Upside Down Kingdom
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Matthew chapter 4. We are starting a series in the Sermon on the Mount today. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
Very excited to be able to start this series. We're going to spend a good bit of time in the spring just walking through the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the largest section of Jesus speaking. So if you have a red letter Bible, so some Bibles will have what Jesus says in red letters. You've got a couple of pages that are just bright red. That's the Sermon on the Mount.
So this section of teaching is included in Luke. And there's some variations between them. And it seems like Jesus would have taught these concepts on a regular basis. So if you're going to be in one spot and teach on a regular basis to the same group of people, you teach different things. But if you're going to travel around, you're going to teach a lot of the same stuff over and over and over and over again.
And so Jesus had this one primary message about the kingdom, about what he had come to accomplish. And so we get in Luke and in Matthew some highlights from it, some different writing down of it as what he would have taught as he kind of traveled around. And here's the thing. There are only a few teachers that make it to us through history. So we've got Socrates.
We've got Aristotle. We've got a couple of people that just really kind of defined thought for us and defined teaching for us. And Jesus is one of those teachers that makes it to us through history that even now we consider a good teacher. Not many people will argue with that. Most people are okay with Jesus and they're okay with the things he taught. And they'll say, yeah, Jesus taught great stuff.
Like if we all could do a little bit more like what Jesus said, we'd be better off. There aren't a whole lot of people that are just out and out mad at the person Jesus. And most people would agree he was a good teacher. The problem is our culture wants to say that's just what he was, that he was just a good teacher. And so as we start this long section of Jesus' teaching, I don't want us to divorce it from what comes right before it. So Matthew, who's writing this gospel, tells us some stuff at the end of chapter 4 before he goes into this whole discourse that Jesus is going to give that does not allow us to just say, Jesus was a good teacher who said some good stuff.
So let's read chapter 4 as we get started this morning. We're going to run through it fairly quickly, but it's to help us understand who's talking, who's speaking to us in the Sermon on the Mount. So chapter 4, verse 23 is where we'll pick up. So, and he, that's Jesus, went throughout all Galilee. That's an area in Israel that's up above Jerusalem, teaching in their synagogues. That's where Jewish people met on their Sabbath, which was Saturday, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease.
So he would proclaim the gospel. He would tell them what he was coming to accomplish. He would tell them the good news about God's kingdom that was being ushered in. And then he would heal people. Heal. I'm trying to not sound like a redneck, but I have a hard time.
All right. And healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria. And they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
So Jesus has massive crowds coming to him everywhere he goes because he heals people. Not only does he proclaim good news about the kingdom, but anyone who's sick, anyone who's hurting, anyone who's in pain can come to him. So, of course, he has massive crowds because they were on the same medical system as my uncle was telling me about earlier where they break a chicken leg. Like they they were trying to figure it out as best they could, but they didn't have the best system for having to handle medical issues. And so if there was someone there was an outside chance that someone could just make things go away, of course, you were taking time off and you were getting to them as best you could.
You were taking friends to them as best you could. You were finding ways to go be healed. And so Jesus had massive crowds. And I love that what it includes here because it includes such amazing things. It says every disease and affliction in here includes those who are sick. Those are afflicted with various diseases, oppressed by demons, having seizures and paralytics.
So people who had never walked before or who had been in an accident and no longer had the use of their legs, Jesus would just command them to get up and they'd be fine. People who had seizures. But I love that snuck into the middle of this list. It says and various pains. So people were coming to him and be like, I don't know.
It just hurts when I chew. I'm not sure. Can you look at it? It's red and it itches like they were just bringing him things. Just whatever it was. And he would heal them.
And he would heal from minute things to to massive things. And so when Matthew begins in chapter five to give us this Jesus teaching, it's not just a good teacher. But he's speaking with the authority of the person who can tell cancer to leave. And it does. Who has rule over the over human health, over the physical realm, over a spiritual realm. It says that he cast out demons, people who had spiritual affliction.
He can command that to leave. And it does. And so when Jesus begins to teach, the people that are listening to him have seen him do this. And they're hanging on every word because everything he says has absolute authority as he's just traveled around commanding people who've never walked before to stand up and walk home. So that's that's who's speaking to us.
He's not just a good teacher. And Matthew doesn't let us just sit on that. So as we begin the Sermon on the Mount, I want to set the stage for us just a little bit and explain kind of what we're looking at today. And then we got a good bit of work to do. So Matthew chapter five.
It's on page 472 in the white Bibles. You should already be there because it comes right after what we just read. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So it seems like Jesus just kind of wandered off by himself.
He sits down and his disciples come to him. Now, those are the people who are intentionally trying to follow Jesus. Now, he only has a handful at this point. There's four we know of that he said, hey, follow me. There's probably more, maybe four to let's say 25. I'm just guessing.
I know that in a couple of chapters he has to he prays and picks 12 in particular. So there had to be more than 12. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to pray that long about it, I don't guess. Or maybe he could have just gotten four. Like, I don't know. But he's got, let's say, 20 people.
I'm making that up. A handful of people come to him out of a big crowd because he snuck off and they find him. OK, that's how this begins. And then Jesus speaks for three whole chapters. And then at the end, it says the crowds were amazed at what he taught. So what that means is he started off with just a few people.
And then slowly it grew and grew and grew and grew the longer he spoke. But he's specifically and directly and intentionally speaking to those who are actively trying to follow him. So that's where we are. He's talking to his disciples and saying, this is what we're going to be like. This is us. The section we're going to read today, if most of your Bibles will say the Beatitudes over top of it.
That word just comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was one of the earliest translations of the Bible. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. New Testament was written in Greek. So Latin was a widely used language. One of the first translations was the Latin Vulgate. And it uses the word, that word Beatitude comes from the Latin word for happiness.
Because every one of these eight sentences Jesus is about to say, start with the word blessed. And it really means happy. Blessed are those, happy are those. Like he's going to go through this whole section where he says this. And so that's why they're called the Beatitudes. So if that's ever confused you, there you go.
That may not be helpful for you in life, but now you know it. So you're welcome. Let's take a second to pray as we begin to read this this morning. And try to understand what Jesus is teaching us here in the Beatitudes. God, we thank you that someone wrote down what you said. Thank you that you authored that, that you oversaw that process and that it's made it to us.
As the most well-preserved document in history. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us today to hear you speak in a fresh way. That you might go to work in our hearts to change us and to make us more like you. That we would, as a church family, begin to look like the people you describe here. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. So let's read the first ten verses together and then talk a little bit about what Jesus did.
And then we'll go back through verse by verse. And he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then his next sentence starts with blessed, but he changes his tone. And he's done something in these first eight sentences that he says that's called an inclusio, where the first sentence and the last sentence mirror one another, which means that's a complete thought. His hearers would have recognized this.
It's similar to where we have an acrostic, where we put a word down the side, and then we write a little poem. So maybe your word was like happiness. And your first, if you know how to do this right, your first word is always the same word that goes down the left. Happiness. And then you did your A. Always joyful.
Like, you know what I'm talking about? Like, they have these pride posters all over the school. Everywhere you go, there's a pride poster. And we immediately recognize what's happening here. So when you wrote a poem in school, they would have understood what he just did here.
So he's got this one thought here. And it's very interesting because his first statement is a present tense statement. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And his last statement is a present tense statement. And then every single one, the six in the middle are, here's how they are now. And here's what's going to happen for them in the future.
And what Jesus is doing is he begins the Sermon on the Mount as he's saying, this is what my people are like. This is what my kingdom looks like. And he does it in all of those. Those whom. That's kind of how he says it. And then everything else he says in the Sermon on the Mount is you.
You, you, you. Here's why. It's kind of like you're in, you're in, it's your first day of class. You're sitting around. Y'all are cutting up. You're talking.
Teacher walks in. Everybody quiets down a little bit. But they start messing with stuff at their desk. So you're still kind of cutting up. But it's gotten a little quieter.
And then as soon as they kind of walk to the front of the class, everybody quiets down because you're not trying to start off on a bad note on the first day. And your teacher says, for those of you who show up on time to every class, pay attention, take notes, and study hard. You'll do just fine. The rest of you are going to have a very hard time. That's what Jesus does here. Those who.
He begins to paint this picture of who the type of person is. And you understand as you're listening to it, as these disciples are sitting there, they're realizing what he's doing. He's painting a picture for them of who they're going to be. Of what they have to be in order to follow him, in order to make it. So he's saying, here's those who follow me.
Here's what my people are going to look like. Here's who we're going to be. So they've already said, I'm committed. I'm going to follow you. They followed him around as he's been teaching people that the kingdom's coming. And he's been healing people.
And now he takes them up on a mountain. And he says, okay, here's what the kingdom looks like. And here's what I want us to do as we read through it today. As if you are a Christian, if you say, I follow Jesus. And I want you to know he's speaking directly to you. Because that's who he was originally talking to.
Were those who have said, I'm following Jesus. And what I want us to do is I want us to weigh ourselves against everything he says. Because I know if I was sitting in class, and the teacher went through that, immediately I'd be going, show up on time. Or what else? Be here every time. Okay.
Take notes. I can do that. Study hard. Like you're weighing yourself. And then he says, you're not going to do well. It's like, okay, maybe I need to change a little bit.
Maybe I need to step my game up. Let's say there's the beginning of basic training. And the drill sergeant walks out. You're hanging on every word. And let's say the drill sergeant says, for all of you who have guts, who've never backed down. Who've never done anything cowardly in your life.
Who wouldn't mind being stabbed or electrocuted and can hold your breath for seven minutes. Like I was tracking a little bit, and then it was like stabbed and electrocuted. Hold my breath for seven minutes? Bro, that's called drowning. Like, is there like a bell I can ring? When do I get to leave?
Like, I'm not going to make it on this team. That's what would happen. And so I just want us today, as we read it, for some reason, because Jesus is saying, it's like our eyes glaze over, or we take it as some sort of pithy, nice, let's crochet that on a pillow, but we don't have to actually do it. Like, if we walked out of, if we walked out of our first drill sergeant stuff, and we were setting up in the barracks, and I looked at you, and you were like, man, this is going to be terrible. And I was like, I think it was like, you know, an analogy. I think he meant it, you know, it's a theoretical, just to kind of, it's not going to be that bad.
You'd be like, okay, I don't want to be near you, because you're going to die, and you're probably going to kill me. Like, this is terrible. I don't want us to do that with Jesus. I don't want me to just think, oh, it's a metaphor. No, he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. So as Christians today, Christians in the room, I want us to weigh ourselves.
I want us to hold ourselves up and say, is this me? Is this what I look like? Do I look like a citizen of Jesus's kingdom? So, we're going to walk through each one of these. I'm going to do my best to try to give us a brief explanation of them, and then a little bit of like, how do we know we're doing this? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Okay, so Matthew says poor in spirit. Luke, when he records this, just says poor. Now again, this was the idea that Jesus was going around and preaching this on a regular basis, and so I think that we have to hold poor and poor in spirit together, and understand that they're trying to communicate the same thing. I think they're kin to one another. That he means, those of us who live in our relationship to God and others, like we're poor, regardless of your bank account.
Now I do think he specifically is saying something very gracious and loving to those on earth who don't have a nice bank account, who are poor, who have lived in poverty, or live in poverty. I think this is a very hopeful thing that he's saying, but when he includes poor in spirit, in Matthew, I think he's pressing against everyone else who has money in a bank account, and saying this has to be your attitude, and your approach in life. That you're poor in spirit. So for many of us, I think we have a hard time with this one, because we're very middle class in spirit. Because for many of us, we're pretty middle class in wallet.
Let me explain to you how being middle class in spirit works. Here's the basic idea behind being middle class. I've worked really hard for what I have, and I'm working really hard to make it better for those who come after me. I'm making it better for my children, so they don't have to work as hard as me. But I've worked really hard for everything I have.
I've earned everything I have, and I'm self-sufficient. That's the goal of being middle class. To be self-sufficient. To not owe anyone anything. That's why we have all those books on debt management, and debt consolidation, and here's how to handle your budget, and here's how to continue to gain, and grow your net worth, because it's, I've earned everything I have, and here's the thing about being middle class in wallet, and then trying to be poor in spirit. Middle class in wallet people miss something that people who are just poor understand.
Poor people understand that much of what you have in life was just grace, just blessing. You might would use the word luck. My uncle who's from Nigeria, I talked to him one time, and he said that if people could choose in Nigeria between going to heaven, or going to America, they would all choose America. I thought it was weird to us. I was like, why? And he said, they know America exists, and they've heard what it's like.
But here's the thing that people in Nigeria understand. They had nothing whatsoever to do with being born in Nigeria. And the people who were born in America have nothing whatsoever to do with being born in America. They're just blessed. They've just received grace. See, for many people in middle class situations, you were born on second base, but we live our life like we hit a double.
And what happens when we're middle class in wallet and try to be poor in spirit is that we actually approach Jesus with a very middle class spirit, which is, tell me what I'm supposed to do, and I'll do it. I'll be self-sufficient. Tell me what I need to accomplish. Tell me what the rules are. Some of you are so excited because we're going to read the Sermon on the Mount because you want to know what the rules are. What am I supposed to do?
Who am I supposed to be? I'll do it because I work hard for everything I have. What Jesus says is, no, blessed are those who realize they have nothing to offer and anything good they receive is purely by grace. That's why the gospel spreads so quickly among people in areas of poverty because you show up to middle class people and wealthy people and say, you can't earn anything. You can't achieve anything. God doesn't want anything from you.
He's died to save you and give you pure grace that you can't earn or keep. He has to do all of it for you and middle class people go, I don't know. I kind of like the rituals. I kind of like the rules. I kind of like knowing where I stand all the time based off of what I'm doing. I kind of like being able to have a checklist that I follow.
It's middle class. But you go in areas where there's absolute poverty and you say you have nothing to offer, but Jesus offers you everything and it's received so much more clearly and easily and seen so much more clearly because they understand they've lived in a world where they have nothing to offer to the world. That's true poverty is that you have nothing that the world values. That's poverty. You have nothing that the world values. And so when Jesus shows up and says, I'll give you grace, I'll give you value, it makes so much more sense.
It's hard to be poor in spirit when you're rich in wallet. But so we have to approach God with empty hands knowing that we bring him nothing. Here's what Jesus is saying. If you approach him with empty hands, you'll walk away full. Your hands will be filled. If you approach him with stuff in your hands, you'll walk away empty.
If you come to him and say, here's what I've got, here's what I've done, here's how I'm good, here's how I'm special, here's why you should love me, here's how I've earned it, that's what doesn't work. So how do we know we're poor in spirit? How do we know that we're lowly and humble and approaching God? How do I know? Do you look down on those who don't try as hard as you? Do you feel pride over our church because we're doing it right?
That's real bad in church plans. We're the ones who, we've got it. We know what's right. All the other churches around here, they don't know what's up. We're crushing it. Community groups, nailed it up top.
Are you frustrated with the people in your community group because you're the only one who's got it together? You're the only one who shares the gospel well. You're the only one who is actively on mission. Are you frustrated with the people in your group because they don't understand, they don't read their Bibles like you do? See, that's being spiritually wealthy over and above someone who's spiritually poor. But here's what Jesus says, he's come to rescue the spiritually poor.
And sure, we should read our Bibles. We're going to get to that. I think it's on the list. But, that doesn't make us special and it doesn't give us something to hold in our hands to offer to God. See, that's middle class spirituality. I'm the only one who's on mission with my neighbor.
I'm the only one who's contributing. I'm the only one who brings food every time. I'm middle class. Look at all these poor people in my group. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. I want us to understand as he reads through this and he says blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed that's not really a word we use very often.
Here's what he's saying. Here's the good life. Here's what it looks like to have blessing and blessedness. Here's the good life. And what he said so far is absolutely crazy to us. His first two are blessed are the poor and blessed are those who mourn and nobody in America is celebrating either one of those because it sounds like nonsense.
How many wonderful movies have you watched that were our true riches to rags story? How many of those have we circulated? How many times have they held up someone and said, see this guy over here who has nothing? Let me tell you the story about how he lost it all. And you're like, oh, I'll watch that on repeat. No, we don't do that.
We don't have those stories. Those who mourn, we have gone out of our way so drastically in our country to never have to be sad. We're told that if anybody's difficult, just get rid of them out of your life. They're holding you back. They're haters. We're told that we should go out of our way to be...
This is even promoted in the church and so I love that Jesus steps in in his second form of blessedness and says, blessed are those who mourn. People in the church and they mean well and I understand what they're talking about when they say things like, I don't want to have a funeral. I want to have a party because I've gone to be with Jesus. I get that and the Bible says that we should mourn as those who have hope but we should mourn. That death is brokenness. That pain is brokenness.
That this isn't how it's supposed to be. That Jesus in the Bible actually weeps at the tomb of a friend and then raises him from the grave. He knew he was going to but he still weeps because there's some blessedness in mourning and seeing what's wrong in the world and hurting over it. That's those who mourn. Mourning is sadness with a purpose. He doesn't say blessed is it to be depressed.
He says blessed is it to mourn. To hurt over something that matters and that has value. To see what's wrong in the world and have it affect you. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. See, now he's begun to say here's what they are now. Here's the alreadyness of my kingdom and here's what's not yet come.
See, that's Jesus' point as he goes through. He's saying my kingdom is now and in the future. They're going to look like this now but there's a future aspect of my kingdom. And that's how the kingdom works. That it's an already kingdom. We're already saved.
We're already changed. Jesus is already at work in us but we're not yet fully receiving everything he's going to accomplish and give to us. That's one of the things that I love in our church family. We have a lot of new Christians and one of the things that's most frustrating about being a new Christian is that you're still a sinner and you thought that was going to go away. Sweet, Jesus saves me from a sin. I'm about to be awesome.
And six months later they'll come and talk to you and they're like, man, I'm still messing everything up. And he's like, yeah, you're not going to outgrow your need for Jesus. You're not going to outpace him. You're not going to outgrow your need for the gospel. You're already saved from your sin but you're not yet fully saved. And so what he's saying is that my people are mourning now.
They're hurting now but they will be comforted. So how do we know if we mourn? Do you notice and hate sin? When was the last time you spent hurting with those who hurt? The homeless, the oppressed, the voiceless, the marginalized. When was the last time you stayed up at night to pray or got up early in the morning to pray over the injustice that's going on around us?
When was the last time you spent praying for Christians in other parts of the world? When was the last time you hurt over brokenness in your family or in your city? How much have you just said, ah, I don't need to think about that. I need to push that out of my mind. I need to stay positive. And Jesus is saying, no, my people are going to weep.
My people are going to hurt. My people are going to hate sin so much that it crawls inside of them and they feel it. My people are going to notice what's wrong with the world and then they're going to be comforted. When someone complains about injustice, when someone comes and says, this isn't fair, this is what's going on in my life right now, you don't understand what it's like to be me or for my type of people, do you listen? Do you empathize? Or do you try to make excuses?
Or do you just not care because you don't look like that or come from there? See, Jesus says, my people are going to mourn. My people are going to hurt. And then they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. So here's the deal.
In this list, this is my least favorite one. Okay, I take that back. I like it for y'all. I don't appreciate it personally. And I have done a lot and I think the Christian church in America, look, can I just say most of the stuff in this list Americans don't like, period. We have things like meekness.
Yeah, come get my gun out of my cold, dead, frozen fingers. Right? Meekness, I've always said stuff like, well, meekness is weakness, but it's humility inside of strength. And that's true. But most of the time I'll argue things like, yeah, okay, but you don't want to be, like he means meek.
And then I'll start making arguments where I just chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it until meekness doesn't exist anymore. It's kind of a theoretical idea, but you don't actually have to employ it in this situation or this situation or this situation. So here's what I'm like. My wife is a very meek person most of the time. Y'all will only meet the meek version. If you meet the other version, Lord help you.
But she mostly is a very meek person. That's her general attitude, disposition in life. And so I get very frustrated. Let me give you an example. Whenever she works at a place and they have to do vacation calendars, she, when it comes to vacation, she just becomes the most accommodating person the world has ever seen. She'd be like, oh yeah, we were going to go on that, but they wanted that day.
I was like, yeah, but you've been there for like five years longer than that person. Yeah, no, but they asked for it. It's like, yeah, but you get the vacation calendar before them. Just write it in. Well, they said they wanted that day out loud. That's not how y'all's vacation planning works.
That's why they pass around a calendar. She has one lady, she's like, well, she really wants to celebrate this thing. And I'm like, I want to celebrate stuff. I have offered, I have offered, she didn't take me up on this. I've offered to go to work and help work out the vacation calendar myself. And I will tell you, it was not to employ meekness.
But here's what Jesus says. Here's the thing about earth. The meek do not rule the earth. They don't. Jesus says they will. The meek do not rule the earth.
But Jesus says the meek inherit the earth. They're going to get it. Those who are in the back of the line right now and who every time you walk up go, oh, you can get in front of me. And you think, sucker. Maybe you don't. I do.
They get bumped to the front of the line. That's what Jesus is saying here that his people are going to be very accommodating. They're not going to demand their rights. So what he looked at in a culture, in a Jewish culture that valued wealth, happiness, power. Jewish people, you could argue, value power over a lot of other things. And are seeking Jesus to accomplish that.
And from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount when he's teaching them what we're going to look like, he says it's not going to look at all like what you think it's going to look like. And this is what his group of people now, his church, are supposed to look like in the world. Meekness means, sorry, means you're quiet, gentle, submissive, easily imposed upon. Others get their way around you. You often don't speak up. You often don't press your advantage.
That's meekness. None of that is celebrated in our culture. So here's the question. Are you meek? Do you have to have power? Do you have to be in charge?
Do you have to have a say? Do you have to win? Do you have to prove to everyone that you're right, or strong, or smart, or brave? You care a lot about what's right and fair, but only when it pertains to you. Do you let others win? Are you happy when they win?
Are you excited for the times you get to lose because someone else got to celebrate? And I know that's very un-American, but it's very Jesus-like. Do others get their way around you? And not just, I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one so that I can have the thing I really want. That's not meekness. That's sneaky power play.
Nonsense. Let's look at the next one. Verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled up. They're going to hunger and thirst for righteousness here.
Eventually, they're going to be satisfied. Luke's gospel just says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Again, Luke is going to be more in line with just worldly poverty and worldly hunger and thirst. But Matthew's going to say, it's also just hunger and thirst for righteousness that you long for. Now, here's the deal. I think we read this and we think, okay, righteousness means goodness, what's right, what's just.
So, I think it means both in ourselves, holiness, that I would look the way I'm supposed to, that I would act the way I'm supposed to, that I would have integrity and be honest, that I would be righteous. righteous and in the world around me, that I would care about our, how policing works, that I would care about how our criminal justice system works, that I would care about all those in other nations who are dealing with poverty and pain and brokenness and starvation, that I would care about righteousness spreading around the world. And when it says hunger and thirst, I think we like to replace that with the idea of just long for. And in some ways, when we replace it with that, we kind of just disassociate ourselves from it. But here's the thing I know about me when I hunger and thirst.
I don't hunger and thirst long. I make a plan and I fix that. Some of you right now are hungering and thirsting and you're already thinking through, what time do you reckon this cat's going to wrap it up? And you're thinking through the restaurants that are near. And if you weren't, you are now and I'm sorry I did that. But what he says is that they hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they care about what's right and good and just, what matters, makes it into their lives.
I think that as we look at these last three and as we're celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, I think we have a very good example in the United States of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of meekness, of mourning in Martin Luther King. I think he's one of the, one of the Christian examples that we should hold up, that we should all be happy to say I'm on his team. Like I'm on Jesus' team and he's on Jesus' team. Like this is what we're supposed to look like. That as they fought for what was just and right, they did it in a humble and meek way, a non-violent way. That they mourned over what was broken.
I watched, I watched, I think, it's a CNN documentary, it's called The 60s on Netflix and I watched some of the end of it. They had actually filmed the Selma March where they're walking up towards that bridge and there's all these police officers on horses. Now, I'm not anti-police. I love police. I think their job is very difficult. My brother's a cop.
But there's all these police officers on horses and they're marching up and they're going to cross this bridge and they just ride in and start beating people with sticks, throwing tear gas. And I just watched them as they didn't fight back. And it's this picture of that's what Jesus' kingdom is supposed to look like. It's going to advance. It's going to care about injustice. It's going to care about righteousness, but it's going to do it with meekness and mourning and embracing the pain of what looks like the cross rather than the throne.
So how do you know if you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you notice sin in your own life? When you do, do you repent? Are you reading the Bible? Because if you said, I'm really hungry and I'm really thirsty, I would say, let's eat something. And for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they consume the Bible.
They actively go out of their way to see what God says and what their life's supposed to look like and how they're supposed to change. Do you care about injustice in the world? The poor, the marginalized, the weak, the voiceless? Do you care about those who are hurting but don't have the exposure or the financial means to fix it? I think that's what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Are you actively seeking change in yourself and in the world around you?
And here's the thing, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus says you will be satisfied. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Okay, so I think I always thought about mercy as I was going to do something bad to you or I have it in my power to do something bad to you but then I didn't, kind of like if you've watched the movie Gladiator and River, no, River Phoenix, but the other, Joaquin Phoenix, he's Commodus and he does some crazy stuff at the end but then he just kind of says, I'm not going to kill you and then he yells, Am I not merciful? And it's like, that was terrible.
Like you were just, I'm not going to kill you so that makes you merciful? And that's kind of what I always thought it was but Jesus actually tells a story in Luke's Gospel about the good Samaritan and what he says is there's a guy who's been beaten up and robbed and a priest comes by and he just kind of moves to the other side and walks past him which is, it's what I would do outside of the Holy Spirit helping me. If I see somebody bloody and beaten up it's like, probably deserved it or, I mean, maybe the people who did it are still here or maybe that's a trick and he's going to get me. So picture, like, car broke down on the side of the road.
That's what he's talking about. Passes over to the other side and goes, a Levite does it and he passes over to the other side and goes and he says, a Samaritan comes by, picks him up, binds his wounds, takes him to a hotel and gives the guy basically his debit card and says, whatever charges you need, put it on that. He didn't have debit cards to them but he just says, I'll pay you back when I get back here. And Jesus says, who was his neighbor? And the answer was, the guy who showed him mercy. You see, mercy is to be in a position of a power over someone and do them good.
That's mercy. The position of power doesn't mean you have to be the manager or the boss or it could just be that you're in a place where you have a little more seniority or you're in a place where you could exert your rights on someone. You could make them pay you back but you don't. Where you could press charges but you don't. You could be in a situation where your car is working and theirs isn't. Where you have a little bit of room in your wallet and a little bit of room in your budget or you actually can pull something out of your budget to pull this out and give it to somebody.
That's mercy. And Jesus says, blessed are the merciful because they will receive mercy. Those who went out of their way to help people around them, to serve people around them, will be served and helped. Those who didn't punish others for their sins against them will not be punished for theirs. When you have the ability to serve others, do you? Do you do good to those who can't repay you?
When was the last time your money went to someone else? More specifically, when was the last time your money went to someone else who wasn't going to be grateful or appreciative or you feel like really didn't deserve it? Who do you go out of your way to serve or to help? When was the last time your time went towards someone else? I think that's what merciful means. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Pure means clean or blameless or unstained. It means you have genuine motives. It means you're focused. If I gave you water, if you bought water and it said 85% pure on the side, I'd be like, what? You'd be looking at the back like, wait, what got in this? It's like one of those where it's like 100% this plus other flavors.
It's like, wait, hold a second. That's not how math works. You know what I'm talking about? So pure is 100%. It's focused. It's unadulterated.
You have soul allegiance. You look to God and God alone. John Piper, who's a pastor in the Midwest, he says it this way. He says, purity of heart is to will one thing, namely, God's truth and God's value in everything we do. The aim of the pure in heart is to align itself with the truth of God and to magnify the worth of God. If you want to be a pure in heart, pursue God with utter singleness of mind.
Purity of heart is to will that one thing. So as the Bible explains purity, it's basically saying the pure in heart are those who only seek after God and God's will and God's name and God's glory. And so really, I only have one question here that I think helps us ask the question, weigh ourselves, am I pure in heart, is this. Is your life about following Jesus with everything else thrown in? Or is your life about something else with Jesus thrown in? Is following Jesus one of the things you do?
Is church family one of the things you do? But really your goal is financial success or the perfect white picket fence 2.5 kids family? Or is your life about following Jesus and finances and work and friendships and everything else? Marriage gets thrown in along the way as you follow Him and becomes a means by which you follow Him. That's being pure in heart. And those who are pure in heart see God.
Something that no one was allowed to do in the Old Testament because sin would make God destroy you. But Jesus steps in and says if you're pure in heart you actually get to see God. You get to look at Him with your own eyes. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. For those who make peace on earth they shall be called sons of God. Now peacemaking is not avoiding conflict.
Sometimes peacemaking is wading into conflict. So for many of us our household when we grew up or when we get back around there's so much drama and conflict between people but nobody ever talks about it. You have that family where you know of a thousand things that they should talk about and then you show up to Thanksgiving and it's how's the kids? How's school? Good, good, good. And it's like y'all haven't even seen each other for a year because you're mad at each other.
Pass the gravy. Like you have like you start to bring something up and you're the bad guy. Why are you causing drama? No, no, no, no, no, no. The drama already exists. I'm talking about it.
It's not causing it. What you said last year caused it. So here's the deal. The peacemaker that you know the peacemaker in our world may not be the person who's always trying to sweep everything under the rug. It's actually more likely the person who's pulling the rug back and saying hey there's a lot of dirt under here. But let's clean it up.
Not to be inflammatory. Not because that's the most entertaining thing to do when you're hanging out with your family. Not so you can film it and put it on Instagram. I have a vine of someone throwing a turkey on Infinite Loop. So one of the most peacemaking things we do in our church family is we have if someone comes to you and complains about something we have the basic question of what did they say when you talk to them.
So if you come to me and say this person's really frustrating or they did this my go-to response should be what did they say when you talk to them. That's peacemaking. That's I'm going to make you talk to them. If you say well I didn't talk to them my next response is oh I have their number. They're in our group. We'll see them tomorrow.
Like that's peacemaking. That we're going to make people sit down. I was talking to a local church leader here and we were talking about some conflict that was going on and we were talking about how we were trying to walk through it and he goes yeah what do you do you can't make them get in a room with each other. I was like we make them get in a room with each other. And a lot of times beforehand when there's some significant conflict we get like a list. I've mediated these things before my only goal is to make sure we talk about everything.
And those are terrible two hours. Just can I tell y'all like I've been in those where it's like two and a half hours of just it's awful. The last 20-30 minutes is great y'all. People start hugging remembering the gospel growing together. We've had people in our church family who had to do that with somebody and then later had another conflict and they were like oh let's do this thing because they knew what happened. They were like I got my list let's go.
That's peacemaking. And Jesus says the peacemakers will be called sons of God. So do you avoid conflict or are you willing to weigh in to reconcile? Are there people right now that you're mad at or that you have something against or they have something against you and you've just really grown okay with that? You're just not going to talk to that person or you're just going to wait until everything falls it's kind of forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now I believe so this is the last statement where he says the same thing for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so he's saying this is my people this is what they look like
And he ends with blessed are those who are persecuted for what is right for what matters persecuted for something that's valuable for righteousness sake now I believe that in our culture we're going to move more towards that where Christians are going to be persecuted I know that every year we say they're out to kill Christmas or
Whatever can I just say our culture is not trying to kill Christmas that's how our culture makes money Black Friday is when all of the businesses go into the black they've moved Christmas to September y'all not trying to get rid of it they don't care much about Jesus which makes sense they don't
Know him we should care about Jesus but can I tell you this in 2016 not in the United States Christianity was the most persecuted religion people were lined up against walls and shot people were lined up and told to take knees and beheaded people were run out of towns said you got
A little bit of time but we're coming all the Christians need to flee blessed are those who are persecuted for what matters and what's good and what's right theirs is the kingdom it belongs to those so Jesus begins the sermon on the mount the rest of everything he says is going
To be directed to you because here's what he's saying all of those who all of those who all of those who this is what my people are going to look like and then he's going to tell us how to do it he's going to tell us how that begins to play out in different aspects of life but this is the church this is Jesus's
Followers they're poor in spirit they're humble they mourn they're meek they're not demanding their rights or their way they're standing up for others but not for themselves they hunger and thirst for righteousness they're categorized they're noticed by how much they care about what matters what's right in themselves
And in others and in the world they're merciful the church is marked by a group of people who go around doing good for everyone around them they're pure in heart singularly focused on the king they make peace and they're hated for it that's Jesus's people that's what we're supposed to look like that's our characteristics
So church family do we know we have nothing to offer God do we approach him with empty hands and utter humility knowing that everything we've received is by grace or do we look down on those who aren't trying as hard as we are who haven't learned like we have do we hurt
Over the brokenness in the world do we weep do we care about injustice and what's wrong when's the last time we got on our knees and shed some tears over sin in the world over homelessness or joblessness
Or poverty or human trafficking do we submit to others do they get their way do we celebrate when we lose because others get to win do we not always press our rights or our advantage but do
We intentionally not even go to court so that someone else can take advantage of us because Jesus' people are meek it's one of the things Paul says in one of his letters he says you gladly accepted
The plundering of your property because Jesus' people are meek do we thirst for righteousness do we hunger for what's right and good in the world do we read our bibles do we pray are we
On our knees do we care about our sin and hate it do we help others do we go out of our way to serve them does our money leave
Our pockets for others or does every bit of our personal wealth go to raise our personal standard of living how often are we helping those
Who don't look like us think like us act like us are we solely focused on Jesus or is he just one of the things that takes up
When we have enough time do we step into relational drama and bitterness or do we avoid it because we don't care about real peace and real
Reconciliation and real relationships do people hate us for how much we love Jesus see I I think it's helpful for us as we read through this to
Weigh ourselves and say is this me do we look like this does my group look like this and I think it's healthy and
Okay for you to say actually I'm okay there I think I think for the most part can't get too prideful that'll mess us up on
The first one being poor in spirit but I think you can say I do that one alright but I think if you come out of this into
This list and you go crushing it Jesus just could have wrote my name down I think you've missed something I don't think you're paying attention
To it and I think you've missed the first one definitely where you're supposed to realize you have nothing to offer but here's the
Thing Jesus doesn't just teach this he lives it he isn't just going to say this is what you're supposed to be like but
He actually lives this for us the perfect example of the beatitudes is Christ he lived this good life he's the ultimate riches to rag
Story that he left heaven to be born in a stable to be born to a poor family where he lives his life in a working class family who eventually travels
Around homeless is nailed on a cross the only thing that was over the brokenness in the world and the sin in the world that he he just moved to action that he
Leaves to fix it that he cares for it he's meek the God of the universe let little dirty weak frail ignorant humans nailing to a cross
So that he could redeem and so that he could save them so he could go to work on their behalf he hungered and thirsted for righteousness not just for himself but for us for his church for his people that he
Would he would die and take pain so that he could make many righteous he is ultimately merciful because he was in the ultimate position of power and
He laid it all down to take on weakness to benefit those who didn't deserve it he had singular focus and thought purity of heart
As he pursued the will of the father and he was truly persecuted for righteousness sake not only for his own righteousness but for the sake of
Those who would follow him that his righteousness would be given to us through the work he accomplished on the cross you see Jesus lived
This for us he doesn't just call us to it but he accomplished it for us so that all those who place faith in Jesus because Jesus
Takes our sin he stands in this has already accomplished it for us that we can stand before God and be made right that every
Blessing in the beatitudes can be given to the church that the church gets the kingdom that the church is comforted and inherits the earth that those
Of us who belong to Jesus will be satisfied and will receive mercy and will see God and will be called sons of God because
We're invited into the kingdom because of the work Jesus has accomplished and here's the thing when Jesus begins this and he says this
Is who my people are and we're going to spend the next several weeks walking through what he says it's going to look like he
Doesn't just want to give this to you doesn't want to do it for you but he wants to do it in you so
That we are actually supposed to look more and more and more and more and more and more like this until the day he calls
Us home that he's accomplished it for us and these blessings are already ours because of Christ but that we should be growing in meekness and
Mourning and hungering and thirsting for righteousness all the days of our lives that this is what his people will look like because Jesus is
At work in us to make us look like this the band is going to come back up we're going to celebrate that Jesus has
A kingdom that he's making us into these people that this is what the church gets to look like by the grace of God
As he works in us we have nothing to offer him nothing to bring to him nothing that gives us value or worth we're
Not going to accomplish this so that we'll be accepted that Jesus has already accepted us through the cross and that through his power
He's going to continue to work this in us and continue to change us and God I pray that through your Holy Spirit you
Would be at work in us to believe in your name and to believe in your son to celebrate that he didn't just call
Us to this and walk away but that he accomplished it for us that we do get to approach you as poor in spirit
Trusting solely in your work and not ours and God I pray that our church that your church in this city in this state
In the world would look like this as backwards as it is from all the things we want to celebrate I pray that you
Would help us to reorient our lives to believe in your upside down kingdom that we ought to be poor we ought to mourn
We ought to be meek that we're blessed when we're persecuted that we're blessed when we hunger and thirst for what's right and what
Matters we ask for your grace we praise you for your love in Jesus name amen
Ordination Sunday
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Chet. If this is your first time hanging out with us today, we're glad you're here. Things are going to be a little bit different than usual, so I want to start off by saying that. If you have been around a while, you'll realize that as we get going, but if it's your first time, I wanted you to know you kind of stepped into a different situation. Here's what we're doing this morning.
We're actually going to be ordaining Raz Bradley as an elder in our church. I'm very excited about that. It means a lot for our church family. And so we, in some ways, we're treating this a little bit like we treat weddings, which is here's what marriage is, here's what the gospel is, and then we spend some time talking kind of to the couple. And so this morning we're going to say here's what eldership is, kind of here's our story as a church, here's what eldership is. Let me let you get to know Raz a little bit, and then we'll spend some time kind of talking to Raz.
We'll talk to church family as well, but we're going to be talking to him some about what the Bible says, the role of a pastor, the role of an elder is. And so this is a big day for us. And I want to kind of tell you a little bit of history of our church family so you can see this. So Matt Freeman and I, Matt was up here, he was playing the guitar. He and I were roommates in college and both kind of felt called into ministry at the same time. I remember in college I really started, I grew up in a Christian home, and so I really started reading the Bible in college with one basic question.
Do I actually believe this? Do I actually believe that the Bible is God's word, that it's true, that it matters? Is this real? See, I grew up in a Christian home. My grandparents were Baptist missionaries to Nigeria. On my other side, Bob Jones, graduate, independent Baptist pastor and wife.
If I became a Christian, I got it honest. Like it comes family line to me. And so when I got to college, my question was, do I just believe this because my mama did? Or is this real? And so I really just started reading the Bible and asking that question, and I came to the conclusion that I believe it. I think the Bible answers some very fundamental questions for me, and it answers them kind of quickly in Scripture.
One of the things that you'll hear sometimes kind of arguments against Christianity is that it takes a really messed up world. It looks at the world which we know is chaotic and destructive and painful, and it says, no, there's hope and joy and happiness and magic. Like people will argue that Christianity doesn't have a realistic view of the world. But people will also argue that the world is beautiful and wonderful and amazing, and Christianity comes along and tries to spoil it for everybody and tell everybody it's terrible and horrible, and they should all feel bad about themselves. And the truth is Christianity steps into the middle of that argument and says, yes.
And it says that in the first three chapters of the Bible. It says that the world was created by a good God who made things wonderful, and that humans rebelled and brought sin into the world, and that messed everything up. Like if you tried to convince me inside of 30 minutes that the world was a wonderful place, I would believe you. You'd be like, look, rainbows. Like, yeah, rainbows, that's crazy. You'd be like puppies and babies and friendship and love and fried chicken, and I would be on board.
I'd be like, what a glorious land. But then if you immediately took 30 minutes to say, look at how terrible this is. Look at racism and hatred and genocide and natural disasters. The world just at times tries to kill us. What is that? Volcanoes.
It's like a beautiful mountain that spits fire out. And I would be like, you're right, this place is terrible. And Christianity steps in and says, yes, it was created by a wonderful God who made it beautiful and made it amazing, and that sin marred it. Not just us, but all of creation. That creation is an open rebellion against God. But it goes further than that.
It says this is actually a personal problem as well. That this issue of the world being amazing and being rebellious is going on inside of you. And when I read that in scriptures, I'm like, yes, I feel that. Because I think I'm wonderful. I'm special. When my parents told me I was a snowflake, I was like, you're darn right I'm a snowflake.
I was one of those kids. I was cutting snowflake construction paper in school, and they were like, see how your snowflake's different from all the other snowflakes? I was like, I do see that. And they're like, that's what you're like. And I was like, teacher, that's so true. Like, I know that.
I know that humans have value and worth. I see that. I believe it. It's like, I know it without having to be taught that. But then I also see all the stuff in me that is completely messed up.
Selfish. Hateful. Like, if we just said, hey, we're going to project your thoughts from the last week up here, I wouldn't show up. I'd just be like, no, we're not doing that. Because I know what I'm like. Because I have a wonderful wife.
I have a two-year-old son. I'm close. I don't do the months thing. And I care deeply about them. But there are times I'm at my house, and my wife's like, hey, could you help with this?
And my first response is, no. I don't say that. I fight that. But I know what I'm like. I know she's like, hey, could you get up? And my response is like, no, you get up.
He's your son, too. And then we get in the argument about, like, who had to give birth and stuff. And it just kind of breaks down. But I see in me this desire, this kind of this war of both. There's goodness. And there's also just open rebellion.
And the Bible steps in and says, yes. And so as I saw that clearly and that clicked so, so beautifully in my head, I began to ask, okay, so is what the Bible says true? That it's not God doesn't just sit up in heaven and say, now you need to be moral and you need to be good. But he actually looks and says, none of you are going to be able to do this. That all of you have rebelled. All of you have sinned.
All of you have fallen short. And he loves us so much. We're so valuable and yet so broken. That he steps onto earth, that he becomes a human himself and he steps into the brokenness. And that the cross is the celebration that our God both loved us and had given us worth and value. But also knew and hated so much the sin that was in us and the sin that was rampant in the world.
See, I see that if there's a good God, he can't be okay with sin. But if there's a good God, he can't just crush everybody, right? Like there's this balance of does he love us or does he not? And the cross says, yes, he loves us, but he hates our sin and he hates the brokenness in the world so much so that he'll take it onto himself. So in college, I came to the full conclusion that, yes, I do believe this.
And then I asked the question, so what's that mean? And I came to the conclusion that if I actually believe that, that humans were built for an eternity, that at some point we're going to stand before God and either we are going to say, I trust Jesus to be good on my behalf, to have died for my sin and to give me his righteousness, or I trust myself to be good enough. And the Bible says we all fall short in that people will be either saved by Jesus or condemned based on their own rebellion. If I actually believe that we're supposed to exist for an eternity, then everything mattered. Everything I did with my time, my co-workers, the guys I was playing football with currently, everybody in my dorm, like it mattered because eternity matters.
And God loved us enough to join us. And so we planted a church in 2013. I remember feeling specifically like we were supposed to start a church while I was in college. Matt showed back up to the room. And if you all know Matt, he's like just overly positive, aggressively happy. Like that's kind of his nature.
And I'm not that. And people periodically ask how we're friends. And it's like, I don't know, we balance each other out. But he came in the room and I said, Matt, I feel like I'm supposed to build a church. And he was like, oh, it's great. I mean, it's awesome.
Like with bricks and stuff. Like he was immediately happy but had no clue what I was talking about. And I was like, oh, no, but probably should find a different word. Like just with people and the gospel, like I think we should start one. And in 2013 we did with eight people sitting around my kitchen table with one basic simple idea. We think that Christians should be Christians in normal everyday life.
That everything matters. All the everyday stuff, your budget, your time, where you work, it matters. Because your co-workers matter. Your neighbors matter. That if this is true, that if God actually made a world that's rebelled against him and that everyone we know is dealing with the effects of sin, but only Jesus brings hope, then it matters. And there are a whole lot of people, the majority of people in our city, have no desire to be here this morning.
Christians. Christians. Y'all know what we do on Sundays is weird, right? Have you been a Christian so long you've forgotten that? Maybe you grew up in it. I know a lot of people in our church family just became Christians.
They know it's weird. Ask them. What we do is weird. Okay. You're going to tell people who aren't Christians they need to show up early in the morning on Sunday on a day they could sleep in. Most people immediately say no to that because it sounds terrible.
Hey, you remember how you were going to sleep? You know how it's cold outside? You know how your blankets are warm? Yeah. Okay. Get out of your blankets and come outside.
No. Then when we get here, we're going to sing songs to a Jewish guy who lived 2,000 years ago, but we say died. They're tracking so far. Came back to life. People don't do that. And then went into heaven alive in bodily form and later is going to come back to earth to judge it riding a horse.
We believe that. We're going to sing songs to him. Then we're going to open a book and talk out of it for 40 minutes. And then we're going to go try to do it. And I know some of y'all were just like, wait, did he say 40 minutes? Welcome to Mill City Church.
We're glad you're here this morning. I'm glad you came and joined us. It makes perfect sense if you're a Christian, if you actually believe what we believe. But if you don't, this is weird. And so what we believe is that Christians are supposed to be Christians 24-7 outside the doors in relationships with people at jobs that have nothing to do with Christianity. We're not all supposed to go take a full-time job being a pastor or teach at a Christian school.
Those are beautiful vocations and you should do that. But most of us should build doors at a factory. Most of us should work at CarMax. Most of us should go be a teacher at a public school where we can actually begin to love and serve and live like Christians. That we should move into neighborhoods and when we get a pay raise, we should stay in that neighborhood because of the neighbors we've built relationships with. That's what we started with, that simple idea that if we actually believe this, then everything matters.
So we had one community group in 2013. We said Christians should help other people become Christians. Group leaders should train other group leaders. Pastors should train other pastors. And churches should start more churches. So we multiplied, became two groups.
Then we became four. Then we started getting together on Sundays. The reason we got together on Sundays was because we wanted to be able to talk to everybody at once. And then we just kept training up leaders in our groups and multiplying leaders. And then we said that we wanted to raise up pastors locally because it doesn't have much to do with a resume. That the qualifications for a pastor, for an elder, are character qualifications.
And so we actually began the pastor and training process with Raz two years ago in 2015. And it was open-ended. Well, we started it in like 2014. And then we came back and said, this was too early. We don't want to do this. And he was like, okay.
And then in 2015, he had a great attitude about it. But he acted kind of like we were dumb and we agreed. And then in 2015, we were like, okay, we're for real this time. And he's like, all right, sounds good. And then he actually has been in pastor and training for two years. Some of y'all are like, wait, he's becoming a pastor.
I thought he was. Right. He's been doing this stuff for a while, serving in our church for a while. So let me tell you a little bit about Raz. And then we're going to actually look at what the Bible says about how elders should work and what pastors are supposed to do. So this is Raz and his wife, Christina.
If y'all don't know them, Raz is on the right. So Raymond Bradley, and I hope some of y'all just learned his real name is Raymond. And Raymond Bradley was born in Sydney, Australia, raised in Sydney, Australia. His wife is from South Carolina. And her name is Christina. She helps run our host team.
But Raz grew up in Sydney, not in a Christian home, not with a lot of Christian influences. He did go to a Christian high school, but that's just because it was a good high school in his area. His parents weren't ever like anti-Christian, but they were mostly like do whatever makes you happy. So they're not, they're for what he's doing now because they believe it makes him happy. But they're not Christians.
He didn't grow up in that environment. When he was 16, his mom had been diagnosed with cancer. And he began to really struggle with the idea of how does a good God allow suffering. And when he was 16, he placed his faith in Jesus. The following year, his mother passed away. And I remember talking with him and he said that he kind of felt like when that happened, he was standing kind of at a crossroads.
And there was this, this draw to, to just go chase after everything that makes you temporarily feel good. Come, come just do everything that kind of drowns the pain. And then there was this draw from Jesus that said, just said, come follow me. And he said, he really felt like he was kind of deciding, am I actually going to believe this? Am I actually going to be a Christian? And by God's grace in that moment, he decided, no, I'm going to follow Jesus.
I'm going to double down and I'm going to spend my life chasing after him. When he graduated high school, he was an electrician for a little while in Australia, which we periodically try to get him to do electrical work. But he argues that everything's 220 in Australia, so it doesn't work the same. Plus, he's on the other side of the globe, so his ladders disorient him because of the way gravity works. But he was an electrician for a little while.
Then he served with his church there as an Anglican church. And then he decided to come to the United States to get a master's degree at CIU. So he's been at Columbia International University for the past four years. He got his Master's of Divinity this past December, which we're very excited and proud of him for that. He's transitioned well into being an American. I've got a picture of him here with what I can only assume is one of his childhood heroes.
But he's transitioned well. He's learned how to fit in here. If you'll show the next one, it kind of proves that to you. There you go. He came here. He's like, I need to grow a mullet.
I need to run around with an American flag. I need to make fireworks happen a lot. So there you go. But he recently got his Master's of Divinity. For a while, he was a camp counselor at Bethel Christian Camp and is now on their board of directors. He works at the South Carolina Baptist Convention now.
And all of that is great. And I think his resume is probably really impressive. And I'm sure when you sit down with him to do an interview, his Australian accent makes him stick out in your mind. And so you remember him better. But that matters little when it comes to becoming a pastor.
Biblically, the qualifications aren't what do they look like on paper, but the qualifications are what's their character. And that's why we've walked through this process with him for the past two years. And continually did follow up on here are areas you need to grow, here's where you need to repent. Because it's character-based qualifications. And don't get me wrong. And we're excited that we'll have a pastor who can read Greek.
But we believe in raising up local pastors, local elders, so that we can actually know what they're like. And so we're excited today as our church gets to do something we haven't ever done before, which is take somebody who's been around for a while and have them become an elder here. To tell you just a few more things quickly about Raz. Raz is the type of guy, if you don't know him, he's the type of guy who is good at everything. So kind of the type of person you've hated most of your entire life.
