Latest / The Madison Church Podcast / Cultivating Spiritual Growth Beyond Religious Duties | Losing My Religion (Part 3) | Stephen Feith

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Cultivating Spiritual Growth Beyond Religious Duties | Losing My Religion (Part 3) | Stephen Feith · The Madison Church Podcast

• 0:00
  Stephen Feith: Does anyone watch competition cooking shows? Let's raise your hands we got one one and a half. Only one and a half no cooking competition show fans. Well, man, I thought there'd be a lot more Hey, if you're watching online let us know if you like watching cooking competition shows job.
• 0:18
  Stephen Feith: What is your favorite cooking competition show? core if you were to ask me what my favorite kind of cooking competition shows are, I would say anything with Gordon Ramsay anything with Gordon Ramsay. No, he's one of my favorite TV personalities. I don't like watching cooking competition shows. I'm not sure I would have raised my hand per se, at that question, but I would say if Gordon Ramsay is on it, I am definitely watching it.
• 0:40
  Stephen Feith: His entertainment value to me is just second to none. So I've watched Kitchen Nightmares. I've watched the master chef I've watched almost all of Hell's Kitchen. And I love it anything Gordon Ramsay makes. I just love it. I love his ability to just completely yell at someone. I mean, just scream at them and make them a better version of yourself. Somehow in that process. It's always amazing to me how that works out now. One time I was visiting my friend in Los Vegas and we found out that Gordon Ramsay would actually be guest cooking at one of his restaurants. And so I was told him like, man, we gotta go, we gotta go see Gordon Ramsay book it rather I don't care how much it costs. He's got to cook for us. And so Jake calls he gets us the reservation and we go there.
• 1:26
  Stephen Feith: We dress up and we're in Las Vegas. Like I said Gordon Ramsay's here. I'm amped because I love Gordon Ramsay. And everything in this restaurant is great. I mean, it's, it's clean.
• 1:36
  Stephen Feith: It's impressive. Everything is immaculate. The service is super friendly. It's everything you'd expect the menus are awesome, and the server asked what I was gonna have and of course if you're Gordon Ramsay fan, you know that his signature dish is the Beef Wellington so I was gonna get the Beef Wellington made by Gordon Ramsay and I ordered it and I'm just so psyched and the server brings it out to me and puts it down and it smells great. It looks great.
• 2:00
  Stephen Feith: I put it on Instagram. Cuz that's just what you do nowadays. You take pictures of your food so everyone can you know see it and and I said I waited a few minutes. And when Chef Ramsay didn't come out I asked my server I was like, well could you have Chef Ramsay come out and Chef Ramsay dead he came comes out. He says, Well, what seems to be the problem. And I said, Well, nothing. I was just I'm so hungry. I'm just waiting for you to feed me. And he looks at me says what? as well just, we've, I'm hungry. I ordered this food. It's cost me hundreds of dollars. Will you feed me?
• 2:31
  Stephen Feith: And that didn't happen. Okay, so just so you know, I have a friend named Jake who lives in Las Vegas, but that actually did not happen. I've never been to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. I'm so sorry. But why do you think that I just told that little story.
• 2:48
  Stephen Feith: There is a purposes, anyone who has been following the series know where we're heading tonight and Hebrews.
• 2:58
  Stephen Feith: We're gonna talk about in just a few moments, if you'd like to follow along and know where we're going. We're going to Hebrews chapter five. Today we're gonna start at verse 11.
• 3:07
  Stephen Feith: For the past few weeks, we've been in a series called losing my religion, which is all about how us as followers of Jesus, if that is how you identify should be moving from a people who have these religious obligations, and we're going to let those go, we're going to lose them, we're going to quit being religious, and we're going to go and seek following Jesus, which is what he had intended for us. To begin with. We want to have a vibrant relationship with God. And the writer of Hebrews also wants that, and he is writing or she he or she is writing to an audience. That is primarily Jewish Christians. As in they grew up with Old Testament law, they grew up going to the temple, memorizing hundreds and following hundreds of commandments, when it came to religious obligations. They knew what they were doing, and they did it almost better than anyone. And so then when Jesus comes onto the scene, as he has done at this point, and Jesus has kind of this new take on things, he says, I haven't come to abolish the law, but rather come to fulfill it, which is a loaded statement. And so now if you were a Jewish Christian, this is complicated for you, because you grew up with one set of rules. And now Jesus kind of comes in and he ushers in this new covenant, this new way of doing things if you're a Gentile, which most of us in the room, we didn't have the whole growing up under Old Testament rule of law anyway. So for us, it was easy to get on. It was easier for us to get on board.
