“Decrease Entertainment: The Way of True Discipleship” by Chrissy Cole

Pastor Chrissy Cole continues the Way of Decrease series with a powerful message on how entertainment and distraction are shaping our spiritual lives. Teaching from Matthew 16, this sermon challenges us to move from spiritual entertainment to true discipleship through denial, obedience, and surrender. Discover how reclaiming your attention and prioritizing intimacy with Jesus leads to lasting transformation and purpose.

• (00:00) - Introduction to the Way of Decrease
• (01:20) - Why We Must Decrease Entertainment
• (02:48) - The Reality of Screen Culture
• (04:18) - Boredom Leads to Wonder and Faith
• (06:02) - Entertainment Is Shaping Your Spirituality
• (07:38) - Distraction Is Stealing Your Attention
• (09:20) - The Cost of Discipleship
• (10:30) - Gaining the World Losing Your Soul
• (12:17) - Deny Yourself and Limit Access
• (15:00) - What You Behold You Become
• (18:28) - Entertainment Is Selling You Lies
• (22:21) - Don’t Feed Your Soul Artificial Fuel
• (23:27) - Spiritual Entertainment vs Obedience
• (27:15) - Returning to Your First Love
• (31:29) - From Spectator to Disciple
• (35:40) - Dying to Self to Find Life
• (40:57) - Slowing Down to Hear God
• (41:49) - Deny Yourself or Deny Jesus

Creators and Guests

Host

Chrissy Cole

Chrissy’s parents moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in the late 70′s. She saw her parents both come to know the Lord at a young age. She and her family poured their lives into the local church and were changed by God. Chrissy attended Evangel University in Springfield, MO and earned a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations.

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00;00;00;00 - 00;00;11;01
Chrissy Cole
I'm going to continue our series on the way of decrease. Pastor Caleb kicked it off last week, and the 40 days leading up to Easter are, 40 days of lent.

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;50;25
Chrissy Cole
And I think the Catholic Church is very familiar with this, and we really wanted to bring attention to the decrease that we must have leading up to Easter, so that we can magnify and increase our communion with the Lord. So we wanted to very intentionally, for the next 40 days and our under 20 days. At this point, we wanted to very intentionally decrease things in our lives, decrease not just, food or not just entertainment and social media, but also decrease some things that cloud our inner worlds so that we can magnify God so that he can increase.

00;00;50;25 - 00;01;20;28
Chrissy Cole
When we thin our lives, we thicken our communion with God. And when we're intimate with Jesus, we have more reason to celebrate and more revelation of why we celebrate Easter. Amen. So here we go. We're going to be decreasing today. Decreasing entertainment. Somebody say entertainment. We're going the way of decreasing so that we can increase discipleship.

00;01;21;00 - 00;01;40;21
Chrissy Cole
One way that we are disciples of Christ is we are the hands and feet of Jesus. And so let me just say this from the outset. We do have that Easter egg hunt. And I would just encourage you that the way of decreasing is increasing our service to the community, and we have so many sign ups for from the community and from many of you and your families.

00;01;40;27 - 00;02;00;16
Chrissy Cole
But we need more volunteers in order to adequately serve the people who are coming to this Easter egg hunt. So if you have not yet made plans for next Saturday, we need all the hands that we can get so that we can serve them well. Okay, we want to serve because servanthood is our calling. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

00;02;00;18 - 00;02;21;04
Chrissy Cole
Also, we as a church body, as you are inviting many people to come to Easter services on either Saturday or Sunday, we need you to register so that we can adequately serve those and plan for. I mean, I think you all feel how crowded it is in this room, and we are only expecting more crowds, Easter Sunday.

00;02;21;04 - 00;02;48;03
Chrissy Cole
So that's why we open up a Saturday, service to celebrate Easter. So make sure you sign up. So we can plan accordingly. But let's jump in. We are going to decrease entertainment. This is the way of true discipleship. You know, there has been a season that Caleb and I have entered into. Yes, we have a pre-teen and a teenager, but I would like to call them screen agers.

00;02;48;06 - 00;03;16;00
Chrissy Cole
Okay. I think many of you who know teenagers and pre-teens and let's be honest, all of us are kind of we are screen agers and that thing about devices is that when we take them away as form of consequence, what inevitably ensues is my children saying, but now I'm so bored, I'm bored. What am I going to do without my screen?

00;03;16;00 - 00;03;39;13
Chrissy Cole
What I'm going to do without these games? What am I going to do with, connecting with my friends? And really, I believe that boredom gives way towards a life of wonder. You know, when my kids go to Disney World, they're not on their phones. Barely ever. They're looking around. They're looking at, everything that was created around them to help give them an experience.

00;03;39;13 - 00;04;18;13
Chrissy Cole
And can I tell you that God has created a world for you to enjoy and to experience him through? He wants you to experience his creation. When we experience his creation, all that he created, then we can give worship and glory to the creator. Boredom gives way to your wonder. When we lose childlike wonder, we lose an element of faith to believe that there is a God who actually created all of this, and believe that he has plans that are good for us.

