you need healing for something on your body i want you to put your hand where you need healing if it's on your back if it's on your head if you have a whole bunch of things in your body that are going wrong just put it on your head if you need emotional healing if you need something going on right now we're going to pray a simple prayer of faith for god to realign our hearts with his to realign our spirits with his that we would catch the faith at which he is placing in this room right now i feel it even as we were singing jesus yes just saying yes yes whatever it is that is the alignment of faith to say jesus yes to whatever you have so right now just put your hand on yourself and i declare in the mighty name of jesus right now we put our expectation on yours and we say jesus the healer it's all you there's no special person special prayer it's simply by your stripes that we experience and encounter your healing power so i speak to every autoimmune disease every sickness every pain in any person's body we declare in the mighty name of jesus that you go right now and we speak full healing in the mighty name of jesus and by the power of the cross in jesus name and god now we just say yes to whatever you have to do tonight we say yes to whatever you have to do tonight can you do that right now just lift your hands one second just tell them yes just like we sang say yes god we want to behold you lift your voices for one minute we want to behold you we set an expectation in this place that we will encounter your presence tonight we will encounter your power tonight this is all for you jesus we say yes we say yes we're ready to behold you we're ready to behold you in jesus name in jesus name and everyone said amen amen can we give it up for jesus one time hallelujah thank you lord i don't know i'm a mess i don't know how to transition here everyone you can head back to your seats really quickly we're going to jump straight into things thank you lord thank you jesus as you go back if i could just have your attention for one minute just have a quick announcement before we jump into tonight um who here's heard of greenhouse anybody here at a greenhouse who here wave at me if you've been to a greenhouse set wave at me man i was away i was back in my home state i was back in boston massachusetts i was back in my home state so i just got back into town and i went to my first greenhouse last week in this room and man i was absolutely wrecked by the presence of god in this place can anyone attest to that i mean it was crazy i just i was like i want to be here every morning this is incredible so every tuesday wednesday and thursday from 8 to 10 a.m it's here in this room greenhouse prayer first hour is prayer second hour is prayer and intercession so can somebody say it with me it's tuesday wednesday thursday ready tuesday wednesday thursday from 8 am to 10 am so we want to see you guys all here man we're going after the presence of god together and then interceding um for all across this nation things that we're praying for for a long time as a movement and man right now more than ever before we're seeing god breakthrough with answers to prayer and so we're just going to go harder after everything we've been praying and seeking the lord after so without further ado we want to welcome up who we have speaking tonight nick can you come on up here really quickly this is my pastor no i'm kidding this is nick right here can we give it up one time for nick everyone stand up give a shout to nick he's going to be bringing the word tonight let me tell you i got a little sneak peek in the back like 20 seconds it's gonna be crazy so everyone do this for me while you sit down just lean forward a little bit and we'll just lean forward a little bit lock in stay focused if i see any phones i'm gonna smack them out of your hand no i'm kidding but it's gonna be a good night so get ready lock in and uh i'm super super stoked for tonight bro love you so much who loves ian ross in this place this guy ian how old are you 22 you're single right all right this guy is uh this guy's an evangelist and uh if if like i'm not talking about just like a guy who shares the gospel in the street he does that but this guy has faith for fields this guy has faith for crusades for our generation and i think in january are you doing your first crusade somewhere in africa ian where are you is that true i'm joining your team bro you guys are expecting what five to ten thousand people a night come on bro ian ross man 22. let that inspire you guys tonight i heard some crazy stuff my wife was telling me that some of you drove like an extraordinarily long way to be here tonight how many of you drove more than an hour to come to monday night tonight did anybody drive more than an hour just give me a little wave oh wow that's amazing that's commitment man that's commitment did anyone drive more than 90 minutes night more than 90. two hours did you drive like to move here what happened yeah okay that's why he's cheating all right well we're so happy for everyone to be here guys tonight we're gonna keep diving into the book of first john is that okay with you guys derek last week totally annihilated us on the life of christ that in christ there is life and and this week i got like a crazy subject we're going to talk about fake christians and but it's it's not what you expect it's not it's not a beatdown it's not a beatdown it's hopefully helpful if anything but i think there's something funny about fake stuff i don't know if any of you have like a fake detector that is strong some of you think that you have a fake detector but you don't because you're buying all those fake products you're getting you know all that kind of stuff but a lot of us have a fake detector and uh when i was in high school we had this guy in our team and he was a one-upper does he have a friend who's a one-upper he can't help himself but re-tell a story after you tell a story about how his moment is so much crazier than your moment yes okay and i remember it got to the point with this guy every single time we tell a story this guy would retell another story that was even more crazy and it got to the point where we were literally making up stories waiting for him to top them knowing like this guy at this point has been to 90 nations his dad has 17 different jobs right he's wealthy and he's poor he's you know he's got the best the best and the worst of the worst his life is incredible and his life is the worst every single crazy moment and it was kind of one of my first experience with i go wow this person is totally great living a totally fake life and it was like dawned on me like this guy does this everywhere he goes like he just like crushing it like just with fake stories every day like what do you do just go home you're like man what a great time connecting with everyone today just felt so close and it was such a great time of bonding i told 17 fake stories about my life probably my favorite moment of fake stuff was uh all right i won't say names but uh let's just say one of my friends he went on an international trip and sometimes in different countries you can buy certain products that are close to the real thing but are not quite the same thing and he came back he came back and he said he really built it up like and i got you a really great gift i got you some stuff you're really gonna appreciate and he opens the box he's got this outfit and some underwear and the brand is kelvin klein not calvin klein kelvin kelvin klein and i'm like what in the world is going on and you know what he wrapped it he wired it i think he still wears it today he's broke