Most of us know that following Jesus is supposed to be more than a Sunday morning thing. We just are not always sure what to do about it the other six days of the week.

In this message, Charlie walks through Oaks Chapel's definition of discipleship, an active process to know myself, know God, and make him known, and roots it in Matthew 28. But before he gets to the three parts, he makes something clear. This is not a do more, try harder message. Discipleship is not about performing for God. It is about being honestly formed by him.

Knowing yourself means being honest about how much you need God, not as a shame exercise, but as the only real starting point for any genuine growth. Knowing God is more than collecting information about him. It is a relational, lifelong process that changes how you handle the dark nights. And making him known is the natural overflow of what happens when the first two are actually working in your life.

Charlie also says something worth sitting with. You are being formed by something right now whether you chose it or not. The question is whether you are paying attention to what it is.

And the change? It is slow. Slower than we want. But the slow work of God is still the work of God.

To find out more about Oaks Chapel, visit OaksChapel.org.

We are living in one of the most hopeless moments in recent memory. Costs are rising, trust is collapsing, and for the first time in American history, a generation is less hopeful than the one before it. In 1 Peter, Peter writes a letter to a group of people who are about to face serious persecution. They feel homeless. They feel forgotten. And he starts not by giving them a pep talk or a list of things to feel better about. He starts by pointing them to something that already happened. In this message, Charlie walks through 1 Peter 1 and unpacks one of the most important distinctions most of us have never considered. Hope is not an attitude you have to conjure up inside yourself. It is a possession. Something outside of you that has already been secured. It cannot perish. It cannot be polluted. And it will never, ever lose its beauty or its power. In a world where everything eventually fades, that is a pretty remarkable claim. And Peter says it is true because of one thing. Jesus rose from the dead. And that changes everything. To find out more about Oaks Chapel, visit OaksChapel.org.

We talk about freedom a lot in this country. Freedom from control, freedom from interference, freedom from other people's expectations. And most of the time, that is where the conversation stops. But Paul has something different in mind in Galatians 6. In this message, Charlie walks through one of the most countercultural ideas in the New Testament. Biblical freedom is not just freedom from something. It is freedom for someone. For the people around you. For the community you are part of. For the ones who are carrying something they cannot lift on their own.

Charlie traces through three ideas in the passage. Fighting for the good of others when they are caught in sin, and doing it with gentleness, not judgment. Allowing yourself to be carried, which is actually the harder one for most of us because we are fiercely independent and far too proud to admit we need help. And taking honest stock of our own work and responsibility in a way that leads to gratitude instead of comparison.

This message is for anyone who has ever confused freedom with doing whatever you want. And for anyone who has ever been too proud to let someone else help carry the weight.

Reflection Questions: Whose burden has God placed close enough for me to help carry? Where am I refusing help because I do not want anyone to see that I need it? Who needs to hear what the Spirit taught me through the Scriptures today?