Latest / The Grove Church / Devoted | Week 4

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Devoted | Week 4 · The Grove Church

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Hello and welcome to the Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Lofton, the lead pastor
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there. And we are so glad that you are joining us. Whether you are
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a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're
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someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if
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you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will
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do that, will listen to sermons first before they visit, I want you to
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know that we would love to meet you at any point. You can join us
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live in our services on Sunday nine and 1030 or our streaming
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service at 1030. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know
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you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this
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sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, good
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morning. Hey, if you are new, I'm Charlie, the lead pastor
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here, and really glad you are all worshiping with us today. And as Jason mentioned
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a few minutes ago, we are finishing up a series today called Devoted. We've been
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kind of working our way through this phrase, and what Jesus said is the greatest
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commandment, which is to love the Lord your God, with your heart, your soul, your
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mind and your strength. And we've been taking each of those in turn.
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And we're wrapping up today by talking about strength. And we just kind of
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been talking about, like, if the greatest commandment is to love God, kind
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of, what are all the ways that we do that? What does that really mean?
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What does it mean to love him with your heart, with your soul, with your
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mind? And now today was strength. And if you were here
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a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about soul, it was also the
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Sunday when it was zero. If you remember that, if you don't remember that Sunday,
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you remember when it was zero. And I was actually very pleasantly
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surprised and impressed with how many of us were willing to kind of get out
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and be here on that Sunday. And we joked about,
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long standing joke that it was a double point Sunday, like, you got two
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points for coming instead of the normal one. And it kind of made that joke
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really to kind of talk about this idea that some of us have felt or
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maybe even still feel that I come to church because I have to, to kind
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of earn a God point. But really why we're here.
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And we talked about that real need for
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soul connection. And that really is what draws us
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in a deeper way than just some sense of obligation.
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I circle back to that because I want to ask the question again, maybe
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a little bit differently do you have
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to be here? Do you have to be here? Not
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that God's keeping a spreadsheet of points.
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Do you have to be here? Is it right to be here? Would
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it be wrong to not be? Does it matter
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to God? Does anything really
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matter to God? Do you have to
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do anything? If God says it, if
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he commands it, what is our
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response to that? And I asked this
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question that way because I think the
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older I get and I feel older every
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day. I was at a daddy daughter dance last night with
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our twelve year old, Leila, and there's nothing that makes me feel
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older. And it's not being around twelve year olds, it's being around
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the parents of other twelve year olds. Like, hey, there's all people that
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looks normal for them to have a twelve year old, and then there's me, right?
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So the older I get, the more I become
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convinced that this issue may
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be the number one theological issue that
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we have to grapple with if we are going to
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stay devoted in a committed relationship with God
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for the rest of our lives. How do I take these
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two truths that I do not believe, contradict,
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but complement each other, which is God
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loves you through Jesus Christ,
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unconditionally, not based on what you do. And
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because of what Jesus did for you, you are free.
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And the Bible is full of a lot of
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commandments, not suggestions,
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commandments.
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What do I do with these two things? Because I speak to
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a lot of different groups of people, and as some of you may know, I
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would just came back in the middle of December. About ten of
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us went to Thailand and to speak to a group of
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missionaries who were there kind of on a retreat, on a conference
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from another country in Southeast Asia. And I'm telling you, when you're talking to
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this group of people, you're talking to a group of people who are more
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committed and dedicated than probably anyone we know in real life, and
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they are willing to sacrifice so much to do what they believe is the
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right thing. And I've talked to so many people that have that sort of
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mindset that are doing these really incredible things for God. And you can just
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sense. I can just sense when I'm talking to them, there's a part of them
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that is struggling. And they're doing all of this in part
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because I have to show God and myself and
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the world that I can be good enough. So I'm going to do the
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biggest thing, the most important thing, and they struggle with
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this battle. I can't really accept that God loves me
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unconditionally I've got to be good
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enough. And I see other people who wrestle with
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this, and they've concluded already,
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I'll never be good enough. And they are
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sad, depressed, defeated, and
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slowly just kind of drift away. And there
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are other people to be like that are just kind of like, bro, what are
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you even talking about? Did you hear the first part?