• 4:30
  Stephen Feith: But what this author now is confronting in this community is that they're going back they say that were followers of Jesus, but they are going back to the old ways of doing things, the Old Covenant, the old religious standards, and it's hurting their faith. And it's not just hurting their faith, but it's hurting the faith of those around them. And so the author of Hebrews is writing to say, Whoa, press the brakes here. The author of Hebrews wants us to find faith. The author of Hebrews wants to help us lose Religion so we can live our best lives, which is the life that Jesus had intended for us. Now the past few weeks, we've been talking about high priests. And Jesus being the ultimate and better High Priest, which for us today is kind of confusing. And so I'm not going to dig into that if you want to hear some of those talks, go back and listen to the last two weeks. But today, our author is going to take an unexpected detour. And it's actually very confrontational in nature.
• 5:29
  Stephen Feith: Again, most of the audience who was getting this letter for the very first time could not read themselves. So they would gather in a place like this, and somebody who could read would say, Yes, we got this letter.
• 5:37
  Stephen Feith: And here's what it said. And they would read it out loud, kind of like how we're doing tonight in some ways, and it comes to this point where all sudden, everyone gets super duper uncomfortable. Because the author of Hebrews in a way that shows just how smart and articulate they are, moves into something that needs to be confronted in the community. So reading from first 11 there are so much more we would like to say about this. But it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull, and don't seem to listen. You have brought you have been believers, so long now that you ought to be teaching others.
• 6:23
  Stephen Feith: Instead, you need someone to teach you. Again, the basic things about God's word, you are like babies who need milk, you cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant, and doesn't know how to do what is right.
• 6:41
  Stephen Feith: solid food is for those who are mature, who they're training, have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. Now, this is not the first time the author of Hebrews has dealt with their spiritual immaturity. If you're following along in your own Bible or on your phone, you might want to make a note that he did this or they did this. And Hebrews two verses one through four, and four, verses one through two. So this is the third time he's confronting their spiritual immaturity as an issue, but it is the loudest, it is the most pointed, and it is the most confrontational. And in some ways, it's supposed to be shameful, because he's essentially calling everyone in the room. A big freakin baby. He didn't say It'd be great if you'd grow up a little bit. He said, You are babies. Now remember, he says there's so much more we would like to say about this. Talking about the high priest, he talked about the topics that we've been talking about the last few weeks, the author says I'd like to talk to you more about this. But I've got to stop here cuz I'm afraid I've already gone too deep. He's kind of saying I you kind of stupid here. You're kind of idiotic. I can't go further. Not because I don't want to not because it wouldn't be good for you for me to go on.
• 7:57
  Stephen Feith: But rather I got to stop here.
• 8:01
  Stephen Feith: Because this might have might have reached the level of your understanding, says you're spiritually dull. And you don't seem to listen. When we translate that sentence, we go back to the original language of Greek when it says that you don't seem to listen. They're talking about not just being dull, but being mentally and intellectually lazy. It's not that they couldn't hear. It's not that there wasn't a plethora of information. That's not what the author is saying. You say, you have all of the basic teachings all around you. But you're lazy. So again, we come back to the pointedness, the confrontational pneus of it. He goes on, he says, You have been believers for so long now that you ought to be teaching someone He's not picking on you. If you're watching or listening online is your first time 10th time you know with this is all in Christian faith is all new to you. He's not talking to you.
