Radical: WAKE UP!

all right well welcome to the block online my name is pastor steven and we are so grateful that you made the decision to stream this service whether you're watching this live on youtube on facebook or you're streaming this on the overflow app thank you so much for making the decision to get connected with us this is actually week three of a series that we've been in called radical and tonight we'll be wrapping up this series you know many years ago i was a part of a youth ministry when i was in middle school and going into high school i remember that in that youth ministry there were different types of leaders that would circulate through the ministry but there was this one guy specifically that stood out to me and during the time that he was a leader he made a big impression on my life i never forget that he left him and his wife they left and they moved away to southeast asia and i didn't know this until later on because many years later i was still in high school i had yet to surrender my life to the lord but he came back to the church that i was a part of and he was given the time to share about his ministry what god was doing in his life in southeast asia his calling all the things he was doing i'll never forget that sunday morning the reason why is because he got on stage and um he just began to share about all these amazing things that he was focused on uh in the ministry he was actually a part of a ministry that did medical medical things they they would take people on boats and they would uh give them free health care free medical care whether it be surgeries or things like that and not only would he help people physically but spiritually as well during their time on the boat they would share the gospel and so he just began to share about uh just what he was doing with his life the reason why it stood out to me was because the second that he got on stage remember i had not surrendered my life to the lord yet i could tell he was different um there was just something about him uh the way he talked uh his his joy and what he was doing with his life his excitement about the things that god was doing in and through him and i'll never forget that as i was focused on what he was saying i remember just kind of sitting back and and looking around the church that day and i remember there being so many people in that building who were just not in their head not really paying attention and i thought to myself and i didn't say this out loud but i thought there's like a big difference right here um there's this guy who's sold out for jesus it's very obvious and i feel like everyone else doesn't even isn't even here um i feel like people were just coming to this building to sit here and not even pay attention to what this guy's saying and they're just kind of doing all these things and they took an offering for him and people were throwing their money into that basket for him but and i'll never forget thinking many years later after i surrendered my life to the lord this this always stuck with me because i remember thinking man i want to live a life like that i want to live a life that where when people come into contact with me they see life they see something that they can't really explain and on top of that i don't want to be a person who for lack of better terms throws pennies into people's dreams i want to be a person who's living out my dreams i want to be a person who's doing everything that god's called me to do and i'm not talking negative about funding the mission by any means i'm saying that we have a decision to make in our life whether we are going to live sold out for jesus do what god's called us to do or whether we're going to sit on the sidelines and we're just going to cheer people on who are doing that these past two weeks in this radical series we've talked about really two heavy topics the first topic we talked about was following jesus what does it look like to follow jesus and i left you with the question is are you a follower are you just a nominal christian or uh a spectator in a church setting and then last week we got a little bit more heavier we talked about hell we talked about eternity and how hell is real jesus talked about hell frequently and the question i want to ask you tonight is given these two subjects that we talked about these past two weeks tying it in tonight the question is this is can people look at your life and tell without a doubt that you are following jesus and that you are living knowing that hell is real and heaven is real and that truth is displayed in your life and the way that you are living every single day because here's what i know when you and i are exposed to the truth we become responsible for what we've been exposed to so you've heard about what it means to follow jesus you've heard about spending eternity apart from jesus so the question is what do you do with that how does that impact or influence the way that you live because here's the thing when you're exposed to truth it's a cause for celebration but i also believe it's a cause for concern as well because once again you're now responsible for what you've heard you're either gonna take it to heart you're either gonna apply it to your life and live it out or you're going to ignore it and act like you didn't hear what you just heard you see what you see in scripture is that there's no such thing as casual christianity you're either all in for jesus or you're not and the place that i really feel like a lot of people find themselves as in this middle area which honestly is not following jesus it's an area of being on the outside and and knowing the verses knowing the scriptures but never really knowing jesus never being satisfied and fulfilled in their walk with the lord you know i think that and i've mentioned this several weeks ago that i think that especially here in america that we huddle around this book called the bible but we we don't huddle around all of it we really spend our time huddling around the parts that we really enjoy the parts that are relevant to us in this very season and the parts that convict us the parts that make us feel uncomfortable we kind of we'll make we may read them but we won't study them we'll kind of go past them as fast as we can because we need a now word we need a fresh word when the reality is