He's the kind of guy that you spend a couple months trying to learn how to play a song on a guitar. And then he goes, what is this, a gore-tar? And he takes it from you, and then he plays it better than you. And he's like, that's neat. And you're like, oh, you know how to play the guitar? And he's like, that's the first time I've touched one.
That kind of guy, like you learn a game, and you're like, I'll teach this to Raz, and I'll be better at him than it. And then he's immediately like, once he learns the rules, he beats you in it. This is a perfect example. He decided, he and his wife decided they were going to knit hats. And when he told us that, when he told me that, I was like, that's cute. That's precious.
No, I love that you're going to knit. That's great. And then like a week later, he sends this picture. That he knit that. And it's like, I don't even know how we're friends. What on earth?
How do you knit that? And then I don't even think he knits anymore, because he defeated it. He won knitting. Y'all didn't even know it was competitive. He won. So here, this is just, as one of your pastors, if you're part of our church family, and even if you're just here today, you're one of Raz's friends, I want to make a request.
There are two things I have learned that Raz is not good at. One of them is putt-putt. Y'all don't know how happy that made me. Because he just melted down every hole. The second one, the second thing Raz is not good at is losing. Because he's been good at everything his entire life.
So here's what I need you to do. Because we compete in things periodically, and our church family hangs out all the time. If you are on Raz's team, I need you to intentionally be terrible. For his sanctification. For his growth. For his growth in humility.
Don't make it super obvious. But be terrible. I just, I'm just asking. I just appreciate that. That's just a rule to apply for the rest of your life. So here's what we get to do today.
We're going to talk a little bit about what it means to be an elder. What eldership is. And then we're going to actually bring Raz up here, and we're going to pray over him. And he'll be an elder in our church family. And so, if you will, turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. If you have one of the white Bibles, it'll be on page 590.
This was a letter written by the apostle Peter. The disciple of Jesus is written to a group of churches. So he's writing to multiple churches at once, and they're supposed to just kind of disseminate this letter around and read it in their churches. And in this section, in chapter 5, where we're going to pick up and look at the first four verses, he's talking specifically to elders about eldership. What eldering is supposed to look like. So let me just define some terms as we get started.
The Bible uses that word elder. It comes from the word presbyteros, which is a Greek word. That's where we get Presbyterian from. That's where we get the word elder from. The Bible also uses the word overseer, which is where we get the word bishop from. And Episcopalian, we get that word from the word that they use the word overseer.
It's translated in a lot of versions. It also uses the word shepherd, which is where we get the word pastor. So, in general, when we talk about it, elder is the office. The actual position, the title. And then oversee, shepherd are things that you do. But we just use the terms pastor and elder interchangeably because we think that the office is actually elder.
But most people say pastor around here. So that's why we're using the terms the way we are. And we believe that biblically there should be multiple elders, multiple pastors in local churches. We like that model. We don't think necessarily that everybody's wrong if they do that differently. But we see that in Scripture when it talks to elders, it's always plural unless it's talking about one specific person.
It'll say this person is an elder, but otherwise it's elders in churches. And so when Raz is ordained today, which is just a fancy word that means becomes a pastor, he'll be as much a pastor as I am, as much a pastor as Matt is. We take this very seriously because in some ways when we lay hands on Raz and ordain him this morning, he's our boss as much as we are his so that we mutually agree, mutually submit to one another and try to serve together as a team in our church family. So that's kind of how that works. Let me pray real quick and then we'll start reading the text. God, we thank you for your grace.
And we thank you for the weightiness of what we're getting to do today and that we get to celebrate this together as a church family. Pray that as we read your word, you would train us, teach us, change us, that we might look more like you. In Jesus' name, amen. 1 Peter 5, starting in verse 1. So I exhort the elders among you.
Exhort means urge or strongly encourage. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Okay, so he begins to say, I'm exhorting you, I'm encouraging you, and then he gives his three qualifications for doing so. Here's why you should listen to me. And the first two make sense to me and the third one sounded really weird. And it took me a minute.
I had to kind of sit with it for a while to try to understand why he included it. So the first one is, I'm also an elder. I exhort you as a fellow elder. The second one is, as a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Meaning, I was there when Jesus died on the cross. I was one of his earliest followers.
I'm a disciple. Both of those sound like, yeah, okay, those are good qualifications for why I should listen to you. And then the third one is, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. And so I was like, okay, he ended the list with this, and he included it on par with, I'm also an elder, and I was there when Jesus died on the cross. I'm a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. And I think a short way to say that is, I'm going to heaven also.
I'm also going to be with Jesus for eternity. And so it's like, that sounds great, but so are all Christians who place faith in Jesus for their salvation. Like, that's what he does, is he brings us into his glory. He brings us into eternity with him. And it's like, so why is that in the list? It's because that's common to all Christians, but I think the reason Peter includes this is because it is absolutely uncommon to humanity.
That this is weighty, that Christians will partake in glory with Jesus. That we've been called into an eternity to not only just be there, but to reign with him. And so as I read that, I realized how beautiful it is that Peter includes it, because he's saying, I'm going to spend eternity with Jesus. I'm going to partake in his glory. I'm going to be a part of him being elevated and honored and declared worthy for all time. That's why Paul, at one point, when the Corinthian church is having an argument and they're about to take something to court, he says, don't y'all know you're going to judge angels?
Y'all can't even handle simple human matters? What he's saying is we're called into an eternity forever with Jesus. We should see the weightiness of that. And so Peter includes it in this list. And I just kind of wish that as Christians, we would grow out of just giving each other advice, but realizing that we hold weight because Jesus has redeemed us and called us into eternity. So that when you're with your community group and they're asking for like, I'm struggling with this idea, that we wouldn't just be silent, but we wouldn't just also just pop off with the first thing that pops into our head, but that we would actually carry and understand the weight of we've been redeemed and we're going to reign with Jesus.
And when we speak, there's weight to it because we're Christians. So that's why he includes it in that list. And then here are his instructions as to what an elder ought to do and then how an elder should do that. And then why an elder should do that. So he's going to start off with what he's going to say, how he's going to say, why?
What shepherd, the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight. So shepherd, the flock of God that is among you exercising oversight. We we use that word shepherd. The Bible uses that word shepherd a lot to give us this picture of a shepherd with sheep as Americans. I don't think we're very familiar with that picture. I'm not.
I think Americans are mostly familiar with cattle. If we're familiar with anything, we're familiar with cows. I used to actually help a friend work on a cattle farm like a cow. He had heifers and we helped them get fat. That was the job. Here's the thing about cows.
You don't get emotionally attached to them because you're going to eat them soon. That was the point of the cows. So we were going to help them eat to help others eat. That was the point. And so we didn't name them. We didn't become their friends.
You might become a friend with a dairy cow because you're going to see it a lot and it's going to hang around for a while. But beef cows, you don't. But with shepherds and sheep, there was a much closer relationship. That a shepherd would know his sheep, would care for them, would be with them, would sleep where they slept, would lead them where they were going to be. That when one of them got lost, he would leave the ones that weren't and go find the one that was. That he would, if a predator came along, a bear or a wolf, he would fight it, defend it.
So that a shepherd both feeds sheep and kills wolves. And that's the picture that we're given here where he says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. I want to point out two things, Raz, as we look at this. The flock is God's. It belongs to Jesus. These are his people, his church.
Paul says it this way when he's talking to elders in Acts chapter 20. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. That the church belongs to Jesus, that he purchased by his blood, that he loves and cherishes and cares for. And that he's called certain people to step up and to shepherd and care for them as well. But ultimately it's his flock.
It's his people. It's his church. It also says, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Meaning that pastors, elders should be a part of the church. Normal, everyday Christians. Like, I'm a Christian first before I get to be a pastor.
Raz, you get to be a Christian first before you get to be a pastor. I think it's been damaging and unhelpful. And I've heard in a lot of pastoral circles where pastors say stuff like, I really just need some people that I can be honest with. So I have to seek accountability and relationships outside of my church. I had a pastor one time tell me, he was moving to be a pastor somewhere else. And he said, I learned my lesson with my last church because I lived right near the building.
And I would like run into people that were a part of my church at the grocery store and stuff. And so this time I actually moved 30 minutes away so that that wouldn't happen. And that just hurt me inside. Because as a pastor, you get to be a part of the church. You get to be a normal Christian. You get to struggle with sin.
Like my community group that I get to be a part of is not impressed with me. They don't think I'm special. They had reservations about that snowflake speech I gave earlier. Like I get to be a normal sinner in love with Jesus. Following him in normal life. So you shepherd the church that you're among, that you're a part of, that you relate to in normal life.
Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. Oversight means lead. Make decisions for. Care about. Shepherd. Care about.
Defend. Protect. Love. Chase it down. And exercise oversight, which means lead. Make some decisions.
Be unpopular at times for what's best. One of the things I will tell you all about Raz is that he does love this church. And he does love Jesus. And he cares a lot about whether or not this church is actively seeking to follow and love Jesus. I have probably over the course of our church life existence from 2013 on, I have argued more with Raz than with anybody else in our church family. Maybe my wife.
She's in our church family. We argue from time to time. But Anna, then Raz. He cares. He cares a lot when he's come to a conclusion on something and he believes that this is the best course of action. We argue.
We butt heads because we both care. We both want to see things be good. I remember Raz went to work because he works at South Carolina Baptist Convention. He was working all day. He came to meet us when he got off work for us to argue for two hours about how membership ought to be done. Because we did that this past year where we said this is what it means to be committed to this church family to say, I follow Jesus, but I'm actually going to buy in here and serve here and give here and fight for health here.
And Raz and I argued for two hours about how to do that. And thankfully Matt showed up and tried to help. He made it a little bit worse, but it was good. And then Raz went to go play kickball with some people in his apartment complex. And I just remember texting him that night and I was like, man, I hope we get to argue a lot more in the future. And he sent back anytime.
And I knew he meant it. But you care and you fight for what matters. You seek to lead. That's the calling. That's what pastors should do. Shepherd and oversee.
Jesus is people. But then he tells them how. He says, he's going to say, not this, but this. Like, not in this way, but this way. So he says, not under compulsion, but willingly.
You shouldn't become a pastor because you feel like you have to, but you should actually desire it. You should want to. Being a pastor is hard enough. If you don't want to do it, I think it would be terrible. Like, you should desire to lead, to serve, to take on this position, to lay your life down on behalf of others. So he says, not under compulsion, but willingly.
Don't get into it because your parents want you to. Don't get into it because you think you have to, but get into it because you have a desire for it. Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. So that people shouldn't become pastors. I think shameful gain is a couple of things. I think that can be, I want the title.
I want the honor that comes along with it. I think some of that's passing away. I don't think people care about pastors as much as they used to. Like, if you grew up in the South, people, it was like a more honored position than it is now. And some of that's okay. And some of it's probably good.
But I think people could get into it as like, I want a respectable, I want to prove to my dad. I want to like, it's a bad reason to do it. Shameful gain could also be monetary. It can be. I know of pastors who are wealthy. I don't know any personally.
But I've seen them on TV. And I've seen them on the internet. And I know that that's a thing in the U.S. That you can actually become a pastor to make money. If that is Raz's plan, just so you all know. He's done that very poorly.
He chose our church. He's not getting paid. So he's going to come on and eagerly. I actually believe that he models this well for us because he's continuing his job, his full-time job elsewhere. But coming on and taking on extra work and extra responsibilities here to serve in this capacity.
I also know that if he was not becoming an elder today, he'd be doing the same thing he's been doing. He'd be doing the same thing we're about to ask of him and wouldn't care. So I'm excited that everybody in our church family who is a pastor, myself, Matt, and now Raz, will have done what we're doing for free prior to getting paid for it. And would still be doing it if we weren't getting paid for it. So it says, Not for shameful gain, but eagerly.
Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. So that you lead by example, not by position or title or forcefulness or volume. That the pastorate isn't a place for bullies. But for humility and servanthood. I remember when I first, first time I sat down with Raz, he was first coming around and was wanting to hop in a group. And he'd been a part of Midtown and he was coming to talk.
Just give a cab coffee with me and ask like, what would it look like if I came and just hopped in with y'all and help start this church? I remember talking with him and I came back and I called Matt on the way home and I said, Hey, this guy named Raz wants to come hang out. He's probably going to hop in my group. He seems really smart. He seems really driven. He seems very knowledgeable.
He ultimately wants to be a pastor or missionary. I think he should hop in and I think we should not let him do anything. He can take out the trash. He can do some real service roles that no one will see him or know who he is. I think he's really probably would be great at almost anything. So let's not let him do anything.
And Matt was like, sounds great. So Raz hopped in and for a long time, we just kind of put our hand on top of his head and didn't let him do anything other than background cleaning. He's done a lot of stuff in our church family that nobody ever knows he did. And he didn't keep saying, hey, guys, I'm really smart. I'm important. I can read Greek.
Y'all need to let me do something else. He just did what we asked of him with a great attitude. And so then we kept asking more and more and more of it. That's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 20, that he didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And that whoever would be first among you must be your servant. Whoever would be chief among you must be your slave.
Even as the son of man came to give his life. He says that. And so we believe that Christian leadership isn't climbing a ladder, but it's descending one. And it goes from service slavery to death. So if you can't take out the trash and if you can't clean up after everybody's gone and if you can't show up earlier and help everything set up.
And if you can't open your wallet and give money and not have anybody know about it, then you can't lead in the church. Because it only gets worse from there. The more people see you and the more you get elevated, the more you're called to slavery and to death and to giving up your life for them. Raz, realize that as you become an elder today, that's the call. Service, slavery, and death. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being an example to the flock.
The role of a pastor is to not be right or to prove to everyone that you are right, but to set an example, to serve them, to love them, to sit with people and cry, to listen and to listen and to listen and then to speak. And then he's going to say, why? So he says, what? Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. He says, how? Not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
Not for shameful gain, but eagerly. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And now he's going to say, why? And when the chief shepherd appears, that's Jesus, he will receive the unfading crown, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Jesus is the chief shepherd. On our order chart, Jesus is at the top.
We don't have a senior pastor that's here. We have a senior pastor in Jesus. That's what chief shepherd means. And it says, when he appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Raz, I believe that in that sentence, we have as pastors, both something that should keep us up at night and that should wake us up in the morning. He says that when the chief shepherd appears, meaning that Jesus is coming back, we won't get to shepherd and be pastors forever without the chief shepherd coming back.
He's going to come back. There's going to be a day when we stand face to face with him. Hebrews 13 says it this way. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Leap that up for just a minute.
There's going to be a day when every pastor stands before Jesus and gives an account for souls. For some of you who've grown up in church or have been a part of a church where the pastorate did not look like Peter just described it. It was domineering. It was for shameful gain. It was under compulsion. It was mishandled and misused.
Can I make you a promise? There will be a day when every person who shepherded one of Jesus's churches will stand before the chief shepherd and will be held accountable for souls. And Raz, I think that ought to keep us up at night. I think that ought to drive us to our knees. I think that ought to drive us to prayer and for mercy and for grace and for Jesus to be at work at us through His Holy Spirit that we would handle the care of souls of people who He died for to make His. That when we give an account we can say, Jesus, I trust in Your grace for me.
I trust in Your payment for me on the cross. And I trust that I tried to do as best I could. But I do have good news. Peter does not include that in this list to scare us. Although I do think it is kind of scary. Peter does not include it there for that reason.
Oh, can I say one thing, church family, real quick? From this passage since we read it that I think is, that also scares me. Can I just tell you all things I'm afraid of? It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. I think that word obey and submit is very terrifying for me as a pastor who's going to give an account for souls. That's one of the reasons why we want multiple pastors so that we can come to conclusions prayerfully together that the Holy Spirit can give us unity.
We don't do a whole lot of voting. We actually come to it like we, if one of us is saying, I have issues over this, we pray about it. We try to, we say, okay, well let's keep talking about it. Let's keep arguing about it. Let's, let's, so that when, because church family, it's one of the reasons we did membership this past year for you to say, this is where I'm plugged in. This is where I'm going to serve.
This is where I'm going to connect. This is where I'm going to give. This is where I'm going to labor because you're called to obey and submit in a local church. And I know as Americans, those words are cuss words. Liberty or death. I don't obey and submit to nobody.
Right? On the, on the other end of a gun, maybe. My cold dead hands, you know, like we're Americans, we say these things. Christians are called to obey and submit. And I kind of, as a pastor, I really just wish the author of Hebrews had said, consider the things they say. Think about, hold with some weight, but then at the end of the day, you're ultimately responsible for this.
Honestly, I think that actually means that there are house rules in churches. Here's what I mean. I got a two-year-old. Matt and Katie have a two-year-old. As they grow up together, there are certain things that we're called to that all Christian families should do that Matt and I are both supposed to do in our houses that are, this is what it looks like. And then there are house rules.
So when I was growing up, up until the time I left my dad's house, I was 18, I had to be in bed at nine o'clock. My older brother went to college, came back, was living at our house. My dad would say, if you're going to work for me, you're going to be in bed at nine o'clock. He was like 22. He had a bedtime and an early one. That stuck with me my whole life.
At about 9.30, I'm like, I better be getting to sleep. I can't be, I'm not a party animal. Like, when I met my wife, she didn't even have a curfew. I was like, what time do you need to get home? She's like, I don't have a curfew. And my first thought was your parents hate you.
Because my parents were so intense. It just turns out she never did anything real bad, so they didn't really police her that much. We needed a nine o'clock bedtime. So, those are house rules. As Emmy grows older, she may have to be in bed at seven. I don't know.
I may let my kids stay up late. Just kidding, it's nine o'clock. Or if you get loud or annoying before that, that indicates your sleepiness. If you're bothering me at 8.30, it's bedtime. Those are house rules. If I tell my kids to be in bed at 8.30 and they're up at nine, they are actually rebelling against their father, they are sinning, the Bible has told them to obey their parents, that's a house rule.
The Bible doesn't say children should be in bed at nine o'clock. Does that make sense? I think this means that in churches, whoop, I think this means that in churches there are house rules. I'm going to keep pointing like y'all know it's up there. Remember it, what it looked like. I think that in churches there are elders who actually have responsibility of making decisions and that the local church says, I'm a part of this.
And here's what he says though. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be no advantage to you. Church family, Raz is going to become an elder today. And by God's grace he'll get to do that for 20, 40, 60 years. And I hope that our church that at the end of the day he can say it was a joy that I got to serve that church. It was a joy that I got to shepherd and oversee those people.
When they had a problem, they talked to me, they didn't just leave. When they disagreed, we had heated debate because we both cared and we both wanted to do what mattered in the church. When there was something that was outside of, the Bible kind of gave us some guardrails, but we made a decision. They said, we're on this team. We're going to fight for it. We're going to lead in it.
We're going to, I pray that our church makes it a joy to be a pastor here. And can I just say, so far, I know Matt and I are blessed to be able to lead here. It's been a joy. I appreciate our church family. And I know how difficult those first two words are to obey and to submit. And I appreciate how much y'all care and fight and stay.
Thank y'all. And I really mean that. And I pray that we get to continue to do this, continue to pursue the city, continue to fight together. But Raz, as I was saying earlier, Peter doesn't include that to scare us. He includes it not to keep us up at night, but to wake us up in the morning. Because he says, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
You're supposed to live your life as a pastor, serving, putting yourself last, taking phone calls at random times in the day and night that go get with people, go connect with people, go listen to people, go fight for things that matter when people don't care, go sit down with someone who's actively trying to run away from Jesus and do everything you possibly can to say everything you possibly can so that they won't. And what Peter is saying is do this humbly, continually, eagerly, and willingly. And one day, Jesus comes back and the king of the universe is going to honor you for your struggle and your fight for however long you did it. There's going to be a moment when the God of the universe who deserves all glory and all honor and is ultimately sovereign eternally, eternally, and infinitely worthy is going to pause for a moment and look at pastors and say, well done.
Thank you for hustling. Thank you for loving. Thank you for caring for my church. Peter says that so that you would always have a reason to wake up and fight because there's going to be a day when you stand before the chief shepherd and he pauses and honors you. The one, the one being, the one person in all the world that it matters to be honored by. So Raz, it's my hope and prayer that we get to do this a long time together.
We get to be really old, that we get to pastor well beyond our usefulness. I hope we get to do it while we're bad at it and can't even remember anything. Like, I can't remember stuff now. I hope it gets worse and I'm like 80. People are like, you should step down and I'm like, make me. Just kidding.
Raz is shaking his head because all of that was incorrect. But I hope we do get to do this a long time together. Serve alongside one another together. And I hope we get to raise up more pastors in our church family. I hope we get to send out more churches from our church family. And I hope we get to celebrate together all along the way as we chase after Jesus and his fame and his glory and his work here on earth.
Raz, will you come up here? Matt, will you come up here? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to lay hands on Raz, pray over him. Matt and I are and then we'll have a chance to do that as a church family. Raz, pastors are supposed to willingly, eagerly shepherd and oversee God's church until ultimately the Holy Spirit calls you to step down or Jesus comes back.
You get to meet him. By God's grace, are you willing to take on this role and responsibility in our church? Yeah. Okay. Let's step over here.
We're going to pray. Matt's going to pray and then I'm going to pray and then we'll have an opportunity to all pray together. Amen. God, I thank you so much for Raz. I thank you that in your divine sovereign plan that there was a friend that he went to school with that shared the gospel with him. Your Holy Spirit convicted Raz of the sin and he turned from the sin and he placed his faith in you and he's never looked back.
That every bit of Raz's life has mattered since that time. God, you brought him here to the States. You brought him to Columbia International. You brought him to Bethel Christian Camp. You brought him to the South Carolina Baptist Convention. You brought him to Midtown and to be a part of Mill City Church.
God, your hand has been on Raz every step of the way until the time where two of his friends get to stand on his side and pray over him as he becomes an elder of this church and Jesus, we praise you. We praise you for your work in his life. Lord, I thank you for the gifts and the talents and the abilities that you've given him but more than anything, God, I thank you for his heart. I thank you for how much he loves you and how much he loves his wife and how much he loves this church family and how much he loves seeing people come to know you and to worship you and follow you. I thank you for the people that he's been able to share the gospel with.
I thank you for the groups that he's been able to lead as a part of our church family. I thank you for the ministries that he's overseen and God, as he takes a step into being an elder in our church, I pray that you would help him continue to serve faithfully and humbly for many, many years. God, I pray that the three of us would look to you as our chief shepherd that you are the leader of our church and we submit and follow you and that we get to get after it for many, many years here in this city to see more people come to know the love of Jesus and to follow him in the normal, everyday life. God, in the name of Jesus, we commend Raz to you that by your grace you would empower him to keep him from stumbling, to keep him faithful, to help him to grow daily more in love with you, to see your people and the city more the way you see them.
That God, as he steps into being an elder in our church, that you would give him wisdom and humility and patience, kindness and love, that he would sacrifice, that he would be an example to our church family as he follows you, that he would help us look more like Jesus. God, I pray that he would be kept far from sin. I pray that he would be quick to repent, that through your grace you would help him to own his sin quickly, to be honest with his community group, to be honest with our church family, to walk as a broken, weak sinner, saved by grace, changed by Jesus. We ask God that your blessing be on him, that your blessing be on our church, that you would use our church family to help others come to know you in this city.
In Jesus' name, amen. Raz, if you'll step down here and Christina, if you'll come up and stand with him. They're going to stand down here and if you will, church family, if you, if you, we're going to pray for them now, just kind of together, collectively asking God to bless them, to use them in our church family to work through them. If you know Raz or you're in his community group, you're part of our church family and y'all want to come up here and actually lay hands on them and pray around them, I'd ask you to go ahead and move, move, go ahead and move and do that this morning. And we're just going to pray kind of silently.
If you, if you don't know Raz as well, but you're part of our church family, why don't you pray where you are. So, but we're just going to take a minute to, to kind of quietly stand before God on their behalf and ask him to work. through them, to bless them, to guard them, to use them. And then, when we've prayed here for a minute, I'll pray out loud and then, we'll sing, sing a song and finish up today. Let's pray. Let's pray.
Let's pray. Let's go. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, let's pray, Amen.
In the name of Jesus and by your spirit, we commend them to you, Lord, and we ask you that you would guard them, guard their marriage, bless their service, help them to grow in their love for you. We ask you to work mightily in our church family for your glory and your name. In Jesus' name, amen.
Christmas 2016
Transcript
Well, Merry Christmas. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. We will be spending our time there this morning. It's going to be on page 471 if you're in one of the white Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, don't have one at your house, Merry Christmas. That Bible that you're holding is a gift to you from us.
We want you to own a Bible. We want you to read it regularly. So we'd like for you to have one. So our goal today is pretty simple. We usually, when we talk about stuff, we talk about what God has done. We talk about what Jesus has accomplished for us, that the gospel is good news about what he's accomplished and that we respond.
And today we're not going to have so much of a here's what we need to go do. Here's how we're going to respond. We're just in our time this morning. We're trying to kind of do what Faye was just reading about, where the shepherds, I love that the shepherds look at each other and they say, let's go see this thing. Let's go see this thing that the angels just told us about.
And that's kind of what we want to do this morning. We just want to look at the Christmas story and we just kind of want to see it. We just want to take some time to consider this mind-shattering, world history-changing event where God becomes a human. We just want to take a minute to consider it. And then we want to respond maybe in the way that Mary does, where it says she just pondered these things in her heart. We really just want to take this and look at it as best we can, begin to see some of the realities of God becoming a human, some of the realities of what we get to celebrate at Christmas.
And then we just want to hold on to those as we go through the rest of this week. And it's going to be busy for many of us. You're going to have a lot going on that you have to try to get done and accomplish. And you can get so caught up in everything that's on your to-do list. And then Christmas will be here a week from today. And then it's almost like it's just over with.
And I just want to take a minute this morning for us to just pause, let's just see this thing, and then hopefully be able to kind of ponder it in our hearts throughout the rest of the week. And as we go into Christmas day next Sunday, and just kind of be able to reflect on and remember and roll around inside this truth that is actually a little bit too big to consider and too big to get into view. And we're going to spend some time looking at it this morning. So pray with me that we'll be able to do that. And then we're going to start reading some of the text. God, we thank you.
We thank you for what Christmas is and what it means. We pray that you'd be at work in us this morning, that we would be able to take it into view, that your Holy Spirit would be active as we read your word. We love you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Jump down to verse 18. We'll pick up there, Matthew 1, verse 18.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, okay, so she's going to marry a guy named Joseph. That's what betrothed means, they're engaged. But in this culture, in this society, they would have been fairly young. I read something this week that said Mary's probably no more than about 15 years old. And a betrothal worked similarly to marriage.
Basically, parents would be involved. They would say, okay, your child's going to marry my child. It was a very strict kind of agreement. And in order to break a betrothal, you had to actually go through a legal proceeding to get a divorce. It wasn't, so it was like an engagement, but it was more intense than our engagements. So she's betrothed to Joseph before they had come together.
So that means they're engaged, they're betrothed, but nothing's happened. They're not married yet. There's no consummation of anything. Before they had come together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that's, we get more of her story in Luke chapter 1. An angel comes to her and says, oh, favored one.
And she's like, that's a weird way to talk to me. And she's kind of, I'm talking to an angel. She feels uncomfortable. He says, you're going to give birth to a child. And her response to him is, okay, how? Because she knew where babies come from.
I think sometimes when we read stuff that happened a long time ago, we just kind of arrogantly and maybe a little bit snobbishly assume that we're more intelligent. Like because it happened a long time ago, their IQs are lower. Like because I have Google and could drive a car and have electricity, I'm somehow smarter than them. But even if you looked at my Google history, you'd know it wasn't because of how many times Google had to say, did you mean this? Because I couldn't even spell the thing I was Googling. Were you trying to type this?
Yes, Google, I was. But for some reason, when I read something that happened in history, I just assume they were gullible. They believed everything that someone told them, that they all were just kind of dumber than me. And actually, I think that probably the amount of television I watched and the amount of time I spent on Google and how much I can ask Siri things and I don't have to remember anything actually means it's likely they were more intelligent than I am because they actually had to use their brain more. I don't know. But Google makes me seem way smarter.
You remember before Google existed when you thought, I wonder about this. And then you had no way. You're watching a movie and you thought, what else has that person been in? And then you had to think about it and remember. Maybe you had that one family member you could ask. And I was going to pause it.
That guy, what else was he in? And they knew. But otherwise, you couldn't figure it out. Like, we just assume because of the technology we have, we're more intelligent. But she basically, we're going to see that both Mary and Joseph kind of respond in a, okay, wait, how's this going to work?
So Mary says, how's that going to work? And he says, God's going to do it. Through his power, through the Holy Spirit, you're going to give birth to a son and he'll be the son of God. And Mary's response is, I'm your servant. Let it be that way. Since you're big and you're God and you're good, I'll just trust you.
It's not like she doesn't seem very excited, but she basically just says, okay, I'm your servant. So just think about this for a second. She's betrothed in a shame and honor culture to be married to a guy named Joseph. We don't know how well they know each other, but it's a small town. They probably knew each other. She's probably looking forward to her wedding day, to her life.
And she's thinking, I'm going to start my life with Joseph. We're going to begin to have, and an angel comes up and says, hey, God has decided to ruin this for you. You're going to get pregnant out of wedlock. Talk, people can do math. They know how long it takes for a baby to be. So even if he still agrees to marry you, they'll know when the baby was born and when y'all are married.
It's not going to work out well for you. Most likely, your betrothal is off. And she says, okay, I submit, I surrender, I'm Jesus, I'm God's servant, whatever he says. So here's what we get. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And I love that Matthew includes, it was from the Holy Spirit.
He says, she's found to be with child, but we know it's from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, so he already calls her his husband, even though they haven't really been officially married. But that's how intense betrothal is. So she comes to Joseph and says, Joseph, I'm pregnant. He says, how did that happen? She says, it's God's baby.
He says, okay, we're not getting married. At best, you're lying. At worst, you're crazy. And it says he's a just man. He cares about her. He's not mad at her.
He's not trying to put her to shame. He's just going to as quietly as he can break this betrothal. It's a small town, not make a big deal out of it. But he also knows how children are made. And he says, no, no, God doesn't get, no, that's not how that works. So we're not, no, they're not getting married.
Can you imagine how much pain is involved in this story for Mary, for Joseph, what they thought life was going to look like? Jesus shows up and just derails it. How many tears are shed in that few verses we just read? How much they had to wrestle with God and his plans? But, verse 20, as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son. You should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
So Joseph does the same thing. He obeys what God says, even though he also realizes, okay, at best they'll think we kind of sinned together prior, so this child will be born in kind of a shame situation. At worst, the people who are close to me who already knew I was trying to work out a divorce, I'm going to have to go seem crazy too. I'm going to have to act like I actually believe what she said, that God is the father of this child, and they're going to either think that I'm crazy or just the most gullible fool they've ever met. But okay.
That's the situation that Jesus is born in. And then Matthew, as he's beginning to tell this story, he kind of gets to the point here and he says, okay, here's Jesus. Jesus is going to save his people from their sins, and he's going to be Emmanuel, God with us. So Matthew, right off the bat, says, here's the point of my story, here's where we're going. Christmas, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. As Christians, we believe not that Jesus was just a really good guy, not that he was just a prophet.
We don't just believe that God's spirit was on him. We don't just believe that God worked through him or that he shows us kind of what divine status looks like. We don't just believe that he was a really good man who became a God. We believe that he is God who became a man. We believe that he's the eternal creator God who became a human, that God is with us. That's what we celebrate at Christmas.
That Jesus is God who became a man, that he's fully God and fully man. From the time he's born, that he's God with us. That's Christmas, that God became a baby. And so Matthew says it's Emmanuel, God with us, and that he's Jesus. He's going to save people from their sins. So Matthew, right off the bat, says, we're talking about Christmas and we're talking about Easter.
This is the point of the book he's writing, that Jesus is going to grow up. He's going to live a perfect, sinless life. He's going to die on a cross. He's going to atone for sin. He's going to be buried. He's going to rise again.
He's going to save his people from their sins. Now, if the point of the Bible was just you need to be a good person, it's just about morality, we wouldn't have Christmas. God wouldn't have to join us. If the point of the Bible was just that God loves everybody and he forgives everybody, we wouldn't have Christmas. God wouldn't have to join us. He wouldn't have to come in.
But see, it's a God of both morality and love that joins us at Christmas to save us from our sins. And I love that he's come to save us from our sins. You know, that could say, and I think people sometimes try to act like what this should say is that Jesus came to save his people from sinners. And that would be a really sad thing for it to say. He says he's going to be Jesus because he's going to save his people from their sins. But if it said he's going to save his people from sinners, that would mean there are good people and bad people.
And then we'd have to work really hard to try to figure out whether we were the good people or we were the bad people. But what does it say? He's going to save his people from their sins. Jesus is the hero who came to rescue the bad people. Now that's worth celebrating Christmas over.
I'll raise some eggnog to that. That sounds amazing. That Jesus is going to come save sinners. That's us. You see, at Christmas, we're kind of, we're almost bombarded with this over optimism. It's like collectively, culturally, we come together and say, we can do it, you guys.
If we just believe in belief, if we just open our hearts and our minds, we can love everybody and we can eradicate poverty and hatred. That's what the Christmas spirit is. If we just come together, everything can be beautiful and bright and work out well. And that is beautiful, but it's not the Christmas spirit. The Christmas spirit is we're in trouble. The world is dark.
There is no hope. Humanity cannot save itself. Humanity is the problem. So getting more of us together collectively just causes more of a problem. Christmas is the celebration that Jesus entered the world. That a savior came to rescue us.
And that he's ultimately going to live a perfect, sinless life and die to save us. That's the Christmas story. That's what Matthew's getting at. That's the point of the story he's about to tell. So he's going to tell us this epic, unbelievable, history-altering story.
That's what, he's got all this to write. He's got to tell us that God became a baby. And then he's got to tell us that he lived a perfect, sinless life. And that hope has entered the world. That where it was dark and bleak and sin reigned, God enters the world. And it's almost like a light, a little candle is lit in the dark.
So if it was pitch black and there's just one little candle, everybody's eyes come to this place and it says there's hope, there's light in darkness. That's Christmas. And then he's going to tell the story about how at Easter, after Jesus has healed blind people, has taken people who've never walked before and let them walk, how he's walked on water and fed 5,000 people and he's healed everywhere in towns he went. And he's proclaimed the good news that at Easter, that little candle is going to be snuffed out. It's going to be a few wisps of smoke and darkness. That death is going to defeat life.
Hatred is going to defeat love. Fear is going to win. And that this God that we celebrate who's going to be born is going to be a God that we mourn because he's going to die. But that three days later, of atonability, that candle lights itself again. And it doesn't just become a candle. It becomes what was just a hint of a dawn in Christmas becomes full noonday sun at Easter.
We get the full and complete picture of what God's come to do, that he's Emmanuel, God with us, and he's Jesus who saves us from our sins. That's the story Matthew's going to tell. And so Matthew has this epic, earth-shattering, world-changing story to tell. And he's got to put pen to paper. And you can almost feel like the ink is trying to jump out of his writing utensil here. He's got to write this down.
And what's the first thing he's going to put on paper? What's the first thing he needs us to see as he begins to tell this story? Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. And Isaac, the father of Jacob.
And Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And Perez, the father of Hezron. And Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. And Amminadab, the father of nation.
Oh my goodness. He does this for 17 verses. He's got this epic, life-changing, earth-shattering story to tell us. And he starts off by the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And it's almost, almost as if he wanted to bore us before he told us the good stuff. He's going to, at the end of the chapter, he's going to get into what Jesus came for and who he is.
But he starts off with 17 verses of this person was the father of this person, was the father of this person. Now, we're distant from this because we're Americans to a Jewish audience. This meant a lot. Because he's telling, he's telling them that he comes in the line of prophecy. He's telling them that he comes in the line of, but Luke includes this. He doesn't start with it.
It's important. Luke says, that's not the way you start a book, though. You ever been to a movie and they run the credits first? Like all of them? You'd be like, what the heck? Show me the movie.
That's what he's doing. He's showing you this. What's the point? Why does he do this? Why does he think this is so absolutely essential for us to get right off the bat? Do you know who has genealogies?
Humans. Real, live, flesh and blood humans have a family line. My wife and I, a couple years ago, learned we were going to have a son. So we got on Ancestry.com and we just started looking up our family. Some people in our family had done a lot of work to kind of fill out our history, family history, our lineage. So we just started doing work to find names.
There were a bunch. We wrote names in one color from my family, names in another color from her family. And our goal was to have one name from each family. And they were great. Like we had some winners in there. We had Garland.
Caskey. I was fighting pretty hard for Caskey. Bayless. That's probably coming back if we have another son. It might be a girl. But we like, it took us a while.
Like we had to try to find names that we ended up, we like Silas. I really like Silas. But I wear a lot of plaid and I have a beard most of the time. And I didn't want people to think I named him after Uncle Si off of Dunk Dynasty. I don't watch the show, but people assume things. And so we really went round and round on Silas and we're like, I don't know if we can do this.
The other thing you have to do, it's really hard to name a human. Those of you who have done it, I'm proud of y'all. It's difficult. I had to walk, like I walked around my house trying to say the name. Because you just, you just read it or you just say it. It's like you had to put it in context.
So I would walk around with names. So like, so we picked Bayless or whatever. And I'm trying to think, you know, you have to sing the banana manamofana song or whatever to try to see how inappropriate it gets at the end. Like there are certain names you gotta, you can't do. You have to try to think up what will first graders call them? Like what are bad nicknames here?
I would do stuff like I'd go, um, Caskey Bayless on the tackle. Like I would try to think through what would this sound like over a PA? Like if it was like, would Bayless Phillips please report to the principal's office? Like I have to realize, I know me. Look, I'm not, I'm not putting on airs. I gotta realize I've gotta shout this name in Walmart at some point.
I know I've gotta be like, Bayless, if you don't put that down, boy, you get over here. Like I know I've got, I had to practice this at my house. We ended up going with Archer O'Daniel. We actually was gonna be Archer Daniel, but he was gonna be born on the 20th of March. And I told my wife, I said, all right, how about deal? Daniel's an old last name that they Americanized.
It used to be O'Daniel because it came from Ireland. I said, if he's born on St. Patrick's Day. We go, O'Daniel. And I stuck my hand out. She said, okay.
So she shook hands on it. We found out on the 16th, he was gonna be, had to have a C-section the next day, which was St. Patrick's Day. We're on the way home. And she goes, I knew it. I said, what?
She said, I knew as soon as I shook your hand, he was gonna be born on St. Patrick's Day. I was like, then this is the breaks, girl. You just gotta deal with it. The reason we were able to do that is because our son's a real human who comes from real humans and a real genealogy, a real family line. The reason Matthew begins here is because he wants to make so absolutely crystal clear and concrete in our minds that Jesus is a real human born into real history in a real family line.
What he's about to tell us is going to seem insane. It's going to sound crazy. It's going to be unprecedented in human history. It's gonna baffle Jewish people who would not ever believe that God could become a human. This is outside of what they would have believed. He's going to begin to tell us that this Jesus is gonna be perfect and he's gonna die.
And when he dies, it's gonna be a vicarious death for all those who would place faith in him. That he's gonna be laid in a tomb and he's gonna rise again. And then later he's gonna ascend into heaven where he's gonna live eternally. And he's going to tell us this story. And he starts off by saying, I don't care if I bore you a little bit. You need to realize this is a real person born into real history in real time.
He does everything he can to set it on the bedrock of actual living history, family line, because he wants us to be certain as we continue to read Jesus stepped into real life. This is fact. As crazy as it's about to sound. And you know what's beautiful about that? The gospel of Matthew does not start once upon a time. It doesn't start with in a village far away.
Because when we hear those things, we hear once upon a time, when we hear there lived a man up in the mountains, we know what we're getting ourselves into. We know that we're gonna hear a story. Maybe it'll be entertaining. Maybe it'll have a point, like a moral thing we're supposed to take away from it. Maybe it'll be just a story about how we ought to live. We know when we get into a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, what kind of story we're getting into.
There's gonna be heroes. There's gonna be darkness and enemies. There's gonna be champions. There's gonna be light versus darkness. There's gonna be good triumphing over evil. Life is gonna defeat death.
Love is gonna defeat fear. We know the kind of stories we're getting into. But see, Matthew's about to tell that type of story. But he wants to make sure you know this one actually happened. This is a real story. And here's what's going on currently, kind of in our culture, and as we get older.
We say those stories are good stories, and we enjoy those stories, but they're for children. Those are children's stories. That the prince rides in and saves the princess. That somebody shows up and defeats the dragon. These are Disney movies. But real life, adulthood, it's not black and white.
They're shades of gray. Good doesn't always win. Evil does sometimes. Darkness defeats light sometimes. Death swallows up everybody, and we end up being just particles in the universe later. We're told that as soon as we can kind of wrap our minds around that, the better off we'll be.
And it's almost weak to believe in these magical stories where good always wins. That it's not realistic. But the beautiful thing about the gospel story and the Christmas story is that it's a historical story. That Matthew's gospel story and Christmas story are going to be a historical reality. So that the reason we love all these other stories is ultimately because they point us to Jesus.
We actually want Beauty and the Beast to be true. We want to believe that someone can come along and love us enough to save us from the monster we've turned ourselves into by our decisions. We want to believe that Sleeping Beauty is true. That there's a love that conquers our stupor, that brings us to life, and that someone does ride in and defeat the dragon. We want to believe that. And because this story is true, because the Christmas story and the gospel story are true, real life historical fact, when we believe these stories, when we tell these stories, we actually are just getting to point to a greater reality beyond them.
Tim Keller is a pastor in New York. He wrote a book called Hidden Christmas, and he talks about this idea. I want to read a quote from that book. I thought it was helpful. He says, Put another way, even though the fairy tales aren't factually true, the truth of Jesus means all the stories we love are not escapism at all. In a sense, they, or the supernatural realities to which they point, will come true in him.
The reason our hearts scream and cheer and celebrate when we tell these stories, the reason we love Harry Potter so much is that we somehow innately know and believe that there is some dark force out there, some evil out there that wants to rule through intimidation and fear. And we want to celebrate a story where a child is. And we want to celebrate with the fact that he dies at the end, only to burst forth back into life and to destroy evil forever and let the sun shine again. See, all these stories, because this story is true, point us ultimately, because the Christmas story is true and the gospel story is true.
We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. We get to celebrate that all of this is true. What we celebrate at Christmas is the beginning of that story where joy dawns and hope dawns in the world. As Christ comes to save sinners, as God joins humanity to rescue us from our sin.
Matt and Bianca are going to come back up here. And I really just, there's not any real things we need to go do because this is true. I want us to grow in our faith. I want us to consider this reality. So here's really how we do get to respond today.
If you are a Christian, my hope really is that we would just ponder this in our hearts. That we would remember the true, real story of Jesus' work on our behalf. That we were saved from our sin. We're going to take communion here in a minute during this next song. And if you're a Christian, I just want you to take a minute. We're not going to have the words on the screen.
They're going to sing. We're going to pray. We're going to consider. We're going to think about what Jesus has done for us. And then I want you to take communion, which is a celebration of the broken body of Jesus and his shed blood on our behalf. I just want us to celebrate that we have a hero.
Stepped into real life to rescue his people from their sins. That when he died, your sin died with him. You died with him. And when he rose again, you have the promise and the hope of an eternal life with him. Because God did not leave humanity in its sin. But joined us at Christmas as Emmanuel, God with us, to save his people from their sins.
But if you're not a Christian, Christmas is an invitation to you. What Jesus does at Christmas is he joins us. God doesn't sit far away and tell us to figure it out. God doesn't sit far away and tell us to get our act together. God joins humanity in poverty, in weakness, in life, and in death. If you're not a Christian, the invitation is simple.
Jesus came to save his people from their sins. God joined us to rescue you from all the things that would keep you from him. You can acknowledge your sin. And you can be saved by Jesus. That his work on the cross can apply to you. And if you're in here today and you're not a Christian, but you want to be, this is an actual historical fact that happened on your behalf.
The only thing you do is believe it. Respond in faith to what he's done. It's not about being good. It's not about following a set of rules. It's not about accomplishing anything. The reason we take communion is we remind ourselves that it was his work, his body, his blood that rescued us.
So if you're in here today and you're not a Christian, you can become a Christian right now because it's not about what you do. It's about what he's done. You can go take communion for the first time. Maybe you grew up in the church and you've taken communion a lot, but you never really placed your faith in Jesus. You were actively living as if Jesus came to save his people from sinners and that you had to be a good person that he could save you away from all the bad people. You can repent and you can take communion for the first time for real this morning, celebrating that his death and his blood and his life and his resurrection on your behalf will apply to you.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that you joined us, that you didn't leave us on our own to figure this out, that you didn't leave us on our own to try to be good or to earn something from you, but that you joined us, that you were born in a manger, that you really lived and you really died on our behalf, that you really rose from the grave three days later. It's in a fairy tale. It's not a legend. It's not a myth. It's not a story to help us know how to live well or to love well, but it's a story about how you lived and loved us, how you actually joined humanity and died on our behalf.
I pray, God, that as we go into this next week, that we remember this. We wouldn't lose sight of what we actually get to celebrate, that all the work is done, that we've been given life and forgiveness and salvation. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Service, Slavery, Death
Transcript
It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. And I'm excited to get to celebrate Christmas with you guys. As you can't tell, we kind of like Christmas around here. And I'm a Christmas person.
So don't get me wrong, I like the other holidays. Like I like Thanksgiving, the 3F celebration of family and football and food. But like I'm a Christmas person. Give me Christmas. The lights and the trees and the Christmas carols and everything like that. I just love it.
And the truth is I grew up in a family that was like that too. So it's kind of ingrained in me from the very beginning. We were the family that as soon as Thanksgiving was over and as soon as like the last leftover was tucked into the fridge, like the attic door just swung open on its own and all the Christmas decorations just came pouring out. And the rest of Thanksgiving Day was spent putting up Christmas decorations and they stayed up until after the new year, depending on when we wanted to take them down. But I love Christmas.
I mean, take a look at this little guy right here. I mean, that's jubilation. There's like sleigh bells going in the background. It's funny, people tell me, Oh, Emmy looks just like you. I'm like, only mostly. Only mostly she looks just like me.
But I'm a Christmas person. Our family kind of went crazy for Christmas. And the church that I grew up in was pretty crazy about Christmas too. In fact, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, our church would have this like very formal ceremonial service called the Hanging of the Greens, which literally meant we're going to decorate the church. I mean, it was like this big service where families would walk up together and they would hang wreaths and people would hold candles and we would sing songs by a candlelight. And if it sounds crazy, that's kind of because it was.
But really, that was just the tip of the iceberg to my church's crazy experiment with Christmas. We had children's plays. I don't know if you're familiar with children's plays, but you had to have a children's play and you had to have the costumes. You had to memorize your lines and you had to learn the songs and all this kind of stuff. You had to dress up. You always had to look really good.
And of course, I'm going to try to set the standard for when you're looking good. So obviously, a hand-me-down sweater because you can't even see my hands, rocking khakis, and a tie that's for some reason missing, like missing part of it. I don't, like they're supposed to go to a point. I don't know. But I tried to look good.
And every once in a while, we do like, we do Christmas plays that had a theme. It's like metaphorically to talk about Christmas. I mean, because you could do cowboy Christmas. And of course, you wanted to look the part if you were doing that. Even if you didn't have two front teeth. Like you just whistled the music out.
But you couldn't just do a children's Christmas thing. You had to have like an adult choir cantata. And if you don't know what a cantata is, you're one of the lucky ones. We're going to spare you. We're not even going to tell you what that is. But there was just all this stuff going on.
There were practices and dress rehearsals. And it was Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night. And then extra practices during the week. And you also had the Christmas card swap. And you had the candy cane tree. You had children's storybook Christmas.
And then you had the church Christmas party. And a lot of times you got to January and you were just kind of exhausted. And the truth is, I look back on all of those things that we did and I really enjoy them. Like some of my fondest memories are from some of those times. But I have to ask myself the question, like was all the time and energy we put into that stuff worth it?
Like were we actually celebrating Christmas as we were putting on those plays? Because the point of all the stuff we were doing was for our friends to like invite people to come. Like the people that were part of our church family to invite their friends to come and to maybe get plugged in with our church. And as I think back on that, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if the energy and time we put into it allowed people to actually hop in with us. See, the church that I grew up in kind of had a come to us mentality at Christmas.
We'll put on these great plays or we'll have these parties if you'll just come. And as I think about Christmas, as I think about the fact that God came to us at Christmas, is the correct response to then get people to come to us? Or is Jesus came on a mission for us? Are we then to turn out and go on mission for others? Should we be going to them? And really all of this and more is why we as a church from the very beginning have done our give series at Christmas.
All we're doing is we're looking at our culture and say, no, no, let's flip what our culture values at Christmas and focus on what's really important. At a time of year where it's all about me and what I can get and that kind of stuff, we just want to remember what Christmas actually is all about. It's that Jesus came for us. And the way that we do that is that we're generous to people who are in need as we do our gift project. So when our culture says, you know, get all you can, get the new Samsung virtual reality goggles or maybe some new jewelry or the new PlayStation 8, we say as a church, no, no, no, give more away.
Be generous because he who is rich became poor so that we by his poverty might be rich. That at a time of year where it's all about what you can get and all about the memories and stuff you can make, we say let's make it about others. Let's put others' interests in front of our own. Let's sacrifice so that we can do that. And so today as we kind of tie a bow, so to speak, on our Give series, I just want to continue to echo that as we follow Jesus, what we're called to is sacrificing. What we're called to is to be generous.
And my hope is that by the end of this morning, we have a clearer picture of not only what that looks like at Christmastime, but hopefully what that looks like for all of our lives. So let me pray for us and we'll jump into the Bible. God, I'm so thankful that this time of the year we get the opportunity to just stop and press pause and remember what Christmas actually is all about. To not buy into what our culture says and to remember, to reflect, and then to actually get the opportunity to see change in our lives. So God, I pray that you would just encourage us this morning.
