HERE IS THE NEW FIRST CHAPTER FOR ROCKSTAR DEVOTION- LIFESTYLES OF SINNERS & SAINTS
Sound Check SINNER VS. SAINT
As a concert promoter I have worked with thousands of bands over the years, bands on every level and from every musical genre. From local bands just trying to make it, to bands that have sold millions of records, I have seen inside lives of every type of rockstar. As I look at my faith in light of what I have learned in the music business I see my own spiritual tour to the destiny God had prepared for me. Have you ever wondered what you were created for? Maybe you have a deep passion or feeling for something or maybe you have no clue. What ever you religious beliefs might be, you’re sure to find areas you can relate to throughout this book. As you start this tour through Rockstar Devotion, you will find it places a spot light on the unseen world of the supernatural. There will be moments of chaos, loss and tragedy. There will be moments of success, victory and reinvention on this tour. It is a journey through the spiritual tour of life that never ends.
On this first stop of the tour we come to the stage of reality. To truly get the most out of your spiritual tour through life you must come to a place of honesty. No matter what your faith is in, life is hard and the ups and downs we journey through are enough to knock the excitement for life right out of us. Devotion in my personal faith seems impossible. It’s a daily battle of hypocrisy trying to live like a saint when I know I'm a sinner. Honestly none of us are perfect and we all have personal battles we fight through. One battle I have continually tried to fight is the battle of hypocrisy.
Webster defines hypocrisy as
"from Greek hypocrisy act of playing a part on the stage, hypocrisy, from hypokrinesthai to answer, act on the stage"
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypocrisy)
That is the life of a rockstar playing a part on a stage. But rockstars don't live all their lives on the stage. Some live in big houses in Hollywood, many live in beat up vans on tour and at home with their parents when not on the road. (Think I’m kidding? Watch the videos from "Music Hall Bands and Their Vans") www.myspace.com/herostatus )
Rockstar devotion is about living out life as a sinner and saint on the stage of life, but not for an audience of hundreds or thousands of people. Rockstar devotion is about taking the stage with an audience of One, the only One, the unseen God who created the stage of life. Going on the tour of our lives, with God there guiding us through some of the biggest victories and struggles we could imagine.
Whether you don't believe in a God, you've been in church your whole life, you’ve found new faith or are not sure what to believe, God is always calling everyone to take the life tour through Him.
We all have the seed of hypocrisy birthed inside our bodies. If you’re like me, you try so hard with all you have to be a good person, yet daily you stumble because the seeds of sin planted in you.
Let’s start off here being real, let’s be 100% honest hiding nothing. It’s easy to hide behind pretend walls of works or self-righteousness when on the inside we have so much killing us. For the sake of success on this tour let’s get real. Who are you, really? Not who your parents want you to be or who your friends expect you to be, who are you? What do you believe about God? What are your struggles? We are all hypocrites. The book of Romans in the Holy Bible says we are “sold as slaves to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:14-15 NIV).
Have you ever felt that way? Trying to make a change in your life and the world for the better of all humanity, yet continually failing yourself and others? Maybe that’s too big of a cause. Maybe easy going is what you want, a great job, great marriage, great time to spend doing what you want. Life is always guaranteed to get in our way from doing and being all we dream of. We all have the desire to do good, but we can’t always carry it out.
“For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:18-19 NIV)
If you’re like I was before I started my spiritual tour, then you don’t want to say you believe in something you’re not sure you can follow through with. If you’re like me, then you don’t want to say you believe in Jesus and not be able to live a perfect life. That was my major misconception; coming to faith in Jesus doesn’t mean we lose the hypocrisy that’s aligned in our body. We will battle with hypocrisy as long as we live. The seed of hypocrisy is planted in us at birth and at a certain age we all become aware of the difference between right and wrong. The bible says we are created in the image of God yet because of the seed of sin in us, we are not perfect like God. The corpse of sin is something we will daily battle throughout our spiritual tour. Coming to faith in Jesus is the beginning of the spiritual tour that plants the eternal seed of sainthood in us, that will overcome the sinner 100% the day our bodies expire.
