Don't Trust The Realtor // How To (Still) Survive A Horror Movie // Read
Randy Meeks, the horror film fanatic from the movie Scream, declared that “The horror genre was destroyed by sequels.” And while he may have a point (we’re looking at you, Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan), we beg to differ! Because sometimes a horror movie sequel breaks new territory, pushes its story into uncharted places, and, on rare occasions, is superior to the original. And that’s why this #SpookySZN, we’re creeping into our own scary sequel; once again learning what to do when we find out the movie of our life has become a horror flick. So grab some popcorn, turn off all the lights, and join us as we find out how following Jesus can help us survive the deadly mistakes and wrong turns that have taken the lives of so many others.
Common Horror Movie Trope: Family moves to a house in the country looking for a fresh start. And the deal always sounds incredible, doesn’t it? “A gorgeous Victorian purchased for a third of the appraisal value.” But there is always a catch. Something terrible happened in that house, and the deal is inevitably too good to be true. And so it is with sin. Sin always over-promises and under delivers, hiding the true cost of your transaction. If you want to avoid this “horror movie moment” in your life, remember: Never take the deal, no matter how tempting it appears.
Goodness, man, thank you guys so much for leading us so well today. I'm glad you guys are here. It's an exciting weekend here at Cornerstone, isn't it? It's an exciting weekend, man. We had our first Saturday services last night they went amazing. So so good, great turnout. Just a great night we had a lot of new MPs ministry partners serving last night it was an amazing amazing time. And then today, our big building revealed just exciting stuff. Right? And I don't know about you, but I'm ready for that building. Like I will I'm wanting to be met now like I'm like all right now let's break ground right. Let's get to it. Because hear me, this is a wonderful facility. Like I love our current church building. But it is small. Right? I mean, that's the whole point of the Saturday service is to try to help create some room and add another option for people because we're limited by our square footage here. We need that new building. We need a new building because this building is it's right around 8000 square feet. And let me tell you, it feels like 8000 square feet like this isn't one of those places we're going that's it. Wow, it feels so much roomier. It doesn't feel it feels like 1000 square feet. Sometimes things can be deceptive. Our realtor though. Bob and Scott rascal they're great guys and they pulled no punches they they told us like it was whenever we came here like yeah, it's a nice building. And they showed us around the total square footage of like, and it feels it feels like 1000 square feet. It's pretty small. Especially considering your old building. Our old building on Killian was around 20,000 square feet so this is like a third right this is a lot smaller. And so they pulled no punches and we appreciated that as we walked through here that we were being told like it was that we were being sold on something that it wasn't they didn't use words like cozy and charming to describe the smell the size of this building, right? Oh no, it's just it's a cozy little building anything. They told no lies to us, which is funny because as I was preparing for the sermon I was thinking about when my wife Jessica lived up in Cleveland, we were looking for a house we were renting in Strongsville, and we were looking for a house in that area. We love that area. So we're like let's look for us. And so we're looking around and we saw this one online, we're on like realtor.com, and Zillow, all those websites looking for houses. And we saw this one man it looked great. It was like a little mid-century ranch and super cute, right? It's a nice little area. So we're loving it. We're reading the description and it's cute and it's cozy and it's charming. It's a fixer-upper with tons of potential and like wow, this is gonna be awesome. That sounds like this was describing what we were looking for. Exactly. So we get in the car we meet our realtor, Chris we meet him at the house. So we pull up and it looks as cute as we thought they were like Oh man, this might be we're getting the feeling like the neighborhood was nice. And so we pull in, like oh man, we start walking up towards the house because Chris is already in there. He's unlocked the door and he's waiting for us. As we're getting we're about maybe like five feet away from the door, and we start to smell smoke. And it's kind of like who's having bonfire midday That's weird. We open up the door and just like we're hit with cigarette smoke just pour like pouring out of the house right you just smell it so we're walking in where it's right like wow, this is strong we walk in Chris's in there. He's like, Hey, how you are guys doing? Well again, what's up, Chris? How's it going? He's good and we're just kind of quiet for a second. And we're not thrilled like we're not walking in the house. like wow, we're like good, we're doing good. He kind of sees us looking around. He's like yeah, hey, feel free to light up if you guys want to. I don't think the homeowner will notice if we smoke a few cigarettes while we're in the house. We started cracking up like yeah, I don't think they notice either. I think there's been a packer few smoked in here. And man I kid you not the entire house. Every room we walked into just read it. I mean, not like there was a smoker here. But this was a smokers lounge like it was bad. And it was funny because as we're walking around all the stuff, the rooms that look like they're going to be bigger online. We're like, Oh, you took that with? You picked a really good