I pray that you would help us see the joy that it is to follow Jesus. God, that we would respond by being radically generous and sacrificial with our lives. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Grab a Bible. Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 20.
If you're grabbing one of the Bibles that we have on the seats, it's going to be on page 482. If you don't have a Bible, Merry Christmas. Take that one with you today. We want you to have it. If you're looking at it going, ooh, sweet, new white Bible to go with my collection of three blue and white Bibles at home, that one can just be your Glen Forest Bible. Just leave that one here.
But the passage that we're looking at today is not your stereotypical Christmas passage. There's no baby, no shepherds, no angels bursting into robust chorus. In fact, this passage is recorded in all the Gospels the week before Jesus would go to the cross and rise from the grave. And so this is really kind of at the end of everything. And here's what we're looking for. This is what I want us to see today.
What does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom? So if we're going to be kingdom people, if we've decided to follow Jesus, what does it look like for us to follow him with our lives? And how does his example motivate our actions? And ultimately, how does that even like change our entire approach to life? So what does it look like to follow Jesus in his kingdom?
So Matthew chapter 20, and we'll be starting in verse 20. It says this, Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons. And kneeling before him, she asked him for something. And he said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. So just to kind of set the scene, James and John come with their mom and they bow before Jesus.
And apparently their mother basically says, Can I ask you a question? Can I make a request of you? And Jesus allows her to. And she says, Grant that these sons of mine can sit in the positions of power and authority in your coming kingdom. Let them sit at your right hand and at your left hand. And it's kind of funny because the Gospels are filled with stories about James and John.
I mean, they even have nicknames. Their nicknames in the Gospels are the sons of thunder. And so we kind of see it throughout. But this one's particularly funny to me because they got their mama to go ask Jesus if they could be at his right hand and left hand. I mean, sons of thunder, more like mama's boys. Like, this is, I mean, you've got to imagine how this played out, right?
Hey, James, you know, you know who Jesus really, Jesus says a lot of hard stuff, but you know who he doesn't say hard stuff to all the time? Older women. Like, what if we got our mom to go and talk to Jesus? I mean, for real, that's how that played, that's how it played out. And what we know from the other Gospels is this question didn't originate from James and John. They put their mom up to this.
But regardless, they come before Jesus and say, the mom says, grant that my sons can sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your coming kingdom because these were positions of power. Let them have power and authority and influence in the coming kingdom. Seeing an opportunity to rise up in the ranks and have some power, they jumped on it. An opportunity to kind of get to the top. And the truth is, regardless of motivation, we're all kind of doing this in our lives if you think about it. Whether it's the opportunity to get like a promotion at work or to get a raise or maybe to get a better car or to get a better house or live in a different neighborhood.
And again, those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but I think intrinsically all of us kind of want to keep moving forward, keep achieving, keep having success is one of the things that Chet mentioned earlier in the announcements. Like, I think that's intrinsic to us because we live in a society that highly values those things. That's kind of what capitalism actually is. It's all about. It's getting to the top. It's climb the ladder of success, make the most money you can, get into the best school and get the most sought after degrees.
And in a lot of cases, regardless of what you have to do to get there. And I think that's part of the mystique behind Donald Trump being elected president. I think there were a lot of people that looked at Donald Trump and said, if he can grow this huge company and have business ventures across the world and have a last name that's synonymous with wealth and status, then of course, he can run the greatest nation in the free world. Because they look at that and they see that as kind of the pinnacle of human existence. Like, he's made it to the top. And the truth is when it comes to looking at power and authority, another term that you can throw up there that goes right along with it is wealth.
A lot of times, power and authority just kind of follow the money. And you can see that on a big scale. You can see it in the macro. So if you look at this last political cycle, you've had lots of conversations about how Wall Street and politics kind of played out. Like, what were the relationships between CEOs and the people who were running for president? Any business, the waitstaff makes less money, has less authority than the shift manager, than the manager, than the owner, than the regional vice president, than someone who's on the board, than the CEO.
It just kind of, it's a, you follow the money and you kind of find where the power and authority are. And even, and even that can be true in our lives. Like, even on the small scale. So if you've, if you've got maybe a little bit more money and a little bit more standing, maybe you can live in a different neighborhood. Maybe you can get a better Job and have more authority. And so even, even on the small scale, you can see how that affords you a little bit more opportunity.
And while James and John live in a completely different culture than ours, their, their question is still at the, at the heart of what we're going after too. James and John seeing an opportunity to kind of rise up in the ranks, to, to move their way to the top, to have more authority, more influence, seeing that opportunity, they jumped on it. So let's, let's see how Jesus responds. Verse 22. Jesus answered, you do not know what you are asking. Which is, which is actually a very gracious response from Jesus because he, he does know what they're asking.
And he's simply just pointing out that they don't, they don't know. They don't know what he knows. That there's obviously a disconnect between what power and authority look like in Jesus's kingdom and what his disciples actually expect it to be. He continues on. He says, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?
And they said to him, we are able. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? Now that's not like a, a turn of phrase that we would use nowadays. So we have to unpack that just a little bit. All throughout the Bible, the cup is basically used to represent someone's like God-ordained destiny. What God had for their lives.
And so if you look in the Psalms, you'll see the cup representative of like blessing or salvation. And then other times you'll see it has more of a negative connotation where it's like God's wrath or disaster. And more often than not, the cup is going to have some connotation along with it that deals with like suffering and trial and hardship. And Jesus, Jesus asked him, he says, are you able to drink from the cup? And they said, they said we are. So regardless of what James and John know at this point, so regardless of, of, of what they understand the cup to be, they respond that they're able to.
That whatever it takes to get to the top, whatever it takes to be Jesus's right-hand men, James and John are saying, we're in, we'll do this. Whatever path we have to walk, whatever we have to do, we are in. Jesus responds to him, verse 23. He said to them, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father. He says to them, you will drink my cup. Whatever that cup means, you're going to drink that cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to decide.
My Father is going to decide that. And so, hang on to that little bit about James and John drinking the cup, but you've got to imagine at this point, they're disappointed. So they come with this expectation of, of maybe getting elevated to this position and it just doesn't work out for them. Jesus says that it's, it's not, it's not for them. It's not going to work out. It's not as they plan.
And then verse 24 adds to it, it says this, and when the 10 heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. The 10 being the other disciples. Okay, James and John were two of the 12 disciples and when the 10 heard it, it says they were indignant. These guys were ticked. And rightly so, I mean, think about this. Think about all that James and John and the rest of the disciples have gone through.
A lot of these guys even knew James and John before they became disciples. And so, I mean, they've walked with Jesus. They've, they've heard him teach. They've, they've gotten to be a part of these miracles and experiencing all this together. And now they're trying to jump ahead of them, trying to get to a place where even maybe they're ruling over the other 10 disciples. And they're ticked.
I mean, I would be, and I think there's a little bit of us when we read that, it's kind of like, for real? That's what you guys are doing? And the passage doesn't tell us like that they became friends immediately after that, like it wasn't all okay when Jesus stepped in. I mean, there's probably some time. But honestly, I hope, they made up.
But honestly, I hope that the disciples, the rest of the disciples never let them live that down. Like, never. James looks at Peter and says, where's Jesus off to? I don't know. Why don't you ask your mama? I mean, like, the appropriate amount of forgiveness and the appropriate level of mockery.
I feel like that probably embodies Mill City. Pretty good bit there. But regardless, Jesus saw an opportunity to teach. He saw an opportunity to correct an understanding of what it meant to be a disciple in his kingdom, what it meant to be a follower in his kingdom. And even more than that, what does it mean to be a leader and have power and authority in his kingdom? He says this in verse 25.
But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. Jesus says, you know, I.e. I don't really have to explain this to you. You know how the rulers treat the people who are underneath them. See, Israel was occupied by Rome at the time.
So whether it's governors or administrators or maybe it was people that were in charge of the Roman military, they constantly had their authority lorded over them. It was forced on them. Like it was for shameful gain. It was oppressive misuse. Most of the leaders were just trying to, again, climb the ladder of success or just make the person who's above them happy. And he said, it shall not be so among you.
And the truth is, in a lot of ways, our culture is like this too. That's why most of us are kind of wary of politicians or people who are in like places of authority and leadership and really don't want to do it. They say, because we've seen this all too regularly. We've seen deceit and manipulation and lies and corruption, which is why we're kind of wary of people who are in leadership. And what's interesting is, even though we know that's true, what we just admitted earlier is that all of us are trying to claw our way to the top to get there. To get to that place where we know that there's abuse and misuse of authority.
But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It shall not be so among you. Jesus isn't against all types of authority and influence. He's just exposing what oppressive misuse looks like. And he says, no, no, there's another way. There's another way that my disciples are to act.
He's got a different definition of what it looks like. Pick it back up, beginning of verse 26. He says, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Here's what Jesus says. He says, greatness in his kingdom isn't measured by dollar bills or the number of people who call you boss.
He begins by saying it's about being a servant. servant. Not like a server at a restaurant. He says, servant of the servant class where your life is leveraged for whoever is above you. And to clarify, he takes it a step further. He says, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. I mean, that's picturesque.
That's service and slavery. And if you're putting it in terms of their day, he's saying that authority and power in his kingdom look way more like working long hours in the field or washing a visitor's feet when they come in from a long journey. It's way more like taking garbage out to the dung heap or cleaning a cattle stall. And you've got to imagine at this point, James and John are listening to Jesus talk. They come to Jesus with this expectation of we want to be in power and authority. And they're kind of like raising their hands at this point going, um, excuse me, I, when, when we came to you and we're talking about this, we, we, we just thought that you would be on a really big cushy seat and we, we would, we would also get cushy seats, not as big as your cushy seat because you'd be in the middle, but we'd be on the right and left and maybe, maybe the things you're saying would be what people do for us.
And Jesus says, no, you've, you've got it backwards. It's as if he's looking at them and saying, hey guys, remember, remember when you were a fisherman? Before I called you, remember when you were a fisherman? Greatness in my kingdom doesn't look like the person who owns the boat, looks way more like the peon who carries the nets off the boat and then goes back and scrubs fish guts off the deck. See, here's the problem. It's the, it's the same problem for them as it is for us.
While we read this passage and see exactly what Jesus is talking about, while we understand that a life of serving others and putting others first is, is noble and it's good and it's what Jesus did for us, we're bombarded on a regular basis with thousands of other messages that say the complete opposite. Our, our culture says, you do you, do whatever makes you happy. Whoever you've got to push down to get to the top, do that. It's all about you. It's all about autonomy. That's what Chet was talking about just a little bit ago.
It's about self. We, we use this metaphor a lot and I think it's helpful here that if our culture and what our culture values is like a driving, pouring rain and you as a Christian have an umbrella, you can't help but get wet. There are going to be times when we're so overwhelmed by what our, our culture teaches that even though we understand what Jesus is saying that it's about others, it's about serving them and putting their interests first and sacrificing for them, we can't help but let this little bit just kind of trickle into our lives while we're all going, no, no, no, serve and give our lives for others. It can trickle in.
Let me give you an example of how it does this. If you're a part of a community group, I want you to think about your group for a second. Has the thought ever popped in your mind, I wish I was in another group or maybe this, I wish I was a part of my old group maybe something like this. I would go hang out with my group but they're just not really meeting my needs. I would be open and honest but that person monopolizes all the time with all the problems they have going on. It's subtle but deadly.
At the time that we're looking at what Jesus says about serving and putting others first and that's what Raz and Josh have articulated so well the last two weeks about putting others first. It can creep in. Even though we understand what Jesus is calling us to, it can creep in. So the question becomes, how do we do that? What's our motivation? How do we begin to approach life in the same way that Jesus does and what he's calling us to?
Verse 28. In fact, we'll back it all the way up to 26 and just read the whole chunk. He said, It shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you you must be your, you must, sorry, you must be your slave even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus said, Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus, the one who the disciples realized was worthy of all honor and all praise and all glory who would one day sit on a throne said he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
Like he sets the example. He puts others first. He is the one who is generous and he would do so by giving his life as a ransom for many. And in that statement, Jesus sets out and shows us what his mission has been from the very beginning. He didn't come to set up an earthly throne. He's going to have a throne but it's by way of a cross and it's an eternal throne.
It wasn't to be set up here. The reason that Jesus had to go to a cross is because we had a debt that we could not pay. That we could not overcome outside of his sacrifice for us. that when Jesus is talking about that cup in a couple of verses up, he's talking about the cup of God's wrath. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, God, he said, Father, if this cup can be taken from me, let it be. But if not, your will be done and not mine.
Jesus went to the cross because he had put, he put us first. It was about sacrificing himself for us. And so when he says he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, we're beginning to understand that Jesus is the king of an upside down kingdom where our culture says that moving up is where greatness is. Jesus says, no, no, no. Greatness is by moving down from service to slavery and even to death. Greatness, success, and wealth, and prominence isn't measured the same way.
It's not about sitting beside him but following behind him. And the essence of what Jesus is saying this morning, this is what I want us to walk away with and realize. We could not get to God. We couldn't. We could not get to God not by our morals, not by behaving, not by anything. We could not get to God so God came to us.
It was a rescue mission. That's what we're celebrating at Christmas is that God came to us. He came as a missionary. Think about that for a minute that Jesus who spoke everything that is into existence is now in the form of a baby staring at sheep and cows in a manger in the backwoods middle of nowhere. The king of the universe humbled himself and came but he didn't stay a baby forever. He would go to a cross where he would die.
He would die for us. He would die for our sins so that we could follow after him. So the question becomes how do you respond to that? Like how do you respond to what Jesus says in these verses? We follow after him. We respond by following after Jesus in the same way that he did for us because Jesus came on a mission for us we go on a mission for others.
That rather than buying into the it's all about me nonsense that we get from our culture especially at Christmas we get to make it about others. Jesus looked at James and John and he told them you are you're going to drink the cup that I'm going to and what we know that after Jesus ascends into heaven that James and John are some of the leaders of the early church and they went out they went out from Jerusalem pursuing people spreading the gospel and for the people that were followers of Jesus it didn't always go well there were persecutions and beatings and there was jail time and some of them ended up murdered. James would be murdered for his faith and John they tried to kill John church history tells us and it didn't work and so they exiled him to an island where he would die. Service slavery and death but what James and John realized is all that Jesus had done for them and so the rest of their lives got to be this humble grateful response to what Jesus had done.
Here's the deal I want you to think about this for a second. The reason that you're sitting here this morning is because Jesus came on a mission for us and then somebody responded to Jesus' call to be on mission for others. Think about the person who told you about Jesus. If you're not a Christian think about who has invited you to hang out with our church because Jesus came on a mission and others have responded to that mission since. That's why you're sitting in this room. That's what Christmas is all about is that God came for us because we could not get to him.
So our response is not to make it all about us but to turn our eyes outward and to go and to pursue others. Our response is to have the same posture as our king. And this is so freeing. This is so freeing when we don't have to buy into everything that our culture tells us. That rising to the top that having the most money or being successful that everything else that our culture tells us to chase after isn't going to isn't going to fill us up. Isn't going to bring us joy.
And if it brings us happiness it's only temporary. But Jesus calls you into a relationship with him where he served and sacrificed and died for you. And so our response gets to be that we approach life in the same way. We're all mission to see more and more people become Christians and we go to them. Which means that your entire approach to life changes. It means you're a missionary at work.
It means when your boss asks you to do something that's degrading or menial or below your pay grade you do it. Because you're just there to serve. That when you notice someone skipping work for the second day in a row you go to them and say hey can I treat you to lunch? And instead of going to McDonald's to the value menu like you take them to Moe's. Or if you're really rolling you take them to Chipotle where they can pay more and get worse food. But you treat them.
When you realize that a co-worker's been sick all week you leave work and you go get some soup and you drive it to their house. That's going to people. It means you're a missionary in your neighborhood. If you've got a crabby neighbor that always is yelling at you about your dog using the bathroom on their lawn even though your dog's in a fence and never comes out of the fence. Can't be your dog. If you look out the window on a Saturday and see them working on their shed it means that maybe you sacrifice some of your time and you go help them.
Maybe you realize that there's a lady that's in her late 80s who can't drive that's down the street but just needs someone to come sit and to talk with her. It means we give up some of our time and we go to them. It means we're missionaries in our city especially to those that are less fortunate than us because that's who Jesus went to. Jesus went to the people who needed help that were kind of outcasts from the society. That's why we spend time trying to help people that are often just kind of neglected and forgotten. That's why we spend time at Gentle Pines because it's a part of our city that has kind of just been forgotten and overlooked and we want to go in there and tell them that we love them and that Jesus loves them and that we want them to be a part of our family.
It's why we've partnered with Samaritans well this year. We want the women and the children there to know that we love them and care about them and Jesus loves them and we're willing to leverage time and resources so that they know that. I've been so encouraged. I've had two separate group leaders in the last couple of weeks tell me that they kind of want to be in line to partner with Samaritans well long term. That's so encouraging. Man, that is so encouraging to see our church family turning our eyes outward and looking at the people that God has placed us around.
But it's all of life, guys. It's every second of every day realizing that you exist for the benefit of others. That you don't have to find your worth and your joy and your value in meeting all of your needs and making it all about you because it's ultimately bankrupt and you have everything you will ever need in Jesus which means that we get to turn our eyes out and like everything we do as a church family we get to do it together. We get to do it with our community groups that our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers we're trying to reach them for Jesus and build relationships but we get to invite our community groups into that.
And so here's I've got two ways I want us to respond this morning. Two ways that we can respond to Jesus' call to go out and to see more people become Christians and as we do it to meet people's needs. Two ways we can do that. The first one is that we do. We actually meet people's physical needs. Jesus went and he healed the sick and he spent time with those who were in poverty like Jesus met real needs and so his church meets real needs.
You can meet real needs today by giving to Samaritan's Well. I've been so proud of our church family so far and I know that we can continue to give. We've got the envelope set up over there. You can write a check. You can put cash. You can drop it in the gift box.
The Sacrifice of Jesus
Transcript
Good morning. As Matt said, I am Josh Pabone. I am the current community group leader of our Seven Oaks group, and I'm glad I get to talk to you guys this morning. So we're in our annual give series. So each year around Christmas, we spend some time to intentionally look at generosity.
We want our Christmas to not only just be about what we get, but what we can give to others. So we take the time to look at Jesus' sacrifice for us and try to intentionally follow him in that sacrifice with generosity towards others. So this year, we're focusing on Samaritan's Well. It is a transition home for women and children in the Lexington area. They help them find jobs. They help them get housing, and they even help them pay off a little bit of their debt.
Last week, we had little stockings on a tree, and currently, we have $50 gift cards for the women and children at the shelter, so they get to kind of relax around Christmas and enjoy spending time with each other without worrying about being able to get gifts. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a... That was phase one. So at the end of the sermon today, Chet's going to give us a look at what phase two will be. So go ahead and grab your Bibles.
We're going to be in Philippians. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of the white ones around you. If you don't own a Bible, it's yours to keep. We'll be on page 570, and we're going to be in Philippians 2, 1 through 8. But before we get into the text, I want to take a couple minutes to talk about sacrifice.
Like, culturally, we love sacrifice. Like, we love to watch it play out in movies, we love to read it in books, and we just love to hear it in any sort of story. So it's kind of like Russell in Independence Day, who gave his life by flying that jet into the spaceship and blew it up. Or Tony Stark, Iron Man at the end of the first Avengers, who took that nuclear weapon that was set to destroy the city and flew it into that weird wormhole thing and blew it up and closed it, because apparently that's how science works. Or Noah in the notebook, who sacrificed his freedom. Who sacrificed his...
It's a great transition. Who sacrificed his freedom to be with his wife in a nursing home, because she had Alzheimer's. Or when people intentionally take time out of their holiday to serve others on Thanksgiving. Like, culturally, we just love it. We see worth and value in it. Whether it's true love, Acts of valor and courage, or the villain at the end of the movie who sees good is worth fighting for and gives his life to stop whatever doomsday device he has set.
Like, we eat it up. But only if it's not us. If my wife Nadine and I were in the never-let-go scene of Titanic, I would look at that door, I would grab her hands lovingly and gingerly, and I would look her in the eyes and I'd say, Baby, you're going to have to scoot over. Like, I love my wife dearly. I do. But I can only be so heroically sacrificial in freezing cold waters.
Like, maybe I could get behind it, and I could paddle you somewhere, and you could snatch up some other doors or debris. Like, maybe use one of these acceptable positions on the screen behind me. I don't know. Maybe we could figure out something. On one hand, we love sacrifice. We see that it is this selfless, for-the-greater-good thing.
That when someone else puts the needs of others before their own, we love it, we praise it, we worship it. We see that it's a value. But on the other hand, we're also told to do you. We're told to do what makes you happy and to achieve your goals no matter what. Like, we're told that we need to do what's best for us. Like, I love sacrifice, but the truth is I love when I don't have to do it.
Oh, well, you need something for me? No, I'm good. I don't think that's going to work out for me. It's just not in my best interest. No, I've got things to do. No thanks.
But when I see someone else sacrificing, wow, look how amazing they are. I wish I could be like that. You know, we're told by culture to both jump on a live hand grenade to save other people, while at the same time being told to do what's best for us. So today we're looking at sacrifice. We're going to spend some time seeing what Paul says about us, coming second and putting others first. Like, we're going to see a picture of how whether you or someone else is doing it, we're going to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.
Like, we'll get to see that our capacity to even sacrifice comes from the much more massive sacrifice that Jesus made for us. So I'm going to pray. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about sacrifice. Thank you, God, for this time to talk about putting the needs of others before our own in a time where culture tells us that we need to put our needs first. God, I pray that your Holy Spirit move and give us hearts and minds to listen and just be willing to sacrifice for others. I thank you for everything you've given us, God.
In your name I pray. Amen. All right. We're going to be in verse 1. So Paul wrote the book of Philippians.
He was the most prolific missionary in the New Testament. He traveled all over. He was imprisoned. He was beaten. And he was even put to death for spreading the gospel. However, unlike some of his other letters in the New Testament where he's reacting to some form of crisis or some form of sin issue, Philippians is a bit different because he's talking about how much he appreciates them.
So in chapter 4, he talks about how they were the only church at one time to provide for him financially in his ministry. Or he also talks about how thankful he was that they provided for him multiple times in his ministry. So it's way less confrontational like some of his other letters and way more like encouraging. Verse 1. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in a full accord or official agreement, and of one mind.
Okay. Paul has a good relationship with his church. He's highlighting some of the wonderful things that they're doing while also saying, hey, do these things that I'm about to say and do it together. All right. Verse 3. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, which is excessive pride, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look to not only his interests, but also the interests of others. Okay. So Paul has two points here. The first is do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. One way to say this would be don't place your pride, your well-being, your ego, your comfort above others. Another way to say it is don't act like the world revolves around just you.
I think Jesus says it best in Matthew 22, 39, where he says, love your neighbor like you love yourself. But what he's not saying is that you shouldn't have ambitions. He's not saying that you shouldn't have goals. He's not saying that those are bad things. He's just saying that our goals don't end on us. So wanting a promotion at work, training to win a marathon, saving a certain amount of money in your bank account, or just finishing a whole pizza in one sitting.
Like goals aren't innately bad things. They're good things. He's just telling us that our ambitions and goals, they just don't end on us. So our bank accounts, like we don't save so we can get that sleek new car we've been eyeing. Like we save so we can help our coworker who's been biking five miles to work every day. He's saying that we work for that promotion to help someone pay their electric bill in the winter so they don't freeze.
He's saying that what drives you and pushes you shouldn't drive other people away, push them down, or just have them be left behind. All right. So that's what he said not to do. He said not to let your ambition center on you. So let's look at what he says to do.
Back in verse three. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others. So don't do anything from selfish ambition and conceit, but count others more significant. Don't look to just your interest. Look to the interests of others.
The second point here is in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. All right. So what are we supposed to do? Okay. We're supposed to count others more significant than ourselves. Okay.
How do we do that? In humility. And that is a beautiful thing. You see, humility is often equated to weakness or just being walked all over. But that's not real humility.
It is, however, the opposite of like arrogance, boastfulness, vanity, and aggressiveness. Like you're, you're also not like, Oh, woe is me. I'm just a big fat nobody. I'm the worst person in the world. Like you're not Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Like you're just not focused on yourself.
You're not self-focused. You're not looking at your own interests. Rather than me first, humility allows us to say you first. It is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs of others. And it allows us to sacrifice our comforts and desires in order to value others more. Okay.
So in humility, count others more significant, more significant than yourselves. Look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others. Now, if you're a parent, you're married, or you just have friends, you're kind of already doing this. Like most cases, it's much easier to love someone that you know than you don't. Like it's easier for me as a parent to count my kids more significant when it comes in terms of food and finances than it is the guy who's holding a cardboard sign at the Bush River Walmart. Like my kids are significant to me.
Their interests matter to me. My wife is significant to me. Her interests matter to me. And it's easier for me to approach my friends in humility than a person I've never met. It's easier because I actually care about them. And because of that, I approach them differently.
I approach their needs differently. Like somehow I deem them more worth it because they matter more to me. Like, yeah, man, I'll definitely help you pay your bills. I know you lost your job. I know you got laid off. I know you've been applying places.
I know no one's called you back. I'll help you buy groceries, man. Here's my money. Here's what I have. Take it. It's yours.
Like, for the most part, when people I know and care about are hurting, I tend to hurt alongside them. And I disarm my pride. I disarm my lack of desire. And I disarm any sort of pushback that I may have a lot easier with someone I care about than someone I don't. But Paul says to not just count the people that I care about or that I love or that I think matter more.
No, he says count anyone other than you. So anyone other than me, not just my family, not just my kids, not just my wife, not just my friends. It's anyone other than me. Jesus made similar statements. Love God with your whole heart and love others. Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy. Paul says count anyone other than you more significant. And when we're counting others more significant, like without pride or ego, we're not going to do things the same. Like, I just, I sit and wonder how that would look in our lives if we 100% believed this. And we 100% acted this out all the time. So I started thinking about this.
Like, what if I did this? What if I genuinely began to treat others like they mattered more to me? Like, what if I cared about their interests more than mine? I think that I would be looking at my budget a little bit differently. Like, I'd be looking at where my money went after all my bills were paid. Going out to eat one or two times a week.
I probably could not go out to eat one time and save that money and give it to someone who needed more. Or, I could use that meal that I was going to eat myself and pay for someone else to eat with me and get to build with them. Like, arguments all of a sudden wouldn't be about winning. They wouldn't be about proving that I was right. Like, heavy traffic would just get to be traffic. Like, I wouldn't be getting mad at the guy who waited the last second to merge in front of me.
I would let him in, and I wouldn't be wishing him bodily harm when I did it. Like, if I 100% believed that my wife mattered more to me, I think I would press pause more on video games, and I would mute the TV more. How much more would I do around the house? Like, if she came up to me and was like, hey, Josh, can you just do, insert whatever she asks here for me, that'd be great. I think I realized I'd say yes a lot more. Like, when she gets home late from work, I'd have the kids fed, and I'd have dinner ready for her, so she could sit down and relax.
I would treat her less like a parent picking up their kid from daycare, and more like someone else who's also had a long day, and needs to relax a little bit more than I do. Like, when I showed it to my group, and if I valued their interest more than mine, I'd bring food because I cared about them eating. I wouldn't have an attitude of imposition when I was asked to take someone home. Like, I wouldn't leave group in a bad mood, because I couldn't share something that was going on in my life, because we had to spend some time helping someone go through a struggle that they're going through. Like, I would put my phone down more.
When someone started talking, I would count them more significant than my Facebook account, or whatever random text message conversation I had. I'd be listening more. If someone comes up to me with a struggle, and we're sitting down talking, and it's just something that is sucking the life out of them, I wouldn't be counting down the minutes on the clock. I wouldn't be counting down the seconds. I'd actually be paying attention, be willing to give some of my time, some of my life, to help encourage them. I just, I really think a lot of things that I get frustrated about, hurt over, upset about, which is genuinely, stop making me upset and hurt.
Like, if I acted like I was less important more often, I believe my life would get better. So what if we did this? What if, what if this is what all Christians look like? What if you began to treat others like they were more important than you? Like, what if their interests began to matter more than yours? Like, somebody in your group has an unexpected medical emergency.
Like, people would be sacrificing time to watch kids, to make meals, maybe even give them money for gas to go back and forth to the hospital, or pick up some of their bills. Like, what if a part of the money in your savings account was set aside to give to someone else when in time of need? What if, what if Christians all across South Carolina who got government assistance for their food, used their snap and wick benefits to help someone? What if they shared a jug of milk, or, or some vegetables, or just part of a meal? Like, they would begin to do, be able to do so much. What if all employers knew that Christians were willing to kind of come in early, to sacrifice some time from Netflix, to sacrifice sleeping in, to come in early?
What if they knew that when they were asked, that they would stay late, or they would cover a shift? Okay. So, have you ever gone out somewhere, and been grabbing some lunch with some friends, and, and someone just starts talking to you from the next table over? Like, they're just, they're yelling at you, basically, trying to get into your conversation. Like, they're at another table, and they just intrude themselves into your conversation. Like, your first thought wouldn't be, wow, this person's super annoying.
I wish that they would just stop. No, you would realize that this person's probably lonely. Like, maybe this guy at the next table over, who did intrude into my conversation, maybe he got an invite at the table. Even though, I know that he will talk to the point that I wouldn't get a word in edgewise, and he'll probably talk up until the point that we have to leave. He gets his seat at the table, and he doesn't get brushed off, he wouldn't get ignored, he wouldn't be made fun of when he left, or when my friends and I had to leave. Like, instead of treating him like he was annoying, and an enemy, he'd be treated like a friend.
Like, we would be free from being held back, and thinking in terms of what we couldn't do, and actually be looking at what we could and would do. So this all seems nearly impossible to do, and honestly super uncomfortable to think about. So who are you not counting more significant? Like, in what areas of your life are you the most important person in the room? Like, anybody you know fit into this category? Spouse?
Parent? Child? Coworker? Neighbor? Guy you passed by on the street? Person behind you in the checkout line?
Single mother in front of you in the checkout line who got her car declined trying to buy food? Or maybe it's someone in our community group. See, I have a lot of pushback when it comes to this stuff, and it's because I naturally put myself first. Like, I matter more than anyone else, and the thought of someone cutting me off in traffic, in line at Chick-fil-A, or in mid-sentence, infuriates me, because my time, my desire to be first, and my ability to be heard matters more than anyone else's. Like, I matter more to me than anyone else on the planet. Like, I'm more significant to me because my interests matter more, and honestly, because I think they're better.
Like, like, seriously, you have no idea how highly I think of myself. Like, in my mind, I am pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. And if I'm being honest, I kind of rank sliced bread second. I'm just trying to look humble. Like, Paul says, don't act like this. He says to treat others like they matter more than me.
And truthfully, I can see how beautiful counting others more significant than me is, while at the same time, feel how impossible it can be to do this all the time. But the amazing thing is, it's not just left at that. Like, we're told not to make it happen. We're not told to make it happen on our own. Paul goes on, starting back in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Okay, have this mind among yourselves. What mind? So it's what we just talked about in verses 3 and 4. Which is yours in Christ Jesus. Okay, what does that look like? It's a mind where you're not motivated by selfish desire or pride.
It's one where you're elevating the values of others. While taking care of the responsibilities God has entrusted you, and also looking to see how you can be actively involved in helping others. Verse 6. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. That was a loaded sentence. So, okay, so to make this a little bit more digestible, we're going to walk right back through it.
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Okay, so Jesus becomes a man. He doesn't demand his own way. He doesn't demand his own rights. He just doesn't. He humbles himself.
He's in the form of God, but he doesn't cling to it. He submits, and he lays down his rights. Like, we get a breathtaking example of humility and sacrifice, and we get to see what it looks like to place others above ourselves without conceit or selfish ambition. Like, Paul isn't saying that Jesus just emptied out a little bit of himself. He's not saying that he just poured out a little bit of his godness. He's not saying that.
His actual point is that Christ emptied himself by becoming something that he was not previously ever. He became something that required humility and ultimately his own humiliation. Like, Christ intentionally limited himself and left his throne to become a breathing, sweaty, physically dirty human being. He traded glory for grime. He was fully God and fully man. And in his decision to take the likeness of men, he did not look to his own position or status.
He did not count that position or status that is something he should protect and maintain, but instead he saw others lower than him. He saw us. He saw that in no way could we reach a right relationship with God without him. So he chose to lower himself to our status. Jesus emptied himself. Like, that's what we celebrate this time each year.
That's what we see when we see the precious moments nativity scenes where for some reason all the adults look like babies and we're like, oh, look how cute that is. But in all actuality we should be like, what? Jesus became that? Lord of all creation, king above kings became this? Jesus' humiliation gets to become a humble and joyful reminder of grace unfettered. It is less an ornament or display and more of a reminder of how Jesus' grace is boundless, matchless, and without limits.
Verse 8. In being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is what the gospel is. that in order to restore our relationship with God that we severed with sin, Jesus had to humble himself, humiliate himself, die on a cross for our sins, and rise from the dead three days later to show that he conquered sin and death on our behalf. Jesus did it for us because we can't do it on our own. We can't earn it and we don't achieve it. We never have and we never will.
Jesus was able to humble himself because he saw a need we had. He saw that our need required great cost to himself and he willfully paid it. And I think we take that for granted. Like I don't believe we realize the amount of humiliation he went through for us or how it was in response to our neediness. but he didn't focus on the cost for himself. He was focused on the need. He was focused on us.
And when we begin to focus on the needs of others above what it would cost us, we begin to have the same mind that Christ had. Because Jesus was not looking to hold or improve his position even though he was in a higher place of authority, power, and position than we were. He wasn't looking to improve that. Instead, he looked at our position of depravity without a sense of pride. Without a sense of, what's in it for me? And because he was able to look at us in humility, he was able to count us more significant than his position in glory.
He was able to look at our best interest, which was to be made right with God through himself to the point of death. Okay. So, a couple of weekends ago, I was going to get Chinese food for dinner. And the way the door is positioned, it's on a strip mall, and so there's a door here and there's a set of stairs right in front of the door, or right beside the door. And as I'm walking up, there's a man who appeared to be homeless with a crutch sitting on those steps. And I'm walking up and I look at him and say, hey, what's up, man?
And he goes, nothing much, what about you? I'm like, I'm good, I'm good, thanks. And I walk through the door and as it closes behind me, I think, you did a great high to that guy. I'm pretty sure no one else said hi to that guy. Look how selfless you are. Wow.
Gave myself one of these. And I kept going. There were two guys in front of me who were, over here in their conversation, were a part of a traveling gospel band. And so they were talking about the rigors of their schedule and how busy it was and how many shows they had to do in one night. And in front of them appeared to be a single mother and her child, and she was ordering her food. And as she's about to pay for it, one of the guys walks up and he takes out his card and he puts it and he hands it to the cashier.
And he says, no, you're good, I got this. And I thought, that was nice. Look at him. He did a great job. Like, I probably could have done that. I just didn't want to spend more money than I had to.
I didn't want to have to explain to Nadine why it was like $30 more than what it was supposed to be. I thought that. And so I ordered my food and then I sat down and I pulled out my little Nintendo DS and I started playing Pokemon and I was trying to catch them all and I started to think. That guy only did that because she was a single mom. Had that been anyone else, he would have done that. Had that been some old guy, he would not even care.
He would have made that man pay for his own meal. And as I'm smugly catching them all, I'm looking at this guy and he's looking at his phone and he goes, oh, and he walks to the door, opens it, looks at the man and says, hey, have you eaten today? And I was like, great. Way to prove me wrong, God. And overhearing their conversation, found out the man who was sitting out there hadn't eaten in two days. things. And I thought, this guy's going to run for his money.
He's going to look at that menu and he's just going to order everything he can get. Whatever form of prime rib and lobster tails is on a Chinese food restaurant, this guy's going to order like seven of them. And as I'm thinking this, the man crutches himself, that's a term, he crutches himself up into the counter and he orders a small wonton soup and a small pork lumi. He ordered the two cheapest things on the menu in the smallest quantity and I was crushed. Because in that moment, I realized something. I smugly judge people when they're being sacrificial.
I also realized that I didn't get it. because I was in the middle of writing this sermon about being sacrificial. I saw it happen before me. I judged it and I still didn't get it. That night, I got to see two things. One, I got to see how beautiful the church can actually be when we do this. I got to see it unfold before my eyes.
Not only was that man and that woman her child ministered to, who I was. I got to see how much the value of someone else eating mattered more than the value of a dollar sign. Like, I got a small picture of what it could be if Christians treated other people like they were more significant than themselves. themselves. I also got to see that I won't do this on my own and that I can't. That the most I get to bring to the table are a few empty words and a self-high five. Like, some false sense of humility and honestly, it's really all about me.
Because if I'm being truthful, I didn't say hi to that guy so he would feel better. Like, I said hi to that guy so I would feel better. that is my absolute best. That's what I bring. But Jesus had his interest in mind, Jesus had our interest in mind when he lowered himself to our level. He had our interest in mind when he went to the cross. Like, he gave up everything, sacrificed himself because he saw that we had a need that we couldn't fill, but he could.
Like, I got to understand that even though all I bring to the table are selfishness and false humility and self-high fives, that Jesus wipes the table clean and replaces it with his selflessness and his death and resurrection for me on the cross. So Paul says be like this. Think like this. See the world like this. Have this mind. Be this way.
And that's impossible except for the fact that that mind is already ours in Christ. Jesus took my place on the cross for the moments in life where I'm doing this exactly as Paul laid it out and for the moments when I'm barely even trying. He does it for us because he did it for us. And that's how we have this mind given to us. That is what this mind is. It's filling a need regardless of how thankful you think someone will be.
Like we get to be a people that knows when you're willing to put others before you their praise and adoration pales in comparison to the work of Jesus who came before us. It's like if you're a Christian you have this mind in Christ Jesus. And thank God he gives it to us because it is overwhelming. And it is so beautiful to see in practice. this is who we get to be. And this is us. Like it means that you count others more significant in your community group.
Like their interests are they become your interests. Like the way you see your spouse, your kids, the people in your neighborhood or the people in your apartment complex changes. Like the whole lens that we view life through changes. changes. And so as we have this mind among ourselves this year we get to take some of our time, some of our money, and we get to put in practice that those around us matter more than we do. We get to be a people who respond by treating the women of Samaritans well as more significant than ourselves because we have a God who treated us like we mattered more than he did.
So I'm going to pray and then Chet's going to come up and he's going to introduce us to what phase two looks like. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you that because of you, God, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, because of Jesus' humility, that we get to be humble and we get to sacrifice for others. Thank you, God, that we are not told to do this on our own because left on our own we won't. Thank you for doing it for us. God, I pray that as we continue to talk about give, as we continue to talk about this series, Lord, that your Holy Spirit move in people to give to others around them, to not to look at their own needs for Christmas, God, but to intentionally look at others because of your sacrifice for them.
In your name I pray, God. Amen. Amen.
The Generosity of Jesus
Transcript
Well, it's Christmas season. I hope you're as excited as I am. And I'm not talking about just like the Hobby Lobby Christmas season, like 11 months of the year. I'm talking about actual post-Thanksgiving, none of that setting up early stuff, Christmas season. My favorite transition of the year, because more than anything else, pumpkin spice disappears and peppermint enters in. Can I get an amen?
For real. What is it that for you, when you think of the Christmas season, what is it for you that really kind of piques your interest? Is it cold weather, cozy nights by the fire? Or maybe it's Santa Claus and, you know, his Christmas cheer and the ho-ho-hos and all the little kids who get exactly what they want. Or maybe it's when you try to take a photo of your kids with Santa and everything falls apart. Maybe it's the stress of buying the perfect gift so that everyone's happy on Christmas.
That's kind of hard to represent in a photo, but I stole this from a segment from Jimmy Kimmel, where they deliberately give hopeless presents to their kids. And she got a half-eaten sandwich. And her brother turns to her and says, can't you just be thankful for what you got? And she was like, no. Maybe Christmas season is your opportunity to let people know exactly what you want, either subtly or not so subtly from a stage. Maybe drop a hint here and there.
Maybe you're the type of person who goes completely overboard with your decorations. That's not us. I found it on the Googles. I promise. Maybe you're the kind of person who navigates seasons based off of what Starbucks is selling at the time. So you will know that, of course, the pumpkin spice latte disappears and the peppermint mocha comes out, which is perfect because there's nothing better than peppermint and chocolate combined into one thing.
I love it. Maybe for you, it's all about getting your entire awkward family together, regardless of whether or not you get matching pajamas or matching shirts or whatever. I particularly like in this photo all the kids who are like, seriously, we have to do this again. Maybe for you, Christmas is all about nostalgia, getting nostalgic about your favorite movies, the old school ones, the comedies, the kids' movies. Maybe you're being paranoid about being left alone by your parents. Maybe you're one of the type who actually thinks Will Ferrell's funny and you like Elf.
Shame on you. Maybe your name is Chet Phillips. And the only thing you think of at Christmas is sugar cookie eggnog and how it's been discontinued since 2011. And you blame Walmart, you blame Kroger, you blame Hood, you blame everyone. It's the Grinch's fault, Chet. Maybe you love Christmas because it's the only time of year that you get to legitimately pull out your Mariah Carey CD.
There is no other time. You cannot do it. It's fun to sit up. I'm actually going to take this off. It's melting my head right now. It's fun to sit up here and make fun of Christmas.
And I think we all get it and we all think it's funny because part of us knows, right? Part of us knows that even though it's fun, even though it's funny, even though we do all these crazy things, we've kind of collectively lost our minds. What in the world is any of that stuff about? It's fun. Don't get me wrong. I buy into it.
I love Christmas. But seriously, how did all of those things develop? Where did they come from? And yet still, even though we know we're insane, we break out the ugly Christmas sweater, we pump up the Mariah Carey, we decorate our trees, and we stress over gifts for no reason. And hey, I buy into it. I buy into any season where I can be in a foreign country and they take off their red, white, and blue glasses and put on red, white, and green glasses and have fun for an entire month.
Excellent. But here's the thing. In all the hype, in all the Christmas cheer, it's pretty easy to miss the point. And I know that there's plenty of people who will go around, be it in real life, kind of like on the streets, and on Facebook, being the Facebook warriors that they are, who will remind you that Jesus is the reason for the season. And it's true, and we know that, but the reminder doesn't really help. It doesn't do anything tangible.
And so we have all these people who say, Jesus is the reason for the season, and they share passive things on their Facebook wall, like, you know, random a cappella covers of songs by pentatonics that they come out with every year, like, Mary, did you know? Yes, she did, by the way. Mary knew. An angel of God came to her while she was a virgin and said, you're going to have a baby. His name will be Emmanuel, and that is God with us. Mary knew.
So maybe the song, this is just a suggestion, maybe the song should be, Mary, do you remember what the angel said when she came to you as a virgin and told you that you were going to give birth to Emmanuel, which means God with us? It needs a little work. I haven't fixed the timing of it yet, but at least it's true, guys. Every year at Mill City, we take time during this season, and we try to cut through the white noise. Culture gives a whole lot of messages about, this is what you need to do, this is what Christmas is all about, this is what you need to achieve this Christmas, this is where you've got to shop, that kind of stuff.
And we try to focus on what actually matters. What can we, how can we, during the mayhem of Christmas, during all the craziness that goes on, actually point people towards the gospel in a tangible way? What can we do to love our friends, neighbors, and our city like Jesus did? How can we, rather than buying into the Christmastime cultural consumerism, instead buy into Christmas, the kingdom message of Christmas? That's where our Give series, that's where our Give series comes from. Because Jesus, who was in very nature God, humbled himself and was born as a human baby.
That's Philippians chapter 2. He was rich and for our sake he became poor. That's 2 Corinthians 8. He gave himself up for us to deliver us from sin. That's Galatians chapter 1. The king of the universe, he had everything that is.
He sacrificed that in order to become a poor human baby. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. So, during our annual Give series, we remind ourselves that the season doesn't have to be about bells, doesn't have to be about ornaments, isn't all I want for Christmas is you, but instead we align ourselves with Jesus and we sacrifice what we have to show kindness to others. That's what our Give series is all about. We want to replace the material expectation of the culture with open-handed generosity. Let's pray for that.
Amen. Amen. Amen. God, we pray this morning that you'll be showing, you'll be diagnosing in our hearts where we believe a cultural narrative about Christmas. That it's all about us, that it's all about gifts, that it's all about decorations and good cheer. God, I pray that throughout our Give series, you'll be showing us ways where we can be sacrificial like Jesus and that we can be seeking after Him in the way that we love each other and love our world.
It's in His name we pray. Amen. You can grab a Bible, open up to 2 Corinthians 8, chapter 9. If you're in one of the blue pew Bibles that we've got, that's going to be on page 628. We're going to be sticking mainly to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9 today. It's going to be our main verse.
We're going to read all the way up into it, but just to kick us off, I'm going to read chapter 8, verse 9. It says, Throughout our entire Give series, we're going to talk about generosity. How do we be generous? How do we sacrifice? What is generosity in serving? And how can we use that for mission?
Today, though, we're really going to get at the core of why. Why be generous at all? What motivates our generosity? Now, I have a pretty rational brain. I tend to see the relationships between all of life's elements somewhat like equations, like A plus B equals C. I'm typically very black and white, and I don't have a lot of wiggle room for the gray areas, and that can get you in trouble.
But I think, for the most part, it helps me see clearly where relationships kind of occur. And I'm going to use that a little later on to point out a very clear relationship in this verse to explain our motivation for generosity. But first, let's take a look at the immediate context, everything that comes up immediately before that in this chapter so far. So we're going to jump up to chapter 8, verse 1, and make our way up to chapter 9. So let's read from 8, verse 1.
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, and I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Here's what's going on. Paul, the Apostle Paul, was taking up an offering for all of the churches, the poor churches down in Jerusalem. So if you've got the Mediterranean here, Israel's down here.
All the poor churches in Jerusalem down here really need some financial support. And all the way up around the coast is Macedonia. And the churches up here, who themselves are quite poor, answer the call and start funneling money through Paul down to the churches in Jerusalem. What's interesting is that he describes their giving as, he explains their state as being extremely poor. Out of their extreme poverty flowed a wealth of generosity on their part. They gave according to their means, and he says, beyond their means.
And they begged earnestly for the right to do it. And by generosity, notice also, just real quick, notice that he means money. It's talking about financial generosity. And even though they were poor, they gave over and above what anyone could possibly have expected from them. All the way to the point that Paul labels it as the grace of God that has been given among the church of Macedonia. That's huge.
He calls their extreme giving, out of their poverty, God's grace. There's a direct relationship between financial, generous financial giving and God's grace. Now oftentimes, and I'm guilty of this as well, oftentimes we convince ourselves, I'm just, I'm too poor to give money. Money is not a thing that I have a lot of, and so I'm going to give lots of time instead. Time is something that I'm rich in, so whether it's volunteer work or even if it's in the church, in ministry, that kind of thing, we tell ourselves, I don't have any money, so I can't give money, but I can give my time, so I'm going to give that instead.
And we kind of pat ourselves on the back and we think, I've done a good job of giving to the church. Notice that that's not really at all what's going on here, but I can understand it. In fact, I've been there and I've done that and every now and then I continue to do that as well. But when I first moved here, a lot of you will know I moved here from Australia just over four years ago. When I first moved here, I went jobless for three years. I was studying in seminary, no Job, no income, no anything, for three whole years, which meant that my ballot sheet was blood red for three years.
And you know what you make friends with, you know how to make friends at that time, you go to Walmart. Walmart became my best friend for three years. And you know what, guys? Walmart gets a hard time. But as a student from another country who's never seen anything like it, there is nothing better than doing your groceries while picking up a new pair of jeans and a microwave and a shower curtain and a pack of Sharpies at 4 a.m. in the morning.
Nowhere else in the world gives you that freedom. And America is all about freedom, right? Somehow, Walmart is both the best and the worst thing about America all combined into one thing. And I say that to say that I know what it means to be hurting financially and to kind of have to aim at that level of shopping. And for the longest time, I just, I couldn't give regularly. It wasn't a thing that I was able to do.
I literally had no income. And so all that time, I was serving in the church, this church, convincing myself that was enough. I'm doing the best I can. And what I didn't realize is that after what Paul says in verse 2, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I was missing out on that abundance of joy. I was missing out on that because I'd convinced myself I need the money.
It's all mine. I couldn't, I couldn't give it away. An abundance of joy sounds pretty great to me. And yet, I robbed myself of it over money. Now I get it.
If you don't have a whole lot of money to spare, if you have already cut expenses where you think you can, if you're living kind of at the line, not below the line, but at the line already, and you're just doing what you can to keep the family safe and keep the family fed and that kind of stuff, giving financially is tough. It is. My guess though, is that there's probably some room, probably some room for all of us to cut something out, even if it's for a month or two, in order to make some room for generosity around Christmas. Now, there is a possibility that perhaps if you truly, truly are hurting, if you truly, truly cannot give, and in fact, you need the help yourself, I don't want you to hear from the message this morning that you need to give even though you need help.
Because actually, oops, actually, as the church, our response to people who need help is to help them. And so, in Acts chapter 2, which is kind of how we have designed our church, in Acts chapter 2, it talks about how they all sold their positions and distributed the money to those in need. And we still function like that as a church. So, if you're truly hurting, our response to you isn't, cut something out, give money away. Our response to you is, how can we help? So anyway, I don't know your circumstances.
I don't think anyone knows your circumstances except for you. But, I'm saying all of this to say, I don't want money. We don't want money to rob you of being God's grace to other people. Don't want your love of money and the ability to buy stuff for yourself to rob you of the ability of helping other people who need it. The church that Paul writes about, the churches of Macedonia, they gave more than they could really afford. But it also says that they begged for the privilege to do so.
That's kind of crazy. They wanted so badly to help others even when they couldn't really afford to. They didn't just scrape off the excess, they dug into their savings account. Now for us, I don't really know how to, it's hard to say what it would look like today, but it would be almost like if a homeless person gets $10, could probably get themselves food for two days if they chose wisely. But instead of doing that, they chose to take another homeless maid of theirs out and go get McDonald's and they share a meal together off of the $10 that he made rather than feeding himself for a couple days.
