Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

Last week, Ps. Joel dove into the reality that Love is the foundation of our faith . It is the principal element by which all things work.

Many struggle with that thought process… this is why it is necessary to reconstruct our faith to His version… to His understanding… to HIs Story.
What does Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us??

Proverbs 3:5–6 NLT
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

We struggle with the reality that it’s the undertow of love that should move us to action and not simply a transaction of debts or a proving of righteousness.
1) We were reminded that it is possible to learn the form and functions of Christianity and miss purpose behind the performance.
2) We were also then reminded that the definition of Love is not subject to culture.
3) Then we were challenged to develop Love in our lives by renewing our minds are Romans 12:1-2 instructs us. And that we learn His ways and keep his commandments as 1 John 5 instructs us.

The love of God is why we gather today! I pray that in your life, Sunday’s and church and worship… that these aren’t simply obligations that we can’t wait to get to the end of. I pray that you encounter God’s glory and his majesty! Knowing that God is love, when you truly encounter him, everything changes.

We all have experiences in our lives that have come to be pivotal moments in our existence.
• Could have been an accomplishment that propelled you froward into your future.
• Could have been a choice someone else made when you were a child that has caused you to no longer trust individuals.
• Could have been a choice you made that changed the course of your dreams, like getting pregnant at a young age, getting mixed up in drugs/alcohol, finding a comfort in things like food or meds and then having to deal with consequences of an unhealthy/hurting body.

For every action, there is a consequence.
Good actions usually result in good consequences.
Bad actions can result in bad consequences. (I say can, because it seems like many times those who do bad things get away with it for a season before it catches up to them.)

Whatever the case may be… these choices and consequences… or in other terms, these causes and effects create experiences.
And here is a danger I want to address today!

Big Idea: The Word of God has to be bigger than my experience.

Teaching
Over the years, I have had plenty of experiences. From the excitement of organized sports and playing to win, to the joys of creating music with my peers in high school and college (literally playing one of the most difficult pieces ever written for band at a national event), to getting married, having kids, becoming a pastor. All of these are big moments in life. You throw on top of that all the pieces in between of the hiking trips, the Sunday drives growing up, the Christmases and birthdays, the movie nights, all the memories… the list could on and on.

Those moments have come to define my idea of life. Those moments have come to define how I feel Life should look. These things are my experiences… and if I’m not careful I will ask God to fit into my experience rather than submit my experience to His will and his way!

So often we hear in the gospels and in Paul’s teachings to turn, to repent, to stop, to change, to be transformed, to take captive, to “no longer live in the ways you once were.”

You can see this in the whole sermon on the mount… Jesus was telling them things all kinds of things that countered human understanding

You see what Jesus is saying here?
Be careful not to wrap your identity up in the wrong things! It’d be better that you are poor, sad, humble, merciful, justice seeking, pure and persecuted, than to have it all together according to the worlds standard and miss the kingdom!

Does this mean Jesus want’s you miserable?
NO! The fruit of the spirit is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, and self-control.
Jesus is saying, my kingdom is different! My life is different!
If you run after this life, then you might run after the wrong things!

This is why he continues to teach what it should look like.
vs 13-16, he tells us to be salt and light. Make an impact by being love with skin on it!
Vs. 17-20, Jesus tells his listeners that He came to fulfill the law and warns of the hypocrisy of the teachers of religious law and Pharisees.

Then he goes on to challenge the fullness of the law by comparing what is said and the truth behind it.

Matthew 5:21–22 NLT
21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 
22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.

You see again in vs 27-28 (Matthew 5:27-28
Matthew 5:27–28 NLT
27 “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ 
28 But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

And then again he takes the same approach with divorce, vows, revenge and loving your enemies.
( You know what cracks me up here… he’s actually saying, “YOU NEED ME!” He knows he is the messiah, so he’s not being conceited… he is simply saying, “You need me and my sacrifice because the truth is… what you try to follow in the law is actually a watered down version of the fullness of the law and you still can’t fulfill it!”

Jesus then moves into instruction about:
1. Giving to the needy, but making sure its not done in vanity and
2. Prayer and fasting, but making sure its not done in vanity like is modeled by the religious leaders of that day, and
3. Then he teaches how to pray
4. The truth about forgiveness (Matt 6:14-15)
Matthew 6:14–15 NLT
14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 
15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I wish I had time to dive into all of these things deeper today, but the list goes on and on… Matt chapter 7 wraps up that sermon at the beginning of his ministry telling us:
a. not to judge others,
b. effective prayer,
c. the golden rule,
d. that narrow is the way
e. how to identify people by the fruit of their lives
f. what true disciples look like, and
g. the value of a solid foundation.

This is the essence of why we teach/preach… to sure up your foundations!

Jesus was saying, I HAVE A WAY OF LIFE THAT IS COUNTER TO YOUR EXPERIENCE! WILL YOU FOLLOW ME?

Let me remind you today that...
Big Idea: The Word of God has to be bigger than my experience.

