God's Glory and Our Neediness
Transcript
Good morning. We're starting a new series today on prayer and the Holy Spirit. I have some very big, important news. Football is back. That means a whole, whole lot. It's a very, very special time of the year.
But I remember when I was in high school, I played football, and I was pretty good in high school. I was one of the bigger guys, one of the faster guys, one of the stronger guys on the team. We actually had a pretty good team. We won our region my junior and senior year, and we won state my senior year. And I got to go play football in college. And I remember getting to college and being at camp, and suddenly was not one of the stronger guys or faster guys or bigger guys and was completely in over my head.
Like I remember, like I thought I knew things about football. Would have told you, yeah, like I understand this game. And then I just remember showing up, and it was like at times, like they weren't even close to speaking English. Like I'm sitting in meetings, and I have no clue what they're talking about. Our coach would be drawn on a whiteboard, or he would actually have us out on the field, and he's moving people around, and he would say stuff like, all right, now if they come out in 10 personnel, and they got trips to the field, back to the field, we're going to be in 4-3 base. We're going to have two 2-I's, two 9-I's.
Will, if they come out in this, we're going to be in automatic bear blitz. Mike, you're going to have to have hook curl. We're going to have show two, roll 30 on the snap. We're going to have cover three to the right, and you're going to be backside corner. You're going to be man up. Now, if they shift the back to the weak side, Will, you've got to know you've got blitz peel.
If they send the slot into motion, which they'll do if they're inside the 40, or if they're over into the hash, then we're going to have to go banjo on both sides. We'll show three. You're going to check off the blitz, and Mike, you'll have a spot. And I remember, and he would do this. He would just over and over and over again, would shift around and move a guy and say, all right, now this is what happens. All right, this is what happens.
And I remember at one point looking at all the older guys and thinking, do they actually know what he's talking about? Or if they just learned to nod, and that's the best way to get through this. And I also remember thinking, I am so glad that I am not good enough to be on the field because I would mess this all up. Like, as soon as the ball snapped, I'd be like, a two-eye. I don't even know what that is. And would have just been in some serious trouble.
And honestly, I think it can be that way sometimes when we start hanging out with the church or we first become a Christian. As a church, we're a young church. Not only did we get planted just a couple years ago, but we have a lot of new Christians. And there's something about when you first start hanging out with Christians that you can at times feel like, I'm in over my head. Like, I don't understand what's going on. And I think this especially shows up in prayer.
Because I can remember being around and hearing prayers. And even here. So I'm going to walk you through a prayer that's perfectly legitimate. This is an acceptable prayer. I'm not making fun of this prayer. I just want you to hear it with the ears of someone who's just been around.
Just showed up. Just believe that Jesus dies for sin and that you can be saved. Like, just got that. And then we're like, alright, let's pray. And we bow our heads. You don't have to.
Because we're not actually praying. But this could be a prayer. And you bow your heads and it's like, God, Father God, we pray that you would humble our hearts. That you would circumcise our hearts, God. That we might approach you loving you. God, we ask you to open the eyes of our hearts.
That we might be a repentant people. God, we pray that you would crush our idols. That we wouldn't spend our lives drinking out of broken cisterns. That you would help us to be witnesses of your glory. And that we might be changed from one degree of glory to the next. As we behold the risen Christ.
Who has washed us in his blood. We pray, God, that you would sanctify us and purify us with your fire. Seven times. Amen. Now, that was scripture and perfectly okay things to pray. But if you just showed up, it's like.
And then here's what we do. Here, Christians. Just so you know. This is what you do. You pray that. And then you look at someone who just became a Christian and go, Do you want to pray?
Nope. I'd be like if the coach looked at me and said, Hey, Phillips, come here. You do the next one. Do the next one? I'd have been like, All right. They're going to have 11 guys.
One in the middle that they hand the ball to. That's the quarterback. Phillips, sit down. Yes, sir. Good call, coach. Like, I mean, that's about as good as I could do.
And we look at people and we're like, You want to pray? And it's like, No. Because what would you be like? God, help us do the good stuff. Help us not do the bad stuff. I'm sorry.
Amen. I didn't know how to insert circumcision. I broke down. I'm like, That's like, It's really, There's a lot when we first get around that it's like, And I think even as we continue to grow And as we continue to be around the church, We may pick up the word. Some of you grew up in churches. You've heard, you know, Traveling mercies and hedge of protection And upbuilding the kingdom.
And as we even, We learn these phrases. We know what they mean. We can use them in a sentence, Correctly in a prayer. I think we still have a lot of questions. When it comes to prayer, I have a lot of questions about, Why do we pray? How do we pray?
How should I pray? I think we all feel a little bit like, I should be praying more. Like, I know I should be, This should be, Like, I see that Jesus prayed. I see that Moses prayed. And David prayed. And the Psalms are a bunch of prayers.
But I just, I know I should be doing this. I don't really know how. And I kind of feel like I mess it up. And I kind of feel like I'm not good at it. And I'd like to get good at it. But I don't know how to get good at it.
I think we have that when it comes to prayer. And I think with the Holy Spirit, Like, you, You may be, You're just trying to get your mind around That the God of the universe exists as a trinity. Which means that He is three and one. And He's not more one than He is three. And He's not more three than He is one. He is God the Father, God the Son, And God the Holy Spirit.
And maybe you got that. Like, you got that on paper. You could put that on your Sunday school quiz. You don't really know what it means or how it works. But you could answer that correctly.
And if I were to ask, What's the Father do? You'd be like, Oh, well, the Father's like this. And God the Father does this. And He, you know, He's this. And it's like, What's Jesus do? Oh, I got this one.
He does this and does this and does this and does this. What's the Holy Spirit do? Well, He hangs out with God the Father and Jesus. I think the word regeneration is a word that He does. I don't know what that means. He does it.
Like, I think there's a little bit of like, When it comes to the Holy Spirit, We still maybe have some hesitation. And so what we're going to do, We're just taking two weeks. I hope you don't have a lot of questions Because they're not all going to get answered. We're taking two weeks. We're just trying to grow a little bit In our understanding practically Of how to pray And how prayer and the Holy Spirit Actually work together. How the Holy Spirit works through prayer.
And today specifically, We want to see one thing very clearly When it comes to prayer and the Holy Spirit. So I'm going to pray. We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. And we're going to jump into scripture. God, we thank You That You're good to us. We pray, Lord, that You would, Through Your Holy Spirit, Give us wisdom.
Help us to understand Your word. And that we would grow today In our understanding of prayer. Our appreciation of prayer. And our understanding of the Holy Spirit. And to grow to appreciate. And love the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Grab your Bibles. Go to Luke chapter 11. It's going to be on page 564. If you're in a blue and white Bible.
If you don't have a Bible at home, Take this one with you. It's our gift to you. If you have five of these Bibles at your house, Bring one back. No, I'm just kidding. But, uh, Um, So, uh, We're going to be in Luke chapter 11. Um, And we're going to look at what Jesus has to say.
Some of the stuff that Jesus has to say about prayer. And I think it's going to be helpful to us. Really practically in knowing How to think about prayer. And how we ought to approach prayer. Uh, Luke chapter 11 verse 1. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.
And when he finished, One of his disciples said to him, Lord, Teach us to pray. As John taught his disciples. So, uh, This is recorded in Luke. It's recorded in Matthew chapter 6. The disciples come to him and say, Lord, teach us how to pray. Uh, Now, It seems like they would have, What they've seen is that prayer is important.
Jesus prays, We ought to learn how to do this. You would feel like maybe they would have asked him other things. Like, Teach us how to do miracles. Do that thing you do where you make food last forever. Like, I almost feel like at times they'd be like, Jesus, I bet you can't multiply this sandwich. Like, Like, You would feel like they would come talk to him about other things, But they come and they say specifically, Teach us how to pray.
