Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Under the Influence: In God We Trust Part 2

Episode Date: November 1, 2020

ABOUT IN GOD WE TRUSTPandemics. Politics. Social unrest. There’s no denying we’re in a season of conflict and chaos—but the noise in your news feed doesn’t have to pollute your soul. You can find peace. You can find hope. You can trust in the One who holds the future in His hands. Learn more about In God We Trust: https://www.life.church/ingodwetrustStart the In God We Trust Bible Plan: https://www.go2.lc/trustWE’RE OPENTo ensure safety at all of our Life.Church locations, our weekend services have been redesigned to create a sanitary, touchless environment that allows for physical distancing. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, well, who's in the mood to have a little fun today? Anybody ready, have a little fun? To have a little fun, what I thought we could do is we could talk about politics. Let's do that, all right? Let's talk about politics today. What we're going to do is at the count of three, I'm going to ask you to shout at the top of your lungs who you're going to vote for next week. Are you ready to do that?

I'm not going to do that. Don't shout at the top of your lungs. I'm only joking. but we do know that we have a very big week ahead of us for those of you who are part of our country. And this Tuesday and in the coming week, we're going to elect the person who will be the president for the next four years. And I think you would acknowledge that we're living in a season that's very, very complicated, perhaps more tension in our nation than for many of us for our entire lives.

And certainly, this is a complicated time. no beyond a shadow of a doubt that whoever you're voting for is the best candidate. And whoever else, everyone else is voting for, they are a complete idiots. And the reason I know that is because I've seen you on social media talking about how crazy everybody is. What I want to do, though, is I want to take a step back today and I want to let God's word reset our hearts and prepare us to be faithful no matter what the future holds. So we're going to look today at God's word from 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 6, and let this speak to our hearts.

Peter said this. He said, humble yourselves. It's a great place to start, to recognize that we're not always right, we don't know it all, and we can humble ourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, who's thankful for the powerful hand of God that is involved in our lives, reigning and ruling, sovereign and the supreme God, we will humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I want to focus on a phrase, humble yourself, therefore, under God. Can somebody say under God? Those of you online, type that in the chat.

Under God. Just type it in there, I'm under God, I'm under God, I'm under God. humble yourself therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up i want to talk about being under god and try to answer the question how do we as followers of christ live under god in a culture that's becoming increasingly hostile toward god how do we as disciples of jesus faithfully serve him, faithfully live for him, faithfully represent him in a culture that's becoming increasingly hostile toward God. I want to talk about how we live under God. But before we talk about how we live under God, I want to first try to identify and help you identify in your own walk what you're actually under. In fact, I'm going to show you a scale that will come up on the screen behind me

with the numbers between 1 and 10. And I want you to try to identify and discuss this. Talk about it with your family, with your spouse if you're married, maybe with your children, talk about it with your life group, and ask yourself, what are you under? When you look at your own life,

what is influencing you? Are you under the influence of God? Is he influencing most of your decision? directing your steps, moving your emotions, and leading you every single day. Or would you say you're more under the influence of culture, the systems of this world, the thinking of this culture? And so you might say, well, yeah, I don't even believe in God. So obviously I'm under culture.

I'm a one or a two. Or you might say, no, I'm really, really passionate about the things of God. I'm under God. Don't say you're a 10. You're not a 10. Jesus is a 10. You might be a 9, but you're not a 10. But what I want you to do is try to think about and talk about what are you under?

What is influencing you? So let's talk about some different categories. Let's start with like what entertains you. I want you to think about whenever you watch something, enjoy something, listen to something to entertain you, would you say that you're more under the influence of God, meaning before you watch it, show on Netflix before you listen to some music, before you read something, before you open up social media, you're thinking consciously asking, is this pleasing to God? Is this going to help build my faith? And if the answer is no, you might stay away from it. If the answer is yes,

you might go to it. Would you say that which entertains you is influenced by God or would you say you're more under culture? In other words, you're kind of entertained by whatever is recommended perhaps on Netflix. Doesn't matter if it's God honoring. Doesn't matter if it's filthy. If it's funny, that's good enough for you. Or if it's high quality. Doesn't matter what's in the music you listen to.

Doesn't matter about what you read. Would you say when you look at that which entertains you, you're more under culture or maybe are you more under God? Let's talk about another category. Let's talk about your money. Maybe you get paid once a week. every once every two weeks or so. When you receive an increase, when you have money,

what influences what you do with your money? Would you say that you're really, really, really under God? Like you recognize this comes from God. It's a gift from God, so much so that I want to worship God with the very first that comes in. I want to give him the tithe because I know this comes from God. And then you recognize, I really want to honor God with what I have. I want to be a good steward.