Ps. Josh… why is my experience such a big deal??
Because in our humanity, the sum of our experiences becomes our identity. And when our identity/experiences comes to be challenged by His word… WE DON’T KNOW WHO WE ARE ANYMORE!

This is why in reconstructing faith, we need to move out of the realm of “this is what I do because it’s what I do, into the realm of this is what I do because God said so!”

Even in Baptisms we see a dying to the old self and new life in Christ! Not just symbolically, but spiritually!

You see a vivid example of this in the word

-Exodus - Children of Israel in bondage for 430 years.
-Moses shows up - Supernatural things happen - Israel asked to leave and provided for in doing so!
-Get to red sea. We have a vivid depiction of a baptism right here.
-They get to the other side and as history tells us, Pharoah and the military might of the day is wiped out in one fell swoop!
-God delivers a victory and the children of God sing and praise God.
-Within days, we are already complaining about what we don’t have!
At least in Egypt we had shelter, at least we had water, at least we had food.
According to scholars, there was about a year and a half that God dwelt with his people giving them instruction, teaching them through Moses the tabernacle practices. He provided food, water, protection from the sun as well has heat and light at night! But they still complained.
Then they went and scoped out the promised land and came back with a negative report (with the exception of Caleb and Joshua)
This invokes another 40 years of wandering in the wilderness!

You know what is most interesting is the fact that the children of Israel were no longer slaves! They were no longer bound to their suppressors in Egypt! But because of their experience, mentally, they were still slaves! They only saw the impossibilities when they were supernaturally having their needs met by God.

I firmly believe that the 40 years was used as a mental reset for the children of God! He even allowed some battles to take place so they could see that they can be victorious… that they are no longer slaves!

THEIR EXPERIENCE KEPT THEM FROM THE PROMISE BECAUSE THEIR EXPERIENCE TRUMPED HIS WORD TO THEM!
God was asking them to surrender their old identity to him and begin a new life!

And how often do we do the same?

How often do we miss God’s promises or at least miss his original timing as we need another round in the wilderness to grasp on to the truth that His word is greater than our experiences?

God is giving you the ability to step into this newness of life now! As we live in a fallen world, it will not be all cupcakes and roses, but we can live in communion with God this side of eternity if we will simply surrender our kingdom to his and let his word reign over our experiences.

We need to surrender our old identity to Christ and begin our new life!

Well, how do I do that?

1) Own where you are at.

a. If you see the identity struggle in your life… own it! You have nothing to prove, you have nothing to hide!
b. If someone countering your thought process makes you insecure, your identity might rest in your intellect, or need to be needed.
i. It’s okay to recognize that… own it and surrender it to God.
c. If someone challenges your parenting and you you come unglued because how dare they tell you how to raise your child, then your identity may rest in the fact that you are a parent. You may feel like you fail at everything else in life, but at least you are a good parent and now that is countered… so if I’m not a good parent either, then what am I ?
i. It’s okay to own that! I struggle with that!
d. If you are a rancher and you love it… you’d rather be on horseback in a blizzard than be stuck behind a desk, but something happens and you can no longer do ranching… what am I supposed to do? I’m a rancher and I can’t do any ranching? Who Am I?
i. Own that! What you do is not who you are!
e. Even when you make mistakes!!
i. Own them! What you have done is not who you are!

So, Own where you are at, then

2) Give it to God to Change
1- The bible tells us to confess our sins 1John 1:9
1 John 1:9 NLT
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

2- If something happened to you that has become your identity, forgive whoever hurt you! Ephesians 4:23 tells us
Ephesians 4:32 NLT
32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

3- If we have stood in our own ability or provision, ask God us to forgive us of our pride and to help us grow in humility. James 4:6-7 tells us
James 4:6–7 NLT
6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

4- This list could easily go on…

Note that this journey will follow the same heart for everyone, but will look slightly different as well. There is not one of us in here that can truly say that we have walked a mile in someone else’s shoes. We may have similar experiences, but we haven’t had the same experiences.

Give it to God to change, allow his spirit (The Holy Spirit) to come into your life and then begin to listen to his instruction as the word tells us that he will guide us into all truth! (John 16:13)… which leads to my last point…

3) Walk in the newness of life.
God’s word will change your norms! This might challenge your identity if your identity is wrapped up in worlds point of view!

Prime examples:
The world says, “Sex outside of marriage is fine.”
The word says it’s not (Heb 13:4)

The world say, “Living together and not being married is fine. It’s convenient.”
The word says it’s not as it typically leads to sexual immorality, or fornication and in these verses the greek word used is porneia which literally means “unlawfull lust”

The world says, “Let your heart lead you.”
The word says mans heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. (Jer 17:9)

The world says, “Let your anger be your fuel to obliterate your enemies.”
The word says, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger and love your enemies.”

This is a different kingdom! One where the love of God will have to be my foundation as His word must become greater than my experiences!

That is until my experiences line up with his word!

Application Point: Following Paul's instruction, we should surrender our old identity to Christ and begin our new life.

How does this happen?
Big Idea: The Word of God has to be bigger than my experiences.