Living a Distracted Life?

hey shout out to our youtube family i would love to know where you're watching from if you can just tell us right now in the comment section i'm watching from wherever we're thankful to have people from all over the world now today we're going to do something different i've invited three of our student communicators to bring god's word i believe it'll speak to you in a big way and i'll see you again next week for the final part of our message series called a better way well like pastor craig said i am joined today by two out of 37 fantastic youth pastors ryan hunter from life church midtown tulsa and then allison macron out at rogers arkansas and one of the best things about being a youth pastor at life church is knowing how passionate our leadership is about doing anything short of sin to reach the next generation because what we believe is that these students are not the leaders of tomorrow but actually they're the leaders of today speaking of which we're in a series titled a better way where we're learning how we as followers of jesus can learn not just to understand the things that jesus said but learn how to live the way that he lived today we're asking the question how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission and that's a great question because how do we how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission well if we take it to hebrews 12 1 it says this it says therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and especially the sin that entangles a weird question have has anyone ever been physically entangled by something you would know if you had um yeah it's not fun in fact confession i have a cat i don't like to tell people i have a cat because i don't want to be labeled as some crazy cat lady but honesty between you and i have a cat her uh name actually is cotton i think we have a picture of her she's super fluffy i also just realized that this picture does not help my case that i'm not a crazy cat lady but she's super fluffy and she's so sweet but the thing about being fluffy is that things will stick to her fur i'm not going to tell you what those things are but it's not good and sometimes she needs a bath and i remember the first time i had to give her a bath i was like all right i got this little cat big me we're good because you know like cats and water people get nervous about that claws whatever i was like no like she's little i'm grown we can handle this and so i was giving her a bath and it's going great like she's chill i'm chill like we're we're good it's easy and then about the time i let my guard down the fastest paw in the world goes i'm like uh ow um i was like oh no no no okay we're good we're good and i take my hand off to grab her paw and as soon as i take my hand off other hand goes [Music] i was like ha ha no no no and i go to grab both of her paws and i lean down and one paw moves and it goes and now we are just like i'm not grabbing paws i'm just holding this soaking wet demon cat i think we can get a picture yes like we are locked here and then i'm remembering why pastor craig like hates cats and i'm like okay what do i what do i do because like i can't bring her in and i i can't pull her off and so the only thing i could think to do was to like get down on the ground and like submit and like push her off and i'm ashamed to say that i got tapped out by a seven pound cat and that is so funny looking back now but what's not funny is that for some of you your sin is doing the exact same thing to you maybe you started messing with things that seemed harmless things you could handle maybe you started texting someone who wasn't your spouse or trying a substance with a friend or just clicking on that one site that one time and at first it was fine but now it's not you could handle it but now it's got a hold on you and you're entangled and you're stuck and god is calling you to his mission but you can't move forward but maybe for you maybe it's not your sin um because it's not just our sin that can hinder us if we take it back to the text it says let us throw off everything that hinders us maybe for you you're not doing anything bad you're just busy if god called you to do something right now you've got no space in your calendar or maybe maybe for you you're just comfortable it's like yeah god i want to follow you but i uh you know i'm good like i'm good where i'm at i'm good with my friends i'm good with my life like i'm like it's prime like i'm good and you're settling for something good when you don't even know you're missing out on something great or maybe for you maybe what's hindering you and holding you back from what god has for you is your hurt hurts that you still haven't healed from maybe something traumatic happened to you maybe you're still stuck in a lie that you believe in by yourself maybe it's unforgiveness that god is calling you forward but you can't let go and can i say if you find yourself in a place where you feel stuck and hindered and entangled that from experience i know that this is not the life that god has for you that there is a better way because jesus did not die for you to stay stuck no he died to set you free i love it what it says in galatians 5 1 it says it is for freedom that christ has set us free and maybe for you you are desperate for this freedom but maybe you're not maybe for some of you you're still holding on because it's like no i can't handle it like i can have jesus and this like it's fine can i just say from experience that it's really hard to fully follow jesus when my hands are full so what do we do how do we throw off everything that hinders us well i think about what pastor craig says he says this is that we confess to god for forgiveness but we confess to other people for healing uh makes me think of lazarus who is lazarus lazarus was one of jesus's friends who he loved but tragically lazarus dies and four days later jesus shows up on the scene and people are grieving by his tomb and god moved jesus moved in compassion for lazarus and the people around him to tears says roll the stone away and then jesus does something radical he calls lazarus out of the tomb from death into life from