the freshest word that you can get is a convicting word a word that's going to lead you to do something different to live differently with more radically following after jesus these past couple weeks i've been super challenged by the topics that we've been diving into and i've been reading revelation uh i don't know if you've spent time in revelation a lot of people find it to be a confusing book but there is in the beginning of revelation specifically revelation chapter two and three it's written by this guy by the name of john on the island of patmos he had a vision uh and in it are seven letters in chapter two and three uh from god to these seven seven different churches you can read about that if you want but there's one letter that stood out to me more than all of them and it was in revelation chapter three it's written to the church in sardis and this is what it says and remember this is a letter written to these people and it says that i know your deeds you have a reputation of being alive and i want you to stop right there he's saying guys i know you um i know what it looks like when you post on instagram i know what you're showing the rest of the world i know that you've got a great reputation in front of people and i want you to take a second right now to think about what reputation are you building in front of people right now do you have a good reputation with people do they categorize you as a christian as a follower of christ do they see you as just someone who kind of attends church or you're running after your whatever it is that you want to run after in your life we all have some sort of reputation but the reputation of this church was that they have a reputation of being alive this is what they are portraying to people that we are alive but then there's a comma and this is what it says you have a reputation of being alive comma but you are dead but you are dead and i want to let you know tonight that jesus knows what's up jesus knows the truth about each and every one of us he knows that we're building a reputation but more importantly he knows what's behind what we're trying to build in front of people he knows who we are when no one is watching he knows if we truly know him or if we're trying to just portray that we're good followers of jesus that we're christian people or whatever terminology that you want to use and this is his next words he says this he says wake up exclamation point and it is a call to awake what to reality to what's really taking place underneath the surface is that you may call yourself a christian you may call yourself a follow christ but the question is are you really that do you really follow after jesus do you really live uh like eternity is is something that can be attained eternity with christ but then also that hell is real are you living like that or are we just so focused with building reputation in front of people i mean now living in 2020 it's so easy to build a reputation just put a filter on anything right any filter you want you can build with any kind of reputation you want on any platform you want but jesus knows who you are jesus knows who you are behind the filters he knows who you are when this sermon is over and you close your computer and you're in your room he knows who you are the things that you think about the things that you dream about the things that you struggle with he knows every single detail of your life and to this specific church he has these two strong words he says this wake up wake up it's time to wake up and stop pretending that we're doing or we are followers of christ when for many of us that's not the truth we're we're more of pretenders than we are with actually being followers of jesus christ you know it doesn't doesn't really matter what people say it matters what god says i mean can you imagine faking being a christian all the way to the end like everyone believes that you're a christian you do all the the christian stuff you you give uh you go different places your faithful attend or all these things but the reality is that you don't know god and at the end you spend eternity in hell i mean do you think that you'll get to hell and be like oh yeah but everybody thinks i'm in heaven like absolutely not it's a waste to think that we can pretend our way through life when the reality is that god really knows you he knows what's really going on behind closed doors and so i think we need to be honest tonight of our fear of surrendering to god so here's just a question that i've been um thinking about this past week so let's say you you decide to be a follower of jesus you surrender your life to him and you believe everything that scripture teaches specifically last week like i said we talked about hell you believe that how should your belief in these things and your surrender to christ change your life what should change in your life and the answer is really simple every single area of your life will change when you're sold out to jesus christ every single area i mean think about it the bible talks about how your everyday living is drastically changed when you follow after christ for example this past description philippians chapter 1 27 it starts with this it says whatever happens and i love that because that encompasses anything that could happen in your life it encompasses a pandemic or a vacation it encompasses your relationship status are you single or are you married it encompasses your socioeconomic status are you rich are you poor do you have things figured out or are you confused it doesn't matter whatever happens conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ and this is what he says it's almost this illustration of these old scales that they used to do back in the day where your life would be on one side and the word of god would be on the other and he says this that no matter what takes place in your life if things are really bad if things are really great that you are living your life in it says in a manner that's worthy of the gospel of jesus christ that we're constantly referring to scripture and we're lining our lives up with scripture not with what's taken place in the world not with uh the current reality of 2020 or wherever you're listening to this he's saying whatever happens in your life you live your life in such a way that you please jesus