we are in a brand new series entitled christian atheist. Now, why is it that in our culture when they hear the word christian, that some people get a bad taste in their mouth when you see on social media or you see on the news or on various forms of media, when you typically when you hear the word christian, it's followed up with the negative. Maybe it's because there are many of us who have fallen short in living out what in fact we believe, you know, to practice religion is one thing, but to live out a relationship is something else entirely. And so we find ourselves stuck in a difficult position where there are people that say they believe in God, but they live as if he doesn't exist and that is the definition of what we would call a christian atheist, a christian atheist is someone who says they believe in God, but they live like he doesn't exist now being just fully transparent. And there are times, even as a pastor where this is true for me that I can preach something and that I can live something. But then there are moments, there are times where I want to take a situation in my own hands, in my own control in my own thoughts and in my own words and so or maybe I have this conversation where God you don't know what you're doing. I got this. Have you ever had that conversation? Okay, God, I'll give you this part, But this little section of the pie, that's mine. Okay, I carved that out for me, don't don't touch this area of my life and I think this can be true for all of us. So this series is not meant to be a judgment against christians, but really we want to try to do three things collectively over the next five weeks. Number one, we want to break down barriers, we want to break down barriers that keep us from following God. Secondly, we want to identify where it is, we are on our spiritual journey, and then third, we want to encourage each other to take that next step of faith, and I truly believe that through studying God's word together, that if we can break down the barriers that keep us from following God, if we can identify where we are on this walk of life, and then we can encourage each other, encourage one another to actually take our next step of faith, that we're gonna be much better off fine week, five weeks from now than when we started this morning. So this first week, this first message, we're going to address the topic of what do you do when someone says, I believe in God, but I don't know him, I believe in God, but I don't know him the other night, I was coming home from an activity and I had my daughter, my three year old little spitfire daughter who sometimes runs across on stage during the service or at least I feel like that because she's always running, But um I had my little daughter Chloe and and we were coming home from an event and you know, we're all kind of carrying stuff and she's you know, I'm carrying bags, she's got a little baby doll and uh and she goes and we go up to our own front door and you know, we just come from a house and so she goes up to ring the doorbell of our own house and I stopped her and I said Chloe, you don't have to ring the bell, you live here. And she looked at me funny and of course still pushed the button five times as any kid would do. And then we went inside and I kind of had a little chuckle about that until I thought about it as I was prepping for this week's message. Is that how often do we do that spiritually speaking? That when you believe in God, when you believe in jesus, you will have access direct access to the creator of the universe. Those who were here last week in service heard a message more deeply on that topic and we'll be posting that online shortly, But but I want to dive even deeper into that. Is that when when you're a part of a family, you don't have to ring the bell in the house that you live in. That's kind of weird if you do that, right, you don't knock on your own door unless it's a sibling who locked you out. Okay? Um which some of you are laughing because you did that and the ones who aren't laughing are looking at the sibling who's in the room who did that to them. But you don't ring the doorbell, you don't ring the bell when it's your own home, you just go inside right now. You don't just go inside other people's homes, right? There's a purpose for the bell. But that would be weird if you just walked right in. Maybe some of you have family members or friends who are close enough who have what I would call refrigerator rights. Right? You can go in and they can go into that. They can go into your fridge, you can go into their fridge and vice versa. But for the most part, when you enter a place, there's a protocol to enter. I remember when I got summoned for jury duty, um and you go to the courthouse and you have to go through scans and security and everything. Can you imagine if you had to do that going into a home, like hold on a second. Hold on, let me see the bag every time you had a friend or family member come in, you're like, hold on, let me check the bag. Okay, walk through this scanner. Okay. That would be weird. Why? Because when you're home you don't have to ring the bell, right? When, when it's not your home, okay? When you're in somewhere else, there's a security measure, there's a protocol. There are things where you don't have access. But the good news is when you believe in jesus, when you have a personal relationship with God, when you know him, you have direct access. See Chloe besides not having to ring the doorbell to go into our home, calls me daddy. Now there are only three little human beings on this planet that have that access to me, right? And in the middle of the night, I'll be honest, pretty much every night. But she comes in in the middle of the night and she's so cute and I'm so exhausted if it's like I'm tired. But she comes in every single night to my side and goes, daddy, daddy, can I snuggle you, wow. Yeah, It's, it's, it's cute when you're not getting woken up. But um, no, just kidding. Kind of um, it's a battle okay, parents, you understand, right? Because you also