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Free. I'm free, brother.
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Do you all know what free means? Free means I get to do whatever I
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want, and it doesn't matter.
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And that just drifts you off a different way.
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What does it mean in a healthy,
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balanced way to understand
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what obedience is with the freedom that
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we have with Christ. And Paul says it in a really awesome way where he
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says, you are free, but don't use that freedom as an
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opportunity to do whatever you want. And us navigating
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that, I think, is a critical, personal,
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theological struggle, balance issue that we need to
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grapple with if we are going to remain devoted.
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And I love the way that Jesus says it. Love the Lord your God with
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your heart, soul, mind and strength. It begins with love. I need to
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love him. That is the core motivation of all of this.
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I'm not trying to earn anything. I'm not trying to be good enough.
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I want to love God well. And one of the
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ways that we love God well is with our strength, which
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means I love God by doing
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what he says. I love God by doing what he says.
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If God says something, one of the ways
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that I respond to him with love is to do
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it. When someone you love asks you to do
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something, it is an act of love to do it. The relationship
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with God is different because he is not just a friend.
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He is God. He is a Lord. He is a king. He is a
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heavenly father. And so he's not simply
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asking, he's commanding. And so it has a certain weight to it. And that is
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how we show love to someone who has authority over
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us, by responding to what they say. But it is an act of love. And
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I think it is important for us, no matter where you grew up,
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whatever your background was, whatever it is, you came, wherever you came from,
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this idea that somehow we are here today to earn
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something, everything that matters
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in our relationship with God was paid for by
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Jesus Christ and given to you freely through
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him. And now, having
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received that and been made free, I
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respond to him with love. And
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so I want us to be able to build a life, a
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lasting spiritual life with Jesus Christ,
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built on that idea that to love God with
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my strength, it is a love response to do what he
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commands us to do. And there's a verse where Jesus is
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speaking. He exemplifies that pretty well in John
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1421. And if you are the verse
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memorizing kind or on your Bible app or
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whatever you like to favorite, highlight certain verses, I encourage you just kind of
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make put, however it is you do put this
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one on your list, because I think it is an incredibly powerful, important
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verse. John 1421.
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Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves
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me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father,
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and I, too, will love them and show myself
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to them. So what he's describing
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here is really kind of the process of this relationship.
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And again, if you come at this with this negative, sort
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of unbalanced mindset of I have to earn
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God's love, then you're going to see something different than what's being said here.
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God's love has been given to you freely through Jesus Christ. What does a
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relationship with God look like? What does an
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ongoing, deepening relationship look like?
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I respond to the love that God has given me through Jesus Christ,
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through obedience. And when I do that,
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God is pleased with me, and the love
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grows, and I get to know him, and he gets to know
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me. There's a deepening of relationship. There is a reciprocal
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thing that happens here that happens in all of relationships.
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Love is met by more love
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relationally. And
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so one of the significant things that I do
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to show God and to build this depth and love
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relationship with him is through obedience. I'm
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going to do the things that he says.
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And again, putting aside all of the bad
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theological baggage that can come from feeling like we've got to
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earn something or we'll never be good, to put all that aside, this is just
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the way a relationship works,
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especially a relationship with God.
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And so, again, we're going to have to put all of this together. And so
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I want us to just kind of spend some time just kind of breaking some
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of this down. Like, if we love God, if one of the
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primary ways that we can love God is through obedience, what
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does that really mean? And we'll just start here that I want to love God
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by doing what he says. And part of that
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is I have to love him by following his
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code. He has a code, a moral code,
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that he says, this is the way you should live.
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The Bible is full of commandments, some of which we just kind of
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take. We have no objections to.
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Don't murder, don't steal, those sorts of things. Don't lie. We
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object to it, but not, we know it's wrong, we just do it anyway. Right.
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But some of these we're not going to argue
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over, right? And then there's some that we like
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less. But the Bible is full of commands about the way
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that you should be living your life. And some of the biggest
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ones that we tend to struggle with have to do with the things that we
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talk about very often here at the church.
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What is a proper sexual, moral,
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relational ethic and what do we do with our money?