not seeking to please the world not seeking to attain things that that the world may say this is really hope this no no you live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ he says paul said this then whether i come and see you or hear about you i will know that you are standing firm and i love that because standing firm just think about the imagery of that it's someone who's consistent it's consistency and longevity anyone can make a decision to follow jesus and go to church for three months anyone can start reading their bible and praying for a week the question is can you be consistent with that and do that for the rest of your life until you stand in front of jesus anyone can do the right thing once but can you consistently follow jesus every moment every striving to be like jesus living your life in a manner once again that's worthy of the gospel of jesus christ and he says he says he says you're doing so in one spirit striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened away in any way by those who oppose you and i love this because what he focuses here is on community see there's some people who think that i'm just going to listen to the service online tonight and and and i'm going to go live my life let me tell you something there's no such thing as a lone ranger christian you were created and informed for community and salvation is a community creating moment in your life yes god does a work in you personally but it works its way out in community and even in 2020 in july of 2020 when we're recording this there's a pandemic going on and there's still no excuse not to be a part of a community in fact tonight and this whole weekend at our church we're promoting life groups life groups are small gender specific groups that meet all throughout the week different days different times and right now they're meeting online so there's no real excuse not to be a part of a community if you've never logged into one right now there's a qr code that's being shown on our screen and i want to encourage you that if if you're not a part of a community if you're not a part of a life group today's the day that you make that step you make that decision and say i'm not going to walk this anymore by myself but instead i'm going to lean into community because going back to this verse in philippians he says one spirit striving together for one faith once again this is a community creating event salvation right you're now a part of a family you're no longer trying to figure this out on your own and then he goes on to say this he says this is a sign i love this he said this is a sign to them speaking of those individuals who don't know christ that they will be destroyed but that you will be saved and that by god do you understand this he says when you read this book and you come up under the lordship of jesus christ and you say you know what i'm going to strive to align myself with the word of god i'm going to live my life in such a way that's worthy of the gospel he says that when you do that and community is a part of that striving to be to live according to the gospel people can just look at you and in their hearts they can know that hell is real heaven's real and that there's a savior i mean think about the power of that that living under the authority of jesus christ following his words your life speaks volumes the way that you live your life is the greatest testimony that you have to the world around you to your family to your friends to the people in your zoom classes that you're going to be in this fall whatever community group you're in or community that you're in how you live your life is the greatest testimony to those people who are around you so every area of your life is impacted i mean even think about how you work this phrase whatever you do is found again in colossians it says this whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the lord not for human masters there's this principle again that guys it doesn't matter what you do uh what kind of career path you're you're going on whether you're striving to be in the ministry full-time or you're going to be a teacher you're going to be a lawyer you're going to be a firefighter you're going to work in the service industry it doesn't matter what you do it says whatever you do you work at it with all of your heart why because you're working for god you're not working for for that boss that maybe doesn't you don't see eye to eye with yeah he may he or she may be your boss but god is the king god is on his throne right you are working to please god not to please men so your perspective of how you live how you interact how you use the talents and abilities and energy in your life that is radically transformed when you decide to follow jesus i mean how you spend your time is different right there was this game growing up called simon says you probably don't remember it because there's no app for it today and you only know apps but growing up there's a game called simon says and there would be a person who would say simon says walk simon says whatever and you would have to listen to what simon says it's interesting because now what jesus says in his word we don't do it we just memorize it i mean how many you know this verse we memorize scriptures we don't do what scripture says to do in fact we memorize him in greek thinking that we're smarter or wiser than the people around us it doesn't matter what you memorize if you don't apply it to your life it doesn't matter what language you can translate it into if you're not practically applying the truths of god's word into your every day life i mean people spend their whole lives trying to find themselves but this is what jesus says whoever finds their life will lose it and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it so i want to encourage you don't waste your life don't just sit back and think that oh because i have this knowledge of what scripture says what it means to follow jesus and the reality of heaven and hell that you're good because it's one thing to know it it's a completely different thing to live it out something that i've been thinking about is what if what if you stop listening to sermons what if you just got alone with the word of god and you read the bible if you were like on a desert island for example and you just read