Dealing With it | Character Killers | Chad Veach

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for joining this week's message from Zoe Church. We are in a series called Character Killers, The Cost of Compromise. We're going to jump in in just a second, but before we do, I want to thank every person that gives to and through our church. if you'd like to give go to our website and give right there whether you're giving stock crypto or any form of generosity we are grateful for your continued faithfulness as we make an impact in la throughout the country and around the world but let's jump into this week's message called dealing with it if you got a bible go to psalm 18 psalm 18 we are in part two of a series that we just started called Character Killers, The Cost of Compromise. So intense, man. Chill out. But we're really talking about what God is concerned about, and that is our character. Now, I'm going to give you a working definition here in just a moment of what character is, but I want to encourage you today that God is, in fact, this is the first quote you can put in your phone. God is less concerned with what you're doing, and he's more concerned with who you're becoming. In fact, I would negotiate it this way. God's using what you're doing right now to develop who you're becoming. Anybody, you ever seen the movie Karate Kid? Where did Karate Kid lovers at? Remember, he took that little Daniel son outside, and he wanted to learn how to be a karate man. He took him outside, and he taught him how to paint a fence. And then he's done paint a fence. He taught him how to wash a car. And he said, man, I came here to learn karate. Why am I painting fences and washing cars? And the famous line from the movie is wax on, wax off. And what, why was he was training him?

2:05 Cause it's not about what you're doing. God's more concerned with who you're becoming. I said it last week. God is more committed to your character than your comfort. And this is where the clash begins. This is where the issue begins. This is where the fight with God begins. Because you're dead set on getting comfortable, and God's dead set on developing your character. I just want to tell you right now, if you're going to follow Jesus, the life of a Jesus follower is not comfortable because the more I follow God, the more I go, I got a decrease and he's got a what? Increase. I need less of me and more of him. And the more God you got, the more he's like, I need you to go help. I need you to go serve. I need you to pray. I need you to go bless. So you're trying to get comfortable and God's trying to develop character. Somebody's going to win.

3:05 And why does God want to develop your character? Because your character is attached to your destiny. You know, good news to you today. If this is your first time to church, let me be the first one to let you know God has a plan for your life. God wants to do something in you. And God wants to do something. Oh, come on, everybody. Give God a praise. He's going to do something through you. and he does not have plans for your calamity. He does not have plans to hurt you. He has plans to prosper you. He has plans for destiny and he knows that he's got developed character in you so you could fulfill. I like to say it this way, put it in your notes this way, your God given potential. You have a God given from heaven potential on your life. So God is developing you training you. Psalm 18. Look at the first scripture. I love this. This is David. He says, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He causes me to stand on high places. He trains my hands for battle. So my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Oh, I like this verse so much. He trains, he makes my feet like a hinds feet, like a deer feet so I can get on high places. So in other words, how are you going to get to that successful place that you envision your life? Well, God will train you how to get to a high place. So how are you going to be ready for the battles? Come on, the health battles, financial battles, relational battle, clipper battles.

4:42 how are you going to be ready for the battles that God has for you? He trains my arms to bend a bow of bronze. Last summer, we were in Montana and our friend has a property there and he took us and the boys out in the backyard area and they had all this bow and arrow. And so my boys, I'm a gentleman, so I let my boys go first. And my boys are like, You know, I'm like, you know, let dad, you know, let dad do this, you know. And then I got up and I was like. Ah, city boys. so you might today be trying to break an addiction and in day one it's hard but I'm telling you my God is developing you to get stronger and get better come on clap you might not be free day one but come on give God a year of what he can do in your life give him a praise he's training me because he's less concerned with what you're doing and he's more concerned with who you're what? Becoming. I want to give you a working definition of character. Character refers to the moral qualities that define a person's inner life, which determines their actions. Character is a reflection of their heart, integrity, and a relationship with God.

6:09 It is, did you see those three things? Your character is a reflection of your heart, your integrity, and your relationship with God. Character has to do, it is also about who someone is when nobody's watching. That's character. God's developing character in you. I said it last week. Let me say it again. God today loves you just the way that you are. He just loves you way too much to leave you in the current condition that you're in. So he works on heart stuff. Character is rooted in the heart and then built on the foundation of righteousness. I like that it's a heart issue because God always works on my heart. Put up Hosea 10 verse 12. Hosea 10 verse 12 says, sow for yourself seeds of righteousness. Break up that fallow ground, that hard ground, break up that hardness of heart, break up that stuff, that ickiness, that dryness, break up that sin infest. We got to break up the fallow ground so God's seed, God's word can land on good soil. I don't know about you. Anybody grow up in your house? You did chores growing up. Where the chores people at? Everybody raise your hand.