00;04;18;15 - 00;04;44;11
Chrissy Cole
When we get lost in entertainment, that's when we do what we did last. Well, we talked about last week. We start comparing. We start being jealous. We start helping for the wrong things, putting our hope in wrong things. And can I tell you, entertainment that is meant to bring wonder to our lives is actually lying to us. Entertainment, I'm afraid, is really impacting our spirituality.

00;04;44;14 - 00;05;13;07
Chrissy Cole
In a study by Barnett Group, trying to understand people becoming resilient disciples, trying to understand why there are people who are following Christ and staying in it, they're not resilient. The research shows that, and IT doctor Richard Friede conducted the study. He says that the screen used for entertainment is now the dominant activity in childhood, the dominant activity.

00;05;13;09 - 00;05;39;08
Chrissy Cole
And because of this, young people engage with screen media, screen driven media roughly 20 times more than even spiritual content. Even families that attend church, they're seeing that their children consume more than ten times as much cultural content than spiritual content, which is so funny. Every time I we take our kids phones away, our our boys, they are the only two.

00;05;39;08 - 00;06;02;06
Chrissy Cole
They have phones. Our daughter is innocent and pure. Thank you Jesus. And they're just like, oh my gosh, when I'm reading my Bible, I read in my Bible on my lap and I'm like, are you? Because I know how quick it is to turn to something else, right. And but what we're seeing is that children are consuming even ten times more cultural entertainment than spiritual content.

00;06;02;08 - 00;06;38;28
Chrissy Cole
Ultimately, this study is showing that there's a decline in our spirituality, and as a result, we are not raising up resilient disciples in Christ because they are so inundated and saturated by this technological culture. So today, the goal is that we would decrease entertainment to increase our discipleship, increase our discipleship. What is discipleship? It's that we would increase our desire and devotion to follow Jesus, follow the one who created all of this.

00;06;39;03 - 00;07;15;00
Chrissy Cole
Follow the one who he wants us to become more like, so that we can represent him outside of these four walls. And you might be thinking, okay, I don't even like being entertained right on social media that much. But let me tell you this we are staying more entertained by the thoughts of others when it comes to politics, when it comes to this war, when it comes to all these things that we feel like, oh, I'm learning, I'm growing even the spiritual content that we are ingesting, it's actually become more entertainment for us.

00;07;15;02 - 00;07;37;29
Chrissy Cole
And I just wonder if we're actually being formed into the likeness of our Savior, or if we're being formed by our intellect and the information that we are ingesting. And here's the thing. Some of us are just, like I'm saying, formed. I'm getting smarter. I'm learning more. Maybe God, the wonderful creator, also wants to be your wonderful counselor.

00;07;38;01 - 00;08;10;27
Chrissy Cole
Some of us are depending on entertainment to counsel us more than God himself. We have a wonderful counselor. We have an amazing creator, and so many of us are choosing the cost of living our best life for entertainment. Here's the thing your choice to be distracted by entertainment. Our choice is costing you living the life that God wants you to live, and it's a life that's more connected to him.

00;08;10;27 - 00;08;34;20
Chrissy Cole
Research is showing actually that anytime we are distracted, it takes about 25 minutes for our brains to refocus to the place it was at. Its optimal attention span. So can you imagine every time your phone dings, every time you get a notification, every time you get an email, every time a sound goes off with those stupid things that you signed up for to get the 15% off.

00;08;34;20 - 00;09;10;28
Chrissy Cole
Come on, you know what I'm talking about, right? Every time. 25 minutes taken from you. 25 minutes. How much time has been stolen from us that could actually belong to a God who's trying to reveal his wonder and reveal his counsel. Some of us, I'm afraid, are being lulled into spiritual inactivity. Some of us are falling asleep and we feel like we're alive because entertainment gives us dopamine, because entertainment gives us something to think about and chew on.

00;09;11;02 - 00;09;20;05
Chrissy Cole
But I don't know if it's increasing our spiritual activity. Entertainment is forming you more than you think.

00;09;20;07 - 00;09;45;23
Chrissy Cole
Here's what Jesus himself says. He says that there's a cost to discipleship, not according to me, an impatient mom who's over my kids being on the screens, not a church who wants you to increase in your attendance, not leaders who are just saying, come on, the sign up for that egg hunt? No, no no, no. Jesus himself says that there is a cost to discipleship.

00;09;45;25 - 00;10;16;21
Chrissy Cole
Here's what he says in Matthew 1624 through 26. If anyone would come after me, let him deny somebody, say, deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for a leopard would save his life, will lose it. But whoever loses his life for the sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

00;10;16;23 - 00;10;30;23
Chrissy Cole
Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Some of us are giving entertainment so much time, so much attention, so much affection.