It's the family that literally survives on food stamps who invite their neighbor over to share a meal with them anyway, even though they need the food themselves. Now most of us, I think, are in a pretty different place to that, so I don't want to be a super downer, but most of us are in a pretty different place to that. And self-sacrifice is going to look different. It's not going to be so ambitious. But it can take some pretty obvious and easy steps.
Let's take just one pretty easy example and kind of walk down a ladder. Let's say you are the direct TV fully loaded package kind of family. Sacrifice for your family if you're already at that level may look like let's cut direct TV for a year and go to Time Warner Cable because it's cheaper even though the service is kind of lame. Let's just go down there. That way we save 30 or 40 bucks a month and we can set that aside and give that away. We're sacrificing as a family.
We're not going to deal with all that good stuff anymore. We're going to set that aside and go to something more basic. Maybe you're already at that second level and you think maybe we'll cut out our cable subscription and go to the internet only package pick up a Netflix account or something like that and just survive on that for a while. And then you can save another 30 bucks a month and distribute that however you feel is working for you. Maybe you're already at that level the Netflix level and you think maybe I should start reading my books that I've been saving for seven years and I don't know maybe learn to read again and just cut the Netflix subscription and then you've at least got what is it now nine dollars a month that can be given away to something.
Whatever it is for you we don't know your circumstances I don't know your circumstances I can't tell you what you should do or what's the right level of whatever whatever it is what does it look like for self-sacrifice to come for you because as Paul said in chapter 8 they did it out of their extreme poverty and an abundance of joy flowed out of it. Let's keep reading verse 5 he says and this when he says this he's talking about that abundance of joy coming from extreme poverty and sacrificially giving and this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Their primary allegiance was to God they were completely devoted to him and as a result through that relationship they were generous to the other churches just down the road who were struggling. Verse 6 Accordingly we urged Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace but as you excel in everything in faith in speech in knowledge in all earnestness and in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also.
And in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace also. Paul's saying good Job guys you're crushing it you've got this you've got the faith down you're excelling in faith you're excelling in speech you're excelling in knowledge you're saying good things you're doing good things you know some good stuff
Just don't forget to be a part of this act of grace as well. Don't forget to be a part of this sacrificial giving thing as well. and then look again at actually let's go to verse 8 he says I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine Paul says
I'm not forcing you to give your money away nobody's telling you that this is a command and that you absolutely have to do it to earn God's favor you don't have to give your money away but when you do that sincere love reflects Jesus it shows how much you love Jesus
In your ability to give to others now let's look at today's verse which is verse 9 for you know by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich
Christ's grace that is the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts into perspective our generosity grace is an undeserved gift the gift that we did not deserve that he gave us anyway and Christ's grace to us is that
Even though we turned away from God even though we chose sin as our life direction even though we chose to reject a relationship with him he humbled himself to be born as a human baby so that we might pay attention to him
He became a human a perfect human one who was completely without fault so that in his death in his sacrifice he could atone for our sin that's the message of the gospel that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he took a step away from his
Throne came into our world and gave up his life in order to restore our relationship to the father that's what it's talking about when it says Christ's grace so let me say this again the grace of Christ defines motivates and puts
Into perspective a generosity that's a big statement that even though he was rich he became poor so that by us his poverty might become rich he had everything he gave up to be chilling in heaven where time space distance
Hunger pain none of that even exists and he gave up that completely full completely holy completely powerful he gave all of that up to become a human to be born as a baby which is
Basically a crying potato he gave up all of that to become a baby so that he could be bound to a place bound to a time feel pain feel hunger feel temptation to become
A traveling homeless unpopular preacher who would eventually be killed by the people that he was trying to save when he was killed he had one item of clothing that was worth fighting over that's all
That he had to his name was one item of clothing that people gambled over so they could have something that was left over from him and he did it all he did all of that left the throne came down
To earth born as a human baby so that we could know the father that's our God our God became a nobody so that nobodies could find God no other story talks about a God like that our God became a nobody so that
Nobodies could find God so I talked earlier about how I've got a logical brain I think this is where it kicks in as a result of what he said in chapter 8 verse 9 our generosity the way that we're open handed with our money our generosity is a reflexive response
To God's grace in our lives our generosity our giving sacrificially of ourselves is a response to what God has already done for us we don't give because we're good people we don't give because we're really into philanthropy we don't give because the Bible rule book tells me I
Have to in fact it says this is not a command we don't give because we're altruistic do-gooders we give as a response to God's grace so to put it in mathematical terms or physics terms God's grace is the action and our giving
Is the reaction God's grace is the action our giving is the reaction let me say that one more time God's grace is the action our giving is a reaction now the physics nerds in the room they're probably going to really like that because it
Sounds a whole lot like Newton's third law of motion and then you think about it a little harder and you remember that Newton's third law of motion says that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction emphasis on equal for every action
There's an equal and opposite reaction meaning that if we apply it to what we just said God's grace is the action our giving is the equal reaction go ponder that one you physics nerds but seriously the point is that we give
Because he gave first and we give in reaction to what he's already given to us it's not about us it's never been about us in fact our generosity is an act of grace and we're doing it in order to glorify Jesus
Not ourselves Christians they don't give to glorify themselves we don't give so that others will see us we give because we've seen Jesus our motivation isn't selfish our motivation cannot
Be selfish our motivation is that Christ gave up a lot for me so I'm going to give up a lot for Christ so what does that actually mean for us I actually think that at Christmas time that actually
Becomes an easier question to answer mainly because we're really hyper exposed to materialism at Christmas time and everyone kind of knows it even outside of the church
Outside of believers everyone knows that Christmas time is a really materialistic time so I think it becomes an easier question to answer now the best
Answer is just to pass on the cultural narrative to pass on the cultural narrative that Christmas is all about the perfect gift the
Ornaments the decorating the cheer the happy family the mariah carey album the starbucks whatever it is or complaining about the starbucks cup or whatever
It is Christmas isn't about all of that now those things can be fun no problem with enjoying them they're just not the point
And I think that's where typically we get it twisted as a church we don't just say don't get involved in the cultural narrative
We actually try to redirect so it's not just don't get involved in the cultural mess we actually say here's something better to get
Involved in and that's why we have a give series because we say instead of getting involved in that open up your wallets and
Give financially to something that's actually going to make an Christmas time is a time when a lot of people in our city who are already
In need feel it the most they feel the need year round but there's a certain pressure that comes along with just the Christmas
Time to buy the perfect stuff to be the happy family to have it all together that sting of being unable to provide is
Particularly harsh at Christmas time so as a church every year around this time we get really excited to give away all of our money we
Commit to giving at Christmas we see Christmas for what it actually is which is a time when we remember that Christ has done a lot for us and
So we can do a lot for him at Christmas we thank Jesus for his generosity to us and we give generously as a response and
If you're new around here part of what we do every year is we host the give series and then we pick a give
Project throughout the years we pick a give project and collectively as a church we commit to funding pulling off whatever we've chosen as
A project throughout the years we've done a couple things we've grown as a church so it's kind of progressively gotten bigger each year
We started off with what we called love bombs which is where we picked particular families who were in need around the city and
Each of our community groups raised support for whatever that family needed the next year we did we bought presents for over 100 kids
Families they otherwise probably wouldn't have got Christmas presents that year and on either side of this stage we set up boards with all
Of their names and a little cutout and people swarmed up to grab a name so they could go home and buy gifts for
Those people last year we were involved in flood recovery both in financially supporting it and in actually pulling off the work involved in
Flood it's been pretty exciting throughout the years to be involved in all of these different gift projects and so we're incredibly excited this year
To be partnering with a sub ministry of Christ Central Ministries called Samaritan's Well it's actually in Lexington Samaritan's Well is a shelter and a transition home
For women often with children who have come out of a variety of rough situations be it abusive or neglectful or homelessness and it's
A ministry that tries to help these women in those tough situations get back on their feet now usually what happens as we introduce a
Give series is we'll talk about generosity giving financially and we'll introduce the series on week one and then we'll just start collecting money until the end and
Then we'll deal with the money kind of at the end of the end of the series we're not doing it like that this
Year at all in fact today there's going to be an opportunity to respond financially this year we're shaking it up and we're going to
Respond in phases so if you're a position where responding financially immediately is a thing you can do then today is a great day for you if
You're in a position where responding financially immediately isn't necessarily something you can do you there are currently six women and they're combined seven children
At Samaritan's Well as a church we want to provide the opportunity for these families to celebrate at Christmas so this week as a church we're going
To commit to these six women and seven children each down here on our little janky old school pallet Christmas tree you'll see that
There's 13 little stockings that look like this each one of those represents one of the women or one of the seven children we
Want to provide a $50 gift card for each and every one of those stockings each and every one of those women and children
At Samaritan's Well as a church that's a total commitment of $650 and given the support that we've raised for previous give series I'm pretty
Handled that now remember you actually I know it's over here and you guys have a long way to go but you don't have to
Fight over it because there is subsequent phases and series weeks we're also going to be collecting money for other things as well now here
Are the rules slash guidelines for this week's phase one of our give project which is for Samaritan's Well rule number one only commit
To this give project as a response to Jesus' generosity to you do not commit for any other reason we don't want your money
We want a generous heart in our church that's rule number one rule number two this is more of a guideline let's take guideline
Number two I'm gonna swap it up halfway through if fifty dollars is a huge commitment but you still want to give and you
Have permission to pick someone and organize as a two or three or four or five if you need to break out your phone
Or text someone who's not here because you really want to give and you can't afford the fifty but you want to split it
Some way you have permission go ahead team up organize ways to get the Job done in and amongst yourselves That's guideline number two. Guideline number three. Do not push each other to the ground in a mad frenzy to come and claim one.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty. Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there.
There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that. We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people
Who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait. We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then. Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today.
Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards. That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally,
To begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that. God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like
To sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is
All about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
I realize I shouldn't have to say that, but I've seen you all respond to give projects before. And when 120 names disappeared in 17 seconds flat a couple years ago, I figured that given there's only 13 things over there, we just might have to make an announcement on that. Remember, if you miss out today because you chose to sit all the way over here and you didn't know that the Give Project was going to have stuff down the front and you didn't realize that those things weren't just decorations and you really want to do it, but someone else beats you there, you can sit in this front row next week. It's always empty.
Rule number four. Once you've claimed a gift card, once you've claimed a stocking and you've committed to getting a gift card, we want you to be prepared to bring that back next week. There's going to be a table set up somewhere over there. There's a Give table. And we're going to collect all of those next week so that we can actually make some moves on this Give, on phase one of the Give Project. So if you're going to pick one up this week, be prepared to come back next week to deliver on that.
We're suggesting for gift cards kind of like a Walmart or a Target or a Visa card, that kind of thing. That way our families have some flexibility on whether they want to get clothes or toys or that kind of thing. We kind of want them to have a good opportunity to get whatever they need. Let's steer away from restaurants and that kind of stuff because we really want them to be able to buy some stuff that they might need. Rule number five. In order to give some time for the people who need help getting together and grouping up and stuff, in order to give them some time, we're actually going to wait.
We're not going to respond immediately. We're not going to jump up right now. We're going to wait until the gathering today is kind of concluded. There's going to be songs. Chet's going to give some announcements, that kind of stuff. We're going to wait until it's concluded and when everything's over, that's when we're going to make a move and grab a stocking and respond to it then.
Those are the five rules. We really want to aim to have all of those stockings gone today. That's phase one of our gift project. We're going to raise $650 to support these women and their kids celebrating Christmas together and we want to get that done today. Once all of these have been claimed, this is still tentative. This is not necessarily happening but we want our groups particularly to be open to the possibility that if and when these women and their kids need help to go out and get the shopping done, like they may not, we don't know all of their situations, if they need a ride, if they want to go out and get dinner, like maybe your group could sponsor to take them out to dinner and then go to Walmart or go to Target or whatever to help them out when it comes time to actually using the gift cards.
That's a great opportunity for us if we can make it happen to not just be a faceless church that sponsors them but actually to invest in them personally, to begin a relationship, to invite them into our groups, to invite them into our lives and to make sure that they're actually building hearing the gospel as well. We want to make ourselves available to them so that gospel conversations can happen as best we can. Guys, I think we are, I think we have an exciting and incredible opportunity today to serve these women and since Christ loved us first, we get to respond with glad, sincere, and generous hearts. Let's pray for that.
God, I want to thank you for the generosity of the Macedonian church and how they can be an example thousands of years later to us of what it looks like to sacrifice so that others can have their needs provided for. Thank you for the Christmas season and that it's a joyful time where friends and family can get together. But I pray that that we will keep our eyes focused on you, that we will respond, that we will respond to the Christmas season as those who have been saved by your grace. I pray that you will work through us in this season to not buy into the cultural consumerism, to not buy into the cultural narrative that tells us that Christmas is all about us, all about joy, all about Santa, all about gifts, but instead that it's about making Jesus known.
It's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Worry and Anxiety
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name's Jeff, one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles, let's go to Philippians chapter 4. We'll be in Philippians chapter 4. That's on page 637, if you have a blue and white Bible. Today is our last week of our Killjoy series where we've been spending some time taking, taking some time to look at different things in our lives that just rob us of joy.
As Christians, those who follow Jesus, we've been given joy, been given life in Christ, and we have just some things that kind of play with us that we've gotten used to. And so today we're going to be talking about worry and anxiety, and we've kind of flipped this morning, so we're going to spend a little bit of time, but we're going to come out and spend a little time praying and singing, and so we wanted to have time for that, so I'm getting started this morning. And so we're going to get to Philippians in a second, but it's going to take us a second to get there, because I want to kind of lay the framework for us so that we can all kind of approach it the same way and know exactly what we're talking about when we're talking about worry and anxiety. We're going to use those terms interchangeably today as we walk through, and I realize that there's four of us.
We have things to actually be worried about, actually to be anxious over. So let's say, you know, it starts off, maybe you're in high school, and so you begin to, should I go out for a sport? If I go out for a sport, will I make the team? If I make the team, will I actually get to play? If I get to play, will I be any good? Will we win?
Should I ask somebody to a date? Should I go to that party? What should I wear? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's things to be concerned about.
Maybe it's not just kind of the social stuff, but you're like, should I, when I graduate, should I go to school? Should I get a job? If I go to school, where should I go? How many schools, how many colleges should I apply to? Because I really want to apply to enough so that I get into one, but not so many that I have to apply a lot. Like I don't want to have to write a bunch of essays.
So how much do I do that? Am I going to graduate? When do I graduate? What am I going to do? Let's say you go to college.
You do get into a school. Let's say maybe a couple of schools told you you could come. So now it's like, okay, I've got to figure out which one to go to. But you pick one, you go to college, then it's like, okay, well, am I going to make any friends here? How's that going to go? Should I go to that party?
Should I invite someone to the party? Should I go to the party and try to find someone there to invite to something else? Should I date? How's my hair? Do I smell okay? Like there's, you go back through some of this stuff.
What, I've got to pick a major, and I have an exam this weekend, or the end of this week, and it's in chemistry. Maybe I'll wait until after that exam to pick a major because it might pick for me. Like if I fail that, not chemistry. I'll pick something else. If you begin to try to think, what am I going to do when I graduate? Am I here to get a degree and find a job?
Am I here to find someone to marry? Am I going to get married? Do I smell okay? Like there's going to be, like you continually kind of have things to worry about. Let's say you do start dating.
Let's say you do graduate. When I graduate, are we going to get married? Am I going to start a job? Where? What kind of Job? Am I going to make enough money?
Do I go to graduate school? No, I'm tired of school. So I'm going to start a job. Find one. Finally find one. Let's say you do decide to get married.
Let's say you're in that spot. So you go to get married. Now you've got all some other stuff to be concerned about. How did I move in with one other person and suddenly our expenses tripled? How did that happen? How is that how math works?
Are we going to be able to pay our bills? Is my job going to be good enough? Am I going to do a good enough Job? Am I going to get promoted to it? Can I stay in this job for a long time? Is this a career?
Is this a job? Maybe if you've been married for a while and this is kind of you start thinking of, should we have children? Can we have children? Will we be able to get pregnant? If we get pregnant, will that work out? If it does work out and we have a baby, will that work out?
Will we be able to keep a baby alive? If we do keep it alive, what happens when it becomes a teenager? Let's say you have a girl. What if she wants to date in the future? What if she wants to date a boy? What do I do?
Should I buy a gun or a shovel or both? Which is scarier? A machete or a shotgun? You have things to be concerned about. Then your kids are going to go to school.
They get in high school and you start thinking, are they going to go to college? It starts over. Am I going to retire? Will my health last? Will this sickness go away? And for people who have anxiety and worry, it gets a compound on itself.
So for people who are anxious, who are worriers, you begin to worry about, will I worry? Will I get anxious? When you're anxious and you're worrying, you begin to worry, will this go away? You see, all of us have some anxiety. All of us have some level of worry. And none of us like it.
For people who struggle with anxiety and worry, this is an issue that you have. You don't think, yeah, no, this is good for me. I love my anxiety. I love my worry. I love my stress. I love that I grind my teeth when I go to sleep, if I can fall asleep.
I love that I wake up in the morning and think, will I get through the day without being anxious? That all of us who struggle with anxiety and worry, we really have one major overarching question, I believe, which is, what do I do with this? I know that it's an issue. I don't have legitimate things to be anxious over. But what do I do in my anxiety?
What do I do in my worry? So as we get into this today, I want us to know a few things. There are, worry and anxiety are both a mental state and a feeling. There's some form of physicality to worry and anxiety. Here's what I mean. You can't be worried mentally, so you're thinking about what could happen, what might happen, what if this happens, what if this is how this happens.
There's just a mental state, kind of riding in circles in your brain, thinking through all the things that could go on. But there's also a feeling to it. There's a pressure. There's some people describing like a balloon fills up inside of them or like they're being squeezed. Maybe your blood pressure rises, your heart starts beating faster, and they can go together, and one of them can cause the other. So you want to have something that you're thinking about that causes all of the feelings, all the physical feelings.
Some of us actually begin the physical feelings first before we even begin to think about what on earth is worrying us. It's almost like, for some of you, it's almost like you're a little animal in a cartoon, and the background music changes. So what was like happy little, I'm not, I'm a musician, but something like that. Suddenly the background music changes to like a, like violence coming in, there's some sort of theory, and you don't know what's about to happen, but you know it's not good. And so maybe that's what your anxiety feels like. You don't know what's going on, but suddenly it's like the background music changed, and your body is telling you something bad is about to happen, but you can't even think about what it is.
And so this anxiety, this tightness, this stress, this pressure, this balloon inflating inside of you makes you begin to run in your head. What could it be? What's going to happen? How is this going to happen? I want us to know a few things as we go together this passage. We have to see a few things clearly to understand what's going on.
One, worry and anxiety are not simply circumstantial. Not simply circumstantial, meaning that some of you are worried or are worried, how am I going to pay for this? You don't have money, so you're worried. How are we going to pay all our bills? How are we going to keep our house? How are we going to?
And then here's what happens, though. You can talk to anybody who has money. Getting money doesn't take away the worry. You just begin to worry about other things. How am I going to keep what I have? How am I going to get more?
You begin to be concerned over your possessions now. Worry is not simply circumstantial. It's not like you can move to a different circumstance and it goes away. It does have circumstances tied to it, certainly. And there are, for some of us, we are worried about, well, this is a specific thing I'm worried about. Of course you are.
But worry and anxiety are not merely circumstantial. So if you took away the circumstances, you'd be fine. Worry also tells us some truth. Our anxiety is telling us some truth. Number one, it's telling us that the world is not how it should be. Alan Tipping, a pastor at Midtown Fellowship, he laid this out.
He said, the worry tells us some truth. I thought it was helpful. So one, it tells you the world's broken. It's not as it should be. There are actual things to be worried about. Actual bad things that can happen.
There's brokenness and pain and sickness and death. They exist. There are real things to be worried about. Secondly, our worry tells us that there are actual things to care about. Real things that we should be worried over. Real things to love and to value.
That our worry tells us the truth. It tells us that our world isn't as it should be. And that there are actual things worth loving. Worth being concerned for. And thirdly, our worry tells us that we're not in control. So not only is the world broken, not only are there things actually that we should care about, but thirdly, we at times have no control over any of that.
No control over health. No control over wealth. No control over happiness. No control over relationships. We have no control over it. That our worry is telling us some truth.
It's not telling us the whole truth, but it is telling us some truth. So that for us, worry is not in and of itself. And I'm going to clarify this as we keep going. But worry and anxiety, this feeling, is not by itself wrong or bad. It means that you have no faith and don't love Jesus. That there is a level of physicality to it.
There's a level of blood pressure and heartbreak and real things to be concerned about. The Bible's question is, what do we do with our worry, with our anxiety? I want to read this from Luke 12. It's going to be on screen, so you don't have to flip there. I just want you to see this. This is Jesus talking.
And he's talking about the cross. I have a baptism to be baptized with. That's the cross. That's a baptism he's going to go through. He refers to it at some point as a baptism of fire. He's going to the cross.
I have a baptism to be baptized with. And how great is my distress until it is accomplished. So this is Jesus looking forward to the cross and saying, I'm distressed. That word also means hard pressed or squeezed. I'm bound. I feel it.
I feel like someone is putting pressure on me. I'm distressed until it's accomplished. Now, Jesus was not a worrier. He was not anxious. But he felt this distress for a legitimate reason, a legitimate purpose.
We see him in the garden of Gethsemane. In Gethsemane, before he goes to the cross, the night before he goes to the cross, he is sweating drops of blood. He feels in himself anxiety that he's on his knees praying and pouring himself out to God. So for the person in the room who struggles with anxiety, for the person who at times has panic attacks or anxiety attacks or maybe you're on some medication, what I want you to hear is anxiety by itself is not immediately simple or wrong. The Bible's question is, what are you going to do with it? And so that's what we're going to spend our time on today is actually beginning to ask the question, what do we do with our anxiety?
How do we respond? Because for us, it does rob us of joy. It does, it can derail us for you. A month. And you may be, you're saying, I have legitimate things to be worried about. Yes.
But what do we do in those legitimate moments? And what do we do in the illegitimate moments? What do we do with our anxiety? The other thing we've talked about as we've gone through this series and we won't have as much time to spend on it today is that we have three enemies. The flesh, that's us. The world.
All of everything outside of us in the devil. And as Christians, we should pray about all three. So Jesus says the normal prayer is, forgive me my sins, that's flesh. Leave me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil or the evil one.
That's the devil. So that's a normal way for all of us to pray. And I would encourage every person who struggles with anxiety as a, this is a part of life for me. I would encourage you to pray those three ways about your anxiety. God, if this is me causing undue anxiety, I pray that you'd forgive me. I pray that you'd help me.
If there are ways that you can help me avoid situations and circumstances that make me anxious, temptation should be anxious. I pray that you'd help me there, keep me from it. And if the enemy is involved in my anxiety, he doesn't get to me. So if he's jacking up my heart rate or making me feel this extra pressure just in the name of Jesus, I get to be free from that. So if you've listened to the majority of this series, that makes sense to you.
If you're new today, probably doesn't. I'd love to talk to you afterwards. We're just not going to spend a lot of time on that today. This morning. So anxiety is both a mental state and a feeling.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to start reading Philippians 4. God, we thank you that your word helps us in our anxiety. We're as anxious as a society as we have, as medicated as we are, as worried as we are. I'm so thankful that your word talks about this. That you talk to real humans where they are. You need us where we are.
You begin to help us. Let's pray that through your word today we begin to learn how we ought to respond to our anxiety. And that we will grow in our love for you and our trust in you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Philippians 4, verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. That means celebrate. Be happy. Have joy in it. Overwhelming joy.
So you say, have joy in the Lord. Rejoice. I'll say it again. Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.
It means Jesus is prominent. He's coming back. He's here. Verse 6. Do not be anxious about anything. Well, there you go.
You're welcome. Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. And if you just stop there, that wouldn't be helpful. Some of you who struggle with anxiety. When I say Philippians 4, you knew where we were going. You're like, yeah, here we go.
Okay, Philippians 4. Somebody, you've memorized this. Maybe some well-meaning person in your life used it as a Bible bullet to shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with. Shoot you with.
So you were trying to be anxious. You're welcome. Let me help you out here. First of all, Paul doesn't stop here. He's telling the truth. What he's saying is right.
Don't be anxious about anything. But he's going to tell us how. And he's going to give us some help. For the person in the room who has an anxious spouse or an anxious sibling or parent or roommate or friend. The Bible does say, do not be anxious. But it says a lot behind that that helps us out.
Don't just say this to people. Really anxious about my test. Well, don't be. Thank you so much. You fixed me. Some of you, maybe your spouse is anxious at what you do.
But you just tell them the reason why they shouldn't be. You give them a reason. You're like, no. You don't have to worry about that. You don't have to be anxious about that. Even the Bible says, don't be anxious.
And then you get frustrated with them. You have a very. For those people who do not struggle with worry and anxiety. There are a few things that can be as frustrating as being in a close relationship to a person who struggles with worry and anxiety. No amens. No anybody.
But just that's a real thing. Because if you don't think about it. If you don't struggle. If you've never experienced it. You've never had a panic attack. You've never.
Like any of those things. When somebody's freaking out. And it seems like for no reason whatsoever. It is very hard when you go. Okay. You logically understand.
Like nothing's going to get you. Yes. I'm still freaking out. Well, stop. That'd be like walking up some stairs behind a person on crutches. And yelling, go faster.
Repeatedly. If they could. They would. The only benefit of being the person with crutches is they can hit you with them. The person who's anxious cannot make you be anxious too. So.
Yes. What Paul says here is true. Don't be anxious about anything. But it doesn't stop there. So we're not going to eat it.
It's going to help us here. Alright. Do not be anxious about anything. But in everything. By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God.
Okay. As I was studying this. I got more and more excited about what I think Paul's saying here. Don't be anxious about anything. Don't let anything cause you anxiety. Don't let anything stress you out or overwhelm you.
And then he says, but in everything. Pray. Don't be anxious about anything. Pray about everything. Here's what I think we need to see. Very clearly this morning.
Because anxiety is both a mental state and a physical feeling. Paul says the way to immediately counteract worry and anxiety. Is to begin praying. If you are praying. You are not worrying. And you're not being anxious.
That's really good news. And here's what I don't mean by that. And here's what I don't think he means by that. The feeling immediately goes away. So you're anxious.
You're stressed. Your heart's pounding out of your chest. Or you just have a lot of things to worry about. You're worried about your children. Maybe it's not a whole lot of anxiety. Maybe there's not a whole lot of physical feelings going on.
It's just a mental thing. What he says is no. Start praying. Start making your requests known to God. Start taking the things that you're running around in your head that you're concerned about. Start just praying about them.
It's kind of like this. If I have work to do and I don't do it, I'm lazy. The second I start working, I'm not lazy anymore. But my circumstances haven't changed. There's still all the work to be done. So what he's saying is circumstances aren't going to immediately change.
Maybe your feeling isn't going to immediately change. Your level of anxiety isn't going to change. But as soon as you start praying, it's no longer anxiety. It's no longer worry. Because we're in anxiety are godless. They are aimed nowhere or at yourself.
You begin to act like you're the person in charge of everything when you are worrying, when you're anxious. What Paul says is no. Start praying. And that immediately makes you not worry and anxiety, even though the circumstances are the same and the feeling is the same. I think that can be very free for those who struggle with worrying and anxiety to be able to know, if I'm praying, I'm doing what I'm supposed to. If I'm making my request known to God, I'm immediately doing what I'm called to do.
Here's the thing about worrying and anxiety. Worry and anxiety are a call to action with no action to take. Worry and anxiety make us want to change something. Change the situation. Change the circumstances. Fix something.
Make sure something doesn't happen in the future. And the reason we're in anxiety is because we can't do anything about it. We have zero control. Biblically, worry and anxiety are a call to action and there is an action to take. Prayer. You immediately get to pray.
And here's what I want you to know. Prayer works. You get to talk to the God who's absolutely faithful and in control of your circumstances. For those of you who feel like I'm a warrior and this won't go away, maybe you need to stop praying, Lord, take away my anxiety. And you need to just realize you've been called to pray about what it is you're anxious about. You get to spend some time praying about your children, praying about your parents, praying about your roommates, your school, your job.
You get to go before God and we get to make some requests. That's beautiful. And that's freeing. Because you say, well, I want my anxiety to go away. It might not. But it immediately is no longer anxiety when you're praying.
You can change the word. It's to be concerned. Because praying counteracts anxiety. Because anxiety is the name of nowhere. It's godless. And prayer is the name towards God.
And it's worshiping. So the way to not be anxious about anything is to pray about everything. So if you're a person who says, I'm really anxious, well, you don't have to be. Because you get to pray about everything. Not to say that it'll fix it. Not to say God will do what you ask him to.
Not to say that you feel different. But it's not anxiety if you're praying. So some of you have been praying and you feel like you're praying about something and you feel like, I'm still anxious. Not if you're praying. Not if you're praying. You may feel the same.
It's not anxiety. Okay. So you've been called to do something. Here's what I want you to see. So here's what I think for people who struggle with anxiety.
And especially when it's a legitimate, like I'm anxious over this relationship. I'm anxious over this child. I'm anxious over this thing that's going on in the life that's coming up. It causes anxiety. Maybe it causes you more than other people. So all of your other classmates are also taking exams.
But you're the one who can't sleep at night. I want to tell you a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 12. I think this is so helpful. He's talking about prayer. He's telling them to keep praying and not to give up. And here's what he says.
There's a widow who keeps going to a judge who doesn't love God. He doesn't fear people or God. And she keeps going to him day after day after day after day after day after day after day. And finally, he gives her justice. The judge does what he's supposed to because she kept bothering him. Now, why does she keep bothering him?
She had a legitimate thing to be concerned over. She had a legitimate thing that was weighing on her mind. So what did she do? She took it to the person who could do something about it. And Jesus says this is a model for prayer. When you have something legitimate weighing on your mind and concerning you and something that you're bothered by, that actually drives you to God.
So I actually don't think the Bible wants to eradicate all of our concern. For some of us who are anxious over things, I would just wish it would go away and I would stop thinking about this. But maybe God in your anxiety is calling you to prayer. Not to worry, but to him. That's beautiful. I hope we have a lot of people who can't sleep at night so that they get up and go get on their knees before Jesus.
That would be beautiful. I hope there's a lot of people that wake up with legitimate concerns for their children and their families and people in their community group and people in our city. So they spend time before Jesus and their anxiety still presses down on them and they run to the one who can help. That's beautiful. Because when we're praying, we're not anxious. We're putting it to work.
So Paul's going to give us... So that immediately counteracts the mental state. You may feel the same, but you're actually going to put your anxiety, you're going to put your worry to work. And then it's no longer anxiety, it's no longer worry. But Paul's also going to give us ways to pray that begin to help, I think, specifically counteract our needless worry or our worry that is too great.
So you have a legitimate thing to be worried about. So some of you, you've got an exam coming. And you should have some concern over it. Enough to study. Enough to care. To look at your syllabus.
To show up to the class on time. Some of your friends who never worry, miss the exam. And that might seem great that they don't worry, but they didn't look at their syllabus. They showed up two days late. They thought they were there on the exam day and they're handing out grace. There's some level of worry that's helpful.
Some of your friends are dumb. Okay. You have something to actually worry about. But then, you begin to add layers on top of that. What if I show up late? What if it still says this, but it's actually a different thing?
What if it changed today and I didn't see anything? What if I get there and it turns out all the stuff I studied isn't on the test? What if I show up to the wrong class? What if I end up taking that exam because I don't notice the wrong class? What if this is the one thing that I fail? What if it turns out that everything I studied, even though I have a decent grade point average Job, and this is what I can make if I fail, if I fail this class, and then I won't graduate, if I don't graduate, I'm going to end up not being able to get a job, I'm going to go live with my parents, and that would be terrible, so I'll run away.
Even though I'm an adult, I'm going to pack a bag and run away. Like, you add on layer after layer after layer after layer of what if, what if, what if, and you have a legitimate thing to be concerned about. Some of you use your children. Some of you use the health of someone you care about. You have a legitimate thing to be concerned about, and you begin adding layer after layer after layer. I think what Paul's going to say in the next section on how we pray helps free us up a little bit.
So he gives us three tools for prayer. Supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. We're going to go through these, but supplication, thanksgiving, and meditation. So the first one, supplication. So he says this in verse 6.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, lay your request, be made known to God. Okay, so supplication means a humble request. What he's saying is, in the midst of your anxiety, realize that God is both big and good. You know how when you're little, maybe you learn how to pray, God is great, God is good. Great means big. Good means good.
So we also use great to mean good. That's confusing. It means God is big, God is good. That's what supplication is. It's actually, I believe he's big enough, and he cares about me. So when I was little, and I would misbehave with my mom, after a while, she stopped spanking us because it didn't work.
She wasn't good at it. My father was good at it. He had lots of practice, I guess. I don't know. He practiced when my older brother loved me. By the time he came to me, he was a master.
He was an art form. He was spanking. He was amazing. He knew what he was doing. He was a pro. And so my mom would look at us, and she would say, you can sit over there and wait until your dad gets home.
Because she knew when my dad showed up, he could handle it. And some of us, that's what supplication is. We need to look at our worries and say, sit over there and wait until God gets here. See, we're so focused on our worry, our anxiety, that it's as big as a mountain. But yeah, that's a miniscule compared to the God who holds the emotion in his hand.
Some of us need to look at our worry and say, sit over there. And then begin to turn and talk to God and ask him, because he's big and because he's good, to step down in the back. To humble ourselves. To know that we're not the ones who are going to fix this. We're not the ones who are in charge of this. We have no control over this.
Some of you think, if I have control over how my kids turn out, yeah, a little bit. But God has more. I have control over what happens at work. Yeah, a little bit. But God has more.
And so we get to begin to go to him and ask, be at work here. Help me here. I believe that you're big and I believe that you're good and I'm humbling myself to actually help. That's what supplication is. It's a humble request. And he says, make your request known to God.
You see, when he says supplication, thanksgiving, meditation, this is how the Psalms work. If you ever pray through the Psalms, you'll realize they pray some bad theology. I may mess with you a little bit. There are times where the psalmist says things like, God, kill my enemies. And Jesus says, love your enemies. But what he says, this is what I want.
You get to start making requests to God. He may not give them to you. But you get to talk to him. You get to be real. You don't have to clean it up for him. You get to go say, this is what's stressing me out.
This is what's bothering me. This is what's on my mind. And you get to just lay your requests out there. And he'll begin to draw you to himself. And he'll begin to change you. But you get to talk to him.
You get to be honest. You get to humble yourself and make requests. Two, thanksgiving. So he says, do not be anxious about anything, but it's everything by prayer and supplication. So that's humble request.
With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Here's what thanksgiving does. Thanksgiving is past-oriented or present-oriented. What you're doing in that moment is saying, here's what you've done before. Here's how you've been good before. Here's what's going on in my life right now that I can appreciate.
That I can be thankful for. So for those of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, you start off by praying. You start off by making humble requests. But then you can just start, you can pause that and start saying, God, thank you for how you answered in the past. Thank you for all the times that I've been anxious over something and you actually worked. I'm here.
For some of you who've struggled with anxiety for a long time, you've had years of anxious things and you're here. You made it. God has answered. He has worked. I know you've moved from anxiety to anxiety, but he's answered his words. You get to remember.
You get to recount what he's done. You get to say he answered here and he answered here and he answered here. Some of you that says, God, I thank you that I'm alive. I'm sucking oxygen today. I'm thankful for the cross. You died to rescue me.
I know you have my back. For those of you who are worried and anxious, have you tried praising him? Have you tried thanking him? Have you tried singing and remembering all that he's done, all that he is? Thanks again. So, supplication with thanksgiving.
So, you want to make humble requests, but you also want to be thankful. Seven. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Okay. Okay. Here's how I've heard this talk before, and I think that it is correct, but I think it works two ways.
I've heard it this way. Don't be anxious. Don't be anxious. Pray. And you'll feel great. Don't be anxious.
Pray. And then peace, magical super peace. Peace beyond all understanding. Right? It's this, don't be anxious. Pray.
And then suddenly, you will feel like you are in a cloud. Right? Right? You've heard that. I think that that is true. I think that that can happen.
That God can so wrap you up in a cloud that everything else melts away. But I also think that's not the only way this happens. Here's what it says. A peace, the peace of God. So an eternal, cosmic, massive and glorious peace.
It's God's peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. For some of you who struggle with worry and anxiety, I think what Paul is saying is get on your list. Begin to pray and trust that God's peace will guard your heart and your mind. That he will clamp down on you and he'll keep you. And that a year from now, two years from now, it will make no sense that you stayed. No sense that you were faithful.
No sense that you still loved him. It will surpass knowledge, but his peace will have clamped down on you. And kept you in the midst of something that should have torn you apart. It should have ruined your marriage. It should have ruined your family. It should have ruined you.
It should have had you walk away from the faith. And Jesus' peace will guard your heart and your mind. He will protect you in the midst of all the things that attack you. See, we think that, okay, there are many situations that keep going, but I'll feel fine. And I'm not sure that's the case. I think sometimes it means he'll grab ahold of you and you'll make it through.
For some of you, you have in your mind, in times of anxiety, you have all of this that's attacking you and say, Jesus doesn't love me. God isn't real. This isn't okay. I'm not going to make it. I don't know if I believe in the cross anymore. And at that same time, you're going, Jesus, help me.
Help me to believe. Help me to trust in you. If I'm going to have faith, it's going to be you doing it. And I believe that's that moment where the Holy Spirit, on some sort of subterranean level, has reached in and grabbed you and just said, I know you have no faith right now. And I know you have no way that you understand how this is going to work out. But you belong to me.
And I'm going to guard your heart and your mind. And there's going to be a peace that surpasses understanding so that you'll still be mine when this is over. Now, feel free to pray for the cloud. But ask him, let me feel good. But trust in those moments if you're a Christian, that he's going to give you a peace that you won't understand, that you won't be able to see, and he's going to hold you and guard your heart and your mind, and he's going to keep you for himself.
Because it's a God-level peace that's beyond all circumstances. The third tool he gives us. See that? Just verse 7, real quick. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He keeps you in Christ.
Beyond anybody's ability to understand, he keeps you. Okay. Hey. Third thing he uses is meditation. And I'm going to read this, and then we'll talk about the difference between maybe your picture of meditation and Christian meditation. So, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Let me read that again. Okay. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Okay, so we talk about meditation. If you're familiar with most forms of meditation, Eastern meditation, it is the clearing of your mind. You want it to empty your mind.
That is not Christian meditation. Christian meditation is you want to fill your mind with the things of God. So, you want to meditate on a passage of Scripture. You want to meditate on what's true and right. You want to sit and just think about the cross. You want to sit and study a section of Scripture and memorize it.
That's Christian meditation. David says, I hide your word in my heart. Meaning, I'm so engulfed in it. I've spent so much time in it that it's inside of me. So, what Paul says is, whatever. Whatever is good.
Whatever is lovely. Whatever is just. Whatever is commendable. If there is anything that is praiseworthy, think about these things. You know that song? I don't know how it is a Christmas song, but you're about to start hearing it on the radio.
The few of my favorite things. When the dog bites with these things. Think about my favorite things. I think it's a Christmas song because it says brown paper package. It's not up the street. I think that's the only thing I can think of.
It's from the sound of music. It's the only thing I can think of. But she says, basically, when I'm feeling bad, think about my stuff. So, Paul says, take a minute in the midst of your worry. And one aspect of this is just think about things that are good. Look, when you're worried and concerned and you're anxious, guess what?
Puppies still exist. They're out there. They're still fuzzy. Beautiful landscapes. The Grand Canyon. Like, you get to sit and think about things that are lovely and good.
Think about cinnamon. It smells great. It makes everything taste better. Think about biscuits. Think about cinnamon biscuits. You get to just think about some things that are good.
Some things that you love, that you appreciate. Anything lovely. Anything praiseworthy. Anything excellent. It also means that for Christians, it is a practice for us. It's something that we regularly do to find the things that stir our affections for Jesus and do those things.
Find the things that help us love Jesus. That's why Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your in-chain. Like, what we're called to do is to love him and focusing on what's pure and just and excellent and lovely includes Jesus. He is the truth. He is what is excellent. He is what is praiseworthy.
And we need to find the things that stir our affections. So for some of you, that's walking in the woods. As you walk in the woods, it's like you come alive to God and his creation and what he's done. You need to praise him. Like, one of the reasons we gather on Sundays to study his word and to sing is because it's reminding us of his good. It's stirring our affections for him.
I leave on Sundays. Sometimes we sing songs and I think that's true. You did die for me. You did rescue me. And it's like it imprints it into my mind. It pushes it down into my heart.
It takes things I know and it makes them real. We've got to find ways to stir our affections. Some of you that's being alone. Some of you that's hanging out with a bunch of church family and just talking about how God's good. That that reminds you of his goodness. It reminds you that you're not by yourself.
Some of you this is singing songs to, what's it, Caleb? On the radio. Find what it is. Some of you, if I asked you right now, what is it that stirs your affections for Jesus? You would have no answer. And if you were a Christian, my suggestion to you is start finding some things.
Serving. Giving away some of your money. That stirs my affections for Jesus. When I have to give up some of my money, it reminds me that Jesus is good and that he matters more than my money. It's painful in the beginning and then it reminds me of the gospel. Being outside.
Sitting in a pure stand. I think about Jesus. Like, find what it is. Reading scripture. Studying scripture. Memorizing scripture.
Focus on those. Meditate. Spend time on them. Okay. Here's the thing when it comes to meditation. Look down at, when it comes to action to all of these.
Prayers, supplication, Thanksgiving, and meditation. Verse 9. Well, you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. So he's saying, look, we actually, you were in life with me. You know what I'm talking about. But you've learned and received and heard and seen in me.
Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Okay. Practice these things. I love that he uses the word practice because it means two things. It means you're not going to be great at it and you get to continue to do this forever. It's a practice.
It's a normal part of life for you. So, any of y'all ever tried to learn a sport? Maybe you tried to play ping pong for the first time. Maybe that's low on your scale of sports, but I'm just trying to pick something here. Maybe the first time you ever played cornhole or pin jam or tried to do anything. Maybe some of y'all watched those videos online where people flipped a water bottle.
And you thought, that's easy. And then you tried. Okay. You weren't good at first. For those of you who struggle with anxiety and you think, I prayed, I'm not fixed. That's why it's a practice.
Keep doing it. Keep praying. Keep being thankful. Keep remembering what's good. And do it over and over and over again. You're not going to pray today and have your anxiety going.
You're going to pray today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days. Because it's a practice. It's what you continually have to do to remind yourself. You get to practice. This also means it takes time. The people who do anything well spend a lot of time on it.
There are very few people in the world who just are magically good at things. Most people who are here playing an instrument, you say. Did you practice? They'll look and you respond. Nope. I found the saxophone and I was good at it.
No. It's not what they say. It's not true. They'll say yes. Hours and hours. Hours and hours and hours.
Some of you should know the worry and anxiety. You need to start going to bed later. You need to start getting up earlier. You need to start finding some time. You need to work out something with your spouse. You need to watch kids.
Because you've got to close your computer. Get off of Facebook. Get off of Twitter. You need to have space and time to be unplugged without any kind of screen in your face slashing things at you. You need to take the time to meditate on God's word and his goodness. You need to take the time to pray.
Do you know how anxious our society is? I've tried to reasonably watch. I watched cartoons with my son. This is like one and a half or whatever. This is how cartoons are these days. It's like.
They're just. They're hyper. And then I tried to watch the old Mr. Rogers neighborhood. I almost died. I used to watch that growing up.
It was painful. He just like walks in. He's like. I'm going to take 25 seconds to take my shoes off. It's like. Who paid this cat for this?
Like. He's just stalling. This isn't television. We're so used to everything happening so quickly. We're so used to. If you're scrolling through Facebook.
Look. How many videos do you watch the first 10 seconds of? Like. You just can't. I'm not able to focus. I get on Twitter.
After I get off Twitter. I'm like. Everything is like 150 characters or something. I don't know. It's short. I just flip through.
I do that for 10 or 15 minutes. Afterwards. I'm just like. It's like. I just cranked my ADD up. Like.
We have. Yeah. When was the last time you sat? For 15 minutes. With nothing. Going on.
So we're sure you should have to propose. And it used to be when you waited for a bus. Or you waited in the doctor's office. And the best thing you could have is a magazine. Some of y'all. You're waiting.
Is now you watching Netflix on your phone? And then we wonder why we're hyper. And we have ADD. And we're anxious. We don't ever spend any time. Where it's quiet.
Where our brain gets to rest a little bit. Where we're doing something that's just creative. Or we're. Like. You've got to make time for. Practicing.
Supplication. Thanksgiving. And meditation. You have to have time. Anxiety and worry insert themselves into your life. Prayer and meditation do not.
You ever. You ever been riding to work. And suddenly just. You heard a pop. And now you had to meditate for an hour. No.
But you got a flat tire. You ever been to work. And it turns out someone was sick. So then you had two hours to break. No. But you had someone sick.
So you had to do twice as much work that day. Worry and anxiety are going to show up. Your child is going to run into your room. At two o'clock in the morning. And throw up on the floor. Prayer is not going to run into your room.
At two o'clock in the morning. And you're like. I'll spend some time. It's not going to happen. You have to make time for it. That's the one thing.
Like. In our anxiety. We've got to make some space. Which means you've got to say no to some things in your life. You've got to get your bummed down some. You've got to turn your computer off.
You've got to work out something with your spouse. Some sort of schedule. So that you can rest. So that you can sap it. So that you can have some time.
Because these work. And they'll go to work on us. But we've got to have time. Then you make some promise here at the end. Practice these things. And the God of peace will be with you.
That is the Christian promise. That is the promise we're given and kept in Jesus. Is that God is with us. He joined us. We don't have a God who's always stayed above the frame. We have a God that says I have a baptism to be baptized with.
And I'm distressed until it happens. We have a God that falls on his face before his father. And sweat pours off. And he prays. Lord help me. Take us away if you can.
And if not. Help me to be faithful. Your will be done. Romans 8. 32 says this. He who did not spare his own son.
But gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him. Graciously give us all things. You see. We have the Christian promise. Which is that God is with us.
That he joined us. That he went to the cross. That God gave up his own son. So that we can trust him infinitely. That in the midst of everything. We can lean into him.
And run into him. Because he loves us. If you're a Christian. The Holy Spirit dwells in you. God is actively with you. His peace is actively with you.
Jesus doesn't just say I'm going to send comfort. He says I'm going to send the comfort. I'm not just going to send you help. I'm going to send the helper. For those of us who are in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in us.
And works in us. And holds us. And guards us. And keeps us. And in the midst of anything you're going through. The God of peace will be with you.
That is the Christian promise. Confirmed and sealed. And forever ours on the cross. There's an indigent and fruit. There's a risen kingdom on the throne. And a helper and a comfort that dwells inside of us.
To keep us. And carry us on. That's what we have in Christ. So here's what we're going to do. Today's a little different. The band's going to come back up here.
We are going to spend the next bit of time that we have together practicing these practices. Because they're practices. So you have to do them. So rather than just talking about this. Talking about supplication and thanksgiving and meditation and living life. Go home and try to find a place to do that.
We figured you were already here. You'd already cleared your schedule. So let's begin to practice a little bit. Let's begin to go ahead and walk through some of what the opportunity we have is what Paul's called us into. So for the very first thing Paul says is to take your worry and take your anxiety.
Don't be anxious about them. But pray about anything. By supplication. So what we're going to do is we're going to take just a minute right where you are. And we're going to humbly ask God to work. You have things to be anxious over.
You have things to be worried about. We're not going to sit in our worry and our anxiety and have an ambulance. We're going to point it to Jesus in the midst of all the real concerns you have. You begin to just say, God, I need you. I need you to help me here. I need you to be at work here.
I need you to redeem here. I need you to step into this situation. I don't have any control of their health. I don't have any control of this relationship. I can't make them repent. I can't make them come back.
So right now where we are, I want you to just begin to take all the things you're concerned about. All the things you're worried about. Maybe short-term stuff that's happening this week. Stuff that's not going to happen. It's five years away. You can just ask God.
Move here. Work here. Let's do that now.
Whoops! We had some problems recording on Sunday. Unfortunately the best we've got is the recording from our iMac's internal microphone. Sorry for the sneezing!
Condemnation and Criticism
Transcript
All right, so we are in our fifth week of our Killjoy series. We've got this week and next week, and we're finishing it up. What we've been doing is we've been looking at there are certain things as Christians that do not have to be true for us, do not have to be normal for us, but that we've gotten used to, that have become normal for us. Today we're going to be talking about self-loathing. You can call that self-condemnation. Sometimes it goes under the name of low self-esteem, which I don't like.
I don't think that's helpful, but people use that term. We use self-loathing, self-condemnation, self-hatred. We're going to just talk a little bit about how that works and how it affects us and how it robs us of joy and what the Bible says about how we can be free from it. So I started playing football when I was like 11, and then I played through elementary school, middle school, high school, and some in college. And my sophomore year of high school, I sublexed my patella, which just means I dislocated my kneecap on my left knee. So I went to – actually, no, it was in my freshman year.
So my freshman year, starting in my freshman year, I got hit. My kneecap came out of place, and then every year after that, I had knee injuries. So over the course of the rest of my career from my freshman year onward, I dislocated this kneecap four times, strained in MCL, strained in LCL, tore fibers, and meniscus. I dislocated this kneecap three times, which I was at a doctor one time, and he goes, how many times have you dislocated? He's a doctor, so he probably said sublexed your patella. And I was like, this is the sixth one.
He goes, you know, it usually only happens to girls, right? I was like, bruh. I did not. I do now. Thank you. He was like, and just kept going.
Just gets to go about his day being a doctor, and I have some sort of girl knees. I don't know. No offense to all the ladies in here, but I took offense at that. But anyway, sublexed this one. Three times, strained in MCL, strained in PCL, strained in LCL, tore in ACL, and tore meniscus and fibers. I've gotten really good at taking naps in MRI machines.