he doesn't he can't switch it out so he's rolling with it but there's something funny about fake stuff and so john what he's doing in this passage that we're going to look at today is he's basically going to expose a bunch of the fake to understand john is you got to understand that he's a spiritual father and this guy is obsessed with love you look in the gospels he's the guy who's leaning on jesus saying i'm the disciple he's self-referencing i'm the disciple that jesus dearly loves this guy is a tender guy anyone knows someone tender who's always breaking down in tears who's the tender who's always crying at youtube at night like you you swear you're not watching that video but you're just oh my gosh he's giving me a gift right he's this tender loving father it said that the the kind of the disciples of john the beloved in early church history said that when he got so old he couldn't preach anymore that he would have his disciples carry him in on a stretcher to address the church how crazy is that preaching like it's like 100 years old coming in and he didn't even have the breath to speak to everyone a full talk and he usually could only even say a few sentences and he would say this every single time love one another love one another he never was on any other message but love and finally the congregation goes dude you're always talking about love why are you talking about love so much of the time and he says because if you just can love one another it is enough it is enough see when we're dealing with john we're dealing with that spiritual father who comes into our life and begins to make things really clear the backdrop of the first first john is he's writing this letter in ephesus and ephesus is this crazy town it's this it's this major metropolis trade center and it is a wild living town we have this crazy cult of artemis going on it's one of the seven wonders of the world i believe this massive temple with all kinds of temple prostitution and sexual practice and all kinds of immorality and on the other side of town we have a like thriving witchcraft community sorcery witchcraft superstition and then on the other side of town we got the idol factory so we got idle factory over here we got crazy demonic cult over here and we got witchcraft center over here it's like best buy for witchcraft just you go over there get your spells gotta know how it works it is a crazy time and he's writing this and what he's actually doing and we're about to see is he's actually confronting a bunch of false teachers now a false teacher is kind of a buzzword like for me whenever like i see false teachers on youtube or tick tock or instagram like skip skip right because it's always the people we love like you know it's like this guy's a false teacher this guy's a false teacher this guy's a false teacher like man if i listen to this guy everybody's a false teacher but him like this guy just is on it man he's just analyzing everybody he's always got man he's a theologian this is incredible so i usually turn it off but what he's getting at here is that you need to understand false teaching if you're going to understand jesus right because you don't just understand jesus you got to understand ways maybe you're thinking about jesus that aren't right because the last thing i want to do is show up to jesus and have a realize oh my word half of my ideas about you were wrong and so there's this crazy outbreak of this false religion called gnosticism super weird super strange hard to relate to today they basically believed that the material world was demonic it was evil was not good so everything material was uh wrong your flesh all this stuff and the only thing that was good was spiritual things so your spirit man a sense was good that's what connected god but your flesh was bad it wasn't created by god and they developed all these super strange teachings and how you got the revelation to join in on this twisted version of christianity was you would have this enlightened spiritual experience kind of a mystical experience kind of a alter call gone wrong moment and you'd come into this false religion suddenly and it would lead to two things first it would lead to people who were like super spiritually superior to everybody else super stiff super intense thought they were better the kind of super christian types or it led to people that were super lackadaisical in their view of sin they basically go well the flesh of the world is the fleshy world it's bad anyway i can do whatever i want as long as i'm connecting with jesus as long as i'm talking to god then maybe i can just do whatever i want and so why in the world how does this relate to today how are we going to look at a book that's talking about some strange thing at this different time that we can't relate to well the thing is this is that false teaching always has the same path see he's just using this as the cultural example of his day but if we look at it we realize that it's the same pattern over and over and over and over and over and over and over again in scripture and in history see what false teaching does is number one it redefines jesus it redefines kind of who he is and what he was about it begins to redefine his message and then it begins to redefine his lifestyle and all of a sudden you got this crazy weird distortion of who jesus really is because that's kind of the worst lies aren't they the lies that are partly true right the worst the scariest lies the most dangerous lies are the ones that are totally false like i watched a tick talk about how elon musk is an alien from mars and he came here and he's stuck and he's building spacex to go back to his home planet right i i'm in zero danger of believing that you know i'm not like wow like that almost got me man pray for me guys like i almost was led into temptation to some strange belief that's not gonna happen but it's things that sound kind of right you see it all the time on social media it drives me nuts as a bible teacher because they're using these verses out of context to say something kind of true about jesus but they're taking it to a degree that is not true and they're misrepresenting the truth this happens all the time everywhere and what was happening this strange religion was a product of the social pressures of its day see we have a bunch of social pressures today i propose that we have two major social pressures today the first one is i'm going kind of deep teacher mode on united is that okay i think you can handle it and then you can handle it the first one is this it comes from the enlightenment it's this atheistic naturalism so it's not not that we're against science i love science i read science stuff and listen to science podcasts amazing crazy so cool god's awesome but what this takes it is it's kind of a view that there is no god there can be no god everything has come from chance everything can be explained through evidence and if there's no evidence it's not real and so this kind of over lifting up of this non-supernatural worldview where nothing about god it's almost stupid to think that there's something supernatural if you felt something that's just chemicals going off in your brain you're having a psychological experience if you experience love of god oh that's just you dealing with your pain from your past oh you believed you got healed yeah right we'll check in a few times no one ever gets healed what do you mean god saved you there is no god he can't save you saved you from what he did what in your life well it doesn't look like you changed that much i mean you changed some but i mean maybe you're just doing some self-help books right this