Eagle Heights Cathedral

Bishop James E. Collins: Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 7, beginning at verse 13. It is our theme scripture for this part of our yearly, this year's series. Matthew 7 beginning at verse 13. Go in through the narrow gate to get true life with God. There is a wide gate that is easy to go through. The wide path is easy to travel on. Many people find the wide gate. But it is the way that goes to final punishment.

It is difficult to go through the small gate, and it is difficult to walk on the narrow road. But when you go that way, you get true life. Not many people find the narrow gate. Some people say that they are prophets of God, but their words are false. They seem like sheep that are not dangerous, but they are really like hungry wild dogs. What they teach will hurt you.

You will know these people by the way they live. The things they do are like their fruit. Grapes do not grow on thornbushes. Figs do not grow on weeds. Good fruit grows on a tree that is good. Bad fruit grows on a tree that is not good. A good tree cannot make bad fruit. A bad tree cannot make good fruit.

A farmer will cut down any tree that does not make good fruit. He will burn it on a fire. In the same way, look at the way people live. Then you will know what they are really like. Some people say to me, "Master, Master, Lord, Lord," but not all of them will come into the kingdom of heaven. Only the people who obey my God, my Father in heaven, will come in.

They do what he wants them to do. On the day when God judges people, many will say, "Master, Master, we used your authority and we spoke a message from you. We used your authority and we sent bad spirits out of people. We used your authority to do many powerful things." But I will say to these people, "I never knew you. You are wicked people who do not obey God. So go away from me, you that work iniquity."

Father, thank you that you are revealing to us that there is a kingdom that is greater than this earthly kingdom. Father, we are desiring to step fully into the kingdom, the one that is not governed by these earthly realms and these earthly powers, the earthly governments, but it is governed by the very spirit and the presence and the power of the living God. So continue to give us ears that hear, eyes that see, hearts and a desire to draw near, my God, to thee. And I thank you in advance that it will be done. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

There's a pastor by the name of J. Jeffrey Smeed, and he tells the story about when their granddaughter was about three years old. He and his wife, Lee, were babysitting their grandchildren in Morton, Illinois. Anna wanted to go outside and play on her own, and he saw it as a good teaching moment.

So he knelt down beside her so that they could look at each other face-to-face. Jeffrey took her hand and slowly and carefully said, "Now, Anna, you can play here in the front yard. You can ride the Big Wheel up and down the driveway. You can go in the backyard and play in the sandbox or play in your swing. You can stay inside and watch television. These are all the things you have my permission to do. But you cannot play in the street. Do you understand what I am saying?"

And three-year-old Anna nodded her head and said, "Yes, Cappy," because all the grandkids called him Cappy. He let go of her hand and she ran straight to the curb. It made me have flashbacks of when Shana was three years old. She looked right at him as he was standing in the front door and put one foot on the street.

He said she gave me that look as if to say, "You foolish mortal." Then he said this: Why, after understanding all the freedoms that I had allowed her, would she deliberately go out to the one place I told her not to go to? She did this because that is the nature of humankind. We want to be free to do things our way.

We want to be free to live by our own rules. We want to be free to make our own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. The reality is that the rejection of doing what we are told by others lies at the very heart of man's conflict with our heavenly Father. You have heard me say this before, that we are living in the generation of the Burger King mentality. It is innately living on the inside of all of us.

The Burger King mentality that says, "I want it my way and I want it now." But I want to remind us that we are not serving the Burger King, we are serving the King of Kings. And the King of Kings declares in John 18:36 that, "I am from another kingdom. I am the head of another kingdom and my kingdom is not of this world."

It is a kingdom that operates on principles that transcend the physical and political systems of this world. Let me quote Tyrone McCrary one more time: It is not shaped by earthly influences or confined to human constructs. Its power and authority are not drawn from earthly sources but from a higher divine origin.

And when we connect to this kingdom, the Bible says we will lack nothing. Because once we do that, we come in alignment with the King. And when we do, we begin to operate under his authority, with his authority. And when we do that, his promises become accessible and 2nd Corinthians 1:20 becomes a reality: For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us.

