A.J. Sparks

So that last clip there was a clip of a pastor in a church, Super Bowl Sunday, kicking the Bible across the stage. And that truly is the state of churches in America, putting on a clown show to bring clowns into their church to keep it going again and again and again and again and again. And it's awful, it's tragedy. But when our church is like that, that's why we have the rest of the things that follow before that video, all the weird things before that video and what's going on with the transgender ideology and the transgender movement and the abortion movement and the you get to do what you wanna do kind of movement.

So I put this saying up on the board. We live in a world of me, which is a Luciferian crime. Jordan Peterson, a non-believer, keep that in mind, understands it's about humanity when he coined this term, Luciferian crime. So think of it as this, the one name that God has given to us is what? Yahweh, right? That is how we know God, right? The I am that I am. However, the crime of the individual this century is that everything is about us. All sin can be traced back to how we think that we know more than God.

It is a misunderstanding of God that he is holy and the misunderstanding of ourselves that we are sinful. And ultimately it's pride. So we're in a month called pride month. Pride is not a good thing to have, but it's what's been promoted by people who believe in a transgender ideology or an unbiblical worldview, which is why we stress in our youth group a biblical worldview in how we look at things.

So instead of God saying, I am who I am, it is now the human, that's the Luciferian crime, the human saying, I am who I am. And the script has been flipped. Now I get it by myself. I am the source of wisdom. I am the source of happiness. I am the source of revelation with no humility whatsoever. And the effects of this are devastating because it's elevated the human intellect to the status of God. We live in a world that is tailor-made however you want things to be, from ads to posters and so on and billboards, it's all about you.

The Sync of Burger King slogan, have it your way. That's why McDonald's is better than Burger King. But we are consumed with ourselves, loving ourselves and attaining more things just to please us. And so again, Luciferian crime is turning everything into ourselves and reconstructing the world with ourselves at the center. And we really do live in a consumer society. How do we know this? Regina Lark posted a stat the other day that the average US household has 300,000 things from paperclips to ironing boards.

US children make up 3.7% of all children on the planet but have 40% of all the toys in children's books. So why can't we let go? And that's a great point, again, from the LA Times, not a Christian post, not a Christian belief. But these are just some stats I wanna show you briefly for America. This is a chart of money spent on advertisements per year. Now, advertisements are tailor-made towards you. And the more we go on in society, the more advertisements really understand who you are. In 1949, I don't know if you can really see it, $12.3 million was spent in America on advertisements.

In 1951, two years later, that jumped to $128 million. It's pretty big. 1951, and again, you see some from 1951, now it's just a smaller dot, $128 million. In 1955, four years later, it went to a billion dollars spent on ads in America. Fast forward to today, 1955, you had $1 billion. In 2020, you have $647 billion spent on ads. A lot of advertising companies know you, and more importantly, know your children often more times than you know. As Christians, we have to ask ourselves what we can do in light of this.

Because again, we live in a consumer society, and how can we get out of that? Obviously, Christ is the answer, the example, and we have to possess two of what I would say are the greatest human attributes, which are sacrifice and humility. This was embodied in the personal work of Christ in what he did, a couple of verses on the screen. Philippians 2, four through eight, says, "'Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, "'but also for the interests of others. "'Have this attitude in yourselves,' "'which was also in Christ Jesus, "'who, although he existed in the form of God, "'did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, "'but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, "'and being made in the likeness of men, "'being found in appearance as a man, "'he humbled himself by becoming obedient "'to the point of death, even death on a cross.

"'Mark 10, 45, for even the son of man "'came not to be served, but to serve, "'and they give his life as a ransom for many. "'2 Corinthians 8, 9, for you know, "'the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, "'that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, "'so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. "'And then lastly, 2 Chronicles 7, 14, "'if my people, who are called by my name, "'humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, "'and turn from their wicked ways, "'then I will hear from heaven, "'and will forgive them of their sin, and heal their land.'" Christ is constantly a source of humility and sacrifice, and that's what we're to be.