this kind of pressure is all the time everywhere it's what makes us all want to water down what's really going in our christian life don't you feel that sometimes like how much the time what really happened you filter to what you think people can handle all the time right all of us do this all the time we have this a powerful encounter with the lord we have this moment we're reading the scripture the text is illuminated god is meeting us deeply and all of a sudden we go and we kind of try to make it sound normal to somebody so that we don't look weird and they don't think us weird the reason is because there's this social pressure this philosophy that it's foolish if you think that there is a god you're foolish if you think they're supernatural this is the new paul said this the greeks see the gospel as foolishness this is one of them then over here we have post-modern subjectivism i'm about to help some of you out sound a lot smarter later to your friends it's a different twist on kind of this view that there's no god it's because if there's no god then naturally there really is no real truth truth is whatever you make it and that's in our culture it's all day and it's this philosophy hey what's good for you is good for you what's good for me is good for me what's what i like is what i like what you like is what you like i believe this this is my truth that is your truth and as long as our truth doesn't harm each other we're good so it's like hey you know i believe this crazy thing well you're not hurting me it's totally fine to believe that because it really is just kind of make up your own journey but here's the problem with our generation our generation just messed up our generation just messed up i'll be honest about it because we're more of an emotional generation we're not always a thinking generation you know right that's kind of that's kind of mean but i mean it's true for me too you know like i i'd rather watch the golden buzzer on america's got town than you know study some super deep thing and learn a bunch of new stuff you know i like to feel something that's not bad we're a generation of artists we're a generation of creatives we're a generation of doers we're a generation who's passionate who's missional and it comes from our feeling side it's why we love justice so much but the problem is is that our generation has taken these two crazy beliefs and mixed them together and made our own hodgepodge stuff where it's not even consistent at all and if i like if i like try to like write down okay take me into your belief system okay god is not real there's no miracles but there is a higher power interesting okay okay the higher power doesn't care anything you do because there is no morality but what that person to the other person is totally wrong and evil i'm just all right keep going this is good this is good i'm learning i'm learning a lot here i'm learning a lot here right now this is good this is good this is good okay keep going keep going keep going oh oh oh no definitions no words are real anymore everything is what you make it what's this what's this what's i'm confused all right i don't even know what's happening how many who have been around an academic philosopher before i took one clock one class and he was questioning if the class was real and i was like i'm out it's real for me dude i had to read this junk at night right and so what happens is these social pressures begin to creep into our life and sooner or later all of a sudden you're developing false beliefs about god now here's the deal here's the last little thing this is why i love the bible is we're kind of a politically correct generation like how many of you are around other people and they say something and you literally like like dude you can't say that oh canceled in five years for sure he's lucky he's not famous like you know you're just like right like how many of you be honest right now you have literally done that in the last week your friend said something your parents said something you're like please please please don't ever say that again that just i'm like literally having a convulsion right but here so we got all these strange boundaries we made this crazy philosophy as a generation we're so sensitive and nervous and if you get pressed too much then i'm attacking your life and i'm mean and i'm visceral but here's the thing about the bible is the bible says that there is a claim to truth there's real truth and the goofiness of all claims of truth even that there is no gods is an exclusive claim the nature of truth is that it's exclusive that means there's something right do you see what i'm saying and so john is going to hear hey i want you to think rightly about christ i want you to think rightly about jesus and why because here's the deal if you believe false teaching it will lead you into false living to have a deeper way of saying it if you've got false doctrine and false teaching in your game it's going to lead you to false living it's not going to lead you to purpose it's not going to lead you to life it's not going to lead you to the fruits of the spirit it's not going to lead to a life that lasts it's not going to lead to relationships that last is going to leave it's going to lead to disaster and this has been going on since the beginning genesis 3 1-5 now the serpent was more crafted than any of the wild animals the lord god had made he said to the woman did god really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden the woman said to the serpent we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden but god did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die satan goes you will not certainly die for god knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good and evil see the distortion the enemy has been on a pathway of distorting who god is from the very beginning the scariest thing is that you would come into the revelation of who jesus really is and let that really seep into your heart because that is what's going to transform you and all these other crazy distortions in your life has the same little background accusation that the enemy did at the very beginning as this is that god is withholding something from you god isn't really as good as he's saying he's just telling you he's good it's actually kind of a rip-off if you just kind of distort here and here and here and here it just ends up so much better but it doesn't it doesn't so here we go we're getting to the text now you got the background can we get into the text are you doing okay so there's two pillars two pillars in first john pillar number one god is light pillar number two god is love these two themes we're going to circle around and around around john is what's called a circular communicator it's like a spiral staircase we're gonna walk up and up and keep looking at the same two revelations over and over and over and over again in little bit different ways of looking at so let's start first john 1 verse 5. you got your bible you can pour it open or put it open read with me and we're gonna we're gonna get through this text pour it open yeah oil's in there hopefully i think i don't know i'm going pentecostal hallelujah all right verse five this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you so john is speaking here see right from the get-go he's addressing his false teachers saying hey man i love your theories but can i tell you something i followed christ i was there and i want to tell you about who christ really is love your encounter but i was with him love your feelings love your thoughts but i was with him see he sets up the whole text from authority really until