Because, church, listen, once we are in continual, perpetual pursuit of his kingdom, then we begin to obey Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. What Jesus is telling us is that in this kingdom, there can only be what is known as full participation if we are to see the fruit of that kingdom.

So in order to fully participate in this kingdom, we must adopt a kingdom disposition. Our mindset, our character, our way of life must align with the values and the nature of the kingdom that Jesus speaks of. Now, the word disposition is the key to understanding that this is about transformation.

The way that we think about and operate in this kingdom must be changed to the degree that we are in full submission to the King's authority. Not merely in principle and allegiance in theory, but in reality. What is that reality? The reality that my life no longer belongs to me. I no longer call the shots, but I am fully governed by kingdom principles.

And I remind you on New Year's Eve, we learned that they look like this. The first thing is this: a standard of living. Your thoughts and your decisions are shaped by principles and laws of the kingdom. Secondly, there comes an alignment with the King. Your mindset reflects the character and authority of Christ.

Thirdly, we learned there is a different perspective. You begin to see life through the lens of God's truth and sovereignty, not just human perspective. Now, let me interject some thought concerning the negative power of human perspective. Watch this now. A man went to go visit a psychiatrist one day. When the doctor came in, he asked, "What can I do for you today? What seems to be the problem?"

"I have a problem. Every time and every single time I go to the grocery store, when I pass by the dog food section, something in me tells me that I need to open a can of Alpo and eat it. Something inside tells me, pick up a can of Alpo, open it up, and start chowing away." The doctor said, "Well, this is a little different from anything I've ever dealt with before. How long have you been dealing with this problem?" The man said, "Ever since I was a puppy."

Church, this man was very confused about who he really was. If he was a dog, then Alpo would have been what he should have been looking for. But listen to me. Just as this gentleman was confused, we have generations of many, many Christians confused about our identity in Christ. Thus, many of us remain in the kingdom on the outskirts but not of the kingdom, in the place where the blessings and the receiving of the kingdom of God where it freely flows to our lives. But even more important, if not, it is knowing the purpose and all that God has designed us to be.

Now listen to me, church. This is so vital because we must understand the power of the soul man, the will, the mind, the seat of our emotions, and what it holds over us and how it can affect the spirit man in a negative and devastating way. Lee Elcloff tells the story that is told by a renowned psychiatrist by the name of Robert Coles, as he spoke in a graduate class at Harvard University many years ago.

Dr. Coles said, "I have been doing therapy with a man for 15 years. He is as angry, as self-centered, and as mean as he was the first day he walked into my office. The only difference is that now he knows why he is so angry and mean." Then Dr. Coles pointed out that although psychiatry provided his insight as to how his childhood emotional wounding had affected his adult dysfunction, that man still had not changed.

Coles asked, "Could we conclude that what this man needed wasn't information but transformation?" It is of great import today, church, that we simply not ingest information, but that all of us allow the Holy Spirit, wherever we need him to, to transform us.

You and I will never experience the fullness of the kingdom of God unless we allow the Spirit to transform areas of our lives that are in effect defecting us from the blessings of God. Which brings us back to the focus of this part of the series: Cultural Christianity. Now, there is a truth that you and I must never forget. We must never lose sight of this, and I'm going to repeat it. You can be in the kingdom without truly being of the kingdom.

This is the very base truth when it comes to the life of those who live the cultural Christian lifestyle. But I want to remind us before we get into the rest of our notes, that when I speak of cultural Christianity, I'm not only speaking of people who really believe that you can be a Christian and yet you can claim to be a cultural Christian as well.

What I'm talking about is that we who even claim Christianity, who really love God, if we are not careful, we can begin to cultivate the kind of lifestyle that is cultural Christianity lifestyle, which means that we are being influenced by the world more than by the kingdom of God culture.

Which is why Ephesians 5:15-16 should become literally of great import in your relationship with the King of Glory. Listen to what it says: See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. The word circumspectly is very important. It means to be wary.

The word wary means on guard and watchful. But it runs deeper than that. It means being on one's guard against danger. Watch now. It is marked by keen caution and watchful prudence. You are ever alert, attentive, trying attentively to avoid danger, risk, and error, to be vigilant.