7:22 Keep your hand up. These are all trustworthy people. You don't know what it's like to think Saturday is for cartoons and wake up to chores. And I remember in my house when it was Saturday, chore day, I'm down. I'll do any chore. I'm down for all the vacuum, dust, dishes. I'm down for all of bathrooms I'm down for. There's only one chore I don't want to do, and that's picking the weeds. Okay. When I was growing up, my dad used to say, this Saturday, you're picking the weeds. Oh God, I hate to pick the weeds. I used to go out to the front yard and pick the weeds. My idea of picking weeds is moving the dirt around to cover the weeds, just moving bark around. And then to make sure that I didn't get caught, I would just take the top of the green stuff and not deal with the weed, but you know, if I moved the dirt around, my, hopefully my dad wouldn't notice. My dad would always come out to check my work. You know, you got a good, bad parent when they check your work. And so my dad would come out to check my work and he would move the bark around. Cause he knows me. And he's like, son, you didn't deal with this weed at all. You got to the top of it, but watch. And he would come and he would twist that thing and he would get down into it and he'd pull out of the ground. I'm telling you, it looked like it was just this little green, little, little, little weed, but I'm telling you that thing went down so dark.

8:42 So, I mean, the, the, the root of it was crazy. I want to encourage you today. God is not just going to skimp over and deal with something at the surface level. That's religion. The grace of my God gets to the, oh, come on, clap. Like you understand gets to the root of the issue to pull out of us stuff that shouldn't be there. See, you think it's small, like it's no big deal. No, no. If you deal with the root of it, you'll get to the fruit of it. And a lot of us never get fruit in our life because we never get to the root of our life. We got to get to the character issues so we can get into our God given potential. You understand? And so God, he might not feel comfortable. Might not feel good. See, the problem with us church people is we come to church. We want to get, we want, you know, we want presence and presence. I want his presence, the presence of God and presence gifts from God. But God, when he really blesses you, he starts to deal with the roots of your character and the roots of your issues. Amen. So I love this about God.

9:52 And by the way, if you've got character issues, everybody in the Bible had them as well. Everybody that God used had a little bit of a character issue. Let me show you a few people in the Bible that God used that had character issues. How about Moses had an anger problem? Jacob was a deceiver. David deal with lust, deception, and murder. Samson had a lust for women and he was arrogant. Jonah was disobedient and resentful. Peter had fear and he was impulsive. Saul was jealous and insecure and disobedient. Paul dealt with hatred and murder. Other people were cowboy fans. Ha! So if you have a character issue that does not disqualify you from God loving you or developing you. And so where does he work? How does he work on you? He works on your heart at the heart level.

10:53 In fact, I want to preach a message today, write down the title. It's called dealing with it. I just love God. God wants to deal with it. And some of us, we've been putting off stuff, just putting bark over our issues, just trying to just deal with the little top thing. Just like, so nobody knows what's really going on in my life. I'm going to just get a better outfit. I'm going to get a better glow up. I'm going to have some reconstruction. I'm going to get, no, no, no. We got to get to the root of it so you can walk into your destiny that God has for your life. And it's all hard stuff. Mark chapter four, watch Jesus tells the story. He says, Jesus said to them, do you understand this story I told you? How then will you understand any story that I tell you? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others like seed sown on rocky places, they hear the word of God and at once receive it with great joy. But since they have no, what's that word right there? Root. Since they have no root, they only last a short time. And when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

12:07 Still others, they're like seeds sown among thorns. They hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. But others, like seeds sown on good soil, they hear the word, they accept the word and it produces a crop in them. Some 30, some 60, some a hundred times what was sown. Come on, clap. If you want the word of God to produce a harvest in you.