angle to take that picture in this room because this is more of a closet than a bedroom. I'd say, right? Like we're walking around and after we leave the house, we got in the car and instantly, we're like, let's cross that one-off. There's no way we're not scared of doing a little bit of work on a house. But this thing, the only potential that we see in this house is the potential reality of us getting secondhand smoke like we're not, we're not buying this thing. I didn't cross this off the list. And it was funny because then going back and rereading the listing. We're like you were putting I mean, I get it. You're a realtor, you're trying to sell the thing. But this was like lipstick on a pigman, this house. His house was rough, and it didn't look or feel anything. Like what we were promised. We were promised a cute, cozy, charming fixer-upper with tons of potential. And man, we did not see that at all. And I think about that, and I think about how in horror movies were in this series, how to still survive a horror movie looking at horror movie tropes in three and themes that actually find a lot of truth in them. And we can see that truth echoed in Scripture. And so as I'm preparing for the sermon this week, I think like man, I noticed that same theme happening in horror movies all the time, right? The realtor is always listing these gorgeous homes these gigantic Victorian and colonials that are just amazing, the grand staircase, and everything that's beautiful. And the homeowners can never believe it's a third of the price. Like how is it selling for so cheap? Well, the realtor knows but they ain't saying anything right? They're like oh, it's because that gorgeous bedroom had like a triple homicide. That's why it's selling for so low. Because this used to be like an occult house or like there's a cursed object under the floorboards that's why it's selling for such a good price, but they never say anything. And that's the theme and like, every other horror movie that comes out, right, just off the top of my head, there's The Conjuring the Amityville Horror, the Poltergeist, all of these houses. The realtor is hiding the fact that Oh yeah, we built this house over top of a cemetery or like oh, yeah, someone was killed in that room. Like they're, they're hiding it. They're hiding it, but they're just showing you the stuff that looks good. The stuff looks attractive. Did you see the staircase? Did you see the finishing and Did you see how nice everything looks? Isn't it beautiful? And again, it's only a third of the price. But the thing is, it's always too good to be true. Always. It's always too good to be true. There's always something horrible something terrible something horrific. That's happened in the house. Now here we are part three of this series how to still survive a horror movie. And before I get to the title for today, let me just quickly recap where we've been. Okay, so in week one, we talked about getting yourself a tune-up, right? All these characters in horror movies try to get away from the killer, they hop in the car, the car won't start. Never does, right? They just never ever start. And the problem is, is these characters are probably very much like you and me. They get a check engine light and they just ignore the thing for months on end and it turns into a year. And so when they want their car to work, it gives up on them when they need their car to work. It won't. The same is true for us when it comes to our faith. So many of us ignore our faith that checks engine lights on like hey, I need some maintenance could use some oil could use some TLC like I could use a little bit of help here comes on around our faith. And we put it off until life brings a killer to our front door. Right our spouse utters the phrase that they want to divorce they want to separate we get a terrible diagnosis we get laid off from work or we get a big pay cut. And at that moment when the killers at our front door we find ourselves in a horror movie moment. We want a faith that works. But if we have a faith that's had a check engine light on for a year, we're mad when it doesn't. God biting Why aren't you coming through for me? Why do I feel so frustrated and upset? Why am I having such a hard time trusting you? Because you haven't been nurturing the faith this entire time and now you expect it and want it to start and it doesn't work that way. So we need to get ourselves a tune-up. So that was week one week two last week, Pastor Donnie Sanchez and didn't pastor Johnny do an incredible job last week preaching the word. Pastor Don, talked to us about the idea that we need to watch what we say, we need to watch what we say so many horror movies, including a recent one that just came out Candyman, and then you've got you to know, scary urban legends like Bloody Mary all these things that are revolving around the idea that if you say something, you can conjure up evil, right? That if you say the right words or you say the right things that you can bring evil into a situation, and man, that's not from a horror movie that's straight from the words of Scripture, James tells us and in Scripture tells us all over the place there is power in our words, the things that we say the words that we speak, we can either bring life or death into a situation by the power of our words. So we have to be very careful what we say to people what things we say to ourselves because our words matter and our words have power. So that's a little cliff notes version of where we've been out today. Today's title if you're taking notes, is don't trust the realtor. Don't trust the realtor which I see we have some realtors in here right now and I'm just gonna say Not you guys are wonderful hashtag, not all realtors, right like not all realtors are bad but I will tell you this horror movie are just dragging your guy's reputation through the mud man