know my oldest doesn't do that anymore. And so now I'm like, oh yeah, come on in, okay. And the next morning you're tired? But this is how it goes being a parent. But like there is, you know, with her role as a daughter, okay, in my life has direct access. So in the middle of the night can come to me and say daddy, I want to snuggle. You see the name that you call, someone indicates the access that you have to, that person that's very different than say when I get a call from a telemarketer and I pick up and you always know it's a telemarketer when there's a pause, right? You know, I'm talking about everyone's not in their head and it's like, it's like an angry nod across the group this morning. Like yeah, they're like telemarketers and so, um, and so they, they pick, pick up the phone, there's a pause and it's like, hello, uh, Mr Jonathan cradle and I'm like, hmm, hold on a second click, right. If you can't pronounce the name, okay, we probably don't have a great relationship now. Other people know me on a different level. People know who I am. Maybe they see me as a pastor. Maybe it's mr Kringle, Maybe it's, it's, it's john wright. Um going back to my high school days, I had old school buddies where a nickname was Craig Mack. I know it's foolish, but that's just the nickname I had. Okay, so if you call me craig Mack said, hey cradle or if you had something, we had, you know, a relationship, but there's only three little human beings that have the ability and access to call me dad and then there's only one person who has more access than that. And that would be the person that I get to call wife right now for those that are in a significant relationship. You also know that you tend to have nicknames for each other and those nicknames I've learned are weird out in public. So you know, being married, one of the favorite things that we do as a couple is like, you know, we'll spoon up and watch a movie or something and hey, don't give me that look, we're married. It's healthy. Amen. Um, and so, and so like we'll snuggle up okay and it's good. And so from that, like one day I called her like, like I love snuggling or like Hey snug and somehow that's stuck. I know this is weird. I'm just being open with you. Okay, don't judge me. And so, so sometimes when I'm talking to her on the phone, I'll just be like, hey snug. Hey, like that And that seems very normal for our relationship except for when I was a youth pastor recently and I'm in a big room filled with judgmental teenagers and across the room without thinking, I'm like, hey snug hold up and like 40 teens looked at me what I was like, look, I ain't ashamed. Alright, alright, we got a healthy marriage. People say, you know, why do you have kids? Like I love my wife Amen. So, and, and so we have these nicknames and whatever and you're, you're not in because you have nicknames to, okay, I'm not gonna make you shout them out loud, but when you're in a relationship when you're close, okay. And preferably nice names, not like knucklehead and like other things that are kind of condescending, but don't stop staring at each other. Okay man, we're getting personal today. Um but the truth is that the closer the relationship, the more access you have the different name you can call that person, whether it's Cragin, I'll or Mr Kringle, or pastor or friend or Craig Mack or Daddy, or my case snug. Right, so like you're going through Well, the same is true when it comes to our relationship with God and that and that, you know, my fear is that people know a lot about God, but do they truly know him? So what is the name that you call God? What is the name that you use? God has many names, but what is the name that you referred to when you call out to God, it's got the big guy up in the sky, somebody that's up there, it's a very formal God. Maybe he's helped you through a difficult situation. Maybe he's healer, Maybe he's savior. Maybe his father, see what you call God is an indication of how close you are in your relationship with him. So let's just dive into scripture and see what does paul have to say about? What does it mean? Not just to know about God, but to actually No God, we're gonna start off in Philippians chapter three now for the entire passage, I wanna encourage you to read, starting at verse one, but let me just summarize that for the first six verses is that paul is writing to a group, He is in prison for sharing his faith. And yet he writes this book to encourage the church in philippi about joy. So he is imprisoned and decides in that context to write a book about joy. And he says, no, don't lose confidence in the flesh, We are not boastful in ourselves, he says, But if anybody was to be boastful, I would have more like if you really want to brag, Okay, if you really want to be prideful, I probably have a better checklist and resume than you do. It's not gonna be on the screen yet. But he says that I was circumcised on the 8th day um of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless. And so he's saying, look, if you if you think you have the better heritage, I have the best heritage. If you think you had the best education, I had the best education. If you found yourself have an identity and keeping all the rules and being on the honorable and being the cool guy and being the popular one and being the educated, the powerful whatever checklist you have, I promise you, I had more. Now, that sounds like he's bragging until you get to verse seven, where we're gonna pick it up right now. I want to encourage you to bring your bibles as we read through these on on sunday mornings, but we also have the verses on the screen. And if you do not own a bible, we want to gift you won at the guest services table on your way out today. So we pick up here in verse seven, paul writes, But whatever gain I had, I counted as a loss for the sake of christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ, jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in christ the righteousness from the God. That depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may