you have your authority right your whole life's messed up really that's what salvation is is you're giving over your authority you're going myself rule is leading me nowhere and it's beyond leading me nowhere it's leading me somewhere that's horrible so lord i'm giving my authority over to you and we don't like to talk about that because we like to be self-autonomous we like to be individualistic we like to determine our own ways that's like the classic american speech you can do it get up go for it run out there make the cash be the one be the dawn be the man be the woman you know it's like we're like yeah yeah yeah yeah but the christian goes dude i tried that and that was really really bad and so now i need jesus to be the man i need jesus to tell me how to be a man i don't know what it means to succeed jesus define my success jesus define what's going on and so from the very beginning until you have your authority right you're not going to get this right see if you're not accepting that jesus that is in here over the jesus of your feelings can i tell you this like if you don't have some discomfort with scripture like literally if you don't have some discomfort from scripture what's going on you must be jesus like there's everything in you just perfectly lined up with everything god is doing like oh yeah and knew that that was going to happen wisdom from on high thank you god that's amazing thank you jesus that just oh man goodness i i knew he should do that i'm glad he did it he did the right thing right the bible's supposed to make you uncomfortable because jesus is other than us jesus is holy jesus is pure and so when you get into here he's supposed to make you uncomfortable see a lot of the things that jesus is going to say isn't going to make you sit right so he's saying hey love the feelings love the encounter love your supernatural revelation love your super cool thing that you're describing but i was with jesus and unless your jesus looks like the apostolic history of jesus like looks like what the witnesses said he was like it ain't him you may say he loves he gives hugs he died he loves other people but if it doesn't look exactly like him it's not him so you got to take jesus on his own terms not on your terms so let's keep going he goes on and say this is a message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all see we're getting to love we're getting to love but you can't get to love if you don't start with god as light you can't get over there there's no pathway to love unless you get through god is light see what he's saying right here is that god is totally 100 truthful trustworthy holy and moral perfection everything about him is pure there is no dark side to christ there is no struggle in christ there is no this other side that i'm waiting to see when the hammer is going to drop like there is with so many of us in our moods there's one mood in jesus and it's total purity it's total trustworthiness and this is why we can trust him and so this light as it's beaming into us is a part of god's love because it would be not loving to love you into a lie it would be messed up if i gave you hugs and told you everything about your life is going to be okay if you were headed into disaster it would be better to temporarily offend your mind and offend your ego to send you to a life of fulfillment than to just say everything's going to be fine and look at you in 10 years and the car wreck and just go i'm sorry i didn't know what to say i'm sorry i was just trying to be loving his love always comes through his truth and so what he's about to do here is he's about to set up three tests he goes if you're really rolling in fellowship with jesus if you're really his friends you're gonna have to pass these three tests and they're all about sin that god is light and in him is no darkness we go on it says but if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth see john is like a super black and white communicator everything is like this or that right all of his like dead or life light or darkness every all of his metaphors are super here or there and why he's doing that is sometimes black and white just simplifies everything doesn't it if you ever counsel someone about their relationship with someone else you like do you do you like them i don't know you know it's like process it's god is you know it's good it's pretty good you're like you don't like him no i do i do i do like him it's going good it's good no no no do you like him or not like you should know are you here or are you there and if you're not here then don't be here go back over here it's okay they're going to move on they're going to be just fine they're going to find somebody else you're going to find somebody else god is with you god is with them bless peace and some anointing oil get out of here you know it's like what right there there's something that's so important so he's saying this is what he's saying here he's saying hey you can't have fellowship with the darkness and say you're a friend of jesus and this is what he means fellowship with darkness what he's saying here is he's saying if you are walking into a lifestyle that is dominated by sin truthfully or dominated by unrighteousness you're lying to yourself that you're a friend of god sounds so intense but he's trying to help you he's saying look if your whole life if i look at you you don't serve anybody you live for yourself you think about yourself you got all kinds of addictions you don't read your word you don't pray but you come to a service and say you're a friend of god he's saying dude your life is fellowshipping with darkness 90 of the time you're lying to yourself and see it it's it's such a huge lie in our generation there's so much false teaching on this that grace is somehow some kind of license to sin we see it everywhere it's constant so many people are saying this and we should preach grace grace grief preach grace to the craziest extent we can but if that grace isn't producing life change if that grace is not pulling you into truth i don't know what that grace is that's not the grace of christ right his grace is a mercy that draws us into being like him that draws us into relationship with him and so we say things like well god will forgive me i'll get serious about jesus later jesus just loves me so much he doesn't judge me he knows my heart there's a stat that was released like years ago and it was this like this crazy percentage of americans in their relationship with god so that they had a special deal with god like they kind of came to you know you me i've done this right like no you know other people yeah they shouldn't be doing that but for me and god we're good on this he encourages me to be vaping it around i'm just making up keeping it light keeping the light all right i'm going bubble gum vape every night lying in my lungs but he's good it's good it's good it's good it's healthy trust me it's healthy it's good bubble gum bubble gum man and so this kind of person is continually living a life and they only come to jesus when everything breaks down right and we all know these people right i've done it you've done it right all of a sudden you are so quick to call that friend right because everything went wrong but you never talk to them unless you need something you're like oh man life is great life is great life is great like oh crap car crash oh my gosh metaphorically or for real god you are my best friend you've always been there for me you got the audio bible on like 24 hours a day in the beginning the british voice in the beginning i don't even know what that was it's kind of african i don't know