like horror movies, the realtor knows what's going on. They're like tiptoeing behind the couple, while the couple's like, oh, wow, look at the ceiling, the crown molding, and the realtor is like, yeah, yeah. And the realtor is like, looking out for a ghost knowing full well, but they got to get this listing sold, right? They're like, yeah, you want it, you want to, like, take the house, please. The realtor is hiding all this negative stuff. Just hiding it, not mentioning any of it, and trying to sell you on all the positive traits of the house, offering too good to be true deals. Now that is exactly how our enemy works. Satan, the devil, whatever you want to call them. That is exactly how our enemy the devil works. He offers us deals that are way too good to be true. He constantly is overpromising and under delivering with his deals with his offers. And that's because our enemy, I'm just going to say it. He knows how to market. He is a master marketer. He knows how to make sin look really, really good. I was talking with a guy from our church, Wayne Simms in between services. And he said, Man, that was a really good point that I was thinking about as you're preaching. And yeah, I mean, the devil is a master marketer. Whenever we read Scripture, we see that he convinced a third of the angels to defect and come to his side. And if he was able to do that, to people who had been in God's presence have seen God's face has tasted and seen his goodness, how much more susceptible are we to fall for his tricks, and I'm like, That is so true. We are he knows where our goat is tied. He knows the kind of house that we're looking for. He knows what to sell us and he knows how to market listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 11. Starting in verse 24, by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refuse to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God, rather Now listen to these next words. Listen to how the Bible, not pastor Jacob, listen to how the Bible describes sin. He chose to be mistreated by the people of God, rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than all the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. Do you hear those words?
It's not me describing it, that is scripture, using the following words to describe sin to describe going against God's will treasure, enjoyable, pleasurable See, we need to be able to admit something for ourselves. Sin is enjoyable. It may only be for a season, which is what Scripture tells us. But it is enjoyable, and I want to hit this home. We hurt ourselves when we don't acknowledge that. And we hurt kids when we don't acknowledge that we hurt teenagers when we don't acknowledge that we hurt college students, when we don't acknowledge that that sin is enjoyable, we need to be able to admit that because for us to fully reject sins offer, we need to fully reject sins, attractiveness because the attractiveness of sin is a component of sin. And if we want to be able to fully reject sin, we have to fully reject every part of it, including the attractive part. Can I just say we have lost decades and decades of young people have kids in high school have kids in college because we've told them sindbad, sindbad, sindbad, sindbad sindbad all the time, we just tell them that and then guess what they do? They go out, they try it? And they find out sin good like that. I don't know what they're talking about. But that tasted good. That felt good. That was good. So maybe my parents don't know what they're talking about. Maybe this really is just like a kind of older, outdated book that doesn't really know what it's talking about. Because that wasn't bad. I felt pretty good. And then by the time they find out it is bad. They're so far down the road, that maybe they do come back to Jesus but they come back with bruises and scars and hurts and dysfunctions that they didn't need to have. Because we have painted sin in the wrong light sin is enjoyable, we need to be able to admit that to fully reject sin. There is nothing bad with us acknowledging the attractiveness is a sin the Bible does it. God does it you want to know the first book of scripture in the Garden of Eden we see whenever Eve looks upon the fruit, the Bible makes a point of telling us that the Apple was pleasing to the eye. Why did it need to include that? We didn't even know that. Unless it was trying to make the point of saying it looked good. Eve could practically taste it before she grabbed it. Sin is enjoyable, our enemy knows how to market to us. He knows where your goat is tied, and he knows how to rattle that chain. He knows how to come for you. Most of us people who are trying to follow Jesus and stuff in your life that the devil is trying to get you to do, it doesn't necessarily look bad on the forefront. It looks pleasing. It looks good, it looks like you deserve it. Because our enemy knows how to market to us. So we need to acknowledge that we need to be ready for it. Me, my wife, whenever we were getting ready for our tax return to come back in one year, we try to have the most amount taken out for our taxes. I know a lot of people I call that don't do that. We like doing it because we'd like to get that big check at the start of the year. Right? We love getting a big tax return. And so we get our tax return back. And what we do is we either put it towards like a house project or we put it towards paying off medical bills, if we have any we put it towards those kinds of things. But this one year, we're like, you know what, we're going to use it to go towards a Disney trip. Because we don't want to do it on credit. We don't wanna have to pay anything off. We don't want to go into debt but wanted to have a big like Disney trip with the kids. And so we, we got the money out and put it in an envelope, and we had it. And let me tell you sitting on that money for months.
