This Red Flag Shows You’re Drifting From God

What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver podcast. I'm Bryce and today I'm going to be talking to you guys about what I think is one of, if not the biggest red flag in your own Christian Walker and another Christian friends walk that you know, that could be that they are on a path, the deconstruction that they could be on a highway to leave in the faith. And I really want to talk about it. We're going to be in Acts chapter five today. And this is something that has been a personal conviction of mine now for a couple of years have been challenged by some friends of mine. And you know, after reflecting with these friends back on some friendships that we had with other people, you know, when I became a Christian at 17 years old, within a month I met about a hundred Christians from all over the country that did social media to some capacity about Jesus or friends with someone there and they were amazing. It was like the, it was one of the peaks of my Christian faith journey because it, you know, I was new to the faith. I had Christian friends immediately. And even though I was going through some really hard times that first year, having those friends was so amazing. And I've only been a Christian for less than six years when this episode's been being recorded. And about half of them or over half of them have fallen away from the faith. And I think that the biggest red flags and it's a combination, but the biggest red flag that I saw consistently was isolation and a lack for community in the church. And that's why I kind of wanted to talk about the importance of like church and community and things like that. I mean, you know, people always say, well, bear each other's burdens and Christianity, bear each other's burdens. Well, Galatians is talking about Christians bearing one another's burdens. Absolutely. But Paul's writing that to the church of Galatia, telling them to bury each other's burdens, talking to the church, the church like, yes, the local church and the universal church against believers, universal church is like believers, whether you're a believer here or in Mexico or in Canada, but also believers in your local church. And so if you were someone that has been in this faith journey of Jesus going, all I need is just me and my Bible and my prayer closet and my coffee and like, that's it. And that is like a big red flag for me. I want to say, let me challenge you here with this passage. Acts chapter five, but a, but a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and bought, brought only a part of it and laid it at the Apostles fee. What is going on? So Paul saw the 3000. I mean, sorry, Peter, Peter saw the 3000 converts get saved. They get baptized. They get the Holy Spirit. They pray for boldness, right? And then now they're selling everything they have to follow them. Now, what you're seeing here is Ananias and Sapphira love and their money more than they love God. They're trusting in their own wisdom. They're earthly wisdom more than their trusting God, right? So they sell this property and they keep some of the money without telling the Apostles. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsolved, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed this last and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. So what just happened? So Ananias sold his property, kept some of the money, didn't tell them when they were all selling everything they had to follow Jesus. And because Ananias lied, God killed him. Bam. Now, look at this. Verse seven, after an interval of about three hours, his wife came in not knowing what had happened. So she didn't know that Ananias had died, but she knew that they were withholding the money. And Peter said to her, tell me whether you sold the land for X amount. And she said, yes, for so much, but Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord, behold the feet of those who have buried your husband or at the door and they will carry you out immediately. She fell down his feet and breathed her last. What the heck just happened? So Ananias and Sophia both lied to God, both lied about their money problem. And God killed them. Why did God do that? That makes him extreme. What happened? God killed Ananias and Sophia for lying about selling all they had of following him because he wanted to keep the birth of the early church pure. I think so many people use the scapegoat as, oh, there's corrupt pastors out there or I have church hurt or this. Which yeah, that stuff exists. But if you're using that stuff as a scapegoat to not go to church, not submit yourself to leadership, then that is a big red flag that you might be on a highway to deconstruction, that you might be on a highway of leaving the faith, that you might be on the first plane out of Christianity. And if you aren't willing to submit yourself to leadership, right? Because when we are submitting ourselves to our local pastor, we are trusting that that dude is number one, listening to Jesus, but number two, that Jesus is speaking to him and he is leading us. He is shepherding a flock. God has trusted him in that position of authority. And when I got this conviction and was challenged by a couple of friends a couple of years ago because, you know, I get it. I was into the whole church hopping thing. I was into the whole like, oh, bouncing around and seeing which one is that blah, blah, blah. But what I have just become so joys about is knowing my pastor and letting my pastor have access into my life and my wife's life. I have loved having the ability to get to know people in my community, be involved in my church. I have loved knowing that like if I need a prayer from someone that I had nowhere, I've met at church that because of that community that they would come around me and actually bear my burdens with them, there are actual benefits. Like God designed us to be in fellowship, in fellowship with him. And one way that we can experience the fellowship of the Lord's fellowship amongst believers in the local church. And one of the biggest red flags that someone could be leaving the faith, like this is my caution is like, man, if you are not going to church, let me encourage you to go to church. Go to church. If you were listening or watching this right now, go to church. You got zero excuse to go to church. Yeah, but I'm busy. Look, I got stuff going on blah, blah. You make time for the things you care about. Go to church. If you think that you're too busy to go to church on Sunday or whatever, look, they got multiple services on Sunday at a lot of places. I know some churches even do a do an extra service on Thursday night sometimes. You know, if you are too busy to go to church, then, then you just don't care. Don't, don't blame your lack of reverence for God on your quote unquote sketch. I'm too busy. Go to church. You have enough time to do other things. You can go spend four hours with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or whatever, but you can't go for an hour to the Lord's house. Go to church. God cared about this so much. The book of acts is literally a historical document of, hey, this is how the church started. And Lydia, she funded the Church of Ephesus and then the book of accents with Rome, meaning that all roads lead to Rome, meaning the gospel is going to go forth from Rome, meaning that we