Pastor Jeff discussed the significant impact of honesty and authenticity on one's spiritual journey. He emphasized our need to be truthful in our interactions not only with ourselves but also with God and those around us. In his words, he urged us to replace disrepute with honesty and authenticity. He pointed us to the importance of not camouflaging our struggles, mistakes, or doubts, but rather exposing them to the light of truth. Pastor Jeff found it essential that we allow God's grace to pour into our lives; this openness invigorates us towards forgiveness and acceptance. He strongly advised seeking backing from a genuine and faith-filled community, a community that would walk hand in hand on the path to spiritual growth. Being open and truthful paves the way for healing, growth, and transformation. By making a choice in favor of truth and authenticity, he said, we unlock the doors to a freedom that exists only in truthfulness.
Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome our Westminster, Colorado Springs and online campus who are worshiping with us today. Great to be worshiping with all of you. And before I begin my message this morning, from time to time, we do what's called a family chat, just to bring you updated on a couple of things that are going on. Because there's a lot of things happening at Brave right now.
I want you to be aware of them. The first is this. We're in the middle of 21 days of prayer. As you know, today is day eight of our 21 days of prayer. Amen.
Every good thing that happens at Brave is a result of God's people that are seeking his face in prayer. And so I would love to invite you out Monday through Friday, 630 in the morning, Saturday at 08:00 I'm still trying to figure out the pastor that did it at 630 in the morning, but it's great. We're having great turnout. You can also watch online, be praying with us. Want you to do that.
Secondly, I want to tell you about Brave Academy. As you know, last year we started a school, started k through five. This year we've added middle school and high school. And on September 3, we launched year two, praise the Lord. So there's still time to sign up for that if you want.
I won't give you the final number, but we have significantly more students than last year, more teachers and administrators than last year. But I did want you to know this. A couple things. Number one, if you're looking to homeschool your kids, brave academy now can be the umbrella school for your homeschool. So if you're already homeschooling and want to do that, if you want to start homeschooling, we can help you do that.
And if you want to homeschool, but you say, I would homeschool if I didn't have to teach math, or I would homeschool if I didn't have to teach humanities, or I would homeschool if I didn't have to teach science. You can homeschool and still take classes at Brave Academy if you're in middle school or high school. And so we have a couple people in our lobby. If you're in Colorado springs or you're in Westminster and we're coming to you soon, we want to have schools in all these places. But if you say, well, we could homeschool for a while, until that happens, you can be part of our homeschool co op as well.
Also wanna tell you this, as we're inviting people in because of tuition, we've had to tell a couple people, even in light of scholarships and others, we can't have your student here. And as I was praying this week, I just said, it just doesn't feel right to me. And so here's what I'd love to do. I'd love to invite you to give to a scholarship fund that we have set up. You can use the QR code on the back of your seat.
There may be one on your screen. No, there's not. But there's a QR code. Or you can go to braveacademy.org dot if you just like to give a small amount, or if you wanna start a hundred million dollar endowment program. Either way, I see that hand back.
No, I'm just kidding. We would love to do that because we want to see as many students grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So if that tugs at your heart, just know that we would love you to step up to the plate. We'd love to be able to make some phone calls in the coming week and say, hey, you're actually going to get to go to brave Academy because of the generosity of our church. So if that moves on your heart, please find a way to give generously to that.
So our head of school, Jake, as well as Valerie, that runs our homeschool co op in the lobby immediately after the service here in Inglewood, you can ask them any questions. You can call the school during the week. We'd be happy to help you with any of that. Second or thirdly, I guess. I want to tell you we have a women's conference scheduled for Saturday, October 26, for all the women.
It's going to be a great time. Amen. I said we have a women's conference scheduled Saturday, October 10. All right? And I'm saying this not only for the women, but guys I know oftentimes we like to have our wives and kids home because Saturday's the day we get to be with our family.
Guys, make it possible for your wife to be there. Make it possible for your daughters to be there. Do whatever you can to watch your kids that day so they can go experience God's grace as a group of women at brave church. And so put that on your calendar. There's more to come.
My wife's super excited about the speaker that's coming and all that good stuff. There's early bird pricing right now. You can click on, on our website and begin to sign up. Finally, I'll just tell you this, just to be full candor with you in the next couple weeks. I am actually having a small operation done on Thursday.
I got hernia repair being done, possibly on both sides, and they tell me it's going to take a little while to recover. So next week, Pastor Justin Hart's going to be preaching here. So excited about that. It's possible I could have been back the next week, but I have my buddy Greg steer that's going to be here. He's a CCU graduate.
He's an evangelist. You want to have all your unsafe friends here that day? It's going to be a great time. And Lord willing, I'll be back the week after that. So just letting you know I'm telling you that so you can be praying for me.
And I think it's appropriate to say my wife would tell you if she was here. Apparently I'm not fun to be around when I'm in pain, so pray for her as well, and we'll trust the Lord for a great recovery. Amen. So those are some things that are going on. He's building his church.
He's doing a lot of great things. And we're so excited about all he's doing as we roll into our fall ministry calendar. Amen. I. So with that, let's continue our worship as we seek the face of the Lord, our father in heaven.
We give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you that we're a body of people that come to highlight you, to elevate you, to praise you, to lift you up. Because, Lord, you say that if you are high and lifted up, you will draw all men unto yourself. And so we're here to give you the glory, honor and praise that you and you alone so rightly deserve. And Lord, we thank you for your living and active word, because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking.
So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now, for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen? Amen. Yesterday, I got invited to the BMW golf championship in Castle Pinesen, and so went with a buddy of mine to that golf outing. And he lives in that neighborhood, told me how to get there and got on the golf course.
And it was amazing to me that so many people enjoy golf. And as I was watching, you know, I was at the different greens and then walking our way to hole number 18. And it's amazing to me to see some of these guys play because they can drive a ball over 400 yards. Some of them. I mean, the way they hit their second shot right on the green, the way they putt them in, I mean, it's incredible.
