Still

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Pastor Chuck here. And today I want to talk about. Still, where have you gone? Still. There's a question that I, I, I want to talk about with almost every person I meet. Especially as you grow a little bit older. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Where have you grown? Still. Or maybe a better way, where have you gone? Stale. Not resting, not recovering, just still. Almost like stuck. There is a difference between resting and recovering and stuck. [00:00:41] Speaker B: Hebrews puts it this way. In Hebrews 12:1, the writer says, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. Strip it off. Don't manage it. Don't rename it. Don't make peace with it. Strip it off. I mean, get rid of it. Run from it. I mean, lay it down. Strip it off. But I gotta be honest with you, if we're, if, if we're just really honest as we look in the mirror, [00:01:12] Speaker A: most of us aren't doing that. And I would be at the top of the list. We're kind of managing these weights that we carry. But we know biblically are sins that pets in life. [00:01:24] Speaker B: That one habit we just won't lay down. Maybe it's that one word we just can't give up. Maybe that one person we won't forgive. Maybe it's that one anger issue we just can't seem to just let go. We've learned how to carry certain things without them completing, wrecking our lives. And we hang on to a little bit of bitterness. Yeah, but it's controlled, right? A little dishonesty, but that's justified, right? I mean, you know, a little. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Why lie? A little distance from God. But we can explain that. A little compromise here, a little private disobedience there, and enough public religion to dog on it, make everything looks like we've got it all together. [00:02:11] Speaker B: We have become curators of our own dysfunction. And we call it normal. Normal. But what if the real danger isn't this wild rebellion? What if the real danger is stagnation? What if it's still. What if what once was a river is now a swamp? Paul writes this to the Corinthian Church in Second Corinthians 3:18. The Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like him. [00:02:46] Speaker A: More and more. Once again, like yesterday, this is movement. It is moving toward Christ, not staying still where we are, because things stop moving. [00:02:59] Speaker B: They stop staying healthy. They. They don't remain healthy. They don't grow in a healthy way. They decay. They die. A river again that once was thriving becomes a swamp that stinks and spiritually, that's what happens. I've been there, and I bet you have too. You don't have to walk away from God to drift. You just have to stop moving toward him. You know, like same old prayers that [00:03:28] Speaker A: become just like rote. Or maybe the same patterns that just keep us justifying our sin. Or the same excuses like I'm just tired or I got too much to do, or you know what? [00:03:44] Speaker B: I don't like organized religion or the pastor made me mad. Or you. You get the feeling it can be month after month. It can be year after year for some of us, can be decades after decades. But it's actually stuck. Maybe that's why some people can talk a lot about their faith and never change. They know the language, they know the routines, they know the right posture in public. But deep down, they haven't let the [00:04:13] Speaker A: spirit of God touch the parts that they keep protecting. It's like we've got them locked up in a vault somewhere. It's like God, you can have all this other stuff, but not that. Not that one thing that I keep living onto. So here's the question again. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Where is it that you've gone still? Where is it that you stopped growing? Where did you settle into? This is just how I am. Because the spirit of the living God is always moving. The spirit of God is always inviting, always nudging, always calling you forward. Not into perfection, but into transformation. James puts it really bluntly in James, [00:05:00] Speaker A: chapter four, verse eight. Come close to God and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, purify your hearts. That is active, that is relational, that is responsive. [00:05:13] Speaker B: So today, unless you're worried, it's like, chuck, I'm doing all I can, man. This isn't about doing more. It's might be about refusing to stay where you are. It may not be about doing more. It's not even about trying harder. It's one honest, open prayer without all of the spiritual wrapping that we put on it. It's one surrendered step toward Jesus rather than toward our rebellion or ease. [00:05:45] Speaker A: It's one decision to stop managing what God is asking you to release. Because you aren't saved to stand still. You are saved by the blood of [00:06:00] Speaker B: Christ to move forward toward him. And sometimes the holiest thing you can do is admit, Lord, I've been parked in a place you never told me to camp out. That kind of honesty, friend, that's not weakness. That is the beginning of change. So today, while we're just talking a little bit, ask yourself honestly, where have I grown still, possibly stagnant. Maybe. [00:06:30] Speaker A: Well, maybe you're just become a swamp. If so, let the living waters of Christ flow through you today and become a river. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Chuck Allen and I love it [00:06:45] Speaker B: when you join me on the weekday podcast. Bye now.