• 8:57
  Stephen Feith: You're off the hook today. So you can all right, this is great. But he is talking to those of us who you either grew up in the church who grew up around the church have had a relationship, a long lasting relationship with him. That's what he's talking about. He's talking about people who have had faith, this isn't new to you is what he's saying. He's saying, you've been at this for so long now that you shouldn't be sitting there you should be standing here. That's a profound thing to let sit in, that you should not just be sitting there that you should be teaching. But that's not what happened that's happening. So instead, you need someone to teach you again, the basic things about God's word, we got to go back, we got to go back to the beginning. back to step one back to the bay back to the very first time you ever walked into a church or walked into the small group or a first time you ever heard about Jesus?
• 9:48
  Stephen Feith: The first question those are the things that we got to keep coming back to over and over again, the author is exasperated, because you should be teaching this stuff. There are things I want to tell you about. That would enrich Your lives, it makes it so much better, but I can't, because you won't. And he goes in to an analogy and illustration that every one of us can understand today, they say that you are like babies, you need milk, you cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant. This illustration it rings true today, if you've been around a baby, you know that this is true that they can only have the puree version of carrots, can I give a baby who doesn't have teeth, the ability to chew and swallow food, carrots, even baby carrots, it's a little misleading and confusing. Don't give babies baby carrots. But you can give them the puree at a certain point at a certain age.
• 10:45
  Stephen Feith: And they can eat that. And what else can you do as you get older, you don't just have to have carrots that are baby carrots that are cold and in the bag and you open it up, you can actually do a lot of things with carrots, you can cook them up, add them to a great dish, you can make a great dish out of carrots. And it's like you go from this thing of being very like spiritually immature, your baby, you're just used to pure acres because that's all you can handle. And for a lot of us, we think that that's all that there is. There's just period carrots.
• 11:12
  Stephen Feith: That's all we've ever known. The author of Hebrews is a no, no, no, no, no, there's another level, there's another step, you can have these baby carrots because you have teeth, and you've you or you're old enough, you should be eating these. And as a matter of fact, you're old enough that you can actually be cooking recipes with these carrots, and we're gonna blow your mind with all the things you could do with these carrots.
• 11:33
  Stephen Feith: Besides, but you're not there spiritually, you are not there.
• 11:37
  Stephen Feith: And what is the big distinction?
• 11:44
  Stephen Feith: We says people who are spiritually infants, they don't know what to do, or they don't know what to do what is right.
• 11:49
  Stephen Feith: And that those who are spiritually mature, have the recognition, the skill to differentiate between what is right, and what is wrong. So he's calling him out, he says your, your understanding is so basic, and we keep going over the same fundamentals again and again. And yet, we keep going over the fundamentals. And yet you still don't know the difference between right or wrong. Now he's not just here, the author isn't just here to yell at them to shame them to guilt them. That wouldn't work for you guys, that wouldn't work for an audience 2000 years ago.
• 12:24
  Stephen Feith: And so they transition, going to chapter six, verse one.
• 12:30
  Stephen Feith: So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again, and again. Let us go on instead, and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from our evil deeds, and placing our faith in God.
• 12:48
  Stephen Feith: You don't need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And so God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. This is great, he's not just yelling at them. But the author says, I believe in you, I believe that there's a point where we can move on and we can do bigger and better things. And we can go further and faster together if we can stop going over this.
• 13:20
  Stephen Feith: Essentially author saying you already know this, the author isn't teaching it, the author doesn't go proceed, you can read ahead, the author doesn't proceed to go ahead and then definitely explain all of the things that you just mentioned about baptism and laying on of hands. Because they already knew it. The author's reminding them that they know it. And then when they act like they don't know what they're acting like babies, but he calls them to something bigger and he says in so God willing, we can move forward.
• 13:45
  Stephen Feith: And the challenge for us today is that we must become spiritually mature, that we must grow up spiritually. And again, this isn't aimed at people who are maybe exploring faith, kicking faith around like asking questions who are new to fate, this isn't aimed at you. But the goal would be that from day one, you grow a little bit more than you were yesterday and today to and then next week are a little bit more mature than you were last week. Now for those of us who have grown up in and around the church, and we've been around for years or decades.