My knees hurt. They started hurting when I was a freshman in high school. They continue to hurt. They still hurt. They make really terrible noises if I walk upstairs or carry things or walk forward. Went to a doctor recently.
I was like, it was just like a normal checkup because I'm getting older, and you have to start going to those. And so I was like, I don't need you to listen to my knees. And so I bent over, and he listened. And I was like, what do you think? And he was like, well, if you don't run a lot, if you don't go jogging or make that a thing. And I was like, doctor, I love you.
I just wanted to say. I always thought running was evil also. He's like, if you don't do that, you might be all right. So I was like, oh, okay. So if I don't make jogging a thing, I won't have to have surgery.
And he goes, oh, no. No, you're going to have to have surgery, but you could push it back by a couple years. I was like, well, great. My knees hurt. They hurt. They hurt.
They have gotten used to it. It's not like a really violent pain. It's a dull pain. They grind. They pop. It's normal for me.
It is normal for my knees to feel this way. So my wife's like, you should go ahead and get surgery. And I'm like, no, because that would feel like out of the normal type pain. Like, that's different. I'm used to this. I'm okay with this.
I want to keep my knees the way they are. Slight pain, but not continual aggressive throbbing pain or surgery pain. And for a lot of us, when it comes to self-loathing, when it comes to this internal dialogue, this internal monologue, we've gotten so used to it. We don't even notice it anymore. I don't pay attention to my knees hurting. That's normal for me.
That's my center of gravity for me. So for a lot of us in the room, you've gotten so used to speaking down to yourself because self-loathing in some ways is a voice. Your voice is somebody else's voice. It's kind of in your head as an internal dialogue. And so normal life looks to you like, I'm ugly. I'm fat.
I'm such an idiot. God, nobody really likes me. I made that conversation awkward. They don't really want to talk to me. These friends aren't really my friends. They just have to hang out with me so they're nice to me because they have to.
I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm going to mess my kids up. I'm a terrible mother. I'm a terrible father. I'm a failure. I'm an idiot.
I'm horrible. I'm ugly. Nobody really likes me. I don't have any real friends. This is a normal thought process for you. So that when you go to do something and you mess up, you think, of course.
Of course I would mess up. That's what I'd do. When a relationship starts going poorly, you start going, yeah, of course. Because this is how all my relationships work. Because I'm such an idiot. I've been doing this my entire life.
I'm the one who derails everything. I'm the one who ruins everything. This has become a normal, everyday, for some of you it's a, I should just kill myself. I'm worthless. I'm a failure. Everyday.
It's not uncommon for these type of thoughts to be how you speak to yourself, how you think about things. And here's what we're looking at this morning. If you are a Christian, and if the gospel is true, then this internal dialogue, this internal monologue can't be. If the gospel is true, then these things that have begun to be normal in our heads can't be. Can't be true. That's what I want us to see this morning as we go into scripture.
And then I want us to, out of that, begin to know how do we respond. What do we do? So let's go to Colossians 1. We read this earlier. It's on page 638. If your Bible is a blue and white Bible, one of the ones in the rows.
If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it. But we'll be on page 638 looking in Colossians. This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in Colossae. Teaching them about Jesus. Teaching them about how Christianity works.
We're going to pick up in verse 15. The first word is he. That's talking about Jesus. And it'll be talking about Jesus throughout. He is the image of the invisible God. Okay, so Jesus, God created the world.
He exists in a spiritual realm. We don't get to see him. But Jesus lets us see him. Jesus is what God would be like if he became a person. So he's the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn of all creation. Now firstborn, when it's used in the Bible, can mean two things. It can mean, in this section, it can be the firstborn of all creation. That can mean that he was created first. But firstborn is also used to mean has preeminence over, is dominant over, because of the way they did lineage.
So he's either created first or he has dominance over. The firstborn of all creation for, so it's explaining this, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Okay, it means has dominance over. It doesn't mean he was created first. Jesus has existed since eternity past as part of the Trinity. He was not created.
He has dominance over everything because he created everything. Okay, Jesus created everything. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. So all nations, all countries, all rulers, all thrones, all dominions, visible and invisible.
So spiritual as well. Spiritual dominions and authorities and rulers, all of them were created by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. I know we don't usually do this, but can somebody say amen or praise Jesus? Isn't that good? That he is massive. He's created everything. Everything exists in him and for him and through him.
And then he went to a cross to reconcile everything back to himself. That's who Jesus is. Okay. 21. And you. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
All right. Let's look at those terms real quick. Let's explain them. Especially for the person in here who has that sort of internal dialogue. Alienated. Outcast.
Alone. Alone. Isolated. Unwanted. Unloved. Separated.
That's what alienated means. Alienated. Hostile in mind. Means that you are an enemy. You are far from God. You are against God and God was against you.
And it says in mind, meaning that you are completely laid bare before him. He can see your thoughts. He can see everything you've ever done. That God looks at you and knows exactly what is going on with you. You have nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.
You are laid bare. You are fully exposed in front of him. And it says doing evil deeds. Meaning that we were wicked. Sinful. Failures.
Sick. Twisted. Broken. Horrible. People. That's what that means.
That's what that means. But. It says who once were. That once was. If you are a Christian, that once was true for you. You once were alienated.
Hostile. Now. Wicked. Sinful. Failure. Who's an enemy of God.
You once were. What's it say? 22. He has now. Okay. Because of how English works.
Once were. He has now. This is change. This used to be true about you. You used to be alienated. You used to be hostile in mind.
You used to be doing evil, wicked deeds. You used to be broken and sinful. But because of Jesus. He has now. He has. Jesus has done something now that changes that.
He has now. This is verse 22. So you who once were. 22. He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh.
By his death. Reconciled means he brought you back. You're not alienated anymore. You're reconciled. That Jesus did that through his death on the cross. That those of you who feel like I'm unwanted.
I'm unloved. Nobody cares about me. Nobody wants me. I ruin everything. Jesus went to the cross. To pursue you.
To reconcile you. To make you his. Because he cares about you. And he loves you. Jesus tells his disciples. There's no greater love than this.
Than that someone would give up their life for their friends. That's what he did. The greatest love with which you've ever been loved. Was shown to you on the cross. When Jesus went to the cross. While you were his enemy.
To make you his. He has now through the cross. Changed. The descriptors for us. Some of you. If we had to ask.
How would you describe yourself. And you were going to write it down. You'd write. Unwanted. Damaged goods. Failure.
Whore. You would. That would be how you would write it. And what this just said was. You once were. But now.
Jesus has. And he changes. Your descriptor. Here's what it says. And now Jesus has reconciled you. I mean he's brought you back.
To himself. In order. To present you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Before him. He rescued you. Died for you. To present you to himself. To present you. Holy and blameless.
And above reproach. Before him. We're going to come back to those terms. Let's keep reading. Because I want to. Finish this thought.
And then we'll come. We'll define those terms. Spend the. The remainder of our time there. If indeed. It's 23.
If indeed. You continue in the faith. Stable and steadfast. Not shifting from the hope. Of the gospel you heard. Which has been proclaimed.
In all creation. Under heaven. And of which I. Paul. Became a minister. Okay.
So now we have an issue. When we get to the text. He says. You were this. Jesus has now. Made you this.
Holy blameless. And above reproach. If. Okay. So that's a scary word.
If indeed. You remain. Stable and steadfast. And not shifting from the hope. Okay. So that can mean.
One of two things. That if. Can mean one of two things. It can mean. This will be true for you. If.
You keep it together. That if. Can also mean. If this is true for you. This is what will happen. So it can be.
This is true. If you keep it together. Or it can be. If this is true for you. You'll keep this. This is what will happen.
You'll make it to the end. So let me. Explain. Put this in a different category. To maybe help you think about it. All right.
So when I was. Going into my freshman year. Of high school. We were at a. I grew up in the church. I was in a youth group.
We were in a. I was in the youth choir. Anybody else in the youth choir. High quality stuff. We're going to get. We're going to get youth choir started here.
It's going to be awesome. We're going to wear white gloves. We're going to do interpretive dance. I got big plans for you guys. We're bringing handbells back. All right.
So anyway. I was in a youth choir. We went to Florida. To sing a song. To make a CD. Or something.
I don't remember. And there were some guys there. From another youth. Thing. That were. Running their mouths.
And telling people. They were going to fight them. And it. It got to this whole big. Thing. And.
There was a point. Where. These two guys. Were coming towards. Me. And a group of other people.
Telling us. They were going to beat us up. And so I thought. That sounded like a bad idea. Because I don't know. I don't like getting beat up.
So. Ninth grade Chet. Thought. You know. One of the best ways. To not get beat up.
Is to punch someone first. And so. While they were walking this way. I jumped up. And I punched a guy. Who was closest to me.
And there was another guy. Who was bigger. But this guy was closer. Okay. Tracking with the story. All right.
My brother Logan was there. And he's older than me. Now. Now. A good. Older brother.
Regardless of the circumstances. Will defend. Their younger brother. In a fight. I'm making that as a blanket statement. A good older brother.
Will defend. The younger brother. In a fight. Now. I punch this guy. Big guy grabs me.
Older brother. Punches the big guy. It's beautiful. Might actually be. Don't read too much in this. I'm not making theological statements.
At this point. I'm just telling you a story. So. A big guy grabs me. And then. He gets punched.
In the side of the head. Now. We can. Then begin to argue. Because. My brother Logan.
Punched him in the head. He is a good brother. Or. Because he is a good brother. He punched him. In the side of the head.
See how this works. That's the issue. We're facing. In this text. Do you make it. To the end.
Because you are a Christian. Or. If you make it. To the end. You are a Christian. When you take.
The totality. Of the rest. Of the scriptures. Where it's say. That Jesus is the author. And the finisher.
Of our faith. That he who began. A good work in you. Is faithful to complete it. Where Jude says. I commend you to Jesus.
Who's. Who's going to keep. The only person. Who can keep you. From stumbling. What this text means.
Is. Jesus. You used to be. Hostile. And wicked. And evil.
Used to be. A rebellious. You used to be. All these things. And Jesus has now. Through the cross.
Made you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach. And because he has done that. You will.
Make it to the end. That all of those. Who make it to the end. Were. Rescued. Redeemed.
And made that way. And brought there. By Jesus. Not by themselves. That's very important. Especially for people.
Who struggle with self-loathing. Because you will try to. As best you can. Wiggle your way out of. Jesus being this ultimate hero. Who rescues and redeems you.
And the text means. You make it to the end. If you're a Christian. If this is true for you. You'll make it to the end. And those who don't make it to the end.
Weren't actually ever saved. That's. And we can talk more about that. But I just had to cover that. As we went through this real quick. So what I'm saying is.
Because my brother was a good brother. He punched the guy on the side of the head. All right. You can ask him about that later. He's one of our group leaders. Pray for him.
He's got anger issues. All right. Let's go back. You once were. He has now. Let's look at these phrases.
He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh. By his death. In order to present you. Holy. Blameless.
And above reproach. What do those words mean? Holy means. Set apart. For God. Cleaned.
Lifted up. And set apart for God. Some of you think you are separated from God. What this actually says is. No. You are separated.
For God. That he separated you from everything else. For him. That he brought you to himself. He made you. Holy.
That they were. Consecrated. Set aside. Utensils. They used to use in the temple. They were consecrated.
Set aside. Holy places. And that because of Jesus. We've been made. Holy. Meaning we've been consecrated.
We've been set aside. We've been brought to him. Holy and blameless. You're not at fault. If you are in Christ. You have no blame.
If you went before a judge. They would have nothing against you. You are blameless. Now think about that for a second. How many of us does that actually get to be true for? On our own.
Raise your hand. We're going to punch you. If that's true for you on your own. Because you're a liar. Okay. None of us.
None of us. None of us get to be blameless. Jesus makes us blameless. And then it says. Above reproach. I want to read you all the definition of a reproach.
It says to address someone. In such a way as to express. Disapproval. And disappointment. Disappointment. Or.
An expression. Of disapproval. And disappointment. That's what. That's what reproach means. And we're above.
Reproach. Meaning there is no. Disapproval. There is no. Disappointment. For those who are in Christ.
You cannot be. An idiot. A failure. You cannot be. All these names you. Label yourself with.
Or that other people. Label you with. You can't be. Not if you're in Christ. You're above that. There is no disapproval.
There is no disappointment. You have not fallen short. You have not failed. You have not let people down. Like not in Christ. You're above reproach.
Nothing bad. Can be said about you. Romans 15. Three. Says it this way. For Christ did not please himself.
But as it is written. The reproaches of those who reproached you. Fell on me. Now that's a. Kind of a clunky sentence. But here's what it means.
Everything bad. If you were a Christian. Everything bad. That could be said about you. Lands on Jesus. That's what happened at the cross.
That's why Jesus died on the cross. He did not deserve to die on the cross. He deserved to be exalted. And worshipped. And held high. And loved.
And respected. And welcomed. And cared for. But he traded all of that in. To swap places with us. So that everything bad.
That anyone could possibly say. About us. Lands on Jesus. And Jesus takes it to the cross. We could line up. Every Christian in this room.
And we could walk up this ramp. And you could walk up to a microphone. And you could say out loud. Every bad thing. That you could think to say about yourself. That someone else could think to say about you.
That someone could drag out of your past. And if you are a Christian. None of that would stick to you. Because it all. Went to Jesus. And he took it to the cross.
All the things that could be said bad about you. Became true of Jesus. And all of his righteousness and holiness. Became true of us. So that in Christ.
We are holy and blameless. And above reproach. Remember when you were a little kid. And you'd be arguing with somebody. And you'd call them a name. And they'd be like.
I'm rubber. And you're glue. Everything you say. Bounce off me. And sticks on you. Maybe you don't remember that.
That's a thing. They got the people wrong. If you're a Christian. You're rubber. Jesus is glue. That's how that works.
Everything that could be said bad about you. Everything that could be levied against you. As a complaint. As disapproval. As disappointment. Bounces off of you.
And sticks on Jesus. That's the good news of the cross. That's the gospel. So if you follow yourself around. With an internal dialogue of. I'm terrible.
I'm the worst. I'm going to mess my children up. I'm going to fail. I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm the one who did this. I'll never be clean.
I'll never be washed. I've always. Have this in my past. I'll never be. Any of the things I've set out to be. I'm always going to be a failure.
I'm always going to fall short. I'm always going to be an idiot. If that's you. All of that. If you are in Christ. Bounces off of you.
And sticks to Jesus. Because the reproaches. The complaints. The disapproval. The disappointment. That would have come to you.
Go to Jesus. And then Jesus took him to the cross. And all of his holiness. And blamelessness. And everything that made him above reproach. So that no one can say anything bad about Jesus.
Comes to you. That's the gospel. And that's why. If you. If the gospel is true for you. None of this other stuff can be.
If the gospel is true. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he's died for you. And reconciled you. And made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. To present to himself. None of this other stuff can be true. One of the reasons we read. Verses 15 through 20. To show you how massive Jesus is.
And how much in control he is. And how sovereign and eternal he is. Is because I want you to know. That if Jesus says you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
You are. And you don't have an option on that. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he says. I've made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You are. And secondly. If that is seated in Christ. If it's wedged in him. If it belongs to him.
If he's the one who keeps it together. It's not going anywhere. If it was up to you. To keep together. To be holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You'd have a problem. But because it's based in Jesus. It's eternal. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. You will forever be holy.
And blameless. And above reproach. Because of what Jesus has done for you. And that's good news. Okay. So where does this come from?
How do we begin to be free from it? Well we said when we started off this series. That we were going to talk about your three enemies. As we went through. We haven't spent much time on them in the past couple weeks. But we're bringing them back up today.
You've got three enemies. The flesh. The world. And the devil. So I'm going to give a brief explanation of these.
And then we'll talk about how they work. But the flesh is you. You choose to sin. You actively pursue sin. So it's possible.
In this scenario. That this is your own internal dialogue. Where you're beating yourself up constantly. Maybe you think it'll help. There's some reasons why you might do it. Some of you are trying to motivate yourself.
So you say things to yourself. Like don't be lazy. Don't be an idiot. If you don't figure this out. You'll be a failure your whole life. You're trying to motivate yourself.
By giving yourself some tough love. Some of you are trying to keep yourself from being disappointed. So you apply for a job. And then you. She's more qualified than I am. She'll get the job.
They don't even really like me. I should just be happy if I don't get fired. No one likes you. You're not going to get invited to the prom anyway. Everybody thinks you're ugly. You should just be happy if people let you come.
And if anybody will dance with you. You just set yourself up to not be disappointed. Some of you. You're always surprised if something good happens. And it's because you have an internal dialogue. That's consistently telling yourself.
Everything's going to fail. Everything's going to be terrible. Everything's the worst. I'm going to break it. So when anything good happens.
You get surprised. Some of you. You can see it because you apologize for everything. Somebody gets angry. Somebody gets sad around you. You apologize to them.
Because obviously it had to be your fault. Feeling gets tense or awkward. I'm sorry. People are consistently looking at you going. What are you sorry about? I just.
I am. Sorry. I'm sorry that I'm here. Don't stop looking at me. There's this need to. Because you've already conditioned yourself to feel like such a failure.
Some of you spend a lot of time being focused on the things you did wrong. The mistakes you made. Rather than things you got right. Some of you spend all your time comparing your bad qualities to the good qualities of others. It's possible that if you struggle with this. It is just a fleshly.
You have gotten in the pattern personally of beating yourself up. Of using this as a tool to manage your life. To motivate yourself or to keep you from being disappointed. But if you're a Christian. Those things you're saying can't be true. They're true of Jesus.
Can't be true of you. The world. So we said the flesh, the world, the devil. The world could be any kind of outside force. Any kind of outside anything. So some of you.
The internal self-loathing, self-hatred, self-condemnation voice. Is your dad's. Or it's your mom's. Some of you. Have a jury of middle schoolers that follow you around. You got out of middle school 20 years ago.
And you're still whipping yourself with stuff that 13 year olds said. Some of you it's your ex-spouse. Why are you such a screw up? You'll never be able to. You'll always. You mess everything up.
You're the reason this is broken. You're the reason this is wrong. For you a lot of the stuff you say to yourself isn't I. It's you. It's some other voice coming into your head. It's your dad saying something to you.
It's your mom saying something to you. You've been conditioned. It's gotten so normal to you. This is the way you grew up. And so since you've been. Six.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten years old. This is how you talk to yourself. You're an idiot.
You're a disappointment. You're a failure. You're a failure. Not if you're in Christ. You were. But he has now made you holy and blameless and above reproach.
Some of you today in the name of Jesus get to evict a chorus of 12 year olds from your head. That's good news. 12 year olds. 12 year olds are the worst. No offense. If there are 12 year olds in here.
You'll get better. The third one. And this one's weirder for us. But we've got to spend some time talking about it. The flesh. The world.
The devil. We actually have a spiritual enemy. The Bible is clear that spiritual reality exists. That there's a God who's good. Who has angels that are good. And that there are evil angels or rebellious angels.
That are called demons or evil spirits. That actually exist. That actually cause harm. If you just read through the New Testament. And I know as Westerners we're prone to just kind of gloss over those passages. But Jesus interacts with demons.
It's weird. I get that. Here's the thing. The Bible is clear. Demons exist. They are real.
They do affect people. They can harm you. Mentally, physically. Like we see that in the Bible. The Bible is never demon focused or evil spirit focused. It is always fully and forever Jesus focused.
But we have to as Christians be aware. That this is a reality. And take that into consideration. So there is a possibility. That if you have some sort of a negative voice in your head. That it is demonic.
That it's actually the accuser. So the Bible calls Satan the accuser. That he accuses us. That he attacks us. That he comes and condemns. He says you're a failure.
You're terrible. He points out your sin. But then he uses it to say. This is why you're unlovable. This is why you're wicked. This is why you'll never be forgiven.
This is why God can't save you. He keeps bringing up what you've done. Let me show you a couple of verses. And then we'll talk about a little more about how this works. But Ephesians 6.12 says this.
For we do not wrestle. And that word wrestle in the Greek means hand to hand combat to the death. Sitting friendly wrestling. This is you ran out of weapons. And now you're in a ditch with somebody. And one of you is coming out.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against the rulers. Against the authorities. Against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That as Christians our main battle is not against political parties or nation states.
It's against spiritual forces of evil. At work in the world. Because there is a real eternity with a real heaven and a real hell. There is a reality beyond what we can see. Now for people who have grown up in the west.
Where we approach everything through reason, logic and science. Which there's nothing bad about any of those. All of those belong to God. Everything was created for him and through him. Reason, logic and science have their place. But there is something beyond what we can see.
The Bible is clear on that. And what it's saying is that a lot of our battle isn't against just flesh and blood. It isn't against our flesh or the flesh of others. There's actually spiritual reality going on. Now that's kind of terrifying.
To be honest with you. That you're in a hand-to-hand combat to the death with spiritual forces. And that would be absolutely cripplingly terrifying. If the Bible didn't say other things. So let's go back to Colossians 1.
It's going to be on the screen. Just to remind you. For by him, that's Jesus. All things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
So it's specifically saying visible ones and spiritual ones. Keep going Colossians 2. So it's saying he created all spiritual things. For in him, that's Jesus. The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Meaning he's fully God.
And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So Jesus is seated over every cosmic power. And you've been filled up by him. And keeps going in Colossians and says this. God made. He's talking about you.
He says, God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside. Nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities.
And put them to open shame. By trumping over them in him. The thing that rulers and authorities. That the enemy has against you is your sin. He accuses you of your sin. When Jesus paid for your sin.
And when he nailed it to the cross. The enemy has been disarmed. He has nothing to accuse you of anymore. He can come back and remind you of it. He can say, here's how you failed. Here's how you're evil.
Here's how you're twisted. Here's how you're broken. But guess what happens? All of those reproaches fall on Jesus. They're not true for you anymore. But it is possible for some of us.
Who have this internal dialogue. For it to be some sort of demonic thing. Now. I'm fully want us to continue to talk about this. I want to give you a few more ways to think about this. And then we're open for any kind of questions.
I'll just hang out afterwards. If you have more specific questions about this. But we don't want to spend all our time on it this morning. But a couple of things to maybe help you think about this. Now. Accusation and condemnation come from Satan.
Some of you think. You struggle with this feeling of guilt and shame. And you think. I can't. I can't go to God. I can't go to church.
There's this idea that if you go to God or go to church. He's just going to make it worse. All God's going to do is say. Yeah. Here's how you failed. Here's how you're terrible.
Here's how you're an idiot. And judge you and condemn you. But biblically. That's not God that does that. That's not Jesus that does that. That's Satan.
You just describe Satan. When somebody says. All God's going to do is condemn you. It's like no you just describe Satan. That's what the Bible says he does. He accuses and condemns.
God convicts. Which points out your sin. And then he goes to the cross for it. And offers you forgiveness and reconciliation and love. So the Holy Spirit in you.
If you are a Christian. Is going to convict. But the Holy Spirit uses a scalpel. Not a sledgehammer. So the Holy Spirit.
If you're a Christian. And you're convicted. He comes and says. You said this. You shouldn't talk to your spouse that way. You did this.
Like he. He goes right to the issue. He cuts it out like a cancer. And he leads you. Through. Through surgery.
Which is painful. Through conviction and repentance. Which is painful. To life and freedom. Satan doesn't do that. He hits you with a hammer.
Or he throws a blanket over you. It's just. You're an idiot. You're a failure. He points to your sin. But he doesn't.
He doesn't call for hope. He calls for condemnation. Some. Some of you. In your life. Have had.
And some of you have. Terrible friends. Some of you are sitting next to your terrible friend. Don't look at them. You've had terrible friends. They followed you around.
They. They made you feel bad about yourself. They called you names. They made you feel uncomfortable. They. They tore you down.
Some of you had friends that. That they could talk you into doing really dumb things. And eventually. Some of you grew up. And you got rid of these terrible friends. You moved on.
You were like. No. I can't. I can't hang out with you anymore. Because you make me feel terrible about myself. You.
You beat me down. And then you talk me into dumb things. Like all I ever do with you is get in trouble. Like this is. This is not a good friendship. This is not a healthy place.
Some of you. Potentially. If this is you. Who have. Struggled with self-loathing. May have.
Some sort of a demonic thing going on. That actually functions. Just like a terrible friend. That you don't realize is following you around. So you don't get rid of it.
All it does. Call you names. Give you bad advice. Bad suggestions. And because you don't realize. That this.
Maybe just be demonic. You don't tell it to leave. Now again. That may be super weird. But what Ephesians 6 just said was.
We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. But with. Spiritual forces. So let me tell you. If you are a Christian. If you're not a Christian.
I fully expect. All of this just weirded you out. We believe other weird things. We believe that God became a person. Died on a cross for our sin. Was laid in a grave.
Three days later. He rose again. And eventually. He's coming back on a horse. It gets way weirder. We believe all that.
Now. I'd love to talk to you about it. It's. It's. It's good news. It may come across as weird to us.
Now. For Christians in the room. Who aren't weirded out yet. You got to realize. We are actually at war. With spiritual forces.
Let me explain to you. What happens. When Christians go. Wait a second. Spiritual forces. Whoa.
And get really terrified. It is like. You were drafted. Went to boot camp. Went to training. Got sent down field.
Down range. So you are. You go on your first patrol. In Iraq. Or Afghanistan. You come back.
You go. I need to speak to the commanding officer. Why? I need to speak to the commanding officer. Right now. And for some reason.
They are not mean to you. And they let you do it. And you walk into the commanding officer's. Office. And you say. They are shooting at us.
They hate us out there. And your commanding officer goes. What? Get out of my office. Before I shoot at you. That's what.
When Christians go. Hold on a second. We are at a war. There is an enemy. Yes. The Bible is so clear on that.
We have just Americanized it out. Absolutely. The enemy wants to tear you down. And mess up your marriage. And keep you from following Jesus. Some of you.
When you open the Bible. And you start reading scripture. You hear things like. Jesus is an idiot. Like. You hear swear words.
I wasn't going to say them. But I was going to use a letter. But I feel like that might be inappropriate from up here. You hear. You hear swear words. Of.
This is. This is nonsense. This is garbage. Some of you right now in your head are saying. This is dumb. This is a waste of time.
I shouldn't be here. Some of you. Every time you try to read the Bible. You're overwhelmed by. Condemnation. And conviction.
And you can't even. We have an enemy. That does not want you to find freedom. And joy in Jesus. Does not want you to be active. And sharing your faith.
Does not want you to have life. And hope in him. A real enemy. And. We have a real king. Who's disarmed our enemy.
By taking our sin. To the cross. And by having everything bad. That you could ever say about me. Falls on Jesus. So we're free.
So what do we do? If this is you. What do you do? How do we find freedom here? First thing. You need to preach a better sermon.
For those of you who don't know. This is a sermon. We open the Bible. We say things about Jesus. Some of you. You.
Just so you know. Not some of you. All of you. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You tell yourself more about what is true about life.
What's true about you. What's true about Jesus. Than anybody else does. And some of you who are Christians. Are preaching. Very terrible sermons to yourself.
All the time. Y'all know our sermons don't get good on Sunday. Until we get to Jesus. It's not a good sermon. Until we get to the point. Where Jesus shows up.
And saves all of us. Where Jesus is the hero. Where Jesus sets us free. But some of you are following yourself around. And preaching sermons. That I would get fired for.
And rightfully so. Your sermon just covers the first half. You're a failure. You're a sinner. You're terrible. You're an idiot.
Let's pray. That's a terrible sermon. Get to Jesus. If that's. If you were preaching a sermon. If you were.
Like you're following yourself around. Telling yourself theological truths about yourself. And if you are a Christian. You've got to get to Jesus. I was terrible. I was a failure.
My sin did Mark me. It did own me. But. Jesus died for me. And I'm free. And I'm holy.
And I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. Everybody say that with me right now. If you're a Christian. I'm holy. Who.
That's enthusiasm. Let's go. I'm holy. I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. That's true.
If you're in Christ. And that's a good sermon. That's real. Some of you need to get some passages of scripture. And begin to repeat them to yourself. You need to wake up in the morning.
And the first thing you do is you pray. And you thank Jesus. And then you start reading some scripture. And you start saying. I'm holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. That he who knew no sin. Became sin for me. So that I could become the righteousness of God. And I'm the righteousness of God. I'm clothed in Jesus.
I'm free forever. When I stand before the king. I will be welcomed. And loved. None of my sin will follow me anywhere. My sin will forever Mark Jesus.
And I will forever celebrate and praise him. Because I've been set free. And I'm a child of the king. Some of you need to begin to preach better sermons. And you legitimately. You really need to make a list of Bible verses.
Or truths about the gospel. We have some we can give you. To help you begin to know what is true. Because you from the age. Maybe some of you who grew up in homes. That were verbally abusive.
From the age of. I don't know. Three. Two. Whenever you started understanding language. Till you got out of the house.
You've heard verbally. Over and over again. You're an idiot. You're a failure. Look at you. No one could love you.
No one could want you. Like this is what's been beat into your head. And you need to begin to say out loud. Some things that are true. About the God of the universe. Who loves you.
And died for you. And came to rescue you. We need to preach better sermons. You need a better savior. Here's the best thing our culture can give you. The best thing they can give you.
Is you need to love yourself more. You need. A higher self esteem. You need to know that you're special. You're a snowflake. You're a magical rainbow pony.
You are. Repeat that after me. Magical rainbow pony. Like this is the best they can give you. You need to have self esteem. You need to know that you're special.
You need to. You need to forgive yourself. You need to learn to love yourself. Boo. No thank you. Part of the problem is that we're only looking at ourselves anyway.
And you're correct. When you look at yourself. And you come to the conclusion. That I'm terrible. That I'm a sinner. That I'm broken.
That I failed. Yes. The Bible will agree with you. But then it's going to say. But. But Jesus.
Some of you have been so focused on yourself. You need to get to. But Jesus. You need a better savior. You need the God that shows up. Not you.
Not more self esteem. Not more love for yourself. You need a God who gives you his esteem. Who forgives you. You don't need to forgive yourself. You need to be forgiven by Jesus.
You need to be redeemed by Jesus. Made much of by Jesus. You need to humble yourself before him. And then be given the confidence that the cross can give. That you're holy and blameless and above reproach. Not because of you.
But because of Jesus. And because it's because of Jesus. You can't mess it up. Every time you feel like I've failed. Yes. But Jesus.
We have a better savior than you. And your self esteem. And the way you feel about yourself. You get to have a self esteem that doesn't come from you. That comes from him. And it's a God esteem.
Where he lifts you up. Where he exalts you. Where he goes to work for you. Because he was humbled for you. We need a better savior. Galatians 2.20-21 says this.
I have it on the screen. I got it right here. I have been crucified with Christ. Meaning when I died. When Christ died. I died with him.
It's no longer I who live. But Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God. Who loved me. And gave himself for me.
See Paul is writing this. And he knows I was loved by God. And he gave himself up for me. He loved me. Then he says I do not nullify.
Which means treat like it doesn't exist. The grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law. Meaning rules. If righteousness. If I could be made right.
Be okay. Through the law. Then Christ died for no reason. When we're following ourselves around. And saying these mean things to ourselves. These hateful things to ourselves.
We're holding ourselves up against the law. I should look like this. I should be like this. I should be smart like this. I should have handled this better. You're holding yourself up to a standard.
And what he's saying is. If the standard could save you. Jesus died for no reason. But because Jesus died. We don't nullify. Or act like grace doesn't exist.
We trust Jesus. And let him live through us. That we died with him. All our sin died with him. And that he's alive in us. His righteousness is alive in us.
That we believe in grace. Which means we get all the benefits. Without any of the work. That we get to be holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Even though we didn't deserve it. Because Jesus worked on our behalf. Thirdly. You need a better way to pray. Okay. So Jesus says this.
In the model prayer. In Matthew 6. So he says. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts. Or forgive us our sins.
Or forgive us our trespasses. Depending on your version. Forgive us our sins. That's what he's talking about. As we have forgiven our debtors. So help us.
Forgive us of our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. And deliver us from evil. So he specifically says.
It's a normal daily way to pray. To pray about the flesh. The world. And the devil. That's forgive me my sins. That's the flesh.
Lead me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil. That's the devil. That's a normal daily way to pray. Some of you.
Only blame things on the devil. And you need to spend some time. Repenting of your own sin. Some of you. Most of us. Know that we sin.
Try to repent of our sin. But never get to the point. Where we say. And deliver us from evil. If the enemy's involved. He doesn't get to be.
Because you're the head of all rule and authority. And I'm free in you. And in the name of Jesus. Any enemy involvement has to go. So here's what we're going to do today.
We're going to actually pray through those three things. This morning. If you're not a Christian. If you don't pray. I would invite you to pray. I would invite you to begin to pray.
And ask Jesus to reveal himself to you. But also. If you're not going to pray. That's cool. You're welcome to hang out. With us at any point.
And be someone who's just checking this thing out. Who's even a little bit antagonistic to it. You're not going to offend us. You can ask us any questions you want. But I would ask that right now.
As we pray through some of this. You just be quiet and respectful. We're going to pray a little bit. For those Christians in the room. Who specifically struggle with this self-loathing. If we've been talking to you this morning.
We're going to spend more time talking about it in our groups. And for some of you may not know. You have this. There's a list we have in our Killjoy book. To help you identify it. We're going to pray about those three things.
The flesh. The world. And the devil. And here's how we're going to do this. Let's pray about the flesh first.
In just a second. We're going to pray. And you get to repent. For actively any participation you've had. In telling yourself lies. In preaching a false gospel to yourself.
You get to repent for unbelief. And then you get to remind yourself in prayer. Of what's true. That you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
That you're free. Some of us in our prayer lives. Need to get to the point. Where all we do is talk about ourselves. We talk about our friends and family. We need to start talking about Jesus.
In our prayer. Thank you Jesus. That you saved me. That you redeemed me. That you're king. And that I'm free.
So we're going to pray about the flesh. So just for a minute. I want you to take a second. And I want you to. If this is you. I want you to take a moment.
And ask the Holy Spirit to help you. To actually repent of. Any participation you've had in. Applying this to yourself. Lying to yourself. And then I want you to take a minute.
To just celebrate that Jesus. Frees you. Okay can we do that now? O Amen. Amen. Amen.
Now we're going to take a second to pray. Where he says, deliver us from temptation. Keep us from temptation. We're going to pray about where we're tempted to believe more about what the world says about us than what Jesus says about us. Some of you believe what your dad said about you more than you believe what Jesus says about you. Some of you believe what middle schoolers or your mom or some sort of a jury you've made up in your mind.
What they say about you, what you think people would say about you more than what Jesus says, which is your holy, blameless, and above reproach. We're just going to take a minute to pray that through the Holy Spirit he would let us not believe that. We would trust him more. That he would deliver us from the temptation. Keep us from the temptation to believe what the world says. That he would send unto you a gospel.
They would then satu liaby. And I believe what the Lord says. Those fruits and понимаю. Amen. Amen. Now in this third one, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to specifically pray that in the name of Jesus, if there's anything that's messing with your thought pattern, affecting how you think about yourself, that in the name of Jesus, it would have to leave. That the enemy does not get to speak into what's true about you or have any dominion in your brain in the way you think that you're free. You don't have to be, it's not, this authority isn't based off of you, it's based off of Jesus, his work on the cross, what he's already accomplished, what's already true. So you just get to right now saying in the name of Jesus, and Jesus, I pray that in the name of Jesus, that anything that is affecting my thoughts, that's not me or the Holy Spirit has to go.
Has no place in my thinking anymore. Take a second and do that. Amen. Amen. We said when we started this series that we were going to treat it a little bit the way we treat counseling, that I wish that we could have done this across the table. And here's what we always say when we get to this point when we're talking with people through this.
And just so you know, there have been many people in our church family who have struggled with this. And specifically when they got to the point where they got to tell something to just leave them alone in the name of Jesus, they felt free and clear. And it's not weird. We have an enemy that hates us, that wants to lie to us. You get to have freedom. Some of you in the room right now may have just thought when we got to that point where we were going to tell something to leave in the name of Jesus, you may have just gotten frustrated, fearful.
You may have begun to think, this is dumb. This is a waste of time. I'm not going to do this. That's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit talking. It may be you.
And if it's you right now getting really frustrated, you can repent. But it's possible that you're being continually pressed to not tell something to leave in the name of Jesus. And I just want to encourage you, do. Because the Holy Spirit doesn't mind you saying that. He's active and at work to set you free. So we're going to take one more second to just pray and say in the name of Jesus, everybody in the room, in the name of Jesus, nothing gets to mess with me.
I'm free. Because I'm holy and blameless and above reproach because of the cross. Nothing gets to mess with my thinking. So let's continue to pray that just for a second. Amen. Amen.
Jesus, we thank you that you're good. Amen. That you who were holy and blameless and above reproach took everything that could ever be said bad about us onto yourself. That you became our sin. You became the worst of all of us. You became everything we could ever be accused of that would be true.
Everything we've ever tried to hide, you became it. And you were nailed to a cross and laid in a grave. And that you rose again conquering it. That we died with you and we get to rise with you. That it's you alive in us. So that we are now holy and blameless and above reproach forever.
Because you've accomplished that on our behalf. And that we get to be reconciled to you and presented to you. That one day we will be presented before your throne as holy and blameless and above reproach. And it will be a beautiful testament to your work on our behalf. That it will be a moment where you receive so much glory because you saved such sinners. And we'll be overwhelmed and tears will shrink down our face and we'll praise you, our God, for eternity.
Because you became our sin. So that we can be free. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Some of you, you need to go home.
You need to make a list. Bible passages. We can help you with that. You can talk to your community group leader about it. Some of you are going to need to do some follow-up with your community group leader. You have some questions.
Some of you, maybe we need to do some pastoral follow-up. That's kind of outlined in the beginning of our Killjoy books. Some of you are just going to need to be real honest with your group this week. One of the reasons we get to confess out loud is because everything we can say out loud bad about ourselves goes to Jesus. And we're above reproach. We're above reproach.
Lust
Transcript
Well, good morning. We'll be in Proverbs chapter 5. That'll be on page 341. If your Bible looks like this, go ahead and get over to Proverbs chapter 5. We've got a good bit of work to do today. We're going to be talking about lust in our Killjoy series and about how our approach to sexuality and our approach to lust has begun to rob us of our ability to have joy, to have peace, to rest in God.
And so we've got a good bit to go through. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop in. God, we thank you that you're good. Lord, we thank you, Lord, that your word speaks about topics that we need to learn. That you don't leave us on our own to figure it out, but that you speak to us, that you lead us, that you give us wisdom that we would not have on our own. And so, God, we praise you.
We pray that we'd listen and we'd follow. In Jesus' name, amen. Verse 1 and 2, I love how this starts. It says, My son, be attentive to my wisdom. Incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. First little thing I just want to throw out there for us as we get started this morning.
This starts off, it's Solomon writing. So he was a king and he was very wise and he's writing to his son. Later he says, sons, for the parents in the room, you need to have some conversations about sex that start off with my son, my daughter. You've got to talk to your children about sex. I came across some statistics this week I want to share with you. This is from the National Center of Biotechnical Information.
I don't expect you to know what that is. I don't know what it is. It had a.gov website, so it's important. They do good things, I guess. They basically took television shows and it says they coded them. They tried to see what kind of material was in them.
So, for example, a recent content analysis found, this is a quote, that 82% of episodes coded contained sexual content. However, only 2.9% of episodes with sex, so 2.9% of that 82%, contained messages about sexual patience and 5.2% had messages about taking sexual precautions. So 82% of the episodes they looked at talked about sex and only a very small portion of those talked about any sort of waiting or at least taking precautions. It says the American youth, and I don't know what age group that is, it just says youth, see 14,000 references to sex per year. 14,000. That's like 38 a day.
One source I saw said that about 156 of those, so right at about 1%, will actually be references to sex inside of marriage. So 14,000 references to sex, the average age that an American youth engages with pornography for the first time is 11. That's sixth grade. That's the average age that someone first sees pornography. Parents, you've got to talk to your kids about sex. You've got to talk to them about sex the way that Solomon does, which is both here's what's dangerous about it and here's what's good about it.
And I do want to give you some encouragement. The number one impact that they've studied, children growing up or whatever, the number one thing that has impacted them is parental conversations. That has the biggest impact. It's the biggest assigning factor on how they're going to view sex. They are hearing about sex. They are learning about sex.
It's not like you can wait until they're older and then be like, oh, let me explain this to you. They already know. At this point, they might know things you don't know. Like, I don't know. I mean, they're handing out iPads to sixth graders. Praise Jesus they never handed me an iPad when I was in sixth grade and told me to do all my schoolwork on it.
Like, we've got to start having some conversations, but parental conversations actually impact them, have an effect. Now, is it going to be awkward? Certainly. If it's not awkward, you didn't do it right. Like, of course, talking to your kids about sex is going to be awkward. I remember my parents sat me and my two brothers down, and I was in the middle.
So one was older than me. One was younger than me. I was pretty young. I don't know how young I was. I mean, like, eight or ten or something. And they're like, all right, you're hearing about sex.
Let's talk about this. And so it was my mom and my dad. They drew pictures. Not stick with me. My mom was a nurse. So they drew, like, what happens inside.
So, like, there's nothing that takes the mystique out of sex like phrases like fallopian tube. But, like, they talked to us about how everything worked. And then when it got a little more intimate, I don't know. Like, my dad just, he was like, he took the back half of the conversation. He was like, let me explain how this works. And I remember he's telling us, like, this is how, you know, you learn the science.
Let me explain what it's going to, you know, you're not going to be thinking about fallopian tubes. Let me talk about, you know, the other stuff that happens. And he got done talking to his three sons, and I went, no, that can't be right. Like, that is not correct. And my older brother, Logan, who is one of our community group leaders, hit me and said, shut up. He knows what he's talking about.
He's done this three times. Here's the thing. I grew up in the United States. My parents did not do a whole lot of governing what we watched on television. I'm one of the people who has seen 14,000 references to sex a year, if not more. And I remember very distinctly the four or five conversations that my parents had with me about sex.
Parents, we've got to start having some conversations that start off with my son, my daughter. We need to talk about something. Sure, it'll be awkward, but it's going to be very, very good. Secondly, as we get started, I love that it starts off with my son. This is God who cares about us through the Holy Spirit authoring this, and this is the conversation he's having with us. He's saying, my son, my daughter, listen to me.
I care about you. He's not bringing the hammer down. He's not mad at you. He's sitting us down and saying, let's talk. Let's have a conversation about this.
Now, in our Killjoy series, we're going to approach this a little bit differently. Our culture, every time we talk about sex, we have to say so much because our culture has already said so much. When we start talking about, in a couple weeks, when we talk about worry and anxiety, and we're like, hey, worry and anxiety are bad. Like, we need to work on this. Everybody in the room is going. When we stand up and say, hey, sex outside of marriage is bad, we're like, hmm, I don't know.
Seems kind of great. We just have to do more. We have to say more to help explain what we're talking about here. So we did a series at the beginning of the year called The Theology of Sex. I would really encourage you to go back and listen to it if you have questions about where we stand on things. We talked about masculinity, femininity, gender, homosexuality.
Like, we tried to do as best we could for seven weeks. Open the Bible. Here's what it says. Today, specifically, we're going to do a little bit of work to just say, here's what the Bible says about sex, and here's how we as Christians who are trying to follow this can find some freedom and some joy in what God's called us to. So before we jump in, I think we've got to take just a second to talk about what the Bible says is the framework for sex, what the Bible says positively about sex.
So the Old Testament sex ethic and the New Testament sex ethic are the same, and here's how it works. No sex of any kind outside of a covenant, period. All right? Let's talk. What's a covenant? Do we have a modern equivalent word for that?
No. Here's how a covenant works. A covenant is a relationship with a commitment. So it's a relationship with a legal commitment so that the relationship is actually better, made stronger by the legal commitment. What we're most used to are relationships and contractual consumer relationships where both of them are based off of what am I getting out of this. A covenant is the opposite.
A covenant is where I say, here's what I'm going to do, period. It doesn't matter what you do. Here's what I'm going to do regardless of how you respond, how you act. That's what a marriage covenant is. It's where a man and a woman say, I covenant with you to give myself to you, everything I have to you forever. That is where sex belongs.
In the Bible, sex is a covenant good, meaning that sex only happens inside of a marriage covenant. Now, that sounds crazy to our culture. And for us who've grown up and even like we've listened to the 14,000 messages a year, we're going, yeah, okay, I know that the Bible says that. Let me tell you a few things really quickly just about us as a church and why we open this every week and spend so much time talking out of it. This has authority over us. If we come to this and we get to pick and choose what we like and what we don't like and what's in date and what's out of date, we're in charge.
This isn't. And let me explain something to you. If we get to do that, if I get to approach the Bible with I'm in charge, let me say what I like and let me skip what I don't like, what we're doing right now is a waste of time. If we get to be in charge of the Bible, studying it is a waste of time. If the Bible is in charge of us, then it's absolutely valuable, although sometimes frustrating and difficult. Okay?
Is that fair? We believe that Jesus is in charge, so we spend a lot of time studying his word. What the Bible says about sex makes us seem crazy. Now, if you're a Christian and you actually believe the Bible and you're trying to follow it, I have good news for you. Christians have always seemed crazy when it came to sex. Does that make you feel better?
That's how it started. The original Christian sex ethic seemed crazy to their culture. We actually have a letter that was written where somebody was trying to explain, okay, let me try to help you understand Christians because they're a phenomenon now. They're all over the place now. The whole Roman Empire is crawling with these people. Let me start explaining to you why they're weird.
One of the quotes from that is he says, one of the things that's weird about Christians is they have a common table but not a common bed, meaning they'll share their table with anybody. You can go over to their house. You can eat a meal, which was completely opposite from culture because eating a meal meant you and I are on the same level. And they said, but they don't have a common bed, meaning that they only sleep with the person they're married to. Isn't that weird? That was the point he was making because in their culture it was the opposite.
You could sleep with whomever, but you didn't share your table with everybody. And Christians showed up and said, no, anybody can come to my house. Anybody can eat with me. We're on the same plane with everybody, but you leave my bed alone. So I hope it makes you feel better.
We've been weird for thousands of years. Let's, as a church, continue that and find out what it's supposed to look like. Here's the thing. We're used to consumer relationships, meaning that whatever I get out of this relationship matters. My needs matter more than the relationship. So some of you iPhone people, we have iPhone people in here.
Like raise your hand. You can participate. You got iPhone people. Okay. Any Motorola. What is it?
Nokia. What is it? What's the other one? Android. Not Nokia. Android.
Man, I miss my Nokia phone, y'all. It's like a brick that made phone calls. It was amazing. Android people. Okay. So some of you, you had an iPhone.
They keep updating it. Eventually, they made a new one that bends when you put it in your pocket and doesn't have a headphone jack. Now, you weren't like, no, I'm committed to iPhone. I've got to stick with it. Some of y'all realize that Androids have that little thing where you don't have to pick up your thumb when you're texting. Have you seen Android users' text where they just go, and it's like magic, and your iPhone keeps auto-correcting words to nonsense so it doesn't make any sense?
And so you were like, I'm going to get an Android. I'm going to get a Samsung Galaxy. And then it turns out that those are flammable. You bought an expensive Molotov cocktail. You didn't stick with Samsung anymore. Like you went and traded that one in.
You were like, good, y'all fix it. This one isn't going to catch on fire. And they were like, well, eh. And that one's still calling fire. And so you moved back. You went to a different one.
Some of you saw the commercials where you were with Verizon, but with Sprint you can cut your bill in half. And we've moved because our needs matter more than the relationship. None of us are committed to Samsung so much that even though they're recalling their phones and their washing machines, you're like, I'm sticking with it, even though it's going to set my house on fire and somehow harm my children. Like you're not doing that. We're used to consumer relationships where whatever I want, whatever I'm getting out of this matters more than the relationship. And that is not a covenant.
A covenant is the relationship, the commitment matters more than what I get out of it. And that biblically is where sex was designed to take place. In the Bible, the guardrails for sex are high and narrow. But once you're on that road, it's the Audubon. Go for it. That's the biblical approach.
That's why later in this chapter it's going to get a little intense. So let's read a little bit about what this says here. Jump to verse 15 because I still want to show us the biblical picture for picture for where sex is supposed to happen. And then we'll walk back through and talk more about lust. So 15 drink water from your own cistern.
Flowing water from your own well. So this is in the context of sex. What he's saying is be married. He's going to later say the wife of your youth. He says be married, have a husband, have a wife. And that's where you drink water.
Flowing water. Morning water. Evening water. Afternoon water. Drink some water. Should your springs be scattered abroad?
Streams of water in the street. That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Your water at your own place. Not out in the streets. Let them be for yourself alone.
Not for strangers with you. So, is this person my spouse? This is my husband. Is this my wife? That's the sexual question. If this is your spouse, then yes.
Go for it. Any other people. Any other strangers. Any other anything. Isn't allowed in there. It's just you.
Sex was designed by God to be a sacrament in some ways. A sacrament is a physical act that reminds us of a spiritual reality. When we take communion, that's a sacrament. It's a physical act that reminds us of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. When we have baptism, that's a sacrament. That's a physical act that reminds us that we were buried with Jesus.
We rose again. When you have sex, it's meant to be a sacrament for your marriage. Which is a physical act that says, I give everything to you. My whole life. My finances. My economics.
My social standing. Everything. We share everything. I'm completely vulnerable with you. Everything I have. Everything I'll ever be.
Everything I ever was. I'm giving to you. I'm committing to you. That's what sex inside of a marriage was meant to be. A covenant renewal. All of me belongs to all of you.
C.S. Lewis says that sex outside of marriage is like chewing food and then spitting it out. Sex outside of a covenant is kind of like bulimia. In bulimia, you eat food, but then you make yourself throw up. So what you want is the flavor.