But again, we live in a world that is all about me. How can I get to my desires and satisfy them as quickly as possible? And that's the world that we have known and grown up in. Thus, we come to kind of our title for tonight's message. There are two types of people in the church. The first type of person is a spiritual contributor, and the second type of person in the church is a spiritual consumer.

That's it. These are the only two types of people. Then we've heard like they're saints, and they're angels, all that kind of stuff. But this is like, with those that are saved, I believe that you can be saved, but be a consumer. But we should be a contributor to what God is doing here. Christ was the ultimate contributor, and more importantly, the only contributor to our salvation. Christ is the reason why we are saved. As Jonathan Edwards beautifully puts it, the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.

Christ is our savior, and he is the ultimate example of humility and sacrifice. And within that, we find contribution. See, I want you to ask yourself, what am I doing to contribute to the spiritual lives of my children every single day? Because you might get tired, but the forces around the world do not get tired. They do not sleep. They continually go day in and day out. We cannot grow weary of doing good as Galatians 6 says. We will reap if we continually sow. So this is kind of the title for today, and you're either a spiritual contributor or a spiritual consumer.

In John 4, Christ was speaking to the woman at the well in the beginning of John 4, and then he goes on to speak to his disciples when we got to our passage, where Christ tells him that his nourishment was from fulfilling the will of the Father. And what filled Christ? It was coming to serve and do the will of the Father. What nourishes you? What fulfills you? What gives you satisfaction, contentment? What do you desire? What do you hope for? Everyone hopes and desires for something. We should be consumed with doing the will of the Father, as Christ said in John 4, 34.

From our very early years, we are concerned with consumption. Two-year-olds never need to be taught how to be selfish. It's just built within them. But this flesh that we battle every day, this sin that we battle is a constant battle until death. Some people are givers. Some are takers. Some people, you feel full after leaving their presence. Some people, you leave and you just feel so drained after talking to someone. There are some people that you can't even ask how they are doing because you know it will turn into a 10-minute rant that you don't want to listen to.

My brother does a great, my brother Drew in Indiana, does a great lesson in his classes that I took and put in my classes where I had my students sit in silence for 30 minutes and then journal about it. And they just ask questions about, and one of the most important things to ask about that is if you can't sit in silence for 30 minutes, let's say you get to 20 minutes, think of how many boring people you sat in a conversation with for 20 minutes. And the fact that you can't even sit with yourself for 20 minutes, what does that say about you?

We don't like to be alone. We like to be with, some people can barely get through a morning routine or a shower without music on because we just need to be filled, we need to consume instead of just being alone with the Almighty, alone with God, alone with the presence of Christ because He's all that we need. But again, all we need is consumption, consumption, consumption, consumption. We have a day, Thanksgiving. We spend a whole day of gratitude for what God has given us on this earth and the next day is what?

Black Friday. Or if you're holier than thou or lazier than thou, you wait till Monday, where it's Cyber Monday. A report on Black Friday shopping statistics states that a total revenue from the last holiday season accounted to nearly $1.27 trillion in spending. This includes the Black Friday sales numbers of $283 billion spent on online stores and e-commerce sales amounted to about $281 billion during Cyber Monday sales that week. That came from a study that four out of 10 buyers say they're willing to go into debt that weekend.

That is the world that we live in. But again, we have a day of gratitude and the very next day, okay, gotta get, I'm done. This is enough giving for one day, gotta get. This whole series, this whole message really prompted when I had a conversation with an individual who was well-meaning in what they were saying and they asked me, they said, what are you doing to get poured into? And I thought for a second, because I was very busy at the time, and I thought about it and I was like, I don't know.

I go to church and I have a beautiful wife, I have great friends that invest and pour into me. But in terms of what I'm doing to get poured into, my mind has not really been in that. And that wasn't really, I'm a contributor. It wasn't like, oh, look at me.