Help us pray. And so Jesus says, When you pray, Say. So he's just saying, Hear the words to prayer. Now, Raz walked us through this the other day. Uh, A couple Sundays ago. We're going to walk back through it, Talk really quickly about what he's saying to say.
Because he's then going to get into more of why we pray, Or how we ought to think about prayer. He says, When you pray, Say this. Father, Hallowed be your name. We don't use the word hallowed. Um, It really just means, May your name be honored. May you be, Uh, Honored above everything else.
And so really, When you begin praying, You're doing two things. One is, You're worshiping. So you ought to remember how good God is, And what he's done. And you also are asking him to mean more to you than anything else. Help me to love you more than I love anything else. Father, Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come. Meaning that, May the world look more like your kingdom. May, May earth look a little more like heaven. May more people meet you. May more people come to know you. Repent of their sin.
May your kingdom expand. Give us each day our daily bread. So, Supply our needs. Take care of us. Pray about practical things here. Forgive us our sins.
So it's a normal way for us to pray, To consistently repent of sins. To notice where we're wrong. To repent. For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. So he's saying, Uh, You need to realize that part of the way you are forgiven, Is you forgive other people.
To help you remember that. To keep that going. And to pray specifically about forgiveness. Forgiving others. And lead us not into temptation. So Jesus spends a good bit here just saying, You need to be aware of sin.
Run from sin. Ask God to protect you from sin. Repent of sin. And help forgive other people who have sinned against you. Um, Which, That's, That's important because if you've been around people long, Or if you've been a person long, Sin's been a big issue for you. So Jesus says you should pray about it a good bit.
Um, He says this, He said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go? So, He immediately jumps right in. They ask him how to pray. He says, Say these words. And then he jumps right into talking about, Uh, How to think about prayer. So he does this a lot.
Uh, If you'll notice in, In the, In the Bibles. He doesn't just say, Hey, Quote this prayer. Quote this prayer. Quote this prayer. He's going to say, Okay, When you pray, Here are things you ought to pray about. But then he's going to spend way more time saying, Here's how you ought to think about prayer.
Because if we understand how to think about prayer, If we understand what the point of prayer is, The purpose of prayer, Like why we're praying, Then what we're saying will just come naturally. So he's saying, Here's how you ought to think about it. And so we're going to look, Walk through this passage, And begin to see, What he says about how we ought to think about prayer. He said to them, Which of you, Who has a friend, Will go to him at midnight, And say to him, Friend, Lend me three loaves. Okay, Three loaves, Somebody said that that could feed a family of six for a week. So it wasn't like, Hey, Can I have a glass of water?
It was like, Can I have everything in your pantry? He knocks on the door at midnight. The guy's like, What? And he says, Hey, You got a couple loaves of bread, And some deli meat, And I'm going to need some mayonnaise, Dukes preferably, And are you writing this down? It's going to be long. I'm going to need, Like, He's asking for a lot of food here at midnight.
Knocks on his friend's door. They're not friends anymore. But he knocks on his friend's door. All right. Friend, Lend me three loaves, For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, And I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within.
Do not bother me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed, And I cannot get up and give you anything. So they would have been just basically, Most houses were one room. Everybody slept in the same room. And so the guy doesn't even get out of bed.
He just yells from bed. Because of the ridiculousness of the situation. This guy's banging on his door at midnight, And is like, Hey, I need a lot of food. And his response is, From bed. No! My kids are asleep.
Which, Not anymore. Shouty. But, That's how he responds. And then Jesus says this, I tell you, Though he will not get up, And give him anything, Because he is his friend, Yet because of his impudence, He will rise, And give him, Whatever he needs. Impudence means, Shameless, Audacity, Bold, Craziness, Like he, He, He just, Presumes upon his friend, Aggressively. Like, No warning, Ridiculous request, At a terrible time of day.
He's assuming a lot, About his friend. And what Jesus says, He's not going to get up, Because he's his friend, He's actually going to give him this, Because of how big, The request was. How crazy, The request was. There's this moment where, In life, You see these moments, Where it's like, Everybody just freezes, And watches someone, And is like, Is this really happening? This person chose to do this right now? You're going to talk to your mom like that, At the Walmart?
Like that's what we're doing, Right now? Like, Like this is this, This kind of like, Are you seriously? This is as shameless, As we're going to get, And this is what his friend's doing, And Jesus says, He's not going to give it to him, Because he's his friend, He's going to give it to him, Because of how bold he is. Here, So then he says this, This is such a beautiful concept, For prayer. I tell you, So now he's, The disciples might have been confused, At this point. They said, How do you pray?
He says, Here's how you pray. And then he just jumps into a story, And says, Which of you will go knock on your friend's door? It's almost like he's like, Tomorrow I'm going to need one of y'all, To go knock on your friend's door, At midnight, And get us three loaves of bread. But he's, He's turned it into a parable, He's telling a story, And then he's going to, Explain what he's saying. So he says, Which of you, Will do this?
And then in verse nine he says this, I tell you, Ask, And it will be given to you. Seek, And you will find. Knock, And it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, Receives. And the one who seeks, Finds. And to the one who knocks, It will be opened.
Can we pause for a second? How beautiful of a promise is that When it comes to prayer? Ask, And you will receive. Seek, And you will find. Knock, And it will be opened. That's what he says about prayer.
Some of you right now have been praying for something, And you're wanting to stop. And what Jesus says about prayer is, Don't stop. The verbs there in the Greek are actually like, Asking. They're continual. So keep asking.
Keep seeking. Keep knocking. And the promise is, You'll receive. You'll find. It'll be opened. Because here's what he's saying.
We ought to think about how we ought to approach prayer. There's a story about Alexander the Great. He was a Greek king, Who took over this giant patch of land, Like just conquered people. And at one of his chief army people, One of his generals came to him and asked, Will you pay for my daughter's wedding? So he came to Alexander the Great, And said, Will you pay for my daughter's wedding?
Alexander the Great had a guy, Because Alexander the Great was king and general, Had a guy who handled his money. He said, Go ask him. Tell him how much you need. Go ask him what you need to pay for your daughter's wedding. So the guy says, Thank you.
Leaves. The guy who handles Alexander the Great's money, Comes back to him shortly after and says, So the general who said, You might want to pay for his daughter's wedding. Can I show you how much money he just asked for? And he shows him the sum, And it was outrageous. Like it was way more money than Alexander the Great Had ever given to anybody. And it was just for a wedding.
And so the guy who handles Alexander the Great's money, Comes over to him and is like, I didn't know what to say to him, Because, Look at this. And Alexander the Great looks at the sum, And he looks at the guy who handles his money, And he says, Give it to him. And the guy says, Why? And he says, Because he does me great honor. He thinks I'm both rich and generous. And what Jesus is saying, Is when we come to God, We should presume, We should assume, Boldly, audaciously assume, That he's rich and generous.
That he will answer if we knock. Because if you come bang on my door in the middle of the night, And ask for a ridiculous amount of things, Part of me is going to think you are crazy, And part of me is going to think, You think way more highly of me than you ought to. Because something in your brain made you think, This was going to work out. That I wouldn't open my door and physically assault you. Surprise! I'm going to open a can, But it's not going to happen.
I'm sorry. Alright. Like, But there would be part of you that would be like, Man, This person thinks I'm all, Alright, I guess I am. Like, That's what he's saying. It's like, We get to presume upon God that he's very generous, And very gracious, And that if we keep asking, And if we keep seeking, And if we keep knocking, He'll answer, Because he's that big, And he's that good, And he's that loving, And he's that generous. That's an amazing promise for prayer.
Because praying is hard sometimes. And continually praying over the same thing is absolutely difficult. But what he says is, Go to God with audacious requests, Because that honors him. Go to him with things that are God sized, Because that honors him. That he gets to look at us and go, Yeah, That's audacious. That's a crazy request.
