CWP 48. Living in Holy Anticipation

Phil Strong

Join Phil in this captivating episode of ‘Coffee with Phil’ as he delves into the heart of faith, unraveling the complexities of apathetic complacency within the church. Through heartfelt stories and personal reflections, Phil encourages you to rekindle your holy anticipation for God’s work. He shares insights on avoiding the pitfalls of apathy and complacency and offers a refreshing perspective on how to live a life of faith that is wide open and filled with anticipation. Phil’s challenge to seek God in everyday life and to expect heavenly encounters will leave you inspired and ready to embrace a faith made real.

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Introduction

Well, good day, and welcome to the podcast. Welcome to a time where you have coffee with Phil and we talk about faith made real, and we are on a journey where we discover what it’s like to live a life of faith and in this journey. I’ve just decided that I’ve been asked by the Lord to share my journey with you, so that law talks about living life wide open, and it means being vulnerable. It means talking about faith. 

And as the intro said, ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly.’ Well, what I want to talk about today in this episode is living in holy anticipation. And I’ve got to say that this is an ongoing struggle. This is an ongoing challenge. This is something that I think all of us are called into. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then to not live in holy anticipation is really not even to understand the life you’re called into. And I mean that in a really encouraging way. So please don’t hear any condemnation in there, but I would open with this statement: the biggest risk in being a long-term Christian is apathetic complacency. 

Apathetic Church 

The biggest risk of being a long-term Christian is apathetic complacency, and what I mean by that is, the longer you’re around, things of the faith, the longer you’re around church circles, and you know you go along and you listen to another sermon, and you kind of get drawn into that pattern or the rut where you’re like, ‘Man, I’ve heard this before. I understand this. I’ve seen it before. I’ve journeyed through this before.’ And become empathetic, we become complacent, and I see this. 

And some of my friends and I even see it in me. You know, as I’ve shared in a recent podcast. I’m encouraging you to get into a bigger room to understand what it’s like to live in wide open spaces, and yet I face the risk of going along to church conferences and thinking, ‘You know what? I’ve heard this before. I’ve been in this environment, and I know what’s going to happen.’ And sometimes the downside of that is that I turn up, and I have no expectations. 

I said to my church recently, ‘I don’t want to be a church like that. I don’t want to be in a room filled with people who look like they’ve seen it, and they’ve heard it all before. I don’t want to be the guy at the front that’s living his life like he’s seen it all before. He knows it all, and I don’t want us to be nervous. I want us to be living in that trepidation of the holy fear of God where We would come before the burning bush and would tremble because we’re not sure what God’s going to do next. 

And so, I want to deal with this right up front. I want to share some stuff from my perspective around living in holy anticipation, and I want to share with you how I see things in order to really make sure that I am accountable, and you can take this as a challenge no matter where you are and no matter what your walk of faith looks like. Wherever you are on that journey of faith, I challenge you to look in the mirror and decide. Am I truly living in holy anticipation? and so I want to start.  

First of all, I want to come back to that opening statement. I want to say the biggest risk in being a long-term Christian is apathetic complacency, and I want to start by talking about an apathetic church. And then I want to talk about a complacent church. And then I want to finish by talking. About some of my mindsets around living and holy anticipation. 

So that’s where we’re going today. I’ve given you the markers, and I hope you enjoy this journey, as I would say in every podcast, as I really hope you’re subscribing and that you’re getting these dropped into your podcast service of your choice. Every week, we’re dropping a new episode. You want to make sure that you’ve got it on your device of choice, and I also just encourage you to share the podcast with your friends and share it with your family if you think of someone while you’re listening to this podcast. Then I want you to immediately click the share button and send them a message, a private message, a text message, or an iMessage. Wherever you do, get it in front of them and say, “Hey, I was listening to this, and I thought of you, and I’d really encourage you to take time to listen to it.” 

So let me begin by talking about an apathetic church, and please, when you hear me say that I’m including myself in the population of the church, I looked up the definition of the word apathetic. And yeah, just simply on my phone, it gave me the result that says showing or feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern. You know, I often wonder, what would it be like in church if I came along on a Sunday morning and I was confident that Jesus in the flesh was the guest speaker for the day? But what if he wasn’t the guest speaker? But what if Jesus in the flesh had told me he was coming to church? And that he was going to sit in the front row, because, let’s face it, all good Christians, true Christians, they sit in the front row church. 

