When You Don’t Like Who You’re Becoming

i want to warn you about today's message what i'm going to do is i'm going to raise a problem and i'm not going to offer a solution today because i don't know if you've noticed this or not but so many of life's problems are way too complicated to solve in 30 minutes or less so i'm going to raise a problem and some issues that you may identify with and you may feel and at the end of the message today if you feel a little bit frustrated i want you to know that i succeeded in my goal welcome to life church we're here to make you feel good about yourself always at risk of offending you what i want to do is i want to ask you a question that you probably wouldn't expect to hear from a pastor if you're ready for the question say i'm ready are you ready the question i want to ask you is this do you ever feel like christianity isn't working i told you you probably wouldn't expect to hear that from a pastor do you ever feel like the way you're serving jesus and following jesus and trying to trust in god isn't working the way you thought it probably would today i'm going to get real honest with you and i wonder how many of you if you are really honest might say something like at times you get a little burned out on the busyness of church or you might say something that i felt and you wonder god why aren't you answering my prayers the way you answer the prayers of so many other people you might say something like i'm doing everything right i'm trying to be good i'm trying to be faithful i'm trying to be a good christian i'm doing everything right and everything still seems to go wrong does it ever feel like christianity is not working it could show up in any number of people's lives in any different number of ways it might be a young boy that grows up going to church with his family and he does all the churchy stuff he's in vacation bible school drawing pictures of david beating goliath he's in the youth group he has his first kiss in the back of the church van playing truth or dare for the glory of god dare french kisser you know thank you jesus whatever he he's he's plugged into the church he's trying to do things right and he goes home and what he sees at home from his parents is really inconsistent with the message that he hears in church and there's hypocrisy and there's sin and his parents fight all the time so he prays and prays worried about his family god save their marriage and they end up divorcing and he wonders god did you hear my prayer do you even care does christianity even work it could be a couple that does things right they're dating and they're waiting before they get involved in the meeting dad just made that up they they they they serve in a life group they they they're on the host team they have a lot of faith and then one day one of them loses a job and then both of them lose their child and the burden of that loss eventually leaves at least of them looting their losing their marriage and both of them end up asking where's god where's god does christianity even work it may not be so dramatic in fact in your case i'm guessing for many of you it's not that dramatic it might be you go to church and you do your daily youversion bible plan you've even got a streak going and you often listen to caleb radio and you may have a life church bumper sticker on your car and and you have a decent job and you have a decent place to live and you have a decent car and you have decent friends and you may even get to go on a decent vacation and you're serving god but you're still just not happy you're not fulfilled and you start to ask yourself does christianity even work [Music] if you've ever been there and wondered is there a better way is there a better way i want to bring a message to you today that i pray will speak to your heart if you're hurting if you're overwhelmed if you're confused if you're discouraged i pray the words from john chapter 14 the words of jesus would speak to you starting in verse 1 when jesus said this he said do not let your hearts be troubled you believe in god jesus says believe also in me my father's house has many rooms if that were not so what i've told you i'm going there to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i'll come back and take you to be with me so you also may be where i am beautiful and powerful jesus says you know the way to the place where i'm going then thomas pipes up thomas always gets a bad rap i like thomas because thomas says the very thing everybody else is thinking but doesn't have the guts to say jesus says you know where i'm going thomas says ah we don't thomas said to jesus lord we'll know where you're going so how can we know the way everybody say the way jesus answered thomas and said very famous and very important verse jesus says i am the way everybody say the way jesus says i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me the title of our new message series born out of the pain of my own heart is called a better way father we ask that by the power of your spirit and the truth of your word you would lead us not just in the truth of jesus but also in the ways of jesus lead us god your children into a better way we pray this in the name of your son jesus and everybody said amen amen how many of you would agree that the way you do something or the way you say something matters a lot agree right you can tell the truth but do it in a way that's