get the access to gathering churches. Furthermore, you know, so many people say, I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church yet. There are people in the east in Nigeria that'll do whatever it takes to gather with believers because I recognize the importance of the church. Gathering with the church is so crucial to the Christian faith. And you and I just don't want to do it. Do you know why else is so important to gather with the the the local church? It is so important to gather with the local church because they can actually keep your head on straight with scriptures and theology that if they are submitted to the same pastor that you are an under gospel center teaching and good sound doctrine, that if you feel like doing something else or you know, feel like God's leading you one way or whatever you have wise counsel that you can lean on. Seriously, if I wasn't going to church and if I didn't have older voices in my life because I wanted to isolate, I would have left the faith the long time ago. Even before I got this revelation, I was traveling with a mentor of my Marcus Mcfallen and I've had other mentors in my life, have mentors in my life, older voices. And even that was a good stepping stone in a starting place that I still have that if I didn't have that I would have deconstructed a long time ago because yes, like a lack of the local church stems from a place of isolation and someone can still go to church and isolate. And when I'm telling when I'm telling you to be encouraged by Acts chapter 5, like God cared about the church so much, he cared about the birth of the early church being so pure, he killed wicked people on the spot so that the people that started this thing that we call a local church were pure, like God cared about that so much. So when I'm telling you like, Hey, you need to go to church. I'm not just saying, Hey, like pop in there and pop out and be a little secretive. Like I get it. Like you got to kind of start out like going and catch the vibes and I get it. But you can't just sit in the back row the entire time. Like get plugged in, get to know people in the congregation, get to know the people that you see or sit down within the same row or get to know the people that are servant or get to know the pastor or the leadership or get plugged in and serve in some way because the local church, we're supposed to come together. The local church isn't just a seat for you to fill. The local church is a place for you to get filled. The local church is a place for you to get the conviction of the Lord for you to get charged up, refueled, to get encouraged, to get convicted, to get rebuked, all of that. And when you read Matthew, and see, and here's the last thing I'm going to say about the local church, when we read Matthew chapter and it talks about dealing with someone who's sin in the church with you, a person 101. Then you bring a brother, then you bring the whole congregation. If that person does not repent, you hand them over to Satan and you kick them out of the church. You know, like we, we, for some reason, Americans like argue over how to handle the church leadership. Even though it's pretty clear in Matthew chapter 18 and how to do it, it's pretty clear. We argue over it, yet if you get kicked out of your church, would it hurt you? Because the people in that time that were getting kicked out of their church, they would be losing their friends. They would be embarrassed in front of their friends if they wouldn't repent of their sin. And then that church would have known them and known their life and known their families and known their friends. But is that the case for you? Like if you got kicked out of your church, would it hurt you? Probably not. I would say I'm just taking an assumption. Maybe not. Because this culture of church hopping and things like that is so popular. How about for a split second? We practice commitment. Because we are the bride of Christ. Christ is the groom. We are actively committing a part of ourself to Christ when we go to church. God thinks the church is important. Look at the book of Acts. But we just read, and if you have commitment issues to the church, you don't think you're going to have commitment issues to your friendships, to your romantic relationships, to nonbelievers that you quote unquote, you say you want to see no Jesus, you don't think you don't think you're going to have commitment issues to them. If you already have commitment issues to the church, it's crazy. Hey, quick pause. I have to tell you about something I've been looking forward to all year. It's called open heaven and it's the biggest live event we've ever done. It's happening November 8th at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. Picture a live podcast experience, real conversations about faith and purpose and the stuff we actually talk about on this show, but in a room full of people all together. And it's not just talk. We've got a live worship band that's coming alongside being led by Aaron Tedesky and Upper Room Worship. If you know, you know, it's going to be a night full of faith and power. And we really believe that Jesus is going to be in the room tickets are on sale right now at Bryce Crawford dot org slash tour links in the description. Just do me a favor, only buy through the official site because there's a ton of resellers and scammers out there. So make sure you get your tickets at Bryce Crawford dot org slash tour. All right. Back to the episode. Sharks should be something that benefits your soul. That's why God designed it. And you weren't designed to walk this faith journey alone. You might be suffering so bad right now because you're walking this journey alone and you're isolating because you think no one understands. You know, one understands your situation or you're afraid that Christians are going to condemn you. And so you're pulling yourself back. You don't want to go to church. You don't want to tell anyone in the congregation. You don't want to go to your pastor for help in your isolating. Let me tell you something that is a lie from the devil. There are believers that care about your soul that won't weaponize your struggles against you that want to see you flourish. And if you withhold that back because you're too afraid, you're going to lose yourself in the process and the Bible would say, confess your sins to one another and you will be healed. The church is a hospital for those like you and me who recognize we need someone outside of ourselves to save us. And we need a constant heart evaluation and we need to be constantly challenged and prescribed how to follow Jesus. And we can't neglect it. And so I want to pray for you that if you're someone who's struggling with isolation or going to church, that you feel the conviction to go to church. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the church that you have created this institute as a way that we can fellowship with believers, that we can conquer the lives of the enemy, that we can be filled and charged and encouraged in the faith. And so God, if anyone is listening to this right now and they're struggling with isolation or going to church, Lord, would you convict them to find a church family, find believers, find older voices and plug in because we want to see them endure in the long run. Lord, we love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.