Free from Trying to be Good Enough | UNCHAINED | Kyle Idleman

you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I know some of you aren't quite sure about it but I just want you to know that it's real right like it's all real what we talked about in here the life changing power of Jesus the hope that he gives us it's real one of the greatest greatest surprises maybe not surprises one of the greatest discoveries for me as a pastor and as a preacher over the years is that is that it's real that we don't have to just get up and pretend to go through motions or talk about things and study a book that's more history than reality it's all real and there are just moments when I'm a part of this surface here and that just I just overcome by the beauty of the fact that it's it's real some of you know it and you've felt it and you've experienced it in your life others of you aren't really sure like you're here but but you haven't really experienced the realness and our prayer is that what you would see and what you would experience when you're at this church is is that you would know it's real I was studying a little bit this week about a phenomenon that happens sometimes with prisoners who are incarcerated for such a long time that it's difficult for them to be on the outside in other words they get used to being in prison they get used to the prison system and how things work in a set of rules that they live by and so that they're set free and it's uncomfortable and scary for them it's a little bit overwhelming for them they're set free but they don't know how to live free there's a word for this the word is institutionalization or an institutional syndrome it can apply to other things than just prison but for our purposes here it's it's a prisoner it's set free but they don't know what to do with themselves once they're on the outside they've perhaps spent decades in the prison system most of their adult life locked up and now free and it's just more than they could handle there's a scene in the movie Shawshank Redemption most of that movie takes place in the walls of a prison called Shawshank Prison and there is a character in this movie named red played by Morgan Freeman and he is explaining to the other prisoners this idea of being institutionalized and I want you to know I worked this week I mean I really worked this week of being able to give you this line in my best Morgan Freeman voice but it's not going to happen and then it hit me about halfway through the week while I was practicing it I'm like if I got this down it's the only voice I've ever used this voice you'd never hear again I would only use the Morgan Freeman voice so I can't I can't quite capture the essence but he's talking about institutionalization and here's what he's saying to these other inmates he his character has been locked up for decades and here's what he says I'm telling you these walls are funny first you hate them then you get used to them enough time passes and you get so you depend on them it doesn't mean you like them doesn't even mean you want them but you get used to them and then enough time passes and you depend on them and later in the movie his character red gets paroled he's set free and but he's scared to death he doesn't know how to live free so he gets this job but he can't break the habit of asking to use permission to use the bathroom things like that and he thinks about committing a crime so he can go back to prison it's the world he knows it's what he's comfortable with it's an identity for him he knew who he was in the system but now he's out he's been separated doesn't know how to look for him I was talking to a man who helps prisoners once they're free learn how to live on the outside and he explained it to me this way he said for many of them who have been behind bars for decades or for the majority of their adult lives the challenge is to learn how not to live in prison that's the challenge how not to live in prison and for many Christians for many of the new believers especially in this region of Galatia that we've been studying that was the challenge to learn how not to live in prison how to be not just set free from this religious system but how to live bring and Jesus has not died for us so that we could return to our old way of life or we're in prison by the guilt and the shame and the fear of religion set us free so that we could live free that is the theme of this New Testament book of Galatians chapter five verse one captures that it says so Christ has truly set us free so now make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again don't get shackled up again by slavery to the law you have been set free to live free but sometimes we get caught back up in this religious system approach to life last week we talked a little bit about the gospel and Jesus setting us free from the fear of what others think and I know that for many of you who grew up in church much of the life you have lived has been motivated by trying to make people think a certain way about you that's what religion does that focuses on the outside and the more you focus on the outside the more you're going to be concerned with what people see and you begin to value yourself through the eyes of others and inevitably we turn our spiritual lives into a performance where we pretend to be more than we really are and so what we're discovering as we study Galatians is it's not what other people think that motivates us it's not even trying to impress God that motivates us he's not going to be impressed with our righteousness our holiness it's it's God's love for us that's what God has done for us through Jesus that motivates the life of holiness and righteousness and so Paul explains this in Romans chapter 2 verse 4 he says it's God's kindness to you that drives you to