ineffective or even rude i don't know if any of you ever seen crazy mean christians do this it's like a oxymoron crazy mean christians but they're crazy mean christians like they'll tell the truth like jesus loves you you sinner that's the truth but probably not the most effective way i'm talking about the way matters if you're not married yet you'll learn that you the way you say something matters you can say like are you wearing that okay or you can say are you wearing that okay same thing different way one leads to this and one leads to this you've got to say it the right way the way matters as christians i don't know if you noticed this but generally when we think of the way the truth and the life we tend to generally focus on the truth at least preachers do which is important because you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free we often talk about the truth of jesus but we rarely talk about the way of jesus jesus is yes the only way to the father and that's one way we preach it but i also believe that living the way that jesus lived is a reflection of the truth that jesus taught we often talk about the truth of what he said but often overlooked the way that he lived in fact i want to play a little bible trivia for fun and if you know the answer don't shout it out but just kind of pretend like and then you go later on i knew the answer what do you think first century christians were called when you think in let's go to the book of acts there was a title a phrase what were first century christians called in the book of acts and i'll give you a hint they were not called christians they weren't called religious people they weren't called bible thumpers they weren't called holy rollers they weren't called jesus freaks let me tell you what they're called these spirit-filled jesus-loving demon-crushing self-sacrificing world changers according to the book of acts we're called people of the way that's what they were called what were first century christians called they were called people of the way fascinating to me that when you look at the way they lived their goal wasn't just right theology and it wasn't just strong morality but their goal was to live and love the way jesus lived and loved in fact when you think about the way that jesus lived you read the gospels matthew mark luke and john and don't just look at the truth he taught but look at the way he lived and compared the way he lived to the way most of us live you'll often find there's a very very big difference from the way he lived and the way we live think about the way that jesus lived when jesus interacts with people he was full of joy and most of us were full of stress and anxiety jesus you didn't see him going around going the economy is going to fall apart in the roman government's liberal looking he didn't worry right and he told us don't worry about tomorrow god's already there you got it covered and most of us freaking out all the time some say that we're the most anxious generation in the history of the world jesus as he walked along when he saw someone who was in need he stopped and spent time with them and i'll know by you but most people say ain't got no time for that he was consumed with ongoing intimate fellowship with his father and i can't pray three minutes without being interrupted by a text or thinking about what my next meal is going to be anybody relate just sit there and polish your halo look all spiritual holy one i'm going to talk to the real people today imagine if jesus were like most of us just just picture that jesus living today imagine if he were like most of us imagine him all depressed going around as his buddies going hey man mark i'm this i'm i'm so sick of these tallest sandals dirt all over my feet if only i had a pair of yeezys oh i'd be so fly i could just preach the crowds would come if i just had some yeezys wouldn't that be so cool you know imagine he's scrolling through instagram he's like oh jtb john the baptist that guy's got more followers than i do i don't even understand his he's like he's not even worthy to untie my yeezys [Applause] imagine jesus like heals four people he comes all like oh bro i'm exhausted oh that one person she has such bad breath he's driving me crazy i just i just need a cold brewski you can barely even get your mind there right jesus is not just the truth and the life he's a way to the father and the first century christians were focused on living and loving the way that jesus lived and loved when you think about just the way jesus interacted if you'll notice every time you read in scripture how did he get somewhere well he was always walking along you never read jesus scurried from one town to the next he he seemed unhurried and i don't know about you but i am rushed everywhere all the time without exception and the scariest thing to me is i've noted this that i am hurrying to become a person i don't even like always rushed always anxious always pushing it always short with the people around more and more faster faster better better faster faster go go go go go and it hit me recently my best friends of 30 years my bride amy is here and we were looking through some old photos anybody ever do that i was looking through some old photos i gave you a collage just to show you and when i look back the one thing i noticed from the past is something you may not see with your eyes but i know in my heart i was lighter