Rut, Rot, or Revival: Getting Out of The Rut

So, we've been talking about getting out of the rut. In our Series has been run Trot or Revival. And where are you at in your own walk with Christ? You know, where are we at as a church along that Spectrum? And last week, I concluded my message by talking about how Jesus Christ is the one who gives us the hand up out of that rut, or as aw Tozer called it, the circular grave, where we continually wear that same hole into the ground, deeper and deeper. And we're going to explore that fact that Jesus is the key of getting out of that, right? A little bit deeper today, as we talked about that. In John chapter, 14, verses 21, 23 and 24. Jesus said, whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me Will Be Loved by my father and I too will love them and show myself to them. Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not. Love me will not obey my teaching these words. You hear are not my own. They belong to the father who sent me.

You know, that passage essentially what Jesus is teaching was that when we obey the words of Jesus in faith and in love proving that we love him. He shows himself to us.

And, you know, we have to acknowledge that there are two subjects acting. Here.

When we obey his word, we prove that we love him and he shows himself to us.

There's a lot of he and we there in that, you know, and who is this, he that we're talking about. Well, you know, the default answer always in church is Jesus, right?

That he is, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. And, you know, there are two, divinely established means for getting out of the rent faith in our Lord. Jesus Christ and obedience to his Has always given us to get out of a spiritual and emotional.

and when I say, you know, Faith in our Lord. Jesus Christ. I want you to understand that I'm talking about, irrevocable total commitment to the person of Jesus Christ. That we are completely committed to him. It's not something that you can go back on. It's not something that you only apply to certain parts of your life. When you have a complete commitment to Jesus Christ. Everything is included. Everything is offered to Jesus in faith. And you no faith in Jesus, is not something you do with hesitation or reservation. You know, it shouldn't be like you're a contestant on a game show and you're looking and you'll be like, I guess I'll pick door number two. That's not how it is with your faith in Jesus. When you choose to have faith in Jesus. It means you her giving a complete total commitment to Jesus Christ. It is a permanent personal commitment to follow Jesus, and to obey the teachings that we see in Scripture.

Now, let me be clear when we talked about this, that faith in Jesus is not the same as commitment to your church or denomination. You're all too often. I think we get those things confused. Nice app for 2 hours yesterday. Over 2 hours, talking with Another church nearby that is beginning, the whole process to leave the United Methodist Church. The funny thing is as they embark on that Journey. They have all the same questions. We had at the beginning. They're getting the same response. We got from the questions and interesting. As I walked that through with them, that this is one of the points. We talked about a lot.

That your commitment isn't just to a certain local church or to a certain denomination, even though it's important for you to be committed to your local church into your denomination. But when we really talk about your face. That's in Christ. And only in Christ.

And you know, I think that we often forget that when we gather here is a church on Sunday morning that this is more than just a social Gathering or a club that we're all a part of. Church is meant to be a Divine assembly.

Kind of weird to think about but to think that we are a Divine assembly here this morning and this Divine assembly. It was put together by God himself. God has the people that he wants to be here here. For a reason. Somehow in God's Divine wisdom, which is always beyond our understanding. He's collected this group of people to accomplish his purpose in this place in this community.

You know, the other thing we talked about inside met with that group. Is that your face is not in a building. A brick-and-mortar structure. Cuz it's not.

The congregation is not a building.

This building is just a resource, just a tool to be used and that is what it is. And that's how you have to see it.

Your faith is in Jesus. Not a building. Your faith is in Jesus. Not a denomination. Your faith is in. Jesus, not. Just one particular congregation. You know, your faith is in, Jesus, not your church leaders. You know, you should trust your church leaders. You should look to them for guidance. But that's not who your faith is in. Your faith is in Jesus, and that's where it needs to be.

Because you know, all too often when we describe our face to people, what are the first two things that we say. The church we attend and what denomination? It's part of fright. That's usually when people ask us about our faith, the first two things we state.

and yes, you know, we should be committed to the mission of this our local church, and we should be committed to helping carry out the larger purposes of Whatever denomination, we're apart of. But our real commitment is to Christ. All too often. I think we forget that all too often that is not where we first go when we talked about our faith.

But you know, there's not going to be any membership card that you carried in your wallet that gets into heaven. You can hope it will, but it won't. Not even if you have a Sam's Club and a Costco membership, will it get you in? It won't if you read the fine print of your Amazon Prime account. It's not included. One thing they can't ship for free.

You know, complete and total commitment, and to trust Jesus is the one way that God provides to get into heaven, but that's also the way that he provides for us to get out of the rut when we were in it. Is all too often. The reason we're stuck in a rut is because we're worrying about things that we really don't necessarily need to be worrying about. And that's what has this stuck in that place. You know, the second means that God's provides is his holy scriptures.

Obedience to Christ, proves. We love him and in return, he shows himself to us.

And I'm repeating that statement cuz I hope You feel the gravity of that, when you say it? In return, he shows himself to us. How awesome is that to think that God would reveal himself to us, you know, we reading scripture of different times when God does that and gives people a glimpse of him and, you know, he was so awesome when he showed himself too many of them, you know, he would place his hand over them or something, as they head between rocks cuz they just couldn't stand to look at him.