It was, I just haven't really thought about that that I thought, that we just live in a consuming world. And I thought about all the things that I do to consume and how convicted I was of the things that I consume every single day. So we must understand that we as Christians have been sent into this world to be contributors and not consumers as we do the work that God has commanded us to do in filling the Great Commission. And this is really, I would say probably our doctrine for the night, if you want to have a doctrine again, it would be this sentence, and I'll say it again.

We must understand that we as Christians have been sent into this world to be contributors and not consumers as we do the work that God has commanded us to do in fulfilling the Great Commission. This affects our service, speech, character, work ethic, every aspect of our life. You will continually consume and consume and be empty until you start contributing to your family, to your church, to your friends and people around you. Once you contribute, you will then be full. That's a proverb, Proverbs 11, 24.

It says, there is one who scatters and yet increases all the more. And there is one who withholds what is justly due and yet it results only in poverty. And some translation says it results only in once. So what can we do? I came with a little personal test. Are you a consumer or are you a contributor? Couple of things, and they're on the board, they're in my notes, but there's the scale. A 10 would be pretty hard to be an all-out contributor. It's pretty hard to do, but also an all-out consumer is also pretty hard to do.

So let's say this, you come in on Sundays and Wednesdays, you drop off your kids, you don't serve, you sit in a building that you didn't really pay for the AC, but it feels great tonight. And when the service is done, you don't talk to anyone, you just leave. It's probably like a two. You come in, you got on, maybe you come in on a Wednesday night every now and then, you tithe when it's relevant, maybe like a three or a four. You come in halfway in your ministry, halfway out of your ministry, maybe it's a bi-monthly thing every now and then, and you miss church because it's not a top priority, maybe about a five.

Or you come in and you are invested in the church, and then you go out with people and try to fellowship every now and then, and you give a bit of effort and are consistently in ministry, maybe like a six or a seven. Or maybe you're on fire for the Lord, and you come regularly, you invite friends, you stay after to ask questions, hang out, get involved, you're actively serving, actively giving, checking in on people throughout the week, and signing up to serve in a place that people don't want to serve, and doing more things outside of just a regular church service.

It's probably more like an eight or a nine. I was talking to one of my best friends earlier today, and it was on the subject of just passion. What are you passionate about? And how do people know that you as an individual are passionate about Christ? Obsession will beat talent every single day. People might know that you know a lot about God, or that you go to a church, you have a shirt, you watch shows, whatever it may be, but are you obsessed with Christ? Is it all you ever think about? Is it what every single decision comes back to?

Are you constantly contributing to the kingdom of Christ, or are you constantly consuming for your own benefit, and following the rest of this world? This idea of consuming has crept into the church, through even to the pastors. We hear a bunch of ideas of false pastors bringing in all this money. I recently saw a report that a pastor had to step down because he spent $40,000 on Candy Crush, which is an app on your phone, $40,000. And he sent an $8,000 check to the church to kind of cover the expenses.

So this idea of consumerism has come into the church. So how do we go outside of that, and start to contribute to the kingdom of God? I got you, don't worry. There's eight things, we'll go through these quickly. How do you know if you're a spiritual contributor, or a spiritual consumer? A spiritual contributor is a participant. A spiritual consumer is a spectator. 2 Samuel 11 one says, Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel, and they brought destruction on the sons of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah.

But David stayed in Jerusalem. David was a spectator. David was not a participant in the war that he was supposed to be in. He denied his responsibility, and right after that, he fell into a sin with Bathsheba, and the rest is history. Yes, he repented. Yes, he wrote some amazing psalms because of that, that we can learn and glean from. But because he was a spectator, and not a participant, he fell into sin. So when you come to church on Sundays or Wednesdays, are you a participant, or are you just spectating, week in and week out?

Second thing, do you go in and serve, or do you sit and get? The spiritual contributor goes in and serves, the spiritual consumer sits and gets. What are the first two letters of the gospel?