And I'm big enough to handle it. Let's keep going. So Jesus is teaching about prayer. How we ought to think about it. Verse 11. What father among you, So think about, If you're a father, If you think about your father, Or think about a father you know, What father among you, If his son asks for a fish, Will instead of a fish, Give him a serpent?
Or if he asks for an egg, Will give him a scorpion? What father do you know that will do that? The answer to Jesus' question is, No father would do that. Because that's ridiculous. Not even close. That's the point of his question.
How many fathers you know, Think it's hilarious to give, Poisonous dangerous animals, To their little kids. Isn't that funny? No, It's not funny. Nobody does that. I've got a son, He doesn't speak English very well. He did learn cookie.
He knows ball, Cookie, Thank you, And daddy. And he's getting around life pretty well with those four right now. If he wants food, He'll say ball twice deeply. Like he uses ball for like 15 different things. And then one day, Someone gave him a cookie, And he thought, I need to memorize this word, Because I want this specifically at times. There's food, Which is ball, Ball, And then I, Cookie.
Like I need that one. And at no point has he been like, Cookie, And I've been like, It's going to be so funny, But I'm going to give him rusty nails. Like that's never happened. Like I want to, I want to give him a cookie. Like if he says cookie to me, He gets a cookie. I don't care what his mom says, He's getting a cookie, He said cookie.
That's just how it's working right now. That won't last forever, But it works right now. What Jesus just said was, The two ways that he's right now, Giving us to think about prayer, Is presume upon God audaciously, That he's bigger and better, Than you could imagine. And know that he's a good father, Who gives good gifts to his children. 13, If you then, Who are evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. That seems like a mean turn for Jesus to take.
He says you're evil. But that's true. We're messed up. We're sinful. We're selfish. But we still do really good things for our kids.
Watch a mafia movie. Those guys will go from like, Having a guy's head in a vice, And then they'll go give their daughter a pony. Like that's, That's what he's saying. It's like we're evil, But we give good gifts to our children. And he says, If you're like that, How much more? How much more?
Will your father in heaven? And here's what he says. This is his big ending. If you then, 13, Who are evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Boom.
That's Jesus' big ending to this section. How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Now, If you're like me, When he said Holy Spirit, You got confused. It feels like, By the time he makes this big conclusion, Like he sticks the landing. Holy Spirit. That was the point of this whole thing.
How much more will he give you the Holy Spirit? There's an exclamation Mark. It was like he got super excited at the end. And immediately I'm like, Did I miss something? Did we take a turn? I don't see how that's the, Earlier, When he said, If you ask, You'll receive.
If you seek, You'll find. If you knock, It'll be opened. I was thinking about a lot of things. The Holy Spirit wasn't one of them. Like I was thinking about things I'm asking for, Or seeking, Or knocking. You know.
But I wasn't thinking about the Holy Spirit. Maybe y'all are just like way more spiritual than I am. I was thinking about other stuff. And so he gets to the end and says, How much more will he give you the Holy Spirit? And I'm suddenly like, What? And here's really most of the time how I've treated this passage.
Okay. And just kept reading. And didn't think about it. But here's what it means. If we get to this point in the passage, And Jesus says Holy Spirit. And we're confused.
It means that Jesus knows something about the Holy Spirit. That I don't. If he thinks the Holy Spirit is the good gift, And I was thinking about a lot of other things, He knows something about the Holy Spirit that I don't. He knows something about prayer and the Holy Spirit that I don't. Because he says, We ought to approach God audaciously, Knowing that he's our Father. And I've got really good news for you.
He'll give you the Holy Spirit. And we're supposed to be very excited. But part of me is like, I don't understand how that works. Or why I should be that excited. Y'all with me on that? Okay.
He does this another time in John. We're going to just show this on the screen. Where he talks about the Holy Spirit. And he says something that just feels like, I have a hard time knowing that that's true. You've got to think about it a little bit. So John chapter 16 verse 7 says this.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Jesus is talking to his disciples. He says, It's better for you that I, Jesus, go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper, that's the Holy Spirit, that's why it's capitalized, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
So later in this passage, he explains definitively that's the Holy Spirit. So here's what he just said. You're better off if I leave. Because if I leave, I'll send you the Holy Spirit. Now, if we got to take a vote, and Jesus could be our pastor, let's do it. Let's do it.
Let's install him as our pastor right now. That would be great. And Jesus says, No. You're better off if you have the Holy Spirit, and I'm not here. You're better off if I go away, and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, than if I'm here, and you don't have the Spirit. Now, part of me is like, I'm not sure that's true.
Which means I don't know what Jesus knows about the Spirit. So here's what we see in Scripture. Jesus was filled with, and led by, and worked through, the Holy Spirit. So in Luke, and Matthew, and Mark, when he's baptized, it says the Holy Spirit, came upon him, and then the Holy Spirit, led him. And over and over again, we see in Luke, that Jesus is working through the Holy Spirit. And then, when the church is birthed, and in Acts, we see that they're led by, and worked, worked through, the Holy Spirit works through, them.
That the Holy Spirit, is actually how healing happens. The Holy Spirit, is actually who, reconciles people, who changes people's hearts. It's the Holy Spirit that actually, leads us to repentance, and convicts us of sin. It's the Holy Spirit, that's actively at work, in life, for our good. At work in us, for our good. At work in our situations, for our good.
It's the Holy Spirit, that empowers all of that. And what Jesus is saying, is, while I'm here, you can't have the Holy Spirit, because your sin, hasn't been taken care of. And while I'm here, I'll be the only one, fully controlled by, led by, the Holy Spirit, working through, the Holy Spirit, and the world is worse off, and you're worse off. But if I go to the cross, and pay for your sin, then I'll send the helper, who will fill you, and lead you, for your good, for your salvation, and for the world, to be changed. See, Jesus has to go to the cross, has to die for us, in order for the Holy Spirit, to lead us, and fill us, and use us.
And here's why this is, huge. Here's really what we need, to understand from this passage. Three really simple points. You get to be, a needy child. Not you have to be, you get to be. In your approach to God, you get to be, a child, presuming upon, his generosity, and his goodness, towards you.
You just get to assume, he loves you, and is good to you, and at work for you. My son right now, the younger he is, the more of me he gets. The older he gets, the less of me he gets. Now he'll get different aspects of me, when we can start conversing, and those kind of things. But right now, he gets a whole lot of me, because he can't do anything.
Hardly. One of the things he does, on a regular basis, is this. This just means, pick me up. Let's do this thing. When I pick him up, he then does this. Like you think, maybe he wanted a hug.
He didn't. He wants to be carried somewhere. Like your legs are longer, and you're taller, and he'll do this. So we just walk, wherever he's pointing. And then we usually, like get to the counter, or something, and he does this. Well he doesn't talk, so I have to try to figure out, what it is he wants.
And here's what's beautiful. Because he's needy, he gets to be close to me, and I work on his behalf, and God says, we get to do the same thing with him. We get to say, God you're bigger than me, you're stronger than me, you're better than me, and I trust that you're good, and you're for my good, and I can just run to you, and rest in you, and trust in you, and hope in you, and you'll go to work, because you're big enough to do it. You can handle it, and here's what's great, he doesn't talk, my son doesn't talk, and he'll do this, and I'll hold a thing up, and he'll go, and I'll go, okay no, this, alright, this, I have not once, and he'll just go, ah, there's the noises he makes.
I've never once looked at him, and said, let me explain something to you. Until you get perfect diction, you will get nothing from me. Learn your words, child. Hadn't done that. I have told him, it'll be easy, when he learns how to talk, but I haven't, I haven't not gotten stuff for him. Some of us, we're afraid to pray, because we don't know what to say, but that's because you're assuming, God's not a big, good father, who doesn't care.
