Suncoast Community Church Sermons

Whatever-ism is the spiritual issue where we accept and believe anything. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is diluted by my belief in everything or anything. This is seen in a lack of passion and a full dose of apathy.

Loophole-ism occurs when a person, who considers themselves a Christ-follower, picks and chooses the commands of Christ that they want to follow based on their own preferences. People with a case of Loophole-ism often find ways to rationalize their decisions.

Legalism makes being a Christ-follower all about rules. It can take the form of being judgmental of anyone, including yourself, who doesn’t measure up to the rules a particular group or community has set.

We are all familiar with knockoffs and counterfeits. Twenty-dollar Rolex watches, candy cigarettes with fake sugar smoke, and pirated copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. At times, we allow our lives to become an acceptable forgery. Our feelings of inadequacy convince us to mask our human imperfections. On the outside we look put together, but in our hearts we know we’re slowly coming undone.

Pain often puts us on a wild goose chase. Our minds are flooded with the slight possibility of finding those hard to locate answers to our suffering. We wake up in the morning thinking, maybe today is the day it all makes sense. We hunt and chase the most elusive question known to the hurting heart: the “why.” Why did this happen? Loss, abuse, betrayal, and our frequent trips back to our destructive patterns have left us baffled, bewildered, and confused.

On our path to freedom, nothing unlocks more opportunity in our lives than the basic act of taking personal responsibility. Now matter what has happened, either positive or negative, you get to decide what life looks like from here on out. That fact is, no one else will live your story for you, and no one else is going to take your place. It belongs fully to you.

Sometimes it’s hard to see how pain, loss, and unforgiveness pull levers in our hearts sending us on meaningless witch-hunts. Unresolved pain keeps us in a dead life where we are stripped of anything authentic. And though we might not understand what’s going on, thankfully Jesus does. He promises us it doesn’t have to be this way.

Life is a weird but wonderful mystery that none of us can fully understand. There are good parts - birthday parties, being debt free, weddings and newborn babies. Then there are really hard parts - battles with loneliness, kids who need chemo again, that affair and the divorce, our silent suffering, and our unseen addictions. These are the parts we want to begin to talk about.