Elevate - Fully Devoted Pt 1

The pastor talks about being saved from the consequences of sin and the wrath of God. He emphasizes the importance of living an authentic life for God. He discusses the vision for the church and the need for biblically authentic discipleship and authentic identity. He explains that following Jesus means denying oneself, taking up the cross, and following Him. He encourages the congregation to live for Jesus and not for their own desires or goals. He also emphasizes the importance of being real and genuine in authentic community, sharing burdens and being vulnerable with one another. The goal is to become the authentic selves that God intended for them. You are saved from something! Saved from the eternal consequences of sin! Saved from the wrath of God! Saved from living a life held captive by the sin in your life that wants to drag you down and kill you! You are living saved! We are saved people! Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DeQuatro. 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 is a day where I'm not really preaching a message per se, but I'm laying out the vision that God has given us for Authentic Life Church. The Lord says, lay out the vision, write it down, make a plane so they can run with it. It's not just my vision. This isn't a vision for me to have. This isn't a vision for our staff to have. This is a vision for us to carry together as a church as we move into the new thing that God has for us. Last week we talked about what it means to be authentic. We said authentic means real, genuine, not counterfeit. You'll see that on the back of your shirts. You've seen that in the lobby. Real, genuine, not counterfeit. In other words, authentic means that you're the real deal. You're the real deal. And there's two areas of authenticity that we talked about last week. We talked about being a biblically authentic follower of Christ, biblically authentic discipleship. And then we also talked about this area of authentic identity. If you remember that last week. And so we looked at Matthew 16, verse 24 and 25 and said, Then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will find it. So we talk about biblically authentic discipleship. We look at this scripture and we see what Jesus says. He says, whoever wants to be my disciple must. And then whatever Jesus says next is imperative. It's necessary. It's required to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ. He says, whoever wants to be my disciple must dot dot dot. And so we hear what he says. He says they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. This is just a recap of what we talked about last week. But that means that if you make a decision to follow Jesus Christ, it's not about you anymore. It's not about your desires, your goals, your plans. It's not about your feelings or your insecurities or your limitations. It's not about your career or your success or your wealth. It's not about your reputation or your number of Instagram followers or your Facebook likes. It's about none of that stuff anymore. It's about Jesus. And he tells us to take up our cross, which means if you're taking up your cross, you're carrying your cross to the place where you will die. That's what that meant to a Jewish person living under Roman rule. They knew take up your cross means to carry it through the streets up the hill to the place where you will be crucified and you will die. Dead men, people that are about to die, don't have goals and dreams and plans for their future. They don't. All that lies ahead of them is death. But it doesn't end there for us. We die to ourselves, but then we take up as we follow Christ and deny those things. We take up all of his goals and his plans and his dreams for me. We begin to follow him. We begin to become more and more like Jesus Christ. That's what real discipleship is. What does Jesus want? Whoever wants to be my disciple must do this. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow him. That's what we did when we were baptized. If you said yes to Jesus Christ and you were baptized, you signified that. You went into a watery grave. You died to yourself in that water and you came up signifying a new life in Jesus Christ. I'm no longer following me. I am now following Jesus Christ. The problem is that many don't actually live that. Life is still about them living for money, career, sex, power, greed. Don't shout me down while I'm preaching good. And I'm not talking about perfection. OK, no, no one's expecting perfection, but I'm talking about the trajectory of your life. I'm talking about the posture of your heart. I'm talking about the way in which you choose now to live the pathway that you are walking on. And so ask yourself today as a follower of Christ, is it about me or is it about him? Now ask yourself that honestly. Because the knee jerk response for all of us would be to say, of course, it's all about him. But as we really stop and say, who am I living for? Is it my job, my career, my reputation, my success, right? Is this what's important to me? Or is it his kingdom that is important to me? Is it following his pathway, his goals and dreams and plans for my life that is important for me? If we ask ourselves and we answer honestly, we may be surprised at what the Holy Spirit reveals within us that may need to be adjusted. And that's why we come to church. Because we're not perfect. We don't have it all together. We don't always follow Christ authentically as we should. But we get that reminder and the Holy Spirit speaks to us and he makes heart adjustments within us. And I pray that if there's an adjustment that's needed, that you will go through that process with the Holy Spirit. So that's biblically authentic discipleship, denying yourself, following Christ. But then we talked about authentic identity. In the next part of that scripture, Jesus