So how would I feel? Would I turn up showing or feeling no interest? Would I have a low level of enthusiasm, or would I not really be concerned about what was going to happen that morning? Well, that’s apathetic, and the honest truth is that there’s a whole bunch of people that turn up on Sunday thinking, well, I’ve got to do the duty. I’ve got to go to church, and I’m apathetic about it. They might not say that, but certainly that might be what’s going on with someone. 

And I’d say to you, “Let me Just let me get you off the hook. And let me put all the attention back onto me and my peers.” I think there’s a major issue when apathy occurs in church leadership. Well, what do I mean by that? Look, you have to think about this. You know, as a church leader, as a pastor, or as someone who has been involved in ministry for a long time, I’ve done this before. I’ve read and been around this block. I can get caught up with the idea that there’s nothing new under the sun. I can get caught up in the idea that, hey, look, we did this last week. Or, you know, I can let you know what the biggest risk is for me with regards to apathy is? As I pour my life out week after week after week and I convince myself, or I listen to the accusation of the devil, I get sucked into thinking what I’m doing doesn’t matter; what I’m doing doesn’t make a difference. 

And so, I’d be worn down by time. I’d be worn down by people. And I get to the point where I go, you know what? I’m not going to show interest or feelings. I’m not going to get as committed or enthusiastic because, quite frankly, I convince myself it’s all worth it. Or I agree with the devil’s lies that it’s making no difference. And I have to be honest with you. I reckon that’s a big issue in church leadership. The tired leaders, the worn-out leaders, the burned-out leaders, the beat-up leaders, the leaders that haven’t taken care of the condition of their hearts. Are at risk of becoming apathetic, of not showing up, or of feeling no interest, enthusiasm, or concern.  

And so, what I’m trying to do at the moment is I’m trying to turn up early. You know, I want to turn up just in time. I want to turn up early. I want to make sure the place is presented well. I want to make sure it’s warm. I want to make sure the lights are on. I want to make sure it’s ready for the team when they come to do stuff. But I want to turn up early because I want to be there, setting myself before God as an act of service. And when I remember why I’m doing this, then I remember that this is like a calling. This is a higher calling to a higher power, meaning God himself. We’re not serving the people; I’m serving God first. 

And so, I turn up early because I want to be in the right mindset, and I never want to get sucked into this idea that I don’t need to have enthusiasm or concern about what’s going on. I am also coming with a hunger to expect encounters before the meeting even starts. Now I’m going to go into that space, praying that I will personally meet with God before anyone else is in the building, even if sometimes I’m not the first one in the building. 

So, I’m making sure I’m spending time in prayer. I’m making sure I’m getting in among the pews or the seats. So, I’m walking around, asking the Holy Spirit to make himself real and tangible for me in that moment, because I would rather lead a meeting from a place of encounter than expect it to happen because I like the songs or because I like whatever the preacher’s doing. So, this is how I overcome apathy. I’m looking to push myself beyond my personal strength. 

So, one of the things I might share with you shortly is that, you know, some of the things come quite easily for me when it comes to ministry because of my talents and my experience, but I’m looking to push beyond there, and I’m looking to push deeper. I’m looking to go to a place where, My God, if you don’t show up in this moment, then I really have nothing to bring. And that’s where I love challenging myself with a word of knowledge around healing and a word of knowledge around the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because that’s way outside my abilities and talents. That’s 100%. Depending on God doing what God said he was going to do. 

And so, even in a structured gathering where we’ve got a run sheet and we’ve got a plan, people know what the plan is, and we’ve got an idea of what we’ve prayed into. This is what God wants us to do, but I’m still looking to go beyond that. I’m still looking to go beyond my understanding of Scripture and the sharing from a place of revelation, not just of knowledge, and the final thing that I’d say with regards to how do I overcome apathy Is I’m actually looking for the unexpected; I’m in anticipation. I’m looking for something that God stored up for us as a surprise. 

And so often, when we’re in a meeting, we’ll be looking for what I call the wind of the Holy Spirit. What’s the flow? What’s the repeated constant, or sorry, not constant, but repeated concept that seems to be coming through this morning, you know? So, we might have time to test these, and there might be 3 or 4 or 15 people who care about miraculous intervention with family and relationships and how God’s brought healing in certain areas, and we’re like, “OK, there’s a theme here. There’s a wound of the Holy Spirit that’s flowing in the space, and we believe that these testimonies are building faith or something. I want to follow that journey. 