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The Bible is full of commands on those things that are deeply
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personal and have to do with
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the deepest parts of our life and not just simply what we do,
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but really getting out of the core of what some of our heart
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struggles are. And God has laid out a lot
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of these commands. And I'm sure you have come across at least one. You don't
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have to admit this in church because you're in church now, but I'm sure you've
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come across at least one that you look at. I don't like it. I don't
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like it. I'm not in thumbs down.
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And how you respond to that, how you
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respond to a command that you don't particularly
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like really depends very heavily
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on what your perception of God is.
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So I'm a dad. I mentioned that I got a twelve year old,
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Leila, but I also have a 26 year old and a 23 year old
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daughter. I have three daughters. So Leila is twelve, but she's not my first twelve
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year old. So this is my third twelve year old. I'm kind of going through
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all of this again. And now is the time where a particular
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moral code that dad has is coming to the forefront because
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some of her friends are starting to have boyfriends, they're starting to go
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out. I roll. They're dating, they like
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each other and all these things. And she is starting to notice
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boys in ways that she wasn't noticing them, say, three years
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ago. She's always noticed boys, but now we're noticing them differently.
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And we've got boys that we like and we got all these people. And dad
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has had a very hard rule. Twelve year olds don't date. You don't have a
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boyfriend. We're not going to joke about it.
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It's a hard line. And every time this comes up,
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not only have all of the girls questioned, but
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many of you will come up to me and you ask this question
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specifically. Well, when then, when?
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And then I say when it makes sense.
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What does that mean? Tell me about these twelve year olds that are going out.
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Where do they go? Twelve year old can't go anywhere. They don't
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go anyplace. I remember having this conversation with Maley. She was describing
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this relationship that was happening when she was twelve.
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Like, yeah, they're going out. Where do they. What, dad? They don't go anywhere.
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Well, I mean, do they sit together at lunch? No,
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they would never do that. Then what does it mean? It means they like each
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other. Then why don't we just leave it at
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that? But Leila, she was pressing this was over. We talked about
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this a couple of weeks ago. We're sitting over the 3000 piece puzzle working on.
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We're having this deep philosophical conversation. She's like, dad, but
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when, though? But when? Let me explain to you what dating
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is. Dating is a process
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that you go through to figure out who you're going to spend the rest of
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your life with. And she goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, dad, whoa.
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I'm not ready for
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that's.
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And I'm not telling you that you have to have that. That is not the
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point of this. My point of this is not to tell you that
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this should be a part of your code. The point of this is it is
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part of our code in our family. And our girls have struggled with
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it at the time and then even after thinking back
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about it. But the reason where the buy
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in really comes is what do they really believe about me?
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Do they believe that I'm good? Do they believe that
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I love them and that what I want is in their best
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interest? Do they believe that?
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And I think that they do. And so there have been some times where we've
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laid some things out that we've asked them to do that they have not wanted
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to do, but they have gone along because they believe those
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things. Dad is good. He loves me
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and he believes this is in my best interest.
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But unlike me, God is always
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good. God is always full of love. And he
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is not just simply thinks this might be in your
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best interest. He is the creator, designer of the
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universe. And because he loves you and because he
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is good and he is always acting in
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your best interest, then you can know for sure that
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the things that he is asking you to do are
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good for you. Because sometimes I believe that we have
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treated God's commands as
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if we're on some sort of reality show. Anybody ever watched the show
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wipe out? Like, you're just trying to navigate
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some really difficult obstacle course. And if I can make it all the
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way through, I win. And God's
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putting up obstacles in front of you. Just to make it difficult for you,
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just to see if you're strong enough, committed enough, good enough,
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when really he is the creator, designer of the universe,
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who was telling you, you want life,
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believe this, follow this,
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do this. Not because you
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have to, because I have to.
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This is what I want. This is what I want. This is what I want.
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I want life. This is what I want life. I have to do it. Not
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I have to do it. I have to do it because of who he is
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and the life that I want to have. But it's a little
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bit more than that. We're not going to spend a whole lot of time on
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this next one, but it's a little bit more than that. That I want to
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make sure that we understand not only his code, but also his mission.