As hard. It's difficult because guess what happens? Life. Life happens, other opportunities to do fun things come up, stuff starts going wrong around the house, or you've noticed, oh man, we want to put an offense in there is kind of a deal on it right now. And maybe we could, you know, kind of do this kind of stuff. It's very easy to compromise, right? But you know what we did, when we got that money out, one of the first things that we did was we made a list, I still have it on my phone, in my notes app, we made a list of all the things that we want to do in the future. Whenever we have tax returns, whenever we have money saved up things like that, we made a list of all the things we want to do and acknowledge that you know what, these look good? These are things that yes, someday. It looks good, but you know what? That trip? Our kids only this age for so long, we're gonna make memories, we're gonna have a great time. That is the joy if you were with us a few weeks ago, that's the joy that we're setting before us. And because we said that joy before us. And we acknowledge the attractiveness of all these other things. In some weird way. It took the power from those things. Because we just vocalized it. We didn't try to sugarcoat it to make it sound like well, the offense wouldn't be that great. Anyways, I get no, we acknowledge we would love offense, that'd be awesome. But no, we're going for that. We're going for that. And there was a power that was broken from those temptations, by us just naming the fact that they looked good. But they weren't really worthwhile, that there was something else that was more worthwhile for us. And so for us, when it comes to our faith walk, man, we have got to acknowledge that yes, sin looks attractive, but it is not worthwhile. That is Jesus focusing my eyes and my attention on him is what truly matters. Essentially, it's just counting the cost, right? It's essentially what it is, is counting the cost of, Okay, what do I want to do? Do I want to? Do I want to invest in my relationship with God in my faith walk? Or do I want to invest in these other things that look attractive? It's, it's asking that question saying, okay, what's the cost of each of these decisions? count the cost? I guarantee you that's what Moses did. Whenever we read this from Hebrews chapter 11, where it says that Moses would rather be rejected, along with the other people of God than to enjoy the treasures of Egypt. He had to have contemplated that. Right? I guarantee you Moses wasn't sugarcoating his decision thinking Well, you know what, I'm actually going to be happy to not be in Egypt. It's going to be great being out in the wilderness by myself. The dry, humid in the dry areas, does wonders for my skin like he's, he's no sugarcoating that. I guarantee you, Moses is thinking, this is gonna suck. This is going to be awful. I'm leaving behind the people that I knew the people that treated me like family, I'm leaving behind the security of Egypt, and all of the attractiveness that comes with it. I'm a powerful person in this empire. I could do so many things here. I'll never have an empty stomach. I'll never want for anything.