You don't have to have the right words. You don't have to have perfect, you're going to impress him? He's waiting for you, open to you, responds to you, loves you, wants to enjoy you, that's, that's what, that's what a good father does. So, you see, we get to be needy, and God is a good father. You get to go to him with everything. And the third thing, that's massively important for us, is the Holy Spirit is the good gift.
The best thing, God can give you, is himself. And he does that, through the person, and the work, of the Holy Spirit. That's how we get, God. You could not have God, outside of the cross. You couldn't be, connected with him, you couldn't be, redeemed by him, rescued by him, he couldn't come, and take you, and make you his, outside of him, paying for your sin. You see, us, getting the Holy Spirit, is what Jesus died for.
When Jesus said, how much more will God, go to any length, to give you the Holy Spirit, how much more, would this good Father, give you the Holy Spirit? He had in mind the cross. That's how far, God was willing to go, to give us himself. The best thing, he can ever give us, is himself. To be actively, at work in us, changing us, leading us. I mean, Jesus didn't have to die, for you to get a promotion.
He didn't have to die, for you to be, in that relationship, you want so badly. He didn't have to die, for you to have a nice house. He didn't have to die, for us to have, wealth or health. He didn't have to die, for any of that. That was all happening, long before the cross. Jesus had to die, so that we could have him.
It is the best gift, we can ever get, is the Holy Spirit. And, it's the point of prayer. Let me explain this to you, because I just want us to see, why Jesus says, when we pray, what we're asking for, is the Holy Spirit. My wife and I, we get in arguments, from time to time. We've been married for seven years, we're not pros at this yet. We're good at arguing, we're not pros at being married.
So here's what will happen sometimes, we'll get in an argument, and we'll be in different rooms, and that's how you know, argument's not going well. At least that's how it works, at my house. Like if I'm in this room angry, and she's in that room angry, conversation wasn't good. It didn't work well. One of us, left, angrily. And we're doing that thing, like, I don't know, some of y'all in relationships, you're doing that thing, where you're making as much noise as possible, because you're angry.
So it's like, I'm going to get a spoon, bam! Eating cereal, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Like, you just, you need the other person, they're not in the room with you, but you need them to know, I'm eating cereal, but I'm still mad at you. Chewing loudly, like you get the crunchiest cereal you got. Ha-da-da-da-da. Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, okay, so this means the, like, it's not gone well, we're in different rooms, we're both angry, and here's what's going on in my heart. I'm walking around, and I'm thinking, okay, I'm not eating cereal, because I don't do that when I'm angry. I'm sitting here going, okay, I, I, I married a crazy person, and her brain doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't work good. Like, there's something wrong with her, and she's so, she's so wrong, and sinful, and I, I told her that so clearly, and she just refused to see it. And this is, like, I'm just walking around, and here's what I need in that moment. I need the Holy Spirit in me, and in her, or this doesn't go well.
Here's the prayer I need to be praying. Not, God, you gave me a crazy wife. God, God, I need you right now, through your Holy Spirit, to lead me, because I cannot see my own sin, I can only see hers. And if I'm actually going to see my sin, I need you to show up and talk to me, because I realize, if we're in different rooms, and we've been arguing, I'm not completely right here. I need you to see my sin. I need you to help her see her sin.
I need you to help me, if I see my sin, to actually repent. God, I need you, to be at work in me right now, so that I can pursue her, like Christ pursued the church, so that I can actually go to her, because what I want to do, is sit down, and make a power move, where she has to come to me. I want her to have to come back to me, feeling sorry, and being sad. I want to tell her to sit down, and we're going to handle this, because I want to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, but I need you, God, to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, and I need you to change my heart, and I need you to help me see my sin, and if I see my sin, and you help me do that, I need you to help me say that out loud.
Baddest person in the room right now, but I need you, God, to be the biggest, baddest person in the room right now, and I need you to change my heart, and I need you to help me see my sin, and if I see my sin, and you help me do that, I need you to help me say that out loud. I need to be able to talk about my sin, without pointing at hers, and God, if I go in and confess sin, and her response to me is, you're right, you did do that, I'm going to need you to help me, not lose it. But God, I need you to be at work in her too, and I need you to help us both know we're sinners, and I need through the power of your Holy Spirit, for us to actually be reconciled,
And God, if our marriage is ever going to be good, it's going to be because you go to work on us, and the best thing God can give me is himself, and the best thing he can give her is himself, and if he gives her himself, and he gives me himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, then we can actually have something good, but even if we can't, but I get more of Jesus, I'm going to be okay. See, Jesus died to give me himself, for the Holy Spirit to be able to enjoy me, and lead me, and help me, and that's the best thing I'll ever receive from him. Your boss calls you into his office, immediately, if you don't jump onto the worry track, of oh my goodness, I'm about to lose my job, it's going to be the worst thing I've ever had,
Like if you don't do that, if you actually can pray, then yeah, you can pray, God, help us to be good, help him to just want to give me a high five, or a promotion, or something, but we need to begin to pray, that the Holy Spirit would be at work, like the prayer needs to be, God help me, through your Holy Spirit, that if I walk into that office, and it actually is a promotion, or a raise, I need your Holy Spirit to be at work in me, so that I won't begin to immediately believe, that money is the greatest thing, that has ever existed on the planet earth, I need you to be at work in me, so that I won't immediately believe, that power of prominence,
Or a new office, or a new title, is actually what makes me whole, and complete, and God, on the other side of it, if I walk in that office, and this is the last day I ever stepped foot in this building, I need you at work in me, because I'm going to, I'm going to want to believe, that my self-worth, that my value, walked out the door, and I need you, to help me to respond graciously, I need you to be at work in me, I need the Holy Spirit, some of you in college, you just met your roommates, or you're just getting back around your roommates, and it takes, I don't know, a week,
Two weeks, to realize you dislike them, so, welcome back, you may, you may actually get along with them pretty well, but here's the problem, is that they're a sinner, and so are you, and so there's going to be some issues, there'll be some loud cereal eating, and there'll be moments, where you need to be praying, God, they use up all my ink, and they eat all my food, and they act like that's okay, and I want to, hit their computer with a bat, or something, but I need you to help me, be gracious to them, I need you to help me, to be forgiving,
I need you to help me, to know, that I only take from you, I need your Holy Spirit, to be at work in me, so that I can actually love them, like you love them, because I don't love them, if they got expelled, I would laugh, for a long time, I might even dance, God, I need you to help me care about them, because I don't, I need you to be at work in me, to give me peace and joy, in the midst of the situation, regardless of how it works out, some of you have lost a job, you've lost a loved one, and we need to begin to pray, God, I don't see,
I don't see you, I don't see how this will ever be good again, I don't see how life is worth living anymore, I don't see how, how any of this turns out okay, and I need you God, to comfort me, to lead me, to give me peace, in the midst of a situation, that would never have it, God, I need your Holy Spirit, and what he says is, he's a good father, who wants to answer that prayer, who wants to lead us, who wants to change us, who wants to give himself to us, so much so that he died, to do that, he loves you, you get to be needy, he is a good father,
And the Holy Spirit is the good gift, the situations right now, the things you began to think about, when it said that you could ask, that you could seek, that you could knock, the answer to that prayer, the best answer you'll ever get, is that God gives you more of himself, to give you rest, to give you peace, to give you joy, in the midst of any circumstance, there was a missionary named John Patton, who went to the New Hebrides, it's an island that had cannibals on it, and his story is really interesting, but he lost his wife, and he lost his children, and at one point, he was being chased by the cannibals, like they were having a, like a tribal war, but nobody liked him,
So if anybody found him, he was going to die, and he was being chased, and he climbed a tree, and he was in a tree, for like 24 hours, and he wrote later, that the best time he ever had, he said, he said, he said, was in that tree, he said, when all he had, was Jesus, and he said, how many times, I wouldn't give, to just be back in that tree, where I knew a peace, and a joy, and a love, that I didn't know, and had all this other going on,
