Believers Center of Albuquerque
Believers Center of Albuquerque
Spiritual Stability: Make Better Decisions | David Eiffert
It's far too common for people to come to the Christian faith with excitement and energy only to fizzle out and fall away. It's not due to a lack of passion, emotions, or intensity, it's from a lack of spiritual stability.
Being spiritually stable requires that you make better decisions.
The enemy tries to influence us toward destructive decisions by using:
- The Lust of the Flesh (Deceptive Desires)
- The Lust of the Eyes (Perverted Perception)
- The Pride of Life (Misplaced Identity)
The call is to reject those influences and build your life on Christ. This is building your house on the rock and not the sand. This is what determines whether we stand or fall when storms come.
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Well, hey, I am starting a new series this morning that I am calling spiritual stability. When you say that phrase with me spiritual stability and I realize at first of course that doesn't sound particularly interesting or exciting, but let me tell you why I think it's important. So, for me personally, I have been following God my entire adult life. I'm going to turn 42 here in November, and so it's been a while. I have been studying scripture seriously for the last 25 years. I have been serving in the church, be it maybe as a volunteer or as a paid pastor for the last 27 years, and so it should probably surprise no one that the amount of people that I have seen come and go from the church and from the faith is absolutely unbelievable. Right, and I don't simply mean just leaving one church to go to another church. I mean I mean people who come into the Christian faith with passion and vigor and excitement, only to fall away at a later season of life. And I have a statistic for you that I have absolutely no pleasure. I take no pleasure in sharing it with you, but I think it's important for you to realize. The statistic is this Listen to this 64 percent of churched high schoolers drop out of the church permanently by the time they graduate from college. 64 percent of churched high schoolers drop out of the church permanently by the time they graduate from college. And that's not a young person phenomenon, right, that is a phenomenon that we see across people of all ages, all demographics, all backgrounds. Right, I see people coming to the faith with passion and with zeal and with excitement, and I'll never be the same again. And God has changed my life forever only to fizzle out and fall away. Right, and it's from let me say it like this, it's from church leaders all the way down. Have you noticed that, like, if you're anything like me, you have grown tired of seeing pastor after pastor after pastor after pastor after pastor fall and fail and leave the church? Right, it feels like every day, every week, I'm hearing more stories about more pastors failing morally and falling away and leaving the ministry and, specifically, leaving their faith. Right, it's, I feel like it's. It's like there's a sniper on the roof and he's taking out these pastors one by one, by one by one.
Speaker 1:This morning, during worship, I was up here and I made a point of turning around and I looked at some of you as you were worshiping and it's so cool, it's a beautiful thing for a pastor to look at a church and see like here's a room full of people who are passionately serving God and and they're and they're full of passion and zeal and zest and life and authenticity, and it's like one of the greatest things that a pastor can see in their life, right Is is people serving God and worshiping God with their whole heart, and one of the things that's most heart wrenching about being a pastor is, at the same time, understanding that a room like this statistically I'm not saying it's true for you, I'm just saying statistically that in a room like this, at least some of the faith that we see on display in a room like this is a temporary, temporary phenomenon. Right, it's not going to be something that lasts forever, and that's an awful thing to acknowledge, but it's clearly true. So the question then, is this are you ready? Why, right? Why do some Christians finish the race and others fizzle out and fall away? Why? Well, I would like to argue that it's not from a lack of passion, it's not from a lack of intensity, it's not from a lack of emotional engagement.
Speaker 1:I believe it's from a lack of what I'm going to call spiritual stability. Will you say that phrase with me again Spiritual stability? And what is stability? I think pastors sometimes they do definitions and the definitions are kind of dorky, but in this particular case I thought the definition was pretty good. Here's the definition of stability. It's this stability is the ability to recover initial structure or functioning after external disturbances. Stability, I'm gonna say it again the ability to recover initial structure or functioning after external disturbances. So stability is the ability to recover. Look at me you can't tell if something's stable until it gets knocked around a little.