maintain attain the resurrection from the dead. What he's saying there is that everything this world has to offer, I count as loss compared to what compared to knowing jesus, not just knowing about God, but truly knowing him on a personal level, he says everything of this world is not worth what knowing Jesus says. If you flip back a couple of pages in the book, just prior and Ephesians. It's also paul and he's writing to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians chapter one he's praying for this church and he prays starting there in verse 17 and I pray that the God of our Lord, jesus christ the Father of Glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having your eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what it and it's gonna emphasize, okay, know what he's going to emphasize three things notice this here, he says that you may know number one the hope to which he has called you, Number two, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his saints. And then number three, what is the measurable greatness of his power towards us who believe and according to the working of his great might that he worked in christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the heavenly places. His prayer for the church was that they would know the hope that comes in jesus, but then also that they would know the riches. Now this one is a unique twist because he says may, you know the riches, the glorious riches of the inheritance found where found in the saints, which means that there is glory and there is treasure and there is riches inside of you right now, okay, there is riches, there is truth, There is treasure in our relationships with one another. Amen. And there is fullness when we gather as a body as a community to connect and worship with God and to love one another. You have a unique skill set, a unique personality, a unique set of experiences that brings this incredible treasure to the body of christ and we need you just as much as you need us. And so he's praying that that church, I'm in prison, I'm struggling, I am hurting, but I have joy why? Because I will pray that you will know the hope that is found in jesus. That you will know the riches found in each other, but then also you will know the greatness of his power. He says, don't you get it the same power that rose jesus from the grave, the same power that conquered death. You now have direct access to, you do not have to wait in line, you do not have to go call customer service. You do not have to ring the bell. You can walk straight into the house and have direct access to the creator of the universe himself. And that comes not just when you know about jesus, but when you know him at a personal level, one more prayer Ephesians, Chapter three, same audience, same church, another prayer a couple chapters over. We're gonna pick it up here in verse 16, I was actually verse 14 says for this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named and you can preach a whole sermon on the fact that God has named you, but we'll run out of time. So I'll keep going that according to the riches of his glory, same word, his riches and his saints, riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit, in your inner being. So that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breath and the length and the height and the depth into what and to know the love of christ that surpasses knowledge. Now, that seems crazy. His prayer, that is that you will know that how wide, how deep, how long is the love of jesus? It's so long that it is, he's praying that you will know something that even surpasses knowledge. See if you even just get a glimpse 1% a .001% of how incredible God's love is. It will change your life forever. It will change everything. It says that you may be filled with the fullness of God now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory and the church and in christ jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen that last line where it says through all generations means that we are in scripture that the prayer that paul prays Has echoed through the past 2000 years and is still coming true today. I love that specifically. I love this passage because it's very personal in the life of our church, I'll share this with all of you because um not all of you were with us. But last summer at this time we lost our location. We were doing a bible study. We were in a house then we were in a classroom, we came in this room but we had no supplies and we were meeting and they said, oh by the way we got to do updates and repairs. So you're out of the school and so we had no location and we were wondering what we're going to do. And we were meeting in Eric and Wendy's house and we sat there and there's a group of about 20 of us in a room and I read that passage, I read being rooted and grounded in love and to know Christ and that God can do a far more abundantly than anything we can ask think or dream. And so I just read that verse to start our leadership training meeting and I did not read that super emotionally. Like I just read it, it was just kinda like okay, we're gonna start the meeting and let me read a verse and then we'll discuss what we need to do because we had no, we literally had no idea where we're gonna meet as a church. We were gonna try to launch and we had no place. And so we're asking, we're praying God, give us direction, show us that you're here. You know, I read the verse and and our host Wendy just started crying like bawling and I was like kind of caught off guard because again, it wasn't like we were preaching during the sermon. I just read the verse and and she goes, no, you don't understand that. When we built this house two years ago, I wrote that verse on the floor of this room and we prayed that God would use our house for ministry. And here we are in this exact room where we read that verse, reading this verse praying about how God is going to start a church God's power. It's so incredible and it's and it's we have access to it, but it's so