darkness into light and in that moment lazarus who was dead is now alive only jesus can do that only jesus can bring life can bring salvation but as he steps out of the tomb there's a problem because he's still wrapped up in his grave clothes he's still hindered by the things that were holding him back before and jesus seeing this turns to his followers and says let him go and they go and they unbind lazarus and he's now free to move forward into the life and calling that jesus has for him and isn't it true that for some of us jesus has given us new life but we're still bound up in our grave clothes we're still hindered and that's why community is so important that's why we value it so much at switch that's why we do switch groups because we want to create a place an environment for students to come to be themselves to be loved as they are to wrestle together and to help each other move forward into becoming a fully devoted followers of christ and i know so many adults and parents who see the value in that who want that for their kids in this next generation but they don't have it themselves they're not in a life group they're not in that same community with people helping them move forward to what god has for them or they are but they're not showing up they're not letting other people see what's really going on and can i just say that when we let ourselves stay hindered and stuck and entangled that not only are we missing out on all that god has for us but we've become this roadblock for everyone coming up behind us so how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission well number one we throw off everything that hinders us but that's not where we stop that's not where that verse stops if we go back to that hebrew text in chapter 12 the author says this therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race mark out for us perseverance how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission one we throw off everything that hinders us and two we run the race with perseverance but here's the thing about perseverance is it's difficult it's hard to do it's painful in fact the author of hebrews goes on in that same chapter to talk about the pain of discipline and the pain of perseverance later down we see this verse where he says no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed no discipline is pain or is easy but it's painful perseverance is difficult i know this is true in all of our lives no one woke up and said god please let us go through another global pandemic so i can grow and learn through it again no one's praying god please make that co-worker even more difficult at my job so i can learn how to love unlovable people you're not hoping that your marriage gets harder and harder but in fact it's difficult and no one wants to have to persevere through anything so much so that i think if you're anything like me perseverance doesn't even seem like an option sometimes sometimes you want to quit even before you hit a roadblock because the running the race is just too difficult so how do we do this how do we persevere how do we push forward well when you're tempted to stop remember why you started when you're tempted to throw in the towel when you're tempted to give up on that loved one on that spouse on the family member to quit your job remember why you started it in the first place growing up i grew up with single mom and just a quick side note shout out mom tammy hunter out at shawnee i know you're watching right now from our shawnee location hey i love you so much now that i'm a dad of two kids under two and i have an awesome wife asia alongside me i know just how hard it was to do it on your own i don't know how you did it you did such a great job especially with a problem kid like me sometimes i'm so thankful for who you are and to all the single moms out there you're doing you're doing it you're doing an amazing job and we're all so thankful for everything you do but if you know a single mom or if you are one or a single parent you know the difficulty this can be on the kid and the parent and for me my struggle was a lot with my dad or at least with his absence and i got really frustrated around the time i was 15 16 17 around then i actually i think it's why i'm so passionate about our youth ministry now is because i know how difficult those teenage years can be and i got to a place where i just hated him i hated him for leaving my mom i hated him for abandoning us and i was just filled with this tension all the time and so i was actually at life church one weekend and pastor craig gave this incredible message about forgiveness and he said this line i'll never forget he said forgiveness doesn't always change the other person but it always changes you i thought oh yes that's it that's what i need that's the thing if i just forgive my dad it doesn't matter what he does after that i'll finally be free of this pain and annoyance and hate that's welling up in me so at 19 years old i tracked down my dad i texted people i found him out and i set up a dinner with me and my dad and i sat across that table from him and i said dad i'm sorry for hating you for so many years he says okay i forgive you and i'm sorry for leaving i said it's okay i forgive you and at 19 i thought done with that never have to see that guy ever again that race is finished oh but man was i wrong the race was just beginning and there was more stuff i had to persevere through if you fast forward five years later i had a son named sterling who i loved so much and uh i was talking with my friend steve about everything going on in my life and the subject come about my dad i told him i forgave my dad i feel like i was kind of doing like a humble brag like yeah look at me i've i've mastered this whole forgiveness thing and he said oh that's great what does your dad think about your son i thought um stevie's never gonna meet my son and then he goes okay well what does he think about your wife did i didn't stutter he's not gonna meet my wife either and steve leaned in and said oh it sounds like you didn't finish this thing that's when it dawned on me that i had given up in the middle of this race that god had set before me so