repentance that causes you to change the way you're living don't you see your rights how wonderful how wonderfully kind tolerant patient God is with you does this mean nothing to you can't you see that his kindness has intended to turn you away from your sin so God's kindness of His grace to us it's not a license to sin it's not that we've been set free so we can live however we want instead His grace and kindness to us inspires our holiness it motivates a righteous life it's not about trying hard enough it's not about being good enough it's about realizing how much we have been loved and living out of that so Tim Keller puts it this way as he explains the pastor and author Tim Keller explains the difference between religion and the gospel or religion and Christianity religion says I obey therefore I'm accepted I followed the rules therefore God loves me therefore he's going to let me in heaven one day I obey therefore I'm accepted but the gospel says I'm accepted therefore I obey I have been loved I have been made right through putting my trust in Jesus and because of that I live the life of obedience it is the relationship it is God's love for us that inspires a holy and righteous life as we free up there as we wrap up this series I want us to talk about how we have been set free from trying harder from trying to be good enough that's a theme we see as we read through the book of Galatians and those of you who have been institutionalized by the prison of religion you know how hard it is to break this mindset because for many of you this is the whole message of your church experience for many years that you came to church one weekend and we Galvan's you need to try harder right you need to put a little more effort into it and that seemed to be the theme of most every weekend thanks for playing dragon next week and you started to feel discouraged and defeated and you wondered if you would ever be good enough and so Paul says look the gospel sets us free from this idea that we have to try harder and if we just tried a little harder than we would somehow earn it Paul's message to these Christians is that living a holy life being the person that God has called you to be is not about trying harder it's about learning to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit so we'll put it this way living the Christian life is not about trying it is about relying here's how Paul writes about this in Galatians 3 verse 3 he says to these Christians you began your life in Christ by the spirit by the power of the Spirit so now are you trying to make it's complete out of your own power and he says it's foolish NIV puts it this way after beginning with the spirit are you now trying to attain your goal this right standing with God to be the man or the woman God has called you to be are you now trying to attain that goal out of human effort really you have the power of the Holy Spirit available to you and yet you keep going back to this idea that if you just worked at it a little harder than you would somehow be good enough and so we see a difference here between Christianity and religion it's the difference between being self empowered or being spirit empowered being spirit filled a visual metaphor that kind of I've used before that kind of captures this difference and helps us get a picture of what religion would teach us as this is a power strip and you know let's say use this power strip in your home office or in your computer area and you have a number of outlets here for different devices and so you you know you plug your computer into one and you plug your printer into one and you plug your phone charger into one yeah you have to you got to plug those things into this so that they can work so that they can operate and then you look around the room for an outlet to plug this into but you don't see one that's convenient and then you notice I look there's there's still an empty space and so you plug it in like that this is a picture of religion and this is why it doesn't work when you try to find the power from within you find that nothing operates or works the way that it should and for a lot of you this explains why you're so frustrated with your church experience or with with religion it's because you want to be a certain way and it just has always seemed like such a struggle and you don't understand why you want to be more patient or you want to be more kind you want to be gentle you want to be self-controlled and so you you're determined you wake up in the morning and you you do this you try to find the power within to change to do things differently to talk differently to some of the people in your life and and today you're not going to get angry and today you're not going to be lustful today you're not going to be selfish and you're just you're determined to try a little bit harder and it doesn't work because this doesn't work it is not about trying harder it is about learning to rely on a different power a different power than your own the power of the Holy Spirit so I want to give you a few ways that I know I'm kind of slipping into this try harder approach to my faith one way is that I grow frustrated there's nothing more frustrating than trying to do something you're not capable of doing and some of you ran the the marathon or maybe the mini marathon last weekend and chances are if you ran the marathon you didn't wake up on Saturday morning and say to yourself as there's a marathon in town yeah I'll go run that right and it was not an impulsive decision where you just went out and ran it and told yourself as long as I really work hard as long as I put forth the effort I'll be able to do this now there's an understanding that it requires training and preparation and if you go to do something like that with just a spirit of self determination it won't