Faith in Jesus starts the tour for life, giving us His divine power to overcome the hypocrisy within us and giving us the strength to become the saints God created to conform to His image. Let’s take down the fake walls we have placed on the outside and let who we are on the inside, be seen. God knows who you really are and when you are honest with Him and yourself, His true work of bringing the saint to the service begins to shine through, if you will let Him.
“So I find this law at work; When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!”(Romans 7:21-24NIV)
The apostle Paul was a man that had seen Jesus face to face and God used him to write half of the New Testament including the book of Romans. Paul was a man who followed God’s law religiously and was more faithful then I could ever be, yet he still knew the truth; that only through his relationship with Jesus could the saint overcome the sinner in his life.
We all carry around in us the corpse of sin in our lives. Paul was saying that our deliverance from the corpse of sin doesn’t come from legalistic efforts of good works, nor by being super religious, but only through the power of Christ, the saint can over come the sinner. So the spiritual tour starts with a struggle of hypocrisy. We are not God, nor are we able to be perfect like God. Yet as we take this tour on the stage of faith with Christ in reality, knowing we are not complete saints and never truly Rockstars in our own effort, through Jesus Christ we find reinventing resurrection power to over come parts of the battle against the hypocrisy in us.
“For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Galatians 5:17-18 NIV)
My first major in college was Religion and one of my professors for a class called Spiritual Formation was Pastor H.D. McCarty. He used an illustration in class that makes me think about the battle of hypocrisy. He said that the spiritual walk with Christ is a lot like tuning a guitar. If the strings are turned too far to the right or too far to the left it makes the wrong sound. That’s what our spiritual tour is like, to make the sound check sound like God intended, we have to be tuned with balance, not to liberal in our thinking and most definitely not too legalist. Christ is who makes us saints, He walked the perfect line in tune with God to not only show us the path to abundant life, but to be the sacrifice so we can have eternal life and take the spiritual tour with the creator of the universe.
The men and women of the bible are perfect pictures of the lifestyles of sinners & saints. Throughout the bible we find the biography of man named Peter. Peter became a follower of Jesus, but at the cross, Peter backed away and said “Hey I don’t know this guy” he didn’t stick to what he believed about Jesus. Though Peter had seen Jesus do miracles, in a moment of weakness, he buckled because he feared death and was uncertain about his faith. Peter’s story radically changes after the death of Jesus. Once Peter sees the resurrected Jesus, he no longer doubts and faces many hard times.
There was no longer doubt and Peter didn’t care if he was put in prison, beat, or put to death. He had not only walked with Jesus and seen him perform miracles, he saw Jesus die, he saw Jesus buried. He then lost all faith and hope and three days later his mind was blown away, because he saw Jesus alive. I mean what the heck, could you imagine the shock? The battle that was going on in Peter’s mind from the cross until the resurrection, could have been doubt that Jesus wasn’t even God or worth following. Then all those thoughts were crushed by the truth that Peter saw Jesus die, and now He was alive in front of him. This wasn’t some fun new religion Peter was going along with, though that’s what the story could have looked like if you stop reading about Peter at the cross. Peter was put to death for preaching about Jesus. He stood in the face of death and I’m sure at his execution he probably said something like this “I know Jesus is God. I was at the cross, watched him die and saw him conquer death by walking right next to me three days later. Jesus wasn‘t lying, He is God.” On the spiritual tour we are most certain to face daily changes that challenge us to grow.
Like Peter, our spiritual tour becomes more difficult to go to the next level in the journey of life with all the distractions we see along side of the road. I guess what I've learned in all this spiritual touring, is that God wants me to lay all my gear down daily, to seek him freely, to ask, to seek, to knock, to live the abundant life he promises to me on this tour of life. Getting as close to the perfect balance, I can, by following the example of Jesus that brings the perfect tune for my spiritual sound check.