00;10;30;26 - 00;10;55;11
Chrissy Cole
Here's a point that I want to make. And if you're taking notes, it'll be behind me. We can gain the amusement of the world, only to lose our souls attentiveness to our creator. Our creator is trying to form us. You know, he saw our unformed bodies, our unformed substance, while we were in our mother's womb. He formed us.

00;10;55;17 - 00;11;22;16
Chrissy Cole
And it was miraculous. And some of us are okay with. Oh, yes, he formed me in the womb. And now we're letting everything in anything else form us. Everything that we watch, everything that we give time to, everything that we ingest in our spirits, everything that we surround ourselves, that is forming us. If it's not God Himself following us through the word, through the body of Christ, then the entertainment is forming us into something.

00;11;22;19 - 00;11;48;05
Chrissy Cole
What you behold, you become. Are we beholding entertainment more than we're beholding the one? Again, boredom gives way to beholding him and the wonder of who he is, and the wonder of what he might want to accomplish in your life. So today we are wanting to see what the true disciples are. We're going to walk in true discipleship.

00;11;48;05 - 00;12;17;02
Chrissy Cole
And if the two disciples are here, would you please stand up? Please stand. And just kidding. I'm sorry it ages me because I don't think anybody listens to Eminem. Okay, cool. A true disciple will. Three quick points today. Number one, decrease entertainment by increasing denial. Increasing denial. This is us saying no, this is saying us. This is us saying no to attaching to the things of this world.

00;12;17;04 - 00;12;42;00
Chrissy Cole
The reason we're seeing an uptick in entertainment and screens is because of the issue of access. Access. If you want to deny entertainment, if you want to decrease entertainment, then you're going to start denying access. I need to start saying that every time something comes on the screen, the phone notifies me at, you're distracting me. I'm already kind of A.D.D. and a lot of people are.

00;12;42;00 - 00;13;04;24
Chrissy Cole
I'm convinced that this world is A.D.D.. You don't have to be. You don't have to be diagnosed with it. And I'm being serious the way that we are so distracted on this earth. Here's what it says that American research shows that Americans check their phones about 186 times per day on average. That's conservative. Remember, the average is a little bit more conservative.

00;13;05;01 - 00;13;29;08
Chrissy Cole
Daily phone pickups very significantly between generations. But they're saying that boomers listening, we're not just talking about the next generation. They're saying that boomers are picking up their phone more. However, there are younger generations that are staying on their phone for a greater length of time. Nearly half of Americans are saying that they are addicted to their phones.

00;13;29;13 - 00;13;54;17
Chrissy Cole
And it's also saying that most people check their phones within ten minutes of waking up and y'all are like, whatever wakes me up, I need to look at it to click snooze right? And here's the thing. This is a convicting word for Pastor Caleb and I. So the last couple weeks, I knew this message was coming and I knew were deciding on things that were going to decrease in our lives in a very practical way.

00;13;54;23 - 00;14;16;26
Chrissy Cole
And we said, okay, 30 minutes. We're not getting on our phones until 30 minutes after we wake up. That was so hard and we failed many times. And we also said before we go to bed, some of y'all like to fall asleep with the TV. I wonder if you're anxious inside. If you need noise to tell you to sleep.

00;14;16;28 - 00;14;38;05
Chrissy Cole
I'm at the point where I'm like, Caleb, can we please clear our minds of all the noise and the clutter? At least 30 minutes before we go to bed? They actually say, if that helps her sleep, some of you think that you need it to go to sleep. But don't be dependent on entertainment. The Lord wants to help you with that.

00;14;38;08 - 00;15;22;23
Chrissy Cole
Are we have such noisy lives? You guys, whatever you're attached to gets your attention. The actual definition of the word deny when you translated in Matthew is to claim no knowledge of relationship to. It's actually the same word that they use when Peter denies Christ and he actually says, there's no relationship I have with you. Well, if we're giving access to so much, I'm wondering if we're actually denying Christ himself, if he doesn't have as much access to us and we're not giving invitation and doorway to everything else that that phone wants to tell us and TV wants to show us, and movies want a form in us, I wonder if we're actually denying Christ.

00;15;22;26 - 00;15;45;04
Chrissy Cole
You're like, dang, Chrissy, this is so intense. These remind me of, you know, back in the day when your parents would say, garbage in, garbage out. This is not a message about just stopping your behaviors. I'm afraid that we are not giving access to the spirit to transform us from the inside out.

00;15;45;06 - 00;16;15;23
Chrissy Cole
This isn't just about how you're going to act as a result of had entertainment. This is what I think that we're stealing from our creator. His attention and devotion and affection that belongs to him. Denial means detachment. Here's the thing. There might be all this entertainment around us, but you don't have to be in relationship with it. We are in this world, but not us, this world.