12:40 So Jesus, Jesus just told us a story about four different hearts. He said the first one, they get the word and immediately because they don't get it into their heart, because the evil one comes to snatch it away. I want to tell you, as I'm preaching, the wicked ones trying to grab what I'm saying. Because he does not want the word of God to get into your heart because he knows it will change your life. That's why the Bible says, thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So today over the word of God, you better get an ADT and a Nest Cam. cultural relevance. Don't let that word get snatched from you. Amen. So he says the first one, they don't even got a shot because the word, as soon as it's sown, it gets taken away. He said, the second one, they receive it with great joy. They're like, wow, Jesus is amazing. I love God. I'm going to go out and get a Zoe hoodie, a connected and community sticker, and I'm going to follow God. But as soon as things get hard, they're out. Because remember, you're looking for comfort. God's looking for character and things will get hard. Right. He said, they're gone. Third one, they love God. Let's say maybe it's like one year, five years, 10 years. They're in church. They love Jesus. Like Jesus, I love you. You know, they love God. And then after like serving God for five, 10 years, like, man, it's kind of boring, man. It's not that good. All right.

14:01 And it says the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. And I like to fill in the blank, the desire for other things. What are the things? We don't know. Just other. I'd rather have that than God. And so they're gone. He said, but the fourth one, and these are Zoe people, they hear the word of God. It lands in their heart and it does something in their heart. It produces a harvest 30 fold, 60 fold, even a hundred fold in their life. Watch, put on the screen, watch how the message says the message in verse 20 says that it will produce a harvest in you beyond your wildest dreams. See, God's word will change you so much. You're like, I cannot believe all that God's done in me. I cannot believe how blessed I am. I cannot believe all the change I'm experiencing. Anybody thankful today that God's word has the power to change your life.

15:00 So God works on my character and he works on my heart because my heart is a reflection of my character. And so it's all heart stuff. He's pulling out the wrong stuff and he's getting to the good stuff. Let me just encourage you four things today that God deals with when it comes to our heart, our heart and our character. Write down number one, God deals with my disobedience. he deals with my disobedience because maybe you're like me. I have disobeyed God once or twice. How about you? Yeah. So we all disobey God from time to time. We all miss God's will and God's plan for our life from time to time. And we disobey God. Watch what God says in first Samuel chapter 15. Look at this verse in verse 33 verse 22. Do you think that all God wants is God wants our sacrifices, empty rituals just for show. He wants you to listen to him. Plain listening is the thing. Not staging a lavish religious production, not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors. What the Bible is saying, another translation says, to obey God is better than to sacrifice. To obey God is the ultimate. Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. So it does nothing for us if we come to church and we worship God with our lips, but we disobey God with our lives. It is not worship at all. To worship God is to obey God.

16:35 To worship God is to do what God says. And so God deals with my disobedience. Has God ever told you to do something and you did the exact opposite? Has God ever said, I want you to go this way? And you're like, uh-uh, girlfriend. I'm going that way. Don't worry. If you've ever disobeyed or if you're in disobedience today, good news, God's not done. How about a guy named Jonah? God says to this guy, Jonah, he says, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. Tell him about how good I am. He's like, no way. He goes to Tarshish. Nineveh, if you're wondering biblically what's Nineveh, Nineveh is like Rancho Cucamonga. I want you to go to Rancho. No way. I'm going to Malibu. he willingly, deliberately disobeys God. Have you ever disobeyed God?

17:36 Watch what it says here. Jonah chapter one, verse three, listen to it on the screen. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. See, the thing about disobeying God is that you know that God's asked you to do this and you're like, I'm not willing to do it. I'm willing to pay the fare and do whatever I can to get out of God's will for my life. I want to encourage you, just like Jonah, God will not quit on you. God will not abandon you. God didn't say to Jonah,

18:17 God didn't see Jonah and go like, well, Jonah done messed up. I'm done with Jonah. I'm about to find me a Judas. No, that's not what he said. I appreciate the laugh. I got somebody right there. Got him. he willingly paid the favor. Do you think God wiped his hands and goes, well, Jonah's out. Jonah disobeyed. See, some of us think that you've disqualified yourself from your destiny. God has no plan B for your life.

18:55 For the gifting and the calling of God is irrevocable. and so you know what God does to Jonah? It's the same thing he does to you. He sends to Jonah storms. He's on the boat, and an unusual storm appears in Jonah's life, and all of a sudden, they're like, this is not normal. Somebody done messed up around here. Somebody didn't pay their taxes. And Jonah's like, yo, it's me. I'm disobeying God. And they're like, yo, man, we love you so much, bro. You're such a homie, but you got to go. It's not personal. It's just like we self-preservation, you got to go. And so they do what any good friend would do. They throw him overboard. And Jonah's swimming.

19:50 And the Lord sends to him a what? A whale. Is God sending a whale because he's mad at Jonah? God's sending a whale because he's committed to Jonah. So he deals with my disobedience. And from the belly of the whale, what does Jonah do? He comes to his senses and he says, what am I doing? I'm running away from God's plan for my life. So he deals with my disobedience. Why? Because he's mad at you or is he madly in love with you?