And even though I'm looking all of them in the face, I still choose God. I still choose to reject all that to follow Jesus because I know at the end when I count the cost, he's worth it. And that's not He counted the cost. And when we count the cost, something incredible happens when we count the cost of holiness following Jesus or giving in to the attractiveness that life throws our way. When we count the cost, the incredible thing that happens is we start to see warts on sin. It may still be appealing. It staying still milled may be attractive, but it's one of those things where you're like, oh, wow, okay, it looks really good. And closer Get up, you're like, Oh, alright, still attractive, still appealing, but Okay, yeah, I'm seeing, I'm seeing some defects. I'm seeing some things that that I didn't notice at first. But I'm noticing now as I count the cost. You see, when we count the cost, we realize sins, sticker price never tells the full story. There is always a hidden cost of ownership that will cost you more than you want to pay. You can guarantee it every single time since sticker price never tells the full story there is always a hidden cost of ownership. Who in here knows that from experience? Because I do. I know it you online? Does anybody watch it online? You know that to be true? I know it's true. I know it's true, there is a hidden cost to sin. And it always costs you more than you want to pay. Listen to how Paul describes it in his letter to the Romans. This is from Romans chapter six, starting in verse 20. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. And what benefit Did you reap at that time, from the things that you are now ashamed of? Do those things result in death? You are Paul saying? He's saying at one time you were free from righteousness, and you were a slave to sin. And during that time, the things that you did that you thought would be beneficial to you have led you to shame and guilt. Sin leads to death. Paul is making that so abundantly clear. He says, What benefit Did you reap at the time from those things that you're now ashamed of, but now that you've been set free from sin have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Paul is hammering us over the head saying sin has a hidden cost. It pays out death, it may not look like it at first, it may look enjoyable, it may look pleasurable, it may look attractive, but in the long run, it is going to cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. We know this to be true, not even just from our own lives, we see it all over the place. How many pastors, how many Christian leaders have lost their ministry in their credibility because they were so focused on the sticker price of sin, rather than the total cost of ownership. They were just so focused on launching just one discussion, just one text, just one phone call. It's just one time I take that $500 I was given from a parishioner, and I put 50 in my pocket and the 450. And they're offering play because what does it really matter? It's only 50 bucks. They just see that one-time sticker price. And forget that there's a total cost of ownership to sin, and it's going to cost them more than they want to pay so many pastors have lost their ministries over this stuff because they didn't consider the cost. We know what purchase price and total cost of ownership look like we only have to do is look at a car right? We look at a car and we see a sticker price. Let's say we see sticker prices of $20,000 and it's a crazy good deal. Because this is a car it's only like a year or two old it's you know it's in fantastic condition. It's a good reputable brand that you know it's like a Toyota or a Honda where you can run the wheels off of that thing and it's still gonna just a tank. It's just still gonna go right. It's fully loaded and you're looking at all that you're going man just 20,000 that's not that's a deal. Like, that's amazing. So you buy it. But let me ask you is $20,000 all you'll ever put into that thing.
Using gas prices? No, you're putting, you're putting a lot of money into that car. You've got gas, you've got registration, you've got insurance, you've got just upkeep you got oil changes, new wiper blades, you've got stuff that you got to do get a new belt, get a new alternator, fluid, all this different. You've got so many things that are going into this car $20,000 It's a joke that that's all you're putting into it. That's just the sticker price. That's all that that is that is the sticker price. But the total cost of ownership. That's a whole nother thing. And when it comes to sin, the sticker price the enemy is always going to point to that. Hey, this is it. That's all it costs. I can get you out of here today in a brand new car for just this amount of money. You're going yeah, that sounds good as sound Sounds great. But there is a total cost of ownership involved that we are not considering. So I want to encourage you to play out the purchase. If the realtor right now is the realtor in your mind the enemy if he is coming at you. And he's showing you this beautiful house and he's pointing to the crown molding and the original hardwood floor, is he showing you how wonderful everything looks. I want to encourage you to play out that purchase. If you're getting ready to make a decision that you're kind of like I don't know, I don't know, play out the purchase, take it to its logical conclusion. move past the sticker price and really ask yourself what is this purchase is is look like in the long run? Because you know what, I can guarantee you those pastors, those people who lost their ministries did not play out their purchase. Because if they would have this is what it would look like. Okay. So it's just one innocent conversation, right? That's, that's the sticker price. Well, what's it lead to? Okay, it leads to a phone call, leads to a few texts. And then those texts start happening a little bit later at night, at least to set up a lunch sometime that we make sure our spouses don't really know about not because it's weird, but we don't want them to overreact or anything like that. And then that leads to dinner, discuss work stuff. And then that leads to way over-sharing emotional stuff. And then that leads to way over sharing physical stuff. And then before I know it, I've lost my wife, my marriage. I've lost my family's respect. For these celebrity pastors, I've lost the ability for my kids to have innocence because now when they get older, they're going to be able to Google daddy's name and see the first search results that pop up talking about infidelity in ways that I've abandoned my family. I'm gonna lose my ministry, I'm gonna lose my credibility. Do you think any of them actually played out that purchase before they made it? Absolutely not. I just looked at the sticker price. Man, it's what it's one conversation. It's just one conversation that is harmless. And it's weird for you to think it's anything more, it's just one conversation as the sticker price, the total cost of ownership, my God, it's going to cost you more than you want to pay, it's going to cost you so much more than you want to play. So please, for the love of God, literally play out the purchase. If you are considering making any decision, in a relationship with your job with your finances, please play it out, take it to its logical conclusion and see that it is not worth it. It's not worth it. Don't trust the realtor, he is selling you a bill of goods that will never come to fruition. Don't stop at the curb appeal. Don't stop at the number of bedrooms, there are dead bodies in the closet. You just got to keep looking. You just got to keep digging, you got to play out the purchase and find out okay if I follow this to its logical conclusion is this going to take me anywhere that I want to be in life. That's how it is with sin, play it out. And here's what happens as we play out the total cost of ownership as we play out what the purchase looks like. What we start to find out is that we get a proper perspective of things, we start to see things how they actually are. And my goodness isn't that what would just solve so many of the difficulties in our life. If we just actually had a proper, eternal perspective on things, we could actually see things from a heavenly perspective, whenever you play out the purchase, you start to get that when you play out the purchases in your life, you start to get that proper perspective that you're supposed to have, you start to see things for how they actually are especially what Paul mentioned in Romans six, you to start to see sin in holiness in a completely different light than you ever did before.