• 14:19
  Stephen Feith: It's time that we go from just being participant and watching to actively engaged on mission together. Yesterday I met and got to spend some time with my new nephew, Henry, he is two weeks old. And it was awesome.
• 14:41
  Stephen Feith: Because my baby sister has her own baby and I can remember doing all the good Big Brother things like punching her in the back walking or in the closet.
• 14:48
  Stephen Feith: You know all those things we did when when I was like 20 No, I'm just kidding. But what was most fun about yesterday was that she had a cup she was like oh He's been crying all day, Steven, and we're sorry about that. And I was like, Okay, let me see him and, and so I wrap him up and I put the pacifier in his mouth and and within five minutes he was asleep. And she's just like, how did you do this? Like, what were you doing? I was like, Well, you know, you put the pacifier in his mouth, you just kind of tap on it, because, like, it distracts their brains a little bit. And you know, even if something's really wrong, it's not gonna distract them.
• 15:24
  Stephen Feith: But it's just fight and be a tiger just tap that in his brain. It's got to focus on that. She's like, why did you wrap them up so tightly? I was like, Oh, you mean the burrito?
• 15:32
  Stephen Feith: Like they love it. They will.
• 15:32
  Stephen Feith: Babies love being tight. It's like being back in the womb again, you know, and, and she was like, I didn't know that.
• 15:37
  Stephen Feith: And then that baby Henry proceeded to sleep for four hours the entire time. I was like, I didn't sleep all day.
• 15:42
  Stephen Feith: And I was, I'm just like, champion Dad, I'm ready for number three coming this December in my house, like, we're ready for this. But it was just such a tangible reminders.
• 15:52
  Stephen Feith: I knew this is what we're talking about today. And I'm holding Henry, and I'm thinking, Man, Henry is so helpless. He can't wrap himself up, he can't feed himself, he needs help soothing himself, he's not an adult, Henry would literally any baby for that matter would literally starve to death without the care of an adult.
• 16:15
  Stephen Feith: Because babies cannot feed themselves. They can't even eat solid food, and they have to have milk for a long time. And then they get the graduate to puree food. And then at some point, they get old enough, and you start experimenting with hard food. But when you're a first time parent, it's your first kid, and the first time they're eating real food, you're like watching them like this.
• 16:30
  Stephen Feith: You're like choo, choo, swallow.
• 16:35
  Stephen Feith: And if they paused, you're like, 911. You know, you're like you're you're writing because you don't want him to choke to death. And that's where we're at kind of, sometimes as believers, we need to graduate from being babies who need someone to watch us how to chew, and swallow our spiritual food, to people who can go out and order it. To people go out and prepare it and not just make a dinner, a spiritual dinner for ourselves, but to make a dinner for our family, a spiritual dinner for our families to make it for our friends, for our family, for our community members to experiment.
• 17:09
  Stephen Feith: And doesn't that sound more exciting anyway?
• 17:16
  Stephen Feith: Doesn't that sound way better than just constantly kicking back the basics and having conversations about laying on of hands and baptisms, and having the same conversation over and over again, Doesn't it sound exciting to move forward? Now, that doesn't mean that you get to the point where it's like, well, I don't need church, I've outgrown church, I grow outgrown Christian community, That's not at all what I'm saying. Because together, we can teach each other new techniques, we can teach ourselves new recipes, that allow us to try different things spiritually, that lead to greater and better health, and a better relationship with God that happens here in this community. Now, Madison church, this kind of leads way into our spiritual formation pathway. So if you're watching online, or you're kind of new with Madison, church, discipleship doesn't just happen on accident. It doesn't just you don't just start reading the Bible, you don't just start growing spiritually on accident. So we have a very intentional plan to help people grow. And I want to go over that right now, briefly.
• 18:23
  Stephen Feith: So the first thing here that you see is this is, you know, very gifted artists, as you can tell.
• 18:26
  Stephen Feith: So this is you. And at some point, you visit Madison church, for the first time. And while Madison church isn't a building, most people visit us I supposed to be across sorry, most people visit us in a building first. So you visit near guests. And our kind of goal at that time is just let's just get to know each other. Let's see if the values line up. Let's see if there's a missional match. Let's see if we can agree on strategy. And so it's kind of like spiritual flirting a little bit like is this community right for you?