after a couple weeks months of really wrestling with it i set up another dinner with me and my dad and with my wife and with my son sterling and tonight actually right after this he's going to meet my daughter ivy and uh some days it's really easy to text the guy about basketball or hip hop or something but some days it is really hard it's really frustrating and i want the race to be over and i'm tempted to stop but i remember back to when i was 19 and i remember how i wanted to be free from this but i also remember how i wanted to hope to be a good dad one day and i remember the example i want to set for my students on how to model forgiveness and loving even your enemies and when i remember why i started this race with my dad i'm able to persevere for you there's a race that you are wanting to give up on right now because it's just getting too difficult it's the job that you're in that there's just so much tension in that makes you feel you want to throw in the towel challenge you remember why you started that career in the first place maybe for others of you it's a marriage that you feel like it's falling apart and there's no real good communication you have challenge you remember why you fell in love in the first place remember why you committed to that person in the first place for many of you it may be my story exactly it's your dad it's your mom it's a sibling it's a family member who hurts you but the race set before you is to restore that relationship and you feel like giving up remember why you started on that journey of forgiveness in the first place so remember why we started then we can persevere i think the best example of this exact idea is jesus in the bible he's about to die in a few moments on a cross he knows what's coming this brutal death and he's praying in a garden to god and he says god if you can take this cup of suffering from me do it but not my will but your will be done and in his final moments jesus remembered why he started the race that he came down to earth for not for his will but for god's for his glory but for yours and for my salvation to restore the relationship with us and god us and him he remembered why he started the race so he was able to persevere even to death on a cross how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission one we thought of everything that hinders us and two we run the race with perseverance and the last thing that we do is we fix our eyes on jesus we fix our eyes on jesus back to that scripture hebrews chapter 12 starting in verse one we're told therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith what is it that your eyes are fixed on what has captured your attention because when our eyes are fixed on anything other than jesus it will inevitably lead us away from jesus uh my wife and i have a seven month old son named jace he is absolutely adorable we love him like crazy and one of the things that's so fascinating about having this beautiful seven-month-old boy is the fact that i am learning that as a father if i do not give my son my undivided attention it is not long at all before he winds up getting into danger and i get into trouble because my son he's seven months old but listen dude is crawling he is climbing on things and he is jumping off of things the other day we're in the nursery and i'm like finishing changing his diaper i take the diaper to go put it where it needs to go and dude is climbing on his bookshelf like this and i'm sitting here loving every moment of it now my wife is rightfully so a little bit worried and nervous because it's only moments after he does stuff like this that he then dives head first off of whatever he's climbed up on but i know that if i'm paying attention i can catch him we can celebrate together all of the incredible things he's getting to do and then if i if i miss and i don't catch him i just turn to my wife and say it's okay babe because remember every tier is just another lesson learned she's not that big of a fan of that but uh he and i have a ton of fun together now the same way that for me as a father i have to give my son my undivided attention to keep him safe as followers of jesus if we ever find ourselves in a situation where we've taken our eyes off of jesus then we're going to find ourselves frustrated because all of the crazy clutters and distractions of life will butt in so that instead of actually following jesus into the better way of living that he wants to lead us we get caught up along the journey there's this moment in jesus ministry where he has his disciples going with him to jerusalem and it's actually right before this that he pulled all of his disciples aside to tell them that hey when i arrive in jerusalem i'm actually going there to die but on the way james and john come to jesus and they ask him a question because james and john at this point had their eyes fixed on what they wanted jesus to do for them because they were convinced that when jesus arrived in jerusalem he would show up to kick out the religious leaders to overthrow the roman empire to install a new government with jesus as king and these disciples as prominent influential politicians but that's not what it was that jesus was going to do or at least not the way that they expected it and so they come to jesus with this question they say hey um will you do for us whatever we ask you and jesus asks the wise question in response what is it that you want me to do for you and so james and john asked jesus can we sit on your right and on your left when we come into your glory what james and john had their eyes fixed on was not jesus's mission but theirs their eyes were not fixed on what god wanted to do through them but what jesus could do for them their eyes were fixed on gaining position and power for themselves how often do we do the same thing we're in our relationship with jesus instead of just enjoying his presence we find ourselves chasing after all of the things that we want from him rather than just enjoying him then later on at the last supper jesus is with his disciples and he gets to this moment where he tells all of them that there's gonna come a time when all of you abandon me now simon peter who's