Speaker 1:If anyone, everyone in the room who wears the clothing size that I wear and above, has experienced sitting in a chair, let's say it's a lawn chair and you sit in the chair and as soon as you sit in the chair you get the feeling I better stand up immediately or I'm gonna be laid out on the ground Because this chair is, even though it's pretty, it's not stable and this chair is not prepared to handle all the majesty. That is me. And so it's not about which chair is the prettiest, it's about what chair is stable. I know we've all experienced young love. We see people, oh, and they're dating and they're in the youth group and they're so cute, love these young people, and they're dating and it's like, oh, you see them and their eyes are lighting up when they see each other. Look at that, look at that young love. Well, those of us who have been on the planet for more than a couple decades understand that, like, the long-term success of that relationship has nothing to do with whether or not their eyes light up, am I right? Right, what has to do, what determines the success of that relationship, is not whether or not their eyes light up, it's whether or not they're stable people and it's whether or not the relationship itself is stable, right, and so it's not about passion, it's not about zeal. All that stuff is great, all that stuff is beautiful. But if you want to talk about what lasts and what doesn't last, it's not about intensity, it's about stability. Right, and your faith is the same way. In fact, jesus talks about this.
Speaker 1:Jesus in Matthew 7, we just read it. But he uses this metaphor of two houses, and these two houses represent two different people, two different lives, and both houses, they look nice, right? Both houses, they both have nice stucco. Both houses, they have nice windows. Both houses, they have a pretty roof. But then a storm comes and beats up against the houses. And one house it doesn't like the storm, it doesn't appreciate the storm, it's not glad the storm came, but it withstands the storm. And then there's another house that, when the storm comes, it's destroyed. And listen, this isn't important. Both houses look the same as long as there's not a storm and, in the same way, both lives look the same so long as there's not a storm. But the reality is this one person, spiritually stable, endures the storm. Another person is spiritually unstable and when the storm comes, their faith gets washed away. And so what is the key, then, to spiritual stability? What's the key to being stable? Well, I'm so glad you asked, randy, because that's precisely what this series I don't know how long it's gonna go, maybe a few weeks but this series is designed to answer the question what does spiritual stability really look like?
Speaker 1:And I would say this if you're here and you're like man, jesus is so incredible and I love my faith and God, I'll serve you forever and you've been doing that for like up to this point in your life and you're interested in that faith piece of your life. Hopefully it's a foundational piece to your life, if you're interested in that foundational piece of your faith lasting for a lifetime, then you're gonna have to pay attention to some very specific things. And I'll say it like this this is what I'm gonna talk about for the next one week, probably two weeks. It's this If you want to be spiritually stable, you have got to make better decisions. That's right. In fact, that's my title this morning. It's just that make better decisions. You turn to your neighbor and say that, make better decisions, make better decisions. And now turn back and say, like I'm working on it, chill, chill, geez, listen to me.
Speaker 1:Every act of faith is a decision. If it's not a decision, it's not an act of faith. It was a decision for Peter to get out of the boat and step onto the water. It was a decision for Joshua to walk around the walls of Jericho. It was a decision for David to step out onto the battlefield and fight Goliath. It was a decision for Esther to risk her life and save her people. You know James, the first pastor.
Speaker 1:He says it like this faith without works is what Dead Faith without works is that if your faith never translates into your decisions, it's not real. It might feel good, it might be like something that you really enjoy on a Sunday morning. But if your faith never translates into how you make decisions from Monday through Saturday, it's not real, it's just a feeling Right. And so if you're heading down a path in any area of your life that you don't like, here's the good news you decided to get in and you can decide to get out. If you can own your part in breaking it, you can own your part in fixing it. And I'm not saying you control everything. You obviously do not control everything, but you are always in control of your decisions, always. And so advancement in life and advancement in God's kingdom happens through consistently making good decisions. And what I hope to show you just in a few minutes, for a few minutes this morning, is this Since the beginning of time, the enemy has attempted to stop us from making good decisions. In fact, the first thing that he comes to attack is your decision making. The first thing he comes to bring is temptation and influence to try to get you to make the wrong choice.
Speaker 1:In Genesis, chapter three, we know that. Adam and Eve if you don't know the story Adam and Eve, these are the prototype people in the garden. They're in the garden and God does something very, very interesting that you actually see him do other times in the Bible is this he gives them the ability to choose and he tells them what to choose. He gives them the ability to make a decision, but he also says what decision they should make. And in the garden, you've got to admit it, it seems pretty easy. And you think I don't know if anyone read the story of the garden and you're like it doesn't seem that hard. Here's the command do whatever you want, eat whatever you want, except just back off from that one tree, just don't bother that one tree. That's the whole thing. And so I think for the last I don't know 2,000 years at least, people have been reading that story and like, guys, that's easy, just act like you never saw that one tree. There's so many trees Apples are not that good anyways. Right, like, just don't bother that one tree. And it would have been easy.