different than just knowing facts about God. Then truly knowing him on a personal level. And so here's the truth. You want to write this down to know God is not to be informed, but to be transformed, to know God is not to be informed, but to be transformed. There are a lot of things in life where you learn information, but a relationship with God is not just a series of facts to learn, but a person to know And Being married to my best friend. We're going on 13 years. We have weird nicknames like snug. But like I love her more today than ever before. But I know what she's gonna order at her favorite restaurant. I know what gets on her nerves. Casey pulled that out when we fight. Um she knows what gets on my nerves. She knows that I'm obsessed with sports and that nine times out of 10 I'm on ESPN I know that she's making some type of home improvement deal through offer up or antique stores or things there. We know the patterns, we know who gets up when what what? I can walk into the room and and tell what she's thinking up to a point. I am a guy guys who don't understand women but that's a whole nother sermon. But um like I know her on a deeper level why? Because there's intimacy there and that our relationship has grown. Like if someone, if someone comes to me and asked me, how is your family doing? I don't say five. We have five people like, you know, I don't, I don't say, I don't say like, oh, how's how's your marriage going? 13, Right? Or did they say how is how is your marriage? How is your relationship? We were married on December 16, 2006. And that sounds crazy. But listen, we do this with Christianity all the time. Mm hmm. How is your relationship with God? I prayed a prayer When I was five. I went to church. Right? You go to pastor's conferences and churches we discuss, oh, how many people go because we can count it. We think that's the indication of the health of a church. But it's not the number of people in the pews. It's the amount of jesus and the people that matters. And it because it's not about knowing about jesus, it's about knowing him on a personal level and walking day in day out with him. Mm hmm. I can spout a bunch of facts about people, but I don't know them growing up. My favorite athletes. The greatest athlete of all time. Hands down Michael Jordan's okay. And if you're not a fan of Michael Jordan, you think Lebron James is better. There's other churches nearby that I think could be really, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. He's closing in the argument because he's he's actually my argument was always Michael Jordan saved the world in space Jam. So in the argument and now space Jam two is coming out. I'm like, I'm just gonna throw everything up in the air. But here's the thing. So I I collected Michael Jordan's basketball cards as a kid. I had 100 and 20 cards. I had a binder. We would, I would watch it. I watch all the games. I would track all this stuff and then we lived in florida at the time. And that was when he made his brief switch slash attempt at baseball. And um, and so we were there at one of his first game spring training games and we were standing right outside the locker room and, and he walked out, he walked out in front of me and I was like, Michael, Michael Jordan, can I have your autograph? He looked at me and we connected and a very heartfelt after the game. I was like, wow, best friends now, best friends. And so we're going through the game and as a, as a kid, I'm like, man, I'm gonna be Michael Jordan, he's gonna sign my baseball, it's gonna be awesome. Now of course what happened was at the end of the game, he was swarmed by like 10,000 people and I couldn't get anywhere close to him. Now I know a lot of facts about him at the time, but I had no personal relationship. The fact that he just said, hey kid after the game, that is not a relationship now, some people treat God that way. They can ST things about God, They can say, yeah, you know, he created something. Yeah, he's up there, you know, I pray I talk, but do you know him because knowing someone is not about information, it's about transformation because if you truly know God you love God because God is love and people like that point, but here's the tricky one, okay, but if you love God, your job a guard, I don't know about now, right to know God is to love God, but to love God is to obey God because he wants what's best for your life dance. Vader has this um process here where he actually walks through and he gives four chairs, four stages of life and to help us kind of identify and I believe everyone in this room, it identifies in one of these four chairs and one of these things and so um dan Spader called the four chairs of discipleship and he says the first category, okay, if you're taking notes is this category of come and see, come and see. In the early part of Jesus's ministry, he did miracles. He spoke to large crowds, he loved on kids, he healed the sick, everyone was welcome and they come in and say come and see and the truth is is that God is good and if this is you, I wanted to say you are loved and we are so glad you're here, that you're not going to be pressured, you're not going to be guilted that we are glad that you're here to kick the tires of the christian faith and check out what is this church thing all about because Jesus welcomed everybody to come to him. But at some point within this crowd, jesus actually goes on to the next phase and he actually calls out and he says, follow me and there was some fishermen and tax collectors and doctors and this mixture of races and from different workplaces in men and women in these groups and he created this small following, that's another step from come and see, this isn't just a spectator, but this is saying, you know what, I'm gonna lay down my life and I trust you, this doesn't mean you have everything together, this doesn't mean that you're perfect, but what it means is you acknowledge that you have sent that you can't make it to heaven, that it's only through jesus dying on a cross and rising again on the