Broken People Church

Thank Pastor Casey

CR Kickoff, Nov, 5th

Today, I want to talk to you about discipleship and sin, that lead to struggles in our walk and barriers between us and God.

The lack of real meaningful discipleship, is one of the most important and most prevalent issues plaguing the Church today.

In fact, I am so thankful that New City is different. This is the only church that I've ever been apart of that makes it a main priority to ensure people are legitimately being discipled.

We see this manifest in the massive increase in number and in popularity of unchecked false teachers.

People being led astray and believing anything that tickles their ears or justifies their current unrepentant lifestyle.

We see this in Christians who struggle with a whole multitude of sin, shame, guilt, unforgiveness, etc. sometimes for years or even decades after being saved.

Some of you might be saying to yourself, “Sin, what sin. I am a Christian?”

Well, Romans 3:23 Say’s “For all have sinned and fall short of Gods Glory.”

Often it is our background and the baggage we carry around before Christ, we continue to carry around afterwards.

We carry around hurt and Trauma, that lead to forgiveness and sin.

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 7)

THE PROBLEM OF SIN IN US

Romans 7:14-24 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law:, When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body,, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

- Think about this as the Church, the Bride of Christ we are to live set apart from the World.

- Yet, 68% of church-going men and over 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis. Of young Christian adults 18-24 years old, 76% actively search for porn.

- Only 13% of self-identified Christian women say they never watch porn—87% of Christian women have watched porn.

Christian Standard Bible

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

The percentage of Christians who struggle with addiction is much like that of the World as well, we just do more to hide it or sometimes don't even recognize we have one.

When we think of addiction we often only think of drugs and alcohol, often over looking addictions of our phones, social media, food, money, gambling, etc.

Our lack of real discipleship and accountability allow many Christians to live in addiction for years unnoticed.

Christian Standard Bible

Lamentations 3:40-42

40 Let’s examine and probe our ways,and turn back to the LORD. 41 Let’s lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven. 42 “We have sinned and rebelled;you have not forgiven.

Christian Standard Bible

James 5:15-16

15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. 17 Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.19 My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let that person know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sin.

This sin and struggle we do not address, become barriers between us and God. Those things we hold on to due to fear, or lack of trust, or spiritual immaturity, keeps us from the genuine and deep relationship with God that he desires us to have,

James 4:4–10 CSB

4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

We all have issues and struggles we continue to deal with. Discipleship is the vehicle for sanctification. And as Christ say’s “Sanctification is a process that continues until, the day he comes back.”

If you are not actively being discipled and discipling, you open yourself up to being vulnerable to the desire of the flesh and temptation of the enemy.

1 John 1:5–10 CSB

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Christian Standard Bible

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

This is why we are launching CR, many of you may think, “Oh I don’t need CR, I don’t drink or do drugs.

CR predominantly isn’t a ministry for addictions, It is a discipleship ministry.

See as I laid out all of us carry around the baggage of hurts, traumas, pain, shame, guilt, that manifest itself in a multitude of harmful, destructive and sinful behaviors.

It is these underlying root causes that can also result in self medication and addiction.

Not only does this affect our relationship with God, but often times it will tear down the relationship s we have with our friends and family, our kids, our marriages.

And until we deal with all of those underlying issues specifically, Truly making Christ Lord and Savior of our life, and laying them at the foot of the cross, real legitimate healing and life change cannot happen.

I want to share with you the 8 principles of discipleship in CR, based on the Beatitudes.

Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor” Matthew 5:3

Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover. “Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. “Happy are the meek” Matthew 5:5

Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. “Happy are the pure in heart” Matthew 5:8

Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my Character defects. “Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires” Matthew 5:8

Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for the harm I’ve done to them and others. “Happy are the merciful” Matthew 5:7 “Happy are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9

Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow his will.

Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others both by my example and by my words. “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires. “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.” Matthew 5:10

Challenge

Often times we find ourselves stuck, dealing with the same issues, struggling with the same things, getting frustrated with ourselves and even at times with God.

In CR we like to say that doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, is the definition of insanity.

I want to challenge each of us to prayerfully reflect on our lives and our walk, to determine in what areas do you need work, what am I still holding on to, what have I never dealt with?

Then I want each of us to make a plan to begin or continue discipleship, write it out.

It could be with us at CR and we would love to have you, or it could be through a D Group here at church.

Discipleship is one of the most important parts of our life, we need to break this cycle that is so prevalent in today’s church. We need to start living as the Called out Body of Believers that God has called us to be and this World so desperately needs.

I want to share with you guy a bit of my wife and I’s testimony, of what Christ did in our lives because of this very thing.

Prayer for Serenity

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next