20:21 He's dealing with your disobedience. Why? Because he's more committed to your future than you are. You understand his love? It's really cool tonight in a 7 PM. It's a double dip Sunday. I think tonight at 7 PM, uh, Julia's father, pastor Bob McGregor will be with us. Come on, clap for pastor Bob. It's going to be an awesome night. And we're calling tonight a night of prayer and prophecy. And if you don't know what prophecy is, it's the spirit of Jesus. And it's not fortune telling by any stretch, but it's really God saying, you know, I see this in your life. I see this in your future. And it's a, it's a, it's a powerful gift. In fact, the Bible tells us to pursue the gift of prophecy. And in fact, tonight we're going to have a night of prayer and prophecy, and we're going to pray for anybody that wants to be baptized in the Holy spirit. So it's really cool. Next Sunday we'll have water baptism and tonight we'll have spirit baptism. You got, what's the difference? One is in water. It's an outward expression of an inward confession.

21:19 And the baptism of the Holy spirit is where I asked the Holy spirit to give me supernatural gifts to fulfill the call of God on my life. In other words, the Holy spirit is in you for you, but he's on you for others. And so I want to encourage you tonight, come back to the 7. PM. It'll be a night of prayer and prophecy with pastor Bob McGregor clap. If you're excited about it. One of the things I love about Julia's dad, she said, every night when I went to bed, my dad would pray over me that God's will, God's will would be done in my life. She said, what I remember the most about my childhood is every night my dad would come into my bedroom and pray over me that the will of God would be done in my life. And surely it was. Come on, somebody. Hallelujah. She's blessed. Come on. Highly favored. And so, but, but what are we asking? We're asking that God's will would be done. So if you're not in the will of God today, just, I want, maybe the thing you're going through is peculiar. Maybe the thing you're going through is unusual. It's not that God's mad at you. He's madly in love with you, and he's got a plan for your life. So he deals with my disobedience. See, write down number two. He deals with my pride, that arrogance, that cockiness, that self-reliance, that I don't need anybody. I don't need a pastor. I don't need a church. I don't need to be in a connect group. I don't need anybody else to pay my bill. I'll make it all happen. It's all about me and how hard I work and what I can do and grind mode and with 24 hours a day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, stop.

22:56 God deals with my pride to remind me you are utterly dependent upon me. So don't worry. If you exalt yourself, God loves you enough to humble you. Sit down, be humble. Those are Bible lyrics. If you humble yourself, what does God say he'll do? Exalt you. I'd rather let God exalt me than me exalt me. watch what he says here james 4 10 put on the screen i love this one humble yourself before the lord and he will exalt you proverbs 16 18 pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall so before you you ever mess up your life and you fall and you fail miserably you can always trace it back to I got self-dependent and self-reliant and I stopped praying and I stopped reading and I stopped tithing and I stopped worshiping and I stopped being planted and I messed up my life. But the more I get humble and the more I go low and the more I worship and the more I see God, come on, everybody clap out. You understand God deals with my pride.

24:14 I want to tell you the best version of you is the humble version of you. The best version of you is the Jesus version of you. You didn't come to be served. You came to serve. You didn't come to make much of your name. You came to make much of his name. And so if you ever get cocky and you ever get arrogant and you ever get entitled, don't you worry. God loves you enough to deal with it.

24:40 Amen. Write down number three. He deals with my unforgiveness. He deals with my unforgiveness, all that bitterness, all that, I'm not going to forgive them. And you know, they posted on their story about me. How do you know that it was about you? I know it was about me. Like, you know, no, but I think it was. You ever see somebody in the church that has the bitter church face? Be honest. You ever seen somebody in church? They just, you just, you see them. You're like, nope, good. I'm good. I'm good. Good to see you. Good to see you guys. Yes. But you're not trying to talk to them. You know what I'm talking about? I like people in the church that you see them in the worship, and they're like worshiping like, like, I'm like, are they a burning man? They look like they're a burning man.

25:30 They're just so sweet. And how great is our God? Sing with me. do you think these people are struggling with unforgiveness? Because unforgiveness will show up on your face. Unforgiveness will show up in your spirit. Unforgiveness will show up in your words out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth. You ever want to know if somebody is offended or not? Just listen to them talk. They will tell you if they're hurt or not. And watch what the Bible says here. Hebrews, Look at this great scripture. I love this beautiful verse. It's not beautiful, but it's a warning. Watch out that no poisonous weed root of bitterness grows up to trouble you and corrupts many. Now, why would the Bible teach us that this root goes up and corrupts many?