So then the apostle Peter joins Paul in 1st Peter 5:8. He says this: Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. I want you to pay attention to what I'm saying. Peter and Paul are trying to tell the people back then and tell us today that we are living in a time like no other time of such great evil and difficulty, difficulty as we have never fallen into before.

We are living in a fallen world with dangers, deceptions, and temptations. So therefore, look at me, church. He is telling us that none of us can afford to fall spiritually asleep. Paul tells us that if we are not cautious and attentive to what is happening around us, we can easily be blindsided and fall headlong into the many dangerous traps of the enemy.

And Peter reminds us that we have an enemy, the evil one called the devil. And I want you to look at me. He is lurking around many bushes around your life. He is watching you. He is spying you out. He is looking for that one person who is not walking circumspectly, who is not vigilant, who is not alert to his schemes and his devices in order that he might ensnare you and devour you.

Church, hear this. The DNA of this worldly culture is demonically designed for the destruction of the ones who truly love the Lord. And the way that he does it for we that love the Lord is to get us to become either spiritually lax or overly confident in how spiritual we think we are.

In the original Greek, the phrase "walk circumspectly" is translated: watch or look carefully at how you live, to be diligent and mindful of your behavior, be on the lookout. When you put Colossians 4:5 and 2nd Timothy 3:15 together, the apostle Paul gives us the antidote for warding off the poison of the enemy.

He says, "Make the most of every opportunity," that is and walk, behave as true believers amid perilous times. Then in 1st Corinthians 10:12, he also gives us this warning: Therefore, let him or her who thinks that he or she stands take heed lest he fall.

Now stay with me. In the year of 2022, Pastor Kevin Miller preached a message. It was titled "People to Watch Out For." He began his message with these words concerning something that happened in a church in a suburb of Chicago that one of my relatives had considered attending before this happened. Listen to his words.

"In Rolling Meadows, just a short drive from here, stands Harvest Bible Chapel. You've probably driven by it. The church started with 18 people meeting in a high school and grew to over 13,000 people across seven campuses in our area. Harvest Bible Church soon made Outreach Magazine's list of the largest churches in America and the fastest growing churches in America. And James McDonald, the pastor, became a household name with a radio show on over 1,000 stations. Three years ago, though, McDonald was fired after recordings surfaced in which he is allegedly heard plotting the blackmail of the CEO of Christianity Today by planting child porn on his computer. A few months later, McDonald's former bodyguard reported that McDonald had asked him to kill his ex-son-in-law."

Now, I always try to follow up when I hear certain things to see if they are true. Because I know how people can lie on you and be no truth to it at all. So I looked up what was going on here. Let me tell you this. These two things, to my understanding, he was later cleared of. They were proven to be false. But listen to what I'm about to say next.

"Yet my dear fellow pastor and brother was dismissed from ministry for being found unfit for ministry because of his actions of becoming a minister. They were bad actions, and now a legitimate police investigation is going on in his life today."

Pastor Kevin Miller, who is an Anglican pastor, goes on to speak of the many heartbreaking happenings among Anglican churches in Chicagoland. He mentions that one former lay leader now standing trial on charges of child sexual molestation. A rector, a senior pastor, who has been inhibited from ministry for the rest of his life over inappropriately close relationships with female college students in the church. Another rector who was forced to resign after an outside investigation revealed alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, and abuse of power.

I'm telling you this, church, for two reasons. Number one, these kinds of happenings are not peculiar to the Anglican church. They happen in all kinds of fellowships and all denominations, the one we are a part of included. But I'm telling you this, and I am not sharing that with you to make you leery of pastors because I am one.

But I'm telling you this because number one, most of us pastors are really trying to live right and really trying to serve the Lord. But I'm also telling you this because you need to understand that none of us, the preachers nor the parishioners, don't none of us have spiritual room to become the kind of people who are so spiritually arrogant that we think we can never mess up, who are the kind of people who are so set on who we think we are that we become lax in our walk with God.

Because listen to me. While we all serve the same God, we also fight the same enemy. And he is no respecter of persons, and he seeks to find anyone he can devour. So as we look at these final three characteristics of a person living a cultural Christian lifestyle, why don't we all examine our own hearts and see if we too are really standing firm.