You know Moses was glowing, right?

and I think that's the reason that often when we have those times when he shows himself to us. We don't know how to react. You know, when we start saying things like well, you know, there are just so many Commandments in the Bible. How can I possibly Live out all of them. How can I remember? All of them? How can I do all these things? You know, how can I be sure that I'm obeying? What I need to obey. And the truth is, to be honest. You can't do it all on your own. You're not going to be able to. And that's what Jesus came proclaiming to the Jews and the Israelites was, hey, you know, you're trying to come up with this man-made system of rules to make sure you obey everything. It's just not working. But they didn't want to hear that.

And since you can't do it on your own, that's why that faith in Jesus that commitment to him is so important.

You know, it's really hard for us to make that claim that. We have great faith. If we aren't trying to live a life that's obedient to God's work.

You know, a popular statement among many of the progressive Christians, is that the Bible just isn't relevant to the world that we live in anymore. That so much of it just doesn't apply to the day and age that we find ourselves in.

You know what? That's not a product of modern society because the truth is, if you read through the Bible, another thing you understand is that the type of life that we are told to live in the Bible has never fit with the mold, that is sinful Fallen. World is tried to fit into

I mean the Son of God himself came proclaiming. The truth in. They Crucified him on a cross because he wouldn't fit into the mold that they wanted him to

1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 20 through 2 through 25 says Jews demand signs and Greeks, look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles. But to Those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God, is wiser than human wisdom in. The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

You know, when the standards set forth in God's word don't match up with desires and urges of society. That is when they default irrelevant or outdated or foolishness. And hey, the saying goes ignorance is bliss, right? Ignorance is bliss until it's not. until reality meets up with Truth and this Godless Society in the rules that it tries to put in place to make everything acceptable and socially, acceptable just doesn't work. Just doesn't bring you the peace in the Hope in the assurance that you need.

And, you know, so often when we try to say that scripture. Just doesn't hold anything for us, you know, we need to realize that God's holy scriptures have a way of speaking to us at different times in our lives. the last week, I said something about the great old Saints, you know, who live among us. And I kind of threw the question out. There, is the fact of just the fact that you lived longer. Is that what major makes you? A saint. I think there was a pretty good consensus, but no, that's not it. It's the stuff you go through and I think all of those people would back that up that there are times when Scripture speaks to you that maybe didn't another time. You know, there's times when you read a particular passage of scripture and you know, when you read it. Okay, that was nice, but you don't really feel anything from its you don't really but then there are those other times when you read that exact same passage of scripture. And it's almost like those words sleep off the page at you. All at once that scripture that you read and you thought I, okay. I kind of get with that means. You understand it. His life experience has given you a new perspective on what that is saying right there.

You know, why is that? That's something that stuff for us to understand. You know, Tozer said that, that is when Jesus's teaching touches your life. When the two things make contact, you know, the truth of scripture and life experience. It's those moments when they rub together and it's kind of that final, aha moment when you realize That's what God meant there. But when you have an experience those things you don't see those things. But, just remember that when those times do happen, when you do realize that, oh, this is the truth of God's word coming in contact with the life that I'm living. Those are the times you need to take note. Those are the times to pay attention and to dive deeper into God's word to see what else he has to teach you. John 14 verse 21 says, Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me Will Be Loved by my father and I too will love them and show myself to them.

You know, you'll get out of that rut pretty quickly. Whenever you like knowledge, the fact that God is showing himself to you. The God is showing his plan for you to you, and he's calling you to do something.

But, you know, like I said, you know, for a lot of those Biblical characters, we see that they're startled. When they see God, they don't know quite how to react and will it snow different for us? All too often when God begins to reveal himself to us, we're scared. We don't know how to react to that of seeing what he's wanting for our lives. So we do the most religious thing we can think of, we we go off and we pray.

Now, praying is never a bad thing to do. Don't get me wrong on that. But sometimes we use it as a stall tactic.

Yeah, I once had an elder in the church. I was serving at say just because you pray about it, longer doesn't make it any Holier. Because sometimes when we know what God wants us to do, but proof. That's a big one. I mean really. Are you sure that's what you want me to do? It's like we keep praying thinking well, maybe God will change his mind. Maybe he'll step that down a few. If I just keep praying about it longer. Maybe he'll water it down a little bit.

Like I said, we often don't know how to react when we begin to see what God really wants for Life, how God plans on using us.

But we have to be careful. Careful about his do not pray, down, something that the Lord is telling you to do. If you know, God is asking you to do something, do it. Acknowledge the fact that he's asking you to do it and do it because the Lord will be right there with you, as you do it. You are not doing that alone.

And also a part of what you need to understand is this family of Believers. This Divine assembly here will also be with you. They will also walk through whatever that is. God is calling you to do. They'll be there.

So instead of being scared, instead of reacting in that way, don't be afraid and thank the Lord. For what? He's calling you to do, put your trust in him and truly show that you believe the things that you say, you believe in the Bible are true. And put fear in its proper place behind you insubordination to what God is calling you to do.