and not weight wise but in my soul i was lighter i was happier i was more content i was more full of joy i was more full of peace i used to be fun i used to be relaxed i used to have time to really engage with people i used to really enjoy the presence of god and now i'm rushing to become a person that i don't even like so i came to a place where i recognized that i needed to make some changes some real changes and so i've been working now for quite some time with a performance psychologist and you say like oh are you that crazy sick pastor need help yes there it is i i need help i think anybody who wants to perform at any high level should get help i think is wise to get wise counsel so i get wise counsel and my performance psychologists helped us to create a plan to unplug for the first time in 25 years and take a real break something that i have not had and so we put a lot of work into a break in the summertime and things didn't go as we had planned i'm so trying to unpack it for you but if you can imagine to be disconnected from the church is um no easy task and so on the very very very first day that amy and i woke up out of town pastor sam roberts called me and said i've got um news that you need to pray about know about but pastor danny duran our pastor from the overland park campus um had some kind of a heart issue and needed prayer and about an hour later maybe an hour a half later uh pastor sam called me back and said that pastor danny had passed away and was no longer with us and i don't know about you but when you lose someone you admire lose someone you respect someone you love someone who's very dear to you there's no going out and enjoying vacation and so i did what his wife did and hundreds of staff members did and thousands of church members did and just sat down to cry came back off vacation went to participate in his funeral and shall honor to him and tried to pick back up in the middle of grief and continue to find a place to heal and then a few days later we got news of a 20-year friend and staff member a gentleman that i love and admire more than i can describe who has very late stage cancer and is in a fight for his life and then another family member of whom i won't say to respect their privacy but so you don't freak out it's not amy not one of my kids but a very close family member also found out the similar type of news and we came back to spend time with him as he fights to find healing and to try to extend the days of his life and so we're trying to disconnect we find ourselves just grieving and i wonder where are you god more about my little break is that my counselor kind of gave me an assignment it's going to sound weird to you but the way i work demands a different type of break so some of you would like to go and look at mountains and sit by a beach and read books and that would be the right for you for me it would be different and so what he assigned me to do is to go seek thrill adventure risk spontaneity thrill risk adventure spontaneity and so i've been taking flying lessons i was going to go do more flying less than i was going to fly a plane i was going to jump out of a plane might as well do both i was going to climb mountains i was going to race motorcycles i might have raced a car i was going to race dune buggies i was going to fight in jiu jitsu i was going to go go and my assignment was to risk my life for the glory of jesus daily to push my body to disconnect my mind because i needed something to help my mind because it it rarely ever disconnects from the love and the burden of serving god's people in the church and so while grieving personal losses and trials we were ready to still try and what i thought was a growing injury from jiu jitsu i thought i'd better go get this checked out after seven weeks of not going away and the doctor said you have a hernia and two days later i had a hernia surgery and there's a picture now take it away that's all you can see of it because that's a bad picture and for the next six weeks my assignment was do absolutely nothing and you can't lift more than 10 pounds which you might as well just say go scratch your fingers on chalkboards and eat razor blades until you die okay so does christianity work like i'm supposed to be one of god's people right i'm like i'm doing your deal god and grieving hurting and inactive i decided to spend just a lot of time with god okay god you got my attention so amy will tell you and i just my devotion time like in the morning i'm like a hit get it done go so i'm like hey god here you are bible study go done i spent an hour and a half to three hours a day which is a long time for me and then i couldn't hear from god like where are you god and heaven's seen silence when i realized in the middle of all of this that i had been going at an unsustainable pace and that i was just in the middle of ongoing burnout and in my journal i wrote a quote that was not original to me but it was true to me and i wrote in my journal the way everybody say the way the way i'd been doing the work of god was destroying the work of god in me the way good intentions born out of a sincere love for jesus and his church but the way i'd been doing the work of god was destroying the work of god in me i'm guessing that there's probably somebody watching this message that could say that same thing the way you've been doing the work of god might be destroying the work of god