G-O, go. As Christians, we are to go. We must go. When we come to church, we are preparing to go out and to serve. We get our marching orders here, and then we go out and get after it afterwards. Church does not begin when Tim comes up here to play music and starts doing announcements. Does a great job at it. Church does not begin when the message starts. Does a great job. Church does not begin when we pray. It's a great job. Church begins when the pastor says amen, and the church starts to act like the church by going out and doing what we've been called to do, to go and to preach the gospel.

We're to go out and get, not just sit and consume. A poll was taken by Pew Research in 2018. 51% of churchgoers have never heard of the Great Commission and 25% didn't even know what it meant. The Great Commission is why we are here. If you don't understand that, you don't understand the essence of why a Christian is here. We are to go out and to serve, go out and to be involved, go out and share the gospel, go out and reach the lost, not just to sit and get and be a spectator. Third thing that we are to do.

Oh yeah, no, I'm sorry. Yeah, this was a different thing. Talk about consuming and contributing. This was a size chart of the UK and America. America's on the bottom, UK's on the top. This just goes to show you how much America has come to consume in society. That's a small up top in the UK, and then the large, I want to take this into account, the large is 500 milliliters in the UK, okay? A small is almost the same size as a large. That's ridiculous. And the large is almost twice as big as the large in the UK.

And then again, with our food, right, with our clothes, with our things, with people, whatever it may be, we just constantly consume again and again and again. And we don't even know it. Why? Because we don't live in the UK. Probably we beat them in 1776. We don't have to worry about that. But now that we're here, we've come so far down the road, we can look at price.

Oh my gosh, the price is just so bad. Look what you're paying for. But again, this is the idea of consuming. And we're just all about going out and rather sitting back and getting and not going out and actually doing something about the things that are going on in the world. The next thing is a spiritual contributor is the first in and last out, while spiritual consumer sneaks in and sneaks out.

I was very convicted when I was a swimmer, when my coach told me, AJ, you better be the first person in the pool and the last person out.

You better be here at, practice starts at 5.30, better be here at 5 a.m. And practice ends at 6.30, better leave at seven o'clock. Like if you want to be the best, you have to be obsessed with the sport. Obviously, didn't want to let it take precedence over God, but that idea of first in, last out is I'm all in.

I'm not just trying to, I hope they don't see me. I don't want to have this conversation with someone. I just want to continue to do things that I want to do. And again, a great test, a litmus test for, are you doing something because it is expedient or are you doing something because it's necessary? And that's to a point that David made earlier that a lot of things that we do, that we try to teach to you students that we often make a decision because it's expedient. We can do it quickly and it fulfills our desires quicker.

So for instance, if you're in a relationship with someone and you say a lie, a lie creates short-term peace, but long-term tribulation, right? The truth will always most likely create short-term conflict, maybe sometimes even long-term conflict in the beginning. But at the end of when the truth is spoken, there will be peace. But we are so quick to lie or to cheat or to steal and change things so quickly so we can get and fulfill our desires instead of doing the hard thing and the right thing. We've seen so many things in sports with betting.

Betting is awful. You can go on your ESPN app right now and look at the Dallas Mavericks getting whipped by the Celtics and you can place bets on that game on the ESPN app now.

And betting has overtaken this world. You see people in the sports, John T. Portney, I think is his name, who played for the Raptors in basketball, got banned for life in the NBA because he bet on himself. And how could someone do that? But why can't the participant bet that people on the outside can bet? Well, because the participant has a direct effect on the game. What makes you think that the people on the outside with all the money that are given to the sport don't have a direct effect on the game?

But again, this idea of consumerism, quick money, that's what we've become and it creeps in in little ways every single day. So we can't be sneaking in and sneaking out. We have to be the first ones in and the last ones out.

John 3, one through two, says, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, who, by the way, is very poorly portrayed in The Chosen. So there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night. Nicodemus did not want to be seen or caught by anyone else. He wanted to come at night when no one else could see him. He wanted to do things very sneakily and get by without anyone looking at him. Who modeled a go-and-get-after-it attitude or a first-one-last-out attitude?

