Elevate - Airplane Mode - Simplicity - Neal DiQuattro

The main idea of the transcription is about the spiritual discipline of simplicity. The speaker explains that simplicity is about living an uncluttered life so that one can easily focus on their relationship with God. They discuss how clutter and busyness can complicate our lives and hinder our ability to see what is truly important. The speaker emphasizes that simplicity is an attitude of the heart that leads to contentment and helps us prioritize our relationship with God. They also mention how lack of contentment can lead to a complicated life filled with greed and dissatisfaction. Overall, the message encourages listeners to embrace simplicity and prioritize their relationship with God. All the while, prayer is waiting, our Bible is waiting, a clear mind is waiting, time with our church family is waiting, and our complicated lives are choking out our desire for the things of God, like the crowded desk. We can no longer find the thing we need that's most important because the clutter is blocking our line of sight. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. Today's message is from Authentic Life Church Youth Minister and Worship Leader, Neal DiQuatro. We're continuing with airplane mode. For those of you who haven't been here for maybe the last few weeks or haven't been here at all during the series, we understand that the airplane mode was given to us on our phones so that we don't interfere, right, with the electronics on a plane. So it shuts off all of that information from coming or going on the phone. But we can also use this in our everyday life to shut out the world because many times it just controls us and distracts us. And so we can shut out all the other communication, all the things that are clouding up our minds whenever we want to. And that's sort of a message all by itself. You know, good stewardship of your phone. But for a Christian, airplane mode is spiritual disciplines. That's what we mean. It's the way of life that allows us to sort of shut out all of the confusion, all of the things that would distract us so we can do the things that are most important. And I don't know about you, but for me what's most important is being a disciple of Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing. So airplane mode. So today I'm going to be talking about the spiritual discipline of simplicity. It's like, wow, that doesn't sound like the sort of thing that's going to get a whole lot of amens. Probably not. Simplicity. I'll tell you what. It's a hard message for me to preach because I certainly have not mastered this. This is an area that I've struggled at times more than others. It's an area where I'm still trying to grow. But I want to be faithful to God's Word and share with you what Christ is calling us to. Amen? So simplicity. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 11, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Yet we don't enjoy this promise often in our lives because we've allowed our lives to become difficult and burdensome. The walk of the believer isn't always one with a light yoke and an easy burden. Why has this happened? Because we've complicated our lives, church. We just have. You see, there's a human tendency to fill up all of the margins in our lives. I want you to picture a piece of paper. Maybe you're typing a letter and on the left and the right you've got a one or one and a half inch margin on either side. The words never go all the way out to the edges because of those margins, because of those guides. And what does it do for you? Well, when you've printed everything on the paper, it looks clean. It's easy to deduce what is being said. It's easy on the eyes. It's not cluttered. But many times we continue to fill our lives up all the way out to the margins. So there's no empty space left. And it's the American dream. It's what we naturally do without even realizing it. Let's think about it practically. When you get a raise at work, what happens? You talk to your spouse or a significant other and you say, Oh wow, now I can afford the better phone. Now I can upgrade the streaming service. Maybe I can afford now the new car instead of the older car. We always think about how we can push our life out to the margins. That's just what we do naturally. And this is not going to be a message you'll see in a moment to condemn us for having stuff or judging each other for what we bought or what we didn't buy. That's not the point. But I want us to know that we become overrun with debt and busyness and stuff as a result of how we approach our lives. And it's not consistent with God's best for us or even how Christ has taught us in Scripture. And so the war rages as Christ beckons us to lay down our life for Him, but we're stuck being slaves to busyness and to stuff instead. And the answer to the problem is the spiritual discipline of simplicity. Simplicity. So now you know where we're headed. That's the answer. So what is simplicity as a spiritual discipline? Well, when we say simple or simplicity, lots of words come to mind. Something that's easy to understand, not complicated, right? And all of those things are true. It's kind of hard to pin it down. But for the sake of a working definition this morning, I want to give us a phrase that we can use to understand what I'm saying, which is simply this. Simplicity is, as a spiritual discipline, living an uncluttered life so you can easily behold your Savior. Simplicity is living an uncluttered life so you can easily behold your Savior. I'll give you the best analogy I can think of. Some of us at home probably have a computer desk or a writing desk, and on that we've got a computer and we... Picture this. Picture your writing