That the best time I ever had, was when he just gave me, a whole lot of himself, and the promise is, he wants to answer that prayer, so much so that he died, for us to have that privilege, and that joy, and we get to pray, for the Holy Spirit, so here's what we're going to do, because we need the Holy Spirit, because in the midst of our anxiety, and our depression, what we need, is the Holy Spirit, to come help us, to free us, to give us joy, in the midst of trying to see people, meet Jesus, there's 60,000 people, in like this little area, of West Columbia,
Who don't know Jesus, how many people are in this room, our goal is to see, those people meet Jesus, but we're not doing that, like that doesn't happen, with just us, we're trying to multiply, community groups, we want to multiply, healthy community groups, to be gospel centered, communities on mission, in this area, to see more people meet Jesus, but that doesn't happen, outside of the Holy Spirit, leading us to sacrifice, leading us to find joy, in his mission, leading other people, to see their sin, and to repent, we're about to have baptisms,
In a couple of weeks, that happens, because the Holy Spirit, has been at work, to help people see their sin, to help people, want to know him, that he's been rescuing, redeeming people, there's so much, that we have to pray for, that we need, the Holy Spirit, to be active in, there will be times, there will be times, and maybe you've got them, going on right now, in your life, when you have, absolutely, no clue, what needs to happen, life is such a train wreck,
It's in, there's a relationship, in such a knot, that you have no clue, even how to approach it, but here's what we're promised, you get to walk up to God, and pray, send your Holy Spirit, because if your Holy Spirit, takes over, they'll repent, and I'll repent, and there'll be grace, and there'll be joy, and there'll be reconciliation, like if your Holy Spirit, gets this situation, it turns out well, I don't know what needs to happen, I don't know what decision, needs to be made, but I know that if you show up, it'll be okay,
So here's what we're going to do, if you're a note taker, a writer, I just want you to grab, there's pens, and sheets in front of you, we're going to spend, a little bit of time praying, actively asking our good Father, to give us the Holy Spirit,
Jesus and the Religious
Transcript
Well, good morning. We are in our third week of our Jesus and People series. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. And what we've been doing in this series is we've been taking some time to just look at... The Bible says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
It says that in Colossians 1. It says in Hebrews 1 that he's the exact imprint of his nature. So that when we look at Jesus, we actually get to see the character and nature of God. And so we kind of have this understanding of how does God feel about me? Or we have questions about how does God feel about me? How would he interact with me?
And so what we've been doing in Jesus and People is just taking a look at how Jesus interacted with different groups of people, different types of people to see how does God actually respond or feel about me if I kind of fit in that category. So the first two weeks, if you fit into the category, you pretty much knew. So last week, Mac talked about that you had your identity wrapped up in past events, that you were kind of wounded. You had some past stuff that you thought defined who you were. And the week before that, we talked about people who were just completely at the end of the rope and just absolutely desperate.
And so there wasn't really a whole lot of like, when we were talking the first week about being desperate, you probably weren't sitting there going, now am I desperate? Am I in a really bad spot currently? Like do I have options or not? Like you kind of know. You're either that's me, that's where I am, or you don't. Today is going to be a little bit different because what we're going to talk about is sneaky and hides.
And so if it is you, if you kind of fit in this category, you most likely don't know. You most likely don't walk around thinking, that's me, that's you talking to me right now. Like you just don't know. And so I'm going to pray. Let's pray together that the Lord would speak to us, reveal to us where this shows up in our own hearts and our lives, so that we might best follow him.
God, we ask for your grace. We ask for your Holy Spirit to expose us today, that we might see clearly how we ought to approach you, how we ought to understand how the gospel applies to our hearts, so that we might follow you, that we might love you, and that we might feel and know your love. And we praise you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Some of you came in today and maybe you've been hanging out in Christianity a little while, or you've been checking this Jesus thing out, but most everybody knows two things about Jesus.
And so maybe you came in today and these are the only two things you know about Jesus. And you maybe have never taken the time to think about how these two things aren't really coherent together. Like they don't make a whole lot of sense. So thing one that everybody knows about Jesus, Jesus was the nicest person who ever lived. Like he's just the best. Like he would hug you if you were ugly.
That's who Jesus is. Like Jesus is just the best. He was humble. He was kind. He was loving. He was nice.
That's the first thing everybody knows about Jesus. Like if you ask somebody, hey, do you think you and Jesus would be friends? He'd be like, yeah, I think Jesus is great. Like I don't have a problem with Jesus. Thing two that we know about Jesus. Sorry, this is a two.
This is a one. Thing two that we know about Jesus, he was brutally murdered by people that hated him. Okay. Thing one, nicest person ever. Thing two, brutally murdered by people that hated him. Now that's not usually how that goes.
Like there aren't a whole lot of people that are like, that Mother Teresa, she makes me sick. Like that doesn't really happen. Like it doesn't make a lot of sense that Jesus was the nicest person ever and brutally murdered by people that hated him. Like those aren't really coherent together. And what we find as we look in the gospels and we see Jesus interacting with people is that Jesus does not get along well with religious people. Jesus does not get along well with religious people.
Now that seems weird too. Because you're like, wait, didn't he start a religion? Like aren't his followers like religious people? Like isn't that, hey bro, isn't that what we're doing right now? I can't know what this is. Like Jesus would be mad at us?
Like what's, what's going on? Like that's, that's kind of what, and the answer is no. Jesus didn't start a religion. He wasn't religious. And what we mean by religion, when we're talking about religion today, and when we're talking about religion mostly is this, this idea that what I do, my, my work, my effort, my behavior is what earns something with God. So most religions are basically do this, don't do that, and God will love you.
Do this and don't do that. You'll reach nirvana. Be this type of person. Be this nationality. It's, it's all about you. And so basically religion is this.
I obey and therefore God loves me. I obey. I behave. I'm moral. I follow the rules. I obey.
And therefore God loves me. And it actually can equate to, I obey. And therefore God owes me. Like I've, I've punched the clock. I've done my moral thing. I've earned it.
He owes me. That's religion. The gospel, which is what Jesus came to present, to do, to accomplish is God loves me. Specifically, God loves me in Christ in that he would die for me, pay for my sins, pay my debt, and give me his life when he rose again. So God loves me in Jesus.
Therefore, I obey. Because I'm loved. From a position of freedom, from a position of being loved, therefore I obey. Two very different things. And on the outside can look very similar. So, they both obey.
So, in this room, a person who's absolutely been radically changed by the gospel, and believes, I'm loved by God through Jesus, therefore I obey. And someone who believes I obey, therefore God loves me, would look very similar. Show up on Sundays. Give of your time, of your money. Be a part of a community group. Serve.
You'd be doing all the same steps in a lot of ways. Look very similar, and your heart and your motivation would be in two completely different places. One is from a position of rest and love, a family, of being adopted as a child of God through Jesus. And the other one is, as a position of earning and work and effort, trying to get God's favor. Look the same. Two very different positions.
The way I think about it sometimes is romantic comedies. And this is the plot to like 17 different romantic comedies. But it's the same plot. I'm going to do the teenage version of it. And as soon as I start talking about it, you'll go, oh, I know that movie. Yeah, you do.
You know five of this movie. But let's just go with the basic one. This is the plot. Really cool guy. Most likely athletic. Kind of a jerk.
Bets his friends that he can take any girl in the school and make her prom queen. So they pick the most awkward, terrible girl they can think of, who is the same girl at the end, but just with her hair up and glasses. And then she takes the glasses off, puts her hair down. Everybody's like, what the heck? Kind of like the Superman thing. But so he picks this girl and then he begins to pursue her.
So he puts in all this effort, these actions. He begins to talk to her, say nice things to her, take her out. He goes after her. And his behavior looks very similar. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, though, he falls in love with her. He realizes that she can, she has a heart.