matter it's not going to allow you to finish the race and there's nothing more frustrating than trying to do something that you are not capable of doing and Paul says this is the problem with the law the law created a standard that we could not meet it doesn't matter how hard we tried we were never going to be good enough and it's just it's frustrating and so here's the difference then between religion and Christianity religion is frustrating because here's what it does it emphasizes the rules that makes you feel guilty for breaking them and then it leaves you powerless to do anything about it and for many of you this was your church experience emphasizing the rules makes you feel guilty but you don't feel like there's any power to change but here's what Christianity does Christianity emphasizes a relationship extends grace for all your rule breaking and gives you the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit so it's not about you and your efforts it is about learning to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in your life another thing that happens when I get caught up in this try harder approach is I just feel tired I get exhausted it's not as frustrating to try harder and harder it's tiring and this is such a problem that a big part of the problem that Jesus had with the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23 verse 4 Jesus said of them they crushed people with unbearable religious demands they tie heavy loads and put them on people's shoulders and for many of you that describes your your church experience that you heard this message that God loves you and you wanted to follow Jesus and so you made that decision and someone said oh well okay now here's all the things you have to do and you walked out with this huge burden on your shoulders and it was heavy but you were determined and for a while it works until it didn't and you were frustrated and you became exhausted and you thought I'm not doing this anymore and Jesus came to set us free from that from that approach that's why in Matthew chapter 11 he says if you're tired and worn out on religion come to me and I'll show you how to do it I'll teach you the unforced rhythms of grace my yoke is easy my burden is light another thing that happens when I take this try harder approach as I inevitably start pretending ayuk sake when you're not getting the job done and you know you're falling short but you want to impress the people around you then this just happens it can be subtle but eventually you just just find yourself always acting so much so that you even might convince yourself that this is who you really are but it's a performance when we get good at this in church instead of it being a place where we can talk about a struggle or challenge or feeling tired or frustrated or needing needing a hand along the way you walk into church and say how you doing great so great how's your family doing on my family is great I married way over my head how's your relationship with God going love God and I were in such a sweet spot right now and everything is just great there's no problems and we want people to think that we've got this whole thing figured out another thing that happens when I take this try harder approaches I end up conceited or defeated inevitably I myself to others if it's about trying harder then I will measure my progress by the people around me and it will end up causing me to feel conceited self-righteous judgmental better than other people or it will cause me to feel defeated like a failure and what's the point of even trying and so the Bible calls us to live these holy lives that we often talk about in church and rightfully so as we study the scriptures but how do we live them is the difference between religion and Christianity religion in the gospel and and and so first we have to realize and recognize the reality of our sinful nature Paul's going to talk about that a lot in Galatians he wants the people to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit but he wants them to understand that that there's a war going on within them between their sinful nature and the and the power of the Spirit and if they're going to live out of their own strength then the sinful nature is going to win you're not going to beat your sinful nature out of your own power and determination that's the cage match that only the Holy Spirit can win you go up against your sinful nature you're going to you're going to tap out every time it doesn't work and so he says in Galatians 5:19 through 21 he says here's some of the acts of the sinful nature and this is not an exhaustive list he's just kind of rattling off some examples of what happens when we rely on our own strength instead of the power of the Holy Spirit he talks about sexual immorality which is is sex sexual activity outside of marriage and lust and fighting and jealousy and Al bursts of anger and selfish ambition and envy and drunkenness and he says look if you are not relying on the power of the Holy Spirit it doesn't matter how determined you are some of this stuff is just going to start surfacing in your life and you think well that's not who I want to be that I don't want I don't want to be a person who has has these outbursts of anger I don't want to be that way well you're going to be that way if you're trying to fight this battle out of your own strength it has to be it has to be the spirit within you it's about learning to rely on that the power of the Holy Spirit's not about trying harder and so Paul talks about that in verse 16 he says so I say let the Holy Spirit guide your lives then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves you you want to understand how to defeat the sinful nature these parts of you that just won't seem to die he says you live by the Spirit if you live by