like the head honcho of the disciples is having none of this and so he is pushing back on jesus saying not a chance i will never abandon you i will never disown you i will follow you even if it costs me my life but jesus tells him truly i tell you you will disown me three times and peter is continuing to insist emphatically that he will never turn his back on jesus and all the other disciples say the same thing but it wouldn't be very long before jesus would be in a garden called gethsemane he would be arrested the disciples would run and peter would deny him then jesus would be condemned to crucifixion he would be beaten he would be spit he would be mocked there would be a crown of thorns placed on his head a rugged wooden cross placed on his back and he would be told to carry that cross to a hill called calvary and he would be doing it alone earlier in jesus ministry he had told everyone that if you want to be my follower it's going to come with a cost and the cost is this to be my follower you must be willing to deny yourself to take up your cross and follow me but as jesus is carrying that cross to calvary none of his disciples are with him so a new simon needed to be called we're told in mark's gospel that a certain man from cyrene named simon was called to carry jesus cross to calvary and this is what's so fascinating about this moment is that that was supposed to be simon peter simon peter was the one that was meant to carry that cross to calvary with jesus because simon peter was jesus's guy but his eyes were so fixed on protecting himself that he missed out on his opportunity to be with jesus in one of the most painful and dark moments of his ministry and how often do we do the same thing where there is something that god wants us to do but our eyes are so fixed on staying safe that we lose the opportunity altogether what is that thing for you is there something where you felt that prompting from god to step out in faith to reach out to somebody in need to do that thing that scares you to show up for somebody in a situation where you're having to weigh the odds do i love my neighbor or do i protect my reputation and instead of doing what was right you chose to do what made you look good how often do we take our eyes off of jesus because our eyes end up getting fixed on something other than him and so then what we're told is that jesus is crucified at nine o'clock in the morning there is a written charge above his head that says this is the king of the jews and there are two rebels crucified with him one on his right and one on his left where was it that james and john wanted to be on jesus's right and on jesus left they could have been with jesus in this moment but they abandoned him and so instead two rebels were in their place and so here we have jesus the son of god who entered history to die on a cross for the forgiveness of the sins of all of humanity and he had formed this team of disciples to do this mission with him but they turned their backs on him and so here the son of god is dying alone but not entirely because like we just saw there was a new simon and two rebels with him and the thing that is so challenging about this story for me is the fact that these three guys peter james and john were three of jesus's closest disciples they did life with jesus for three years they learned from him they walked with him they talked to him daily and here i am in the modern world having this issue that i'm the kind of person where out of sight means out of mind and i'm supposed to keep my eyes fixed on jesus like if they couldn't then what hope is there for me what hope is there for any of us like i'm the kind of person i gotta have that weird conversation when a friend is getting ready to move away where it's almost like i'm breaking up with them but like we weren't dating so that's what makes it weird but i'm like hey just so you know uh it's it's not you it's me it's nothing personal i've just got a problem like when i don't see you i'm not gonna think about you and i'm supposed to follow jesus with every ounce of my being to keep my eyes fixed on him and i have never seen him face to face what hope is there for us in our modern world where every distraction you can imagine is available at the tips of your fingers right just a google search or amazon purchase away and we're called to keep our eyes fixed on him so that we can live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission the one advantage that we have is that we actually know how the story ends because what seemed like to everybody else was the darkest moment in history was actually the moment when jesus came into his glory because jesus's crucifixion was actually his coronation as the king of creation because what we know that those disciples did not is that jesus crucifixion was not the end of the story it was just a pause because three days later he would walk out of his own grave head held high in victory and now as his followers because of his resurrection from the dead his spirit has been poured out on us his resurrection power is flowing through our veins inviting every single one of us to do what those original disciples couldn't but here's what's beautiful is that those three guys peter james and john were the three people who were put in charge of leading the initial church of taking this movement that jesus started and expanding it throughout the known world to the point where now today all of us at all of our life church locations at life church online we get to gather together as followers of jesus because the faithfulness of these three men and the other disciples because they lived with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission but that didn't happen until after jesus rose from the grave when he fully revealed who it is he was and what it is that he had invited them to be a part of so how do we as followers of jesus in our modern world live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission we have to do some work we first have to throw off everything that hinders us we have to run our race with perseverance and we have to fix our eyes on jesus but there's a lot of things that are going to compete for our