• 18:57
  Stephen Feith: are we are we right for you? Are you right for us. And a couple of the things that we do then is that we have a new commerce lunch, which I talked about, so we do new commerce. And that's just hanging out. Let's just hang out, let's just talk. Let's see how this is. Let's see if there is chemistry. But we also have an alpha course which is going on right now. And these will be kind of some of the what we would consider at our church.
• 19:20
  Stephen Feith: The very first steps with the alpha courses is we're just trying to talk and listen, have good conversation, to understand other people's perspectives on these issues so that we can understand other people better and pray with them. But this is where we begin certainly not anywhere close to the end. And so we're like, Okay, well, we've attended both of these things.
• 19:42
  Stephen Feith: Now we're going to go down here, and we want to help people grow spiritually. That is a big deal to us. We want to help you connect with God. What does that mean? When we talk about growing spiritually at our church, we're talking about reading your Bible every day. We're talking about Praying regularly as in multiple times a day, we're talking about being baptized. I think about Breanna who's running our slides tonight? You know, she came to our church for the first time, I don't know, five years ago now.
• 20:14
  Stephen Feith: And she came through a small group. So actually, I think you didn't come to the church building like a lot of people do. You came through a small group, which is awesome. And one of the things that Brianna did almost immediately was that she got baptized. And that was exciting for us. We took pictures of it, we celebrate it, we're excited. And then it was a year later. We baptized your mom. Yeah, it was your mom. So we baptized Brandon's mom. It was awesome to see somebody who was growing spiritually.
• 20:39
  Stephen Feith: Somebody who like Brianna would come through here went to New commerce, we weren't offering alpha at the time growing spiritually, her herself gets baptized, she brings her mom says Ma, you got to get baptized. But I mean, I also see Brianna's posts all the time on the Bible app, where she's reading the Bible nearly every single day. And then she was a part of our prayer course, which you offer once a year here. It's a course that we talked about prayer and different ways to pray and how to pray more effectively and, and how to have a healthy prayer life. And since then, I've talked to Brianna and she says, Yeah, like, she listens to this worship music and has like 10 or 15 minutes most days where she's just praying and recentering. And so I think when there's an example of somebody who's growing spiritually, really well, I do I think that's not the exclude anybody else here to say that you don't, but it's the point out that I know Brianna is breeding the Bible every day or almost every I know she's praying, I know that she has been baptized, and she is growing spiritually. And the reason they're growing spiritually is so is so important is because in john 1010, we read that the thief's purpose This is Jesus speaking, the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. And my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
• 21:52
  Stephen Feith: And so we want to grow spiritually because there is a rich and satisfying a full life out there that we can have. And so we're going to begin by growing spiritually. That's how we connected with God. That is not where we stopped though. The Christian faith following Jesus is not just about reading the Bible, praying and being baptized, put a bow on it and ship it, you're good to go. It is also about gathering together. It is about relationships with other believers. And at our church, what does that mean? It means being a part of a small group community or our courses as we have recalled a we've retitled them. And so you're an active participant in those you're building community in both courses. By studying together, we tell people you got to eat together, we're probably the only church that has it on their website, that part of our strategy is eating together, and we eat together a lot. Tonight, we're having ice cream. Next week, we're having dinner here, we eat together a lot, because we believe that a key component of gathering together is eating together. And we believe and healthy biblical conflict resolution. Again, that's probably not something you're gonna see on any other church website, or very few of us will have a we believe in biblical conflict resolution as a key component. Why? Because when you're in Christian community, like we are, when you are in a spiritual family, like we are, you're going to have conflict.
• 23:14
  Stephen Feith: That's just the way it is.