And what's even more incredible is when you stand next to people that watch golf, that like golf, they talk as if they're as good as the people playing. They tell you about their lessons, they tell you about certain holes that they've hit. They tell you about certain drives they've made and certain things they've done. And as I was watching yesterday, it dawned on me why I don't enjoy golf that much. And here's why most people don't know that.
Before my freshman year in high school, I debated all summer as to whether I was going to golf on the golf team or be a football player. I was actually a decent golfer, but I chose football because when I played golf, I realized I kind of tapped out. I mean, the greatest golf score I've ever really had is kind of in the mid eighties. And I knew I could never be phenomenal being a mid eighties golfer. And it's frustrating to participate in a sport where, you know, you can't be elite or you can't be one of the better ones.
And so even if you take lessons and even when you're playing and everybody's trying to coach your swing and tell you what to do, it's just not that fun. And so for me, the only people I ever play golf with are people that I like that don't keep score. And I'm telling you this story because I think when we're in this family's fortified series, a lot of us feel just like that. It's one thing to talk about how God created us and how we're all valuable to him. It's another thing to talk about how he created us as men and women and there's purpose in our gender.
It's another thing to talk about what marriage should look like. It's another thing to talk about how we parent. It's another thing to talk about what it looks like to be a godly single. And yet when we hear the standard, sometimes we feel like. I feel when I go watch golf is what's the use of trying?
I can never be that good at it. Anyway, I heard about the marriage thing, but in all honesty, if I was reflecting, my marriage on a scale of one to ten is never better than a five. And we've worked at it hard and it doesn't seem to get any better. And you know what? I'm single.
I'm almost 40 years old and I've done it God's way and I still don't have a spouse. So what's the use in trying anymore? Or we tried to raise our kids in the Lord and some of them have gone wayward in their prodigals. And so I hear what God wants and I think for some christians they can live that. But for me, it just doesn't feel like that's ever going to work out.
So why try? I'll just give my heart and attention somewhere else. And that's why this message today is for you. Because here's what I believe, that by God's grace, if he called you to himself in salvation, he through his spirit can do everything in your life that the word tells you that he can do, and he can redeem any part of your past that's not all that glorious. And so today I want to talk to you about God's plan for your progress.
How is it that you can go from where you're at to where God wants you to be so that you don't get discouraged and give up? And the answer to that question is making good choices today, making good choices now. Because even those of us that would say, yeah, I probably need to make changes. Here's when you want to make changes. Tomorrow I'll work on my marriage later.
Hey, after the party next weekend, then I'll start living morally, I mean, it's always down the road. And God says, no, today is the day that I want you to go after me. So if you're one of those that's been listening to this family's fortified series, and in your heart you say, I wish I had a family like that, wish I had a mom like that, dad like that, wish I had a marriage like that, wish I lived perfect like that, which I. But I don't know what to do now. God has a word for you to encourage you today.
Amen. To do that today I want to encourage you to open up your bibles to the book of Joshua. Joshua, we're going to be in chapter 24, verses 14 and 15. Joshua, chapter 24, verses 14 and 15, as we talk about making good choices. And where this is in Israel's history is they've now gone in, they've taken over the promised land, conquered all their enemies.
They've established the cities, and God's done a great work through all of Israel. After being delivered from Egypt, after spending 40 years in the wilderness, after going in, Joshua has now spent his life doing what the Lord asked him to do. And he's seen God's faithfulness to him. And as he's talking to the people, here's how he encourages them before he dies. He says this.
Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in the land in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And so as Joshua gives a call to the people of Israel, he's telling them, look at all that God's done.
Now, you've seen God move and you've seen God work and you've been around the move of God. Now I want to tell you how you can continue to see it. It's almost as if I'm paraphrasing here and saying, brave church. You've seen God move in our church, you've experienced God in the preaching, you've experienced God in worship and in prayer. Seeing God move in relationships in our church, you've watched all that.
Do you want to see it continue to go? You've heard God's standards for marriage and you've heard God's standards for singles. And you've seen his desire to make family central to all that he wants done. How are we going to continue to see God move in that way? And so he gives them this charge.
And I'm going to give you five choices from the text today that you can make today. If you make these choices on a daily basis, you will see God begin to move in your life in greater capacity than ever before. Five choices that you can choose well today. And the first is choose to remember God's faithfulness. Choose to remember God's faithfulness in chapters 23 and 24.
Right before we get up to our text, Joshua is giving his farewell address. And then he begins to review all of Israel's history and all that God has done. And I won't take the time to read the whole text, but in Joshua, chapter 24, verse 13, he really puts the handle on it for everything that God has done. And notice Joshua speaking God's word, speaking on behalf of God, speaking for God says this, I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities which you had not built and you lived in them. You are eating the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.
Here's what he's saying. Our God has been faithful. Every good thing you have is from God. Every gift you have is because of him. He's telling Israel, you're in a land that you didn't earn.
You're in a land you didn't deserve. You've got trees to eat off of that you didn't plant. You've got food to eat that you didn't do anything to get. And you have everything you have because God is so good. So here's what I want to tell you to do.
Remember God's faithfulness. Remember God's faithfulness. Will you give God thanks for everything he's done in your life? Because here's how it works relationally. Here's how it works in your life.
If you're single, it's like, yeah, but where's my spouse? If you're married, then you say, well, how come it's not? How come it's so hard for us and you only dwell on the one thing? Here's what God wants you to do. If you're going to see God move, choose to thank him for all the ways that he's been faithful to you from the time that you were conceived up until now.
And you will find there's not enough daylight to name all the things. If you're here today, praise God. You have health to come. If you're breathing air, thank God because you didn't create it. And you didn't create the system that you have with your lungs or your circulatory system to get the oxygen around.