00;16;15;26 - 00;16;33;20
Chrissy Cole
And we've got to be careful with what we're seeing. Entertainment fills our attention. It fills our brains. Here's what Coleman Strahan says in his book. Beloved, beholding the Staff. We all read it this week to really get our hearts and minds set on him. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Right? Here's what he says.

00;16;33;22 - 00;17;06;23
Chrissy Cole
Our eyes are the filmmakers of our souls, and our brains are a great archive. What are you archiving in your brain when you get in that fight with your spouse? When you get in a fight with your coworker, what are you accessing in the archives of your brain in order to respond? If we're not giving attention and filling our minds and our archives and our our brain files, if we're not filling our minds with more of him, then our response isn't going to sound like him.

00;17;06;25 - 00;17;33;24
Chrissy Cole
I just wonder why, if we need to start denying more, what are you giving access to in your life? Psalm 101 three David is saying, I will not set my eyes before anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. In other words, he would see others fall away from the purposes of God and commitment and devotion to God.

00;17;33;27 - 00;17;54;11
Chrissy Cole
And David was a man who is devoted to God's own heart after his heart himself. And he's saying, I will not allow those things to cling to me, those things to attach to me. I will not set my eyes what you are setting your eyes on is attaching itself to you.

00;17;54;14 - 00;18;28;17
Chrissy Cole
When we watch, what we watch often is impacting our being. And I have to ask the question, why are we so attracted to violence, to sex, to murder, and just in general non life giving content even like the the worthless stuff, like for real, for the worthless stuff, I mean the memes, they do make me laugh, but if that's taking up more of my time, if I'm like saying no, no, no, I'm watching something right now to Charlie, who wants to connect with me because I have to watch three more memes, right?

00;18;28;23 - 00;18;57;16
Chrissy Cole
Why? And again, I don't want you to feel like I'm just trying to tell you. So your phone's away. That's not what I think anybody needs to do. And there's blessings that come from this technology. But I will say that the Holy Spirit, I pray, will speak to you like he spoke to me about a show that I was watching on Netflix and I were gone three, three seasons, pretty strong, pretty bendy behavior.

00;18;57;18 - 00;19;15;17
Chrissy Cole
And then by the time we got the fifth season, I was like, you know, I probably was anywhere. But I would say things like, oh, but I just really fallen in love with the characters, the character development. It's just so smart. And it's a historical fiction. So I'm learning this is what we this is how we justify entertainment.

00;19;15;19 - 00;19;36;09
Chrissy Cole
The Spirit of God just say, nope nope nope nope nope nope. Why why Chrissy? And then I introduce the show to other people watching it and I'm like, I don't think, what? No, I don't think you should be watching that. You are. And then the Lord just said, stop it. So I had to stop and am I? Are we that attuned to the spirit?

00;19;36;09 - 00;19;52;26
Chrissy Cole
It took me two seasons too long and now they're up to season eight, and I couldn't care less about what happened to these people. They're fake. It's fiction. They're fake. But it took me two seasons to be convinced of that. After I already heard the Lord say no and I would say things, oh, we fast forward through the sex stuff.

00;19;52;28 - 00;20;17;16
Chrissy Cole
It's fine. It's fine. I mean, the violence, it's it's fine because this is actually happening in that day and age. I mean, the way we the way we just oh man, justify is hilarious. But can I tell you, the Lord will never lie to you because he's truth. He is truth. But I'm telling you right now, entertainment lies to us.

00;20;17;18 - 00;20;45;05
Chrissy Cole
That's why it's so attractive. That's why after we binge and we lose a whole day or we lose time scrolling, we feel bad about ourselves because entertainment lies to us. It gives us promise for a moment. But then you're left destroyed, destructive, and just without purpose. Entertainment. The world offers us lies. I see I was listening to a podcast.

00;20;45;05 - 00;21;23;04
Chrissy Cole
It was actually a secular podcast, but the guest on the show was a neuroscientist, who was helping the host get free from an addiction. And here's what he said. He said of the entertainment that many of us ingest. Number one, porn equals loneliness sold as sex. Alcohol equals escape, sold as fun. Drugs equals numbness, sold as peace scrolling equals distractions sold as rest.

00;21;23;07 - 00;21;59;29
Chrissy Cole
Fast food. You're like, don't touch that, Chrissy. Stop it. You're supposed to talk about entertainment. I mean, fast food is entertaining for our tummies. Fast food equals poison. Sold as pleasure luxury. Ooh, y'all don't want me to touch this. Luxury equals emptiness. Sold as purpose. We'd equals addiction sold as relaxation. But it's not against the law. Notifications equals control sold as importance.

00;22;00;04 - 00;22;21;24
Chrissy Cole
Social media equals validation. Sold as friendship. What's the moral of the story? Don't feed the best parts of being human with lies. Ultimately, don't feed the best parts of being human with artificial fuel.