• 23:17
  Stephen Feith: People fight, there's personality differences. And sometimes we're very passionate about it. And that's okay to be passionate. I consider myself a pretty passionate person. And so when a couple passionate people passionately disagree, there's going to be passionate differences. But we have healthy conflict resolution. Jesus took this so seriously, he said, that if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple, and suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar, go and be reconciled to that person, and then come out offer your sacrifice to God. Modern day translation, what is Jesus talking about? If you are at the temple or church, and you are offering a sacrifice, your tithing, and suddenly you remember while you're at church, getting ready to give that you have a conflict and outstanding, Jesus is saying, don't finish write that check. don't finish, go make it right with that person, and then come back.
• 24:21
  Stephen Feith: That's how big of a deal Jesus thinks conflict resolution is.
• 24:25
  Stephen Feith: He says, hold everything. Think about the most spiritual thing you can do. And Jesus in His examples, like okay, the most spiritual thing, for example, you're at church and you're getting ready to give. Don't even do that if there's outstanding conflict in your life. So you're growing spiritually. We're reading the Bible praying, we've been baptized, we're gathering together, we're going out of our way to invite people into our lives. So we eat together, but we're also involved in courses together. Fights do come up.
• 24:53
  Stephen Feith: That's okay. That means you're actually thinking it's not a fake relationship. If you have fights Well, we also want to give back because again, the Christian our relationship and following Jesus, it isn't just about me connecting with God and me connecting with you. Okay, Jesus didn't just come to earth so that we could connect with him.
• 25:17
  Stephen Feith: And then we could have just a little Kumbaya oz for no more in here. But Jesus died for everyone, including the people who would turn away from him and ultimately reject him. And he knew that, and yet he did it anyway. And so we take his mission seriously, and we give back and we said, our church giving back includes volunteering, financially contributing and using your influence to further the kingdom of God here in Madison. And when I think of a couple again, it's not to throw shade at anyone else at our church. When I think of a couple who does this really great thing of Jordan Alyssa otogi. Alyssa is my executive assistant. But she also works in kids judge greets judge volunteers as a trustee. They financially contribute anytime there's a special fundraiser, they contribute to that every Sunday, Alyssa is sharing something judge, you got to step up your game a little bit on that, okay. I had the opportunity to poke fun at him.
• 26:14
  Stephen Feith: But I think of the choke he is and I think man is a family that understands the importance of giving back. Jesus considers giving back also essential to following him. When talking to the Pharisees. He says, What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites, for you're careful to tie in even the tiniest income from your herb gardens.
• 26:38
  Stephen Feith: But you ignore the most important aspects of the law, justice, mercy and faith. Yes, you should ties, but do not neglect the more important things again, Jesus is coming after money here and an example of something that's more important. He's saying, you ignore the more important things you tie, and Jesus says, that's great. Awesome, you should do that. Jesus isn't saying don't do that. But what he is saying is there are more important things. Does anyone think that there should be more mercy in the world? Yes. Does anyone think there should be more justice in the world? Yes, especially after the last 12 or 18 months? I think a lot of us would say there should be more justice, and faith. I think the world is low on faith right now.
• 27:21
  Stephen Feith: And coming out of the pandemic, it seems that more people are losing their faith. And Jesus is saying if we can't get giving, right, how will we do the more important things because the Pharisees the religious leaders were giving. And their rebuke was that they were ignoring more important things? Well, if we can't even give faithfully, we're already a step behind the Pharisees who are already doing this faithfully. And I want to be a church in a community that focuses on justice, mercy, and faith. And so we have to take care of our house first. And just like our original audience, when we begin to do these things, we will begin to mature in our understanding of what the raw author of Hebrews is saying is that you've been here long enough, you have been here long enough, where you should be somewhere like down here and down here. But we keep coming back to the basics over and over and over again, the author says you should be teaching this stuff. And so at Madison church, it doesn't just end here, we have a leadership pathway at our church where you can become a leader where you can become a pastor or ministry director where you can have roles and responsibilities like just as a trustee, like Bran, as our facilities director, we have those positions. And some of the things that we're looking for is what we're already looking for people who do these things well, so we're already looking for you got the behavioral stuff down, but then we're looking for people who think we before me, and the value for us humility, we want us to be thinking about the community when not just my when not just my family is when not just my small groups when not just my service time when not just my sights, when, but we want to be thinking about all of our community, the Madison church community and the city at large. We want people to go above and beyond. Nobody wants to be on a team where you're the only one doing anything. We want people to show up early, who stay late, who give the extra mile, we will take less talented people who give 100% then more talented people who only get 50%. And then finally we want people who are fun. This is Scott, guys, this has to be fun.