Sure, I'm going to enjoy some, but I'm going to use what I have to make a difference in this world. When it comes to your money, you're really, really under the influence of God. Or would you say, it's probably more under the influence of culture? In other words, you probably don't even think about God. And if you're going to give to God, it's not first, it's probably last, whatever's left over if you can afford to. Because culture drives and consumes your spending, and you find that almost whatever comes in goes out because you see the ad and you want it and you think, if I have that, I'll be happy.

and you're chasing something out there to find something, consume something that's going to be meaningful. When it comes to your money, would you say you're more under the influence of God, or would you say you're more under the influence of culture? Let's think about the words that you speak. Think about the last week, just what you said during the week. Would you say that you were under the influence of God as you were speaking to people? In other words, your words were life-giving. your words were God honoring. Your words were encouraging and pointing people toward eternity

into things that last and things that matter. Or would you say you're more under culture, meaning, yeah, you kind of just go along with the flow and everybody else is griping, so you're griping too. And you're tearing people down and your words are angry and sometimes hateful and often critical. they may have been harsh to your spouse or maybe your children, you found yourself gossiping a little bit,

talking bad about all those liberal idiots or all those conservative idiots or whatever it is? When it comes to your words, would you say that they're more influenced by God or would you say they're more influenced by culture? What influences your life? Let's just do one more category. How about your self-worth?

How do you feel about yourself? would you say that you're under the influence of God, meaning it doesn't really matter what they say about you or what they think about you? You're secure. You know who you are in Christ. You're valuable because of what God says about you. Or would you say that your self-worth is more under the influence of culture?

Meaning if you don't have the right label on or your hair's not having a good day, you don't feel good about yourself. It really matters when you're not. but they say and what they think and how many people like your post or comment, because if they don't, you don't feel valuable. Would you say that you are more under the influence of God or under the influence of culture?

And here's what's really sad. Many of us don't even know. We've got no idea what influence we're under. I'll illustrate it this way. How many of you, all of our churches, how many of you have ever been around a drunk person? Raise your hands. Notice I didn't ask you if you've ever been drunk.

See what I did there for you. If you've been around a drunk person online, type it in. I've been around a drunk. I've been around a drunk person. What's interesting is if you've ever been around someone who's under the influence of alcohol, they don't always know they're under the influence of alcohol. I'm not drunk, I'm okay, I'm not drunk at all.

They don't know they're under the influence, but they're under the influence and something on the outside is influencing what comes from their insight. What happens when you're under the influence of alcohol? Well, alcohol influences how you think, if I'm right, say you're right, am I right? It influences what you say, if I'm right, say you're right.

It influences the way that you talk, am I right? It influences who you think is attractive. You're laughing, right? After four drinks or so, the percentage of attractive people goes up. After six or so, you start thinking you're attractive. The more you drink, the uglier you get, the more attractive you think. When you're under the influence of alcohol, you may not even know you're under the influence, but it influences who you love.

You can meet a total stranger. one do's talking to another dude i love you man you're my best friend when you're under the influence of alcohol it lowers your guard you become way more vulnerable to do stupid things you'd never do otherwise and you're not always aware when you're under its influence what if we've been so intoxicated by our culture, that we're not even aware that we're under its influence. What if we're so poisoned by the thinking of this world that we don't even realize how far we've drifted from God? Humble yourselves. Therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Humble yourself under God. How do we this very complicated season of life? How do we live

under God in a culture that's becoming increasingly hostile toward God? What I want to do is I want to show you a story in the Old Testament's incredibly powerful to me in the book of Daniel. I'll give you the context of it that we're going to look at several verses and we're going to zero in on one particular verse. If you don't know about Daniel in the Old Testament, he was raised worshipping the one true God. He would worship Yahweh in every way. But tragically, King Nebuchadnezzar, who was a very evil king, came in with the Babylonians and completely destroyed Daniel's homeland, Jerusalem. And the Babylonians, the evil Babylonians, burned the temple to the ground, completely wrecked the city,

and in this evil plan, they went and took as prisoners the brightest of the bright, the best of the best of the Jewish people, including Daniel, to kidnap them, make them prisoners or slaves, to indoctrinate them with the Babylonian culture so these very talented, very bright young men could eventually become Babylonian leaders in their government. You can read the story very clearly in Daniel chapter 1, verse 3. It says, then the king ordered Aspenaz, the chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility, young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace.