She's not just good at math. He falls for her. Usually after she takes her hair out of the ponytail. That happens somewhere in the middle. And so then he, no offense to people with ponytails today, it's just how the movie works. I didn't write it.
I'm just telling you what it was like. People in the back pulling their ponytail around. But, uh, so he falls in love with her and then the actions look the same. He actually goes further. He pursues more. He cares more.
At the beginning, it was about himself. At the beginning, it was about earning something, achieving something. It was about his own notoriety, his own status. At the beginning, he did all of these actions, but they terminated on him. And at the end of the movie, he does all the same actions and actually even more. Like he shows up and sings a song or whatever and super embarrassing or whatever.
But he does even more, but it's about her. It's about pursuing, like genuinely their relationship, that he cares about her, that he knows that she cares about him even though he's messed this all up because she found out or whatever. Does that make sense? So you've got the first half of the movie, which is basically what religion is. Going through the same motions, but it terminates on us. And then you've got the back half of the movie, which is what the gospel is.
It's all about Jesus. And it's about where we, the position, the relationship that we already have and not trying to maintain it, but for the joy of the relationship pursuing it. So in our basic understanding, if we thought about it, we would think this. This is how most of us understand stuff. God likes good people. There are good people and bad people.
There are moral people and immoral people. There are those who behave and those who misbehave. And God likes the good people. Like if God was going to show up on earth, he'd like the good people. And so when you read through the gospels and you look at the Pharisees, the Pharisees are like the best example of good people. Now, if you've read the Bible much, when you read Pharisee, you think bad guy, but you wouldn't.
That's actually not helpful. You wouldn't have thought that if you were a first century Jewish person. The Pharisees were religious leaders. You would have thought good guy. They were very moral. They behaved really well.
They taught scripture. They memorized scripture. They knew it backwards and forwards. You would ask them your Bible questions. They were the good guys. May have been a little bit stuck up about it and kind of jerks, but you still wanted them on your class project in Hebrew school.
Like they were the good guys. And so what we would see, since God likes the good guys, when he became a person, when Jesus showed up, he would be hanging out with the Pharisees. They'd be fist pumping all the time. Like one of them would quote Leviticus and he'd be like, dude, up top. And they would high five. They'd be best friends, right?
Because God loves the good guys. You would look at them and think, if God loves anybody, it's these people. If God cares about anybody, these people. If he's proud of anybody, it's these people. If he has favor on anybody, it's these guys. And what we see is that Jesus shows up and he and the religious people, those who behave really, really well, those who are very, very moral, very, very good, it's those people that they can't stand each other, that he says really mean things, really un-Jesus-y things, the way we think of Jesus.
Because you know Jesus, he like wears a white robe and he kind of floats. Like we know he has feet, but he's a little floaty because you can't see his feet because of how long his robes are. And he holds a lamb. Sometimes a single tear just rolls down his eye and you just know he thought something super profound and was really touched by something. He says stuff to the Pharisees that you just assume he had to have put the lamb down. Like it just got serious.
And he was like, like either covers the lamb's ears or he's like, you know what? No, no, I'm putting my lamb down. This is about to get real. Like he says stuff to Pharisees that you're like, this isn't, this is not nice. And so what we're going to see is that Jesus, when it comes up against religion, when he comes up against the idea that I obey, therefore God loves me, there's animosity, there's anger because they completely miss the point. Turn to Luke chapter 11.
We're going to look at a story of Jesus at a, at a, I love this story because Jesus is in a, at a house party. He's at a dinner party and at a Pharisee's house. So we're in Luke chapter 11. That'll be on page 556, 550, no, sorry, 565. It's probably written up behind me. I'm winging it here, guys.
565, If your Bible looks like this. Luke chapter 11, we're going to start in verse 37. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So Jesus is teaching out in open air area. A Pharisee comes over and says, will you come dine with me? So he went in and reclined at table.
Off to a good start. Want to come eat at my house? Sure. Walks in, sits at the table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Now, this isn't like a germs thing.
They didn't know about germs the way we know about germs. So this wasn't like my grandmother who wants to squirt hand sanitizer all over everything all the time. It's not that. It was a ceremonial, added to the law thing. So the Old Testament law, the Pharisees had gone through, looked at the law, and added in their own little rules of how you applied it better and how you could be more pious and how you could be more holy.
And so they took Scripture and added to it. So Jesus didn't do the added to stuff. But they would have been lined up. The Pharisees, we know that there are lawyers there, which just meant that they studied the Hebrew, the Jewish law. They would have known the Torah backward and forward and taught on, here's how to apply the law. They would have been probably in line waiting to get to this ceremonial jug to wash ceremonially to show their piety and how much they cared and how much they followed well.
And Jesus walks in and plops down at the table and is like, let's eat. Y'all got mashed potatoes? Like he just sits at the table and it says that the Pharisee was astonished. He's scandalized by this. It doesn't say he says anything, so I just assume he did his best like puckered up religious face, which was just like, like looking back and forth at Jesus, like you see this guy? Like he's washing his hands, he's looking at the other like Pharisees and lawyers, like are you kidding me right now?
He's not going to wash. And so this is what Jesus says, assuming just to his face. He says it to his face, says it because of his face is what I meant there. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Verse 39, And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness, you fools. Well that escalated quickly.
Just a little rule on manners. When you get invited to someone's home, break a house rule, and then tell your hosts that they're idiots. Probably didn't know that. It's in the chapter after which fork to use for your salad. But this seems like a very non, like Jesus just gets intense very quickly in his main point.
And what we're going to see the rest of this is he's going to unpack what he just said, which is you only care about the external. You wash the outside of the cup and the dish. And they're like, okay, what does this have to do? And then he immediately says, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You only care about external. You only care about what this looks like.
You only care about behavior. You're only a, I obey, therefore God loves me. It has nothing to do with a loving relationship, nothing to do with following, nothing to do with resting in God. It's I obey. It's my behavior. So he says it's all external.
39. And the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness, you fools. Did not he who made the outside make the inside all but give as alms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplace.
Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves and people walk over them without knowing it. 45. And one of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in saying these things, you insult us also. So the lawyer's like, whoa. You know, when you put the Pharisees on blast like you just did, that was a little bit offensive to me. The lawyer assuming, can't really be talking to me, just wanted to clarify, maybe you should, you know, whatever to the Pharisees, but apologize to me maybe.
This is what Jesus says. 46. And he said, woe to you lawyers also. Oh, guy should have kept his mouth shut. Sorry. Jesus was like, oh, are you confused as to whether or not you are included?
Let me say the word lawyer so that we're clear. Woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed, so you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you build their tombs. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering. As he went away from there, so it seems as if he did not stay and eat, he didn't stop and say, pass the biscuits. Furious leaves. As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say.
Make a little more sense as to why the religious people hated him and wanted to kill him. Jesus' response to everybody, he shows up and says, you're a sinner and you need to repent. And people who were in flagrant, immoral rebellion had been told consistently, you're a sinner and you need to come be good. You need to come behave. You need to earn your way back. And at some point, it was, you've sinned too much.
You can't come back. You're out. We're in. Jesus says, you're a sinner and you need to come back. You need to come back. You're welcomed in.
My burden is easy. My yoke is light. There's nothing to earn. Come in. And so when he says to sinners, you're a sinner, they say, yeah. Can you help with that?
He says, absolutely. And then he looks at religious people and he says, you're a sinner and you need to repent. And they say, you're evil. You're wrong. And they kill him. Because the response of religion to grace is to try to destroy it.
The idea that you don't have to earn it, but you can just be freely welcomed in. Religion doesn't like that because religion loves earning something, loves obeying to achieve status, to achieve favor. So here's what we're going to do today. Jesus basically says this. You only care about the external. And then he gives a bunch of cultural examples about how that shows up.