And so, this is how we shift out of a place of feeling like there’s no interest, enthusiasm, or concern because we’re like God is doing something. And we’ve put us in a place where we’re going to expect him to move in that way. And so, this is how I think we can each push ourselves. 

So, if you’re at risk of being the apathetic church, if you’re one of those people, or if you think there’s a risk of it, how about you turn up early? How about you expect to encounter God before the meeting even starts? What about if you push yourself beyond your personal limits or your comfort zone? What if you looked for the unexpected? What was God doing in your life, and you followed the wind of the Holy Spirit? I think you’d move out of a place of apathy really, really quickly. Because you’re suddenly in that place where you’re like, “I wonder what God is going to do next.” And I think that’s exciting for all of us. 

Hey, so I want to move on to talk about the second part of the statement I made, ‘The biggest risk of being a long-term Christian is apathetic complacency.’ But in the middle here, I just feel like intervening and to just remind us all that we are not looking… I am not looking for us to be in a place where we get down on ourselves and beat up ourselves or just get completely dejected or rejected with regards to the journey that we’re on. What I really want this this podcast to be about is getting real with our faith, being completely honest about our faith journey, and being completely willing to subject ourselves to the discipleship that Jesus and the Holy Spirit want to bring into our world. 

So, please don’t beat yourself up. Just go. “Come on, man. Does God want me to do something as a result of listening to this podcast?” So, I’m going to leave that with you. I’m going to move on to the second part. 

A Complacent Church  

Now I want to talk about a complacent church. So again, I jumped on my phone and did a search. What does it mean to be complacent? And it means showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself. Or with one’s achievements, and I looked at this and thought, yeah. Look, I’m at risk here. I’m at risk here because I’ve been doing this for a while, and I can rest on my laurels, and I can believe that I know what I’m doing, and almost take the opportunity to ride the wave of my talent and my skills.  

And so, for instance, you know, one of the things that I really love to do and have always loved to do is sharing in front of an audience to teach, explain, to exhort. Rah rah rah. You know I can do rah-rah, or I can do deep teaching. I don’t mind either. But the risk with that is that I can rock up into a room and someone says, hey, would you mind preaching today? or I travel to a different space, and they go, hey, someone didn’t show up. Or can you shift gears and do something different? 

Today I’ll relish it because I know that I can turn on a dime and do it now. The risk there is that I will become complacent and not seek revelation in the rest of the message that I had last week. I don’t depend on God, and I show smug or critical satisfaction with myself and what I’m able to do. I might do a really, really, really bang-up great job, and people might love what I do, but I can still be complacent.  

and I think God’s really challenging me and us to think. Do I want to live in complacency and be satisfied with who I am, what I’ve done, or what I’ve got? Or am I going to move myself into a place of holy anticipation and live in the holy fear of God being bigger than anything I can contain, control, or manage? That’s the life of real faith, my friends. 

And I get challenged by this next question that I ask myself: do I really want to look like the Pharisees in the Bible and Jesus’ time? And, like, that’s not a rhetorical question. That’s a genuine question. Do. You want to look like the Pharisees that were in Jesus’ day, and you know there’s a couple of Pharisees that sought Jesus out at night, Nicodemus. One day he came in and really, I believe, genuinely saw what a deeper understanding of what Jesus was talking about. But there were plenty of others who did it, and they laughed. They mocked, they scorned, and they planned to kill him. And Jesus himself said you are like white-washed tombs. You are like white-washed tombs. meaning you’re painted all nice on the outside, but inside there’s death, decay, and stench.  

And I think just one of the reasons for that was that the Pharisees were very, very complacent in what they’d achieved through their qualifications. They’d been through the school, and they’d learned the law and the Torah, and they could recite this, and they could be obedient to every jot and title of the text. But that was outward behaviour, and Jesus was saying he’s more interested in what’s on the inside of your life. 

So, complacency might look good. It might even be perfect according to the rules, but it’s not actually what matters to Jesus. Recently, I was in a gathering, and there was a song that we were singing. I don’t think it was, you know, about surrendering and trusting in God. And I just felt the Holy Spirit say to us all, myself included. “Be careful you don’t worship me with your mouth but give your heart to an idol because there is. There is something that’s far, far greater, and it’s that God wants everything. He wants us not just to worship with our mouths, but he wants our hearts to be given in total surrender.” 