God created all that and took care of all of it for you, so thank him for that. If you have any good relationships, that's God. If you have any resources, that's the Lord. If you have any talents or abilities, God's the one that gave them to you. So when you are making choices, choose today to be thankful for goddess and for all that he's done in your life.
Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. What's God's will for my life? Give him thanks. Praise him for all he is. Praise him for all he's done.
Praise him for his character. Praise him that his love and his mercy never fail. Will you trust God in your present situation or are you complaining about it? God wants you to trust him for that. And even if you're in a situation, that's a bad situation, and even if you're in that situation because of the choices you've made, and even if you're the one to blame for blowing it, I got good news for you.
Israel found themselves in that situation a lot. And when they were in captivity, after they had disobeyed God for decades and they got hauled off into captivity, as the book of lamentations is written, and Jeremiah is writing this, here's what he says in lamentations 321 23. When they're in a situation that they caused by their own disobedience, and God was being faithful by punishing them, here's how they prayed. This I recall to mind. Therefore I have hope.
The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I'm in a horrible situation right now. I don't like where I'm at.
I don't like why I got here. I don't like the circumstances that got me here. I didn't choose it, or I did choose it. It's no good. But this I'm recalling to mind.
And the reason I have hope for my future is because my God is so faithful and so loving and so kind and so good that no matter how bad it is right now, it's going to get better. Because my God is a covenant keeping God. Amen. That's good news this morning.
And it's not based upon your good works. I mean, two Timothy 213 says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Do you remember God's faithfulness? Have you taken the time on a regular basis to speak to him the things you're thankful for or to write for him? The things that you're thankful for?
Because sometimes, even in bad situations, good has come from those bad situations. And God is still doing good. And God is a good God. It's his character. It's all he knows.
It's what he does. His goodness is always chasing us down and overtaking us. Enemy that lies to us about the couple things in our situation that haven't been done the way we want. And that's all he gets us to focus on. While all around us there's so much good happening that we forget to thank God for.
And then we wonder, why is God not good? Because he hasn't done this one thing when all the time God's been doing massive things that we refuse in our heart to tell him because we're so focused on the one thing that we think he needs to do. Can you choose today to remind yourself of God's faithfulness? Can you choose today to be thankful? Not wait till tomorrow, not wait till church is out?
Can you just begin to thank him now? Can you just recognize in your heart there's some good things that God did? Every relationship you've had in your life has been sovereignly designed by the Lord. If there's anybody that's ever given you encouragement, that was from the Lord through another person. If there's anybody in your life that's ever done you any good, it was from the Lord through another person.
If you've ever received any resources, well, that was me. I'm really good at this. Who gave you the good to do with what you did? Who gave you the brain? Who gave you the skill?
Who gave you God? It all goes back to him. Every good and perfect gift comes from him. Thank him, thank him, thank him, rejoice. See his faithfulness in all these things.
And when you're overwhelmed with the goodness of God, it takes your eyes off that one little thing that just hasn't happened yet. Amen. So remember his faithfulness. That's choice number one. Choice number two is this, worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a choice that you can make. That's a choice that you can make. He tells them this in verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
What's he saying? You get a choice as to who you're going to serve, and you need to recognize where your allegiance goes is an act of worship. Every human being is worshiping. Well, I'm not really a worshiper. Everybody worships.
You were created to worship. You're either worshiping the true one living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, or you're worshiping someone or something else. Pagans worship all the time, at their conventions, at their concerts, at their sporting events, with their heroes. They're always worshiping hands up in the air, praise sing. What?
Well, that's not worship. I'm not. Yes, you are. You're giving your allegiance to someone or something. Worship, worship, make worship a priority.
Can I talk to the men here for a second? Men. One way you make a priority of worship in your house is that you lead your family to church every single Sunday. Do you know why? Because that communicates to your family.
Daddy thinks this is important. And no matter what goes on in our family, daddy's a church, so it must be a big deal. And every study shows that kids are 90% more likely to follow what their dad does when it comes to spiritual things than even their mothers dads. It's your job to lead your family to church. And if you don't, here's what you're communicating.
Worship's not that big of a deal. Sports is. Vacation is. Time off is. Recreation is.
You're communicating that to your kids. He said, oh, no, I'm not. I still love the Lord. You may love the Lord, but you're communicating the worship of other things to your children. So choose today who you will serve.
But as for me and my house, Joshua says, we will serve the Lord. Choose to worship the Lord. And by the way, Sunday is just the start of worship for the week. Like, worship is a lifestyle. It's a response to God.
So if there's people on the platform leading you and singing and you're hearing the word proclaimed, it doesn't mean when the service is over, worship is done. It means I get to wake up and live my life saying, when I roll out of bed, Lord, it's for your glory. Today, every thought, action and deed I have, it's all about you. How can you best use me to bring you the most glory? What's going to unfold in my life?
And how can I best be prepared to make sure that you get my allegiance? That when other people see me and experience me, they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. Make that choice. Make that choice. Because sometimes when our marriages are struggling, sometimes when we're singles and we're struggling, our worship goes right out the window.
And instead of worship, you know what we do? We complain, God, how come you don't fix this? And how come you haven't done this? And, Lord, I'm just mad at you right now and all these different things. But when you voice praise to the Lord, everything begins to change.
Because the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. Psalm 34 one three says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear it and rejoice.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Or how about psalm 95? Oh, come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. Why? For the Lord our God is a great God and a great king above all gods. And he goes on to describe it, like, when you come to church, if you're coming to church begrudgingly or you're coming to church, like, I don't know if I can make it on time, you're coming to church just kind of rolling in.
You're coming with the wrong heart. Your heart should be all week long, my God, still God, all week long. He created everything I see. He's sovereignly working everywhere just to get into his presence with other people that believe what I believe, to worship. His name is worth my time, and I will be here and I will seek him, and I will go after him.