So for us, most of us don't tithe mint, rue, and herb. Like you hadn't bought a spice rack from Bed Bath & Beyond and went home and weighed out 10% of it and brought spices here and was like, next time we have some chicken, pour some of that thyme on it. Like that hadn't happened. Most of us, I don't think any of us have built a tomb for a prophet. Like he's going through and saying, this is how it shows up. None of us like the best seat in a synagogue.
So, what we're going to do as best we can is we're going to walk through and try to give cultural examples of where religion, where self-righteousness, shows up. Now, here's why this is important. There are some people in this room, three people in this room, you're not a Christian, checking things out, and basically you maybe have understood that Christianity is a set of behaviors. It's a come follow the rules so that God will love you. It is not. Hopefully this is clarifying.
There may be some people in here who genuinely are Christians. You have trusted Jesus. You've believed the gospel. But religion is like weeds that grow in the garden of the gospel. It's briars that wrap itself around so that it begins to grow and it's hard to fight. We tend to lean towards religious ideas, religious efforts, and self-righteousness even if we understand the gospel.
So as best we can, we're going to try to diagnose that today. Some of you in here have grown up in the church, have heard a lot of things about Jesus, have memorized a lot of Bible verses, read your Bible, study, pray, give money, show up, serve, and you are not a Christian. You have trusted in yourself. You have trusted in your behavior. You have trusted in your own self-righteousness, your own religious activities. You are very much in the I obey and therefore God loves me camp and you are not a Christian.
And Jesus cares enough to say, repent and trust me. Repent of all of your very, very good works. repent of all of your really good morals that you think you can stack up in front of me and I somehow owe you. Repent of all the reasons why you've done all these good things because ultimately they terminated on yourself. Now, there was two responses to what Jesus said. One was anger. If you just got angry, good, pay attention.
Religious people don't like grace. This is a good opportunity to repent. The other was you cannot be talking to me. That was what the lawyers said. And if you're in that camp, pay attention. Let's try to weed out some religion.
Let's try to weed out some areas where it's grown up in our hearts and led us astray. So he says this, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish but inside you're full of greed and wickedness, you fools. Did not he who made the outside make the inside also but give as alms those things that are within and behold, everything is clean for you. If you're religious, it's all about external, not the heart. It's all about the external, not the heart. So for a religious person, even a person who says I'm a Christian, your way of knowing how you're relating to God is based solely on your behavior.
Am I doing the right stuff? Am I not doing the wrong stuff? Only behavior. Has nothing to do with Jesus, has nothing to do with his sacrifice. You realize maybe that was the door that got you in but the way that you relate, the way that you understand your Christian walk is am I doing the stuff? Are my externals good?
And then it doesn't matter how you change those because it's not a heart issue just as long as you're not doing the external wrong stuff and you are doing the external good stuff, it doesn't matter how you go about changing them. So you may have like an accountability partner, y'all get together and your main goal is how did you fail this week? How have you sinned? How have you fallen short? Because the only goal is behave well because that's how we know that God cares about us. And the way that we spur ourselves on, pride, fear, guilt and shame.
So pride is, I'm a Christian, I'm better than this. I'm not that type of person. I'm strong enough to say no to this sin. That's what you look at your person that you're walking through stuff with. When you get in your community group, that's what you appeal to. You don't point people to the gospel, you appeal to pride.
You're better than that, come on. You're a man. You've grown up in the church. Fear? What if your wife found out? What would happen if you got caught?
No love for Jesus, just fear. Guilt? How would you feel if you did that? I can't believe that you'd be that type of person. And we spur ourselves on with this, we spur other people on with this, and we spur our children on with it too. You don't want to be like that person.
You don't want to be that type of person. You want to be a, your last name's Phillips. Have some pride. It's not the gospel. And there's no rest there. But it's all about external behavior.
So as long as you're behaving morally, you don't really question your heart, as long as the actions are good, you feel like you're fine, you've related to God fine. You look to other people's external sin to value, to understand their value. The next thing he says is, as he begins to explain how this plays out, he said, Woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint, rue, and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. He says, you do these rule-following, minutia things. They tithe out of their spice rack.
He says, you should do that, but you've missed the point. You've missed the whole heart behind it. You don't love God. It's just about following rules. Religious people love rules. They especially love rules that aren't in the Bible that they've added to the other rules so that they can know whether or not they're good.
Here's what happens in religion. You oscillate between pride and despair. Either you're doing the stuff and so you feel great. God loves me. We're rocking along. He's proud of me.
I have value. I have worth. Or you're falling short and you feel terrible. God's mad at me. He's disappointed in me. He can't love me.
Look at me. And the gospel negates both of those because our righteousness, our good works are found in Jesus and our debt's been paid in Jesus. So when we fail, the gospel's true. And when we succeed, the gospel's true. We don't oscillate between pride and despair. The other thing we love about rules is that it gives us a level of control.
If my relationship with God is based off of my behavior, then I have some rights. I have some say. There's a limit to what he can ask of me. My relationship with God is based off of behavior. Then there's only so much he can ask and he owes me.
So if we're religious, when things go poorly, there's either self-loathing, I failed, God's punishing me. You try to figure out, something bad happens in your life and you try to figure out what you did wrong. Why would God not let me have that? Why would God have this relationship break up? You try to point out, this must be what I'm being punished for. Or, you've been really good, so you're mad at God.
You owe me a spouse. You owe me. I true love waited. You owe me. I kissed dating goodbye and you owe me. I've worked really hard.
How could this happen? I've been praying, I've been going, I've been serving, I've been doing all the stuff you want. How could I lose my job? Because your understanding of your relationship with God is based solely on your behavior. And there's no rest there. And there's no peace there.
And there's no life there. And it just makes joyless obedience. Joyless manipulated obedience rather than genuine love and following. And you've missed the point. Because the point is that we would love God, that we would understand His love for us, that we would understand justice and love, which is the cross, that God paid for sin and that He loves us so much that He would pour grace out on us. And He says, these you ought to have done, you ought to follow, you ought to do these things, but it's not about that.
You ought to serve, you ought to give. It's not about that though. You've missed the point if you think you're earning something. Here's the thing, when it comes down to rules, Jesus doesn't have to exist. Jesus doesn't have to exist if my relationship is based off of rule following. If I'm good based off of my own merit, then it just gets to be about me and I get to be in control of the situation.
Jesus doesn't have to exist. But since Jesus does exist and God's a God of grace, He's not controlled by our actions, good or bad, but freely just pours everything out. So when we get religious, there's no rest, there's no joy, there's no peace, and the only way we understand our relationship to God is are we checking the things off the list? Are we doing the right behaviors? When you're religious, you'll repent. You'll understand that you're going to fail and you'll repent, but even your repentance has to measure up.
Was I guilty enough? Did I feel bad enough? Did I pray hard enough? Did I beat myself up enough? See the gospel, you don't get to beat yourself up. Jesus was already beat up for you.
Your repentance doesn't have to measure up, but when we become religious, even our failures have to measure up. Then He says this, Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seat in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves. People walk over you without knowing it. When we become religious, it all becomes about title and position and prominence and being looked up to, being the one who has the answers. I'm the girl in our group that everybody comes and talks to.
I'm the one everyone can confide in. I'm the one that helps manage everybody's sin issues. I'm the most helpful. Religion begins to show up in, I'm the one who understands the gospel the most. When our group gets together and talks and everybody's giving advice, I give the gospel. I help people know that the gospel, that's why I'm better than everybody.
Isn't that cute? I love being self-righteous towards self-righteous people. Look at these religious people. Idiots. I'm better than they are. See how sneaky it is?
Confess sin and somebody just gives you advice and you think, no, you should have pointed me to Jesus. You failed. You don't give them the gospel, but you want them to give it to you. That's why you can't confess sin. Or you can only confess safe sin. Yeah, I've only prayed an hour a day this past week and I've only memorized half of Leviticus when I was planning on memorizing the whole thing by now.