in you or maybe it's not just the way you're doing the work of god but maybe it's your schedule or your pace is destroying the intimacy that god wants you to enjoy with him maybe it's your insecurities or your unresolved hurts or maybe it's your deepest fears distracting you from the work of the holy spirit who wants to strengthen you and draw you close to god and make you effective in the world and so as i started to slow down without choice everything in me wanted to push back no no no this is the way we do it we push harder we grind out this is the way to success this is the way you get ahead this is the way to be happy you pushed you drive you achieve you you conquer the world would say you get things you flex on them you show them what you got this is the way we do it right but there's a verse in the old testament that speaks to the way that many people do it proverbs 14 12 says there is a way somebody say away there is a way that appears to be right but in the end it leads to death and the way i had been serving god was actually hurting the work of god in my heart so one of the books that i read was a book i'd been avoiding by a guy i know named john mark comer it's called the ruthless elimination of hurry uh very uh very good book and some of his teaching will leak out over the next few weeks and so i want to give him credit for his work and he talked a lot about matthew's gospel matthew 11 verse 28-30 and these are the words of jesus jesus said this he said come to me all you who are weary and burdens so if you're like got too much worn out burned out wondering where christianity is actually come to jesus come to jesus and he says i will give you rest then let me just warn you the verse gets weird it just gets weird then he says take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i'm gentle and humble to heart you'll find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light come to me if you're worn out i'll give you rest and he says take my yoke if you don't know what a yoke is this is just weird i'll show you a picture of a yoke a yoke is a wooden cross piece that joined two animals together to work together to accomplish more when they were joined they had to work at the same pace jesus is saying come to me and i'm going to give you a work tool if you're exhausted i'm going to put a work tool around your neck that's just weird when i'm exhausted i want a massage i want a bubble bath i want amy to rub my feet i want a vacation i don't want a work tool burden in my neck what's interesting about a yoke is there was no single yoke anytime there was a yoke it was for two animals to join together and what jesus was doing was saying if you're worn out if you're burned out if you don't know this it's working come and join him and i want to give you a better way to be listen not join to your schedule not joined to religion but joined to jesus not just to believe his truth which i hope you do but also to live the way that jesus lived now some of you may push back and say but uh jesus wasn't no single mom with two jobs fair enough jesus didn't have student loan debt right jesus didn't work for my boss satan in the flesh whatever it is okay all that's fair i'm with you but jesus still had a pretty big assignment like be perfect save the world i think we can learn from him called by god to be without sin and to give his life jesus loved freely and still disconnected from the crowds to get alone and be intimate with god he had long meals with the people that he loved and i have lunch delivered to me in my office and eat in five minutes and keep on going he had deep conversations he stopped to listen into love to those who are hurting if you ever wake up and think there's got to be a better way and tell you there is and it's not just the truth of jesus but it's the truth expressed in the way that jesus lived so what i'm not going to do is i'm not going to give you a quick fix today in fact what i want to do is i want to give you a moment just to sit in the frustration long enough to get sick of it just to get sick of it like i did to look at who i was becoming and saying i don't like that guy as much as i used to like the old version i'm sick of the pace i'm sick of the stress i'm sick of the anxiety i'm sick of the fear i'm sick of being exhausted i'm sick of being sick about feeling like i'm exhausted i'm sick of going back and making the same promises that i've made for the last seven years and breaking the same promises i'm sick of the way i'm doing life so i told you i'm not going to solve your problems today i'm not going to solve them ever but i am going to tell you where we're going in the upcoming weeks and i want to just tell you because i want you to be here because together we're going to grow closer to god most of us are rushed stressed and overwhelmed so next week we're going to talk about the unhurried rhythms of grace and most of my staff said i can't believe we'd ever hear that from pastor craig most christians i know are overcome by temptation and feel far from god and they feel spiritually dry or dull we're going to talk about unbroken fellowship with the father how do we enjoy his presence intimately and ongoing awareness of his presence most people today are unfocused preoccupied distracted by all sorts of stupid stuff we're going to talk about the uncluttered pursuit of god's mission how do we stay on task growing to become