That's what it means to worship. And there's other places in the world that would put the north american church to shame. There are places I preach in Asia where I show up for a 09:00 service to preach, and I get there at 08:00 and people have been there since 05:00, thousands of them on their face praying, hoping that the man of God that's bringing the word has something to say. Do you know how intimidating that is? These people actually expect it to be good.
They're praying that it's. They're not looking at their watch saying, I hope he's done. They're saying, I came from miles away and walked all the way to get here. You better tell me what God wants, because I want him. That's worship.
Amen. That's what God wants us to do. Choose to worship him. Choose to give him our allegiance. And by the way, in the families that do that, there's blessing.
We organize for everything in our life, usually, except our families. We organize dinners with friends. We organize meetings apart from our family. We organize how we're going to take vacations and get away. We organize everything.
What do you organize with your family? When do you organize your family meals and your family time and your family get togethers and your relationship with one another? Because a family that does. There's blessings. Psalm 128.
In the first four verses, it says, how blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. It's worship who walks in his ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you shall be happy and will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children like olive plants around the table.
Behold. For thus shall be the man for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. When you put the Lord first, there's blessing in your family. If you want to see the Lord move in your family, then put the Lord first in your life. You want to see the Lord move in your marriage, put the Lord first in your life.
You want to see the Lord moving your kids, put the Lord first in your life. Your kids should be so used to coming to church. Whether they like it or not, they know that's where we're going to be because that's on the calendar, and nothing gets in the way of that. Now, yeah, there can be exceptions. There's a vacation here or a thing there.
But they know if we're breathing and we're in town, we're at church. Because you set a precedent for them that it's that important. And if you come expectant, they'll come expectant. And if you start receiving from the Lord, they'll start receiving from the Lord. But if you just roll in like, yeah, I hope it's good today and can't really get there.
It wasn't a parking spot, so we went home and just kind of tired, you know, we had a busy night last night. And that's how you view worship. I promise you, in the next generation, it's going to be even worse. And in the next generation, it's going to be even worse. So if you want things to improve in your life with your family and with your kids, prioritize the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Make him central to all that you do. Choose him, and choose him first. Let me give you a third, a third choice that you can make if you're gonna worship and honor the Lord Jesus Christ is this, love and forgive one another. Love and forgive one another.
Now, he tells them here in verse 15, if it's disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord. In other words, if you don't want to serve the Lord, here's what he says. Whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living, he's like, now, I can't make you serve the Lord. I can't make you do this. He goes, and if you want to choose who your dad worshiped and you want to choose the other gods of our culture, I can't tell you what you need to do.
But as for me and my house, I'll model it for you. We'll serve the Lord, and you need to choose for yourself this day who you will serve. Because the beauty of the gospel is if you choose as a man or a woman or a married couple of, yeah, my family did it this way, but we're going this way. We're all in on Jesus, and we're doing it that way. You'll change generations to come.
You don't have to do it the way your mom and dad did if they didn't go after Jesus wholeheartedly. And you don't have to make excuses for yourself that, well, my parents would have known the Lord and done this. Then it doesn't matter what they did. You get to choose who you're going to follow, and you get to decide because your mom and dad can't make you worship Jesus. Even if they drag you here for 18 years, you still get the choice whether you're gonna listen and go out and do your own thing or serve the Lord, you get to choose.
You have your own volition, you have your own will. But Joshua was telling. I'm telling you, if you're gonna serve the Lord, there's ways he's gonna have you live. And one truth about the Lord Jesus Christ and what centers and culminates at the cross is love and forgiveness. And don't you love the love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ?
I mean, the gospel would tell you this, that you're dead in your sins. There's nothing you can do to get to God. But God loved you so much that the father sent his son to be the savior of the world. And no matter how bad you messed up, no matter how horrible your life is, no matter how much in rebellion you've lived against God through Christ's death on the cross, what he was saying is, I love you so much, then I'm willing to forgive, not just some of your sin. I'm not just going to cover over your sin.
I will cleanse you from all of your sin and make you a new creation. Because of my love and forgiveness, which is greater than all your sin. Do we love that or what? Amen.
And we'll come back to this. But don't you love it? As a single, who said I wanted to live morally and I wanted to do this? And if you would have asked me when I was eight years old, I would have told you, but I didn't live that way. Now I feel this guilt and this shame and all this stuff.
His grace is greater than all your sin. Or for those of you who are married, who had this dream and idea in your head, when we get married, we're gonna be this family, and we're gonna bless the Lord and we're gonna come together. But it's been really hard. His grace is greater than all your struggle and your sin. That's the beauty of it.
That's the love and forgiveness of God. But here's what it really means. Choose this day not just to receive the love and forgiveness of God, but choose this day to love other people and give them the same forgiveness that Jesus Christ has extended for you. And that's where we say, I don't want that. I want him to love me and forgive everything in me.
But those are people. I don't want to extend that love and forgiveness to them. But that's what Jesus tells us that we need to do. If you're going to be my disciple, that's how people are going to know. He gave this new teaching in John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35.
Here's what he said. He said this. He said, a new commandment I give you a new commandment that I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. So in other words, love other people in the same way I've loved you. By this, all men, that's everybody will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
So guess what? Here's what he says with those closest to you, married people, those closest to you, children to your parents, parents to your children, love one another. Love one another. Those outside your family love them, too. What about those that are mean to me?
Well, you get to pray for them and you get to love them. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Christianity is the only faith in the world that teaches genuine love. Well, other faiths love people. No, they don't.
Other faiths have limits to their love. Other people that aren't part of that community are called infidels. If you're not part of the christian community, here's what we say. We'll lay down our life so that you can know our God, because our God loved you enough to lay down his life for you. And even if you hate us, we'll pray for you and continue to love you because that's who we serve.