the Spirit you won't do those things the sinful nature verse 17 says wants to do evil which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants and the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the the sinful nature desires these two forces are constantly fighting each other did you feel that you feel what he's talking about these two forces within us are constantly fighting each other so you're not free to carry out your good intentions I know you've got good intentions I know you want to be a person who is loving and gentle and self-control who's kind and compassionate I I know that's who you want to be it's who I want to be but unless we're living out of the power of the Holy Spirit we're going to be in this constant cycle of frustration and failure because we don't have what it takes to defeat the sinful nature on our own if we could have done that then the the death of Jesus would have been necessary the law would have been sufficient and so the Holy Spirit wants to display the power in our lives but he's got some competition so Paul helps us understand that there's the sinful nature and there is the spirit and the question becomes am I staying connected to the Spirit am i relying on the power of the Spirit am i feeding the sinful nature or am i feeding the spirit a friend of mine who's a nutritionist has this thing he has new clients new word they have to keep a what he calls a diet diary it can there's an app for it or they can just write it down in a notebook but they have to write down everything that they eat in the course of a day for for a week or two is write down everything they eat and he said the reason he has people do that is because most people don't realize how much they eat or what they're eating during the day and if you ask them they genuinely think they're pretty good at this they think they're pretty disciplined with what they eat and so he said the point of the diet Diary is not for them to try to do anything different but just to make them aware of what they're already consuming and so everything has to be written down like things that that I wouldn't think should count right like when you take a camp little candy bar you take a little candy bar off the co-workers desk you have to if you have to write that down that seems like seems like it shouldn't count or if your kids get some chicken nuggets and there's a couple left and you go ahead and eat those because it's nothing that you want them you don't even want them so if you don't really want them and you eat them anyway it's just good stewardship I mean you don't want it to you don't want to go to waste they're people who are hungry so you eat to take your nuggets but that counts too and so you have to write down everything and he says you know as people become aware of the reality of what they're feeding themselves their habits will start to change now they come in and you say no you have to do this this and this it becomes exhausting and tiring but if they come in if they come in and you say hey you just need to keep track of it that's want you to keep track of it just just be aware of what you're feeding yourself it's amazing how things change and so that's the challenge for us to understand if there's a sinful nature and there's the spirit within us and ask ourselves what am i feeding and so if I'm if I'm watching TV doesn't mean I'm feeding my sinful nature but if I'm honest that said that didn't really do anything to feed my spirit there are other times where I can know that I'm feeding my spirit so I listened to some worship music as I'm driving or I spend some time praying to start my day and I begin that way and when I do I am plugging into a different power source I'm plugging into the power of the Holy Spirit in my life instead of trying to find that determination out of my own self and Paul says so when we do that it when we feed the spirit it defeats our sinful nature and it also begins to grow this fruit that we we really want in our lives and so the fruit of the Spirit is listed in verse 22 but the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy peace forbearance kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law and Paul says this is the fruit of the Spirit in your life now a lot of us when we hear words like joy and peace and self-control we immediately think well that's that's something I need to work at here's a list of things I need to do to have more peace and to be more joyful to be more self-controlled there's a lot of lot that we can learn from books and there's self-help stuff that's valid in these areas but I'm just saying if you're trying to do this without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life you're going to get exhausted and you're going to become frustrated it is the power of the Holy Spirit that grows this fruit in us and it's fruit so its gradual it doesn't just show up overnight but as we plug into the Spirit we start to see some of this fruit show up in our lives and so it's learning how to rely on his power to realize that the promise of this power if you're a follower of Jesus if you put your trust in Jesus if you believed the good news of the gospel that that is a gift that has been given to you I'm so Galatians chapter 3 verse 2 Paul reminds us reminds the people there reminds us that the power of the Holy Spirit is a gift that we've received chapter 3 verse 2 let let me ask you it with this one question he writes did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses did you earn it did you build up enough credits in your religious life that you traded that in for a brand new Holy Spirit is that how that worked no of course not they said you receive the spirit because you believed the message about Christ so once again it's not because of something you did it's what God has done