Because without proper perspective, you know what holiness looks like? It looks like performing for God. That's what holiness looks like, if you don't have the proper perspective, you look at scripture, and you see a big list of to-dos and don'ts. And you're like, Okay, I'm just gonna dance for God. Evidently, I gotta entertain him with my holiness so that he won't send me to hell one day. And so I got to make sure that I read my Bible every now and then I got to make sure I pray, I give enough money. I don't say certain bad words, I don't have sex before marriage. And if I do those things, then I won't make him unhappy. Now brain and all those things would be a blast. And all of those things would be awesome to do. But the only reason I shouldn't do them is that it'll make him mad. It'll make him angry. And that's holiness. Don't make God angry. That's what holiness looks like to a lot of us. That's the perspective we have on it because the sin around us looks so good. And it looks so fun. I hear that all the time. I hear that from people in the church saying like, well, how come they get to do that and how can they get to do that? And I don't get to do that. And I'm like, well, you're acting as if you're your holiness is like a load you have to bear-like, Oh, I'm not doing that holiness is the point. Like it is the point, those people who are just kind of living it up in certain ways in certain areas of sin, you're forgetting that there's a total cost of ownership and you're acting like it doesn't exist. But it does. It eventually finds everybody out, everybody suffers. If you follow in sin, it eventually will find you out in Scripture tells us that, but holiness is the end in itself. And we get that proper perspective when we start to count the cost when we play out the purchase. Because when we play out the purchase, we realize the sin looks so good, the sin that looks so attractive, that looked like it was going to lead to a fulfilling life, we realize it doesn't. It leads to destruction, it leads to death, it leads to broken relationships. That's where it takes us. And then we look at holiness, the thing that looked like such a burden, and we start realizing this is the thing that leads to freedom. This is the thing that leads to purpose. This is the thing that leads to a fulfilling life, I had it backward, I had this entire thing flip flop, that's what I should be doing. Because this is the thing that's going to take me to where I want to go. That's why Moses was able to reject the rewards and the treasures of Egypt because he knew those things, man, they have a cost, doesn't look like it at the sticker price. But they have a cost. But holiness, following God following Jesus investing in my faith, I know that's the thing that will actually payout in the end. And so that's where I'm putting my life. That's where I'm staking My life is on the belief that my faith will be the reward in itself. We get the proper perspective on sin and holiness, we start to see the beauty of holiness and the freedom of holiness in the ugliness of sin. It starts to increase our love for Jesus in our need for Jesus, we start to be so much more cognizant of it, we start to realize it more. And that's because as we increase our investment in our faith, as we start to invest in our faith, realizing sins are not worth it, I'm going to invest in my faith. And in my walk with Jesus, I'm going to do things to invest here. As we increase our investment, we see a decrease in our interest in sin. These things are tied together. And here's, here's the key to it. It's not that sin gets any less appealing. Because it doesn't, right. Like you have men who are like man I've struggled with lust issues, and it's been a hard man the second I get married, I'll never struggle with it anymore. Because then I'll have a wife and it won't be a problem. And then they get married. They're like I still have a problem with it. Like what? Why? Am I crazy? Is there something wrong with me? No, it's because sin doesn't lose its appeal. It doesn't lose its attractiveness. It is attractive, it is appealing. But here is what happens as you start to invest in your faith. And as you start to invest your increase your investment in it, you start to lose interest as much. It's like the whole phrase and people say