third day that we can receive forgiveness of sins and because we can have eternal life through jesus and abundant life. Now we say, okay God, I'm ready to know you. On a personal level, this person is a spectator, this person is a believer, this person says, okay, God have my life, build my life, take it, I put my faith in you and this is the point at which someone gets saved, but life doesn't stop here coming into a saving relationship with jesus is not the end, it's the beginning, because in the next phase, you have fisher of people. Now this is a context because some of the early disciples, the early followers of jesus were fishermen and so because their profession was fisherman, he actually said, no, I'm going to change that, you know what your skill set, all those things you did, I'm gonna change that and now you're gonna do it for my purpose and you're gonna become a fisher of people, in other words, you're gonna share what's known as the good news, you're not just following me, now you're sharing and telling other people and now you're engaging in community, you're engaging in regular service, you're engaging and telling people about who jesus is and you're going out because your life has changed, your heart has changed and it becomes natural to share with other people, so you have a spectator here, but then you have a believer, a disciple, someone starting out, but then you start to like, you know, you get this feeling not quite sure what to do and so now you move into this face and you're, you're excited about God, you find yourself telling people about God or maybe you just get this sense in your heart, you're supposed to, but you're scared until you're kind of battling back and forth and so what happens here is that people get scared, they get hurt and they struggle, can you get this nice cozy feeling? But then you realize that life is still hard and you still sin and you still struggle and sometimes people make fun and sometimes people hurt you and sometimes you go back like okay God, I love you, but I'm not gonna share my face, but those that can persevere those that dive into God's word and sing and worship and choose community and invite others. They end up into this joyful stage, which is the last one here, which is to go and bear fruit to go and bear fruit. Here is where you receive joy. This is where paul can get to this stage and say I'm in prison, I lost all my belongings. I've been beat up, I've been hurt, but I have joy. Why? Because everything this world has to offer is not as good as what God has to offer. And I know him on a personal level. Mm hmm. And then he takes that and he starts living that out and investing in other people. And now it becomes what's known as a disciple maker. You have a spectator. It's okay, you're just checking things out. Okay, Okay. I believe now you have a worker like, okay, I'm starting to do this thing but struggling. It's tough. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing when you start investing in other people and start sharing your faith and disciple in other people and serving them with love. The way jesus loved us. This is where you see fruit and joy and purpose in your life as the band comes up on stage. I want you just to focus on these four. I want to ask you in which chair are you sitting right now, can you circle? Can you mark? No one's taking your notes home but you can you mark which chair are you sitting in right now, Are you willing to identify? You know what? I'm just checking things out. That's okay. If I want to challenge you, are you willing to put your trust in him? Mhm. If you're here like, okay, I put my trust in him. But now what are you willing to move over and to start sharing that with other people? And if you're feeling spiritually stuck here and you feel like you've been here a long time, you gotta ask yourself, are you willing to bear fruit? Are you willing to call? I want everyone to just kind of close, close their eyes and bow their heads for just a moment. Mm hmm. I just want to ask the question, do you know, jesus, not about him, but do you know him? On a personal level, if you are sitting here today, no one looking around and you are thinking, you know what john I'm ready to know him, I'm ready to know God on a personal level today to receive him as Lord and Savior of my life And no one look around, would you raise your hand? You know, no one's looking if you're willing to make that decision, I want you to raise your hand. Thank you, thank you, thank you and put your hands down If you're sitting in this room right now and you're And you look at these four chairs and maybe you believe in jesus, but you felt stuck if you're sitting here right now and you feel like you need to make a move into another chair, can you just raise your hand right now? If you feel like you need to make a move from one phase to the next. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lots of hands going up, thank you, thank you. Let's pray right now during the father God we know that we are sinners and we can't get to heaven on our own. God. I pray that we can receive you in our life, that we can come to know you on a personal level, that is not about information and it's about transformation. Can we believe that we can only get to heaven through you and God that it's it's only through your son jesus that we can receive the forgiveness of sins. God thank you for saving us. And so because we know you because we have direct access, we don't have to ring the bell to come into the house because we have direct access to you. God. I pray that we can come before you now and we can just receive you as Lord and we take that next step and we move into that next chair. That next phase of our spiritual journey, maybe not just claim to believe in you, but when we actually live that out on a daily basis. Yeah, whether it's come and see, follow me, God, may we be fishers of people or to go and bear fruit? God, may we take that next step? In our spiritual journey? We commit our lives to you. What's your son's name? We pray. Amen.