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He has given you a purpose, a directive in life, and it's
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pretty broad in some areas. We
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work, we have family, we have friends, we have
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community. We worship together. There's a part of that that all is
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encompassing in the mission that God has given us on this life.
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But we do not live a directionless life. We live a life
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with a very specific mission. Jesus said, you're the light of the world.
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He also said that we are to go and make disciples of all nations.
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He has called us to be carriers of hope and life to a world that
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is desperate for it. And it is my hope and desire
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that we would be known as a community that is doing this together,
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that we are partnering together with one another to do what
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we can to bring hope and life to our community and to our
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world. It happens every Sunday. Happens every
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Sunday. Someone new will walk in. Hopefully they are greeted well and loved well
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by someone, and they have a great opportunity to meet some people if they're dropping
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off their kids. And all the people, all the work that is done here behind
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the scenes to make all of this happen and the worship and all
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of that like it a great opportunity for us to one another and to
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new people, to bring the hope of Jesus to people.
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And we use our financial resources, we use our service.
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You are using the influence that you have with people in your neighborhood,
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at your work, in your school, to invite them. And
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we all together, working together, are trying to bring hope
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and life to the world, whether it be from
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community care to our food pantry, to
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just telling people about Jesus, by inviting them to worship, by loving
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them, by meeting the needs around you. This is what we're doing.
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You have a lot of freedom and a lot of the choices that you make
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about how you live your life kind of what your job is and where you
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live, but your mission, regardless is the same.
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We've been called to bring carriers of life and light to a
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world that needs it. And so if I'm going
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to love God well, I'm going to love God by doing what he says, I'm
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going to love him well by following his code.
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I'm going to love God well by following his mission.
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And really I'm going to save this kind of, this one for last. It's kind
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of a bigger idea here that I want to make sure that we all
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understand that really what this means is I love God by
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doing what he says, not just his code, his mission, but really everything. This is
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everything that may feel a little overwhelming at
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first, but really everything that we do
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in one way or another should try to
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reflect the love that we have
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for God. And there's a verse that gets pulled out context, and I'm going to
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do the same thing. I'm going to pull that out of context. We're just going
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to kind of look at it and we're going to talk about the way that
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people try to misunderstand it and misuse it, and then we're going to put it
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back in its context and try to understand it.
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One corinthians ten, verse 31.
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So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you
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do, do it all for the glory
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of God. So whatever you do, eating, drinking,
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whatever, anything that you do, do it for the glory of God.
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There's a couple of different ways that people will try to use this verse. Some
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people will be like, man, that sounds like freedom to me. Whatever it
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is I do, I'm doing it for God. Glory, God. This is for your
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glory, right? I'm going to eat and drink
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and just do whatever I want as long as I
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say it's for God's glory. Or you can go the other way and
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it can just feel like a really weird, pressuring verse. You get up this morning
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and you start brushing your teeth and it's like, am I brushing my teeth for
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the glory of God today? God, I just pray that you'll be glorified by the
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cleanliness of my teeth and good dental care
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and you can feel paralyzed.
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I thought I just brushed my teeth, did my hair today, but
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I forgot to do it for the glory of God. And then you can feel
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like, because some of the things I'm just doing, I'm just living
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life, I'm failing because I didn't, quote, do it for the glory of God.
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But the context of this is actually a very specific one.
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He's talking to them about this issue that is unique to them.
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It is not unique to mark. If you've ever heard Mark tell stories about being
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in India, it is something that he has firsthand experienced these sorts of
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things, where they were having meals in
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people's homes that were not believers and the food
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that they were using was part of a religious sacrifice
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to an idol. And now they are serving the food that has been
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sacrificed and dedicated to a false God. Is it
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okay to eat that? This is a
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real question. It's a deep question.
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What do you do? And Paul
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fails to give them a direct answer to that.
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You're going to choose one or the other. Whichever one you choose, whatever
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it is you choose to do, you make sure that you are doing
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it with a heart that says, I want God to be
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glorified. I want to honor
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God and love God with the decision that I
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make. Because the reality is the
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Bible. Life is full of things.