the grass looks greener on the other side of the fenced grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. what you're supposed to do when the grass looks greener, whenever sin when that thing looks better than where you're currently at what you should do, water your lawn, right? That's what you should do when the grass starts to look greener just water your lawn. And so whenever sin starts to look attractive when these choices that I know, have a total cost of ownership that I don't want to pay when those things start to look good to me, that doesn't mean jump ship and start doing those. That means Okay, I need to start watering my lawn, I need to start investing in my faith, I need to start building up my walk in my relationship with Jesus, I need to water my own lawn. And as you do that, as you increase your investment, you will start to see a decrease in your interest in sin. It makes me think, talking about houses and all this stuff. Whenever we did purchase a house and everything, and Jessica did end up purchasing a house. In the weeks that followed, we were still looking at houses on realtor calm. Like we would still get the automated emails that they would send, like based on your search results here some houses that meet your criteria, they'd send them out and I'd still look at them. I'd still be scrolling. Ooh, that's a nice one man's after we already purchased the house a little late in the game, right? We're on contract for a mortgage now, but I'm still looking at these other houses. I'm still on the realtor app. It was just being me and Jessica doing it. We're like look at this one man. It's so nice. It's so beautiful and stuff like that. And I'm like what are we doing? Like torturing ourselves? Why are we doing now why are we still looking at other houses even ever? We've already bought one. But you know what was a game-changer for us. The thing that led us to unsubscribe from those emails and I deleted the realtor app because I just wasn't looking at it anymore. The Game Changer was the second we started investing in our house. The second we started doing rooms up the second we ripped up the carpet. We had the hardwood and we're like well let's pass out it's good looking nice. The second we painted the wall. We started putting pictures up the second we started doing it Guess what, I didn't look at those apps at all.
I wasn't even thinking about any other houses because I was so invested. And when we're in where I currently was, are you tracking with me? The same is true of our faith. The more that you invest in your faith, the more that you walk with Jesus and you build that up, you will start to notice, it doesn't mean those houses are any less attractive. It doesn't mean the sin in your life is any less appealing, but you care about it so much less because you are so focused and so rewarded by where you are in Christ, that it doesn't matter anymore, right? It doesn't matter anymore. So it's time for us to start investing our faith. Invest in our faith, and we will see that we will see, we will see a decrease in our interest in sin. Listen to how it's described in First Peter, five, verses eight. And now listen to what Peter says. He says, Be alert and of sober mind, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering. Peter says two things, resist him and stand firm in the faith, resist him and stand firm. That word or that phrase, standing firm in the faith literally means to dig your feet in. It's like you're digging your feet in like we just went to the beach not too long ago, whenever you dig your feet into the sand, right? waves come up, they don't even like to move you because your feet are so dug into the sand. That's what that phrase means to dig your feet in the faith to invest in the faith. And when you do so, the enemy will flee. When you do so the enemy will run from you. So I want to ask you in an actual tangible way, you don't have the answer. But I want you to really think about it. How are you investing in your faith? Are you? Or are you just hoping that when the horror movie moment comes in your life, you'll buy some way? Have faith that will stand up against it? Are you just hoping that whenever temptation comes away, and the realtor offers you a sweet deal, and it looks good, that you'll just be able to say no?