Number eight: Claiming the blessings and promises of God while rebuffing the conditions for receiving them. Claiming the blessings and promises of God while rebuffing the conditions for receiving them. Cultural Christians love 1st Corinthians 2:9: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

They love 2nd Corinthians 1:20: For all the promises of God in him are yes and amen. Let me tell you what they don't love. They don't love James 1:7 and James 2:22-25: Let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. But be doers of the word, not just hearers, deceiving only yourself.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he who observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, watch now, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Okay, now wait a minute, God. Are you trying to tell me that if I'm really going to be blessed and possess the blessings of God, I have to do something? Are you really telling me there is a standard that I have to meet? You won't just pour blessing on me? Watch this now. Just because you claim the name of God, and just because you got some stuff, does not mean you're blessed.

Because as we go in this series, you're going to understand that blessing, true blessing, is far more than the stuff you can feel with your fingers. Watch this now. Jeremiah 18:10: If it does evil in my sight, so that it does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good which I said I would benefit it. Here's another one cultural Christians don't like. Psalm 51:16-17: For you do not desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, you will not despise.

Let me paint a picture here, church. King David wrote this psalm after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then he piles onto his sin by having her husband killed to try and cover up his sin. Someone said David sinned big, but repented bigger. Now pay close attention because someone else also said that David is a model of what real heart of repentance looks like.

I want you to hear something that I have never heard anyone say, but I'm going to say it because I didn't understand it at first. But I'm going to tell you right now that yet David did repent, but David was not genuinely moved to repentance until he got busted. Now I want to say something that's very important. First and foremost, true repentance and best repentance happens before we get caught.

Where would those pastors be today that I mentioned, had they repented before they got caught? Just maybe God would have helped and healed them and their ministry would not have been lost. So tell me, how many times have you or I not repented because you had the mindset, I had the mindset, "Well, it's just between me and God." Let me say something of great import. There is nothing more dangerous than holding on to known sin because what matters more than men knowing is God knowing.

Because listen to me, when God knows, God will give you an opportunity to change directions, but be sure of this, where there is no voluntary repentance, be sure your sin will find you out. Hebrews 10:31: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Why? Because when we repent willfully and do not continue in willful sin, there is a grace of God to cover, a grace that is greater than all our sin.

But if you don't willfully repent, let me tell you what I know. Be sure that someday, some way, somewhere your sin will catch up to you. While it is better to repent on the front end, the characteristic of the cultural Christian is that even when confronted, they refuse to come before God in brokenness of spirit.

Now, I want to show you something that David discovers that is greater than repentance. When David was confronted, he no longer tried to lie about or hide his sin. He wrote this psalm as he agonized and cried out to God for forgiveness. He said in verse 17, "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise."

Because when you read verse 16, you see what David understood. He goes on to say, "You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings." David was saying, "Lord, there is something that I understand." Watch this now. David understood in that moment that there is something greater than repentance, church, because it puts a governor on our lives, which in turns puts a limit on how many times that we will truly need to repent.

Church, look at me. You will never be sinless, but the longer you walk with God, you ought to sin less. Now stay with me. This is something that God wants from all of us more than anything that the cultural Christian does not understand. David said, "I found out, greater than repentance, God wants my heart." He said, "Father, you don't want my praise if my heart is not right with you. You don't want my shout if my heart is not right with you. You don't want my briny tears if my heart is not right with you. My song, my dance, my shout, my shout, anything. Nothing means anything to you if my heart is not right with you."

Church, the cultural Christian does not understand. It is not a matter of sin, it's a matter of the heart. Number nine: The cultural Christian's characteristic is viewing Jesus as a social reformer above being the savior of the world. Isaiah 1:17 from the ESV: Learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

Amos 5:24: But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream. Now there are pastors who say that the church should not be involved in social justice. I disagree with that. Social justice is part of the kingdom of God. God tells us through Isaiah and Amos that social justice is part of what the kingdom of God is all about.

In fact, Jesus even says so. In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus speaks of involvement in social justice. What does he say? He says when you see someone hungry and you feed them, you did it to me. He says when you go to the prisons and visit the incarcerated, you have visited me.