Now, what was he to do? He was to teach them the language. You're going to learn a new language and the literature of the Babylonians, and the king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. Now, this was not the normal food they would eat. This was food that was dedicated to pagan gods,

and scripture says they were to be trained for three years, and after that, they were enter into the king's service. So what do we have? Daniel was one of several young men that was taken prisoner, and the Babylonians then changed their language, changed their education, indoctrinating them with the Babylonian views, so they would be under the culture, under the thinking, changed their names. Originally, their names reflected the one true God, but these young men now had names that represented the pagan gods, and even changed their diet so they wouldn't eat that which was good, right, pure, and healthy, but instead, to eat food that was dedicated to pagan gods.

Without knowing it, the goal was to bring these people under the influence of the Babylonian culture. If the king thought, if we can change the way they think, then we can change what they believe, and if we can change the way they think and what they believe, we can change how they will behave. Do not forget. We have a spiritual enemy.

His name is Satan. and he is the father of lies. And there is an all-out attack against your mind to convince you of lies because if he can change the way you think, he will change what you believe. And if he can get you under the influence of culture and change what you think and what you believe,

then he can change how you behave. And every single day, I believe, our enemy is lying to us, lolling us into spiritual complacency. You may even kind of like, believe in God. Like, yeah, I believe in God. I mean, like, I'm not a Buddhist or anything like that. And, you know, I go to church every now and then, and I pray over my meal before Thanksgiving. And you wake up and you realize without even knowing it, oh, my gosh, I'm more under culture than I am under God.

How did I get there? The answer is, we have to recognize, embrace, believe that we cannot halfway follow Jesus. we can never be just a partially devoted follower of Christ. Why? Because you will never, and I promise you this, you will never just accidentally stumble into righteousness. You'll never be going along half-heartedly through life and just fall into holiness. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm more holy today than I was yesterday. I mean, suddenly my passion for Jesus just grew out of nowhere.

I have no idea why. Suddenly I just let go of the things that were holding me back and the sin that was holding me hostage. to you now suddenly for no reason whatsoever I crave God's word. And I want to live for eternity. You will never stumble into righteousness. We can't halfway follow Jesus.

You know this, but yet we often forget it because we don't recognize how much under the influence of culture we really are. It is funny to me. Think about any other air of your life and ask, can you just kind of sort of try and become great? take your body let's say you want to get healthy what's your plan well i'm going to work out one time a month

it's really going to be a good workout you think you can go one time a month to get in good shape no you just laugh your head off or let's talk about your diet some people have a cheat meal once a week like one meal a week i'd eat something unhealthy you i'm going to have a good i'm going to have a healthy meal once a week and I'm like get in shape. This is crazy. That's crazy. Same with your relationships. Imagine with my wife Amy. Imagine if I said, I want to have a really good marriage, so I'm going to be nice to her at least once a week. It's crazy, right? And yet, for so many of us as followers of Christ, I want to be close to God, so I may go to church once a week, but that's about it. Nothing else. And one day we wake up wondering why we freak out and tell you. And

panic and are vulnerable to whatever the latest rumor is, believing there's no hope for the future, putting our hope in a temporary world and in people who can never meet our needs, instead of in a God who's always good and always faithful, even in hard times, he's still on the throne. How did Daniel stay faithful to God when everything in the Babylonian culture was trying to him under its seductive influence. There's one little verse that's so powerful. And this is the verse for which we're going to apply to our lives. Verse 8.

They said, Daniel, eat this food devoted to pagans. In verse 8. But Daniel resolved. Somebody say, I'm resolved. Type it in the chat. I'm resolved. Daniel made a predetermined decision. He pre-decided.

Before he was in the moment, he had already made his resolution. but Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. I love this. The king said, eat the food devoted to pagan gods. But Daniel had already predetermined where his line in the sand would be. He had pre-decided, I am under God. What's fascinating to me is that Daniel didn't fight when they took away his name because he knew that was an outward label,

and inwardly he knew who he was. He didn't defend his name, but when someone attacked the name of God, that's when he said, no one defames God's name. I am predetermined, I pre-decided I'm not eating this food devoted to pagan gods.

How do we live under God in a culture increasingly hostile toward God? We make some predetermined resolutions in our lives. And this is what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm not going to ask you to make five or ten predetermined decisions. I'm going to ask you to simply make one. Just one. Just one.

Whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to you is your most important one. And what we're going to do is we're going to change the trajectory to drifting mindless. under culture, and we're going to take one step back toward being under God in all that we do. We're going to humble ourselves under God's mighty hands. To live under God, I've decided to what? One decision. One decision to change the momentum toward culture back and take a step toward God. I've pre-decided, this is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to share with you just a few of the predetermined resolutions I made along the way. Probably my first one was when I was 20 years of age, and I was a brand new follower of Jesus, and I recognized I didn't know anything about God, nothing about the Bible. And the temptations to go back to the life from which I came, back to culture, the temptations were so strong that I made a predetermined, decision that I would spend the first moments of my day with God. My first moments would be daily time with Christ. I don't know about you, but I eat every day and I drink every day. So as a follower of Jesus, I better feed on the bread of life every day. I want some time with God

every day. So the first part of my day, technically the second part, first I go to the bathroom, The second part of my day is that now I open up my U-Versian Bible app, and I'm reading again all the way through the Bible, and I'm letting God's word nourish my soul. It's a predetermined decision. And then I spend time in prayer. And so tomorrow when I wake up, I don't have to ask myself, what am I going to do first? Am I going to go to Instagram? Am I going to worry? Am I going to go and read the news?

No, I've already predetermined. The first thing I do is spend time with God. another decision I made as a young believer is before I was a Christian I was not sexually pure and I learned that the gift of lovemaking is reserved for the context of marriage and so I made a decision took me a few weeks to commit to this but I committed and said I'm going to wait until I'm married and not have sex again until I'm married so whenever I would meet a girl that would be interesting and maybe we were about to go out on the first date I would just tell her my commitment. Just so you'll know, I'm not going to have sex until I'm married. Yes, it was a very

awkward conversation. And a lot of times they weren't very interested in me. And they go, I'm not planning on having sex for you, but I would just tell them because I wasn't going to wait until things were hot and heavy in the backseat of the car. We're going to stop. Wait, I got to pray. God, what should I do next? I have no idea. Where is the line? I wasn't going to do that. It was a predetermined decision. Because I don't want to be under culture. I've chosen to be under God. I've pre-decided this is what I'm going to do or not do. For me, financially, I pre-decided that every time God bless me, I'd worship him with the tithe. I don't wait until the end of the month.

I don't wait until to see what's left. I've determined, my God is a good God. He's been faithful to me. So the first thing I do every single time is I worship him with the tithe. Church, hey, long before I was a pastor, I decided that we're people of the church, that we don't go to church, that we are the church. The church exists to meet the needs of the world. So when our kids, when we're on vacation,

we just found a place to go to church. My kids have never ever said, Dad, are we going to church today? That's not a question that's asking our household. Why? Because we've predetermined that as people of God, we go to church. I love it.

Jesus did not say, I will build my government, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What he said was, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I have predetermined, I pre-decided, this is who I am, this is what I'm called to do.

What's yours? What's yours? The pull of culture is so strong. If you don't constantly fight against it, you're not going to understand. You're under its influence. I've predetermined one decision. One decision.

It could be time with God. It could be, you need to go more basic. Like, I'm not doing meth anymore. Whatever it is, that's a good place to start, right? It might be that in the social media world, You're not going to engage in the hate. It could be with your words in your marriage. You're not going to trash talk her or trash talk him to your friends.

You're not going to belittle your children. You're not going to gossip. You're not going to lie. You're going to speak words of life. It might be you're going to commit to pray every night before bed with your children. Every night you want your children to know we're people of prayer. It might be before you walk out the door, you pray with your spouse. 30 seconds.

What's it going to be? One decision. Listen. Listen and ask the Spirit to show you. Holy Spirit, what's one thing I can do to change the trajectory of being pulled under culture and take a step back to be under the influence of the goodness of my God.

Lead me. Humble yourselves. Therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. God, if there's any, area that I've been deceived. If there's any area I'm floating under the influence of culture, show me, reveal it to me, because the difference between culture and God is night and day. It's dark and light. It's good and evil. Think about what culture tells us every single day.

And we just accept it and get used to it. and get sucked into it and embrace it without even realizing we're under its influence. Culture tells us, promote yourself. It's all about you. If you're going to get anywhere, you've got to put yourself first. Go big. Jesus says, deny yourself, humble yourself. consider others better than yourself. Culture says consume, accumulate. Jesus says it is way more blessed to give than it is to receive.

You can make a difference if you'll fight against the pull of culture and take a step toward the things of Jesus. Culture says hate those who aren't like you. hate them if they hurt you swing back those who mistreat you jesus says bless those who curse you love those who hate you light and day it's light and darkness culture says pursue things Jesus says pursue eternity. Culture says pursue happiness. Jesus says pursue holiness.