I really feel for you, bro. Like you can only confess safe sin. You can't be real about where your heart is. You can't be real about what's going on. When you do sin, you only care if people know about it because it's all about the external and it's all about how you're perceived. You see, if it's based off of our work, then I need to be beating the people around me.
So you'll point out where you're strong and where other people are weak. That's how religion shows up a lot in marriages. Here's where I'm good and here's where he fails. Here's where I'm doing all of this and here's where she's an idiot. Because you need to be perceived as better. When you sin, you image manage, you try to hide it, try to spin the story.
You won't confess. So if somebody catches you in sin, you're going to wait as long as you possibly can until they completely say, this is what I know you did. And then you'll say, yeah, I did kind of do those things. Because you think it's about prominence. You think it's about your position. You think it's about how you're viewed because that's the only way you understand your relationship to God.
There is no freedom. There is no grace. There is no ability to fail because you have to be seen as good. You take criticism very poorly. Religion, religious people take criticism very, very poorly. Criticism isn't fun for anybody.
Sometimes you're just receiving some, some loving correction. But you know why some of you, criticism eats away at you for days or weeks? Is because the only way you understand how you're doing is based off of how other people view you. So you immediately become defensive. You immediately fight back. You immediately respond with things like, well, pretty big words for someone who's been divorced.
Couldn't even keep your marriage together. Because the goal is not to grow. It's not to love Jesus more. It's to look good. And to be better than those around you. It also makes you very critical.
If half of everything you say is a complaint, it's because you want to make sure everybody knows that you've noticed, that you're elevated, and everybody else falls short. That's religion. And that's why they loved prominence, and they loved being greeted, and they loved best seats in marketplaces because that's how they understood their worth. And he says this, you're an unmarked grave. You're dead, and the only goal is to not let people know. You're dead, but as long as no one knows, that's okay.
There's no life, there's no joy, there's no hope, there's no freedom. You're dead, but as long as it's hidden, that's okay. So the goal is not love for Jesus. The goal is not grow in grace. The goal is not be real in the context of community. The goal is look good, pretend to be good, pretend to have it all together, make sure that people think highly of you so that you can know that you're okay.
See, eventually it just becomes, let me look good. Reality has left the room. You have a lot of secret sin, a lot of inward greed and wickedness, a lot of brokenness, but you can't bring that out into the light because the only way you know how to relate to God is to be thought well of, to look good, and to have your external behavior looking okay. And he says, you're the fool. Eventually, when we're dead, and the only goal is to not let people know, that we're a grave, and the only goal is to not have a tombstone, you're the fool. You have fooled no one, you're the fool.
And at the end of it, when you stand before God to be judged, you're the fool. You only care about your sin if someone else knows about it. You only care about external behavior. The only way you know how to relate to God is am I measuring up by following the rules? Do I behave well enough? And here's why I think Jesus is as furious as he is when he relates to religious people.
I think this is why he's as furious as he is. And I think we see it in two places in what he says, and we're gonna end here, try to understand a little bit of Jesus' anger. He says, you tithe mint, rue, and herb. You do all the little works. And you miss justice and the love of God. You miss the main point.
You miss the gospel. You've based it off of behavior. Here's the biggest problem with religion. It's all about you. That's the problem with religion. It's all about you.
It's all about self-righteousness. It's all about your work, your behavior, your moral conformity, your good effort. So you may give to the poor. You may feed the hungry. You may serve. You may work really hard, but you're in the first half of the movie.
All of your selflessness is actually selfishness because it just terminates on you. You're feeding yourself, clothing yourself, serving yourself. Because at the end of the day, you think it's added to the bottom of your ledger that you get to present to God. And the problem is, with religion, it's all about you. That's how you can gather in a room. Churches gather all over the place and they just talk about, here's how to do better.
Here's how to try harder. Jesus never shows up because he doesn't need to be here. He's not the hero you are. That's how we get in our groups and all we give people is, here's how I used to be like that and then I changed. Here's how I got better. Here's how you could be better.
Here's how you can do better and try harder because Jesus isn't the hero you are. And the problem with religion is that we are claiming, please God, judge me. Let me stand before you on my own merit. Let me stand before you on my own righteousness. When we come to the judgment day and I stand before you, please weigh me out, measure me, you'll see that I'm good enough. And Jesus hates it and he hates religion because it's all about you and you will fall short.
Just behaving just makes you an unmarked grave, which means that you can be in a church, you can be in a group, you can lead a group, you can hang out forever and be dead, never raised to life by Jesus, never given life by Jesus and stand before God and be weighed out and measured on your own merit because that's what you've always wanted. And he hates it. The second thing is what he says to the lawyers. Woe to you lawyers also. Before we get into that, let me tell you something that happens when we become religious, when we begin to only follow rules. You might share the gospel, but only because you know there's no joy in it.
Your offer to people is come behave, come be good like me. So there's no joy in sharing the gospel. There's no joy in inviting people to come slave away with you. But you might do it because you know it's one of the things you're supposed to check off the list. There's no desire to be on mission. There's no desire to help people meet Jesus just to behave.
But you know that one of the things you're supposed to do is check that off the list. So you'll do that because you know it's one of the things you're supposed to do. But there's no desire. There's no brokenness over the fact that there are people in our city who don't know Jesus. There's no brokenness over it. There's no joy in pursuing people that don't know Jesus.
You do it some because you know you're supposed to check it off the list. Here's the thing he says to the lawyers. Woe to you lawyers also for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves and you hindered those who were entering. Religion lies about the gospel. Religion lies about the gospel and we believe religion.
We lie about the gospel. We take the key. We don't go in and we keep others from coming in. So someone comes to you and says how do I follow Jesus? How do I become a Christian? You say well here's the list of rules.
Here's the list of behaviors. Here's how to come be good. Here's some guilt. Here's some fear. Here's some shame. God's going to judge you.
You should feel bad. Be proud of who you are as a Christian and we've lied about the gospel. We've stood in the way of the door. Jesus comes to say there is no burden. There is no weight. I've paid for all of it.
I offer you grace and what we stand and say is come be good like me. Please come work with me. Please come slave away with me. We can all be good together and then one day we'll all get to stand before God and be judged on our own merit. Please join me in seeking after your own righteousness and being condemned on your own work and your own effort. And it's a lie.
Jesus loves us enough to say you don't want it to be about you. And the gospel is a much more beautiful truth than come earn it. He died to pay for everything. He declares that it is finished. There is no effort. There is no behavior.
There is no work that you're going to bring before God. We get to show up empty handed. We get to show up completely broken. Nothing's added to our account. All of it was paid by Jesus. The call to the gospel is not come be good.
There are not good people and bad people. There are people and Jesus. And the call of the gospel is to come trust Jesus. Which means that for those of us in flagrant rebellious immoral sin repent of your sin. And for those of us who are religious moral upright and have done all the right actions repent of the reason why you did all that good stuff. Because ultimately it was just about you.
Jesus offers grace to everyone. Hope to everyone. And we can have freedom and life and joy in Jesus. Some of us in the room you need to erect a tombstone. And you need to be raised to life. that's what's offered to us in Jesus. Admit you're dead.
There's no shame in that. There's no shame or guilt at the cross. Just freedom and life and hope. And for those of us who are Christians but are allowing religion to creep in becoming more critical trying to posture ourselves so that we look good the call's the same. Repent and come and know Jesus and come and trust the gospel. I'm going to pray.
Father we thank you for your grace and your love. We thank you for your joy and the hope that we have in you. God help us to see where we're trusting ourselves. Help us to see where we've ceased to follow you. Cease to rest in you. And God please help us when we want it to be about us when we lie about the gospel.
And for that person or those persons in this room today that know a lot about you but don't know you and are currently asking you to measure them on their own self-righteousness. God in your grace help them see it. Help them to erect a tombstone today so they can be given life by you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.