Now watch this. What is social justice? Social justice is simply going into society, seeing those things that are unjust, and taking the appropriate steps to bring the right resolution to that situation. Proverbs 3:27: Do not withhold good from those whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Proverbs 21:15: When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

Isaiah 30:18: Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are those who all wait for him. Now why am I telling you this? This Bible is filled with scripture that says that not only is God, declares that we should do justice, but that God is a God of justice.

But listen to what he says. He says the responsibility of justice is ours, church, not Jesus'. We are to perform social justice in a biblical way. But when it comes to the cultural Christian mindset, we are confronted with two problems. Now everybody pay attention because this is important. The first problem is this: In the cultural Christian mindset, social justice and biblical justice are one and the same.

When the world says social justice and we say social justice, they say social justice, we say social justice, but we don't mean the same things. Stay with me now. When the world, secondly, says "Let's get involved in social justice," the problem we have is that they mean that everyone, no matter what they believe or do, should have the same rights as those who seek to live and serve biblical justice in society. Even if that justice being defined is in opposition to the word of God. And I'm not going to get entangled into everything that could get me in trouble today. But I'm going to get in a little bit of muddy water for a second.

See, here's the deal. Let me illustrate it this way. I am told that four times as many Canadians died from abortion as COVID. It is said that the official estimates are approximately 30,000 Canadians died from COVID over an 18-month period, according to an article written on 10/21.

Watch this now. Just like in the United States, to combat the illness, provincial governments locked down businesses for weeks going on months. They kept people from church, from funerals, and from seeing their aged relatives and everyone else. Masks were mandated in public settings and vaccines went from being offered to being requirements on trains or planes.

And at the federal level, listen to this, church, the government of Canada spent almost $1 billion a day on COVID. Now everybody listen to me. My point here now is not to question these impositions and the cost, because as I said, we did the same thing here in America.

But I want to take a moment and pull back the covers over what is being done with no remorse, with little to no concern with the unborn in this country and other countries. I want to pull back the cover this morning so we understand that there are people against the death penalty for people that are proven mass murderers, but they could care less about the people who have babies in their wombs and they say to them, "Just get rid of the unborn baby."

It's hypocrisy. The pastor who I am quoting said this, stay with me now. We do not know how many unborn babies were murdered over the same 18-month period because the toll isn't printed in the daily newspaper. Their deaths aren't thought important enough for the figures to be kept current.

So we have to go back to 2019 to get any statistics. Watch this now. The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada reports 83,576 unborn children were killed that year, though this number only includes hospital and clinic abortions, which means the overall total could be much higher. Which gives the understanding that over the same period that they were dealing with COVID, a conservative estimate would put the abortion death toll at well over 120,000 Canadians.

Watch this now. It is also said that in the country where the Prime Minister argued that people should have the right to say, "My body is mine, I can do with it what I want," in that country, more people condemned plastic straws than abortion. See this. The cultural Christian mindset believes that all rights are equal, and we should stand up in the name of justice even when we know that what they are going after violates the word of God.

Let me talk to us, church. I believe everybody should have rights. But what we Christians have got to learn is what to stand against and what to stand for. Because we are living in a world where governments, for the most part, define their social justice by their own moral code rather than by the code of God's word.

And we have Christians who are fringe Christians, who are on the edge, who don't understand what we should stand for and what we must resist. Let me just stay on this hobby horse for a moment. I am so glad that my mother-in-law, God rest her soul, did not ascribe to "It's my body, my choice."

Because had she done that, there would be no Lady Brenda, there would be no Shana, there would be no Jessica. I am not bashing women who had an abortion. But Maya Angelou says once you know the truth, do better. What I am trying to say is that we live in a world that encourages women to get rid of the inconvenience.

And here's why cultural Christian mindset goes off the rails. We forget that Jesus' number one priority is not social justice, but souls that are doomed and damned for hell. Mark 14:7: For you have the poor with you always and whenever you wish you may do them good, but me you do not have always. Matthew 19:10: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Matthew 10:34: Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. And in Mark 8:36, Jesus said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?" His number one priority should be the number one priority of the church, that none should perish.

Characteristic number 10: A 10th characteristic of the cultural Christian is promoting unsanctified grace. They take the scriptures on grace and they abuse them. Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.