What you want is the taste. But you're not committed. You don't want the calories. You don't want the trans fat. That's sex outside of marriage. When somebody wants to sleep with you, but not commit to you, what they're saying is I want your flavor, but none of your baggage.
I don't want any of your trans fat. A philosopher, Immanuel Kant, he's a central figure in modern philosophy. He said it this way. Sexual love makes of the loved person an object of appetite. As soon as the appetite has been stilled, the person is cast aside as one casts away a lemon which has been sucked dry. But that was never meant to be how sex worked because sex is in the Bible a covenant good, not a consumer good.
It exists inside of a covenant, not a consumer relationship. Keep reading verse 18. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. I love that he says that. He says the wife of your youth, the person you married a long time ago, that's your wife forever. That's your husband forever.
Let me explain to you. If you're married, let me answer a few questions for you. A lot of times in our culture we ask the question, is this person the one? Are you married to them? They're the one. You found them.
Good Job, you guys. So proud of you. If you're married to them, that's the one. That's your one. Stick with them. That's it.
You got the one. You don't have to keep asking that question. And what's your type? Well, are you married? That's your type. When you started, your type was athletic.
Now your type watches sports. That's your type. Your type's gotten bigger. You like bigger. Your type went bald. You love bald.
You're into bald. Your type got old. Your type got wrinkly. Your type changes its hair color every month. You change your type every month. Sometimes you got to check.
I don't know. I might be in the blondes. I hadn't seen her. She went to the thing. I don't know what I'm going to be into when she gets home. But when she gets home, I'm going to be into something.
Mom, that's how that works. You enjoy the wife of your youth, the husband of your youth forever. Verse 19. A lovely dear, a graceful doe, let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. People give Christians a hard time and they'll periodically say, you take the Bible literally, sometimes it has its benefits.
Here's what it's saying. Nowhere else. Nowhere else do you enjoy sexual relationships. Nowhere else do you go to find any sort of sexual fulfillment in the covenant relationship with a real person that you've committed your life to. A real person that you've committed everything you have to them. The person that still like cries at every sappy movie even if they've seen it a hundred times.
The person that's still secretly into 90s boy bands. The person who has road rage issues. The person who at the end of a hard day sits next to you and knows exactly what to say. Or always knows how to make you laugh. Or the person that consistently sticks their foot in their mouth. That real person that's going to change throughout your life, that's the person you're committed to sexually forever.
A real person that you know that you've committed everything to. There's a John Legend song that says, Because all of me loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections. Give your all to me. I'll give my all to you.
I don't know if he had covenant marriage in mind. That's what he just described. Everything I have belongs to you. And sex out of that context is saying, I want your flavor. I want some of you. But I'm keeping me back.
I don't belong to you. You don't really belong to me. I don't want any of your baggage. I just want to physically enjoy some of this. And it's holding back. It's not giving.
It's not free. 20. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? So as we go back through this, we're going to start back up in verse 3. We're going to talk about the forbidden woman. And here's the forbidden woman biblically.
Here's what lust is. It is a desire sexually for anyone who is not your spouse. A desire sexually for anyone. A covetous desire sexually for anyone who is not your spouse. So the New Testament is going to use the term porneia, which is translated a lot as sexual immorality.
It just means all sexual anything outside of covenant marriage. Jesus is going to say, don't look at another woman lustfully who is not your spouse. So it means any sort of desire sexually for someone you're not married to. That is the line that the Bible draws. Sex is supposed to be, I do forever, not you'll do for now. That's the Bible's approach.
Now our culture wants it to be a consumer good. It wants it to be just a physical appetite. That's what we're told over and over again. Go to verse 3. We're going to start talking about our culture a little bit. Try to understand where we are.
What we've been told, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. Okay, that's imagery. That's a picture. Do her lips actually drip honey? No. Does she actually squirt oil out of her mouth when she's talking?
No. He's giving imagery. He's saying this is what it seems like. What he's saying is the forbidden woman, the person that you're not married to, seems amazing, sweet, healthy, enjoyable. She drips honey. Have you ever wondered why all the other husbands are not idiots?
You ever wondered why they do such a good job parenting? Have you ever wondered why they treat their wife so well? Have you ever wondered why this guy seems so great? It's because it's a lie. You ever wondered why their wives never talk to them like this? You ever been up until 2 o'clock in the morning arguing?
You got mascara running down your face and then at some point you get on Facebook and you see these pictures of people on vacation and you see, look at how magic that is. It's a lie. Nobody's taking a selfie at 2 a.m. after an argument. Hashtag exhausted. Hashtag 2 a.m. life. Hashtag depressed.
Nobody's doing that. The person you're not with, the person you're not married to, the person, and if you're not married, anybody you're not married to, they drip honey. Smoother than oil. The way they talk is like Barry White. Hey, baby. Like it's smooth, seems great, but it's a lie.
That's the point he's making. It seems wonderful. See, we're told that sex is just physical, but that's not why we go to it. It's not why we chase after it. See, we're pursuing sex to be free, to be loved, to not be alone anymore. I'm not alone, at least not right now.
I'm wanted. I'm desired. I'm approved of. I'm cared about. You don't go back to porn over and over again just for some sort of physical pleasure. You've got to be comforted.
You've got to be in control. You've got to have someone desire you and long for you. See, we're on a soul-level pursuit when it comes to sex. That's why Fifty Shades of Grey was the fastest book ever to sell a million copies. How many people read that book or went to that movie with this question? Am I missing something?
Am I missing out? What am I missing? Because we've begun to believe that sex gives life, fulfillment, satisfaction, and that we have to have it. But it keeps going. Verse 3. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.
But in the end, she's bitter as wormwood. Wormwood is just a plant, a spice that's very bitter. Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. That's the Old Testament word for the pit or the place of the dead.
So it's hell. He's saying her path goes to hell. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. And I would argue that this is us in our culture when it comes to sexuality. We've been promised life.
We've been promised fulfillment. We've been promised honey and oil. And we're wandering off the path of life towards hell, and we don't even know it. We've been promised satisfaction and freedom. And we've wandered off, and we don't even realize it. There was a quote from a lady.
It's an article that went viral for a little while. It said her name is Jamie Varon. The article is called This Is How We Date Now. It starts off this way. They've always said there are so many fish in the sea, but never before has the sea of fish been right at our fingertips. On OkCupid, Tinder, Grindr, Dash, take your pick, we can order up a human being the same way we order up Pad Thai.
Those are dating websites or apps. I'm not saying those are wrong, but I am saying that our approach to dating has changed. That's the point she's making here, that we've begun to approach it as approaching a buffet. She says, if we commit, we are still one eye wandering at the options. We want the beautiful kind of filet mignon, but we're too busy eyeing the mediocre buffet because of choice. Our choices are killing us.
We think choice means something. We think opportunity is good. We think the more chances we have, the better, but it makes everything watered down. Never mind actually feeling satisfied. We don't even understand what satisfaction looks like, sounds like, feels like. We're one foot out the door because outside that door is more, more, more.
We don't see who's right in front of our eyes asking to be loved because no one is asking to be loved. We long for something that we still want to believe exists, yet we're looking for the next thrill, the next jolt of excitement, and the next instant gratification. Sex has offered us an endless buffet of satisfaction, and it's robbed us the ability to ever actually be satisfied because we've got one foot out the door, one eye on our options, and we've forgotten how to covenant. And we've taken sex out of a covenant relationship, put it in a consumer relationship, and it was never meant to be there.
The New York Times actually ran an article entitled The Downside of Cohabitating Before Marriage. They did some research, and they found that 20-somethings, half of 20-somethings agreed that they would not ever get married unless they had lived with someone first to see if they were compatible. And about two-thirds said that they believed moving in together before marriage was a good way to avoid divorce. And then the New York Times article goes on, and it's walking through this pretty well and trying to not get too far. It's New York Times. They've got to kind of thread the needle here.
But basically their point is that's not actually true. Cohabitating before marriage increases your negative statistics, increases the chance of divorce. And so they're basically looking at it and saying, okay, we know we have the cohabitating effect. That's what they call it. And they're like, why? What is living together before marriage?
How does that affect things? And here's one thing. This is a quote. One thing men and women do agree on, however, is that their standards for a live-in partner are lower than they are for a spouse. And that's because they're consumers. They've got one foot out the door, one eye on their options.
The lady interviewed said this, I felt like I was on this multi-year, never-ending audition to be his wife. They end the article with, a life built on top of maybe you'll do simply may not feel as dedicated as a life built on top of the we do commitment of marriage. See, sex in that kind of a relationship is marketing. It's a desire to keep someone focused on you. At best, it's you holding back while trying to take, but also trying to have enough sex so that you're on an audition. Sex has promised us security and love, and what it's given us is year-long auditions.
It's given us years of insecurity trying to keep someone when it was never meant to be in that relationship in the first place. Sex has promised us freedom. It drips. Honey, it's smoother than oil. It promises us freedom. But more and more scientists and neurosurgeons have come out, and they're looking at neuroscience, which is the study of the brain, and they've begun to understand about neuroplasticity, which means that your brain can change.
It can physically change. This is what happens in addiction. Your brain physically rewires itself throughout your life. One of the ways that it was explained in an article I read was if every time you hang out with your uncle, the first thing he does is give you a hug, and then he hands you an ice cream cone, and pretty soon your brain is going to rewire around my uncle is awesome. Because when you get a hug, your brain releases oxytocin. When you get ice cream, your brain releases dopamine, and your brain begins to set up, based on the circumstances, what caused this feeling, what caused this emotion.
When you have sex, your brain releases dopamine, oxytocin, vasopressin, endorphins, and it begins to rewire your brain. Oxytocin is a bonding chemical. Here's what that means. Here's what they're saying. Sex rewires your brain to be addicted. It works like a drug.
If you're in a covenant relationship, that's beautiful. That God designed sex to make you more and more addicted to your spouse. More and more addicted to them so that your brain actually rewires to where that's the person that I'm hooked on. That's beautiful. But if you take sex out of a covenant relationship, that's terrifying.
They actually said that sex becomes like taking a piece of duct tape and wrapping it around the hairy arm of a large man and then peeling it off. You get a lot of hair. You get a lot of skin flakes. Because sex was meant to bond. So it's like duct tape.
It's sticky. And then they said if you take it and wrap it around someone else's arm and then peel that off. This is in the book Hooked. It was written in 2008 by some neurosurgeons who were studying this. They said if you keep doing that, eventually the duct tape loses its stickiness. What they were arguing for is that brain science says – they're not Christians.
They're not arguing. They're just saying brain science says that sex with multiple partners actually makes you less sticky, makes sex work less the way it was supposed to. This is actually why pornography is so addictive. There's a website now called Fight the New Drug. They have a lot of really good statistics. Basically, pornography addiction works like a heroin addiction.
It changes your brain's chemistry so that pornography becomes the thing you're absolutely addicted to. It works with the same reward loops and the same addiction centers. Basically, what happens is your body during pornography and during sex releases a bunch of dopamine. So your dopamine receptors are overloaded. Eventually, if you keep doing this, your body takes away dopamine receptors. So you need more and different to continue to feel the same feeling.
That's how heroin works. That's how pornography works. You need more and different. And because your body has less dopamine receptors, your brain has less dopamine receptors, other things don't seem as good anymore. That's why pornography has become such a crippling issue. I saw a statistic that said one survey said that 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women reported feeling addicted to porn.
I want to say this. Pornography is not just a man problem. One of the issues we have in the church is that we have females who are addicted to pornography and they feel this extra layer of shame that I can't tell anybody because this is a man's issue. It's not. It's a human issue. It's a sin issue.
And Jesus saves sinners. We need to begin being able to talk about these things. Here's the thing. Sex was meant to be addicting. And inside of a covenant relationship, praise Jesus, that's beautiful. But when we move it from the right context to the wrong context, it breaks down and doesn't work the way it was supposed to.
We were promised freedom. And it's enslaved us. One of the articles I read, it was absolutely devastating because sex has promised so much for us. It's promised security and love and connection. One of the articles I read is called Sex Before Kissing. They interviewed 600 females from the age of 15 to 19.
This was from Australia. They're asking these females from age 15 to 19, what's it like living in a world where all the guys are addicted to porn? That's the question. How does this affect relationships? How does this affect dating? 15 to 19-year-old girls.
This is a quote. Some see sex only in terms of performance, where what counts most is the boy enjoying it. I asked a 15-year-old about her first sexual experience. She replied, I think my body looked okay. He seemed to enjoy it. Many girls seem cut off from their own sense of pleasure or intimacy.
The main market of a good sexual encounter is only if he enjoyed it. Girls and women are under a lot of pressure to give boys and men what they want, to become a real-life embodiment of what the boys have watched in porn, adopting exaggerated roles and behaviors and providing their bodies as mere sex aids. Growing up in today's porn culture, girls quickly learned that they are service stations for male gratification and pleasure. We're wandering towards hell. We've left life and joy and fulfillment and satisfaction and security and love. We're not there anymore.
We've started wandering towards hell and we don't even realize it. What was supposed to be freedom? What was supposed to be so good? What was supposed to end repression? Seventh-grade girls are asking questions about bondage and S&M. Many of them have seen Fifty Shades of Grey and wonder, if a boy wants to hit me, tie me up, and stalk me, does that mean he loves me?
Girls are tolerating demeaning and disrespectful behaviors and thereby internalizing pornography's message about their submissive role. Sexual conquest and domination are untempered by the bounds of respect, intimacy, and authentic human connection. Young people are not learning about intimacy, friendship, and love, but about cruelty and humiliation. One of the arguments for pornography is that it teaches sex education, and I would argue that it does, but it's a bad education. It teaches about aggression, dominance, and bad sex. No intimacy, no love, no kissing, no talking, no friendship.
Teens who have had sex, this is a different article, are three times more likely to be depressed than teens who haven't. Female teens are three times more likely to commit suicide, this is in the U.S. Males are eight times more likely. That's not causation, that may be correlation, but we've got to start asking some questions. We were promised love, we were promised security, we were promised freedom, and we've gotten everything but, because we've left the path of life and we've started wandering towards hell. That's what the Bible says about sex, that it was meant to be beautiful and addicting and good.
You can't argue that the Bible is anti-sex. You cannot make that argument. It begins with a God who creates a man and a woman naked, brings them to each other. The man begins to sing or just make up some poetry, which seems like an appropriate response. God brings a naked man, a naked woman, brings them together, and the first thing he says to him is, be fruitful and multiply. And that's just how the Bible starts.
There are sections in the Song of Solomon, which is about the enjoyment of married sex, that every time translators get to it, they kind of shy away because they're given some imagery that's really graphic. And so they tone it down as best they can. But if you can read Greek, which I can't, but I've been told, it makes people blush. But we've been lied to. We aren't secure. We've got one foot out the door.
We keep having to sell other people on our benefits. We're not satisfied. One of the pictures that the New Testament gives for hell is a place of unending thirst. And that's where we are in the U.S. when it comes to our sexual desires. We have an unending, eternal, unsatisfied thirst. One of the things, if you look at magazine covers, they used to say you need to be having more sex.
Now what do they say? You need to be having better sex. Why? They sold us on more sex. Are we satisfied? No, we must be doing it wrong.
Sex hasn't led us to heaven. It's led us towards an unending, unsatisfied thirst and longing, which the Bible says that's hell. We're not free. We've been enslaved. We aren't loved. We're used.
We aren't known. We're sucked to dry and thrown away. Chewed up and spit out. Our progressive, free, enlightened approach to sex has not delivered. It's dripping honey, but it's as bitter as wormwood. It promised life.
It's leading us towards death. It promised heaven. It's led us towards hell. My wife, when she was in high school, the first time she ever filled up her car, she had a big Ford Explorer, and the first time she ever filled it up, it was on E. She was all excited. She was going to fill it up.
She filled it up. She drove across the street, and her engine stalled out and died. So her dad had to come, and they were like, does it have gas? Yes. Is it overheating? Like, it took them forever to realize she had filled it up with diesel.
Ford's floors are big. They're not that big. The reason it didn't work was because she put diesel in a gasoline engine. That's what we've done with sex. We've taken a covenant good and put it in a consumer setup, and it's not going to work. It's not going to provide.
It's not going to do everything it promised. So what do we do? How do we respond? If we're caught up in lust, if we're caught up in pursuing the person we're not married to, if we've already done this, if we're addicted to pornography, some people in the church have been addicted to pornography for decades. Began when you were 15, 13. It's been decades of lust.
Decades of, well, this is normal. This is the way guys are supposed to be. Or this is, every woman does this. Or this is how it works. And we've been told over and over again, 14,000 messages a year about how sex is supposed to work. It's robbing us of joy.
It's not freedom. It's slavery. There's a pastor in New York. His name's Tim Keller. He says that whenever someone comes to him and they say, a young person unmarried, and they come to him and say, I'm not a Christian anymore. I'm leaving the church.
He says his first question is, who have you been sleeping with? Immediately they're like, what? What does that have to do with anything? And his response is, nine times out of ten, the reason they're leaving the church is because they've been caught up in sex, and willful disobedience to the Bible makes God's presence unnoticeable, imperceivable. Some of us would say, I am a Christian. I follow the Bible, but when it comes to sex, we've bought in hook, line, and sinker to every message we've heard in our culture.
The Bible's repressive. The Bible's outdated. I follow it in these areas, but not this one. And it makes following Jesus joyless and difficult. So what do we do?
Solomon gives us some help. Verse seven. First thing we've got to do. Listen to what the Bible says about sex. Verse seven. And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
A lot of churches don't talk about sex. We've talked about sex a decent amount this year. We've devoted eight sermons to it, but you'll hear 38 messages on sex today. Eight isn't a lot. It seems like we talk about it a good bit, but our culture is pounding us with the ideas of sex and how we ought to think about it. It's aggressively telling us what we've got to believe, and we've got to start opening our Bibles and reading and meditating on what God says about sex because otherwise we're going to believe what our culture is telling us.
He says, listen, don't depart. That sounds crazy. It sounds prudish. It sounds restrictive. Yes. Yes.
But true freedom is found inside the bounds of healthy restrictions. That's how that works. Birds can fly because they're restricted by little body weight and thin little bones and wings. Fish are most good and okay in underwater. They're restricted by that, but that's where they find freedom. That's how it works.
Great pianist has only become that by practicing hours a day. They become free on a piano because they've completely restricted themselves. That's how sex is supposed to work. We've got some restrictions, but that's what leads to freedom. Verse 8. First thing we've got to do is listen to what the Bible says about sex, which means some of us need to open our Bibles and begin reading, trying to find out.
Verse 8. Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. We've got to take drastic steps. We've got to take drastic steps. Don't go near the door of her house. Keep far away from her.
The way Paul's going to say this in 1 Corinthians 6 is flee. The way Jesus says it, he says if you lust, pluck your eyeball out. That's crazy. He says cut your hand off. That sounds crazy, but he says it's better to have life and be maimed. It's better to have life and only one eye than to be led astray towards death and hell.
We have to take some drastic steps. Martin Luther says if your head's made of butter, stay away from the fire. We got a lot of butter heads in our church that are just sitting next to a fire and we need to make some good decisions here. Some of you, next week when you show up, you need to be showing off your new flip phone. Some of you need to save $9 a month and get rid of Netflix. When I counsel some of the guys in our church and they're struggling with pornography, one of the questions I've asked before is how many times, you got roommates?
Yeah. How many times have you looked at porn at your kitchen table? Zero. Good. That's where your computer stays from now on. On your kitchen table.
Some of you, your biggest temptations at night with your smartphone, put it out, put it out in the hall, sit on the table. Well, yeah, but I use it as an alarm clock. Walmart sells ones that just have red lights on them and they sound like this in the morning. Eh, eh, eh, eh. That will wake you up. Some of us need to take some drastic steps.
Some of you are in relationships. You need to break up. You need to move out. You need to leave their house at 8 o'clock at night. I heard one pastor say that he's got daughters and he tells them, don't believe anything a guy says after 8 that he doesn't say during the day. If he says it after 8 p.m. but he doesn't say it the rest of the day that it's not true.
Some of us just need to leave the house sitting up, watching a terrible show on Netflix until 2 o'clock in the morning that you're not really interested in next to your boo isn't staying far away from the door. Let me take some drastic steps. Now, that's not going to change your heart, but it can let you catch your breath enough to start trying to pursue Jesus. A couple of other drastic steps that need to be taken. Some of you, for the first time, need to tell your community group. You need to have someone in your group, some ladies in your group, some guys in your group that you say, I'm struggling with this.
You need to be honest. Sexual sin is sin, but it's just sin. And Jesus saves sinners. There's hope for us. 1 John 1, 6-9, we'll have it on the screen. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
That we can bring things into the light. Sin grows in the dark, so what you've been told over and over again is you can't tell anybody this. You've got to win it on your own. You've got to fight this on your own. What if they find out? What if they know?
Bring it into the light so that we can have fellowship with each other and then Jesus can cleanse us of all sin. There's not a single thing that you can bring into the light that He can't handle. There's not a single thing, groups, when y'all get together this week and somebody confesses this, don't look at them like a lobster just crawled out of their mouth. We're together because Jesus saves sinners. sinners. Yeah. People in your community group struggle with lust.
Absolutely. In our culture, if you don't struggle with lust, it's amazingly difficult and you're special if this isn't one of your issues. Praise Jesus, but we've been bombarded with message after message about sex and sexuality and lust. And we need freedom, but Jesus saves sinners. Keep going. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some of us need to have conversations, bring some things into the light and find some freedom. Quickly, and we've got to keep moving. Some of you need some friends. Not just friends you confess your sin to. You need that.
Some of you need some friends of the opposite sex. C.S. Lewis says one of the quickest ways to get rid of lust is to get to know a person. It's hard to lust after a person you actually know. Some of you need some friends of the opposite sex. Now, there's some wisdom to be applied here.
I don't do counseling with females alone. There's some things that you need to be aware of, but one of the teachings that has happened at least throughout my life growing up in the church is guys, you can't be near girls. Can't be friends with them. Sex. Girls, stay away from guys. Can't be friends with them.
Okay. If one of our problems is that we treat the opposite sex like an object, running away from them and being absolutely afraid of them because if we get alone with them, sex will magically happen is a pornographic fantasy and it is also still treating them like an object. We need brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. That's how Paul says to treat people in the church. If they're older than you, they're a mother. If they're older than you, they're a father.
If they're younger than you, brother or sister. You know what's beautiful about those relationships? Sex is completely off the table. If you are not married to them, they are a brother, a sister, a mother, or father. Dating relationships. If you are not married, brother or sister, mother or father.
If you need to know how that practically applies to your dating relationship, I'd love to talk with you about it. I'm serious. We can talk about it. We need some actual friends. We need some actual friendships with people of the opposite sex that we treat like a brother or a sister. brother. He keeps going.
He's going to say throughout 10 through 14, he keeps going back into, so he gives some advice, seven and eight, and then he keeps going back into some issues and struggles you're going to have. Get back to 15. We read this a minute ago. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Third thing we need is we need a better well. We need a better well.
Tim Keller, I quoted him a second ago. He says this about covenantal marriage. He says that in covenantal marriage you're given three things that you can't find in any other type of relationship. One is you're given a zone of security. You do not have to continue to perform. If you actually have a covenantal relationship, you are not performing to keep somebody.
Two, when you've committed to someone beyond your feelings, deeper feelings grow. The only other relationship we have like this is parents to children. You know how this works, right? Like you have children. They bring nothing to the table. They're kind of the worst.
I've heard comedians say that having a child and a really drunk roommate is the same thing. That's pretty true. Then they keep getting older and they keep getting older and you keep sacrificing and you keep giving and you keep loving them regardless of your needs being met. They aren't meeting your needs as like the most special amazing children. You're not getting anything out of this relationship. You're giving and you're giving and you're giving and you're giving and then when they turn 14 you tell them a rule and you say you can't do this and you know what they say?
You hate me and I hate you and you've never done anything for me. And so you choke them but you keep giving and giving and giving and sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing and it's one of the most beautiful pictures of unending sacrificial love that we have because when you are in a relationship beyond what your needs are deeper feelings grow and that gets to happen in a covenant marriage and in having children and that's it. When you commit to someone regardless of what you're getting out of it and you say I'm here no matter whether you're sick or healthy, poor, or rich, nice, fun, not fun, mean, I'm here you actually get deeper feelings that get to grow. The third one he says he says if you're you actually get freedom in a covenant relationship because in all other relationships you're a slave you're a slave to your feelings.
You have to feel it to stay. And he says that makes you a slave because you're not in control of your feelings. Sleep habits what you've eaten your body chemistry your physiology have a lot to do with your feelings. He says if you want to be free from your feelings make a promise and you can actually be free. That happens inside of a covenant relationship. Married couples you need a better well meaning that the Bible's going to say repeatedly that married couples should have sex.
They should enjoy sex. They should continue to have sex. They should have conversations with each other be open about it. Some of the married couples in this room the way to apply this sermon is to go home have a conversation be open and honest with each other repent of sin and selfishness repent of fantasies and lust and then have sex. That is a good way to apply this message. You're welcome.
That's what the Bible says. We need a better well. Healthy marriages is not just a gift to the people inside of them. It is a gift to the church. We need healthy marriages of people that love one another serve one another are committed to one another in a covenant relationship and that help the single people in our church see what that's supposed to look like and know what how to walk in one of those in the future. It doesn't mean you need to be real graphic or open about your sex life.
I'm not saying that. You don't need to be talking bad about sex. You don't need to be mistreating your spouse. You need to be open and honest and inviting single people and dating couples into your home to share a meal have an open table have conversations and help them begin to see what marriage is supposed to look like because our culture is telling them a whole lot and we as a church have to begin to model what this is supposed to look like. But all of us need an even better well.
We can't I don't know if y'all know this we can't talk about sex without talking about Jesus. If you've been a part of our church for a while you knew that was true. If you're here for the first time surprise Jesus is better than sex. Sex is just a poor representation of what we can ultimately find in Jesus. Jeremiah 2.13 says this for my people have committed two evils they've forsaken me the fountain of living water and they've honed out cisterns broken cisterns that don't hold water. A cistern's a big well that catches rain water and what he says is I'm a fountain where all of life and fulfillment and joy and satisfaction come from and you've dug a hole and you're trying to drink out of it and it can't give you water.
Here's what we've done culturally as Americans we've said sex is the good life. It's where joy and satisfaction and freedom and hope and life come from and we've been told that over and over and over and over again. It's how you know a relationship is good. It's how you know your life is good. You're missing out if you're not having this. We've been told this over and over and over again and we haven't quenched our thirst yet.
We're continuing to drink from a cistern that will never satisfy us because it was never meant to. Jesus is better than sex and ultimate freedom is only found in him. He is a fountain of living water that fills us up. The Bible steps in and says something to us that I think is so helpful for us as a culture. You can have a full fulfilling and complete life and never have sex and never masturbate and never be addicted to porn. You can have a full fulfilling and complete life without sex.
You can have a full fulfilling and complete life and never have sex. The Bible tells us that repeatedly because fulfillment comes from Jesus. The only thing we can ever look at and say I have to have you to be okay is Jesus. Everything else is optional. Romance, relationships, sex, money, everything else is optional. The one thing we can look at and say I have to have you to be okay and to be fulfilled is Jesus.
As we've been talking this morning some of you have had shame and guilt welling up inside of you. When we talked about the duct tape analogy you began to ask is that me? When we talked about pornography you begin to feel overwhelmed and enslaved. Sometimes when you talk about sex people begin to ask the question am I lovable now? Am I damaged goods? Am I broken?
There's so much pain that goes along with sexual sin and here's the answer to that question. Yes you are loved. Yes you are wanted. Jesus loves you and desires you so much so that he went to a cross to die for you. To cleanse you and to make you his. That Jesus is the fountain that both cleanses us and satisfies us.
There's a song we sing periodically that says this. There's a fountain. This was written in the 1700s. It says there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Jesus is the fountain that pays for our sins that sets us free and that satisfies us completely. But until we're satisfied in Jesus we will forever be stuck trying to quench our thirst in sexual sin.
You can learn all the rules. You can take all the drastic steps you want. You can get all the blockers on your computer that you want. Until you're satisfied in Jesus you'll continue to be addicted. Until you begin to realize that Jesus is the only one that can set you free. The only one that can give you hope.
The only one who loved you so much that he died for you. That he was buried in a grave and that when he rose again he conquered your sin on your behalf. You are loved. You are wanted. You are pursued. You just need a better well.
You are not going to find in sex what was only ever meant to be found in Jesus. I've got one more quote because why not? I've had a thousand today. John Dunn wrote this poem. I think it's helpful. But I'm betrothed unto your enemies.
He's talking to Jesus. Divorce me. Untie or break that knot again. Break up this relationship. I'm chasing after your enemy. I'm running after sex and lust.
Break that up. Take me to you. Imprison me. For I except you enthrall me never shall be free nor ever chased. That means sexually pure. Except you ravish me.
He's talking to Jesus and he says unless I'm so overwhelmed by your love, unless I'm so engulfed in you, imprisoned by you, enthralled by you, I will forever believe this lie. Matt and Raz are going to come back up and here's what we're going to take just a second to pray together. We're going to pray that we'll begin to believe that what the Bible says about sex is true and that we'll be so overwhelmed by the genuine love of Jesus and his death on the cross for our behalf that we won't chase after anything else. We'll be so satisfied in him that we can actually begin to truly in our hearts believe that we can have a life without sex and be okay.
Let's pray. God, we thank you that you save sinners. God, we hate sexual sin, but we thank you that it's still sin and that your blood cleanses us from all sin, that we can be free. God, I pray that we would be a church that you bless with healthy marriages and people that believe what you say about sex, that it's good. It's just not ultimate. It won't satisfy.
It won't fix us. God, I pray that we would see the cross and the empty tomb and your glorious throne in such a way that we'd be satisfied in you. We'd be enthralled with you, imprisoned by you, overwhelmed by your love for us, your death on our behalf. God, I pray that you'd help us to, in our groups this week, be open, honest, bring some things in the light and find some freedom. Confess, have fellowship with one another, genuine, true love and connection based off of truth and not hiding, based off of knowing someone and caring about them. God, I pray that you'd help us to find freedom from our lust and that we as a church would begin to tell a better story about sex than our culture has to offer.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guilt and Shame
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are going to be in Genesis chapter 2 today. We're going to start out there. So if you want to go ahead and grab your Bibles, we'll be in Genesis chapter 2.
If you're in a blue and white Bible, that's going to be on page 2. So you won't have to go very far. And if you don't own a Bible, take one of these blue and white Bibles with you. That's our gift to you. If you see a nice leather one laying around and you want to grab that one, that's cool. But that will be somebody else's, but you can have it.
We forgive you. We're going to jump right in this morning, and then we're going to talk a little bit about, after we read a little bit and kind of set up what we're doing today, we'll talk a little more about the series we're in and kind of how we're thinking about and approaching this. But we're going to be in Genesis chapter 2. We're going to start in verse 22. And what we're picking up on is God has created man, and he's now creating woman, and then he's going to kind of bring them together, and we're going to get to see this picture at the beginning of the Bible. So 22.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and she should be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Okay, so if you will, this is the first marriage in the Bible. God's created Adam and Eve, and he brings them together, and he brings them to each other, and they kind of have a marriage ceremony where this is, you belong to her and she belongs to you.
And what it says right there at the end of that chapter is that the man and the woman were both naked and not ashamed. And what that is, is a picture of perfect unity, perfect transparency, perfect openness, that neither one of them had anything to be afraid of. Anything that the other one would find out about them. Anything that they had to try to hide or cover up. That they could be completely themselves. That they were fully known and fully loved.
They didn't have anything to be worried that the other one would eventually discover. Nothing to be concerned about. Can you imagine that? Perfect and complete transparency. No amount of hesitation when it comes to, yeah, I'm an open book. Can you imagine?
Anybody can go home, talk to your parents, interview them, ask any question they like, and you have no concern. Anybody can flip through all your old yearbooks. Anybody can take your phone right now and flip through all the pictures in your phone. Some of you, you hand somebody your phone and you're like, hey, look at this picture of my dog. And then you see they start swiping and immediately your blood pressure is like, and you're trying to think like, maybe you don't usually take inappropriate pictures or anything, but you're immediately like, did I? Did I?
Could you imagine? Not having anything to hide. Not having anything to be concerned about. Anybody could go talk to any of your old relationships. Ask them any question they like and you wouldn't have any amount of hesitation, tension. They were completely, fully known, fully loved.
That's the picture we're given here this morning with Adam and Eve when they first come together. And what we're going to be talking about today is we're in our third week of our Killjoy series. What we've been spending our time on is basically talking about there's some things going on in the church, some things that we've gotten used to. Struggles and sins that have become normal. That it's just like, yeah, like some of us have begun to believe that this is just how life works for me. You've just learned to accept it.
Yeah, it's not great, but I'm used to it. It's kind of like after a while you don't notice the smell in your own house. Your friend comes over, they walk in. I mean, I think they do a whole series of commercials on this now, but this is a real thing. You can walk in someone's house and you're like, oh, y'all can't smell that anymore. I think the commercials call that nose blind.
And there's some of us who've become that with certain sins and certain struggles that we have. We've just accepted it. It's become a part of us. It's become so normal for us that we've just gotten used to it. And it's actually robbing us of joy. It's robbing us of the benefits of the genuine relationship that we have with Jesus as he's redeemed us and made us his.
And so what we're doing in this series, we've actually made some books where we're just trying to walk through and as best we can dig into that and then take it to Jesus to redeem it. So when we have in our books, if you hadn't grabbed one yet and we're walking through this with our community groups, I would encourage you to grab one of our Killjoy books, hop in a group. There's going to be inventories in there, something we stole from a recovery program. And then we've made some ourselves. But basically for the purposes of not just looking into our hearts and seeing what's there, but looking in and then taking it to Jesus to have him change us and make us new and go to work on us.
And so that's what we're doing in this series. Today specifically we're talking about guilt and shame. Guilt and shame. And for those of us who have just grown used to this, hopefully today we'll see how Jesus steps in and begins to interact with our guilt and shame and set us free. All right, so let's keep reading.
We're going to jump to chapter 3. God had told Adam and Eve a very specific tree not to eat from. It was the one rule he gave them. And they ate from it. And the moment they ate from it, sin entered the world and brought with it all of the evil and brokenness that's ever happened throughout humanity and brought with it guilt and shame. And so we're going to pick up on what it tells us here in verse 7.
So this is right after they've eaten the fruit. It says, Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. So this moment that they ate of the fruit that they weren't supposed to eat of, it says their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked. It was that moment in your dream where you're given the presentation at work or you're up in front of class and suddenly you realize that you're naked. That shame and that fear washes over you.
It had to be terrifying for them because they'd never experienced it. This moment of overwhelming shame. And they feel so exposed. That's what shame does. That's what guilt does. You feel so exposed.
You feel so out in the open. You feel like you want to, you have those moments in life where you just want to disappear. If you could just disappear, that would be for the best. I remember in, I was in fifth grade. My teacher was up in front of the class, teaching, I guess is probably what she was doing. She was talking to all of us.
She was standing near my desk and so I was on the front row. Now, I don't know why I was on the front row. I don't know if that was, like she chose that or if I chose that. I don't really think it has much to do with the story, so just try to pay attention. But I was on the front row.
How I got there, irrelevant. I'm on the front row. She's talking and I dropped my pencil. Complete accident. Just dropped my pencil. Innocent thing.
I bent over to get it. Now, you have to know something about me. You know, middle school, fifth grade. I was, I was portly. If, you know, like, I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't like huge, but I did have to, I shopped, like all my pants said husky on them. Like some of you, some of you know about husky pants.
I was in that section. And so I bent over to pick up my pencil. And when I did, I passed gas. Loudly. And there was this moment where I just froze. Like I was bent over getting my pencil.
She's standing right here by my desk. And I just freeze. And you know, you're thinking like, maybe I'm the only one who heard that. There's a moment of dead silence, which, which just made it worse. And then the entire room just, I mean, erupted in laughter. And then, so like, I wanted, like, if I could have disappeared, that would have been for the best.
I was pretty sure, like, if I had been able to cut off the lights, I would have blown in the dark at that moment. Like, it was, it was terrible. And she, then the teacher, because she's going to be really helpful, starts talking about how that's natural. And everybody passes gas. And like, it was, it made it way worse. But guys, I feel uncomfortable just having told you this story.
So fifth grade me was mortified. Like, but that's what happened to Adam and Eve in this moment. They bit into this apple and heart rate starts racing and blood rushes to their face and they, they want to disappear. They immediately feel absolutely exposed. And the story I just told, and some of you have similar stories, that's embarrassment. That's, that is so far down on the scale of shame and guilt that they were overwhelmed.
So what'd they do? It says they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Do you know how long it took to sew leaves together? First of all, they're inventing clothes at this point. So they don't really have much to go off of.
They're sewing leaves together. Do you know how long that took? Do you know how difficult that was? Me either. But probably difficult in a long time.
Like, this was a very intentional process. And here, here's what happens throughout the rest of history. All of humanity has lined up behind Adam and Eve in sin. All of humanity has lined up behind Adam and Eve with the guilt and the shame that comes along with the brokenness in this world. And all of us have lined up behind Adam and Eve trying to sew together fig leaves. Trying to do whatever we can to cover our shame.
To bury it. To hide it. To mask it. To misdirect. Like, if you've got shame over here, you want to be really good over here, you want to have everybody look this direction. We've come up with a lot of different methods, but it's all sewing together fig leaves to try to hide our shame.
To try to hide, to mask, to cover what's broken, what's wrong, what's messed up. Let's keep reading. So verse 7 ends with, they made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man and said to him, where are you?
And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. So, quick question. Adam and Eve naked? Adam says he is. He says, I was naked so I hid myself. But verse 7 said they made clothes.
I think one of the things that's showing us, and I think we all know to be true, is that any amount of work we do to cover up our shame ultimately doesn't work. That as soon as God showed up, they had to hide because they were like, I'm still exposed. You could see right through me. And this shame and this guilt has worked already in this perfect garden where there was a perfect relationship between a man and his wife and there was a perfect relationship between humanity and God and what it's done is it's worked to alienate. The man and his wife are no longer naked and unashamed but they're covering themselves because of their shame and they're hiding from God.
And all of us are like them. Some of us in here have spent years sewing together fig leaves. You've gotten really good at it. You have a very ornate fig leaf facade. But like Adam and Eve, let me ask you, do you feel comfortable?
Are you free? Because as soon as God showed up, they immediately felt exposed again. And for some of us, you've worked at it for years but it still feels so fragile, so fleeting and like it could easily fall apart at any point. I want to read a few definitions to help us understand guilt and shame a little better to help us picture this in our minds and then we'll spend some time looking at different passages in the Bible and trying to understand how God interacts with our guilt and shame and how we can ultimately be free from it. Guilt and shame are overlapping issues. So let's talk about guilt first.
Guilt is the condition. It can be one, the condition of having broken the law, not lived up to the standard or hurt someone. So it's the, I'm condemned for something that I did. I'm guilty for something that I did, for some behavior that I had. It can also be too, guilt can be the feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, transgression or harm that you've caused. And so what that means is it can be a state of being, you're actually guilty, you've actually broken the law, you've actually harmed someone, you've actually done something.
It can also be the feeling of remorse, of regret. So here's how that works. It means that you can be actually guilty and not feel guilty. Or you can be both. You can be actually guilty and feel guilty. Or you can just feel guilty, feel remorseful, feel like something is wrong but not have any real thing that you can point to to say this is exactly why I feel like this.
You can be haunted by something. And some of us in this room are haunted by guilt, crushed by it, followed around by it. Shame is the lingering sense that something is wrong with me because of something I did or something done to me or something I'm associated with. I'm unacceptable because of this. So some of you feel shame because of your family background.
Some of you feel shame because of things that have happened to you or things that have been said to you. Some of you have spent years just trying to get over things that your parents said to you, that people said to you, did to you. And you feel like there's something wrong with me now. There's something broken about me now. There's something marked now. I'm a failure.
I'm a reject. I'm damaged goods. I'm worthless. This idea that you carry around in yourself some form of Mark or scar. It can be broad and vague. It can be very specific.
Some of you, maybe you just feel like I'm just trying to get a win. Like I just, at this point, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to get a win. And I heard one pastor say that that's shame at work. When you feel like I just gotta get a win. I just gotta, I just need to have something to show. Like I, I'm a South Carolina fan.
We beat Tennessee. That's the only game I wanna talk about for the rest of the season. Because I felt like I just want us to get a win. And the reason was I'm pretty ashamed of everything else. And some of you, that's what life looks like right now. It's a, I'm just trying to get a win.
I just need something that I can point to to say that I have value. I just need something that I can point to and say, this is working right now. And it shows up all over the place. Shame shows up for me when I, when I talk to a mechanic. Because I don't know anything about cars. Like if the car's broken down and the little, you know, the little things on E and that light's on, I'm like, I got this.
But otherwise, I don't, I don't, I can't do much. I can change the oil. I can call somebody in our church who knows something about cars. But when I talk to a mechanic, like shame shows up when I begin to pretend like I know what they're talking about. This mechanic can come out and be like, alright, look here. We had to retorque the TIG whistle on your chassis plate.
And I would be like, yeah, retorque that sucker. Shame is what immediately makes me want to tell y'all right now, I'm pretty sure a TIG whistle isn't a real thing. Like, I know enough about cars to say that. But, like, shame goes to work all over the place. For some of us, shame is at work when, it's the reason why you can't lose at a game. It's the reason why you care more about winning the game than the person you're playing with.
It's the reason why you throw fits over a game of spades or Monopoly. Monopoly's terrible, but other games. You can't lose. You have to prove that you're the best. For some of you, this is why you can't lose an argument. You can't.
You can't show weakness. You can't admit that you're wrong. You're arguing with somebody and they make a really good point and you just blow past it. You don't say, oh no, that's a good point. You got me there. Why?
Because you've got to prove that you have value. You've got to prove that you have work. You're trying to work away from where you're ashamed. This is why you pretend like you know stuff you don't know. This is why you wait in the conversations and just act like you have information you don't have. This is why, for some of you, if someone points out sin in you, your immediate response is, oh yeah?
Well, you did this. You can't just listen to what they say. You've got to point out how they're wrong. That's shame. See, we're all hiding. We're all sowing fig leaves.
We're all trying to mask what's going on. This is why we have, in our groups, we have like halfway confession. So we're talking about like we're going to confess some sin and people will be like, yeah, I just need y'all to be praying for me. You know how I got some anger stuff and I just have really been struggling. Or you see him later and you ask, hey, you told us to ask you about that. How's that going?
Yeah, it's been a struggle but I'm alright. That doesn't mean anything. You've said no words that mean anything. What's been a struggle? How are you alright? Yeah, I'm good.
This is halfway confess. We want to get as close to as close to being in the light without actually having to expose ourselves. Without actually having to let anybody see, I'm not okay. that's shame. That's guilt at work in us. It's that we feel not lovable as we are, not welcomed as we are, that we cannot be fully known and fully loved. We've begun to believe the lie that this is normal.
That this is how life is going to work. Some of you have been repeating to yourself over and over again, they can be known, they can be loved, they can be honest, but I can't. They can be real about who they are. They can confess. They can say how their marriage is going. They can say how their relationships have been.
They can tell their story about what's happened in their past, but I can't. I'm going to always feel like this. My life is always going to work like this because of what I've done or what's been done to me. And for some of us in this room, there's an overwhelming, crippling sense of guilt and shame and your life has been you working to overcome that. Every day feels like an uphill battle to fix something that you feel like is broken in you or to hide something that you feel like is going on in your life or something that's happened to you. There's a story and it's an intense, heartbreaking story from 2 Samuel and we're going to look at a quote on the screen here in a minute, but I just want to set it up for us.
King David has a bunch of children. He's king at the time and he's got a son and a daughter and they're both his children but he's got them for two different wives so they're half brother and sister to one another. And the text tells us that the son falls in love with his sister or his half sister and so he devises a plan with one of his friends on how he can rape his half sister, how he can take her to himself. And so he decides to get her to, he pretends to be sick and gets her to make food for himself so that he can take her and make her his. When she comes to feed him he's going to ask her to cook and when she comes to feed him then he'll have his opportunity and there's this passage where it tells us what happens when he comes to her.
And 2 Samuel 13, 11-13 says this, But when she brought them near, that's the food she'd made, near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, come lie with me my sister. She answered him, no my brother, do not violate me for such a thing is not done in Israel. Do not do this outrageous thing. As for me, where can I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the outrageous fools in Israel. She looks at him and she says, where would I take my shame?
Where would I carry my shame? If this happened to me, what would I do with the shame? And she says, and if you did this, you'd be an outrageous fool. And for those in the church who feel the way she felt, what am I going to do with my shame? I want to say a few things. First, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry that what happened to you, that you feel like you've been marked or scarred. God, I want you to know that that was not God's original intent and plan for humanity, that he hates sin, that he's sovereign and good, but he hates sin, so much so that he was willing to die for it. And you are not to blame for the sins of others. But the question still is there, what do I do with my shame? Where do I carry it? And for those of you who feel guilt for something that you've done, and she says you'll be an outrageous fool.
Some of you maybe think, yeah, that's me. Maybe you wouldn't use those words. Maybe you'd say I'm a terrible person. I'm a complete idiot. I'm absolutely worthless. What do we do?
What's the Bible's answer to this? How does God respond to Adam and Eve in the midst of their guilt and shame? And then how does he respond to us when we say I have nowhere to carry this? I don't know what to do with this overwhelming guilt. I don't know what to do with this shame. The beginning of the answer is found in Genesis and how God responds.
And we're going to move from this point, we're going to spend a little bit of time in Genesis and then we're going to move through a couple of different passages in scripture to help us get a complete answer to how God responds to our guilt and our shame. And before we do that, I want to take a second to just pray for us. So let's do that now. God, I pray that in the time that remains, that your Holy Spirit would be at work to help us to see how you respond to us when all we want to do is hide. how you responded to us when the best plan we could come up with was to cover ourselves and run. And I pray that through your Holy Spirit you would make your response more real, more palpable to us than it has ever been.
And you would cement in our hearts and minds today your overwhelming love for us in the midst of our guilt and shame. In Jesus' name, amen. Back to Genesis. We already read some of this in Genesis chapter 3. It says, they heard, this is verse 8, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you? The first thing God does to us in the midst of our guilt and our shame is that he pursues us. Because our guilt and our shame makes us want to hide. Some of you feel like there's no way I could talk to God right now. There's no way I could pray right now. There's no way I could be brought in front of him right now.
There's no way I could even talk to people in the church or talk to people in our community group. There's no way. And God's immediate response is to pursue. It's God that seeks out the first contact with the man and the woman. And then verse 21, God talks to them about the effects of their sin and the issues that are going to follow this. And then he sums it up with this in verse 21.
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. He made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Okay. Skin is not just lying around. Fig leaves are. Fig leaves are what we have access to.
But skin has to come from somewhere. And what we see in this text is that God kills an animal to make a better covering for Adam and Eve. His response is not, no, no, no, don't worry, this isn't a big deal. No, no, no, no, you can be completely uncovered. No, no, no, don't worry about the shame that you're feeling. His response is, no, you do need a covering, but I'm going to give you a better one.
That's how he responds to Adam and Eve, and ultimately throughout time turn to Isaiah 61. We're going to read, this is what we read earlier. Isaiah 61, it's on page 401. As we continue to see how God responds to us in the midst of our guilt and our shame. Guilt for what we've done, sense of having failed, shame for what's been done to us, or the fact that we can't be lovable as we are. This passage, I love this passage from Isaiah because it's what Jesus, when he comes to one of the synagogues in the book of Luke, he takes this out, he opens this scroll, he reads the first section, he sits down and says, that's been fulfilled in your hearing, meaning I've come here to accomplish what I just read.
So what we're reading is when Jesus steps in, he says this prophecy that was made by the prophet Isaiah, I've actually come to fulfill this, I've come to accomplish this, and this is how he responds to guilt and shame. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, so this is Jesus, this is fulfilled in him, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Jesus says, I've come first and foremost to take those who are broken, those who are hurt, who feel like they can't ever love again, or be loved again, and to bind them up.
To fix their hearts and to set them free from the guilt and the shame and the sin that's been marking them and holding them captive, that's been keeping them in a prison, all the walls they've built to hide, I'm going to bring freedom and liberty, and I'm going to work in those that are broken hearted. So for you, if you say my heart's broken, it'll never love again, it'll never work again, I've been harmed, I've been hurt, he says I'm here for you. And I'm here for your heart. Verse 2, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. I'm here to sit with you while you weep, I'm here to sit with you while you hurt, I'm here to put my arm around you, every person who is broken and hurting, I'm here.
To grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. When they mourned, they would take ashes and they would put them on their head. And what he says is no, no, no, no, you're not wearing the clothes of someone who's lost someone, you're not wearing the clothes of someone who's failed, I'm going to give you a headdress, which is what they wore on a wedding day. He says instead of a widow's garment, I'm giving you a bride's address. I've come to take away your guilt and your shame and what you think your mourning is lost, forever gone, never to be recovered, and I'm making it new and I'm covering you with a wedding dress.
The oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planning of the Lord that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. He says what do you think has been devastated? What do you think has been ruined? What's a total loss for you? It's going to be rebuilt.
I'm going to work for what you think has completely been destroyed. The parts of your soul, the parts of your heart, the parts of your past, I'm redeeming them and fixing them and rebuilding them. That's what Jesus has come to do for humanity and it's what he's come to do for us in the midst of our guilt and our shame. move to verse 7. We won't have time to walk through this whole thing. Verse 7, Instead of your shame, there should be a double portion. Instead of this honor, they shall rejoice in their lot.
Therefore, in their land, they shall possess a double portion. They shall have everlasting joy. You know the shame that follows you around? You know the shame that's overwhelming you? He says I'm giving you a second helping of my goodness and my grace. There's going to be everlasting joy.
Instead of shame, you get a double portion. Verse 8, For I the Lord love justice, hate robbery, and wrong. I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Move to verse 10. This is the response. So the first is what God's going to do, what Jesus is going to do.