00;22;21;26 - 00;22;54;20
Chrissy Cole
How is access to entertainment? How is it stealing from your life? How has it lied to you? I think many of us can think of how some of these things have lied to us. Let's decrease entertainment by taking up our cross and following him, denying, denying, attachment and these things that are trying to cling to us when we detach from the things that cling to us, we grow in our understanding of what the creator wants to bring us.

00;22;54;23 - 00;23;27;21
Chrissy Cole
Some of us are allowing things to cling on to us, and it's removing the opportunity for God to attach more truth to us. Number two, a two disciple will decrease spiritual entertainment by increasing obedience. You might be thinking, well, spiritual entertainment? What's that? I and I know the Lord took me through this as I was listening to Pastor Caleb's message and I was like, I don't know if what we need to hear about every time we get in this room is to stop watching your phone stop.

00;23;27;21 - 00;23;56;21
Chrissy Cole
You know, stop watching all this trash on TV, because the truth of the matter is, there's a lot of people who believe in Jesus in this room. And what I see happening and being lulled into spiritual activity is making things that are spiritual entertainment. What's happening is that we're we're turning our faith into something that is to be consumed rather than something that is actually transforming us.

00;23;56;23 - 00;24;10;18
Chrissy Cole
Some of us might say, I'm not going to go to church this week. I'm good, you know, because I think me and Jesus are good, but I'll go. When I'm desperate for something, I'll go going. I'm praying for something. I'll go when I bring somebody. I'm I'm sure I'm not going make it a spiritual rhythm of my life.

00;24;10;24 - 00;24;34;08
Chrissy Cole
Because I'm good, I'm good. Well, if you are seeing coming into church or praying or, reading the word only as a means to satisfy you when you need it, then I wonder if spirituality is actually just an addiction. Is it an addiction, or is it a offering of worship to the one who wants to connect with us?

00;24;34;10 - 00;24;59;12
Chrissy Cole
He wants to be with you. This isn't about spiritual performance. Spiritual inactivity can start looking like spiritual entertainment that turns into spiritual performance. And God is not asking for us to be performers. He's asking us to be followers who take up our cross and follow me. Which means that it's kind of requires some sacrifice. It's going to require some laying down a fleshly desires.

00;24;59;12 - 00;25;26;22
Chrissy Cole
It's kind of laying down in apathy. It's going to be laying down, just coming in here and acting like I got it together. It's going to require some vulnerability, not just spiritual entertainment. If we submit to entertainment, we'll be tempted to sin. And this the problem of spiritual entertainment. Here's what I want to say. The problem with spiritual entertainment is that it is actually alienation from God.

00;25;26;24 - 00;25;57;20
Chrissy Cole
He's not asking for fans. He's asking for us to follow him. You know what? The cross crosses the cross represents? Oh my goodness, his sacrifice. Do you know what it took for him to be on that cross before they nailed him to the cross? You know how much burden and weight we have to carry. Taking up your cross is taking upon a resolve in our heart.

00;25;57;21 - 00;26;22;04
Chrissy Cole
Like, this is us saying we're going to die to ourselves. Decrease spiritual entertainment. Sometimes we start just listening to the word rather than obey the word. Some of us like to watch YouTube turn on the worship and it fills our room and it makes me feel good. But then my life isn't a spiritual act of worship because I'm not sacrificing anything.

00;26;22;06 - 00;26;51;29
Chrissy Cole
It's getting real because y'all are quiet. I'm going to keep looking down. Sometimes we like to consume sermons instead of carry our cross. James 122 says, be doers of the word not here is only deceiving yourselves. Here's the thing spiritual entertainment can look like busy yourself. But I'm asking you that you would increase obedience. And the first step of obedience has to do more with first love.

00;26;52;02 - 00;27;15;11
Chrissy Cole
I know I said be doers of the word, but I don't want you to do without loving him first. If I reduce this message to stop doing and doing entertainment and only do for Jesus, then you're going to start getting spiritually busy. But our first act of obedience has to do with what is your first love? What is your first love and revelation?

00;27;15;11 - 00;27;46;19
Chrissy Cole
It talks about you've gone away from for your first love. Go back to your first love. Fall in love with Jesus again. Perhaps the antidote to decreased spiritual entertainment is to get back to boredom. What's more, I talked about already. Here's what a book I really helped form. A lot of thoughts in my mind and and a lot of behaviors I have of coming to prayer rooms, personal prayer life and spending time with the Lord.

00;27;46;22 - 00;28;10;13
Chrissy Cole
I was formed very much by this, the word and the book and the truths in this book, but it's called secrets of the Secret Place. The author is Bob Sorge, and he says this about boredom, a prerequisite for a prayerful life. I never consider time invested in the secret place. This is seeking God, spending time with him to be wasteful.

00;28;10;15 - 00;28;17;10
Chrissy Cole
And even if it is, I gladly wasted upon the Lord.