Speaker 1:Except there's just one problem there was a snake. Specifically, there was a snake, and this snake was an enemy in the form of a snake. Let's read it Genesis, chapter three, verse one, says this Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made so crafty, right? So oftentimes, in satanic imagery, when we are portraying the devil, we portray the devil as strong, but the devil's not strong. Between you and me, the devil's never been strong, but he's double not strong now, because he's been totally defeated. So the devil's not strong. But the devil is crafty, he's sneaky, and so even the way that he first appears in scripture in the form of a snake suggests that he's crafty. Because what's more normal than a snake in a garden?
Speaker 1:Imagine you got a guy in a red suit with a pitchfork you know what I mean and horns Like wearing black makeup. You're gonna notice that it's not gonna blend in in a garden, right? So how does he come though? He comes in the form of a snake, right? So if you're in a garden, are you gonna be surprised if you see a snake? I wouldn't. I wouldn't be happy about it. I would definitely scream and jump, but I would be surprised to see a snake in a library, but I'm not gonna be surprised to see a snake in a garden.
Speaker 1:He comes across in the form of ideas that seem perfectly reasonable, right? And so let me I'm hoping you're tracking with me here, right that God wants to influence your decisions in a way that will result in your advancement and your development, right. But the enemy also wants to influence your decisions in a way that will result in your destruction, because the devil can't destroy you. Did you know that Young people? Did you know that? Did you know? The devil can't destroy you? He can't. All he can do is he can influence you to make decisions that will cause you to destroy yourself, but he can't make you do it, right? The devil can't destroy your relationship, right. All he can do is he can influence you to make decisions that will cause you to destroy your relationship yourself, right. So he comes and he suggests he doesn't subvert their will, he doesn't take them over like a mannequin, right? What he does is this he influences them by suggesting an idea and he has an agenda. The snake here the snake. What he wants to do is he wants to influence their decisions.
Speaker 1:Look at verse five. What's happened up to this point is this is that they're not eating from the tree. And the snake's like did God really say that? I'm not sure he really said that. And you said oh yeah, he said that, that we shouldn't do that. And the snake says it's no big deal. If you just want to eat a little bit from the tree, it's like not that big of a deal. And then look at this verse five this is the snake, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil, right? So look at the picture that the devil paints. God's oppressing you, god's limiting you, god's boxing you in, right, and it's a lie that the devil still tells. The devil still tells this lie. Putting God first is just gonna limit you. But those of us who have 2020, hindsight and we can see, that's Kierkegaard. He says this that life can only be lived forward, but can only be understood backwards. So it's like we have the hindsight of looking at the garden and we're like, oh, you guys are so gullible, so easy At the time, but we have hindsight and so we understand.
Speaker 1:Looking at the story is what looked like restriction was really God's protection. Did you hear that, right, that what looked like restriction was really God's protection? God didn't tell them not to touch the tree because it would hurt him. God told them not to eat from the tree because it would hurt them. Verse six says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Speaker 1:So this is, would you agree, a bad decision, right? In fact, this is the first bad decision recorded in human history, right, the first bad choice, you know, and we have all made a bajillion squillion trillion of them since then, but this is the very first one. And so what happened as a result from the bad decision? Well, they get booted from the garden. And so, adam and Eve, they don't die, right, but they still exist, but they're not in that blessed, abundant place. And hear me, it's not the devil's fault and it wasn't God's fault. It was their fault. Why? Because they made a decision and their decision was influenced by the enemy. And we see, what I'm wanting to get at this morning is we see three things that the enemy uses to influence their decisions.
Speaker 1:And it's interesting because these three things that we see in the serpent's tactic right and what he influences them into in the garden temptation, are three things that John lists in 1 John, chapter 2, and so I just want to read it to you, just to kind of help you know where we get the language from. This is 1 John, chapter 2, beginning in verse 15. John says this Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them, for everything in the world. And then he lists three things that we're going to go over. One, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what did we just read? Well, john, here is. He's listing three things that he's calling the world's desires. Can you say that phrase with me? The world's desires. And what's amazing is these three desires line up perfectly with the garden temptation I'm going to show you, but let's just look at them real quick again. What are they? Number one is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and I would say this that these are the three enemies of good decisions, and every bad decision that you will ever make is, at its root, one or more of these three things. So we're going to go over them.