Do we live under God? In a culture increasingly hostile toward God. Today, I'm just going to ask you to take one step. Predetermined decision. If you ask God, I believe he'll show you something. Then we're going to commit to it and we're going to talk about it because God is calling us to be humbled, to be dependent on him under his mighty hand.

And he still has the ability to lift us up in due time. So we're going to make some predetermined decisions. Who are we? We are citizens of heaven. We are ambassadors of the most high God. We will be informed, yes. we will be prayerful, yes. We will vote, yes.

We're going to be involved, yes. We're going to pray for our leaders. Whoever is elected next week, we will pray for our leaders. We will love others. But we will never be more committed to our political party than we are to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We are under God. We are under God.

We are under God. We are under God. We are under God. We are under God. We are under God. Next week, we will elect a president. Some of you, you're going to be happy. Some of you, you're going to be sad. Some of you are moving to Canada. All of us, as followers of Christ, we are predecided, predetermined, resolved to be under God, under His mighty hand, the sovereign hand of God who rules through righteous kings and unrighteous kings, the one who brings good out of all things because we know that no matter which party holds office,

our God holds the world. Who are we? We are followers of Jesus. We are people of faith and we are always under God. Father, we pray and we ask that by the power of your spirit, you would use us as the world grows darker. May our light shine brighter. Now God speak to us. Every person, individually and show us God how we can be predetermined, predecided, resolved to be under you, your truth, your leading, your kingdom, you are our king, we resolve to serve you. At all of our churches, those of you watching online, you're willing to just ask God. You may already know, you've got your one. if you don't, I'm going to ask the Spirit of God to show me my one.

And you're going to make a decision, a commitment before God. One decision. One decision. To fight against the seductive lure of culture and take a step toward being under the kingdom of God. If you'll prayerfully seek God, make that decision, talk about it with someone around you. Pray and live it out. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift up your hands.

You can type in the chat. I'm deciding, I'm pre-deciding, whatever it is. Father, I thank you that you're going to show all of us. I pray, God, that we would hear from you and be resolved to take a significant step towards you. And God, we thank you that you will guide our steps. Speak to us clearly. God, help us to recognize any places that we've been deceived.

We don't want to be under the seductive lives of this culture. God, we want to be under you. God, may our faith be in you, no matter what happens this week, we choose to be under you, God. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches and those of you watching online, if you ask yourself, what are you under, under culture, under God? A lot of you'd probably say, man, I'm like massively under culture. I'm really not influenced by the things of God. And you may come to recognize that even though you might have like grown up in church like I did,

I grew up in church, but I didn't know God. I wasn't a follower of Jesus, and you may recognize you're not that. Or you may not, and you might not be a church person at all, and you're doing your own thing, but suddenly you realize you're being drawn to the things of God. What is that? That's the Holy Spirit. That's the goodness of God. That's his loving kindness.

And you're not watching. You're not here by accident. It's God's grace, his goodness, his love that's drawing you. What do you do? How do you live under God in a culture that's increasingly hostile toward God? You simply surrender to the goodness of Jesus. Who is Jesus?

The perfect son of God. The one who came for sinners and broken people and hurting outcast, those that religion rejected. Jesus was perfect and died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And our God raised him up. so that anyone who would humble themselves

cry out to him for mercy. Our God would hear your prayers, forgive your sins, and make you brand new. If you're overwhelmed with fear, you feel uneasy. Why don't you look up to the God who is sovereign and supreme and humble yourselves before him? And all of our churches, those who say,

yes, I want his grace, I want his forgiveness. Today, I'm humbling myself. I'm surrendering to Jesus. Jesus, take my life. I want to follow you. I want to know you. When you cry out to him, he'll hear your prayer, and you will be brand new. Doesn't matter what you've done.

Doesn't matter how dark your world it is. The light of Jesus is about to come in. All of our churches are those watching online and say, yes, I want his forgiveness, I want his grace. Today I'm humbling myself. I surrender. Today I give you my life. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high and now all over the place and say, yes, that's my prayer.

Church online, just type in, I'm giving my life to Jesus. And as we have people all over the place. people all over the world, humbling themselves and surrendering before Jesus. Would you just pray with those around? You just pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father, I humble myself and come to you, asking Jesus to save me, to forgive all of my sins. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you and live for you. Not under culture, but under God. Direct my steps. My life is not my own. I give it all to you.

In Jesus' name I pray. Can somebody celebrate big, celebrate loud, welcome those born into God's family.