00;28;17;13 - 00;28;46;29
Chrissy Cole
When you neglect the secret place, he's not disappointed in you. He's disappointed for you. The last thing I want you to hear is to just do more in the name of Jesus. The first thing I want you to hear is the fallen backward. Fall back in love with your first love. Let this whole thing of discipleship be about loving Jesus before doing for him because he loves you.

00;28;47;05 - 00;29;13;06
Chrissy Cole
He's not mad at you when you don't spend time with him. He's just disappointed for you. He said, I have so much that I want to give you. I have so much that I want to set you free from. But you you just don't want to be in my presence. Maybe the spiritual walk that you have. I'm a means to your end, but I want to be your end.

00;29;13;08 - 00;29;35;20
Chrissy Cole
I want to be consumed by love for him. So I'm serving him out of my overflow of my heart. Not because I need to feel important, not because I need to prove myself to him. Not because I, Okay, I need a I need I need to please you. So I'm going to come in worship. I'm going to I'm going to church.

00;29;35;20 - 00;30;00;19
Chrissy Cole
I'm going to pray. No, no, no, you have to understand. You're already loved by him. He just wants to be with you. It's a concept that is so hard for us to understand because, like I said, we've been lulled by entertainment and even spiritual entertainment. I find this I know a little funny because we just said, listen to the podcast that brought brotherhood and sisterhood is giving you to help you with discipleship.

00;30;00;24 - 00;30;24;19
Chrissy Cole
But even before you listen to that, before you hear what comes out of me and Caleb's mouth, can you know that Jesus says that you're enough the way you are and he can fulfill you? You don't have to do anything more than just come into his presence. Come into his presence and know that you are a daughter. You are a son, and that's enough.

00;30;24;21 - 00;30;40;11
Chrissy Cole
Can we start getting into the secret place? Can we start spending time with Jesus? Can we start prioritizing our prayer time? Can we start prioritizing our devotion to him by reading the word, so we can connect with him through the words that he has left us?

00;30;40;13 - 00;31;02;06
Chrissy Cole
Decrease spiritual entertainment by increasing obedience. Obedience. Be doers of the word, not just hearers of it. Don't just hear this and be like, that was good, and then come back next week and be like, I spent no more time than him. I watched just about the same amount of entertainment that I normally do. I was on YouTube way more than I want it to.

00;31;02;12 - 00;31;29;12
Chrissy Cole
Come on guys, Caleb and I had to decrease a lot and we had to fight to do it. I know it's hard, but it's worth it. It's worth it. Decrease spiritual entertainment by increasing obedience. That's taking up your cross and following him. Following the one that you want to become. Like so many of us are following leaders. Other famous speakers.

00;31;29;12 - 00;31;46;07
Chrissy Cole
We're following others. Follow him, follow him, and finally decrease spectatorship and increase dying to yourself. What does it say in verse 26?

00;31;46;09 - 00;32;15;07
Chrissy Cole
Or 25 for whoever should save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You know, there's so many people in this world who are walking without any purpose. And God's saying all the things Jesus is saying, all the things that you think that will fulfill you, would you lose all those things and just follow me and I'll show you what fulfillment is like.

00;32;15;11 - 00;32;43;04
Chrissy Cole
I'll show you what your purposes. And as believers, I think some some of it, he's saying, listen, I have a mission for you to follow. I have a mission that I want you to be a part of. I have a purpose for you in my kingdom. Yet so many of us are just spectators and fans of Jesus, rather than people who are called to be on mission and walking in our mission.

00;32;43;04 - 00;33;02;19
Chrissy Cole
In the mission he's given us, the Kingdom of God has participants, not spectators. You know, you hear the phrase even in some churches. I think we said it in the first few years of our church that that's yet to come. The best is yet to come. And we're excited and we're like, yes, I'll give my life to him because the best is yet to come.

00;33;02;19 - 00;33;26;01
Chrissy Cole
Once I give my life to him and I'm like, we think that we sign up for an easier life. We think that we sign up for no more stressing, no, no, no. When you find life in him, you realize that he is worth dying to your flesh for, because our flesh is bringing us in another direction and it is not producing life or fruit.

00;33;26;05 - 00;33;44;17
Chrissy Cole
What we want is to lose our lives so that we find it in him, so that we find perpetual hope. When we live in our flesh, we have highs and lows, and God just wants you to have a faithful life that produces fruit.

00;33;44;19 - 00;34;15;01
Chrissy Cole
I just, I just wonder how many of us are spectators when we say the best is yet to come. I think that we inadvertently say that life gets easier, but no, there's more sacrifice to come, there's more dying of self to come. And I'm encouraging you that you would die to yourself more. Did you know that you're the most intimate with the Lord when you suffer with him?

00;34;15;04 - 00;34;35;29
Chrissy Cole
When you're walking somebody through a hard time, don't you feel closer to them because you're walking with them? It's almost like you're taking on their pain. You're you're understanding what they have to give up, your understanding, the gut wrenching, hard thing that's happening in their lives. You become closer with the people that you walk through the valleys with, right?