Yeah, that's one thing we talked about two is we sat and talked about the church's. I said, you know, something we often forget is Christians. Is that all these little battles? We think that are going on? We forget the fact that we've already want.

When Christ died on the cross over two thousand years ago. He defeated sin and death, right? So, all of these things that were fighting against our culture for and all these things. We fight them from a defeated stance. Like the church has been beaten. Like the churches coming from behind. When the truth is, we've already won all those fights. We've already won all of those battles, but yet. We don't take that stance when we address them. So we need to claim that Victory. We need to realize that we don't have a reason to be afraid as we go up against whatever it is. Because Christ has gone before us and he has won that battle. We just need to be faithful in carrying out our part of it so that we can see it.

But I understand, you know, it's living in a fallen World in our old routine, and it's just not getting us anywhere.

And you know this, I thought about that. It's kind of like our faith has gotten covid-19. It's infected everything else, right? So why not? It can infect our faith and really I think it has I think we're seeing that here, you know, we talked about it with the District staff. That seems like the first year we went through covid-19 the church rally. Not just this church, but globally, the church kind of rallied and got through that first year pretty well. Progressed. People got scared. People stop. Giving these people stop supporting because they didn't know what was going to happen.

So, you know what's happened is with our faith. Just like covid-19, you know. We might read scripture but nothing has any taste to it.

We might spend time reading God's word, but we no longer smell the sweet fragrance of his presence with this. We've lost that, since it's been stripped from us by this world. We no longer When we read God's word, it doesn't taste like honey on our lips. When we spend time worshipping together in church. It just seemed stale. And we don't know what to do is we go through that experience, as it seems like, nothing is there.

You know when you hit that point that nothing is all that you see it's all that you hear. It's all that you feel.

It can really be a desperate time in your faith. And all too often when we're going through those times. We like to try to blame it on something external.

We start blaming it on anything we can think of, if, you know. Well, you know, I think the reason I feel that way when I go to church is because, you know this Sunday, they didn't play any of the songs that I liked. So that's why worship felt stale. Are, you know, it's because the pastor praise way too long. I mean, I fall asleep, every time it's not my fault, you know, that's that's what the whole Downer is. You know, we go on and on with all these things.

You know, we need more of this at our church. We need less of this at our church. We try to blame it on all these things, but the problem is the blame never falls on us.

We never realize that when you struggle to worship her to feel anything. Very rarely, is that an external problem? That's usually a me problem. And me problems are tough for us to face. We don't want to so all too often churches fall into the Trap of trying to entertain their people out of the rut. As long as we keep them entertained, they'll be okay, right? They'll all be in a better place. Spiritually.

And, you know, it seems sometimes. We get so desperate that it can even get to the point that the people in the church stop, caring about what they're being fed. As long as whatever. They're being fed, gives them a little bit of taste, gives them a little bit of smell again. They don't care.

That's why I weigh too. Many of the Evangelist. We see on the TV or as popular as they are. Is a little bit of excitement and emotion, gets people feeling things again.

But, you know, we just got to be honest. That the reason we struggle so often is a me problem, not an external problem and we have to look at that and that's why throughout this series so far has been encouraging us each and every week to take some time to examine where you are in your walk with Christ.

You know, take a look. Are you stuck in a rut? Or have you been stuck in a rut so long that your faith is beginning to rot?

or maybe your In Revival, and if you are in Revival, that is awesome. Thank God for it. But if you are, keep your eyes open for those around you who might be in a rut or rot, and need a hand up out of there.

You know the other day I got in my son's truck. I was driving it and he was driving my Jeep. I got the key out of pocket. Got in it. Tried to stick it in the ignition and it wouldn't go. and you know, I'm like, why won't this key go in and keep doing that for a little bit and then I'm like, oh, I have the wrong key. You know, I had two sets of keys in my pocket. My church keys are on my Jeep keys, and then I had his set of keys. So. I was trying to stick the wrong key in to start his truck will as soon as I pulled the right key out and stuck it in turned, it. It started right up.

You know, all too often. The reason our faith won't start. It, won't come alive, is because we're trying to use the wrong key to start it.

We're trying to stick other things in that our society says, oh, will you just need to do this? And then you'll feel better or you need to do this to increase your faith.

You know, send $20 to the power hour and you'll have more faith.

When the truth is, we need to believe in Jesus and we need to obey what it says in scripture. Those are the things that will get us out of that rut. We can try those other things, but most often. They won't work. You know, if we pull out the right Keys, those keys that God has given us. We can get our faith moving again. We can get out of that rut.

Cuz all too often, you know, what keeps us stuck in the Rut as we lose hope, right? We think, well, I'm never going to get out of this. I'm just going to be stuck in this. We think of all that we have. We have God, we have Jesus Christ. As our savior. We have God's. Holy word. We have prayer. We have hope we have a church family. And if we obey and learn from what we see in scripture, we can have the joy and hope that comes from that obedience.

All we have to do is trust and his son. Jesus Christ and obey the truth, and the Lord will reveal himself to us. Are we ready for that?