And so, complacency is a pattern that we get into because we… I just think generally we just like to control, you know, like, if I can talk about faith. But as long as I can control things and do things, the way I want to be in line with my expectations as long as God measures up to what I’ve asked him to do, and then I’m going to be totally happy. And I think that it just totally turns into a complacent church. I think it’s a lifeless church; it’s a faithless church. It’s a church the devil is very, very happy to see Because they’re not pushing back the darkness, they’re just living a complacent life, smug and satisfied with themselves and others where they’re at. 

And that’s not for me. I don’t want that. I want to fight that. I want to talk about it. Why I’m talking about it is because I want to avoid it. If anything, this podcast, I just want this podcast to be like my confession that I record and send out to the world, so that if you ever see me living in apathy or complacency, you can call me out on it. “OK, bro Seriously, Phil, you know, like podcast #48 Coffee with Phil #48. You’re sharing this in a way that makes you say something. Let’s make sure you do it. “ 

And so, I give you permission to call me out on that. So, one of the things that I’ve been trying to do, and surrender is to give any success in every success over to God. You know, there are some things I’m really proud of lately, but let me not wear them like a badge or a crown. Let me give my crown and surrender to the one who deserves the crown. If he’s Lord, then he’s Lord not just of the sin of my life, but he’s Lord of the success in my life. 

And I was preparing for some stuff I’m doing soon, and I just, you know… wide and broad is the gate to destruction. And Jesus says, but narrow is that the way to eternal life. And I think complacency is the wide and open way to destruction and surrender. And being not willing to be complacent. And I think that is that narrow way. 

So, what I’m trying to do to get rid of complacency is get rid of the crown that comes from success. I’m choosing the narrow way, which is not to be complacent. And finally, one of the things that I’ve been really trying to embrace and it’s not a short journey, so I’m probably going to be speaking about this for years and in many podcast episodes to come. But I’m trying to find rest in the struggle, knowing the Lord is doing is work, because I think if we ever think that God’s finished with us and not working in our lives, we become complacent. And I’ve certainly got enough struggle going on to know that God is not finished with me, that he’s not going to sit back and go, “Oh well, look, you know, we’ve got a four out of 10 with this project.  

So, this guy called Phil Strong. I think we’re done with him. That’s as much as we can do.” You know, he looks at me at four out of 10 and goes. “Man, let’s just get closer to him. Let’s help him, and let’s nudge him. And let’s breathe into his life to help him know that we’re with him in the struggle, because we see something more.” You know, there’s a bit of polishing. 

There’s a bit of pruning, and there’s preparation because God is always seeking to take us higher. And that’s one of the things that I think would really rip complacency out of the church. You know if God’s chosen vehicle for blessing the world is the organisation he calls the church. It’s a group of people doing life together and working out faith as they do life together, and that’s how he’s going to demonstrate his glory that he’s already given the church.  

Then I think we need to strip complacency out of it. We need to come into a space where we’re together as believers, whether it’s a home group, a small gathering, or a large gathering, and we just need to start by getting on our faces and saying, God, we’re not worthy except for what Jesus has done. We don’t deserve all the goodness that you’ve given us there. The breath in our lungs, the people that love us, and the passion and purpose for something that you call us to—if we don’t get on our faces and surrender and just that understanding that God is above all that, then we’re going to be complacent and we’re going to slip into apathy. 

And we’re going to have no anticipation of the holy awesomeness of God in our lives. And quite frankly, I think that the world’s going to look at that kind of church and go. Yeah. Nah, I don’t want a piece of that. So, what does it look like to live in holy anticipation? Let’s talk about that, because I want it. I want to stir myself, and hopefully, as a result, stir you. 

Living in Holy Anticipation 

So, let’s talk about what does it looks like to live in holy anticipation. You know, I can well remember the days when I was a new believer. So, when was this all 100 years ago? It feels like Kathy, and I just started going out. I suppose if that’s what you call it, you know, and We were going along to quite a vibrant church in the middle of Wellington. And it was cool, man. We liked it, and we knew it was the right place. We knew we were the right people, and we knew we were on the right path with God and together. So that was really important in that order. 