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Moral questions about what is the right thing to do in this
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situation, full of situations that the Bible
23:20
does not answer for you. Let's just go back to dating.
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What does it mean to honor God in your dating life?
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If you look to the Bible and look for
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advice on how to date, you're going to be really
23:35
disappointed because it's going to tell you that your dad picks out your
23:39
spouse, and then that's it, and then nothing else
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matters, which, depending on how old you are and how old your kids
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are, starts to look pretty good.
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Worse ideas, because here's the
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thing that we believe. It's been part of the grow from the very beginning.
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Everything that the Bible says is true, but not everything that's
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true is in the Bible. And so
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we don't know. There's certain things that just kind of have a bit
24:09
of uncertainty to them, where people draw different lines in different places
24:13
about what is appropriate to watch or not watch,
24:16
or how should I manage my screen
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time or my screen time for my kids, or these sorts of things.
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And the Bible gives us some principles about life,
24:28
but doesn't specifically address these issues.
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What do we do? Do we have freedom to just kind of do
24:35
whatever we want? And this is the question that the corinthians are asking that Paul
24:39
is answering. It's like, yes, you have freedom, but
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really you need to think about
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what brings the most honor to
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God in this circumstance for you.
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Again, let's not take this too far. There are some
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things where God has made it very clear. This is right, this
25:02
is wrong. But then there's some things where it just seems a little
25:05
vague. And I'll use an example. It is a very popular example
25:09
to use if you were here last week, I made a joke. It
25:13
wasn't really a joke. I guess I said it in a funny way, but it's
25:15
true. I don't like coffee. It doesn't
25:19
taste good. And somebody over here told me that I need to add sugar to
25:22
it. And it was a great little moment. And just bitter. I
25:25
don't like it. I don't like it. No matter how hard people try,
25:29
no matter what concoction you make, I still don't like it. I could have also
25:32
said at that time, I could have also said I feel the same way about
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beer or wine or really any alcoholic drink.
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I didn't bring it up then because it would have been overwhelmingly distracting. Not that
25:42
me bringing up coffee wasn't also distracting because some of you got really mad at
25:45
me. I apologize.
25:50
I can say singing. I take a drink of beer, that bitterness,
25:54
it just gets me. I don't like it. And I'll try this wine, though. It's
25:57
really sweet. And you and I have very different definitions of the
26:01
word sweet. It's not sweet. It is bitter.
26:05
No. I can make you something. I can make you something. And they'll make me
26:08
something that is akin to some sort of fruit punch. And I'll take it. And
26:12
I'll take a drink and, like, fruit punch
26:16
and. Can I just have the fruit punch, please? Right.
26:20
I don't like it. And even in me just
26:24
kind of telling you this story about my certain adventures I've had with
26:27
alcohol and telling you that there are people who are trying to get me to
26:30
want to drink alcohol has made a few of you uncomfortable.
26:34
Pastor, getting up there, talking about, very freely about
26:37
alcohol. I thought we're supposed to be weird about this. And we've chosen as
26:41
a church, we're not going to be weird about it. We have a very clear,
26:44
yet vague
26:48
idea about what alcohol is. Here's our policy.
26:52
Always has been, alcohol is fine until it isn't.
26:56
What does that mean, bro? You know what it means. Everybody knows what it means.
26:59
I don't have to explain that. I could. You know what it means. It's fine
27:01
till it's not. And a lot of us have made a lot of different
27:05
choices around it. And honestly, we make different choices based on different
27:09
circumstances. Pastored a church in St. Louis,
27:12
Missouri for a few years.
27:15
I don't know if you've ever spent a lot of time with midwestern Catholics,
27:20
but they have a different perspective
27:24
about alcohol than they do in the church that we came in before in
27:27
Cabot, Arkansas, it's a dry county. If you
27:31
don't know what that is, look it up.
27:35
And so there were a lot of places where I got offered a lot of
27:39
beer and a lot of alcohol in places where
27:43
they, hey, come to their house here and they would just hand it to
27:46
me, what is the right thing to do there?