says, For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life, for me, will find it. If we are willing to lose our lives, the Bible says that we will save our lives. When we are willing to lose, crucify the flesh, put down our desires, put down our goals, put down our plans, he says that we will actually find our life. Not the one that we thought we wanted. Not the one that our parents told us that we had to live. Not the one that the culture dictated is how we're supposed to live our lives. Not that life. That's the one we're losing. The new life that we're finding, that we're picking up, is the one that he created for us to live. The real one. The authentic life. The authentic identity. Our real self. I want to be the real self. Why did God put Jonathan Paul DeQuatro on the earth, August 12th, 1975? Some of y'all are doing the math right now. But why did he do that? What's the purpose? What did he have for me? Right? That's my real self. Everything else has been bolted on because of the stupid decisions that I've made, because of my distractions and my preoccupations with wealth and success, and who I would become in my own right. Right? That's all. That's not the real self. That's just me. That needs to be lost so that we can become our authentic self. Paul said this in Philippians 3, 12. Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I pressed on to take that to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Right? There's a reason why Jesus Christ grabbed a hold of you, saved your soul. Right? And it's our job to find that purpose. To take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. We have to realize that there is a blueprint in heaven that was drawn up before the foundations of the earth about who you would be. Ephesians 1, 4 says, For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. Right? And He's known that you were going to be on the scene. That means you arrived on the scene 15, 30, 50, 75 years ago. And now that you're here, you have the opportunity to follow that heavenly blueprint. That authentic identity. This is huge. To be exactly what God envisioned for our lives. Taking hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. And that, listen to me, that is what authentic life church is all about. Together, we want to follow Christ authentically while becoming our true, real, and authentic selves. The one that God envisioned for us. Losing our lives and taking on His life for us. Amen? Saving our life in Him. Now that's what we covered last week. That's just the introduction. I hope you all have your new pen so you can take some notes. So there's other aspects of authenticity that I want to talk about. Just briefly mention them because we said that authentic means real, genuine, not counterfeit. Now I don't know about you, but I find it exhausting to try to hide behind a mask of perfection. It's exhausting to try to do that. If you've tried to do it, you know what I'm saying. It is exhausting to pretend like everything is okay. Don't let the warts show. But living in authentic community requires us to be our real, genuine, non-counterfeit selves with one another. That's what authentic community is. Authentic does not mean perfect. Being authentic with one another requires openness. It requires vulnerability. It requires allowing us to let our warts show and sharing those things that are imperfect about ourselves. Listen, I don't want to lead a church of fakers. I have no desire to do that. I am not a person that puts on airs and tries to act like somebody I'm not. And I don't want you to be that way either, because I don't believe that's what Christ has called you to be. I don't want to see people who put on a smile in church, a fake smile when they see everybody at church on Sunday morning. And I just don't want to bother you with my problems. Pretending like everything is okay, but secretly depressed to the point of suicide. There's nothing good and real and helpful about any of that. Galatians 6-2 tells us this, carry each other's burdens. And in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. That's a command to the church. To carry one another's burdens. But we can't carry a burden that we don't know that you have. Right, nobody can carry your burden if you don't share that burden with people. No one can carry your burden if you're pretending like everything is okay when really you're not. Nobody is going to pray with you if everything is okay. Right, nobody is going to believe God for a miracle if everything is okay. Be real. Share your burdens. And so I believe this, that authentic life church will foster a community of believers with no masks, no facades and no pedestals. And what I mean by that is that we don't elevate anybody above Jesus and we don't elevate anybody above anybody else. We don't need any pedestals here at authentic life church. That means that if you're trying to put yourself onto a pedestal with your piousness and your religiousness and your facade that you place, I'm telling you that you eventually will fall. I don't want to be on a pedestal. I know that I'm the pastor of this church, but I don't want to be on a pedestal. I don't want you to think that I've got my act all together because I'm here to tell you I don't. I do not have my act all together. Some things I do. Some things I do really well. Some things I'm thinking like, man, if Jesus has his scorecard out, he's probably rating me pretty well on that one today. But there's other areas of my life where I feel like I probably wouldn't get a well done for that one. But I'm growing and I'm learning. I don't want to be on a pedestal. I'm flawed. I'm imperfect. I struggle with all the exact same things that you do. And so no matter what level of leadership you rise to reject the pedestal. Right. We're talking about being authentic here over here. Real genuine, not counterfeit