26:33 Because bitterness never stays to yourself. It just spreads like wildfire. and now other people are wearing your unforgiveness. Other people are wearing your offense. And you know the thing about offenses? Offenses build fences and they build up fences. You're not gonna get near me, my family, my house, my life, my heart. And I'm telling you, God did not call you to live in your comfortable little fences. He called you to leverage the farm for the glory of the living God. And that's why the Bible says an offended person is harder to win over than a fortified city. What's it saying? When somebody's bitter and offended, they will not forgive somebody. They will not release it. They will not let it go. They need justice. But my Bible says every time I pray, Father, forgive me of my sins as I forgive those that have sinned. Why would the Bible say that when you pray, you need to pray for those that sin against you?

27:37 Don't you think that God knows that there's going to be some people in your life that down the road are going to sin against you? And it could be abandonment or betrayal. It could be abuse. It could be rejection. Fill in the blank. But it's saying, I got to condition you to prepare yourself to forgive in advance. It's an automated decision. I never get into a situation like, you know, Julia, let's meet real fast. Do you think we should forgive them?

28:06 Because I'm telling you right now, I don't want to forgive these people at all. I forgive before it happens. Why? Because I need so much forgiveness. How about you? Has God forgiven you of all of your sins? Is anybody thankful for how much forgiveness God has given your life? Wow. So you're telling me you know how to receive it, but you don't know how to give it? How wild is that? That's a heart issue. And so he deals with my disobedience and he deals with my pride and he deals with my unforgiveness. Right down to the last one, number four. He deals with the influences of my idols. Those idols that have been leading me down those wrong paths and messing with my future. By the way, an idol is anything that has taken the place of God in your heart. So it used to be God was number one and God's ways and God's will and God's plan and Jesus.

29:15 But now it's like career or lifestyle or finances. And now I need this. Oh yeah, but I love God too, but he's like five on my list. But number one, oh, I'm telling you, once I get this house, once I get this off, once I drive this car, I'm gonna be so sad. No, no, you won't. Because remember, an idol was sent into your life to destroy you. and your idol will influence you down a path you never wanted to go. But I'm telling you, if you keep Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of your faith, you keep him at the centerpiece. You keep him at the number one. You say, I will not let an idol take the place of my God. you know what it's called? It's the God first life. God is first in my home and he's first in my finances and he's first in my lifestyle and he's number one. And in my heart, all I want to do is please the Lord. All I want to do is follow God. All I want is for Jesus to be lifted up and to be known through my life and actions. And I want character that reflects my God.

30:28 If you've got character that doesn't reflect Jesus, welcome to the club. We all got some character that don't reflect Jesus. That's why he's dealing with it, isn't he? And he's dealing with that disobedience and he's dealing with that pride and he's dealing with that unforgiveness and he's dealing with your idols. Why? Because he's got a plan for your life and He sees destiny. You see struggle. You see uprooting. You see pain. God sees promise. God's not messing with you God is developing you I'm out here I told God I serve him and he's out here making me wash cars really God I told you you could use me and I'm here wax on wax off sick of this stuff man painting fences told you I want to be used by you and I'm painting fences just you hold up because God is developing you he's less concerned with what you're doing and he's more concerned with who you're oh come on praise him like you understand he's working something in me he's dealing something in me come on clap louder praise him today he's doing something in me he's molding me, shaping me changing me, rearranging me developing me convicting me. Come on, give them a praise like you want to surrender. Come on, everybody, stand to your feet. Give them a praise like it's your will over my will. It's your plan over my plan.

32:03 because it's all he's looking for. By the way, all he's looking for is hearts. All he's looking for is a heart, a surrendered heart and a submitted heart and a heart that would just say, I know I'm not there yet. I know I'm not perfect, but one thing I am is open and available. Last scripture, put up this scripture. I love this one, 2 Chronicles. He put up on there, it says, for the eyes of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 16, 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose what? Yeah, heart. Loyal to him. Heart. Heart. Because what's got into? Attendance or heart?

32:57 he's a heart god isn't he so i david says in psalm 139 search me know me try me test me lord if there's anything in my heart that doesn't please you take it out like a weed pull it and i'm just telling you today god is dealing with you because he loves you and god has a plan for your life