I have also learned my personal sound check isn’t for the world to see. It doesn’t matter how perfect we look on the outside to God, He knows what’s inside us. The spiritual sound check isn’t so we can conform to the religious bubble, but so we can come close to our God and let Him tune us perfectly, so our tour is full of abundant stadiums He has created us for. At this place ,God amplifies His power through our weakness and when we let Him bring us in tune with that perfect balance we become walking billboards of His grace that impact the world. The tuning provides purpose that last and fuels the spiritual tour. What does your spiritual tour look like today?
My spiritual tour started in Van Buren, Arkansas at 18 when in my senior year of high school I was faced with the future of fatherhood, really the only sight of my future other then jail time because of my addictions. I had come to a breaking point after being arrested 11 times my junior year and watching one of my best friends die in my arms after an overdose on LSD. I ran away from home, living on the streets, in cars, on top of schools, running from God’s call on my life.
I had prayed prayers before, I even had FBI agents tell me about who Jesus was while setting in the narcotic office, but there was still no change in my actions. The breaking point for me was the thought that I was going to be a father, but a screw up at that, finally I was at my weakest point. That night was rough. Depressed I asked God; "God if you’re real, please give me a purpose in life". Not even an hour later my father George Brown Jr. came to me with life changing truth and I had to make the choice; either my dad and Jesus were liars, or they were 100% true. So I made the choice to believe Jesus DID die on the cross for my sins, that He DOES promise me a hope and a future through Him. I came to faith in Jesus empty handed nothing to hold onto, I was willing to let go of the drugs, the party lifestyle, even most of my friends to take a chance on this Jesus.
Over the past twelve years, I've seen great success as a pastor, then as concert promoter and business owner, but in those great successes, in those same seasons I have also seen great failure. Great things were given to my empty hands. A great future lived, great moments, people and things given then taken away. Taken away until all blessings of yesterday had vanished leaving me where I started the tour a decade earlier, empty handed. Being empty handed isn't so bad, it frees up our hands and hearts so they can be filled with the one thing that we were created for. No other treasure but Jesus Christ, that's what I got. He gives, He takes away, and He gives again. It is the treasure no one can foreclose on, it can never be repossessed, it is the journey that never ends and its 100% true.
What is keeping your hands tied down from getting the most out of the spiritual tour? Have you lost something or someone? Do you feel like you lack purpose or have no vision for your future? In this place of reality, knowing that your carrying around a corpse that battles with you everyday you can step up to the stage of faith and let Jesus’ love and strength surround you, and bring out the saint you were created to be.
If you feel empty handed, it’s not a time to fret, it's the place where God wants you to be. This is where the tour begins. It is where God can guide you to the next step to fulfilling your purpose. It’s where he places new opportunities in your path, it is the place where he puts the right people in your life.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to give you a hope and a future"
It's the point where we all must come before we experience the eternal tour.
No matter how much money we have, how much knowledge and intellect or talent we think we possess, whether its wealth, power, poverty, fame, failure, or success none of us get a VIP pass to heaven, without first coming empty hand to Jesus. Being real before God knowing we are hypocrites, sinners needing His presence in our life to make us saints.
Romans 6:23
"For The Wage Of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus"
Abundant life starts with Jesus and is the tour of a lifetime adventure. Discovering Jesus in real life, with and through Him, the good, the bad and the ugly times, challenges and defeats, victories and successes all allowed by God. We have freedom to seek him or not, either way if we are seeking him, joy and tragedy will come on this journey it’s just part of life, but that is a part of the adventure. Jesus power in our sound check makes us more then conquerors because we have All Access Pass to the supernatural.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,” Roman 8:28
The sound check of reality brings us before God and He gives us strength to take the first stage as a Sinner and a Saint. On this stage we don’t lose hypocrisy but we see reality, that there is daily battle within us, and like Paul and Peter, we will struggle with the sinner, but the saint can always overcome when power of Christ tunes in perfect balance.
PRAYER for us hypocrites: --- Jesus I want to be real, please help the battle within me between the sinner and the saint. Please give me wisdom to continue to be real before you and others. Give me strength to overcome the daily choices in the battle of hypocrisy and let your spirit give me wisdom to live in balance with you, like the saint you created me to be.