Christ. After a long day of casting out demons and performing miracles and teaching, Mark 1.35 says, and in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left his house, and went away to a secluded place and prayed there for a time. He was the first one to pray.

He was the first one out there getting after it. Christ modeled what we are to do and being a contributor, not a consumer. Proverbs 6, nine through 11, how long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and your poverty will come to you like a robber and your want like an armed man. Go out and get after it. You gotta serve. You gotta be contributing to the needs of this church, to the needs of your family, and to the needs of the people that need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fourth thing, a spiritual contributor initiates, a spiritual consumer intentionally complains. So again, a contributor initiates service, a consumer intentionally complains. Romans 12, nine to 13, it's a long passage, but it's beautiful. It says, love must be free of hypocrisy, detest what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, and practicing hospitality.

This is the idea of initiating service, doing something without having to be asked. The opposite of that would be intentionally complaining. Where do we see that? First Corinthians chapter 10, verse eight through 11.

Now are we to commit sexual immorality as some of them did, referring to the Israelites, and 23,000 fell in one day? Nor are we to put the Lord to the test as some of them did and were killed by the snakes, nor grumble as some of them did and they were killed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. There's a guidebook to how to live life, and it's here, and we often overlook it because we want to seek a quick answer on social media or a quick answer through a friend instead of doing the hard work of an evangelist and reading God's word and finding the answer in God's word.

There are people that will complain about everything. There is a story of a woman who was married to a grumbling husband and wanting to please him, went to him and said, honey, what can I do for you? What can I make for breakfast? And he said, I'll have two eggs, one over easy, one scrambled. Okay, dear, I got it. So she went, she cooked the eggs, she brought it back to him, a plate, one over easy, one scrambled, gave it to him, and there was a pat on his face. She said, what's wrong? He said, you scrambled the wrong egg.

So there are some people that no matter what you do, they will find a way to complain, and that is the idea of consuming. Why didn't I get what I want? Why didn't I get what I need? I need this now.

I need this when it makes me happy. There are people that will complain about everything, but the true spiritual contributor seeks to serve and is hungry to do it. A hungry person does not complain. A hungry person is a humble person, but the problem with America today is that we are so stuffed full of the bread of this world and the bread that this world offers that we have no room for the bread of eternal life that is Christ Jesus. Fifthly, spiritual contributor humbly appreciates and spiritual consumer unnecessarily criticizes.

Those that set our speech, how we talk to people, how we go about contributing to the well-being of other people, Ephesians 4, 29 says, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification. According to the need of the moment, so we'll give grace to those who hear. And again, whenever I talk to any of these students in any way, shape, or form, and whenever I give a message of any kind, it's often self-serving. I guess you can say it's often consuming because I like to give a message because it's convicting me personally.

And I talk a lot about our speech and how we talk, not just because I'm a communication major, but because we talked about in youth group in John 1.1, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The word some philosophers used to take was the dialogos, or like the actual philosophical meaning of the word, but it was really the word referring to Christ, right, and the beginning was Christ, and Christ was with God, Christ was God. But the word is an important analogy because the word that you use, right, the words are who you are.

Christ is God, the fullness of God, the fullest representation of God. Like your words are the fullest representation of who you are. And so we have to use our words to appreciate and not unnecessarily criticize. Six, the spiritual contributor realizes that their life is not their own, while the spiritual consumer loves their life. They do everything they can to get ahead. First Corinthians 3.23 says that you belong to Christ.

First Corinthians 6.19-20 talks about how our bodies is temple for God, not ourselves, it is for God.

Our lives do not belong to us, our lives belong to Christ. We are to glorify God with our lives. Everything is set aside for Christ as we contribute to the kingdom of God. Seven, the spiritual contributor engages in prayer while the spiritual consumer is self-serving in their prayer. James 5.16 says, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. How do your prayers start and how do they finish?