And you're welcome into our community through repentance and faith because we were once dead and we were once hostile to Jesus, too. And he saved us and he's willing to save you. And so we love you. To whom? To everybody.
What about people that don't deserve it? Exactly. That's why when the scribe, the attorney, comes to Jesus and says, well, where's the limits of this love? Who's my neighbor? Jesus tells them the story of the good Samaritan to tell him everywhere you go with everybody you see you love them and you demonstrate that you belong to me because that's exactly what I'm doing.
Which means you have ample opportunity every day to demonstrate love to people that are unworthy of love, because that's exactly what Christ did. Jesus did not pick you because you're good. Jesus did not pick you because you're better than other people. Jesus did not pick you because brave were better than other churches. Jesus only picked you because of his incredible love.
Even though you were so undeserving you didn't deserve anything. But he came and died for you, rose for you, and invited you into the family through no work of your own. But everything he's done for you, that's love.
And then we get to forgive too. We love the forgiveness of God. I love the fact that God does not hold my sin against me. I love that he separates it as far as the east is from the west. I love that he drops it into the deepest ocean, never brings it up anymore.
I mean, we'll say things like this. When God forgives, he forgets. And what we mean when he forgets, he's omniscient. He hasn't forgotten anything. But what we mean when we say that is he's not going to bring it up again.
I'm forgiving you. I'm releasing you. I'm letting it go. It's not coming up. I'm aware of what you've done, but I'm not holding it against you.
I'm not keeping it in the bank until you mess up again. And then I'm bringing all of this stuff out of forgiving you. The book of Ephesians, chapter 432 ends of that chapter, he says, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you, some of you. And the reason you haven't moved on in the grace of God and you're not feeling the freedom you need in God is because whether it's your mom or your dad or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or your wife or your husband or your child or your parent, you have unforgiveness. Oh, you love them, and you'll love them more when they change.
But I'm not forgiving that because how could I ever forgive that? Here's how. Let me tell you how. Because God in Christ forgave you. And the debt that he forgave in your life is greater than any debt another human being has against you.
I know that for a fact. You were dead and rebellious against the God of the universe. What has that person done? We like to say things like that. I could never forgive that.
You're right. You couldn't. Apart from Christ. But with the holy spirit inside of you, you must forgive them. You must.
And even we pray the Lord's prayers now. We pray, Lord, forgive me my debts and my sins in the same way you see me forgive other people's sins. That's the prayer. I'm asking God to forgive me with the same lavish forgiveness. In the same way he sees me lavishly forgive others.
And you know where a great place to start is? Your marriage. Your family. With your kids and with your mom and with your dad. Do you know why?
Because all of us are sinners. Take a look to the right and to the left of you this morning. Here's what I'll tell you. That person's blown it huge. Now look at me.
I've blown it huge. Every single one of us has. Sometimes when I've done marriage counseling in the past, the wife, well, he did this and she did this. Here's what I know is going on when I hear that there's no forgiveness. Yeah, he did.
Yeah, she did. Now what are you gonna do? Here's what you get to do. You get to forgive them. Pray for them and love them.
Yeah, but they might do it again. Exactly. And then you can love them and forgive them even more. Because that's what Christ does for you. He does not run out of love and forgiveness for you.
So you can't run out of love and forgiveness for others. And as you walk that way, guess what happens? You get around people that love you and forgive you enough, that'll change you. That'll change. You want to change your marriage?
Just love and forgive more. You said you wanted to be more like Jesus. You said you wanted more of Christ in your marriage than. You get to do that. You get to do it with your children and children.
You get to do it with your parents and wives. You get to do it towards your husbands and husbands. You get to do it towards your wife. And it's not to keep records like, okay, I forgive you. Here we go again.
Time number 432 this week. I forgive you. I mean, that's not what it means. It means I'm not bringing it up. I'm releasing you.
Because I don't want to stay mad at you. It doesn't mean I can't tell you what you did was wrong. Doesn't mean I can't say it would mean a lot to me if. But even if you don't change, I'm still going to love you. Because even if I don't change, Jesus Christ still loves me.
Amen. Now, we love it when we talk about what Jesus is willing to do for us, but we just don't like talking about how he wants to do it through us. But make a choice today to love and forgive one another. Because you know why? His love never fails.
His love never fails. You cannot go wrong by loving and forgiving too much. You can't go wrong by loving and forgiving too much. Let me give you a fourth one. A fourth choice you can make is obey the truth wholeheartedly.
Obey the truth wholeheartedly. It means will you go all in with Jesus? I mean, Joshua is asking this question. Fear the Lord, worship him and serve him. But notice what else he says.
He says, do it in sincerity and truth. It means, obey the truth wholeheartedly. Will you go all in with Jesus even when the truth is uncomfortable? That's the hard part. I mean, we all say it brave.
We love this book. I love this book. It's the inerrant, inspired word of God. Everything in here is authoritative and true until it's that area in my life that God's showing me that's so uncomfortable. It doesn't seem fair.
It doesn't seem right. Why should I have to do that? How come nobody else has? Will you obey his word that way? Right, because that's when you're going to see God's favor and blessing in your life.
Singles, let me just talk to you. You can't be praying for your spouse living immorally. You think you're escaping your parents and you think you're getting around it and all this, but all you're doing is digging yourself a rut and all you're doing is saying, God, I'm going to go do it this way and I'm going to rebel against you. But I'm expecting someday it's going to go good for me. It'll never go good for you.
There's no great return on investment for immorality, for lying, for deception, for cheating, for sleeping around. Like will you obey his word? Job 31, one says, I've made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully upon another woman. Which means this all pornography is wrong 100% of the time. So in case you were wondering, is it okay?
No, it's not okay. You look lustfully upon a woman, you commit adultery. In your heart, it's not okay. So will you obey that or will you say, well, I struggle with that. We have all sorts of groups that are sin management groups, just to get people together to cathartically tell all their sin when they have no desire to see any of it change.