the bible and you dug into just the word of god being led by the spirit of god within you what would you walk away believing about jesus and how he called you to live your life i don't know about you but i've been super convicted these past couple weeks on the topics that we've been covering in my own life and i think that there are times when i look back at my life specifically and i s i can put my my finger on these moments and say at 100 my life made sense in light of the gospel but i wonder if i've drifted from those moments over the course of my life like for example i remember i gave my life to christ when i was a senior in high school uh january of that year and i was graduating and man as i just began to know the lord and just really digest the word of god every single day have a passion for the word of god i remember i couldn't go to school and not think about my friends who didn't know jesus there wasn't a day that went by that i sat in a class and yeah i'm listening to what's being taught but my mind is racing the man i don't if jesus were to come back right now would these people would they spend eternity with jesus or would they spend eternity with hell and my world i mean that that flooded my thoughts every single day after i gave my life to the lord it was last week of my my high school my senior in high school and like i said i was thinking about this and i was thinking how can i tell my friends about jesus like i'm never going to see these people again like they're i may never see these people that i'm graduating with graduating with ever again like what can i do and i'll never forget on in the hallway there were these envelopes all across the wall and each of each envelope had the name of a senior on it and the school did this so that people could go uh give people an opportunity to put letters into the you know into the envelopes of the seniors so that they can take them on the last day and go home and i'll never forget i went home and i read scripture and i was just so burdened by the fact that hell is real and god has a plan for every single person that i'm graduating with and i'm never going to see these people again like god what what can i do right now to tell them that the truth of who you are and i'll never forget i went home that last week of high school and i wrote letters to every single person in my class long letters on a piece of paper and i folded them up and i remember the last day of school i went to school and i had this stack of letters and i went through the hallway and i put these letters in every single person's envelope thinking you know what i don't want them to to leave this space with me as a follower of jesus and i didn't do anything about their eternity i didn't tell them that jesus loved them i didn't tell them that they have to choose this day who they're going to serve and i'll never forget every single person i put letters in every single of those envelopes and that was a burden and i just couldn't shake it why because as i read the word of god a fire burned in my heart for the people around me that don't know jesus let me ask you a question what about you like do you care about people like that do you care about the people in your family do you care about the people that you work with do you care about the people that you interact with understanding if you believe this to be true that if you don't tell them anything you may be the only person they ever interact with in this world who could tell them who jesus is that they might listen to you i never forget too i remember financially you know how we talk about following jesus impacts everything that you do i'll never forget growing up and i didn't have a lot of money i was working a part-time job making like 200 bucks a week 150 bucks a week but i remember anytime a missionary would come in town or some way would come with a need i would just throw my paycheck at him i would say take it like take whatever i have why because there was an understanding that what i have doesn't belong to me the only reason that i have what i have is because god has given it to me not only that but praying for opportunities to tell people about jesus i'll never forget uh early after following making that decision in the early years of my walk with the lord of getting on airplanes and having to take six airplanes to go to india six airplanes home i'll never forget sitting in in the in the airport and praying saying god put me next to someone that i can tell about you put me next to someone that doesn't know you that i can just say something have them ask me a question every single time i got on a plane i would pray that prayer and i have testimonies and all these things and just reflecting this week asking myself am i living like that am i still living a radical life following jesus or have i allowed life worries concerns burdens where i've matured in my faith so i'll have an opportunity to do it here and then to replace that radical faith and obedience that god has called us to i mean isn't it like if i was the enemy that's what i would do i would get i would try to take someone's passion and joy away and let them live a mediocre life thinking that they're they're living in in all that that god has for them so i'm i'm super convicted as you can tell but i wonder if you're convicted too and i would probably argue that i'm probably not the only one who who when reading scripture you just walk away and you're like man i wonder if i've drifted a little bit over the years i wonder if i've drifted you know it's like kind of like when you go to the beach and you put your your steak in the sand and you go out in the water and you say okay that's my steak and you just kind of sit there in the water and you look up after a couple minutes and the steak is over there it's not because the steak has moved it's because the natural flow of the water has drifted you further away from where you currently went in and i realized that living in this world you will naturally drift away from jesus if you don't put all of your energy into swimming against the current because the current will take you wherever it wants you to go but if you're going to follow after jesus we have to fight the current we have to fight against busyness we have to fight against all of these things in our lives that say no