desk. You've got post-it notes all around. You probably have bills that are sort of half unfolded and stacked up and maybe some envelopes that are ripped open and maybe a stapler and whatever else that you have on there. And who's ever done this? You decide to look at your computer screen for a minute, and so you put your pen down. And within about half a second, you're going, Where's my pen? Has anyone ever been here? Is this just me? I literally... I just had this pen a second ago. And you feel like you're losing your mind. But what's happened is your desk has gotten cluttered that you can no longer find the thing that you're looking for. And the sad thing is that when you find it, you realize it was in front of you the whole time, and all the clutteredness was blocking your view. And isn't that how it is in our walk with Christ? When we get too cluttered, the thing that's in front of us that we need the most, for some reason we just can't see it anymore. But it's right in front of us. Now simplicity is, and don't get me wrong, it's an attitude of the heart first. In fact, I want to establish that foundation so we're really clear. Simplicity is mostly an attitude of the heart that bears fruit in our lifestyle. It's not a competition for what you have or what I have or who has the least or who has the most or who's most busy or less busy or what they're doing. Because if we do that, then we're going to fall into legalism and we're going to end up being everyone else's judge and completely miss the point. You can live a life that's simple or cluttered or greedy or not greedy whether you're rich or whether you're poor. It's about an attitude of the heart. And somewhere deep inside we know this is true, but we don't always embrace it as Christians, and it's really hard as American Christians. And why is that? And I would simply suggest to you that we don't embrace simplicity because we have issues with contentment. It becomes an issue of contentment. You see, lack of contentment naturally leads to a complicated life. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 6, Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You see, simplicity and contentment are deeply intertwined with one another. In fact, simplicity is the fruit of contentment. Do you see that? Simplicity is the fruit of contentment. And humans have struggled with this since the very beginning. If you go back to Adam and Eve in the garden, they had the picture of contentment. They had everything they could ever want. God Himself walked with them in the cool of the day in the garden and they talked with Him. It was beautiful beyond what we could ever imagine. It was everything they wanted until something else was offered. And that is part of the deceptiveness of the human heart. So for Adam and Eve, they were content until something was laid before them. And then they said, Oh, but what about that? Something is offered that I don't have. That was out of bounds for them. To have the knowledge between good and evil, that was not what God wanted for them. But when God offered it, it sounded good. And what happened? They sinned, and didn't their lives become rather uncomplicated from then on? Didn't their lives get a whole lot more difficult after they decided that they were no longer content with what God had for them? And what was the first thing to go? Communion. Their communion with Christ was the first thing to go and their contentment caused them to lust for more and ultimately sin. They lost communion with the Father and all the virtues that follow. And so listen, the problem, as it was for Adam and Eve and with us, is never about what we have or what we're spending our time doing. It's what did it cost us to have that or do that? That's the problem. At what cost did we gain this or that? And who did we crowd out in the process? That's the hard issue. And when contentment wanes, we add complications to our lives that throw our spiritual walk out of balance. And the Apostle Paul recognizes this better than any New Testament writer. In Philippians chapter 4, we hear him say, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. And then he sort of drops it. I've learned the secret to being content. Well, what is the secret to being content? Well, Paul, he actually did tell us, but we sort of misunderstood him. Verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We don't often understand that this verse is tethered to the verses before it. We pull it out as a sound bite and we put it on t-shirts and we put it on sports banners to talk about how we're going to do a slam dunk and win the Super Bowl because Christ enables us. But that is not what this Scripture is talking about at all. Now, do we know, can we know, that if we do things according to God's will, that He'll supernaturally enable us to get there? And are there verses that say that? Of course! This is not one of them. This verse is actually about contentment. Well, how does that make any sense? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Well, it connects back to the previous verses where he's talking about an offering from the church that Paul's often taking usually to bring to the church in Jerusalem. And he's saying, listen, whether you give this to me or you don't give this to me, I'm good. Why? Because what I need to accomplish God's will in His life, He will enable me to be able to do it because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can be fulfilled through Christ who strengthens me. I can have the needs of my family met through Christ who strengthens me. You see how he doesn't have the cart before the horse? But make no mistake, Paul is talking about contentment. You see, God offers a simpler way that sets us up to be free from the bondage of stuff and busyness. But God's way according to Scripture involves two things that I want to unpack for you briefly. Two things. Choice and limits. Choice and limits. Let's talk about limits first. As Americans, we're deeply committed to the influence that we can have over our own lives. And it's so subtle we don't even realize it. You see, as Americans, we believe that it's possible. Not that we always think it will happen. But deep underneath, the underpinning of our worldview is that it's possible if we can have anything that our hearts desire if we work hard enough, we acquire enough relationships, even if we demonstrate good virtues. The attitude is, if I do enough and have good ethic, good work ethic, there's no limit to what I can achieve. Isn't that what the American dream is? Isn't that why people come to America? I'm not saying that the idea of working hard and building a life and having money is inherently evil. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the erroneous belief for a Christian to think that they can and should have enough influence over their whole life that there's no limits. That anything is possible if I just work hard enough. Because you see, that American dream is focused on what I can without ever asking the question of whether or not I should. But God did not create us this way. God didn't create us this way. God created us with limits. Our hearts have limited capacity. If you picture your heart, often times we say this is the portions we give God. Right? That's the danger sometimes of misunderstanding tithing. I'm probably on a bunny trail here, but if we... The pastor was talking about it all belongs to Him. Be generous. But when we only think about it as a tithe, we go, I gave Him this portion, the rest is mine. That's never what Christ intended. It's all His. He laid down His life for us. We lay down our life for Him. But what we do is in our hearts, we give Him this portion that we say, well, this is my walk with God. And then I can sort of do whatever I want with this other part. Here's the problem. It makes sense in theory, but it doesn't make sense in practice. It makes sense in theory, but the Bible says that our hearts are deceptively wicked. And so what ultimately happens is we fill up more and more and more and more until we push Jesus to the margin and then eventually right off the page altogether. It's the human condition. It's what fallen people do. And Jesus was trying to save us from this when He says in Matthew 6, verse 24, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and man. In other words, your heart isn't big enough for all of it. There are limits to what you can do and what your affections can be aimed towards. You cannot serve God and mammon. You see, Jesus says that you're a slave to God or mammon. He makes it really, really clear. If you've got a fallen heart, it's going to be one or the other. Who are you going to be a slave of? Mammon. It's an interesting word. Scholars tell us that it connects back to a Syrian God, the Syrian God of wealth. And over time, in biblical culture, mammon represented all lustful excess. So He's saying, you cannot serve God and lustful excess at the same time. It's not going to work. Your heart has limits. It can't hold it all in there. So He's trying to warn us, Christ is. What happens if we don't heed His warning? We have an example of what happens when you play this out over and over in your life. In Revelation chapter 18, John is describing this city that has lived on lustful excess and the outcome. Verse 2, it says, And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen. It's fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive her plagues. This city is a picture of what an unlimited, unbridled, human heart will do if they're not serving Christ and Christ's limits aren't put on their heart. We just won't stop. We'll want more and more and more. And it's so subtle that we don't even know that it's ensnared us. But Christ is calling us out. And I just want to remind us, you can be poor and consume with stuff just as easily as you can be rich and consume with stuff because it starts in the heart. And simplicity is the fruit of contentment. And that's what we're going after, which leads us to choice. We need to embrace the limits that God has put on our life and just know that you can't have it all. And so you've got to make choices about what you will have. Will you be enslaved to debt and credit card bills and running your kids around to a hundred things every week thinking that somehow you're different? And you'll be able to pull it off and it won't cost you anything in your spiritual life? I'm not here to tell you what those decisions need to be, but I am here to say that there are limits. You can't serve God as a disciple wholeheartedly and live without limits in all the other areas of your life. But in order to get that right, you've got to make choices in line with the Word of God. And that's why it's called a spiritual discipline because it's a choice that you can make each and every day. We've got to choose then what's most important to us. And that's when it begins to step on our feet and reveal our hearts when we go, oh gosh, I keep living for more and more and when I come to church I'm stressed out about debt and how am I going to pay this bill when sometimes, sometimes it's of our own doing? Instead of being in worship beholding God and feeling free and having your needs met and being happy with that, our brains are cluttered. And Jesus helps us to understand the nature of choosing in Matthew 6 when He says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. But you have to choose. What do you love most? What's most important to