Speaker 1:Number one if you're taking notes, I would love for you to write this down the lust of the flesh. Let's read it Genesis, chapter three, verse six. We're going to go back to this verse a few times. He says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food. Hear that Good for food, good for food, and lots of it's the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1:And a lot of people when they hear lust, they think like sexual desire. When you go to youth group and they're like oh well, people are lust and out there, and they're people and lust. What they're talking about is sexual desire. The word lust, it just means. It just means a desire, it means a longing, a craving, and so what's the lust of the flesh? Well, this is what I'd love for you to write down the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1:Is this deceptive desires? Deceptive desires, jeremiah says in chapter, chapter 17, verse nine, he says this the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. So when people say like they'll tell me oh, you know, god knows my heart. I say right, god knows your heart. You don't. You know some of your heart, you don't know all of your heart, because your heart is not perfect right, because your emotions aren't perfect Right, and so you might think that you understand your motivations behind everything. But you don't Right. Just because my feelings are real doesn't mean they're right. Right. And so you can have desires. I'm sure you know this. You can have desires that are deceptive. You can desire a relationship that you have no business being in. You can desire a destiny that's not for you, right. You can see something in someone else and you want it, but it's not for you, and it becomes a desire, deceptive desires. And in the moment you can, you just say like man, this just feels so right, right. But then, looking back, you're thinking like man, what was I thinking Right? What was I thinking saying yes to that Young people? What was I thinking saying yes to them? Right. But in the moment it feels so right why? Because your desires are not perfect, right. Deceptive desires.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you, for me personally, deceptive desires are one of the greatest enemies of those of us in ministry. I'm just use this as an example, because it is so easy to replace a love of people with a love of popularity. Do you hear that? Real easy? And the moment a church leader becomes unable to make an unpopular decision, it's over for them. Right, they're gone.
Speaker 1:And I see so many young preachers not trying to get better, but trying to get bigger. Is that too spicy, pastor Harvey? Is that too spicy to say better before bigger, better before bigger, right, disordered desires Just because you want something doesn't mean it's right, and just because you want something doesn't mean that's what God has for you. I can tell you how many awful decisions I see coming from desiring the wrong thing. And so, if you want to be stable, something that you're going to have to combat your entire life is managing and understanding what motivates you to do what you do right and put them in order with what God has for you. And that's why you have to be really good at asking the why question, right, why, but not just why, like, maybe this, why, comma, really Question mark right. And so maybe it's like you come to me and say, like Pastor David, I feel like I'm supposed to leave my job. Okay, um, why, but not just like why, but like why, really why, right? And and sometimes, if you're self-aware, maybe you can say like well, maybe it's not actually God, maybe maybe it's just frustration with where I currently am and I like to say it's God when I want to sound spiritual, right, right, but disordered desires, right. And you see this. You don't just see this with Eve, because you do see it with Eve, but you also see it with Adam.
Speaker 1:Did you know that scripture teaches that Eve was Deceived and Adam wasn't? Did you know that? Some of y'all like you making that big? That's Dave, you're making that up. You're making a man, a man joke. Some of you don't believe me. That's why I'll show you. Look at this. First, timothy, chapter 2. You still think I'm telling a joke. I'm not. First, timothy, chapter 2, verse 14. It says this and Adam was not the one deceived, it was the woman who was deceived, right, and so if Adam? But we know that they both ate the fruit Right, and so we know why Eve ate the fruit. Right, but why did Adam eat the fruit? Are you ready to please Eve? Right, he desired to please Eve.
Speaker 1:Disordered desires, but in how many times have we made decisions that we knew weren't the best because we were trying to please someone we loved or liked. That's why this wife, you know I'll talk to servant oriented leaders that's the phrase I'll use people who lead through serving, which is a great way To lead. But something that I have to tell them, and it's hard for them to get, is there's a difference between pleasing people and serving them. Right, because sometimes in serving people you can't please them. Right, but you were called to serve, not necessarily please. And now, now, hopefully, people are pleased with your service. Right, but you? But the desire to be liked by other people. If you don't, if you don't Take that into consideration, right, young people, if you don't take that into consideration, your desire to be liked and and you don't put that in a bucket over here, which is like, that's always gonna be there and that's not gonna be how I decide stuff. Right, like, like, if you, if you don't do that, then the enemy is gonna come, just like he came in the garden, and pull you out through deceptive desires by influencing you to want something that's not for you.