• 29:34
  Stephen Feith: There are enough churches out there that it's not fun. You might have been to one of them.
• 29:41
  Stephen Feith: But let's have fun. Jesus had fun. The mission of God can be fun, because people are involved.
• 29:50
  Stephen Feith: And so here's the challenge, okay, the application is to figure out where am I and where can I grow. But I've had a couple conversations this week and this is great. Where people say fueling I'm Feeling spiritually stagnant Stephen and that I love that conversation.
• 30:02
  Stephen Feith: I'll tell you why I love that conversation because on the one hand there are other people who get spiritually stagnant and they just leave and they never tell us. There's gone one day, Okay, bye. And then there are other people who get mad and they're like, well, you're not feeding me. And I'm just so like spiritually mature and I'm not being fed and then I'm like, we can't be to spiritually Metrix.
• 30:20
  Stephen Feith: You've obviously never read Hebrews six, okay? But I appreciate when people say I feel stuck spiritually. And then what we do is we take an inventory I, I've done this twice this week. It's okay, growing spiritually, you've been baptized. So that's a green light. When you read the Bible every day, it's not a green light, like yes, every day without fail yellow light, yes or no? Or is that a red light?
• 30:42
  Stephen Feith: Like, in the last seven days? I haven't cracked it open once.
• 30:47
  Stephen Feith: Well, so Okay, yellow light, red light. Okay, praying regularly.
• 30:51
  Stephen Feith: How many times have you pray yesterday? Well, I prayed one time this week because I was going through really stressful.
• 30:57
  Stephen Feith: Okay, so that's probably a red light then. And what we're able to do then is we're able to identify that this is the weak LinkedIn. That look we need to we need to start working here to get that boosted up. Now that might not be for you. As we start looking at this. We say, well, what's your small group participation? Like, I'll never be a part of a small group.
• 31:17
  Stephen Feith: Okay, well, that's going to hurt your spiritual development.
• 31:20
  Stephen Feith: Well, what about conflict? I just don't like to deal with it.
• 31:22
  Stephen Feith: Okay, you a 95% of the world.
• 31:22
  Stephen Feith: Nobody likes to deal with conflict, but yet Jesus calls us to it. And so we have to learn how to deal with conflict. Well, giving back, we'll do you volunteer. Well, no, I'm too busy. Okay, well, do you give up to broke? Do you use your influence? I have none. Okay, well, then that's the area where we can begin to grow. It's a spiritual checklist that you can use every single day. And the thing is, okay, I have never, in this seven years of being here, Madison church, I've never talked to somebody who gave me all green lights for these. I was like, I'm not growing spiritually. The answer right in front of us. And 90% of it's just showing up. It's just reading the Bible. It's just praying. It's just going to your small group. It's just volunteering, it's just showing up. Sure, there's some part of it, that's complicated conflicts, never gonna be fun.
• 32:14
  Stephen Feith: Nobody likes that. Giving is going to be difficult because we live in a society, which is the opposite of giving. But I've never had somebody who has been all green lights and said, you know, just not growing. So I want to challenge you today, as you consider this and be if you're part of our community, where are you strong? Where could you stand to grow. Because to follow Jesus, and to live the life that he intends us to live means that we have to get rid of the religious obligations and to begin to focus on the things that really matter, hearing his voice, praying to Him, gathering with other believers and contributing to the world at large. So as we sit here today, and we let these words of Hebrews sink in, are we going to be the people who were being rebuked? Because we've been around so long that we should know better, but we're like babies, or are we going to be like the people in the latter part of this? Where you know what, God willing, we will move further because we have the answer in front of us. And I hope hope hope hope that you will choose the latter. Let's pray.