who he wants us to be so we can do what he calls us to do most people i know today are regretting a past they can't change and worrying about a future they can't control and they're often present physically but somewhere else mentally we're going to talk about an undivided attention in the moment watching as jesus was always present and learning from him how to do exactly the same if you're tired of the grind tired of the stress being miserable and afraid and angry and anxious too many problems to solve and too much weight to carry and too much pain to bear there is a better way there is a better way jesus is the way he is the truth he is the life there is a better way there is a better way his name is jesus and in the 23rd psalm david said the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures listen what i've learned is this you can choose to lie down or he'll make you lie down and he made me lie down and he had a different plan for my break than i had because he has a better way and what i discovered is in scripture the bible never says be busy and know that i am god be rushed and know that i am god be heard and anxious and overwhelmed and know that i am god but the bible kind of says if you have a hernia surgery and can't do squat you can be still and know that i am god and so in my hurt in my pain in my disappointment in my loss god showed me the way i was doing the work of god was destroying the work of god and me and he showed me clearly and i'm going to show you what he's showing me there's a better way so my invitation to you it's an invitation from god is come to jesus come to jesus don't join the church don't give come to jesus and he'll give you rest you don't have to earn it you don't have to you never deserve it it's his gift take his yoke be joined with him do life with jesus guiding you and you'll find rest for your soul so what else what's your assignment [Music] come to jesus just join me in his presence come to jesus and find rest for your soul [Music] come to jesus come to jesus [Music] come to jesus christ [Music] come to jesus [Music] come to jesus come to jesus [Music] come to jesus come to jesus with whatever you need [Music] [Music] [Music] and he gives grace [Music] as you are with nothing else just come right now as you are nothing else just come just [Music] what a powerful message we just heard from pastor craig hey as we continue right now in an attitude of prayer there are those of you that when you came here today when you logged on when you started to watch this message you were searching for something maybe even in this moment you sense something happening inside of you you sense being drawn to the things of god and if you and i were to just sit down and have a conversation and i asked you where do you stand with god you might have some questions or some doubts you might not even know where you stand with god in fact some of you may think i don't know if god could actually love someone like me let me just tell you i understand exactly how you feel because the truth is is that all of us sin we all fall short of god's skin and our sin separates us from a holy god and yet here's the great news is that god loved you so much he loved me so much that he did something for us he sent his son jesus who lived a sinless life and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins but he did not stay dead after three days he rose again defeating death hell and the grave for you and for me and raising to life so that you and i could have a life in him and a relationship with god and so for many of you that's actually why you're here today you've been trying to fill your life with things with relationships with substances with materialistic things and nothing fills that void because the truth is is jesus is the only one that can fill that void so i'm going to invite you right now to take one step towards god to surrender your life to him i'm not talking about religion religion doesn't work i'm talking about a relationship with god and this is your moment with god so if that's you and you say i'm ready to surrender to him i'm ready to turn away from my sins and turn towards christ when you do the bible says that anyone this includes you anyone who calls on the name of jesus would be saved and so if that's you today i want you to repeat this prayer right now just repeat after me say heavenly father i give you my life i surrender my heart forgive me of my sins and make me new fill me with your spirit so i can follow you and serve you all the days of my life no more guilt no more shame my life belongs to you thank you for forgiveness thank you for your grace and thank you for new life now you have mine in jesus name i pray amen hey if you made that decision let us know we would love to walk with you as you take this journey on with jesus welcome to the family of god [Music]

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 104,940

Rating: 4.9371071 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, when you don’t like who you’re becoming, life’s problems, feeling frustrated, discouragement, feeling overwhelmed, how to stop feeling rushed, does christianity work, busyness, how to avoid burnout, people of the way, how to live like jesus, learning to rest, hearing god, hurry is the enemy, unanswered prayers, the way matters

Id: lqOGgefmK2k

Length: 36min 9sec (2169 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021