It was just as quiet in first service, just so you know, because we play games with God and we expect God to move, and we're so tired that we didn't see him do it in our time and our way, that we skirt the corners and we cheat and we do these different things, and then we wonder, why is God not helping me? And it's not just singles, it's marrieds, too. I mean, friends, you look around, just because somebody has their arm around each other, they're holding hands, doesn't mean they have a ten out of ten in their marriage. And by the way, nobody always has a ten out of ten in their marriage. It takes work, because you got two sinners and two genders that see the world two different ways, living under the same roof.
And the only way it works is with the spirit of God glorifying God and dying to yourself to serve another. That takes effort, that takes work. Amen. But will you be obedient to what the Lord says in his word when it comes to marriage? In case you were wondering, Jesus has a higher view of marriage than any of us do in this room.
His view of marriage is one man and one woman till death. Do you permanence. That's his view of marriage. He doesn't know of anything other than that. So if you're married, stay married.
Yeah, but I don't feel okay. I hear you. He's really difficult. Stay married. Yeah, but you don't know my wife.
I know she's hard. I might not want to be married to her either. Stay married. Do you understand what I'm saying? Kim and I have been married about 20 years.
We would both tell you it's the 18 best years we've ever had in our life. First two years were killers.
Before I would get up to speak, there were times I'm calling her on the phone, trying to work stuff out before I even stand up. And I was wondering, how can I even be up talking? Because we don't get along at all. And all the fun we had when we dated kind of went out the window and it was not fun. And if there would have been anybody in our life that would have consulted us for divorce.
Both of us would have taken the option, not because we didn't love each other, but because we were both making each other miserable and didn't know why. And yet we have people in our life that would say, it doesn't matter how you feel. Like, what do you mean it doesn't matter how we feel? It's horrible. No, here's what matters, is that you do what God wants.
And by God's grace, he got both of us individually to start seeking him. And I started praying, okay, God, if I'm the problem, how do I become a good husband? And she was praying at the same time, God, how do I become the wife you want me to be? And by God's grace, it kind of melded that whole thing back together. And that's why Kim and I would say, if we can make it, anybody can make it.
If you're married, stay married. Yeah, but I got divorced and now I'm remarried. So then stay married now. But this is my third marriage. Okay, well, you're married.
Repent of the first ones and stay married. Right? That's what he would say. Can we do? I mean, we love God's standard until it impacts us in a negative way.
But here's what I would also say. Because I'm talking to a group of sinners. I'm one of them. None of us have perfectly kept God's standard. And here's what I would tell you.
What Jesus Christ did at the cross is so amazing. It's so great. It's so good. It's bigger than anything that, you know, there's no standard that's been broken. There's nothing you've done that God would say, well, I'll forgive that.
But you're stuck. His grace is greater than all our sin. Now, I'm not talking about cheap grace. I'm not saying, well, I got divorced and I'm just gonna get remarried and blah, blah, blah. And God's got, I'm not talking about cheap grace.
I'm talking about I'm divorced and I'll do whatever God wants, and I will submit to him, and I want what he has. And I need all his forgiveness, and I need a fresh start. And I want to do it his way. From this moment on, God will meet you right there and he will give you all the grace you need. Because I see nowhere in the Bible where you're being called by your former identity after you're walking in the grace of God, you are loved, you are cherished, you are holy, you are honored, you're forgiven.
It's who you are. So that's what God says. Will you obey my word? One of the ways that you know that you love God is if you keep his word and you keep his word, especially when it hurts. I remember when I started tithing, I didn't feel like it.
I remember when I was throwing immorality out of my life, I didn't feel like it. There's never come a time where I've walked out of sin into holiness, where I, quote, felt like it. If you're waiting for the feeling, you're never going to get there. You do it because you fear the Lord. And you know you're going to stand before him and give an accounting for every thought, word and deed you've ever done.
And so you tell the Lord, Lord, help me, because I can't get there by myself. Will you choose today to live obediently to his word? I mean, you prayed. We prayed that you would hear God's word and you would live obediently to it. Are you willing to do that or is that just lip service?
It's good until it affects your business, it's good until it affects your marriage. It's good until it affects your kids, it's good. Yeah, I don't like that part. No, you need to like all of it, because God's growing us in his grace. And here's what we know.
Like when you walk in identity with the Lord, he tells us in psalm 80 411, no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. It's the enemy that always tells you, if you live moral, you're never going to marry the right one. If you live moral, your wife's going to take advantage of you. If you do the right thing, your husband's never going to see, I mean, he's always lying. You do the right thing and here's what you have.
You have almighty God of the universe backing everything you do for him. Amen. Obey his truth wholeheartedly. Go all in with Jesus. I don't know anything of this cheap grace like just fire insurance.
Jesus, I don't know it. I don't see it anywhere in the Bible. I mean, when Jesus said, if you want to be my follower, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. In order to be a follower of Jesus, you die to you to serve him. You get married, you die to yourself to serve your spouse.
I mean, the christian life is all about death to me. And glory to Jesus until he takes me home. Now, if we get those first four choices, let me give you this fifth one, I think this could be the most important for our body of people. And here's what I want you to choose today. I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame.
I want you to choose honesty and authenticity over shame. Now, here's what the people answered. They answered like most church people answer when he said, choose for this day who you're going to serve. As for me, at my house, we'll serve the Lord. And all the people are like, okay, we'll do the same.
That's very motivating. The people answered and said, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord, our God, is who brought us up with our fathers. And they go through all of this history of everything that God's done. And Joshua said to the people, your witnesses against yourselves, verse 22, that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord and to serve him.
And they said, we're his witnesses. He goes on to tell them, he's like, you can't do this by yourself. Let me tell you, you can't reach the standard that God has by yourself. You need God inside of you to do it. You can't go work on being a good husband by yourself.