for you you believe the message you receive the gifts but you didn't earn it but by believing in Jesus by putting your trust in Jesus you received it in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 Paul says when you believed in Christ he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit and so so the Holy Spirit is a gift that is given to every believer but Paul's constantly having to remind believers that they have this resource because for many of them they received this gift but they never opened it they stuck it under the bed where gifts go to die unused unopened but that they've been given this gift so if I could put it this way that every room has a light switch but you have to flip it on when we were in Haiti a few weeks ago the area where we were for the first four days we were there there was no electricity and they had gone a while without having any power and so one night I was over at a the house of one of the Haitian pastors and it was starting to get dark and he got out the candles because this is what they did every night when it started to get dark there's no electricity and he started to get some light for us with these candles and without thinking much about it really I just I walked over and I flipped the switch on and when I did the lights came on I kind of got lucky for me it was a force of habit that's what you do when it gets dark for him lightening candles was a force to have but he kind of laughed when I did that he said you know we get so used to not having it we get so used to not having it we forget to check we don't even try it and I thought that happens around around here sometimes too we go back to this old life where it was about trying hard enough to be good enough and power is available to us that we need to be filled with that power and Paul puts it this way in verse 16 he says to live and by the spirit verse 25 he expands on that a little bit he says since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit I love that picture it's a picture of someone is just every step their staying connected every step they have this awareness but their that they are dependent on the Holy Spirit's power in their life every step is a prayer let us keep in step with the spirit and so if you're Christian it's not a question of whether you have been given the gift it's a question of whether you are being filled with him and if he's in 518 Paul helps us with this he says don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life instead be filled with the holy spirit and he kind of presents it as a dis or that and he uses wine as an application I suppose it could be any number of things between you know material possessions or getting caught up in work or pornography or and any number of words could probably be put here but don't get filled up on these things over here instead he says make sure you're filled with him make sure you're filled with the Holy Spirit and this verb is the phrase is the one I want to point out to you because the verb tense is interesting it's it is the present passive imperative form here's why that's significant is present right it means it's ongoing it's not just this one thing that happened when you became a Christian you receive the gift but being filled with the Holy Spirit is daily it is a daily connection and if you're just coming once a week to church it's that's not what this word means it means this ongoing continual being filled with staying connected to a passive is an important part of this because it's not something you're working to attain but rather you're receiving it it's something God is doing for you but you're putting yourself in a position that's like a sail would catch wind you're putting yourself in a position to receive it and it's an imperative form so this is not like it's optional if you want to be a Christian you might you know this is optional for some denominations you can you can choose to do it this this is for all believers that we are to be filled we are to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we could live out of his power and not our own so trying to find the power to live out this life God has called us to out of our own strength and our own efforts is what is what religion would teach but it doesn't work you won't go anywhere it'll just be frustrating it's like driving a car having a car maybe it's really nice cars Mercedes it's a Mercedes s-class it's a beautiful car and yet you don't have any gas you might look impressive people might walk by and be like who's that guy and you feel pretty good about yourself but you're not going anywhere you don't have you don't have the gas to go and that's what a lot of us look like when it comes to our faith we look impressive to other people but if you pay attention you know not no not really moving and and so I know for some of you you've been on empty for a while and maybe nobody's noticed because you still look pretty good it's going to catch up to you by show of hands here we're in church you got to be honest and uh you know I did just true for me I know it's true for Dave but how many of you have run out of gas before in your life raise your hand if you've run out of gas okay all right that's true Freeman okay so a number of times for me I mean I don't want to make it a competition but uh I've run out of gas a number of times but it turns out the people that just raised our hands we're the kind of people you want to be friends with I was reading about this week that the people who run a gas out of gas are the positive optimistic people in life so the people that raised their hands we're the fun ones and because because when the light comes on if you're positive if you're an optimistic person that light comes on and you're like fine I got I got plenty of time I got miles to go before this