They love those kind of verses because in their minds it relieves them from any kind of responsibility to live a godly, holy life. They read that and when a preacher comes along or you come along and you challenge their sin-filled life, they pull out the legalism speech.

"You're a legalist. You're condemning me. We are no longer under the law, we're under grace." And they think I'm going to argue, and I don't argue. I say, "No, you're absolutely right. We are under grace." But look at me, church. What we've got to understand is, what is the meaning of grace? The meaning of grace is this. One more time.

It is the power of God working in you, through you, and for you to do what you cannot do for yourself. Let me give you another definition. Grace is the enablement to do what you ought to do rather than what you want to do for the glory of God. See, what they really need to do is connect this to Romans 6:14. Listen. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. Now we went to Chicago, we drove through the south side of Chicago and we showed Jessica and Shana once again, now that they're older, where Lady Brenda and I used to live on the south side. And I said, "You know, it's not too bad in light of where I grew up, is it girls?" Shana said, "Dad, no, it's worse."

But let me say something. While we were there, it took my mind back to something. And you can get the reruns, but there was once a popular TV show that aired years ago called Diff'rent Strokes. It was indeed a funny show. It was about two little boys named Arnold and Willis. And I always used to crack up because Arnold would look at Willis and go, "Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis?"

Now watch this. The boys' mother had been a maid for a man named Mr. Drummond, but she died. Not wanting the boys to be left to meander and wander through the projects, he adopted them and he brought them to live in his penthouse. The whole show revolved around these two boys from the projects learning how to live in the penthouse.

These two boys from the projects. It was much comedy surrounded them about the old ways into a new environment. There was a great entertainment in seeing Mr. Drummond. He was trying to educate these young men in the finer things of their new environment.

The question came up during the show continually was whether or not you could take the boys out of the project, put them in the penthouse, and expect them to leave the projects behind. The whole show was about how difficult it is for people to get rid of old patterns once they have been established. Let me talk to the cultural Christian grace grabbers.

When God found you and me, we were in the spiritual projects. But Ephesians 2:6 tells us when we give our lives to Christ Jesus, we are now seated in the heavenly places. We are in the penthouse. But many of us have drug along with us the old patterns from the old neighborhood.

Those patterns are called the flesh in this book we call the Bible. The flesh is not merely the body, it is the body with its old patterns. The cultural Christian mindset wants to live in the penthouse while maintaining the same old spiritual project mindset. The bottom line is they love their flesh more than they love obedience to the King.

Matthew 4:17: From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Let me say something, church. To break out of the controlling effects of the projects and live fully in the penthouse, it always starts with repentance.

Mark 9:43: And if your hand offends you, cut it off. For it is better for you to enter into life maimed than to have two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched. Now don't anybody go out here and cut your hand off. It doesn't mean literally, but it needs to cut things out of your life that hinder your walk with God.

But a person will never see the need for true repentance until they realize that Luke 12:5 is true. Jesus said, "But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I say, fear him." Now, isn't this interesting? Who is saying this? Jesus. Who's he talking about? God.

So here's the final thought that cultural Christians don't get. Number 11: They major in ignoring the need for true repentance. Matthew 3:1-2: In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight." Isn't it interesting that people who are cultural Christians always try to say we're under grace, but I find it very interesting that repentance shows up in the New Testament before the King shows up.

John says, "Get yourselves set aright, because listen now, the kingdom is at hand. The kingdom of God is on the way." Before the kingdom shows up, John was preparing the way. Now I want you to watch what he did. He did what we're talking about now.

He was telling the people of that time, "You need to reposition your disposition. You need to change the way you are thinking about the kingdom of God." And your Bible tells you that they did not, and because they did not, then God gave us the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, the right to boldly come into the kingdom of God.

Here's what I want you to see as we close. John initiates it, then Jesus comes and substantiates it. The need for repentance. Matthew 4:17: From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Now, I want to hurry up because I want to wrap this so you understand why we've had all this.

Here's the conclusion of the matter. Number one: Cultural Christianity is self-deception. Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? That's why James 1:22 says, "Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

The second thing we understand is that cultural Christianity has no depth. 1st Peter 4:16: Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. Let me tell you about cultural Christians. They can take nothing. The moment trouble comes, "Oh, God's a mean God."