you? You've got to recognize the consequences of having more and more and what it will cost us. And we've got to make the choice of what we want more. All these things shall be added to you. Well, what gets added? Have we just backed up and unwound this whole message? Because Jesus is now promising if we put the kingdom first all the stuff comes. We've got to go back a few verses to understand what He really is saying. In verse 31, Jesus says, Therefore do not worry, saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Christ is saying that He will take care of your needs, your needs, when you put His kingdom first. So don't be preoccupied with anything else. Don't even be preoccupied with the needs. He says that's what the Gentiles do. They worry and worry and worry. Christ says He's going to take care of all of your needs. Don't even be preoccupied with that. Know that God will take care of you to meet your needs and don't add to it all kinds of strife by cluttering up your life with things that create obligations and slavery to debt that you don't need. And if God blesses you and opens up a door and gives you a clear conscience and you can live for a season or your entire life with an abundance, praise God for that. Praise God. That's great. And there's nothing wrong with it. If our hearts are truly contented, then we will know that we're living in a way that's in alignment with Scripture and honors Christ. We often will say, well thank God I'm not preoccupied. Thank God He's not talking about me. Well let's get practical. I'll give you a couple examples. We say social status isn't important yet we choose to buy a car we can't afford because the inexpensive one didn't fit our image. And now we're stressed out about making that payment. Much less be able to give to a neighbor in need because there's no money left over. We find ourselves in June still paying off Christmas credit card debt because we're concerned our kids will feel slighted. We choose to run ourselves into the ground shuttling kids to multiple practices because we're concerned they'd miss out. But what they really missed out on was any free time for family or with God. That's what they missed out on. All the while, prayer is waiting. Our Bible is waiting. A clear mind is waiting. Time with our church family is waiting. And our complicated lives are choking out our desire for the things of God like the crowded desk. We can no longer find the thing we need that's most important because the clutter is blocking our line of sight. And when that happens, we know that we've chosen wrongly. We've chosen wrongly. Church, can we let Solomon's words be a medicine to our ailment? Ecclesiastes 4.6 Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after the wind. Wow. That's a choice we get to make, church. It's a choice. But first you have to believe everything that I've already said. You have to believe that God has created you with limits. That the American dream, unbridled, is not in line with the words of our Savior. That we shouldn't continue to push our lives to the margin because having more and more and more is the blessing of being an American when there's nothing left over for God. Much less giving Him all of it. So we've got to choose. Do we want peace of mind? Do we want mental and emotional space to be able to pray? To be able to behold His beauty? To enjoy our walk with God and our family and the benefits of a clear mind and going to bed with peace to the extent that we can do it? Is that what we want? Or do we want to live a life full of toil and a striving after the wind? Because church, a time is going to come when it's all going to burn up. It is going to burn up. And do you hear what I'm saying? There's no condemnation here about who's got the nicer car, right? And whose kids are in the most practices and who's got more money than this one. This is a message for all of us. That's why Jesus said it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven because what He knows about the rich man is that more choices are available to them. To clutter, clutter, clutter, clutter, clutter. More is available to them. Just like Adam and Eve were presented with another choice. But you know what? That greedy, discontented spirit can be with us if we're broke too. And so God wants to lift us up to something bigger than that, that we've got room on the margins, that our life isn't cluttered and chaos, but it represents the blessing and the light yoke of being a follower of Jesus Christ. And better than Solomon's words, we have what our Savior is saying in Matthew 6. Verse 19, Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. You do not have to have a Bible degree to understand what Jesus is saying here. It's so clear. Don't lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. If that's the mode of your life, it's only going to lead to complication and heartache and a loss of communion with the Father. You might be saved, but what does it matter if you're saved and you've got a heavy yoke and the burden isn't light? You've missed out on the benefit. And knowing that our heart will always follow our treasure, which is what you've heard so many times before. I know Pastor has said it. Jesus makes it clear where you put your focus is what your heart is going to begin to worship. If stuff is the most important, you'll never give. You'll never give to the kingdom. You'll never give to a fellow man in need. And if busyness is all you know, you'll never have time to nurture your walk of God. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church to find out what we have going on or to make a donation. You can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DeQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.