00;34;36;01 - 00;35;04;21
Chrissy Cole
And we have to make a decision. Jesus isn't here on earth anymore, but we will partake in his sufferings and when we decrease our lives and when we walk through suffering with him, we're the closest to him. So there will be things that we will deny our flesh for we things that we will. We will have to die to ourselves in order to be more like him.

00;35;04;24 - 00;35;13;21
Chrissy Cole
Hebrews 12 one. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

00;35;13;23 - 00;35;40;05
Chrissy Cole
Man spectatorship. Watching and just watching the mission. Rather, being on mission, I think, is so entangling spectatorship looks a lot like spiritual ignorance, I believe. What is spectatorship probably rooted in spectatorship. We'd rather watch and we would rather be apathetic rather than feel some of the hard things that we know that we are going to have to go through.

00;35;40;07 - 00;35;59;24
Chrissy Cole
Some of us would rather escape this, this hard thing. We rather escape things rather than allow the Lord to help us with things. Do you know what I'm saying? We're like, I'm going to escape this thing that I don't want to look at, but maybe there's financial hardship that I don't want to look at, and I'm not going to work on being more responsible.

00;35;59;24 - 00;36;18;07
Chrissy Cole
I'm not going to be a better steward. I'm not going to give my finances up to the Lord. I'm not going to let anybody in on it. So I'm just going to escape it. I'm just going to watch TV and I myself escape it. That's easier. You know what I mean? Spectatorship. It keeps us from being on mission and God saying, I want to help you.

00;36;18;09 - 00;36;36;28
Chrissy Cole
Some of us are like, I'm afraid of what I'm going to look like if I follow Jesus that publicly. I'm afraid of what I might look like. If I get publicly baptized. I'm afraid of what my family will think. And I'm, I, I, I'm just kind of I'm just going to come to church, so I just gotta, I gotta go to church and maybe be spiritually entertained.

00;36;36;28 - 00;36;59;16
Chrissy Cole
And I'm with you. I'm for you. But oh, man, if I if my parents or if my siblings, if they saw me worship with abandon. Oh, it's a little too much. I'm encouraging you to decrease spectatorship and increase dying to yourself.

00;36;59;18 - 00;37;12;14
Chrissy Cole
Dying to ourselves. The very definition of apathy is freedom from suffering, passion or passionless existence.

00;37;12;16 - 00;37;51;05
Chrissy Cole
How many of us are walking in apathetic faith? The absence of act of apathy is sympathy, sensitivity and concern. Man. When we walk in spectatorship and apathy, we're not walking in concern and apathy for this world. We're getting lost in the entertainment that dulls us to spiritual inactivity. Doctor Beth Grant, she's a mentor of mine in college. She said, choose carefully what you are willing to die for because you only die once.

00;37;51;08 - 00;38;14;21
Chrissy Cole
I think spectatorship is rooted in emotions like control, propriety. Maybe overthinking, intellectual ism. I don't know if I could worship that. Yeah, I am going to come after it. I don't know if I'm going to be that loud with my worship. I don't know, I'm going to wash my hands quite a lot. I don't know if I'm going to sing those songs that loudly.

00;38;14;21 - 00;38;25;27
Chrissy Cole
I don't, I don't know, I'm overthinking it. And I think so many of us have had thoughts in our minds that are keeping us from giving God our full.

00;38;25;29 - 00;38;29;07
Chrissy Cole
Full self-denial.

00;38;29;09 - 00;38;55;01
Chrissy Cole
We're overthinking things. And he's saying, I need that to come down to your heart. I need you to understand that I gave up everything for you. Will you give up everything for me? You know who's guilty of spectatorship in the word of God? Pharisees? Pharisees. They were so irritated when Jesus came in on a donkey on what we call Palm Sunday now.

00;38;55;01 - 00;39;22;06
Chrissy Cole
And everybody was singing Hosanna, Hosanna and worshiping him. They were so excited for him. And the Pharisees were like, look at this guy. What does he think he is? Oh, these crowds are going wild. I just we can't control this. I wonder if our apathy in our spectatorship is coming from a place of suspicion and jealousy. And I don't know about that intellectual ism, religiosity, spiritual entertainers.

00;39;22;09 - 00;39;29;26
Chrissy Cole
The Pharisees, they were reluctant to worship Jesus because he couldn't be controlled.

00;39;29;29 - 00;39;58;13
Chrissy Cole
Let me tell you, entertainment invites us to escape full devotion to the Lord. Entertainment invites us to live a comfortable life. And Jesus says, I've called you to a life that denies yourself. And I promise you that when you deny yourself, you will find life. Entertainment is leaving us spiritually dry.

00;39;58;16 - 00;40;21;23
Chrissy Cole
And many of you are walking in a wilderness and you're like, I want to experience freedom. I want to experience, you know, I want to experience change actually broken off my life. I want to get out of this addiction. I want to I want to do better. I want to grow. But then we're below by the entertainment and we're not actually walking.