you can be on fire for jesus in this way in this form or maybe in this area at this time in this season no we're called to be sold out followers for jesus in every area of our life every moment of every day every situation anything that we do is to be for his glory and his glory only i think that satan wants to keep you and i from the blessings that god has for us and the joy that we have been following him in this life i mean there's so many people who think well i'm not going to follow christ because it's boring and you got to stop doing all these things and that's a lie from the enemy it is the most amazing thing you could ever do with your life the most fulfilling thing because he created you and he forms you but here's what the bible says in mark 10 he goes i truly i tell you says jesus no one who's left home or brothers or sisters or mothers or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age when you follow jesus you may be like yeah but i'm gonna lose my friends yeah but you're gonna gain a family you're gonna gain a family yeah but i'm gonna lose this but what you are going to gain is eternally greater than anything you could lose in this earth so i mean i i'm super convicted i've been praying that god would restore to me uh that fire in the areas of my life that maybe i've lacked off on or or think that i've matured in my faith like i want to be on fire for jesus at any moment every moment of every single day and then you're like man this sounds like a a um a message for people are going to be called become missionaries yeah you're right about that because all of us are missionaries no matter where you're at once again you could be you can work a corporate job you can work in the service industry you can work in the education industry you can it don't matter where you work you're a missionary there that's the territory that god has sent you to invade and to and to bring heaven to earth right where you are you're a you're a thermostat you're not a thermometer you're not called to to become like the environment around you you're called to alter the environment around you and so as we close out this series just a couple questions that i want to ask you when you read scripture if you read and i hope you should you do read read your bible when you read the teachings of jesus when you read the truth in scripture and you look at your life would you say today that you're living like this is true that you're living a life worthy of the gospel of jesus christ and then the second question is are you a radical follower of jesus christ or are you a nominal follower of jesus christ someone who's been tricked and deceived into thinking that the greatest thing you can do in this life is just be consistent and go into church and reading your word god is so much more for you he has so much more for you and so tonight as we just conclude this series i just want to pray for you and as always two people uh the first person maybe you don't know god and you're just being convicted and you're coming to the realization that you know what i'm lukewarm like in revelation chapter three uh he talks about that that there's a church there people there who they are lukewarm and maybe that's you and you just made been living this nominal life like i was going to church being a worship leader not even knowing god not being surrendered to god like what a joke missing out on everything god has for you and if that's you i just want to pray with you where you're at right now and you could just say these words say god i can see clearly in this moment that i don't know you um but in this moment i i and i know that i'm a sinner and i admit that and i believe that you sent jesus to come to this earth to pay the penalty for my sin that i was supposed to pay and i believe that he was crucified on a cross for me he paid my penalty and three days later he rose again and right now for the first time ever open the door of my heart and i say yes jesus i surrender my life to you i surrender to to your lordship put your holy spirit in me to lead me and to follow me i commit to following you all the days of my life and to living a life worthy of what i read in this book your gospel in jesus name amen man if you just said that prayer with me um and let me know let us know if you're part of our community here in new orleans we would love to connect with you to rejoice with you but also to keep you accountable and we know we got people streaming this from all over the world um so wherever you're at listening get connected to a community don't be deceived into thinking and convicted in this moment but then walking away get connected so that you can just pour gasoline on that fire of what god is doing in this moment in your life and that you can become more of a follower of christ and then finally i just want to pray for all of us who are watching today and specifically for those of us who maybe we've surrendered our life to the lord at some time in our life but um we're just being real honest i think some of us we've drifted we've drifted away and i want to pray that we would drift back or fight the current back to jesus and and we would be sold out radical followers of christ from this moment on and for the days ahead let's pray god i just thank you so much for your word i thank you for the conviction that your word brings to us god father i pray that we would um we would not be deceived into thinking that the only thing that you have for us is attendance in church or group and and doing these these tasks father um within the context of church life god i pray that we would be sold out for you in every area of our life god in our in our families in our homes in our private life in our public life where we work where we play god every area of our life god that we would bring heaven to earth god that we would share the truth of the gospel to those around us god that you would right now in this moment with the power of your spirit that you would ignite a fire in our hearts in the name of jesus we pray amen love you guys thank you so much for tuning in to the blog on

Channel: THE BLOC

Views: 110

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: church, celebration church, nola, bloc, worship

Id: qKV5ddQbgrc

Length: 31min 18sec (1878 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020