what's happening there stressed super bad south african i don't know there's nothing it was a shame that's what it was okay and and a lot of times it's not like we try to do this you know i just wake up and just go dude i'm just gonna be crazy today is a crazy i'm a sin i'm gonna sin like i've never sinned before i'm gonna manipulate god i'm gonna go to church later and get cleansed of all my condemnation whoa let get it right no one no one does that it's weird if you do it stop it's weird right it's always like oh it's not that big a deal it always gets quiet i'm sorry all right but it's true right it's like oh it's not that big a deal and it's always one little step like we're good we're good with this god's fine with this like we're rolling we're rolling like he loves me i went to greenhouse we're good and then it's here and then it's here and then it's here and then god kind of gets left behind you're not even trying to reach for him anymore you're here you're here you're lost car crash god where are you what have you done have you been with me and he's like where have you been where have you gone i'm right here i'm with you i'm trying to call you back over to here i'm trying to call you into fellowship with me see sin sin blocks us in our fellowship with god that's why god loves to get rid of it that's why god loves to convict us he wants to be close to you he wants to be close to you and so the first test he's saying hey are you using grace are you using god's love to basically do whatever you want and then say you're friends with me don't lie to yourself anymore you're not friends with me you're a fake christian so intense but you know it's just true it's not it's not it's not mean it's just true we can in one minute you can be an unfake christian god i repent i'm sorry i'm sorry i've been fake boom not fake anymore it's that easy you know it's just it has to be just real from your heart first john 2 15 do not love the world of things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him so you can't be stoked more stoked on the world than you are stoked on jesus temptation is real but i'm talking about stoke factor 5000 that you live and breathe for the world but you're trying to include jesus in your life it doesn't work that way it says in verse 7 but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sin so here's the good news the good news of the gospel that no matter how far you are gone you can be back in a second that's the crazy part of great no matter how far you ran over there as prodigal son or prodigal joe or prodigal sally if you authentically say god i'm done with this and change your mind and repent boom back to with jesus that's what it looks like now i love this he says if we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sins see what he's saying here is hey if you're walking in the light you should have a lifestyle of repentance and you should be loving one another so if you're not the opposite of the darkness is loving each other the opposite of the darkness is operating in a consistent relation where you're bringing me forth areas in your life and saying like david search my heart i want to change okay that's the first test it's a spiritual rebels the second one is spiritually prideful in verse 8 it says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us now this typically happens from like immature believers because right there's mature believers and immature believers not bad it's not a rating system there's no different levels we're all the same before the lord we just have different parts of like maturing in our relationship with jesus right like if you just started dating someone it's kind of an immature relationship it's not a negative it just hasn't matured like someone who's been married for 25 years right there's gonna be certain things that they know that you don't know it's gonna be fun to learn or maybe not but eventually if you keep going you're going to get there but sometimes in immaturity we can do weird things the first is is people who say they have no sinner i've met these people like these strange over-emphasizers of spiritual truths they're taken out of context they say stuff like i have the mind of christ i don't sin anymore it's like they're trying to like okay that's true bro positionally god is transforming your mind and and he's giving you the mind of christ that's true but you're over applying it right you just like get saved and your sin nature is just completely it's getting obliterated it's getting crucified it's getting destroyed but dude you still got some flesh in there and you still got some things to work through i remember i was at the circular training school oh my gosh this was one of the craziest things i've ever had in my life this guy just got radically saved from a lot of stuff it was an awesome story but overnight he went from like needing christ so badly to like have you seen this new tick tock trend church chad the guy who knows everything this guy knew everything and he had never even followed jesus before i remember coming up to him saying hey bro i'd love to pray with you i know you just walked out of some stuff recently dude do you feel like any of these areas are struggles like any of these things can i help you and i knew they were because he had shared with me earlier that he did the day before so i'm like you know following up like hey bro trying to go good pastor mode can i help you walk through these things and something happened he looks at me like this he becomes like a robot he starts doing this i have the mind of christ i have the mind of christ i have the mind of christ be silent religious spirit be silent religious spirit and i'm like whoa bro like what happened like yesterday i was trying to be nice and like love on you and help lead you to jesus and today i got a religious spirit and you got some kind of encounter you got like god's mind this is incredible i'm gonna sit under your teaching man right so some people they over apply but i think the more realistic thing is that sometimes when we're immature in our faith we just don't like to admit we have sin because we're afraid what happens if we do admit it we're afraid what happens can happen to our reputation we're afraid of what might happen to our position we're afraid of what happened to our leadership our opportunities or what our friends are going to think of us or what our pastor is going to think of us or what our leaders are going to think of us and so we just kind of go we're good we're good doing totally amazing crushing it domination domination domination dude i'm on fire i went to greenhouse i spoke in tongues for two hours i went to my car and i spoke in tongues for two more hours my hand started literally on fire right it's it's all in it's exaggerated christian language but the truth is it happens all the time you've been struggling with addiction privately for four years and you haven't told anybody and you're guilty half of the time and you're trying to get to this place where you're not condemned anymore and you're getting crushed and everyone says is there anything that you need to take to jesus and you're like i'm good i'm good i don't want to be the guy who raises his hand and goes to the front i've been in the church for five years i don't want to be seen like that dude if i all my friends are here dude i can't say this i can't confess this but what jesus is saying here he's saying hey if you are acting like nothing's wrong you're lying to yourself if you're acting like there's nothing going wrong you're lying to yourself because here's the truth this is the crazy paradox in the scripture is