00;40;21;25 - 00;40;44;28
Chrissy Cole
In a life giving manner, here's what it says in the book that we're reading. Beholding with our staff says so much of our spiritual wilderness, I believe, is our tendency to live a busy, noisy life. Then expect God to show up big in a few moments we give him. He'll do that at times because he loves us and he is kind beyond words.

00;40;44;28 - 00;40;57;12
Chrissy Cole
But for us to grow in communion with him, we need to slow down in our lives and grow in inner stillness.

00;40;57;14 - 00;41;30;20
Chrissy Cole
And that inner stillness is going to come when we quiet the noise, we quiet entertainment, when we limit things and operate in self-control. And let me tell you, your identity at times is unclear, and escape will feel attractive when there is unknown or performance will be more fulfilling than intimacy with Jesus himself. And God is inviting you to lose your life so you can find it.

00;41;30;22 - 00;41;49;08
Chrissy Cole
Luke 1427. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Here is the crux of the message we either deny ourselves or we deny Jesus. Jesus gave it all.

00;41;49;11 - 00;42;23;27
Chrissy Cole
When you have a Savior, creator of the world, who denied himself everything, including his life on this earth, with us, until you right now, remaining neutral is not an option or your life will be reduced to spectatorship. Deny yourself or deny Jesus. The cross is the ultimate decrease. An example a model he modeled that for us.

00;42;23;29 - 00;42;35;23
Chrissy Cole
The cross is a call not to forget who we are, but to live for the name above every other name. Jesus.

00;42;35;25 - 00;42;50;10
Chrissy Cole
On the cross is a call to renounce our self direction and allow him and shift our direction to his leadership.

00;42;50;12 - 00;43;12;00
Chrissy Cole
You know, there's so many scriptures, there's so many things I want to share with you, so many ways that you can read in Romans to be dead to your sin and alive in Christ, telling you the most fulfilling life is the one that is intimate with the one who gives perpetual hope, joy, and peace. And some of us have not yet found our peace or our purpose because we don't have relationship with him.

00;43;12;03 - 00;43;37;09
Chrissy Cole
Our lives are too noisy, our lives are too inundated with entertainment and God is saying, deny yourself, deny yourself so you can find true life in him. What's true life? He's worth it. He's worth it. Amen. Our heads in this place give you an opportunity to respond to the message. Respond to the one who is beckoning to you, to him.

00;43;37;09 - 00;44;02;07
Chrissy Cole
He's not disappointed that you haven't spent more time with him, but he's disappointed for you because he knows what he has to offer you. He knows what he wants to give you. He knows what freedom that you need. He knows how, what he can bring your life. So if you want to respond to him by giving your life to him and saying, God, I want you to be the Lord of my life, I want to know you more.

00;44;02;07 - 00;44;23;07
Chrissy Cole
I want to let go of the things that have kept me from you. That's you in this place. You want to put your faith in him. Maybe for the first time or come back to him. I want you to just raise your hand on the count of three. One, two, three. Yeah, there's enough here, I say, that's one, two, 345, six, seven, eight nine, 1011, 12.

00;44;23;09 - 00;44;56;13
Chrissy Cole
13. 14. 15. Anyone else? 15. Anyone else? Okay. 16. Yeah, I can you all pray with me and those who raise their hands. Repeat after me. This is a very this is such an important prayer to pray. But dear Jesus, I accept you into my life. The one who desires to fulfill me, I accept you, I put my faith in you.

00;44;56;15 - 00;45;20;23
Chrissy Cole
I believe that you died and resurrected and you're still alive, wanting relationship with me and wanting to give me life. I confess my need of you, my sin, my distraction. I need you, Lord. I want to live for you.

00;45;20;26 - 00;45;25;13
Unknown
I will be cleansed by you. Make me new.

00;45;25;15 - 00;45;42;05
Chrissy Cole
And give me the strength to live for you and die to myself. I love you, Jesus, and your precious name. Amen, Amen, Amen.

00;45;42;08 - 00;45;45;17
Chrissy Cole
Thank you for being a part of our online community here at Project Church.

00;45;45;18 - 00;45;48;29
Chrissy Cole
We hope that this message and the whole service bless your life.

00;45;49;02 - 00;46;05;09
Caleb Cole
Yeah. And if it did, we want to ask that you would do something for us. First of all, if you're not already subscribed to our YouTube channel, be sure to subscribe. Like this video. But also, we would ask that you would consider financially supporting what God is doing through Project Church. You can give in a variety of ways.

00;46;05;12 - 00;46;20;18
Caleb Cole
You can text project to 97,000. Right now. You can give to our Church Center app, or you can give on our website project church.com/give. Thanks so much for being a part of our online community. And once again God bless you guys. We'll see you soon.