attention maybe for you it's your job you've got the pressures and the stress of trying to provide for your family in an economy and a workplace that isn't very stable and your job isn't guaranteed maybe for you you're somebody where your home life is just chaos like maybe you've got a seven month old son that you're doing the best you can to take care of but it is taking all of your energy to just be present maybe for you you've got a loved one who was just diagnosed with a really serious illness and you're not sure if they're going to be able to pull through but you are praying and begging for god to show up and bring healing but you're not convinced that he will how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission even in those moments we keep our eyes fixed on jesus because what jesus is inviting us to do is to live a better way back to that hebrews text starting again in chapter 12 verse 1 therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith then in verse three here's what we're told that it was the joy set before him that led him to endure the cross scorning its shame and then jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of god consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you so that you will not grow a weary and you will not lose heart how do we live with an uncluttered pursuit of god's mission the first thing that we do is we throw off everything that hinders the second thing that we do is we run with perseverance and finally we fix our eyes on jesus heavenly father we thank you so much for the fact that because of your son jesus we are being shown a better way not just the way that maybe we've been doing things in the past but the way that leads to life and truth and freedom that you invite all of us into and what i know though is that there are some of us right now who we would identify as followers of jesus but the way that we've been doing life just isn't working we find ourselves just so overwhelmed by the clutters and distractions of our world that more than freedom what we feel is frustration but today what you realize is that god is inviting you to throw off something that is hindering you to actually run with perseverance by remembering why you started and keep your eyes fixed on jesus and if that's you at any of our locations or life church online and you want god's help to do exactly that would you raise your hand or type it in the chat so that i can pray for all of us to stay focused on what matters most heavenly father we thank you that because of your spirit that it's living in us because of the resurrection of jesus from the grave that all of us have been empowered that we have been given the wisdom that we can develop the discipline to keep our eyes fixed on your son jesus that when we're tempted to stop that you will remind us why we started and that in the difficult times we can open up to the people around us about the things that are hindering us that we can experience healing and freedom and forgiveness still in an attitude of prayer with heads bowed and eyes closed there's another group of you that's in here right now and as you're hearing this message what you're realizing is that you've never actually seen or experienced the grace of jesus in your own life and you realize that that's the thing that you've been missing a personal relationship with the god who became man in the person of jesus who lived on this earth 2 000 years ago to reconcile all of humanity back to god by the forgiveness of our sins you see the story of god is good news from the very beginning what we're told is that god created everything as an act of love and he created you and me human beings in his image for the purpose of living in relationship with him for eternity but the problem is is that we actually messed the story up by our sins we did things that hurt ourselves others in the heart of god and those sins created a separation between us and him but god was not okay with that being the state of our relationship and so he took this mess into his own hands by becoming jesus saying i'm gonna do something about this sin to bring my people back to me and so two thousand years ago jesus entered the story he lived a perfect life he died a brutal death on the cross for your sins and for mine and then on the third day the good news is that jesus did not stay dead he conquered sin death and the devil so that anybody who puts their trust in him could be saved could be made new and that's exactly why you are here today for the first time to begin a journey of following jesus to learn what it means to live a better way you're here today saying jesus i want a relationship with you i'm turning from my sins i'm turning towards you today is the day that i give you my life if that's you and lift your hands right now all over the place as people are saying jesus i want to give you my life those of you that are joining with us online let us know in the chat that you're saying yes to jesus and beginning a relationship with him there is nothing better than beginning a new life in christ and as people are making that decision we're going to pray out loud together because what we believe is that we are a family stitched together by the spirit and grace of god and even though you had to make that decision on your own you don't have to pray alone at this church and so all together out loud repeating after me heavenly father forgive me i'm turning from my sin i'm turning towards you i need your love i need your grace i need your mercy today i give you my life in jesus name amen amen and amen

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 41,570

Rating: 4.9194422 out of 5

Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, groeschel craig, church sermons 2021, a better way, living a distracted life, uncluttered pursuit of god's mission, pursuing god's mission, pursue jesus, the burden of sin, settled for good, how to heal from hurt, how to persevere, persevering through difficult times, seek god first, don't throw in the towel, remember why you started, focus on what matters, focus on jesus

Id: FKQuAgf7IHQ

Length: 35min 47sec (2147 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021