If you're just hoping, let me tell you, it does not work that way. It doesn't work that way, you have got to be investing in your relationship with Jesus because your willpower on its own is not going to cut it. He's too good of a marketer. He knows what kind of house you're looking for. And he's got a full list of things he wants to show you. So if you're relying on yourself, you're not going to cut it you're not going to get through you have got to be investing in your relationship with Jesus to be able to resist him. Peter says that he's like, resist him by standing firm in the faith. That's how you resist him by investing in your relationship with Jesus. So are you praying? And I'm not talking about getting on your knees and Heavenly Father thank you today like praying a very articulate, I'm just talking are using a conversation with God throughout the day. Are you just throwing up a little prayer saying, God, I need you today? I'm not feeling it. I just need your spirit to move in me to guide me to change my heart. Are you doing that? Are you reading scripture? are you allowing God's Word to show you who he is and allowing Him to transform you? Are you in a C group? Are you a part of the community here? Cornerstone? I'll tell you I know that groups I have his clothes. But if you want in one, we will get you in one. And right? Well, we'll get you in. Are you? Are you a ministry partner here? Are you serving in any way? What are you actually doing to intentionally keyword intentionally invest in your faith, because if you are hoping by accident, to live a life that will lead somewhere you want it to be, it's not going to happen? It's not going to happen, you're gonna be disappointed when you get to the end of your life. Because you will be looking back on man, if we just would have intentionally made the decision to invest in my relationship with Jesus, I'd be in such a different place. And I want to let you know, start today. start investing today because the quicker you start investing, and the more that you start setting that principle up of investing in your faith with Jesus, the quicker and the more the enemy flees from you. He takes off from you. And again, it's not because the sin gets any less appealing. Here's the thing, you spot his crap way quicker than you used to. That's what happens. It's not It's not that the houses are any different. If that sin is any less appealing, she doesn't suddenly stop looking so good. Beer doesn't suddenly start tasting terrible compared to whenever you were abusing it back in the day. It's not how things work. It still tastes good. She still looks good. That feeling still feels good. But you spot the enemy's lies quicker. And so the lies that a year ago used to trip you up every single time and you're like me, why not? For this again, why am I walking right back into the same relationship? Again? Like why am I just doing this time and time again? Those lies, man a year after investing in your faith in Jesus, you'll look back on that and go, how in the world was I fallen for that? It's so obvious. It's so clear what the enemy was trying to sell me. He's trying to sell me a haunted house. And I see that now I didn't see back then. But because I've been walking with a spirit. It's like you're walking into a house, and you're bringing a realtor with you. And they're going out. Yeah, no, no, no, don't look at that. Oh, that's bad, too. That's like what the Holy Spirit is he's walking in with you going, man? Yeah, this ain't good. You don't want this house, you don't want this a total cost of ownership here, this is a bad decision, you need to walk away, the more I resist, the more the enemy flees because I become more sensitive to the Spirit. And not just that. I don't have to just survive for movie moments in my life. As you start investing in your relationship with Jesus, you avoid horror movie moments altogether. Like, you don't have to be that person who's constantly in a state of distress in your relationships. You don't have to be that person who's constantly in a state of I just can't get my life together. I just can't do that doesn't have to be you. The more you invest in your relationship with Jesus, the more you just avoid the horror movie moment. You're the person who walks into the house and the first five minutes of the movie, and you're like, Ah, yeah, no, I'm good. Thanks. And the credits roll. It's a five-minute movie, right? Because you just avoided it. You're like, No, I'm not getting into this. I'm not making this decision. We've seen people do it. As pastor Brendan mentioned, the saints in the church here at Cornerstone, the older saints, how they were investing in the church and decisions they made, we see that we see that happening from people who've gone before, it's how they have made decisions, and how they have followed Jesus. And as they get towards the end of their life, decisions become quicker and easier for them, because they've seen the faithfulness of God time and time again. And they're able to spot the enemy's lies quicker and quicker than they ever did. And that can be true of me. And that could be true of you. We don't have to trust the realtor. We don't, we can reject the lies of the enemy, accept the truth that God gives us. I want that for me, I want that for you. And if you want that for you, I want to pray for you right now. All right, Let's bow our heads. And let's pray together Father God, today we reject the lies of the enemy. We refute them for exactly what they are lies from the pit of hell, we know that sin always comes with a cost. No matter how good it may look at the forefront, there is always a hidden cost of ownership. And it's always going to cost us more than we want to pay. So we reject the enemy today, God and we accept your truth, that holiness is not a burden, it's a blessing. It's something that we get to achieve. It's something that we get to pursue as we walk in the Spirit. Because we know holiness is what actually leads to the fulfilling life that we want, it actually leads to the joy that no circumstance in life can mess with. And that's what we want. We want that and we know we can't get it on our own. We're not strong enough. So God we asked today that as we stand firm in the faith, as we make our commitment today to follow you that you would help put steel in our backbone, to be able to stand up against the enemy, that we would be able to see his lies and spot them for what they are and reject them and accept your truth. And as we do that, see our minds and our hearts change to be more like Jesus, because that's what it's all about. Thank you for being good on your word, Father, that as we ask these things, we know that you will see them through to completion. You're such a good God, we love you so much. It's in your name that we pray, Amen.