27:50
What is the right way to honor and love God in that situation is different
27:54
than the way that I honor and love God in Cabot, Arkansas, is different than
27:58
the way that we do it here. Whether I choose to eat or choose
28:01
to drink, yes or no,
28:05
isn't the question. The question is
28:09
in the decision that I make, am I making this decision
28:13
to bring honor and glory to God, or am I just doing what I
28:17
want to do, what feels good to me?
28:21
And if we are going to love God with all of our
28:25
strength, then we're going to have just a different
28:29
reasoning process by which we decide how
28:32
we're going to live again. There are certain things where God has
28:36
made himself very clear. He's got a code,
28:40
and I want to honor and love him by living that out.
28:44
He has given me a mission, and I want to spend my
28:47
life figuring out what my particular role and his big picture
28:51
mission is, and I want to do that. But
28:55
in reality, if I'm going to love
28:58
God with all of my strength,
29:04
then even in the places where I seem to have freedom,
29:08
I want to do it in a way that brings honor to this
29:12
relationship. I want to show God that I love
29:15
him. Even in areas where there's a little ambiguity,
29:19
a little bit of freedom, I'm not going to be somebody who's
29:23
like, I'm going to tighten up all the
29:26
rules and be as strict on myself as I can
29:30
to show God in the world that I'm serious.
29:35
But I'm also not going to be like, man, you get to do whatever you
29:38
want. It doesn't even matter.
29:43
Whatever I choose, in whatever situation,
29:47
no matter how vague or complex or uncertain,
29:52
with God, I'm going to attempt to do the
29:56
thing that I believe brings the most honor and glory to him. Why? Because I
30:00
love him. Because he has given me everything through
30:03
his son, Jesus Christ. He has given it to me for
30:07
free, and he has set me free from a life that was
30:10
overwhelmed and burdened by sin. And now I have
30:14
life and freedom in him,
30:18
and I don't have to. I
30:22
have to. I have to respond. I have to show him.
30:26
I want to show him. I need to show him. Maybe
30:29
we'll say that I don't have to obey. I
30:33
need to. I need to for me.
30:37
And I need to as a love response to the one who has
30:41
loved me so much. So if he
30:45
says, this is what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to try to do it.
30:48
If he says don't do that, I'm going to try not to do it. If
30:51
he says, this is my mission, I'm going to try to live it. And I
30:55
find myself in weird situations, I'm going to give it the
30:59
thoughtfulness it deserves, to figure out what is best
31:02
to honor him. And
31:06
I'm not going to allow my brain to crush me
31:11
when I fail that somehow I've lost something with
31:14
God. And I'm not going to think that I'm better than anybody else because
31:18
I succeeded. But with
31:22
humility and trust and a heart desire
31:25
to love him,
31:29
I'm going to love him with all of my strength. Let me
31:32
pray.
31:46
God, that feels easy to explain and hard
31:50
to live. It's not as just hard for those truths to kind
31:54
of sink in. God, we're not great with
31:57
freedom, but we're not great with rules
32:01
either. And we
32:04
battle. And so, God, I do
32:08
pray that we would just get to the heart of it,
32:12
that our lives need to be love
32:15
responses to you.
32:21
That if you ask, we'll do it not because
32:25
we have to, but because we get to. And that
32:29
God, through that response, that God, that we would experience your love in deeper and
32:33
deeper ways, that we would get to know you in deeper and deeper ways, that
32:36
we would be known in deeper ways.
32:45
And that God, we could experience real
32:49
life with you by
32:53
submitting our freedom to the life that you have called
32:57
us to God, I pray that we could
33:00
be people who do it with joy. And
33:04
as always, we are so thankful for your son, Jesus Christ, who makes
33:08
this possible. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.
33:12
Thanks again for joining us on our sermon podcast and you can learn more about
33:16
us@thegrovechurch.org. And if you go to thegrovechurch.org
33:20
slash connect, there's a form you could fill out. Just let us know that you've
33:23
been listening. And if you want to dig deeper on some of these topics that
33:26
we cover in our sermon podcast or just in other issues of
33:30
dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our
33:34
cultivate podcast. It's on the same feed, however
33:38
you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie,
33:42
the lead pastor at the Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.