If you could do that, Christ died for nothing. You can't be a wife that submits to your husband in all things without the holy spirit in your life, it's impossible. You can't be a single and live a moral life. It's impossible. Apart from the spirit of God in you.
But with the spirit of God in you, all things are possible. But you know what they were saying? They're like, no, no, no, we're good. We're going to work at this. Pastor Jeff, Joshua, we're going to get this thing done.
We're going to do it. He's like your witnesses against yourself. And notice what he tells him in verse 23. It's a damning verse. He says to them, now, therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.
Here they are saying, no, we're for God. Oh, we're totally for the Lord. We're going to serve him wholeheartedly. We're going to do everything. Joshua is like your witnesses against yourself, totally.
We're witnesses to the Lord. Then put away all your gods that you have in your hands right now, the gods in your tents, the gods that you're serving the gods that you're thinking about while you're hearing this sermon. If you're really going to serve the Lord, forsake all the other gods and serve the Lord. That's the gospel. Jesus is not an additional God.
To all the other gods you serve. Jesus Christ is the only one worthy of your allegiance, to the exception of every other one. Kick them all to the curb and serve the Lord only. Amen. That's what he says.
But here's what happens in church. You remember when God created the world in six days and he rested on the 7th? He created male and female. They had the first wedding. They were both naked, and they felt no shame.
We preached on all this. What happens in Genesis, chapter three? Satan says, did God really say that? Doubted God's word. They doubted God's word.
They doubted God's authority. They doubted God's goodness. They ate off the forbidden fruit and sent it into the world. And dying, they began to die. The reason we die today is because of sin.
But that wasn't all that happened on that day. You remember what happened in Genesis two? At the end, they're both naked and there's no shame. Their differences, no problem. I mean, we like it.
This is great. God made it. It's good. Now. What do they do?
Once sin entered, they cover up all their differences. And not only do they cover themselves, what do they do next? They hide. And what sin causes people to do when they see God's standard and they're unwilling to keep it, what do you do? You cover yourself and then you hide.
You know what that's called? Shame. I'm embarrassed that, as a single, I haven't lived the way God wanted. And if I were truly exposed, I would feel such shame in my life. So I'm gonna cover it up.
I'm gonna speak Christianese. When I walk into the church, I'm gonna act Christiane, but I'm gonna hide from everywhere. Here's how you know you're hiding. When people ask you to serve in the church. You're like, no, I'm busy right now.
I'm doing this because you know that if you ever served alongside people that ask you genuine questions, you couldn't be authentic. You don't join a cadre for fear people will actually ask you genuine questions. And you're the one in the group that when people say, what's really going on, you make up stuff like, well, just pray for me that I read my bible more this week, because I can't tell you about the fact that what's really going on in my heart is my marriage is imploding. It's because I don't know what to do. And I jacked it up three years ago and I still can't recover from it, but I can't tell anybody about that because they look down on me.
Shame. There are a bunch of you here that aren't serving the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. There's a bunch of you here that feel like I could never serve the Lord because you're cloaked in shame. I could never be a pastor. I'm telling you, 30 years ago, I'm the university of Illinois and I'm starting to feel tugged by the lord.
I'm like, not me. Not me. I could never do shame. I can never tell people where I've been. I can never tell people where I will.
Shame. Shame. And when you're cloaked in shame and you're hiding the voice of the enemy is really, really, really loud, and he tells you it's not going to work for you, it's not going to work for you. You're only going to be average. You're only going to be this.
You can never be authentic. You can never be real. And he can lie like that, but not a brave be authentic. You can be authentic here because anytime there's genuine contrition, not just like, oh, I feel bad, I shouldn't have done that. No, I'm broken because I don't know what to do.
And God, I need your help. And God, I need you to show up in my marriage because I don't know how to do it. And I need you to show up in my singleness because I don't know how to date morally. And I need you to do this because I never had anybody model this for me. And I'm so broken that I didn't do it right.
God's grace is greater than all your sin. He will wash you, cleanse you, make you new and give you the power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to work in and through you. The only group of people we have here at brave are dead, broken sinners who've been made alive by Christ. Why are you hiding? It's true of me.
It's true of you.
And so what I've been praying about all week as we end this family series is that you get over your shame. The only way to get over your shame is with honesty. It's only honesty. I mean, you remember the woman that was caught in adultery that was dragged in front of those that were going to stone her. Remember the woman that was caught in the bleeding condition?
That's like if I just touch the hem of his garment, I can't let anybody know because I'm living in such shame. I'm just going to crawl around the ground and try to grab him and then I'll sneak away. Remember that? Remember King David? Yeah.
I'll just hide the fact that I had Uriah killed. I'll hide the fact that I slept with Bathsheba and got her pregnant. I'll just cover it all up because it's so shameful. Remember that? And what happened when Jesus met that woman?
He said, woman, where are your accusers? They're not perfect in keeping the law. Whoever's perfect in keeping the law, you go ahead and cast the first stone. Drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. Woman caught in the bleeding condition.
He's on his way to heal Jairus daughter and he stops because he felt power go out and he says, my daughter, you're healed. Then what does David say? David doesn't hide it for very long because when Nathan exposes his sin, he doesn't back up, he doesn't double down. He doesn't say, I didn't have sexual relations with that woman. You know what he says?
He says, against you and only you, God, have I sinned and done what's evil in your sight? All day long, it was like a weight on me. It was so heavy. It was like I couldn't even do anything. But when I called out to you and told you I had done wrong, I felt the refreshment come through my life.
That's why we meet, that's why we glorify God. That's what the gospel is about, so that you can be set free. And anyone who the son sets free is free indeed. And if you're living in shame and hiding your embarrassment and say, I could never let anybody know that you're not living the freedom that Jesus Christ has, and that's when the enemy lies to you and says, well, no wonder you don't like Christianity. It's really boring, isn't it?