And this section in verse 10 is how we get to begin to respond. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has closed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. You see, Genesis began with this man and woman brought together who were fully known and fully loved.
And Isaiah says that's how we get to respond to Jesus. Jesus. That he wants us like a groom wants his bride. That he desires us. That he loves us. And that Jesus knows everything about us but he's gone to work to cover us, to clothe us with his righteousness and to make us his.
Jesus loves you, pursues you, desires you, and wants to make you his the same way that a groom wants to take his bride and have her belong to him and have her to cherish. That's Jesus' response to the church. How? How does he do that? How does he get to respond to us in the midst of our brokenness, in the midst of our filth and our dirtiness and in the midst of all the things that have happened to me and all the things that I've done? How does he respond to me that way?
The answer is the cross. And on the cross he does two things that counteract and go to work on our guilt and our shame. The first one we're going to look at is because we have to ask how does he handle my guilt? 2 Corinthians 5.21 We're going to have the verse up here. For our sake he, that's God, made him, that's Jesus. So for our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the same thing Isaiah just said. He clothes us with righteousness. God took your sin and placed it on Jesus. Jesus became your sin. For those of you who have harmed somebody who have abused somebody who have still feel the lingering guilt about how you've treated your children and how you spoke to people and what you did in high school and college and what you did to your first wife what you did like those of you who have this lingering over you he became that and went to the cross. He became our sin.
The worst in all of us was placed on Jesus and he became our sin was nailed to a cross and when he did that we became his righteousness. He clothed us with all that was good in himself. All the love that he deserves all the grace that he deserves he's clothed us with. Yeah but what about what happened to me? I know he I know he pays for guilt I know he forgives sin but what about what's happened to me? What about the shame that I have?
What about even though I'm forgiven what about this shame that I carry around? This embarrassment this feeling of being exposed. We're going to turn to Ephesians 5. Paul in Ephesians 5 is writing a letter to a church and he's explaining to husbands and wives how to love one another specifically in the section we're going to read he's talking to husbands and the way he does it is he points to Jesus and he points to the church and he says this is how Jesus has treated us and he says husbands this is how you ought to treat your spouse. So I just want us to look and see how Jesus treats us.
Ephesians 5 we'll pick up in verse 25 husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Christ is Jesus the church is all of those who he's redeemed who he's saved who've placed their faith in him. So if you are a follower of Jesus if you are a follower of Christ you are in the church. So what he says is husbands love your wife the way that Christ modeled for us and so we're going to take a minute to look at what Christ did. He says Christ loved the church so much that he gave himself up for her meaning that Jesus came on a specific rescue mission for those he was redeeming for those he was saving for those he loved and he died to redeem us to make the church his.
Redeeming for those he was saving for those he loved and he died to redeem us to make the church his. He died to make you his. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her verse 26 that he might sanctify her that means clean and set apart make her special is a way to say that that he might sanctify her having cleansed her
By the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and blameless and without blemish. Jesus died on the cross to take the church and to present her to himself spotless without wrinkle without blemish that if you are in the church you stand
Before God before Christ completely covered completely free without spot or blemish or wrinkle or anything like it he says or any such thing you name it it doesn't make it there you name what you think it would be that would come with you and it doesn't make it there there is no spot or blemish
Or wrinkle he's redeemed you to present you to him as a husband presents a bride to himself that he's covered you completely now I know you well enough and I've been a pastor long enough it's not been real long but it's been long enough to know that some of you who know enough theology are trying to argue with me and so let's argue you're saying in your head yeah yeah yeah but that's that's the church
That's big C church that's not me specifically yes I'm a Christian but that's what he's saying is he did that to the entire church what he he did that to all of those who belong to him that the whole church gets to be presented and to himself and what happens is you try to push it off on the church and act like it doesn't somehow apply to yourself and so it somehow doesn't count
To you that yes he I get like swept up with the church but I'm I'm on the tail end I'm on the fringes I'm kind of loved because Jesus loves all of them and I can hang out with them and he loves me but here's what you're saying just so you know when you're making that argument you're saying yeah yeah he does it to the whole church
But in the midst of the whole church I'm a spot wrinkle blemish no such thing no such thing not in the church not because of Jesus not because of what he's done for us that Jesus the God of the universe has died to present the entire church without a spot without a wrinkle without a blemish that we stand before him completely clothed in white that's how
That's how Revelation pictures this for us it shows the throne of God and it shows all of the saints all of the church all of those who've been saved by him dressed in white before God that when we stand before God we're clothed in the righteousness of Jesus that if God right now said okay church it's time to take you to task okay I'm calling you in front of me present yourself
You get to walk in front of him blameless because of Jesus righteous because of Jesus because you've been clothed by Jesus some of you are saying yeah but I I can't get rid of this I don't I don't know how to get rid of this scar I don't know how to get rid of this Mark I'm stained by this Jesus dies he goes to the cross he goes to the grave he rises again he's glorified at this point he's back to being healthy
He's back to being alive he rose from the grave then he meets Thomas and Thomas says I won't believe unless I see holes in his hands a scar on his side and Jesus still has holes in his hands and a scar on his side and he shows him to Thomas and in the book of Revelation it says look the lion of the tribe of Judah and John's writing this down and he says I look to see the lion of the tribe of Judah which would be Jesus and he says I didn't see a lion I saw a lamb
That looked like it had been slain the marks of your guilt and your shame exist into eternity they're not on you they're on Jesus the marks of what I've done the marks of what have been done to me exist forever in eternity on the lamb that was slain but I get to wear white you get to wear white what was said to you what was done to you Jesus has washed you he's clothed you
He's wrapped you in a garment of righteousness and he's presented you to himself as without a blemish or a wrinkle or a spot because he took all of our wrinkles and our stains and our spots and our blemishes and our sin and our shame on himself the answer to the question in 2 Samuel where do I carry my shame is I carry it as far as I can to get to Jesus and once it's at Jesus he carries it on his back up a hill
Onto a cross into a tomb and he carries it into eternity and he's sitting right now this very moment on a throne next to the creator of the universe where he holds the marks of our shame where he holds the marks of our guilt on himself and everyone who belongs to the church is covered in a robe of righteousness and Jesus sits next to the father where he makes intercession forever and he says you can't blame them
They have no shame they have no guilt it's right here if you are in the church your guilt and your shame have been nailed to a cross have been laid in the grave have risen again and sit next to the throne of God and when we walk in front of that throne the marks of our guilt and shame are there and we're covered in righteousness and then we'll spend eternity praising the lamb who was slain because we didn't
Have to be because our shame doesn't have to follow us around because our guilt has no hold over us anymore because we have a God who loved us so much that he clothed us in righteousness and made us his Bianca's going to come back up here's how we're going to respond here's how we get to respond believe that believe what the Bible says is true take your shame and your guilt
To Jesus and believe that he pays for it trust him the way you begin to do that is you get to start praying specifically over the things that haunt you and you get to say Jesus I don't have shame for this anymore when they said this it's not true anymore when I did this this guilt is gone you get to start naming it specifically
As you pray to him and you praise him that he's paid for it that he's covered it you get to read these passages and remind yourself I wear white I'm clothed in righteousness the way we respond is not to do something not to earn something because Jesus has already done it and he's already earned it the way we respond is we get to take it to him and say you've covered it you've paid for this I've been made new because of you secondly you get to respond as you walk through
The killjoy books by showing up to your group and maybe being honest for the very first time you get to walk into your community group this week and you get to lay your fig leaves down because they don't make you righteous they have no power to save they have no ability to cover you but Jesus has made you righteous he's clothed you in a garment of salvation he's wrapped you in a robe of righteousness and you get to say hey this would have
Crushed me this would have destroyed me I should have been destroyed by this but Jesus has paid for it Jesus has covered me and I'm celebrating the righteousness I have by being able to be honest and not ashamed open but not smothered by guilt and then your community group gets to respond by saying yes isn't Jesus amazing that he stands before God and he intercedes for us that he went to the cross
For us and that we're all covered that you don't have to feel shame for that you don't have to feel guilt for that that we get to respond by believing the gospel and being set free that he really does set captives free and right now this morning we get to respond by taking communion where the church celebrates by partaking in the broken body of Jesus and his spilled blood and reminding ourselves
That that is what makes us okay not our ability to hide not our ability to put on a mask not our ability to be good to go back in time and fix something or to do so many good things now that we can pay for it but that Jesus' death on the cross his resurrection saves us clothes us makes us his and so that's for the church if you're a Christian you get to celebrate that way
If you're not a Christian here this morning there is no answer for 2 Samuel for you you have nowhere to carry your shame you have no way to not be an outrageous fool outside of Jesus only Jesus can take your guilt can take your shame and can set you free only Jesus you're not going to find that anywhere else you're not going to find that in any other religion you're not going to find that anywhere but Christ and anywhere but the cross and anywhere but the empty tomb
So I'd invite you to place your faith in Jesus today and take communion for the very first time let's pray God we're righteous we wear white because you took our sin and you took our shame because you were stripped bare and nailed to a cross we get to be clothed because you died we get to have life God we praise you we thank you that we get to be the people that celebrate forever with everlasting joy clothed in righteousness dressed like we're going to a wedding to celebrate forever
Your goodness and your grace and I pray specifically for those in our church family who struggle with shame and guilt that they would find so much freedom so much joy in the cross they begin to be honest with their groups they begin to live a life as if they're clothed in righteousness as if they're dressed for a wedding in Jesus name we pray Amen
Oct 30
Anger
Transcript
Anger is a big issue. For many of us, it's devastatingly bad. It's not good for us. You're sitting in traffic. On your way home, you're in traffic. It's bumper to bumper.
No one's going anywhere. You don't know if it's a wreck. You don't know if it's construction. You don't know if it was construction that caused a wreck. You don't know. How are you doing?
How's your little heart doing right now? Some of you are like, I'm fine. So there's a side area here. And somebody behind you thinks nobody's using that lane that isn't a road. I'll give it a shot. And so they just take off.
And you're like, okay, no. Rules? We can't do that? And then they get up to the front there. And you know what they do? They put on their blinker.
And do you know what that idiot does that's right there next to on the blinker? They're like, oh, come on over. You accidentally got on the part of the road that wasn't road? Hop on in here. And then 1,700 people behind you see that. And they're like, ah, new lane.
You know, how you doing? How's your steering wheel doing? Like, okay, you're in your fourth hour of Monopoly. And you've been losing money for the last hour and a half to your smug uncle. How's it going? How's the rest of family vacation going to go?
Like, how are you doing? How's your heart? How are you responding? You're in the hallway at school and find out that someone's been telling things about you that aren't true. And they're all up in your business when they shouldn't be. And they have a lot to say about you when they shouldn't have a lot to say about you.
How are you doing? How do you handle that? How do you approach that? You're in a business meeting at work. And your boss just derides you. Just takes a shot at you.
Just because he's in a position of authority and he can get away with it. He just calls you out on something. How do you respond? So are you the type of person, do you yell? Do you fight back? Do you throw punches?
Is that you? Like, is that how you respond to those situations? Are you the person that's likely for you to throw a thing and yell? Like, are you a words person? So you're consistently in arguments and you watch words fly out of your mouth that you're like, I mean, we're like heat-seeking missiles.
And sometimes, depending on the relationship you have with the person, you're going, oh, get back in my mouth. Like, but is that how you respond? Are you a note writer? Do you blast off emails? Yelp? Are you yelping people?
Like, is that you? Are you no external response whatsoever? You nod, you smile, and you mentally eviscerate someone. And the best part about that is you'll get in a conversation with someone you don't like. And they'll be talking to you. And the whole time you go, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And, I mean, you're destroying them. And then when they walk away, you know what you say to yourself? That person's so fake. Yeah. But what about, are you the person who five hours later is like, oh, that's what I should have said.
God, when I flipped over the Monopoly board, I should have said, at least I'm not going bald, Uncle Carl. Like, is that you? Are you internally processing anger all the time when you get mad? Does it mess you up for the rest of the day? You losing sleep at night? You messed up for a week?
You're the type of person who's like, I've been mad at the same person since third grade. Yeah. Yeah. I know how to hold a grudge. Like, is that you? Like, when you get angry, it's forever?
See, anger is an issue. And here's the thing. Everybody gets angry. Everybody gets angry. The question is, are you processing externally or are you processing internally? Because if you're an external anger processor, you know, and the people around you know.
If you, if you're a, if you verbally or physically process your anger, if you're the person who's likely to kick whatever is near you, you know, and the people around you know. And you're in here going, yeah, okay. I'm kind of mad right now that we're talking about this, but all right, this is me. See, some of you internal anger processor people, no one around you knows, and there's potential that you don't even know. You think because you don't act out on your anger that somehow it's not the same, but you are acting out on your anger. You're avoiding conversations.
You're not responding to phone calls. You're treating people differently. You're mentally going through how you're going to harm them or what you should have said to them or you're rehearsing murder in your head. Like you, like you have a mental list of who's on your top 10 if we decide to do the purge. Like that's, that's you. And that's destroying you.
The one psychologist said that internally processing anger is like having a trash can catch on fire at your house. So you stick it in a closet. That's, it's going to cause problems later. That didn't solve it. So are you internally or externally processing anger?
Because you have anger, you're going to get angry. Everybody gets angry. What are we doing with it? You see, in this series, our goal is that we believe that Jesus has set us free. That he has given us joy. That he has made us new.
And that we, for so many of us, have gotten used to sins that we've acted like have become normal or okay. So that if you, if you talk to your group and you text and say, yeah, I'm really struggling with anger. It's like, yeah, we'll pray for you. And it's become an acceptable thing. And it's robbing you of joy. And it's harming your relationship with Jesus.
And we've just gotten used to it. So our goal in this series is to, to engage with our sin, our struggle, the things we've grown used to that are robbing us of joy. And actually begin to process. The point isn't, let's just talk about anger. And I'm going to give you five steps on how to take deep breaths and say things like, in with the butterflies, out with the bees. Like, we're not doing that.
We're not, this isn't count to ten stuff or go punch a pillow. We actually want Jesus to change us. We want him to go to work in our hearts. That's the goal of this series. That's the point of this series. Because anger is an issue.
I've got a couple of Proverbs. I'm going to show you Proverbs is just wisdom literature. We're going to spend most of our time in James. So we're going to run through a few Proverbs just to try to help us see how the Bible talks about anger. A man of quick temper, this is Proverbs 14, 17. A man of quick temper Acts foolishly.
And a man of evil devices is hated. Proverbs 14, 29. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. But he who has a hasty temper exalts folly. Exalts means you lift up. Folly means foolishness.
Have you ever gotten mad and then later in the day when you calmed down a little bit, you were like, man, I acted like a fool earlier. Yes, that's because you were a fool earlier. Your anger took control of you and you exalted folly. You said, hey, you want to see some nonsense? And then lost it on people around you. Proverbs 29, 22 says, a man of wrath stirs up strife.
And one given to anger causes much transgression. If anger is a normal pattern for you, transgression means sin. Which means that your anger on a regular basis is leading you to sin. Proverbs 29, 11. A fool gives full vent to his spirit. But a wise man quietly holds it back.
We kind of have in psychology, there's this, oh, you just need to vent your anger. You just need to, if you get angry, you just got to find a way to vent it, to let it out. If you got a little bit of fire, just add a bunch of oxygen to it. No. That's what fools do. We actually, we don't want to just learn some little techniques for causing it to be a little bit okay.
The goal isn't to manage our anger issues. The goal is to get rid of them. And for those of you who are internal processors, who, nobody knows you're angry. Proverbs at one point says that bitterness is only known to the soul. Meaning that if you're bitter, you may be the only person who knows. Hebrews 12 says that bitterness is like a bitter root that defiles everything, that makes everything, poisons everything else around it.
So you can have a pool of water, and if there's a bitter root going in, it can make the water undrinkable. And it's saying that's what bitterness is doing in your soul. Anger is an issue. It's a problem. But luckily, Jesus helps.
So I'm going to pray for our time this morning, for our week ahead as we and our community groups walk through this. And then we'll turn to James. God, we thank you that anger does not have to destroy us. That we do not have to be controlled by our internal tendencies. We don't have to be controlled by our family heritage. That we don't have to be controlled by our past bad decisions.
We thank you that you went to work on all of those in the cross. We pray, Lord, that you'd help us repent. You'd help us to see our anger. See the root of our anger. And find freedom in you. We ask that in Jesus' name.
Amen. Turn to James chapter 4. We'll have a few times where we'll show another verse on Scripture, but the rest of the day will be in James chapter 4. It's on page 655 if you have a blue and white Bible. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. We want you to own a Bible.
We want you to read it. Everything we do comes from this. So we want you reading this as much as possible. We are pro-Bible around here. James chapter 4, verse 1. What causes quarrels?
It's arguments. And what causes fights among you? Okay, so here's how James starts. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. What's up? What's causing the problem?
Why is there a hole in your drywall? What has made you foster a bad attitude and bitterness towards someone for the past three months? What's at work there? That's what he's starting off with. He's run into his kids beating the snot out of each other. He's jerked them apart and said, okay, what started this?
What's the problem here? That's what he's doing for the church. He's saying, okay, what's causing y'all to get in fights? Y'all to be in arguments? What's at work here? Now, I love his answer.
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? It's asked a question, but he's giving us the answer there. It's one of those questions where you don't have to answer. Here's why I love that. If I went to your house and said, why is there a hole in the drywall? Or if we were friends or we're in the same community group and I said, why are you, why have you not talked to this person for two months?
Why are you consistently running through your head how terrible they are? Why are you building up this bitterness in your soul? Why are you in the fight? Why are you in this argument? Why did you do this to your steering wheel? Why are you cussing at people that you don't know in traffic?
If I ask those questions, you know what our answer is? Well, they did this. They said that. You would not believe how my boss treats me. You don't even understand what's happened in class. You have no clue what my coach is like.
You don't know what my spouse is like. If you had my children, do you know what your answer is? Do you know what James says? Isn't the issue you? Now, if we have anger issues, let's all just take a second and be really mad at James. Because he just said, isn't the problem you?
Isn't the issue in your heart? Isn't it your passions? Aren't you the issue? We said last week that we have three enemies and that we're going to talk through as we walk through all of these different lusts and anxiety and self-loathing that we always at play are three enemies. And we said the main one is the flesh. That's us.
That's what James starts off with. Aren't you the problem? Okay. Let's keep going. Let's figure out what he's talking about here.
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. Okay. The word passions in the Bible is most often used. So we talk about like, oh, I'm passionate and I have a passion for animals.
And that's why I give money to PETA. And I have a passion for turtles or I have passion for cars. Like we use it as like this, like good thing. The Bible doesn't use it that way. The Bible uses it as inordinate love. Love, desire that's been set loose.
So what he's starting off by saying is the issue with your anger is your love. That's the issue. That's the problem. You see, the Bible does not flat out say that anger by itself is a problem. It does not treat anger that way. So maybe you've been in a church before where it was taught you should never get angry.
And if you at any point get angry, you're wrong. The problem with that is, is that God gets angry. You see, the goal of anger, Christian anger, the Christian ethic towards anger is not stoicism. It's not to be completely disconnected from our attitudes and our passions. It's actually to have slow anger. So Proverbs 16, 32 says this.
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. So the point of anger is not to vent it out. And the point of anger is to not ever get angry. The point, the goal for anger is that you'd be really slow to get angry. But there should be times that you get angry.
Should be. It is appropriate to get angry. Anger is the appropriate response to certain things. God gets angry at sin. God gets angry at wickedness. When we hear about sex trafficking, when we see the injustice in the United States, when we see children neglected or abused, we should get angry.
That's an appropriate response. We should have sorrow. We should have sadness in the midst of that. But anger is an appropriate response. God has righteous anger towards sin. And completely never having anger is actually inappropriate.
It means that we're apathetic or we're indifferent to the things that God loves. Now, I want to push you in two areas on this. One, if you're the type of person who says, I never get angry. That's not Christ-like. Jesus gets angry towards sin and injustice, and it propels him to action. The Bible uses the term zeal for that.
It's like an anger, a righteous anger that leads to correct action. So I want to push you a little bit. If you're like, I never get angry, it actually means that you don't love some of the things that you should love. Anger is the appropriate response when something we love is attacked. Like, if you tried to assault my family, my appropriate response would not be, hey, you're hurting them. Take it easy.
That would not be appropriate. That would be bad husbanding and fathering. The appropriate response would be to do what I did when I was little, which is punch you and then figure it out from there. I don't, maybe not, don't quote me on that. The appropriate response would be to stop you from harming my family. Let's go with that.
I want to retract what I just said because sometimes I say things that I probably shouldn't. So, I should get angry. You should, if someone, you should hate cancer. If it's actively at work destroying people in your family, you should hate the tumor that's growing in your grandfather's brain. You should hate it and want to do something about it. We should hate injustice.
Being apathetic allows evil to grow. Allows it to fester. This is an indifference towards what is unjust is the issue that the white church had in the South during the Jim Crow South era, during the segregation, during the civil rights movement, where many of us just sat by and said, let's just, let's wait it out. It should be an anger towards injustice, a desire to fix what is wrong. So, I want to push you a little bit. If you're never angry, you should be.
Sometimes. Now, most of us, that's not our problem. It was not righteous anger that made you say that to your children. It was not righteous anger that put a hole in your drywall. It is not righteous anger that is keeping you from talking to someone you should have had a conversation with two months ago. That's not our issue.
So, don't right now begin to try to hide your anger in the righteous category. Don't do that. You're incorrect. We should be angry about appropriate things that lead us to, but the issue is our love is disordered. That's what he's saying. He says, your passions are at war within you.
Augustine, who was an African pastor in about 300 AD, so a couple hundred years after Jesus, he says that our major issue is that we have disordered love. Which means that what we care about is all out of order. When we're supposed to love God as supreme, we're supposed to trust him and love him and find all of the good things from him. We put something else in his place. That we love money more. We love our fame more.
We love our popularity more. We love being in control more. And we love having a good schedule more. We love having comfort more. And what happens is that we take bad things we shouldn't love and we love them. But the bigger issue is that we take, and what happens more often, is that we take good things and love them too much.
There's nothing wrong with comfort. There's nothing wrong with popularity. But we've shifted it and we love it too much. You see, we are reacting in anger when something attacks what we love. Our passions are at war within us and our response when things are threatened is to be angry. This is why.
You can hear about starvation across the globe. You can hear about the issues that are happening in Aleppo right now. You can hear about sex trafficking across the globe. And you can think, man, that's terrible. That's terrible. You can be angry.
You can be upset. But if a friend forgets to invite you to a party, or someone says something disrespectful about you, or you get a poor work review from a boss who's an idiot, you lose sleep at night. This is why when someone snubs us, we are a hundred times more angry than we are about global injustice. Because our love is out of whack. What we care about is disordered. You tracking with him so far?
The reason we're fighting is because our passions are all out of order. We love things that we shouldn't love too much. Okay. So that's the point he's making. That we've begun to love something that we shouldn't love. We're building our life on things and because we love them, we're defending them.
And that's what's causing our anger. You can actually, you can, if you had a rope tied to your anger, most of what we've been trying to say is like you should control the anger. But actually what he's saying is follow the other end of the rope and see what it is you love. Follow the rope down and see what you love. See what it is you're defending. See what it is you're protecting.
All right. Let's keep going. Let's pick back up in verse two. You desire and do not have so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
Okay. So what he just said was some of you, the things you're pursuing, you hadn't even prayed about. Like you don't have them because you never asked for them. You never prayed about them. And so immediately a lot of us just went jackpot. Sweet.
I didn't realize I could just ask for this stuff. Like I thought I had to get out there and get on my grind and my hustle and I had to I had to make this work. But like I didn't realize I could just pray about it. Sweet. All right.
Let's keep going because he's he's got a caveat to that. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. He said, OK, some of you have been praying about this a lot and you haven't gotten it. And some of you right now, maybe you're in that situation. You've been praying about something.
You've been praying about something. You've been praying about something. You've been asking for health. You've been asking for your finances to work out. You've been asking for this promotion. You've been asking for that husband.
You've been asking for that wife. You've been asking for your kids to work out. You've been asking for. And you're going, I don't know. I don't know if he's going to answer. I don't know if prayer works.
I'm thinking about giving up this whole thing. And what he just said was, no, the reason you're asking is because you love that too much. And then he says, you adulterous people. That felt a little harsh. That took a cheap shot. It's not.
Here's why he brings up adultery. You're supposed to love God primarily above all else. See, it'd be like if I came to my wife and I said, you know, when we got married and we said, it'd just be us and that I would do everything I could to honor you and to love you and to please you and that you would do the same for me. And that we're supposed to find our enjoyment in each other sexually. Well, here's what I was thinking. One of the ways that you can help me enjoy myself sexually is to talk to your friend and convince her to have sex with me.
James just said that's some of your prayer life. Jesus, I need you to go to work for what I really care about. I need you to get out there and give me what I really desire. I need you to get out there and get for me what I really want, what will actually fill me up, what will actually make me happy. And if you're not willing to do that, I'm not sure you love me. You adulterous people, that's what James says.
You love things you shouldn't love, your hearts are out of order, and you're mad because you're not getting the things you shouldn't get anyway. See, our anger has to do with what we love. Our love is defending. Our anger is defending what we actually care about. Let's keep going.
You adulterous people, it's verse 4, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Okay, so what he just said was, you remember we said we had three enemies? The flesh, the world, and the devil. Those are the three enemies we have. So he's already gotten us to the second one.
He said, okay, the biggest issue is that you love things you shouldn't love. And then he says, what you love is out there in the world. So what you're praying about is the perfect Job, the perfect spouse, the perfect amount of wealth, this amount of money in the bank, this type of health, this type of situation, to have this kind of popularity, to have this kind of recognition, to have this kind of fame, to have this type of comfort, this kind of control over your situation. And what he's saying is you've fallen in love with a bunch of things that aren't worth loving. Not as much as you love them.
When you fall in love with the world, you put God as your enemy. Verse 5. Or do you suppose it is for no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us? So he says, okay, you realize that that was in there on purpose, right? When he says he yearns jealously for the spirit he's made to dwell in us. What he's talking about is, so this trips people up sometimes, that God would be jealous of you, and he's not.
He's jealous for you. So I told you I had anger issues, and when I get upset I can't talk. So let me explain one of the ways this has played out. My wife and I started dating when we were in high school. We had a class together. And we were, for some reason, like we had to go to an assembly or something, and so we're sitting in the gym.
There's a bunch of people around, and there was a guy in our class who was very popular, very well-liked, and was very flirty. And so he was talking to Anna, who was my girlfriend. We'd only been dating for like two months or something. And while they're talking, like, they're talking. He's being hilarious and charming and funny. And, like, I'm becoming increasingly displeased with how this is playing out, but it's like, whatever.
Sitting that big a deal. I'm sitting next to her, so it's like this cat, you know, I go so far with this. Like, I mean, while they're talking, he reaches up and does the, like, movie brush your hair back thing on her. I don't think I said anything. Mostly what I did, because I remember I said I would hit people and not think about it. Mostly what I did, and I had been growing in this, mostly what I did was control myself.
Which means I think I got really twitchy. Like, he touched her, and my response was, and, like, I just looked at him. All I remember is that everyone who was near him slid away on the bleachers. Now, let me explain to you. I was not jealous of her. I did not think I want him to touch my hair.
God is not jealous of you. He's not sitting in heaven saying, I wish I was wrapped up in thinking that sex was the best thing on earth. He's not up in heaven saying, I wish I was super caring about wealth. I wish I had gotten my whole self wrapped up in popularity and how much people like me. He's not jealous of you. He's jealous for you.
You see, we'd only been dating about two months, but when he touched her, I thought I should strangle him. Because I'm jealous for her. I care about her. I love her. And if anybody else wants to try to take her from me, that's going to be a problem. And see, Jesus cares about you.
He loves you. And when you start chasing after all these other things and you start defending them with your anger, he's jealous for you. He wants to step in and he wants to rescue and redeem. And he wants to snatch the garbage out of your hand that you think will satisfy you. And he wants to give you what actually will, which is himself. Jesus is so jealous for you that the cross stands as the centerpiece of history.
That he was unwilling to let us, he was unwilling to stand by while we chased for things that would never fix us or satisfy us. So much so that he left eternity, left heaven, and came to take on suffering and sorrow and death on our behalf so that we can have what actually matters. See, our anger betrays in us that we love something far more than we ought to. And Jesus loves you enough to go to work on your anger. And to go to work on your rampant passions. And to set you free.
Verse 5, we just read it. Or you suppose it is for no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he's made to dwell in us. 6, but he gives more grace. Grace just is unmerited favor. That what Jesus accomplishes for us was not earned by us. But he gives more grace.
Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Okay. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
It feels like that just came out of nowhere. It's like we're talking about anger. Why did the devil just show up? James has, in this passage, clearly identified our three enemies. He says, isn't the problem you? Isn't the problem that you love things you shouldn't love?
And isn't the devil involved in this? That's how anger works. That's how, like, all three are involved. Paul does the same thing when he's talking about anger. He says this in Ephesians chapter 26, 27. No, not chapter 26.
Chapter 4, verses 26 and 27. Paul says this. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. So Paul says be angry.
Like, you're going to be angry sometimes and there are some things you should be angry about. Don't sin. Don't act on your anger. And then he says don't let the sun go down on your anger. Don't let the sun set on your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil.
Some versions will say give no foothold. So if it says foothold, if I'm trying to scale a mountain, all I need is a foothold. Just somewhere to put the tip of my toe. And then I need to find somewhere to get my hand. And then I can scale an entire mountain if I can find enough footholds. What he's saying is that when you let your anger fester, the devil gets to go to work.
He gets to, when you don't quickly get rid of your anger, when you don't quickly repent, when you don't quickly reconcile with people, you're giving opportunity for the devil to hop in and go to work on your anger. So here are things he does. He comes along and says stuff like, they're the ones who's wrong. You don't need to talk to them. They need to come talk to you. They need to call you.
And then when they call, it's like you don't even pick up right now. They don't need to talk to them. They need to fix this. He goes to work in fostering bitterness. When we let anger stay overnight with us, we've given a foothold to the enemy. And so really what he's saying is realize the enemy is involved in your anger and be quick to not allow him to be.
Resist him. He'll flee from you. Which means you don't have to be amazing. You don't have to be awesome. But you just get to realize that he's at work and you can stand firm.
And you don't get to have a place in my anger. You don't get to be a part of it. So here's what we're going to do. Coming out of the back end of this, I'm actually going to go back up. I just want us to see three things that we need to do to process through our anger that James gives us. Three steps that we need to take.
And then we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about what actually makes that work. Because if you just take these steps, it's not going to do anything. But you've got to take these steps and then actually we'll talk about what catalyzes that, what makes it effective. Okay? So that's what we're doing.
First thing is, go back to verse, it's just one verse up from where we just were. Seven. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Okay, so that's the first thing you have to do is submit to God. This really means two things when it comes to anger. You need to admit you're angry.
You see, angry by its very nature wants to hide. It wants to blame it on someone else. It wants to act like, no, no, no, I'm just passionate. Yeah, that's what James says. Are you passionate about things you shouldn't be? Or I just speak my mind.
Or I'm just Italian. I had somebody say that one time. Like, I'm Italian so I yell. It's like, what? That's not how that works. Be a Christian and repent.
How about that? Like, submit yourself. Admit you're angry. Admit that the hole in your drywall didn't get there magically. Admit that the two-month-long attitude you've had towards somebody has been growing. Admit that you're angry.
Admit that this is an issue for you. Submit to him. What it basically means is turn yourself in. Go to God and say, I can't. Like, you've got to help me. I can't fix this on my own.
Counting to 10 has not stopped working. I started counting to 20. And then I got to 100. And like, I need you to go to work in my anger. The second thing that you're doing when you submit to God is this. You're submitting the results to God.
Meaning that for many of us, you're saying, I can't let go of my anger. They actually stole from me. They actually took from me. You don't know what they did to me. You don't know what growing up in my house was like. You don't understand.
You don't understand how they've treated us. You don't understand how he speaks to me. Yeah. Yeah, don't. Many people might not. You might be the person in this room who's coming from the absolute worst situation.
But I know two things. God knows your situation. And God joined you in it when he went to the cross. And God takes up the sword. He says that vengeance is his. You have to submit the outcome to him.
Because some of you are angry because it's what keeps you protected. It's what makes you feel safe. Some of you are angry because you've got to bring justice and vengeance on those who've harmed you. And no, it's not yours. It's not yours to do. It's Jesus's.
God has righteous wrath towards sin. Those who have harmed you. Those who have sinned against you. Those who abused you. Those who have mistreated you. Those who have spoke evil to you.
Those who have taken from you. Yes, God has righteous wrath towards sin. The cross makes that clear. Sinners do not get to go free. Sin will be dealt with and paid for. But here's what the cross does.
It means that either Jesus will pay for our sin. Or we will pay for our sin. But sin will be dealt with. And one of the things you have to do if you're angry. And you're angry for some correct reasons. People have actually harmed you.
You've got to submit that to God and say, I'm angry. And I won't be free until I can trust that you'll go to work. That you'll either give them grace, which they don't deserve, which I don't deserve. Or you'll punish them for their sin. But I trust that you're going to be the one who takes up the sword.
If there was no judgment at the back of this book. If Jesus did not show up and make people pay for sin. Then we would have to make people pay for sin. But because he is the righteous judge over the universe, we don't get to be. First thing we have to do is submit. To lay it all down, you have to admit you're angry.
And you have to understand that he gets to work out the results. This is verse 7. Submit yourself. 8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.
2. You need to repent of sin. Here's what I mean. Being angry. If you just get angry about something. You can be angry and not sin.
You can be angry and be slow to anger. You can be angry and like what Paul says. Be angry and don't sin. You can do that. But when you've been angry and you have sinned, we need to cleanse our hands.
Meaning we need to make restitution. We need to have some conversations. We need to apologize and repent to those in our family. Some of you are going to need to sit down with your spouse and say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the stuff I've said to you. I'm angry.
I need Jesus to change me, but I'm sorry. Some of you have said some things to your children, to your spouse, to your friends. It's going to be very difficult for them to forget. Very difficult for them to continue with. And you're going to need to repent. Some of you have physically harmed someone.
Some of you have been not answering a phone call or avoiding someone. Or when you see them, maybe even here in your community group, you just don't talk to them. Or you keep it real short, but you're tearing them up in your head. You need to repent. You need to go to them and say, I'm wrong. I'm sorry.
I've been treating you poorly. I need your forgiveness. We need to cleanse our hands. Thirdly, we need to examine our hearts. So he says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Rather than trying to control our anger, we need to follow the rope the other way. We need to figure out what it is we love. Psalm 4 says this, and we'll have it on screen. It's what Paul quotes earlier. Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. We need to do what the psalmist says. We need to do what James says, which is actually look at our hearts and begin to ask, what is it I love too much? That's what our inventories are this week for our anger series. There's the Killjoy books that are out in the hall. If you haven't gotten one yet, you need to grab one on your way out.
We're going to walk through those in our community groups. But the goal of his inventories is just to begin to ask, what is it I love? What is my anger defending? Is there a pattern here? You ever been with someone and they completely lose their mind over something or get really angry over something, and you're like, I have no clue why they're mad. Like you went with them to a Jiffy Lube, and the guy behind the counter was just kind of curt and like, not like his name was curt, but he was short with them and rude.
And you're like, man, this guy's kind of rude. And then you walk outside and they go, can you believe that guy? I'm about ready to go back in there. It's like, what? Steve. Was that his name?
Yeah. At least I'm getting on Yelp. I'm doing it. Like, and you're going, what is wrong with you? You ever been with somebody at a restaurant? And the waiter or waitress is slow, and you actually watch someone lose their mind?
You ever done this? Like you're trying to have a conversation and they're like, they saw me. Like, what? Who saw you? I was just, I tried to make a, they turned around. They know I'm, they saw him out of tea.
I said, bro, you can have some of my tea. I don't want to, no, uh-uh. This is, this is about the principle. Is it? Is that what it's about? You see, like, do you, do you only get angry if someone disrespects you?
Maybe you really need people to think you're great. And so, maybe you love being honored and praised and people thinking highly of you. So if someone disrespects you, you can't have that. Maybe if all the categories where you're getting angry are because someone's messing with your schedule. Maybe you love your schedule too much. Maybe if all the times you're getting angry is when someone takes something that was going to be comfortable and nice away from you.
Maybe you love comfort too much. Maybe your passions are at war within you. Maybe you like your popularity too much. Maybe the only time you're getting angry is when anything involves money. So when, can you believe they asked for money?
That's, that's so rude. So, that's, and it's like, I don't know. Like, maybe you love something too much. We need to, to examine our hearts and begin to see what it is that we're pursuing. We need to submit to God, we need to admit we're angry. Give control to Him over how the situation is going to play out.
We need to repent of sin. Begin to apologize to people, repent to people. Christian, Christian people, when you apologize to somebody in our church family or in your, in your family, use the word repent. It puts it into the right category. So if, if my wife comes to me and say, hey, I just want to tell you I'm sorry.
Well, like, she could be sorry for spilling something on my shoes. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, sorry doesn't necessarily, like, she, if she comes to me and says, hey, I need to repent. I need you to forgive me. It's already pushed it into the right category for me. It's like, okay, yes.
Repentance, forgiveness, these are things Jesus works in us. So use the term, I need to repent. You need to repent of sin? We need to examine our hearts. But if we just do those things, three things, nothing really happens.
If that's all that happens, if it's just those all by themselves, nothing really happens. We actually need something else to take place. And James gets there. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Verse 9. Be wretched.
Mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. We actually need Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to break us over our sin. We need to hate our anger. We need to be broken over it. We don't need to, the goal is not to manage it.
It's to be made different. The goal is not to, okay, yeah, I have anger outbursts and I need to get to where I don't so that my situation, my life will be better, my marriage will be better. No, the goal is to realize that your sin is heinous, that you, an adulterer before God, and to be broken over our sin. To hate it. To weep. To be wretched.
To mourn. Not to say a little prayer and be like, okay, cool, I reckon that's done. To actually see it in our lives and to see how much it means that we've chased after something that won't satisfy us, that won't fix us. We've been so mad about something that happened in our past because we felt like God should have promised us a happy childhood. And so I can't be okay. I can never let go of the anger because then it's like I let them go free.
And we need to be broken over our sin. And the only way that happens, the only way that happens, verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. The first thing we have to do is see that that happened, that Jesus first humbled himself. And Jesus first was exalted. And that we get to, because Jesus led the way, do the same thing.
You see, Jesus sat on a throne from eternity past, holding the world in his hands. Colossians 1 says that all things were created through him and for him. This existed for him and for his joy and for his glory and for his name and for his pleasure. And it rebelled against him. And when he could have been angry and just said, I have wrath for you, I'll destroy you. No, he joins us.
He humbles himself to the point of death, even death on the cross. He laid everything down for us and he took our unrighteous anger on himself. When we mocked him and spit on him and beat him and nailed him to a cross, he took all of our unrighteous anger that was aimed at him. But he didn't just do that. He took God's righteous anger as well. So that we can be set free.
He was humbled and he's been exalted to the right hand of God, to the place of glory forever. And that we get to, because Jesus humbled himself, humble ourselves and come to God and say, I need you to change me. I need you to go to work in my heart. And there's a promise in here that I think is so beautiful. When we humble ourselves, God lifts us up. When you lay down and say, I can't do this anymore.
God's the one who wraps you up and lifts you up. And I love what James says here in verse 6. This is a little bit up from what we just read a minute ago. But he gives more grace. How angry have you been? How much harm have you caused?
How much have people hurt you? Do you know how much grace he gives? More. He gives more. How many times have you failed? He gives more.
How many times have you messed this up? He gives more. How many times have you promised you would do better? He gives more. See, on the cross, Jesus took care of everything for us. And when we see him dying for our sins, dying in the midst of our anger and taking God's anger on our behalf, it melts our heart to run to him, to humble ourselves and to receive more grace.
To be set free. From our anger to fall in love with him above all else. It's the only way our love will get reordered is if we see him on a cross dying for those who hated him, dying for those who were angry at him, and taking God's wrath on our place so that we could be free. And so that we could receive more grace. The band's going to come back up. This week in our groups, we need to take the time before you get together with your group to walk through your inventories.
As we said last week, the more you put into this, the more you'll get out of it. We need to begin to submit our anger to God. We need to begin to repent to those we've harmed, even if they don't know it. We need to begin to investigate and examine our hearts to find out what it is we love so much. But ultimately, we need Jesus.
We need more grace. We need a God who loves us in the midst of our anger and our bitterness and our resentment, who loves us so much that he'll die for us, taking our anger onto himself, into himself, into his body, to the point of death, to where he was wrapped up in claws and laid in a tomb. We need the God who three days later walked out of that tomb and conquered our anger on our behalf. We need Jesus. We need to humble ourselves so that he will exalt us, that he'll lift us up, and that he'll give us a place and love us and welcome us and bring joy back in the midst of our brokenness. So my prayer for us is that we would begin to genuinely ask Jesus to help us hate our sin, to break us, to let us actually mourn, to let us actually have our joy be turned into gloom, to humble ourselves so that we can be free.
Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you for the cross, and we thank you that that is the promise, that you give more grace, that we cannot out-sin you, that we cannot out-run you, that there is no time when we will have done so much that you cut us loose, but that you give more grace. God, we ask that we would be free from anger, that all of the unrighteous anger and all of the love for the wrong things and all of the rampant passions that we have, that you would set us free to love you above all else so that everything else gets to be in its right place. We ask through the power of your Holy Spirit that you would author that in us.
God, I pray that there would be weeping, that we would mourn, that there would be gloom, just as there was at the cross and the tomb, that there would be humility, just as there was at the cross and the tomb, so that there can be actual exaltation, just as there is with a crown and a throne, that God, we would walk through that process to be free. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Y'all stand, let's sing.
Our Enemies and Our Hero
Transcript
You want to be happy. Now I know you weren't ready for us to start this whole new series off with such a brain bomb. You weren't prepared for that. No, you want to be happy. Like it's innate in us. It's hardwired in us, this desire, this longing for happiness.
We've bought into it. We believe in it. There's something in us that consistently thinks about it, worries about it, has it in mind when we're making decisions, when we're deciding where to live and where to work and even what we want to do today. There's this undercurrent of our own personal happiness. What do I like? What do I enjoy?
And even we'll make decisions about things that we aren't going to enjoy because we ultimately believe that it will lead to future, better, more long-lasting happiness. It's the reason some of you went to school. It's the reason you didn't enjoy that, but you knew this ultimately leads to happiness. But there's something in us that longs for, believes in, and desires and pursues our own personal happiness. There's a French mathematician and philosopher named Blaise Pascal. You maybe have heard about Pascal's triangle.
It's just a convenient tabular representation of binomial coefficients. I just memorized that. I don't know what those words mean. I just wanted three seconds of sounding really smart. But he says this.
He's a French philosopher. He says this about happiness. He says, All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it is the same desire in both, attended to different views.
The will, meaning your inward desires, the will never takes a least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action, of every man, even those who hang themselves. See, Blaise Pascal says everybody is pursuing happiness. The U.S. bought into this. We encoded it in the Declaration of Independence that it's an inalienable right of a human to pursue happiness. We even got Will Smith to make a movie about it, so it's real, you guys.
We pursue happiness. And I hear Pascal say that, and there's just something in me that goes, Yeah, no, I get that. Like, I believe that. I don't want to argue with him. There's something that makes me go, Yeah, no, I understand that. I see that at work in me.
I see that at work in other people. Like, there's something in my life when I'm sad, the times that I've felt physical pain or emotional pain or the times I've cried, there's been this, like, this isn't how this is supposed to be. This isn't, this is broken. This is not how I'm supposed to exist. And on the flip side of that, every time I've been happy, there's just part of me that goes, This is what life was supposed to be like. This is how I'm supposed to exist.
It fits. There's something about it that fits us. And here's the truth biblically. We had deep, abiding happiness when we were created. Humanity was designed to exist in a joy and happiness in relation to their creator. And we lost it.
We rebelled against God and that happiness was broken. And so sorrow and pain and hurt entered the world. And all of us since then have been chasing after the happiness. Chasing after what we think will fill us up, will make us happy. And here's the issue. God is ultimately the only thing that can fill that up in us.
You see, God actually wants joy for us. He desires joy for you. That's the end that he desires for you. Now, joy is the deep, abiding, real version of happiness. Happiness, short-lived, circumstantial. So God's desire for humanity is to have a deep, abiding joy in the midst of sorrow and pain.
That is set above the horizon. That is beyond circumstances. The reason we pursue happiness is because it's the cheap, knockoff version of what we were meant for. There's something meant for joy in our souls because we were meant to find that only in God. And once, everything else was supposed to be just a signpost to how good he was. You were supposed to eat a delicious meal and not have your enjoyment terminate on the meal, but actually roll up in praise to the God who invented flavor, who made bacon.
Like you were supposed to roll up in praise to him. You were supposed to ride a roller coaster or go enjoy scenery somewhere, stand breathless at the edge of the Grand Canyon and not have your enjoyment terminate on the Grand Canyon, but actually roll up in praise to the God who carved it out. But once our relationship with God was broken, we began to pursue by any means necessary, whatever we believed would fill us up and make us happy. And ultimately, they all are dead ends because none of them were meant to be an end in themselves, but all were meant to point to the one place we could actually find joy.
But repeatedly in the Bible, God is calling us to joy, wants joy for you, desires joy for you, because anytime he calls for joy in you, what he's saying is, I want me for you. Because ultimately, joy and pleasure are with me. I want that for you. So he fights actively for our joy. Jesus goes to the cross for our joy, to bring us to God, to return us to the state we were meant to be in, and to actually remove all that would keep us from him. And so every time the Bible says praise or rejoice, it's calling us to God, that we were meant for it.
I want to continue to explain this and show you a few things here. So the Bible is bathed in commands. It's covered in commands to praise, to rejoice. And since we use the ESV, they use the word exult a lot. And I read the ESV on a regular basis. So I want to explain those terms to us because we don't really use those words a lot.
We use the word praise. And there's really only like two times or two types of praise. And really one of them is not even actually praise. So there are two times that we praise something. Praise just means to speak highly of, to say this is nice or this is good. And the first kind of type is not actually genuine.
So you could praise something to not hurt someone's feelings. Somebody bakes you a cake and it's really dry and not good. And you eat it and it sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. And they're standing there looking at you like, well, what do you think? And you're going, hmm, this cake of all the cakes, this cake is cake. Some of the cake is cake.
This, hmm, is this icing frosting on top? Yeah. Like you're doing your best to try to say, no, this is good. Like they're waiting for you to say, and you finally just, you give in and look at their face in line. You should repent that you say, no, this is good. I like this.
Maybe next time for my birthday, just give me a gift card. But this is great. Like you, there's, there's praise that's to avoid hurting someone's feelings. There's also a praise that's manipulative. The purpose is to get something out of a person. So that's flattery.
It's ultimately not genuine praise, but you're just saying nice things because maybe they'll give you something or they'll respond in kind. Like that's, so I don't think that's what the Bible is talking about when it commands us to praise God. I don't think the Bible is like, Hey, say nice stuff to God or his feelings are going to get hurt. I don't think that's the point. I don't think it's like, you better, like he's really sensitive. You guys, he's going to need you to say nice stuff.
I don't, I don't think that's it. Like just at some point, just tell him trees are good. He made them. Tell him they're good. I don't think it's flattery. I don't think the point of the Bible is, Hey, you really got to get God on your good side.
And one way to do that is to facetiously and sarcastically and lyingly tell him you like him. I think, I mean, I can pick up on flattery at times. I can tell somebody is not genuinely praising something. I'm pretty sure God who can, you know, read your thoughts and look into your heart can tell. And I don't think he's moved by it. It's actually when the Bible says praise, what it means is genuine praise.
And here's how genuine praise works. And here's why this is actually beautiful that God calls us to this. You only genuinely pray something when you actually enjoy it. Genuine praise comes out of the actual enjoyment of something. Genuine praise actually shows up when we're really enjoying. This is why when you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or fiance or something, you just naturally just say nice things about them because there's enjoyment there.
It just bubbles over. This is why when your mom cooked a meal, she'd let you chew for about 30 seconds. And then she'd be like, ain't nobody going to say anything about the food? Because she knew if you actually enjoyed the food, it would, you would automatically just be like, this biscuit is amazing. And then stick it like you. It naturally happens.
I was at the zoo the other day. I was thinking about this and there was about four, I think probably, they were in college. So 18 to 22 or something like that. They were at the new sea lion exhibit thing and they're looking in the glass and it's gotten murky because I think of all the rain. I was kind of green in there. Zoo really needs to step it up and clean that thing out, but whatever.
And they're trying to see like a sea lion. And while they're doing that, there had been one just hanging out at the top of the water and it was hanging out upside down, just laying in water. I didn't know they could do that. And it just floated down and was like looking at them upside down. So they're trying to see it and all of a sudden it floated down.
It was like, what's up you guys? Like that's really, and immediately one of the guys goes, this is awesome. Because that's the natural thing that happens when you're enjoying something. So you've seen a car before and been like, this car is beautiful. Or you've stood next to the Grand Canyon or seen a sunset and your natural response is to hit the person next to you and be like, look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't that amazing? So when God says praise repeatedly in the Bible, what he's saying is notice me so much, enjoy me so much that the natural overflow response is that you'll, you'll point it out. You'll talk about it. That's part of how we actually enjoy it. There's something about looking at something and enjoying it with someone else that if you don't say anything about it, it kind of cuts down on it. There's actually, it makes it complete for you to point it out.
So he says praise. It also says rejoice and exult a lot. Now exult is not like, we don't really use the word rejoice. Maybe every once in a while we just sing a song with it, but it's a Bible word. So church people use it more often, but we don't use it in normal life.
Exult, like if you said exult around me, I would just think you were weird. And I recently up until like, I don't know, a couple of months ago, didn't even know what exult meant. It's spelled E-X-U-L-T. I just assumed because it was one letter different from the word exult that they meant similar things. So exult is E-X-A-L-T.