Speaker 1:Number one the lust of the flesh. Number two is this the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. Again, verse six says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, right and pleasing to the eye. Okay, okay here. Good for food pleasing to the eye, good for food pleasing to the eye, right. So the?
Speaker 1:So the lust of the flesh is disordered desires and the lust of the eyes is you can write this down perverted perception. Perverted perception. You'll never decide right if you see wrong. You'll never decide right if you see wrong. Some people, some, some people develop an appetite For things that are for them because of what they see in other people. Right there, there are times when people make decisions about their marriage based on what they see work in somebody else's marriage, and that can be right, but it can also be wrong. There are people who make decision based on, about their business, based on what they see in other people's business. There's other people who make decisions about their life based on what they see in other people's lives. It's the comparison trap, you know. Mark Twain famously said comparison is the death of joy. I say this comparison is a calling killer. It's the lust of the eyes, perverted Perception, and it all has to do with what you choose to focus on.
Speaker 1:Think about Eve, right? So she's in this garden, literally perfection, right? Imagine that perfection. Right, they're not in pain. Right, they're not in sorrow, they're not in grief, they're not in despair, right, they're living in perfect peace and perfect union with God. The garden represents Unbroken communion and relationship with God, and so that's where they're at, they're at this point, where they have perfect communion with God and they've got all of these Beautiful trees to eat from. They can eat from any of the trees in the garden, but when the lust of the eyes came, all Eve could think about was the one Right?
Speaker 1:And how many times have we done this, where we've become dissatisfied with all that you do have Because of the one thing you don't have? And Then all you can think about oh, my daughter. She's got so many Barbies. We've got additions on the house to just Store the Barbies, and when I look at them, I'm like each of these Barbies represents $20. I want to die Like that's my retirement, right here in Barbies. I'm like that's my retirement right here in Barbies, and they all have frosting on them. It's incredible, but she'll see one Barbie in like a video that she doesn't have. She can't breathe or eat or sleep Until she has this one Barbie, and it's like you have every Barbie at Target. It's like you, you want to see all the Barbies that my daughter has. Just go to Target, it's all of them. She's got all the Barbies, but she'll see one and so make. And then you, you become dissatisfied with all that you do have because of the one thing you don't have.
Speaker 1:I, during COVID, you know, I was like other people, probably, and I got bored. You know, during the lockdown is very boring unless you're a first responder. It was super boring and I've always looked at like Seth Cawthon and Ian Cawthon, and I've always been jealous about like, how cool their hair is, like they could, they could, grow out their hair and it looks like so cool and it's like Flowey and it's like, oh, that's so awesome. And, and so people always told me it's like, well, you just got to get past the awkward Phase right now. You just got to get past the awkward phase and then you can do it. And so I was thinking like, alright, cool. So here we are, covid, this is the perfect time to get through the awkward phase. And so I'm like I'm growing out my hair.
Speaker 1:During COVID, I've actually got a picture of you.
Speaker 1:This is my COVID pick.
Speaker 1:So you see what happened, didn't you? Yeah, yeah. So I wasn't blessed with the spirit of Matthew McConaughey, I was blessed with the spirit of Bob Ross, and so right and so, instead of being grateful for the hair that I did have Right, I became jealous of the one kind of hair that I did not have Right, and that's that's like, that's dumb, but that is life, man, like that is life. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying your life is perfect and I'm not making light of your situation, but I am here to remind you. You are blessed, you are. You are turned to your neighbor. Turned to your neighbor, give him a high five and say I'm blessed, I'm blessed right.
Speaker 1:And I'm not gonna let the devil pervert my perception and make me focus on the one tree I don't have and miss all of the trees that I do have. That's the lust of the eyes. And so, if you're at all interested in going the distance in the Christian faith, you're going to have to control what you choose to focus on, because, men, the devil can take you out quick by getting you to focus on things that are not for you the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. Number three is this, and the keys can come up. Number three is this the pride of life? Genesis, chapter three, verse six. Again, it says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. And also here's the phrase desirable for gaining wisdom. Desirable for gaining wisdom. Okay, so what is the pride of life? The answer that is this the pride of life is misplaced identity, and I'll explain that to you Misplaced identity.
Speaker 1:Let's remember what we read in the verse just prior. In verse five, it says this this is the serpent. He's saying this, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be, like God, knowing good and evil. Of course, this is a. This is a lie.