It's no good. It's because of shame. And I just feel like the Lord wants to remove a cloak of shame off a brave church. Today. We're going to always herald the standard of goddess.
We're not going to back down, we're not going to make excuses for his standard, but we're also going to herald the gospel of Jesus Christ that wherever you come short, if you're genuinely contrite. God will meet you where you're at and he will make up the difference and set you on a new plane because that's what our God does. If your marriage is at the brink of divorce, I have good news for you. God's grace is greater than that. If you've been divorced and you're like, I'm so lonely, and if I had to do it all over again, no way.
And by the way, I've never met one person and thousands of people that have gotten divorced for myriads of reasons and all, I've never met anybody that said I had a very amicable one and it's great and we get along even better and my kids are awesome and it's been a lot of fun. I've never met one person say that, but here's what I would say. You've been through that God's greatest is greater than that. You're a single and you want a spouse, but you haven't lived. Morally, God's grace is greater than all your past.
And for the women that are out there say, well, I already slept with him and now I'm going to keep being good to him because I want to at least marry him because that's better than the nothing that I would have if I didn't keep. His grace is bigger than that. You don't have to be stuck in your shame and your embarrassment and hide it and cover it and pretend that everything's good. You come to the cross, you receive his blood, you openly confess your sin before him and you get free. Choose that today.
Choose that every day. The world has enough Pharisees. The world has enough people that are walking around naming Jesus with their lips when their hearts are far from him. And not enough people that can honestly say, I know the truth. And the truth has set me free.
Which is why today on all three of our campuses, I want to end by taking communion. Because what you hold in this cup that you picked up when you walked in, they're just representative elements of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wafer and juice. There's nothing magical about the elements. It's what they represent that is so powerful.
And I want to tell you who this supper is for. I'm not talking about your background, your denomination, whether you're Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, non denominational, I don't care. God doesn't care. This supper is for those who have repented of their sin and trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, this supper is for those that are hanging on saying, jesus, I need your grace in a new and fresh way today I need to remember the promise of forgiveness that you've given to me, that in spite of all my sin, you still love me. See, sometimes we come to this cup and we think, well, this is me before I got saved.
But since I've been saved, I should have been living perfect. There's not one person who's ever trusted Christ that from the moment they trusted Christ didn't need his forgiveness. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And that's when the enemy gets even louder. You shouldn't known better.
You should have been better. You were raised in the church. You shouldn't have done that. And that's where shame gets bigger and bigger. So it's okay to say, God, you're right, I sinned.
God, you're right, I'm wrong. God, you're right, you're. Holy. God, you're right, I'm not. But today, Lord, I need a fresh touch of your grace.
I don't need you to just be covered. I need to be cleansed from the inside out. And I need you to be reminded today I have a new identity, that I'm a new creation, that old things have been washed away and behold, everything's been made new. And I'm tired. I'm just tired of living in shame.
So we're gonna take these elements and then we're gonna sing a last song together and then all our campuses, I'm just telling you, I don't, I'm just encouraging you. I know in a church our size, it's like, I'm not going forward. I'm not doing that. What's the big deal? There's something about if the Lord's speaking to you and tugging at your heart today and saying, I know he was speaking to me and I know I'm getting free and I know he's doing it, hey, just come forward and pray and tell the Lord, or come forward and confess it to somebody else.
Because there's something about when you confess your sin to another believer, it breaks all the power. When you confess to Jesus, it breaks all the power. I want you to think today, before we take this supper, just about areas in your life that the Lord's forgiven you already, maybe specifically when it comes to your family. If you had a. A do over in a certain area, if I could just do this over, if I could have just loved better in this situation or forgiven better, in this situation or I've been harboring bitterness or resentment or guilt, Lord, I know it's me or Lord, I knew your standard and I broke it.
And Lord, thank you again today for dying on the cross. You knew that when you died for me 2000 years ago. Because in the night that Jesus was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. He gave it to his disciples. He said, take and eat.
This is my body which is given for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. When you think about your sin, that's so great, think about the fact that Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross and let people drive nails into his hands, into his feet so that his dead body could give your dead body life. If you've trusted in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sin, let's eat this bread and be thankful.
After supper Jesus took a cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Covenant is promise. This is a promise. I'll forgive it all.
This is a promise. I won't just cover you, I'll wash you clean. This is a promise. No matter how far you've drifted, I'll bring you back. This is a promise that you belong to me no matter what.
It's nothing you did. It's everything I did for you. You have a relationship with me because of me, not because of you. And if you need to be reminded today of the promise of Jesus loving kindness that never fails, that will never give up on you, that's always there, no matter what you've done. And you want in your contrition and repentance to be reminded of the grace of God that comes through that.
Would you drink this today and be thankful?
I invite you to stand, Father in heaven as we sing this last song to your glory. And we thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ. Lord, would you do a work on all three of our campuses, Lord, as we have elders and pastors and prayer warriors coming forward. I know it can be clunky to step outside of a row and walk down, but Lord, I just pray for those that you're tugging at their hearts. I don't care if they're in the last row of the balcony or somewhere else.
Lord, if you're doing a work, if you hear the Lord's voice today, don't harden your heart. Come get right with the Lord. Receive his grace in a new fresh way. Walk out of here redeemed. Maybe you and your spouse need to walk down together and hold hands and stand before the Lord and just say, we heard you, Lord.
And from this moment on, we're new and we're refreshed, and we need your power. Maybe as a single, you need to say, lord, that's been me. I've been not living for you. But from this moment on, Lord, I want you. Maybe you have been living for the Lord, and you're like, Lord, I just have been mad at you for not doing what I want.
But I just confess, I'm making a choice today to follow you all the days of my life. Cement home the decision he's making in your heart. Follow him, and let's sing to the Lord with all our heart. God, we give you praise, glory, and honor in Jesus name. Amen.
And amen. Can we praise the Lord today?