and not perfect, real authentic. And when we do this, when the culture truly shifts to complete authenticity, we realize this, that we're all in this together. We are all following Christ, doing our best to serve Jesus and to become the authentic version of ourselves that he has created us to be. That's what unites us. That's what unites us. We're together all just trying to follow Jesus. That's our common goal. That's who we want to be. I'd like to be a part of a church like that. Not one where we all play games with one another. Pretend like we're something that we're not. Just somebody realized that. Hey man, you're in the trenches with me. Let's do this. Come on. Let's follow Jesus. Let's do our best. Let's encourage one another. When you're down, I'll help lift you up. When I'm down, you'll help lift me up. But let's just follow Jesus together and to be that authentic follower of Jesus that he's called us to be. And so here's the mission statement that God gave me. And really, he gave me this six years ago. And I've just added one word to it. But authentic life church exists to build a community of fully devoted, authentic followers of Jesus Christ. Everybody say fully devoted. And we talked about biblical authenticity. We've talked about authentic identity. And we just had a little discussion about authenticity within the community of believers. But what does this mean? Fully devoted. What does that really mean? How do I know that I am a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ? Now, I'm a firm believer in things being clearly defined for me so that I know that I'm meeting the expectation. If we're going to build a community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, then we have to know what that means. And that is the mission here, right? To build a community of fully devoted, authentic followers of Jesus Christ. And so as we sought God and we tried to distill the idea of what it means to have full devotion to Jesus into something that was definable, something that was easy to communicate, the Lord began to reveal three areas of the life of a believer that are essential to being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. And that's where these things come in right here. We're calling these our life steps. And that's where these come in, that save people, seek God. That save people, serve people. And save people, save people. Each one of these things building on the other. And ultimately we can't call ourselves a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ without embracing each area within our devotion to Jesus Christ. And it's not because that's what I'm saying and it's a new clever thing that we're trying to do as we kind of relaunch this church and move into a new season. I'm saying this because this is what Jesus modeled. This is what Jesus taught. And this is what Jesus has revealed to us through his word. And so we're going to take the next several weeks and we're going to talk about each one of these things and what those mean. But I just want to walk you through them this morning. We're laying out vision today. Letting you see what is it that God has been speaking to us over the last months as we have looked toward this change. I want you to see this vision. Authentic life. We said this already. Authentic life church exists to build a community of fully devoted authentic followers of Jesus Christ. And we do this by teaching and modeling the following life steps. That saves people, seek God. That saves people, serve people. And saves people, save people. Why are we using the term saves people? Because that's exactly what we are. We're saved. It's not just that we made a nice decision. It's not just that we picked up a philosophy that seems better than the other philosophy. That's not what this is. This isn't just a good way to live your life. It's not just something to kind of keep you from running off the rails. You are saved. Saved from something. Saved from the eternal consequences of sin. Saved from the wrath of God. Saved from living a life held captive by the sin in your life that wants to drag you down and kill you. You are living saved. We are saved people. I love this in Romans chapter 5 beginning in verse 8. It says, but God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Listen, that's who we are. Saved people. We've been rescued by the blood of Jesus. And that demands a response. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? We have been saved and rescued by the blood of Jesus. And that demands a response. It demands a response from our life. And so we say that if we're saved people, then saved people will seek God. And what do I mean by that? Matthew 4 verse 4 says, Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. You know, you can't know how to follow Jesus until you have the instructions. You just can't. You can't know his expectations of you as a believer, as a part of the larger community of believers and individually and what he has called you to be. You can't know it. That's why we read the word. That's why we listen to his voice. That's why obedience is absolutely the key in really, truly being an authentic, fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. We seek God because we need to know how to follow him. We've got to know what pleases him. We need to know what his word says. We need to know what he has spoken directly, individually to us. Maybe to talk to that person or to offer forgiveness for that mistake or to encourage that one over there or serve on this ministry or start this group or do this thing. Whatever God is speaking to you, right? If we're not seeking God, we're not going to hear those things and we won't know how to walk into the fullness that God has for us. As we seek to read his word, to hear his voice and to know God's word to us, then we will be 100% certain of what he desires from