Number three: Cultural Christianity is a myth. 2nd Timothy 1:5: When I call to remembrance the genuine faith in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, I am persuaded also. See, the problem with those who want to buy into the myth of cultural Christianity is that they want a God who will let us run willy-nilly all over the kingdom.

They want a God who has no boundaries, each person free to set their own rules. You know what I love about America, what's so wonderful about this country we live in, is that we have options. In many countries around the world, actions are limited. The government controls everything and the ability to choose is lost.

In fact, I was watching the other day when we entered into the war with Iran. They were showing clips of Iran in the earlier days, in the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s, and you would have thought you were in America. Women were dressed just like our women. They were going to college. They were doing all of those things. But those countries lost that in their experience.

You see, church, listen to me. The wonder of the American experience and experiment is the opportunity, at least on paper and in principle, for a person to freely pursue life, liberty, and what makes them happen, makes them happy. But look at me and hear this. Please understand with all of those things, there are also restrictions in a democracy.

There are limitations. We don't enjoy freedom without boundaries. Now what I'm about to say qualifies everywhere except in Massachusetts. You can't just drive through a red light, except in Massachusetts. You can't just shoot through a stop sign, except in Massachusetts. Why are there limits?

Church, listen to me. Because very simply, in order to enjoy freedom, there must be sufficient restrictions so that freedom is maximized. Now here's what the cultural Christian won't buy into and cannot buy into. It is the reason they struggled with repenting when they messed up. They want freedom without restriction.

But listen to me, loved ones. You and I cannot be free without restrictions. A fish cannot roam in the jungle. It wasn't made for that. A lion is not free to live in the ocean. It was not made for that. Freedom is having the benefits accrue to you that you were created to receive.

Freedom doesn't mean there are no boundaries. Freedom means that within the boundaries, you can maximize your potential. Now, I'm going to talk about something very important. I don't even know why my mind went this way. But my mind this week, it kept thinking about the Lion King.

Then I had a deacon who sent me an illustration about the Lion King. I texted him back and I said, "Let me tell you something. This is amazing what God is doing because I was just getting ready to put together an illustration about the Lion King, and this guide you just sent me said almost everything I'm about to say exactly the same way."

And so to make sure that I covered myself, I ran into my wife's office. I said, "Baby, I want you to see this. I want you to see that right now I'm getting ready to do this illustration about the Lion King, and I want you to be my witness." And I told Deacon Cedar, "I want you to be my witness." Because, you know, if you're not famous, you probably stole it from someone else, so I'm going to tell my Lion King story.

The Lion King tells the story of a king's ascent. From the moment that movie begins, Simba is branded as the heir to the throne. He is designated to the office at the start of the movie by a baboon by the name of Rafiki, who lifts Simba before the animals of the kingdom as they bow before him.

He is to be their future king. Now I'm going to tell the rest of that on Easter Sunday. I just love this story. But here's what I want to talk to you about today that is of great import. Simba has lost his father at an early age. And in essence, he has lost his way. Rafiki is in essence a prophet in this tale of the Lion King.

He tells Simba he has a message for him and he says, "I knew your father." He says to Simba, "Follow me and I'll take you to your father." So Rafiki takes off running. They're running through the forest. As they are running, he gets to a place of water and Simba is in pursuit of him because if there's anything that is important to him, he would love to see his father again.

As they hit the water, Rafiki says to him, "Go over there and look in the water and you'll see your father." He looks in the water and he sees an image and he says, "That's not my father." Rafiki says to him, "No, no, no, no. Look harder." He goes back and he looks in the water and when he looks harder, he looks more intensely into the water, all of a sudden he's looking at a reflection, but then he sees his father.

And his father's message to him was, "Simba, remember who you are." Once he remembered who he was, he went back home not as Simba, but as a king. Now don't miss what I'm shooting at today. It is interesting to me that worldly people, Disney, they seem to have greater discernment than the church sometimes.

Watch this now. What he is showing us today is that when you come into Christ, though we are not Christ, but we have the image of the Father in us. And if we ever get a revelation in our heart and our soul, we will begin to operate as we should, being created in the image and the likeness, and we will mirror that reflection of who the world needs desperately to see.