And do they represent a consuming mentality of what I need? If you look at the Psalms and just prayers throughout God's word, I was talking with one of my leaders, Ignacio, about this last week.

All the prayers in Bible are about the greatness and magnificence of God. And we very rarely go to God, thank you for the person that you are, how good you are, the creator that you are. And I was, again, greatly convicted because I don't do that. My prayers are often, they can often be disguised as no, I'm just praying for people. But the prayer is ultimately an act of worship to God. It's a time of communion with God. And are your prayers a sign of consumption or a sign of contribution to the kingdom of God?

Lastly, spiritual contributor demonstrates faith in action and a spiritual consumer is inconsistent in their witnessing. Acts 22, 15 says that we will be witnesses to everyone about what we have seen and heard. If you ask yourself, how is your witness to other people? First Peter 2, 12 says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles.

Send the thing in which they slander you as evildoers they may because of their good deeds and because of their good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in a day of visitation. So our youth group changed their name last year, like I said, Ministers of Truth. While we shrunk in size, I want to maintain a focus on molding young hearts to serve Christ and contribute to the kingdom of God each and every single day, no matter where they go. They will be the ones that bring the truth to the next generation.

We will pass away, another generation will come. How are we at contributing to that generation and becoming better at serving Christ, loving Christ, proclaiming Christ? I want these students to get out of serving themselves and focus on serving other people. Again, another quote by Jordan Peterson says, thinking about yourself is no different than being miserable. Hell is where the self rules. No superordinate identity of marriage, family, community, state, nation, or God. A landscape of narcissistic misery.

That's the worship of pride and simultaneously progressive hell. I listened to that man give an interview with an atheist named Alex O'Connor who pressed him on the issue as to whether or not he actually believed in Christ. Jordan Peterson was very weak and stumbled a lot and looked very bad. He's not a Christian. I pray for his salvation. I think he's done great work saving people to think about the transcendent God, not the right God, but getting a conversation started. But if a man like that understands that the self is quite literally where hell is, why can't we as a church understand that we have to get off the idea of serving ourselves and into the idea of serving other people in ministry, in service, on Sundays, on Wednesdays, during the week, through texting, phone calls, emails.

There is absolutely no excuse to not serve. And when you come to a church, when you come to an idea of a relationship with humble service, you cannot lose. Whether it is a conflict, whether it is a pride issue, whether it is a self-serving issue, whatever it may be, if you are humble and serving, you cannot lose. And Christ demonstrated that humble sacrifice, that humble humility every single day of his life. And we are to emulate that in our lives today. So in 1 Corinthians 9, 22 to 23, favorite verse.

The week I became weak that I might win the week. I have become all things to all men so I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a full partaker of it. As always, every single year, I like to close with this quote, again, by Jordan Peterson. I do appreciate him, and he's not a believer, but he understands this, and this thing really pierced my heart. People will forget what you say, they'll forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

We're not supposed to go and live based on feelings, we're supposed to go live based on truth. But we go based on feelings quite a bit. And Jordan Peterson has a great quote. He said that you tell the people that you love how to avoid the road to hell, and you don't do that because you're shaking your finger at them or because you're a moral authority. You do it because you don't want them to burn. And that's such an important quote. Our job is to serve people, to evangelize, to come alongside brothers and sisters in Christ and do what we're to do.

And do what we're here to do that's mapped out in God's word of serving people, preaching God's word, being involved in church. But again, we are so often consumed with ourselves that we have no idea what it means to actually contribute and what that even looks like. We're doing a mini-series on discipleship in youth groups soon. What does discipleship look like in your life? Who are you discipling? Who are you being discipled by? That's a great way to start contributing. Contributing into the lives of others, pouring in and investing into the lives of others.

We live in a world that says that once you fulfill your desires, you'll be good. Just do what you want to do. Do what's best for you, follow your heart. Christ is the complete opposite. Take up your cross, follow me. It will not be easy, but it is necessary. We can't do what's expedient. We have to do what is necessary in being a spiritual contributor and not a spiritual consumer.