us. That's how we walk into authentic identity by seeking God, seeking his word, seeking his presence, seeking his face, seeking to hear his voice and then obeying what he says. More on that next week. Amen. Let me say that saved people, if I've been rescued by the blood of Jesus and I'm a saved person, then part of the motivation that's in my life is that I am going to serve people. Now it's really easy as an American to take this amazing salvation and become selfish with it. It just really, really is. It's what we do. It's what our culture has taught us to do, to gather every convenience, every resource, every possession that you can, and it's all for you. Don't expect anything from me and don't put your hands in my pocket and don't touch my stuff. That's the American way. It's easy. But Jesus taught us a different way, a way that gets us out of a selfish mindset and brings us outside of ourselves to the real reason that we are here, and that is to serve others. Mark 10, beginning in verse 42, Jesus called them together and said them being his disciples. You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority. They exercise authority over them. Not so with you. This is Jesus talking to his disciples. It's in his word. And so now he's talking to his disciples. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Listen to me. Stop trying to be somebody. Just stop it. This is the two greatest words I could tell you. Just stop. Stop it. Stop trying to be somebody. Stop looking for recognition and accolades and respect. This whole culture is based on that. How many likes? How many followers? How many people saw my video? How many people liked my post? Right? Stop looking for that stuff. That's what Jesus was addressing with his disciples here. They were arguing over who was the greatest. They're in the presence of Jesus. And they're arguing over who's the greatest. Hello, McFly. So Jesus says to them, wait, you want to be great? Get over yourself and start serving other people. That's true greatness. And it's not just action. It's a heart posture to write. It's easy to do the things that look like serving, but he's wanting to break our hearts to become more and more like him. I realize in myself that I need to be continually transformed in that area. Especially because I have position. There are many times where the john in me. That john. That evil, sinful john in me rises up and thinks I'm the pastor. You take out the trash. You sweep the floor. You move those chairs. And I have to immediately kill that thought. And repent and replace that with, you know what, Jesus, you came to serve. And so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Right. We need it. We need. It's a heart posture. We can look it on the outside. Right. But God's wanting to change our hearts into a posture of serving. It's human nature. We want to be regarded as great and recognized for it. But it's just not Jesus's way. He modeled serving. Plain and simple. In fact, the last memory. The last thing that somebody says. The last thing that somebody does while they're here on this earth. That gets burned in your brain. And what he wanted his disciples to see. The very last thing that he did when they were all together. Was he knelt down and he washed their nasty feet. Showed them what it meant to be a servant. To stoop before his disciples. The ones that were following him. Jesus about to go to the cross and save all of mankind. Stooping before his disciples. And serving them and washing their feet. That's what Jesus has called us to. This is non-negotiable. To be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. We have to do as Jesus did. We have to serve people. That has to be our heart, guys. It has to be for other people. We can't come into this church and just be like, Feed me, pastor. That cannot be the posture of our hearts. To be fully devoted, we've got to be looking beyond ourselves. And the last one here is part of this vision. And how we become fully devoted, authentic followers of Christ. That saves people. Save people. And this one is probably the most overlooked. Avoided and ignored aspect of being a Christian. But there is no way around the fact that a fully devoted follower of Christ is concerned about the souls and the eternal destiny of others. You've got to be. You have to be. Matthew 28, 19. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's a very simple command. Go and make disciples. Reproduce yourself in others. Bring people to Christ. Let him save them. And teach them to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Are we all evangelists? No, we're not. We all know there's a very specific gifting that God has given certain people that can preach on street corners and they can turn every conversation into a full gospel presentation. Not all of us have that gift. And there's no denying that there's a special grace that some people have for that. But that is not an excuse for us to ignore the command of Jesus. If we have been saved, and if we know that our faith in Jesus Christ and the finished work on the cross is the only way to have eternal life, then we ought to be doing something about that. And that's why we have the Holy Spirit. Listen to what it says in Acts 1A. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. You will be my witnesses in Mobile, in Mobile County, and in the United States, and in North America, and to the ends of the earth. There has to come a point in all of us where we stop making excuses because of our personality type and start relying on the boldness of the Holy Spirit. He's in you. He's in you to empower you and give you boldness and courage so that you will be His witnesses. It has nothing to do with your personality type. It's about His Spirit within you. You open your mouth, He'll fill it. He'll do the work. 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.