thing actually runs out of gas and you know we tend to be a little more optimistic than maybe we should that the happened to me a few years ago I was on a family road trip and I pulled into a gas station after my gas light came on I took my credit card in at the pump and I took out I took the pump out and I stuck it in my car and I ran into the gas station to hit the restroom and get get something to drink and I came back out to the car and I pulled out the pump and I put it back and I screwed the gas cap back on and I jumped in the car drove away thirty minutes later so the car died and I saw that the guest light was still on but I thought well cast light broke it never occurred to me that it could be anything other than a broken gas light because I just filled up my car with gas so I pulled over to the side of the road to figure out what was wrong I popped the hood and after that nothing really I can do but I I went around because I felt like is my job to leaf look maybe there's an on/off switch big reach that button I didn't know and so I I played with it for a few minutes and I asked my wife to try to start it and and the battery seemed fine and the car would turn over but it wouldn't start and I decided the problem must be pretty significant so we were going to have to stay in a hotel and we were going to have to put the car in the shop and my wife my wife said it acts like it's out of gas well I mean that's impossible I me in the car we just start for guess 30 minutes ago but the gas light's still on the gas light's broken just broke do you think it's possible that when you stopped to get gas that you didn't actually get yeah I mean who does that who who stops at a gas station takes the pump and put it in their car now I do that what I do it's in the right place I went through all the right motion and was willing to pay for it I put put my credit card in I thought everything was fine until it wasn't and you know I would hate I would hate for that to happen a church where you come and you put yourself in the right place and you know you need to get filled up and you know you need some help but it's more than you can do on your own and you come here and you you leave and you still think it's about it's about you it's about empowering yourself then you run out of gas a day or two later it doesn't work and so can we just make it our prayer this week you know if you're a follower of Jesus would you just make it your prayer this week God would you fill me with your Holy Spirit god I don't know exactly how this works but I know when it doesn't and it hasn't been working so God would would you would you fill me with your spirit I repent of the times that I have tried to find strength on my own because I wanted to be proud or I wanted to point to my accomplishments god I can't do it but would you fill me with your Holy Spirit and if we would just do that as a as a church family this week I think it'd be a great start we just get on our knees each morning and we just say God would you fill me with your Holy Spirit today I want to live out of your power today which would you just do that if you're a follower of Jesus if you're a Christian that means you have received this gift and I'm just asking you for this week to try to plug into different power source and this week can we just know that we're going to do this together that every morning that I wake up I'll hit my knees and you hit yours and I'll know you're on your knees and you can know I'm on mine and together we're just praying for God to fill us with His Holy Spirit he would set us free and teach us how to live free that's pray God I thank you for your grace that that sets us free and your grace that teaches us how to live that way Lord I know for many of us we have this mindset that it is just about determination and and so we feel a lot of guilt and we feel a lot of shame because we think it's just that we haven't been trying hard enough that Lord would you would you teach us would you show us that that it's not so much about trying harder it's about learning to rely on your power and your strength in our lives and God I have a long ways to go in this I feel like I'll get this for a little while but then I I'm I'm institutionalized and I'll go back to my old way of doing things and now and God obviously I mean you know this about me I don't I don't like asking for help I'd like to do things on my own but God that's pride and I repent of it I can't I cannot live the life that you have called me to live out of my own self determination there out of my personal willpower and effort so I need help God would you fill me would you fill us with your spirit would you give us a power that is more than we have on our own and Lord would you allow us this week just to be aware of that need and to stay connected to it since Jesus name we pray and then and if you want to talk to someone about your relationship with Jesus like the gift of the Holy Spirit that we've talked about that's for those who put their trust in Jesus as for all those as Paul says who have believed in the good news of the gospel so if you want to talk to someone about what that means and how to how to accept that gift you can you can meet me down front over here or maybe you're ready to make this your church home we'd love to have you as part of our church family again you can make me down front let's stand together let's celebrate the freedom we have in Christ as we worship our great guy you [Applause]

Channel: Southeast Christian Church

Views: 27,960

Keywords: Southeast Christian Church, Dave Stone, Kyle Idleman, creative church, sermon series, worship, Jesus, God, Louisville, Kentucky, Free from trying to be good enough, unchained

Id: wQ5yUMFn6E8

Length: 37min 2sec (2222 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2017