The young man that Deacon Cedar showed me in his clip said this: We're blind to this because when we preach, we don't teach that we are the image of God. We teach a message that we need to be blessed by him, but we never look at the reflection. We teach baptism as just the water experience instead of "look harder."

And here's the part I love. He said until we see the Father, life has and will father you, nurtured by every single heartbreak you either become introverted or a fighter. And it is because you are learning to protect yourself because you have no father to protect you. Now look at me.

1st Peter 2:9-10: We are a royal priesthood, a chosen generation. Grafted into the kingdom because others rejected him, you and I are a chosen generation. Revelation 1:5-6: And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the begotten of the Lord, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and have made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory, dominion forever and ever.

Until you begin to reflect on who your Father is, and that you are not just simply a child of the King, he has made you a king to rule and to reign right here on this earth, you will always settle for less than God has for you. Let me leave you with this.

There was a little boy who played on a football team. Worship team and musicians, you can come. The kid was a goof-off. He never really played hard. He was always lazy. He didn't practice diligently so he never got to play. Everybody look at me now, don't look at them. They can walk without you looking at them.

On the last day of his senior year, every running back on the team was injured. In front of him, they got hurt. So the coach put him in. His teammates and his coaches could not believe what they were seeing with their eyes. He was playing like a wild man. After the game, they came over to him to ask him why he played so well.

"You spent all these years goofing off. What got into you?" "Oh," he said, "it's simple. My father was blind. He died yesterday, so this is the first day he's ever gotten to see me play." There is something, church, that happens to us when we know Daddy's watching. It makes us perform at a higher level. It makes you perform for a greater reason.

I want to tell you something. What the devil doesn't want you to know is that God has called you out of that kingdom and brought you into this kingdom so that you might become a part of this kingdom. And when you do, it will affect everything you do. It will affect everything you say. It will affect you beyond the walls of this church. Everything you do will suddenly say, "When I talk, it's for the glory of the Lord. When I walk, it's for the glory of God. When I go, it's for the glory of God. When I give, it's for the glory of God. When I sing, it's for the glory of God. When I praise, it's for the glory of God. Whatever I do is for the glory of God. It's not about me anymore. It is for the glory of God." Everybody shout, "It's for the glory of God!" Come on, church! Hallelujah to the Lamb!

God's watching. He wants to see you play. For some of us, this year, in all our days of being on this team, is going to be the first time that we play like we really believe Daddy is watching. Sing.

I want to thank you for joining us today and for watching this message on our stream. We are flowing now from the worship of hearing and receiving God's word into the worship aspect of giving into the kingdom of God. And as God has spoken to your heart, I pray that you're able to join us in giving and bringing him his tithe and our offering.

I want to share a little piece that's very interesting, that you might even find interesting. People were asked how much money it would take for us to have enough money. Remarkably, every person said if I could have a 10% increase, it would be enough for me to live and have a comfortable lifestyle.

I share that with you because it's interesting that God said, but if you will give me 10% in Malachi 3 and verse 8 and verses all the way to verse 11, he talks about if you give me that 10%, he says you will have more than enough, there will be an overflow. So why is that number significant in your giving today?

The number is significant in that in your desire to live and have a healthy life, you want 10%. God says, if you give me 10%, I'll make your 10% multiply in your life. And so as God leads your heart today, I ask you to first be obedient to the Lord and bring that 10%, that tithe.

And then let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart as you give an offering above that. That will open the windows of heaven. I thank you in advance for your faithfulness in giving to the work of the kingdom so that we might expand God's kingdom. Let me pray for you now.

Father, I thank you for these that have committed this day to be obedient to your word. Because, Lord, they understand that sometimes thanksgiving is merely an act of obedience. And since we are thankful people, we obey you this day to bring you your tithe and to give our offering. We thank you in advance that you will open the windows of heaven, pour out blessing we will not have room to receive. We will be blessed spirit, soul, and body. And this we pray and believe for in Jesus' name. Amen.

Just lift your hands where you are. Though you may not be in this sanctuary, you become aware that we have words on this wall that are not just words, they are the biblical words from the very throne room of heaven. Let me speak them over your life.

May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. God bless you as you receive it.