Sunday message · I Dare You To Move series
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Message Summary
On Easter Sunday 2017, Pastor Phillip Santillan launches the I Dare You To Move series. Clarity celebrates both Jesus’ resurrection and the way God changes lives, so each Easter the church begins a series on real-life issues. The question for this one: what would it look like for God to move us out of the circles we run that don’t lead to the life he desires?
Phil describes getting stuck in the inside lane of a busy roundabout near his home on the way to school: when you are stuck in a circle, you don’t get where you want to go. People get stuck in circles with eating and spending, and especially in relationships, like having the same argument for twenty years, or carrying someone else’s problems until they feel used and then guilty for not wanting to be a doormat. A circle, he says, is any pattern we drift into that keeps us from going where we need to go. Run one long enough and it feels normal: that’s just the way we talk, or just how we handle conflict.
No one intends to run in a circle; we drift into them. But no one drifts out of one. The only way out is intention; experience and desire alone are not enough. The answer lies in Jesus’ first sermon: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus spoke of heaven as a future reality with no death or sorrow, and also as something we can experience now, which is why he taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9–10). Our hope is not in escaping this world but in God transforming it, starting with our lives, until they bear the fruit of the Spirit Paul lists in Galatians, from love and joy to self-control.
The word repent may bring to mind legalism or hypocrisy, but Phil says it simply means a change of mind and a change of direction, from living life my way to living it God’s way. Jesus died and rose again so that we would move out of the circles of living for our own fame and glory. Getting out of a traffic circle is not complicated: you look up, check the mirror, signal and turn the wheel. “It’s not hard to get out of a circle. You just have to move.” Fear, inside us or from people invested in keeping us the same, and shame, which says we deserve to stay, will fight to keep us there, but the voice of Jesus is louder: new life is possible.
Some listeners are doing fine, some are not thriving, and some are desperate, with relationships hanging by a thread or addictions fed by friends. Phil tells them they do not have to live that way. The gospel changes lives, and Easter changes everything. If God could take death and transform it into life, he asks, what could he do with you? Easter 2017 could be the day someone dared you to move.
Questions about repentance
To repent means to change your mind and change your direction, turning from living life your way to living it God’s way. That is how Pastor Phil explains the word Jesus used in his first sermon: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). He says it isn’t legalism or hypocrisy; it is the turn that gets us out of the unhealthy circles we drift into.
It is Jesus’ call to turn around because God’s reign has come near. Jesus spoke of heaven as a future reality with no death or sorrow, and also as something we can experience now, which is why he taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Our hope, Pastor Phil says, is not escaping this world but God transforming it, starting with our lives.
Because we drift into patterns without meaning to, and no one drifts back out. Pastor Phil calls them circles: patterns that keep us from going where we need to go and start to feel normal once we have run them long enough. The way out takes intention, not just experience or desire: repentance, a change of mind and direction. Fear and shame will fight to keep you there, but the voice of Jesus is louder.