Speaker 1:People who read scripture I have to remind them sometimes that the devil is a liar, right? And his lies are recorded perfectly in scripture, right? But just because the devil said this is what's gonna happen, it doesn't mean that's what's gonna happen. He's a liar right. Adam and Eve can tell you this is not what happens, right? So this is the lie he's saying. He's saying the reason that they God, doesn't want you to eat from the tree is he knows that as soon as you eat him, well, then you'll be. You'll be like him, right and and so it's not gonna happen. Of course that's not. He doesn't tell it accurately. But the temptation was this if you eat from this tree, you'll be like God, and he doesn't say. He doesn't say you'll be God. He just said you'll be like God.
Speaker 1:But those of us who understand scripture know that there's a weird part to that right, because if we go to Genesis, chapter one, this is when God is creating Adam and Eve. He's creating mankind. This is what it says, verse 26. Then God said let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. So the lie was this if you do this, you'll be like God. But the truth was this they were already made in God's image, so they were already as like God as they were ever gonna be. They were already like God in the most appropriate way. They weren't trying to be God, but they were. They were like God, but because Eve misunderstood her identity, she compromised to get something she already had, and I can't tell you how often I see people making horrible decisions, becoming spiritually unstable, trying to get something that they should be getting from God, like pride.
Speaker 1:Pride is always the fruit of insecurity. Right, pride is just insecurity. Playing dress up, right. Whenever you see somebody playing big, it's because they feel small. Now you think about it like modern rappers, you know. It's like oh yeah, I'm making it rain. Yeah, my money's insane. Go watch us, go change. I was just on a plane, you know what I mean? Like these are actual lyrics.
Speaker 1:It's like, hey, you just playing big because you feel small and you're getting millions and millions and millions of Spotify plays from young men that are trying to play big because they feel small. It's the pride of life, right. It's trying to get from the world what God is trying to give you for free, and that's a sense of value and a sense of self-worth. And if you can't manage that, if you're never gonna be able, if you're never gonna find who you are outside of what other people think about you, right, like the enemy is gonna come time and time and time again and present you with little ways to compromise that you think are gonna fill something on the inside of you, but it's just gonna leave you empty, trying to find who you are by something other than a son, something other than a daughter. Right, it's like I'm gonna be successful. I'm gonna be perceived a certain way, instead of having your identity at its root level. Be. I'm a son, I'm a daughter, and I understand that temptation as much or more than anybody. I'm on a stage for a living, you know, like all these people on worship, like we're on stages, and so the temptation is really, really, really powerful. Right, to try to get the sense of accomplishment or security, or even just the feeling that everything's okay because people think and perceive you a certain way, right, but it's the lie that started at the garden has been going on over and over and over and over. Right, the pride of life. Trying to get your identity from something other than God. It'll never work.
Speaker 1:Here's my closing statement is this it's far too common for people to come to the Christian faith with excitement and energy only to fizzle out and fall away. It's not due to a lack of passion, emotions or intensity. It's from a lack of spiritual stability. Being spiritually stable requires that you make better decisions. Come on, somebody say better decisions, better decisions. Every act of faith is a decision. The enemy tries to influence us towards destructive decisions by using the lust of the flesh, deceptive desires, the lust of the eyes, perverted perception and the pride of life, misplaced identity. The call is to reject those influences and build your life on Christ. This is building your house on the rock and not the sand. This is what determines whether we stand or fall when storms come.
Speaker 1:And, man, you wanna talk about spiritual stability like? There is no greater example of that than Jesus, right? If you wanna talk about a storm coming and beating against a person, he lived a perfect life and he was hated and despised and rejected the entire time. And then he was accused, an innocent man, accused and sentenced to death, brutally killed, brutally tortured Scripture says you couldn't even recognize him as a man anymore Brutally tortured and the whole time stood tall, never crumbled, never compromised.
Speaker 1:Why? Because he was stable, he was clear in what he was here to do and you can see, even in his own life, the enemy was coming and saying there's easier ways, there's a better way, there's a better way, right. But Jesus was stable and he came and he died for you and me, right and even. And so he is put in a tomb, but he doesn't stay there for three days. After three days, god raises him from the dead and he comes to offer forgiveness of sins, right. Cleansing new life, eternal life for everyone. It's not about earning it, it's not about deserving it. It's just about saying yes to a God who never stops pursuing you.