But we were quite new to it. We were fresh, and I can tell you like we weren’t married. So, get up. Get ready for church. Pick up Kathy, and we would drive into the city, and I remember being nervous man. I just remember being so nervous to go to church because I was like, man, what will God do today? Will God speak to me? Will God ask me to do something? Will someone prophesy all over me, or will someone ask to pray for me? Or what if God asked me to pray for someone else? I was like, I knew I had to go to church. I knew I had to be there. I wanted to be there. I wanted to grow. I was sick of my old life. I wanted a new life. I wanted them more than I knew God had for me, and I was excited to have this new special person in my life that wanted the same thing, and that was cool, man. 

But flip! like we would walk into church, we would hold each other’s hands, look at each other, and go here and let’s see what God does because we were living in holy anticipation. You know, what if we came back to that as old crusty Christians and we got to the place? We were like man. I just can’t wait to get together with other believers because when two or three gather in the name of Jesus, there he is in the midst of us, and when Jesus turns up, we can expect that heaven to turn up and rock our world. What if that’s how we did life together? Like, what if you challenge yourself? To go to church this Sunday. And go with an attitude that you were expecting God to rock your world. What would that even look like? 

Hey, you know, like there’s a challenge for all of us, myself included. Now, here’s a different thing for me. Like, just because of the time stamp of where I’m recording this in a couple of days’ time, I’m flying up to Indonesia on a ministry trip. I’m going to a foreign country where they don’t speak English. I’m going to minister with a translator, and I’m going. OK. Lord, I’m not going to go complacent. I’m not going to rest on my loss. I’m not going to be, you know, like not too worried because these people, you know, like what happened last time or whatever. 

I’m going to expect or do something through me that’s going to look like a miracle. And it’s outside my control. I’ve got to trust that the translator is actually saying what I’m saying. But it’s in Indonesian, and I’ve got to expect that. I’ve heard from the Holy Spirit that the messages and the ministry that God’s asked me to do while I’m there, is far outside my capacity. It’s way beyond my personal talent. It’s way beyond my personal strength.  

It’s Holy Spirit anointed because the God who created heavens and earth has chosen me for this trip to minister to these people, and that he’s done that for a reason. Not just because he wants me to get out of the country, not just because he wants them to have a happy clappy time with a funny white guy who sounds different. No, there’s an encounter between heaven and earth that I’m going to be a part of because God’s already set it up, and that’s what I’m going to do. That’s holy anticipation. 

So, I’m going to pray like I need heaven to turn up. I’m going to pray like God’s got an encounter for people. And that’s what I’m doing to live in holy anticipation. So, you know, I get on the plane, and I might watch a movie, but I am also going to put my air pods in. I’m going to put the worship on, and I’m going to have a worship party inside my head while I wait to end and anticipate what God has preparing for me. You know, there’s one time I was flying down on a domestic flight. It was about 45 minutes, and I just had this amazing encounter time I’ve got on the plane. I just had the worship, and the music-blasting poor guy next to me had to listen to it as well, I guess. But I got off that plane. I felt I could have walked on water because God had just had a moment with me at 30,000 feet (about 9.14 km), where I was like, Oh, man. I could move mountains right now because of what he’s doing. 

That’s the whole anticipation that I’m going with. If I just want to say this, I’m trying to create a normal lifestyle of seeking the Lord. You know, how do I posture myself to seek him? How do I seek him when I’m in the car? How do I seek him when I’m in the plane? How do I seek him when I’m in my office? How do I seek him? 

I was in a meeting today, sitting in my office, and this person was sitting across from me and sharing just some real challenges that they’re facing. And I’m like God. “I don’t know that I’m the answer for this, but how can I position myself for you to move through me for this person to be blessed while they’re sitting in my office?” And that should be normal. I want to hold the anticipation that God’s going to bring those people across my path, that if I’m ready for them, then I can demonstrate the love of Jesus in a moment. Because that’s what God has prepared. 

So, I want to finish by saying, What about you? How can you posture yourself to live in holy anticipation that God is going to do something amazing? He’s going to rock this world by bringing heaven through you. And if you live in the poster of anticipation that God wants to move through you, then I think you’re going to see an amazing thing. 

We’re just going to leave that with you, and I’m going to go off, and I’m going to anticipate that God’s got something amazing for me. Also, I’ve got a pre-meeting tonight. I have a pre-meeting tomorrow night, and I’m going in there expecting heaven to invade Earth and this world to be different because of it. So, God bless you, and I’ll just love being on the journey with you. Thanks for being part of the audience, the listeners. And please make sure that you encounter God today, where you are. God bless you, and I’ll talk to you soon.