that the closer you get to god the more convicted you're going to become it's just true why do people like these incredible famous men in the scripture have these moments where they feel like they're such sinners look at isaiah 6 5 right one of the the one of the biggest prophets of the old testament saying woe is me for i am lost for i am a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king of the lord of hosts right he had a throne room encounter and as soon as he got up there he got so convicted he's one of the holiest men in all of israel but even the holiest guy the closer he got to god the more he convicted the more convicted he got look at paul this is trustworthy saying and everyone should accept it christ jesus came into the world to save sinners and i am the worst of them all why is that just metaphor is paul just saying that to make us feel better no he means it because the more you get to know christ the more magnificent christ becomes and the more you realize of who you really are and what you've really come from and the things that you really struggle with and how much further you have to go to get to jesus all the meanwhile walking as a son all the meanwhile walking in his love all the meanwhile walking in identity i remember i don't usually share like prophetic stories from the stage anymore but i felt to share this one in college i was in my college bible class and i'm sitting up at this top row and they're talking about stuff i have no idea what's going on i don't even know what he's talking about he's got this huge theology book out he's like a like studying for his doctorate his masters or mdiv and so he's using like so many big words and i'm just like dude all i understand is like revival jesus and burgers dude like if you could get to those three subjects as a freshman in college i'm to be all right but he chose like the most intense we're talking about euthanasia and like all this not youth in asia but like euthanasia you know and like all these different things and the ethics and like what's good and what's bad i'm like i don't know man you're the bible teacher you're supposed to be and he's asking all these so i'm i'm back there in space now god can meet you when you're spacing out and i'm totally spaced now like man just counting down the minutes and all of a sudden i have this clear vision and i just see this burning man on the right side of the classroom and i started to walk closer not literally but in this vision i started walking closer and closer to this burning man but the closer i got the heat was so intense i couldn't even stand and i had to get on the ground and i was crawling to get closer and closer and closer to this burning man and finally when i got close i grabbed and i grabbed the burning man see i didn't realize what jesus was saying i didn't even know what it meant i thought oh cool god's gonna set me on fire this is amazing i had a vision god's gonna set me on fire all those set me on fire songs worked out instead of fire my soul finally got to me this is exciting but what i didn't realize what jesus was saying hey this next season i'm going to begin to bring you closer and closer and closer and closer and the closer i bring you the more it's going to start to die the closer i bring you the more that's going to get convicted the closer you come the more intense it's going to become because i'm an all-consuming fire i'm a i am a light i'm a unapproachable light every nothing and nothing's going to go unseen nothing's going to go unchecked do you want that because if you're coming close nothing's on limits it's total vulnerability there's nothing hiding from me i didn't realize i have language at the time but that's exactly what god began to do over the next five six seven years into a place even happening obviously to this day but something i began to get comfortable all of a sudden in my relationship with god exposing things in my heart and not saying that it was punishment from god or not that i was doing something wrong or that i was in trouble with him no that conviction was there because he loves me and he wants me to come closer he's pointing this out because he wants to be a closer friend of me isn't that crazy can you imagine the next time you feel guilty and convicted over sin if instead you go oh lord i let you down to oh lord you want to be even better friends that's exactly what john is pointing us to that's exactly where john is leading us to and the third test is if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us see this person is like this just straight-up spirits he lost they just redefined sin and what it is this happens all the time you get people they start deconstructing everything if you have not seen deconstruction you don't have social media so if if you see that they're deacons wearing the bible they're deconstructing who jesus was they're deacons talking the atonement they're destructing the gospel they're deconstructing the ethics they're deconstructing sexuality they're deconstructing morality they're deconstructing our identity of who we are in christ they're deconstructing our mission on this planet they're deconstructing of where we get fulfillment they're deconstructing communion they're deconstructing leaders they're deconstructing the church they're deconstructing community they're deconstructing deconstructing it's insane everything is getting deconstructing and we're redefining and making all these brand new definitions and basically all that comes back to this is we're actually pretty good and other people are pretty jacked up and god is just kind of here to be my counselor which he is a counselor the holy spirit is accountable that's not all he is and we begin to abandon all these truths that if we abandon we begin shipwrecked and we get lost and he's saying hey dude if you begin to redefine sin dude you definitely don't have fellowship with me because as soon as you redefine it you're trading in your comfort your feelings for truth as soon as you're trading those in things you're trading reality and for a lie you're trading in a future that will not end up like you think for the future that i had in mind for you see jesus really is the way the truth and the life and so much of the time in our culture what begins to happen is people subtly over time begin to create a jesus that agrees with them on everything he's your political party he holds all your political beliefs he holds your view on this and that and health and society he holds your views on every single theological component he holds your beliefs about other people jesus basically is no longer jesus it's just you and you're calling it jesus see that's what it means to redefine it is that all of a sudden no jesus dude he would not be in one of our political parties today he's not he's not there if you've been sharing those memes and going he's here it's more complicated than that it's more complicated that jesus did not buy into the systems of man saying that the systems of man are going to solve everything he could have spoken and went reform mode on caesar but what do you do instead give to caesar what caesar i'm building a different kingdom because basically saying hey no matter how you rearrange the furniture the real problem is sin and sinful men find a way to break and abuse the system every single time and so we start following a jesus jesus this or jesus that and all of a sudden we stop following jesus altogether and john is saying is dude you got to come back to the jesus of scripture you got to come back to the jesus of the word you're like well that jesus offends me let him offend you it's okay just reach for him in your offense well it doesn't sit right with me i don't know if this is right keep reading keep studying keep asking god to change your heart keep asking god to let you see as his scene almost every single time that i've had a major unpeace and unsettledness in scriptures because i wasn't seeing yet and it usually had to do with a lack of humility in my life and as soon as i got that little humility upgrade everything began to make sense you see the truth is this i've said it over and over again we're circling over back and back and around around just like i told you john was going to do is is what this invitation is is this an invitation not to be laxatical in your relationship to sin and holiness dude we have uh have you ever heard of california socal sober california sober right you ever heard of that socal it's like it's like you're not doing crazy drugs but you're smoking a little bit and you're drinking a little bit so you're kind of like california version of sober see california just has such a strong pressure that it's okay to do this and that and this and that and this and that any time and we say dude you can't be doing that it's like you're religious you're extreme you're this you're that but what john is saying here he's saying dude you've got to fall in love with god's holiness you've got to fall in love with god's truth because the more you understand his holiness the more love you're going to feel guaranteed the greatest love encounter of my life was a moment where i felt i had failed and i was so convicted that i realized who christ was and just how much he loved me and just how much he wasn't angry at me but wanted to be my friend and forgive me when we realize his holiness we see his love when we embrace his truth we run into his love so i think there's some of us in here tonight you maybe have gotten a little bit relaxed you maybe said it's not that big of a deal one too many times because you're like oh those christians do it or that person does it but what he's saying john is saying well hey that's awesome what they do but this is what jesus did just because they're being fake don't be fake just because they're jumping off the cliff don't jump off the cliff run over to jesus and it can be lonely running over there to jesus what are those areas in your life tonight you're like you know what dude i'm i'm like i got some areas of fake business going on i gotta align it i gotta let god make it real i gotta let god make it real the band can come up i'll end with this thought then there's some of you in this room and i feel it's important to say this is that some of you in this room you're not really struggling with laziness in your view of sin and i thought i had to say this so it comes off with balance tonight you're struggling with religion and performance with your sin your view of sin is that it's failure every time you mess up god is mad you're a failure you suck you're nobody you're a loser you're not gonna make the comeback it's not going to work out god oh lost your calling oh you're out of god's path oh you forfeited what i really had for you and the same way that he's saying don't be lackadaisical in terms of sin is don't enter into this strange view of western failure see we're all going to make mistakes you're going to sin i'm going to sin i sin all the time unfortunately i don't want to sin i'm constantly i'm constantly moving towards christ and what he's saying here is he's saying look if you sinned i'm here to forgive you and to re-establish friendship just like that it's okay it's okay and i love you so much that if i'm convicting you if i'm exposing something false it's because i want you to come up here and i want you to be closer to me you gotta cut this condemnation stuff out there is no condemnation in christ jesus you're not living condemned you're living for the judge to hit the gavel for everything to fall apart for that one more time and god's just so mad and everything's going to fall apart dude if you're running toward jesus and you're growing towards jesus and you are you've declared war on sin for real in your life even if you're struggling and you're saying jesus i want you to be my friend and when you fall you need to know that jesus is right there literally picking you back up saying it's all right you're coming closer i love you come closer because the greatest love is this is that you could be with jesus there is no greater love than that there's no better thing that god could give you than himself yes see the prize of christianity is jesus it's not a calling not a mission not purpose it's not good insights it's not catchy sayings it's not community it's not friendship it's not your marriage it's not your future marriage it's not going to be your kids it's going to be jesus when you get to heaven you know what heaven is is being with jesus and so he's saying hey that conviction i'm trying to give you a gift i'm trying to give you me i'm trying to give you me i'm the reward i'm the prize let me come in don't worry about that future stuff what about me right now because i made you for me it's not like god is proud or arrogant or some supremist up there no it's that god made you for the purpose of relationship with him and so anything outside of that you're out of the original design and so he's saying hey get in relationship with me because that's the primary reason you were made that was the gas for your engine that's why i made you and i made you to share my love with you isn't that crazy he didn't just he didn't primarily make us for missions even though i'm like the biggest missions junkie there is he made us so he could share his love with us he made us literally for friendship not for what we're going to do for him but who we get to be with him let the friendship let john teach you tonight that jesus is calling you closer to be his friend but in order to do that he's going to convict you sarah i want everyone to stand up i believe this is one of the landmarks of what made david a man after god's own heart was he was never above getting closer to jesus and dealing with stuff in his life to him there was no graduation to him it was just getting closer and closer and closer until one day he would die and be close forever and so tonight i'm going to ask the holy spirit we're going to go for a repentance fest tonight joyful repentance joyful because because it's joyful because you're going closer to jesus he's not some weird friend who needs you to be wallowing like you might need to do that for you so you get some conviction back maybe because your your conscience has been so sealed and so so jacked up for so long but for a lot of us that repentance is joyful because that means he's coming closer so it should be a happy trick god oh that's easy i want to get rid of this because i want to come closer i want to come closer so here's where i close your eyes i'm going to ask the holy spirit right now to bring up an area of your life that perhaps he's calling you to come closer and tonight you got to give it up right now here to hear it right now you got to give up some fake stuff in your life maybe some areas of sin we're just going to practice joyful repentance together what the holy spirit should be doing in our life all the time holy spirit we're not in trouble holy spirit we're just coming closer lord we pray right now that your power and your presence that your light would shine in and through every person in this room right now in the name of jesus light right now in jesus name god this isn't about punishment this is not about beat downs this is about coming closer this is about friendship jesus we pray that you would show right now you just convict areas show areas like man i gotta change here this has got to go it's time for me to declare war on this when you feel something come to mind i want you to raise your hand just right where you are just come out something's coming to mind just raise your hand lord jesus pray keep speaking just keep speaking in this place right now holy spirit come holy spirit come just keep speaking right now i just want you to begin in your own words just saying jesus i repent jesus i'm sorry jesus i'm walking away from this attitude jesus i want to come closer i'm trading this in to be a closer friend of you thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus let your love come closer in jesus name some of you in this place you're maybe here and you know what you don't feel bad anymore about anything your conscience has been sealed it's like you don't even feel conviction anymore it just broke your conviction machine broke you ignored it so many times it doesn't even work anymore you need god to come and touch you and revive it i just want you real boldly if that's you on the count of three just raise your hand i'll pray for you that just your conscience would be reawakened that's you ready one two three just raise your hand you're like man i just need my conscience to be reawakened i've just gotten so jaded i've gotten so angry there's just been so much in my life i just feel like i don't feel anymore i want you to praise me say jesus i'm so sorry for my hard-heartedness soften my heart lord i give you my heart of stone give me a heart of flesh holy spirit come into my life take residence and lastly i don't know if there's even one person here tonight but maybe you're just going man dude honestly that whole time i realize i've been a fake christian that's all right let's give you a real one now if you feel like tonight you need to give your life back to christ maybe you've been away with it maybe you've never given your life to christ ever i just want you to raise your hand on the count of three ready one two three just raise your hand right now just say hey i need to give my life to christ come on that's incredible that's incredible thank you for your honesty it's very bold very bold very bold amazing amazing can we all pray this together so there's not just three or four of them praying this is all praise together say jesus i'm sorry for faking it for using your name but not being your friend i want to be your friend jesus i give my whole life to you i repent from the past i break up with it and i just want you i put my full faith in you to save me in jesus name we're gonna worship but i just felt this final thing tonight just since the presence of god is in this place i just feel like god's love is here and is available tonight if you need a fresh touch of god's love don't just come running up here but you just you actually just like man i need a touch of gospel i need to encounter god's love i just want you to get out of your chair right now and i want you to walk through the front you're like man i just need a touch of god's love i just want you to get out of your seat and walk to the front wherever you are dude his love is present he's going to meet you with power tonight i want you to come forward usually a touch of his love usually a touch of him tonight just come forward wherever you are it's amazing just come up there's no shame in this i need love constantly maybe it's been a tough season maybe it's been a dark season just come up just literally come up here if you have other ministry needs tonight and you want prayer you can come up in the aisles i'm going to hand it back to the worship team circa riders if you walked up here and you want prayer can you wave your hand in the air just wave your hand in the air amazing amazing circuit riders can you activate walk around match it with someone just begin to pray that god's love would just begin to wash over them let's worship jesus we cry out to you jesus oh jesus lord we reach out to you i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to jesus i've gotta get to to jesus we gotta get to jesus is jesus me is yes is is don't you understand i've gotta get to jesus and now that i i found know you're the only one you're the only one so is just let me to jesus us my foreign is today is for who you are it just makes this is a song of identity this isn't song of solomon eight it's a love song to his people cause your name is love it means that i purchased it means that i'm bought as the bride of christ and again and your name is upon my arms is foreign oh is father you love me just for who i am it's just who you are you love me cause you died on it's a seal upon our arms we are bought by the lamb of god hey everyone just close your eyes across the room you're in a prayer moment but i just feel like the lord wants to get it across tonight that his name is written on your heart you've been purchased his authority reigns over your life his blood has covered you every sin it says that if you confess your sin he is just and faithful to forgive them so the righteous and justice king is on your side so the righteous and just king is on my side the righteous and just king is on my side and i'm washed by his blood and i'm cleansed by his love he loves me he loves me and now i know there is no condemnation for me there is no condemnation for me i've been made whole i've been clean there is no condemnation for me i feel i'm singing you this song not for me i've made you whole and i made you clean there is no condemnation for me as there is no condemnation for me not since i've repented there is no condemnation for me and there is no condemnation for me thank you please for is you just makes are jesus we thank you for your presence in this place we look to you we call you worthy you're worthy of me denying myself denying my wants denying my desires you're worthy of giving up sin and forsaking all you can have the world you can take it all god i just want you i want you i want you god would that be the cry of our heart right now in jesus name we call upon you and thank you we thank you for the privilege of living in righteousness being clothed with righteousness on high not something we attain but a gift that you clothe us with the righteousness of god that we could behold your glory we say thank you thank you god we pray for every single breakthrough in this room everything that's been broken off god we declare that not one thing that was broken off and left at this altar will return in god we call upon the person who even now after receiving prayer is still hopeless we break that off in the mighty name of jesus and we say we go from this place for going from victory to another victory in jesus mighty name in jesus mighty name amen amen if you're still getting prayed for that's awesome here's what i want you to do really quickly to end this moment i want you to turn to a person next to you i want you to ask them say what is the number one thing you need right now from the lord what's the number one thing you've been praying for and then i want you to pray for them and i want to remind you guys that as you go we leave in the victory of christ so walk in that ask a person next to you say what's the number one thing you need break 4-4 go nuke on them and then uh we'll see you guys again tuesday wednesday thursday 8 a.m to 10 a.m greenhouse prayer in this room and we'll see you guys next monday you don't want to miss it love you so you

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Id: VOZJnd0BCuI

Length: 134min 14sec (8054 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021