And I just thought they're probably the same thing. And then as I kept reading, I thought that's actually kind of dumb. Why would they have two words that meant the same thing with just one letter difference? I might should actually look this up. So I looked up exult and it doesn't mean what exult means.
Exult means to lift high, to praise, to lift up. Exult actually means show or feel elation or jubilation. Also two words we don't use. There's something about us dumbing our language down that lets us miss out on some depth here. It says, especially as a result of a success, it just means to be overwhelmed with joy to the point of celebrating. Rejoice is similar.
Rejoice says feel or show great joy or delight. But we don't use these words. So yesterday, I just assumed because South Carolina had a bye week that I would have a Saturday where I didn't get all worked up about football and sad in my heart. And I was looking forward to that because I have a problem and South Carolina is not good. So they're not really feeding my idolatry and letting me feel good about myself vicariously through them.
So I have to watch them and then I get depressed and there's all these issues. I'm working through it, you guys. But I thought, South Carolina's not playing, I'll be fine. And then I accidentally started watching the Clemson-NC State game in the fourth quarter. So Clemson and NC State are playing and it is tied.
Clemson is ranked number three in the nation. NC State is not ranked in the top 25. So if they win, bye-bye all hopes and dreams, Clemson fans. And I was so excited. So it's fourth quarter.
NC State's playing really well. I ran into the other room. I said, Anna, come, come, rejoice with me. Join me, my bride, as we exult over NC State. Like, I was like, you've got to take part in this and we're watching. And I mean, Clemson Booster Club better send NC State's kicker a gift basket because that cat, they would have won the game.
It comes down two seconds left. All he's got to do is kick a field goal and he misses far right. And it's a Clemson home game and the stands burst forth in exultation. That's what those words mean. We don't use those words. That's what they mean.
The people hugging and crying and kissing strangers and you can't tell what's sweat and what's tears. Like that group of people in the stands, that's exultation. And the Bible consistently says this is the response of Christians to the glory of the cross and to the glory of our King. That we should be overwhelmed, subjectively, experientially enjoying Jesus. That's a normal pattern of life for Christians, that we would experience and enjoy Jesus. Now, it's joy, which means it's in the midst of sorrow and pain.
This is why Paul and Silas can be singing in a prison. This is why Christians in the midst of a cancer ward can have joy because it's beyond the horizon. It's beyond our circumstances, but the normal experience for Christians should be in a subjective, experiential joy in the presence of God and in the glory of the cross. See, I always just kind of thought it was supposed to be objective. God's glorious. He's big.
He's good. And we're supposed to objectively notice that and objectively praise. So that when we came here this morning and we're singing a song, we're supposed to sing because God is good and deserves to be sung to. But we don't have to feel it. We don't have to really participate in it. It's mostly just we've got to go through the act and because he's objectively good, we should partake in that.
And here's the issue with that. I know that taxes are objectively good. I know that. I will argue with you if you're like, no, we shouldn't have taxes. I would start off with something like, no, stupid. We should.
Do you appreciate roads? Being able to read. School was helpful, right? Like, do you like ambulances showing up at your house when you set yourself on fire? Like, yeah. Taxes.
Now, we could discuss how much taxes and where they go, but taxes are objectively good. I know this. I have never subjectively enjoyed taxes. I've never experientially been excited when I saw my paycheck and looked at little FICA down there. Been like, yeah, taxes. Take some more.
Like, I never did that. I've never walked into an H&R block, lifted a lady wearing way too much lipstick and been like, Tammy, let's do this. You ready to exalt over some forms? 1099? Like, you ready to do that? Like, never done that.
Never happened. And I felt like that's maybe what we were supposed to do with God. We were supposed to objectively notice he was good, but it wasn't supposed to sweep us up. It wasn't supposed to overwhelm us. It wasn't supposed to engulf us. But that's not the truth.
The Bible calls repeatedly for Christians to be overwhelmed, engulfed by God's glory and his goodness to the point of an experiential joy. So here's what we're about to do. I got a couple of pages of Bible verses that I'm going to read through quickly to show us, to illustrate to us, how much the Bible talks about this. How much it calls us to joy, to exaltation. We'll see that word a lot, exalt. How much it calls us to rejoice.
Now, sometimes on Sundays, and just in Bible study in general, you treat Bible study like a wine tasting. We get together. We're going to look at a verse. We're going to look at two verses. We're going to just barely pour them out. We're going to swish them around, stare at them, see what they do to the glass.
We're going to smell them. Taking every little bit of syntax and word and verb structure and what's being said here. And look at the commas and see where it says, therefore, we're going to do that. We're going to zoom in and really take it all in. We're going to swish it around. We're going to spit it out.
We're going to drink a little bit. Like we're going to, it's a wine tasting of scripture. We do that sometimes. That is not what this is. If you try to do that, this will be bad for you. This is jumping in a cold lake on a hot day.
We're just going to be overwhelmed by one thing. This is really cold. We're going to be overwhelmed by, the Bible talks about joy. Okay? That's the point. I'm going to run through this really quickly.
If you really want this list later, I can give it to you. At some point, I may not even be giving references anymore, but it comes from the Bible. So I'll try to stay focused and move here. All right. Are we ready? Cold lake, hot day?
Okay. First Chronicles 16, 27. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place. So there are Bible verses that talk specifically about joy exists with God.
Like it is part of who he is, where he is. So this is the character of God has joy. So splendor and joy, strength and joy are in his place. Psalm 4. You have put more joy in my heart than when their grain and wine abound. He's saying circumstantially, they have to have stuff to have joy.
I get more joy just from you. Psalm 9. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to you, your name, O Most High. Psalm 5. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.
Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The Bible consistently in the Old Testament also talks about that there will be joy in the future salvation of God. So they're pointing forward to the cross.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. That's Isaiah 29. He says fresh joy. Not that old joy. Not joy you had last week. Not stale joy.
Joy that's fresh because the gospel is true that Jesus is going to show up and give the meek fresh joy in the Lord. Isaiah 49. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. Isaiah 61.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels. He says I'm giddy like a bride on her wedding day because of the glory of God and the joy that's with him. Zephaniah 3.
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He's cleared away your enemies. He says the judgments against you are gone.
It's like you went to trial and you probably should have been convicted, but then you get to walk out free. And that first breath of air that fills your lungs and you know it's over. I'm not going to jail. He says the judgments against you are cleared. That's the joy that we have with the Lord. Psalm 68.
But the righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God. They shall be jubilant with joy. Isaiah 35. And the ransomed of the Lord. That means those bought out of slavery shall return and come to Zion with singing.
Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. He said it's like when you got released from prison. That first moment of freedom and knowing that you paid your time, that you were set free from slavery. That's the joy that we have in the Lord. And then in the New Testament, they talk about we have joy because of Jesus and the work he's already done. For the kingdom of God, this is Romans 14, is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. That's Romans 15. 2 Corinthians 13. Finally, brothers, rejoice. He just says, I'm ending my letter.
Rejoice. Be happy. Celebrate. Because of the gospel. First Thessalonians. Rejoice always.
Philippians 2. Be glad and rejoice with me. Philippians 3. Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always.
And again, I will say rejoice. This is the posture of a Christian. This is the normal response that we would have. Joy. John 16. Jesus says this.
So you have sorrow now, but I'll see you again. And your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. Because the joy that Christians have is anchored in the resurrection of Jesus. It can't be taken from us. Revelation 19. This is the last one.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride, that's the church, has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. You see, we're commanded as Christians to have joy. We're designed to celebrate the cross subjectively. To have it experientially in our lives.
That we would be overwhelmed with it at times. So here's the point of our series. And why we've named it Killjoy. We as Christians, if you've placed your faith in Jesus, you have subjective joy because of an objective reality. We get to experience joy because Jesus went to the cross on our behalf for our sins so that we can have freedom in life. That's the life of a Christian.
So, that's how we ought to live. What we're going to read here in a minute in Ephesians 2, and Jordan already read it to us this morning, is Paul's writing to the church and he's saying, this is what your life used to look like. This is who you used to be prior to Jesus. And then he, in the middle, says, but God. And he says, here's what's true for you now. Here's who you are now.
And see, for a lot of us, we have been, because of Jesus, made to live here. We've been set free from who we used to be. Set free from sin. Set free from this sorrow and this pain that comes along with our rebellion. And brought over to be with God and to experience a deep, abiding joy that's beyond circumstance. But for many of us in the church, we've gotten used to certain sins, certain struggles, and we're trying to act like, no, this is normal.
No, this is regular. This is what this looks like. And what Paul's saying is, no, that's what used to be true. No, this is your new normal. Freedom and joy and hope and rest in the gospel are your new normal because of Jesus, because of an objective reality of Jesus going to the cross and saving you. So we're going to walk through, and what we're going to do as we walk through this section is look at what our enemies are.
In Ephesians 2, what he's saying used to be true for us, what used to have dominion over us, and then we'll talk about how, as a series, we're going to get to spend time in freedom. So turn to Ephesians 2. It'll be on page 634 if you're in a blue and white Bible. Now, in this series, what our goal is is just to pastor through some issues in the church, some issues for Christians that we've gotten used to, that we started acting like they're acceptable. Here's what I mean. If you text your community group this week on your group me, or maybe y'all have a Facebook group, or you just got all their Numbers, so you text them and you say, hey guys, really struggling this week.
I just blew all of my savings on cocaine and prostitutes. Your phone's going to blow up. People are going to show up at your house. Like, your group will rally around you. They will be there. They'll be like, hey, let's walk through this.
Like, we need to help you. And they should. That should be the response. But you could text in week after week, hey guys, really struggling with anger. And you're going to get back praying for you. Yeah, me too.
Maybe somebody will give you a little bit of like, here's how the gospel applies to anger. Hopefully so. That's one of the things we're shooting for as a church. But there's not going to be the same type of reaction. You could text and say, guys, still struggling with guilt and shame. Still struggling with lust.
And you're going to get some, yeah, praying for you. Yeah, me too. And so as pastors, we've on a regular basis in our church family got to sit down with people. In our homes, grabbing a cup of coffee. And just talk through some of the issues we're going to talk through in the next couple of weeks. And honestly, wish we could do that with everybody.
Wish we could just, that this could be done in a setting where we're sitting across from a table from each other. But we just got to realizing, man, these are some issues that our church family just needs us to talk about. We just need to walk through a little bit and begin to realize how Jesus has been at work in this. To set us free from this. To give us hope in this. And so for the next several weeks, we're going to spend time walking through that.
And we'll talk more about how we're going to go about that in a minute. So Ephesians 2, we're going to look at our three enemies. Because as we walk through talking about anger, lust, guilt and shame, self-loathing. As we spend time for the next six weeks talking about these specific issues. All three of these are going to be at play. All three of these enemies are going to be at work.
And we're going to, as we address anger, we're going to address it on these three fronts. As we address lust, we're going to address it on these three fronts as Paul's talking in here. So that's what we'll spend our time doing today. All right. And you were dead in the trespasses of sins and sins in which you once walked. That's chapter 2, verse 1.
Following the course of this world. Following the prince and the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
Okay. So the first enemy we have as Christians is the flesh. Paul talks about it when he says, In which you once walked. At the beginning of verse 2. And then verse 3 where he says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
What he's saying is, You have inside of you a desire for sin. When the fall happened. When Adam and Eve originally rebelled. We just lined up behind and joined in. And there's something in us. Innately hardwired in us.
To sin. To rebel against God. To chase after whatever we think will make us happy. Regardless of the consequences. That we carry out the desires of the body and the mind. Meaning you actively choose to sin.
That's why Paul in Romans 7 says, I don't understand myself. The things I know are good. That God wants. That I actually want to do. I don't do. And the things I know that are bad.
That are rebellious. I end up doing those. And I feel like there's a war going on inside of me. So as we walk through this series. We're going to specifically address. You.
You're a sinner. You're consistently talking yourself into stupid things. Did you know that? Jeremiah says, Your heart is desperately sick. It's a. It.
It's. It lies to you. That more often than not. When you've pursued something. That ended up being terrible. You know who tricked you into it?
You. You should be really mad at yourself. Right now. Like. There's something in us. That wants to sin.
There's this. Fleshly desire for sin. And so as we walk through this series. As we talk about anger. As we talk about lust. As we talk about self-loathing.
We're going to talk about. How are you involved in this? How are you actively choosing to sin? How do we need to repent? The second enemy that we have. We'll spend most of our time on the flesh.
Because you're your biggest enemy. Luckily. All of what Paul is saying here. Is that this used to be true for you. So Jesus has set us free.
But we're kind of going back to this. We end up living like this is our normal. And it's not. The second enemy you have is the world. So he says.
Verse 2. In which you once walked. Following the course of this world. You have. Your second enemy as a Christian is the world. And that doesn't mean all the people that exist in the world.
The Bible uses the world in two different senses. One is. All the humans. So that's where it says. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only son.
That whoever believes in him. Might not perish. But have everlasting life. That world is all the humans in it. But it also uses the world as.
The systems at place in the world. That help you sin. Because sinful people. Help design these systems. And so we have systems at place. That help you sin.
So. You. You. Desire to look at pornography. You. Fleshly desire.
Desire of the body. To lust. And guess what? The internet exists. And there are people actively at work. To develop more pornography.
To help you sin. There's a worldly system that helps you sin. And not only does the internet exist with pornography. But then there are TV shows. That just glorify it. So that.
We act like our culture just Acts like it's normal. We have shows like Hardcore Pawn. porn. And Pawn Stars. And food porn. Because we've normalized this. You watch television shows.
And they just act like of course you're watching porn. Of course that's normal. That's okay. Even though statistically we know that. Pornography use is one of the leading causes of divorce. Every sitcom you watch is going to act like.
Yeah of course the husband watches porn. Of course the wife partakes some. That's the world lying to you. This is also the systems of belief in the world that we have. That come alongside you and just help feed what you're thinking. So.
When the Bible disagrees with you. And tells you you need to repent. And then our culture says whoa. The Bible doesn't get to tell you what to do. You look inside of you. Look in your heart.
And whatever you find in there. That's the real you. That's what needs to be cultivated. That's what needs to be brought out. Whatever you find inside of you is the real you. And you have to be true to yourself.
Now doesn't that sound beautiful? The Bible says that's nonsense. That being true to yourself leads to destruction. That God loves you enough. That when he is after your joy. That means sometimes he's not after your happiness.
Because we'll say things like. I know God just wants me to be happy. Which means God just wants me to do. Whatever the heck I think would be best in this moment. No he doesn't. He wants you to be actually happy.
I've got a two year old. He's not two yet. He'll be two at some point. I want him to be actually happy. I want him to be actually happy. Like I care about his joy.
Which means that yesterday. I took a knife from him. I was cleaning out the dishes. And he grabbed a knife. And tried to take off running. Because he knew he wasn't supposed to have it.
And so he figured. I better escape with this. I did not know. That before my son was two years old. I was going to have to disarm him at some point. I haven't taken that class.
So I just kicked him. No I didn't. But I had to quickly get a knife from him. He's losing his mind. Because I've just stolen the best toy he's ever had from him. And then when I pick him up.
He hits me. I don't know why I have an aggressive son. I don't know where that came from. I have probably his mama. He hits me. So I have to spank him.
I have to hold him while he's trying to fight with me. He ends up getting spanked again. Like there's this whole big long process. Because I actually care about his real happiness. Which does not involve him running around with a knife. At some point he'll be really mad at me.
Because he can't eat candy. And stay up till two o'clock in the morning. Because I care more about his real happiness. So when we say things like. And our culture says. Well God just wants you to be happy.
Yeah. He actually wants you to be happy. Real long term. Abiding joy happiness. So much so that he went to the cross for you.
But a lot of times that means he steps in. Takes something out of your hand. And says that's really dumb. You need to move on. So we're going to talk specifically as we walk through this series.
The world. What it is that the culture is telling us. What it is that lies that we believe. What it is that's helping tempt us. And figuring out how to. How do we avoid that.
How do we replace that with truth. How do we set up something to help guard us against temptation. We'll spend some time talking about the world. Not a whole lot of time. We'll mostly talk about you. But we'll spend some time talking about the world.
The third one. Your third enemy. Is right after the world. So he says. Following the course of this world. This is verse two.
Following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. He's referring to the devil. To Satan. And our third enemy is the devil. So we as Christians believe that God is a good God who created everything.
And that he created spiritual beings. Angels. And that some of those angels rebelled. And that they are at work. The Bible refers to them as demons. They are at work led by Satan or the devil.
To disrupt God's good design for creation. And God's good design for humanity. And rob us of joy. And keep us from him. The best way they can harm God is to attack people. We believe that.
We believe the Bible is pretty clear on that. I know that that's weird for us as Westerners. But we believe that that is true. And that Satan is actually active. And at work. In the lives of people.
Even in the United States. I know. It's crazy. He doesn't have to go through border patrol. I think that as we talk about this through this series. Because we will spend time each week talking about how can the enemy be involved.
How can Satan be involved. I think for some of us it will be weird but helpful. Good for you to continually get to see that he is at work. And just kind of uncomfortable. We can talk more about what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't give us all the answers we want.
But it does give us enough. I think for some of you it will be massively helpful. Because you may actually have been being affected by demonic things. And just didn't have a category for it. So you weren't paying any attention to it.
The devil does. The Bible calls him a murderer. It says he's been a murderer since the beginning. He's actively seeking to destroy and to harm and to kill. And I think he does that in four primary ways. He does it in a lot of ways.
But we're just going to kind of categorize him this morning for us. Four primary ways that we'll spend some time talking about. One is the Bible calls him an accuser. I found the reference for that. Revelation 12 refers to him as the accuser. Which means that he comes along and he accuses.
He says you're terrible. You're the worst. You're going to ruin your marriage. You're garbage. You're sinful. God can't love you.
God couldn't save you. Jesus loves everybody else but you. Jesus only loves you on a technicality. He actually cares about other people. But he accuses.
He says you did this in your past. You could never be okay. You did this to your children so you'll never be savable. Like he accuses. John 8. Jesus calls him a liar and says he's the father of lies.
One of the ways that he works is by lying. He says something that's remotely believable. And if you believe it, even as a Christian when he has no authority over you, if you believe lies, it affects how you live. For example, if I came running in here and I said there's a winged tiger in the other room, the only person running out of this room is the person who believed me. Probably no one. If I brought it down a little bit and said there's a tiger in the other room, still probably no one.
If I pulled the fire alarm and said there's a fire down there, there's a good chance everybody's walking out of the building. Because I said a believable lie. Now, is there a fire? No. But did y'all live like there was one?
Yes. Y'all walk out of the building. Now, at some point when you figure out it was a lie, you can return to your normal life. I have authority over you as long as you're believing my lie. Satan has the same situation going for him. If he lies to you and you believe it, he has authority just as long as you believe it.
So we're going to spend some time talking about what are the lies we're believing, how is that at work here, how can we repent of that, how can we replace that with truth. 1 Peter 5 says this, that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And I think he does both of us. I think he prowls and he roars. For most of us, we do not think about Satan much. Probably good.
If you thought about Satan a lot, that'd be weird, I guess. We'd talk about it. But for a lot of us, there is no place. Maybe if you're a Christian, you're saying, yeah, I realize Satan's real. I realize the Bible says he's real. But then it's like, okay, does he actively mess with people?
No, not really. Very rarely. And if he ever does, it's well away from me. I think that's Satan in his prowling stance, which is just, you don't run from lions if you don't see him. And as long as he can be at work and you not know he's there, that's fine. But for the people who do think about Satan, notice Satan, I think the next stage is roaring, which is just to be as scary as possible.
If he can have you very afraid of him, he has more authority and control. He doesn't actually have authority and control. Jesus has set you free from him if you're a Christian. But if he can scare you, keep you up at night, make you very afraid of him, I think he can be at work. That may be all weird. I'd love to talk to you more about it when we get done this morning.
But we will spend some time talking about all three of our enemies as we go through this series. In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches them the model prayer. Most of us have this memorized or we've heard it a lot, probably on Friday Night Lights or something, where we say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, because we all learned it in the King James. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. So it's a daily prayer.
Forgive us our sins. That's the flesh. Jesus says on a daily basis, you need to be praying about your flesh. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. That's the world.
He says on a daily basis, you need to be praying about not being led into temptation, not believing all this stuff, the propaganda that's out there. And the third one, deliver us from evil or deliver us from the evil one. It is a normal thing for Christians to be aware that you have three enemies, to approach life that way, to pray that way, and we want to normalize that in our church family. So as we're addressing situations, we're addressing you as a whole person who is an active sinner, who needs grace from Jesus, who lives in a culture that is affecting how you think, and that has an actual spiritual enemy that is at work to cause problems.
We believe Jesus when he said, this is how we ought to pray. So that's how we're going to approach this series. Okay. Let's say you're hanging out with me at my house, and we're sitting in my backyard near my fire pit, because I love my fire pit, and we're drinking some coffee, because I love coffee, and let's say the wind starts to blow, and those stupid purple berries off of that ridiculous tree that is in my backyard, I don't know, some sort of cherry tree, it's nonsense, start blowing off and hitting us, because of course, why wouldn't they? And then start making everything purple, because of course, why wouldn't they?
And so let's say that, as calm and rational as I am, let's say I snap, and so we're talking, and these berries hit me in the face, and I just go, you know what? Just hold on a second. And then I run, and I get a baseball bat, and I come back, and you watch a grown man have a complete psychotic fit for about 30 minutes, where I beat as best I can that stupid tree, and I hit every limb, and you hear a lot of swear words you didn't know I knew, and really colorful ways to use them, and I sit there, and I beat this tree for 30 minutes, and I'm just losing my mind, and you're doing, you're thinking like, should I leave? Should I help him?
Someone should help him. Like you're thinking through all these things, do I call somebody? And I'm just losing, and I get all, finally, there's no, I mean some limbs have fallen and stuff, there's no more berries on that tree, I throw my bat down, I walk over, I'm sweating profusely, because that happens, I sit down next to you, I'm panting, I'm sweating to the point that you're uncomfortable, and I then look at you and say, finally, that tree will never cause me any problems again. So you were saying about the stock market, like, and you, now you're no tree scientist, you might bravely pluck up the courage enough to venture to say, hey buddy, I just want to time you out, I don't mean to, to mess you up, you do realize, next year, those berries are coming back, right?
Like, you know how fruit works, right? I mean, I can leave, I don't, stay away from your bat, but like, you might point that out to me, you might say to me something along the lines of, you're actually going to need to cut that tree down, if you don't want your backyard to be purple, and even then, it's going to be a little while, but that'll start springing back up into new trees, unless you grind that stump out, and get rid of those roots. We, we have a book that we have made for this series, they're all on the counter out there, we want you to take them with you, because our goal in this series, is not to modify your behavior. Our goal is to not beat the fool out of some fruit, so that you look a little better, and it comes back somewhere else, or it comes back in six months.
Our goal is to, as best we can, look inside and see where the roots are, so that we can actually uproot, and dig out, and grind away some stumps, and get rid of these areas in our life, that maybe have been digging roots for a really long time, but because of Jesus, don't have to be normal for us anymore. That's the goal. Ephesians 2, let's see how he finishes it up. We'll start, in verse, we'll just read the whole thing again. First one. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him, in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
He says, God loved you so much, that in the midst of this being your normal, in the midst of being dead, in the midst of your brokenness and sin, Jesus came, and died on a cross, and when he died, and went into the grave, your sin went with him, and he raised us up with him. When Jesus walked out of the grave, we now, as Christians, can be made alive. We can have a new hope, and a new life, and a new normal, because of Jesus. Because God is rich in mercy, and he loves us with a great love. Verse 7. He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might show, the immeasurable riches of his grace, in kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus.
Jesus stepped into our situation, when we deserved nothing but destruction, nothing but wrath, and rescued us, and died for us, so that he could show us, his immeasurable greatness, and we could enjoy it. We could be engulfed by, and overwhelmed by, God's greatness. That's the hope we have in Jesus. That's the call we have in Jesus, that he saved you, to show you, how magnificent he is, and to bring you to himself. That's what we get together, to celebrate on Sundays. That's why we're doing this series.
If the best we could hope for, was some ways to count to 10, and some nice little phrases, to repeat to yourself, if we didn't have an objective truth, that Jesus saves and redeems, and is at work in us, and his Holy Spirit, this would be the saddest series, we've ever embarked on. But what we're about to do, is get to dig deeply, into the mess of our hearts, because Jesus has rescued us. We get to die to that, and rise again to a new life. That's the hope we have. In your books, there are charts, that go along with each week. There are diagnostics, we've borrowed stuff, from a recovery program, at Midtown Fellowship, which is a church, that we partner with.
The more you put into this series, the more you'll get out of it. There'll be things, that you didn't realize, you had an issue with, that these charts, will help you figure out, oh I've got this going on, I didn't think about it. There'll be some things, that you know, you have an issue with, so when you look at the chart, you go, I don't want to fill this out. It'll be helpful. Fill it out. Be prepared to hang out, with your community group, and talk openly, about what you've got going on, and walk in family together, as we pursue Jesus, and the hope that we have in him.
If you are not in a community group, today is a great day, to get into a community group. Grab one of those books, you know where we're going, you get to walk through this, together with other humans, struggling to follow Jesus, you want to get in a group. And if you're like, I'm not sure about groups, and I think y'all are kind of weird, here's my suggestion to you. Join a group for five weeks. If at the end of five weeks, you've processed through some mess, and you think, okay, I'm good, I'm not really going to be a sinner, in the future anymore, and I can go do this on my own, that's great.
Blessings to you, we're excited for you. If at the end of five weeks, you're getting to go, okay, no, it's good to walk through some mess with people, I would just encourage you, to hop in for this series, walk with a group, be in life with some people, and actually process through some of this, as we celebrate the fact, that we have freedom and joy in Jesus. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that it is an objective truth, that you have saved us, and that we get to have a new normal. That we don't have to live lives, defeated by sin, by our flesh, by the world, by Satan.
That God, you are the conquering king, and we've been freed, from all that would have destroyed us. I pray, Lord, that through your Holy Spirit, you'd be at work in this series, to bring back some joy, to set us free from sin, to let us walk together as family, celebrating that the gospel, is good news, for life, right now. In Jesus name, Amen.
Oct 16
There Are No Unsent Christians
Transcript
It's good to see you guys this morning. My name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors here. And today we are finishing up our series called Follow Me, where we've basically been walking through the book of Mark and talking about discipleship, learning from Jesus and his interaction with his disciples. So what we've done is we've looked at that.
We've looked at what Jesus teaches his disciples, what his disciples were doing. And what we've done is ask the question, how do we do this? How do we, in 21st century America, actually respond to Jesus' call? How do we follow him just like James, John, Peter, and Andrew did? How do we do that in our context today? And so we started off with our baptism party where we celebrated people who have moved from death to life in Jesus, who've placed faith in Jesus.
And we talked about the fact that the gospel is good news that you live in light of. It's an event. It's news of something that has happened, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It's not, the gospel's not a whole bunch of rules. It's not moralism. It's news that you believe.
And then as you believe that, your life begins to change. So we started there. That's primary for disciples of Jesus is belief in the gospel. And then we moved on and said, okay, if that's true, there are no unrepentant Christians. That's what we talked about next, that the life of a Christian should be repenting and believing. Repenting being seeing your sin, confessing of your sin, turning away from it to follow Jesus.
And that's a lifelong process from a disciple. You don't just confess your sin when you become a Christian. It's the life of a Christian is repenting and believing. And we moved on from there and said, there are no Christians who have something other than Jesus as primary. That when you follow Jesus, he asks us, tells us, commands us to lay everything else down, and he becomes primary to us. Even the good things in our life, even family and friends and our jobs and things that would be considered good on their own.
Jesus takes the primary spot over top of those. And our response to that is when we see anything that's getting in the way of that is back to what we talked about the week before, which is to repent and believe the gospel again. And what we looked at last week is that there are no Christians that exist outside of church family. There are no Christians that are supposed to exist outside of the family that Jesus has made us into. And it's this beautiful mix of people of all different backgrounds and races and thought processes and understanding. Even the disciples were a hodgepodge mix themselves.
And what happens is Jesus calls them to come to him. And as they come to him, he begins to change them. And so today as we wrap up our series, what we're talking about today is the fact that there are no unsent Christians. All Christians are to respond to Jesus, to come to him, and then he actually sends them out. That we're actually supposed to live our lives to spread the gospel, that we should be on mission. And the truth is, if you're a Christian in the room, or even if you just know things about what Christians believe or who Christians are, you're already on board with what I'm saying.
Because the gospel at its core is a message that has to be shared. So nobody in the room is going, yeah, well, but, nuh-uh. That's not happening because we all understand that it's a message that's supposed to be shared. Nobody's doing that. But there's still a disconnect between knowing that we're sent out and actually doing it.
There's a disconnect between knowing that we're sent out and even knowing how to do that. So we say all the time as a church that we're a gospel-centered community on mission. That you should be on mission with your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers. That we're joining Jesus in his mission to save Columbia. Like, we talk about that all the time. But the question becomes, okay, well, if that's what I'm supposed to do, how do I do that?
So you get excited and you're like, okay, cool. I'm going to go be on mission at work. We talk about that a good bit. And then you show up to work and it's like, what now? Well, I'm here. I'm ready to be on mission.
Like, is it that you kind of walk over into the break room where people are having coffee and like you just, at whatever opportune moment presents itself, you just, Jesus. I'm really doing it, guys. Is that it? Or is it like if you're wearing a shirt, you kind of roll up your sleeves so that they can see your sweet cross tat and you're just hoping that they're going to come talk to you? Like, they're going to, hey, tell me about your cross tattoo and your relationship with Jesus. Like, is that it?
Or is it maybe people are in the break room eating lunch and you're just trying to figure out how do I slide in the idea that I had a sweet time of fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ last night? I mean, is that going to do it? It's kind of like when you're in middle school and you're trying to talk to someone of the opposite sex. You know this? Y'all remember this, right? Okay, it's like I'm a guy.
I'm walking up to a girl. Do I say something about her hair? Like, do I mention, do I say that I like my little pony too? Or like Lisa Frank, whatever that stuff is. Did I put on enough Acts before this conversation? But that's kind of the idea.
So nobody's arguing. Nobody in the room is going, no, I understand that Christians are supposed to be sent. The disconnect is, well, how do I do that? I know I'm supposed to tell people about Jesus. So what we're doing today as we finish this series is say people who follow Jesus are sent to go share the gospel.
So we're going to look at Jesus sending out his disciples. And what we're going to look and say is, okay, if that's what he told them to do, if that's what he instructed them to do, how do we apply that as 21st century Americans? So my goal today is just to be helpful. I want to help coach us up just a little bit on like how can we begin to practically do this in our lives. So I'm hoping today will be helpful as we conclude this series.
So before we hop into the text, let's pray together. God, the fact that this church exists is evidence that you send your people to share the gospel. Or that you sent people to Columbia and then you sent those people out into their neighborhoods, into their places of work, to their schools, to continue sharing the gospel so that people could place their faith in Jesus. So God, I pray that you would help us remember our call this morning. I pray that you would help us remember why we're actually going out to share the gospel and that you would begin to help us practically see how we can begin to do that.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, go ahead and grab a Bible. We're going to turn to Mark in a second. But before we do that, I want to remind us of one of the main points we talked about last week.
Because if you don't get this point, if you don't understand what we talked about last week and you just go into being sent out, you'll miss the whole point of why we're being sent out in the first place. And so this is Mark chapter 3, verses 13 through 14. You can turn there. It's on 544 in your Bibles. But it says this, And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.
And he appointed 12 whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach. So it says there in verse 13, He called those whom he desired, and they came to him. So before we ever talk about being sent out, before Jesus sends out, the first call he makes is for us to come to him. Some of us need to hear that this morning. That may be the one thing you need to hear this morning. Jesus' call to you, first and foremost, is to come to him, to enjoy him, to be in a relationship with him.
And the problem is when we get this flipped, when we forget that as Christians, when we forget that that's actually primary, we'll go out and we're ambitious to share the gospel. We want to tell people about Jesus, but we end up getting frustrated and burned out and spinning our wheels because what we're doing is we're going out telling people about the gospel that we're not actually enjoying and living out in our lives. So if we're not enjoying Jesus walking with him daily, but we're trying to go tell people about Jesus, we're missing out. Jesus wants our... Before he wants your actions and your activity, he wants you.
He wants your heart. That's primary. It says, if you look again, we've got the verses still on the screen, but it says, They came to him and he appointed twelve. And it says, So that they might be with him. And then it says he sent them out. So I just want to...
That is the motivation this morning. When we talk about going and sending out, we're coming from a place where we're actually enjoying a relationship with Jesus. We're walking with him. And then we go out. Now, turn to Mark 6. We're going to be looking at verses 7 through 13.
And this is kind of a foundational passage for us as a church. Because what we're going to see is a group of guys whose lives are centered around Jesus and the gospel he proclaims, that are living that out in relationship with him and with each other, and then are being sent out on mission. Being centered around Jesus, gospel-centered, community, on mission. This is a big part. That's why we talk about groups so much, because we believe that's our best way to fulfill what Jesus is talking about here. To follow him in close relationship with other believers, and then in relationship with those other believers, go out and share the gospel.
So this is a foundational passage for us. And what we're going to do is we're going to just read straight through the passage and look at Jesus' instructions to the disciples and then we'll kind of get the big idea at the bottom and then come back to the instructions at the top and talk about, okay, how do you practically do that? How do we practically do that? So Mark 6, starting in verse 7, says this, And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
And he said to them, Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. Okay, so that's Jesus' instructions. Then verses 12 and 13 tell us what they actually did as they were sent out. So picking back up, verse 12.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. So 12 and 13 tell us what they actually did when they went out. And verse number 12 gives us the beginning. It says, They went out and proclaimed that people should repent. You see, the gospel is a message of joy.
It's a message of freedom, but at its core, it's also offensive. What we talked about in the second week is that when people are repenting of their sin, it's coming to them saying that you are a sinner in need of saving. That there's something about you that is off and broken. You need to admit that and confess that and turn from it and follow Jesus. So while in the gospel there is ultimate joy, we understand that there's heart level satisfaction, that all the longings of our heart are actually fulfilled and found in Jesus.
There's also a part of us that is offended by the truth of the gospel because it calls us to change. It was true in Jesus' day and it's true in ours, especially in our culture. Our culture holds up the idea of expressive individualism. We talked about this in our Theology of Sex series. But the basic idea of that is you do you.
Whatever makes you happy is the greatest expression of yourself. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. You do you. But the problem is that the gospel comes along and helps us see that we're broken and we're in need of saving. So at its core, it's going to be offensive.
But ultimately there's freedom and joy that we can find in Jesus. And then it says in verse 13, so there's a call to repent. But then it says in 13 that they cast out demons and anointed many with oil who were sick and healed them. Now, it's likely that most of us in the room just kind of thought to ourselves, well, well, that's weird. And it gets even weirder when you realize that as Jesus sent them out, part of following Jesus was that they cast out demons and that they healed sick people. And in all honesty, when you hear that, it's like, oh, that's weird.
I don't understand how that exactly works out. And part of part of the reason for that is that we live in a culture that highly values intellect and education and reason. Those are those are pillars kind of in our society that we hold up. And those are those are good things. Those aren't bad things in and of themselves. But since our focus is kind of primarily there, our culture is very skeptical of the spiritual or the unexplainable.
And so I want us to take just a second. This really isn't the main point of what we're talking about today. But I want to take just a second to talk about what is what's going on here. What were the disciples actually doing? Because I think there are two errors that you can make when you come to something like this in the Bible. OK, you can read it and then just skip over it and act like it doesn't exist.
It's like I don't really know what that's talking about. So we're not going to talk about that's challenging. That's difficult. That's not being faithful to the text. I want us always as a church to be fighting to understand what the Bible is telling us. And the other thing that I think mistake people make is they read something like that and they say, well, that was only in the time of Jesus.
That doesn't happen now. And I don't believe that that's true either. I don't believe that that's true either. So I want to take just a second to unpack what he's talking about here and then we'll keep rolling. We believe that what the Bible says is entirely true. So that it says that they cast out demons and healed the sick.
We believe that happened. Our culture is obsessed with scientific explanation for everything. But when someone like Jesus enters into the conversation, someone who walked on water, who fed 5,000 people, and who died and three days later was raised from the dead, science isn't going to explain everything. It's not going to have all the answers. And the Bible helps us see that there is a spiritual reality that exists. And I want to help us out here for a second because I think sometimes even we can be skeptical on this kind of stuff.
If you believe in good spiritual beings, so if you believe in a God and if you believe in angels, it's not inconsistent for you to believe that there are also evil spiritual beings like Satan and demons. Okay, those two things are not inconsistent. And what the Bible tells us is that Satan is a created being. He's an angel who rebelled against God. He wanted to be greater than God. And God cast him out of heaven and there were other angels who followed him.
These fallen angels are what the Bible refers to as demons and they have influence in this world. They're actively trying to undermine God's will and God's work in the here and now. But God and Satan are not on par with each other. The Bible doesn't even get close to presenting it like that. It's more like Godzilla versus Bambi. Okay, and even that's kind of a, that's not even describing it well enough.
That's what the Bible tells us. But Satan, demons, hell, all real. The Bible makes that clear. The Bible tells the story of Satan deceiving our first parents, Adam and Eve, into sin to break God's command in their life and sin entered the world. And so the relationship between God was fractured as they were tempted. And the rest of the Bible tells the story of God's active pursuit to redeem people, to bring people back into a relationship with him.
And ultimately we see that accomplished through Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead. So that when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was defeated but not ultimately conquered yet. Still having influence in our world. Still able to do stuff in our world. We see in the book of Revelation that ultimately he is conquered and destroyed. And so what Jesus is doing here, what the disciples are doing as they go out, is they are actually combating the works of the enemy.
That Jesus is helping them push back darkness in their area. That they're actually ministering to people on a spiritual level. And the Bible tells us that part of the way that works throughout, that you see, is that there's power in the name of Jesus. And there's power as people pray. It says people were possessed or oppressed by demons or had spiritual warfare going on. That was how it was combated.
It was with the power that is in Jesus' name and through prayer. Now again, I don't want us to spend all of our time talking about that this morning. So if you've got questions or you want to talk more about it, Chet and I are going to be available after the gathering. You can ask us more questions. Also, we did a sermon on this back in our 1 Peter series called The Devil and the King. And I would also kind of point you towards that sermon.
So what's the point? What's the point of what the disciples were doing? As the disciples went out to share the gospel and to minister to people, they were sharing the gospel with whole individuals. They weren't just meeting physical needs. They weren't just meeting emotional needs. They weren't just meeting spiritual needs.
That as they shared the gospel, the gospel was good news for the whole person. Whether it be sickness or spiritual warfare or the need to just repent of sin. That as they went out, they were actually ministering to whole people. So yeah, they helped feed people. They helped clothe people. They helped clothe people.
People who were in poverty. And the same thing is true for us. We should feed the hungry. We should help with homelessness. All the while knowing that it truly is the gospel that is at the heart of what people need. So what we're seeing is that the disciples went out and shared the gospel.
Because the gospel is good news for all of life. So now the question becomes, based off of what Jesus instructed them, how do we do that? How's that going to begin to show up in my life? How's that going to begin to show up in the life of our group? Now, some of you, maybe you're a note taker. Maybe you're not.
I'm going to challenge you to jot down some notes today. There are cards in front of you. There are pens in those seats. Because I want to just give us some practical coaching on how we can begin to be on mission. Based off of what Jesus is telling us. What he's instructing his disciples.
So go back to the top. Go back up to verse 7. It says this. Now he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two. Now, there are likely a lot of reasons why Jesus did that.
I think there was a safety element. That it was easier to travel with two people together. I think there was like personal discipleship kind of woven in there. Those two guys being able to pour into each other and build each other up. But I think the main reason is to show us that community is hardwired into Jesus' call to mission.
Hardwired into it. That it's supposed to be done in the context of relationships. Especially since the rest of the New Testament continues that idea. You see the church living it out in relationship. The letters are written to groups of believers. And so the first answer to the question, how do we do this?
How do we begin to practically be on mission? Is that we go together. Is that we go together. I was growing up and anytime mission or missionary was talked about. It was always in the context of like you as an individual. Go out and invite your friend to come to church with you.
Or even if it was foreign mission. It was like an individual going out to another country by themselves. But the command for mission in the New Testament is always in communal terms. But the problem is what we talked about last week is that we've been invited into a family. We've been invited into relationships with other believers. But when it comes to mission, it becomes an individual sport.
It would be like watching a football game. It's football season. There are going to be a lot of football metaphors. It would be like watching a football game. And the quarterback snaps the ball to himself. And he runs up and he blocks somebody because he's got to do that too.
And then he throws the ball and sprints after it as fast as he can to try to catch the ball. And then he gets splattered. And the rest of the game looks a lot like that. And their team loses 63 to nothing. And then in the press conference after the game, he's like, Oh, we just didn't play up to our potential today. We nothing, man.
You were trying to do it all by yourself. And I think when we talk about mission in the church, we all begin to think as individuals. But it's not. It's intended to be done by groups of believers going out together. And here's why. Community puts the gospel on display in a way that you as an individual don't have the ability to by yourself.
Community puts the gospel on display in a way that you can't do by yourself. Let me show you how this shows up. So many of our baptism videos start off with, I started hanging out with a community group. And so we have to remind people like, Your community group didn't save you. Mill City Church didn't save you. But what they're saying is, That's the first place I actually saw the gospel tangibly.
I saw real love and service and openness and family and hospitality. They saw the effects of the gospel. It goes hand in hand with what Jesus says that, By your love for one another, They'll know. They'll come to know the gospel. I mean, it's so clear all throughout the New Testament That it's supposed to be done in relationship with other believers. Okay, well, how do you do that?
A couple of practical things. Invite your group. Like I said, we're a groups-based church. We talk about groups all the time. Invite your group. And here's what I mean by that.
Don't just invite people to your group. Invite your group to people. Don't just invite people to your group, Like your group meeting time. But invite your group to people. It's not bad to invite people to hang out with your community group When you're getting together. But invite your group to people.
We all have relationships, Whether it's at work, Or the people that we go to the gym with, Or that we're in school with, Or people who live in our neighborhood. And so what the Bible helps us see is, Make the most of those relationships, And invite the other Christians you're already in relationship, Into that. You've already got the relationships. Just let them be a part of that. Let me show you how this can play out. Let's say I'm building a relationship with someone who plays video games.
I mean, he's a gamer and he loves it. I don't like video games. The reason being, I'm not very good at video games. I stopped at the Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007, Which is the greatest game of all time. You cannot argue with that. It's true.
So that as video game systems got better and more complex, I was, Like I was behind the curve. Like my roommates, When we were in college, Would invite me to play Halo, Just so they could get their kill count up. I mean, I'm literally the guy in the corner with a gun, Doing this. And they're all three standing behind me, Just waiting for me to turn around. They don't even care who gets the kill. They're just loving watching me, Because I can't, I can't control.
I'm all over the place. I'm not good at video games. But let's say I'm hanging out with my group, And my group leader says, Hey, Anybody that we should be praying for, Anybody you're building a relationship with currently? I say, Yeah, I've got a friend of mine who, Well, Tell us about him. He loves playing video games. And Tom goes, I like playing video games.
Can I get in on that? And immediately you go, Why did I think of that? Tom plays like 15 to 20 hours of video games a week. Now that's another conversation for another day. But Tom's good at video games.
And so Tom and I and my friend, We begin hanging out. And of course I play with them, So, You know, They can get their kill counts out and whatever. But that's a picture of you inviting somebody in, A Christian that you're friends with, Into a relationship that you already have. And that actually goes hand in hand with the second thing. Use your gifts. We believe that all Christians have been given gifts by Jesus for the edification of the church.
So you are not like everybody else that you're in relationship with. You've got different skills and abilities. And inside the context of a group, You actually get to use your gifts for the benefit of helping people come to know Jesus. I want to tell you all a real life story of how that happened. Okay. And I'm going to use real names because these are real people.
When Chet and I and our families moved down to be a part of Planting Mill City, Chet worked at Sears. Okay. At Sears, Chet met a guy named Jack. So he started building a relationship with Jack. They kind of became friends. Started hanging out some outside of work.
Maybe grabbing lunch. Playing some video games together. And then Russ, Who was the first person who became a Christian as a part of our church, Also worked at Sears. And was also a part of the community group that Chet was in. So they all started getting together and playing video games.
So different people using different skill sets. Then Chet invited Jack to come to a Halloween party that his group was throwing. Okay. There had to be someone who was organizing the party. There had to be someone who was communicating with all the people what they were supposed to bring. There were people who served and made food and set up and kept it kind of going.
There were people who were just fun and just relational. They were playing cornhole and can jam. And so Jack shows up to this thing. And, you know, I mean, you've had a conversation with Chet. And, you know, I mean, maybe it goes somewhere. Maybe it doesn't.
Who knows? But there are two super friendly guys in that group, Boneweed and Dan Stoiku, Who spent that night getting to know Jack. Just got in conversation with him. And then after that night, they started inviting them to come to their house. So he started hanging out with their families.
They invited him into their homes. And then Jack started hanging out with their community group. And eventually Jack became a Christian. You see that? That's different people within a community group using their different gifts. To throw that Halloween party.
To open up their homes. Someone had to eventually share the gospel with Jack. So we actually get to use our gifts. And that really takes the pressure off. I think all of us think, I've got to know exactly what to say. And I've got to do all this stuff.
But the New Testament tells us that it's done in the context of relationships. The third thing is this. Have rhythms. Have rhythms. That's kind of common language in our day. You'll say something like, you know, just going through the normal rhythms of life.
And what you're saying is, all the stuff that you're doing on a regular basis. That's what rhythms of life means. Well, we encourage all of our community groups to have rhythms. Rhythms of life where they spend time together. So obviously that's going to include coming to a gathering on Sundays.
That's going to include their group meeting time. But it's not just that. That we have some of the things that are going on in some of our groups. Some of the guys get together for lunch during the week. The girls have girls' nights. Some of the groups get together outside and they go and serve.
We've got stay-at-home moms that go to the zoo together. And try to invite their friends. And here's the deal. The more that you guys are actually spending time together in relationship with other believers. The more opportunities you have to bring other people in. Okay, so if the invitation is, hey, come to my house.
We're going to read the Bible and repent of sin. It's going to take a special kind of person to respond to that and say yes. But if your invitation is, hey, come watch a football game and eat some ribs. I'm down. What time? Do I need to bring anything else?
I want to make this the best party ever. So when it says they went two by two, mission is done together. So I want us to change our mindset from just being individuals, being renegade cowboy Christians out on our own trying to do this to actually beginning to do it together. Okay? So we go together.
Go back to the text. Look at verses 8 and verse 9. It says he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff. No bread. No bag. No money in their belts.
But to wear sandals. And not to put on two tunics. Okay, I think part of Jesus' design here is to emphasize that they needed to totally depend on God for this to happen and go well. Not on themselves. Not on their provisions. Not on their provisions.
That they needed God to open up the doors and to provide for them as they were going. God's setting this up in a way where they're not able to take credit for what actually happens. And so second practical thing that we can do to begin to be on mission to be sent is to trust God. Now, you may hear that and go, okay, thanks preacher boy. I know I'm supposed to trust God. It's like, no, but actually trust God.
If we believe, if we believe that salvation begins and ends with God, that God draws people and through his Holy Spirit leads them to repent, leads them to a correct understanding of who Jesus is, leads them to turn from their sin and to have a life of following him, then we're going to treat it that way. We're going to trust God. And for us as Christians, one of the ways that we express our trust in God on a regular basis is that we pray. That's what prayer is. It's communication with God and asking him to work in our lives and on behalf of other people, whether it be sickness or salvation, whatever it is, that's us coming.
God's saying, I trust you. We need you actively at work here. So if that's true, if that's how we trust God is through praying. If I could listen to your prayer life, would it be abundantly clear what you want to see Jesus do in the life of your friends? Would your dependence on God be evident if I could listen to your prayers? Which of your unbelieving friends did you pray for by name this week?
Because the truth is, if you're not praying, if we're not praying, we're not actually on mission. We're not a part of the mission. There is no mission without prayer because there are no results without God. I'm going to say that again. There is no mission without prayer because there are no results without God. So we pray.
That's part of how we actively begin to be on mission is that we pray. The first thing you can do is pray for yourself. You may hear that and go, well, that's kind of selfish, isn't it? No. That's what we talked about in our Prayer in the Holy Spirit series is that God is our good Father. And we're needy children.
And he wants us to ask him for stuff because we're needy children so that he can send the Holy Spirit. So part of the way you begin to do this is you pray for yourself. You're praying for your eyes to be open to the people who are around you. You're praying that God would send the Holy Spirit to give you courage. You're asking for the Holy Spirit to give you the right words. You're asking the Holy Spirit to actually help you care about the people who you are around.
We need God active in us first and foremost. Then we begin to pray for people by name. Pray for people by name. And this is for you personally and for us as a group. That we actually go before the throne of God asking him to move and work in the lives of people around us. Because if we actually want to see them become Christians, we actually want to see them saved, then that's going to be the active work of God in their lives.
And I want to tell you all this. There are two guys that our group began praying for two years ago by name on a regular basis. We started praying for those two guys to become Christians, that Jesus would move and work and lead them to repent. And both of those guys have become Christians, were baptized as a part of this church, and now are actively involved in community and serving to see more people become Christians. Now, as we were praying, we were also inviting them to go get lunch and spending time together. But that's a confidence booster for our group.
We get together and we remember, Man, two years ago this person wasn't saved and we prayed and God saved them. So that's part of how we can practically do it. Third thing is this, pray for others to go. Pray for others, the people who are in your group. Pray for other people in our church. Pray for Christians in our city and in our state and in our country and in other countries.
Jesus says, Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers because the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers few. We're praying for opportunities that God would open up the right doors. We get to join other people in their mission. Here's the deal. The more you begin to pray about people and pray about the people in your group who they're trying to reach, the more you begin to care. The more you're willing to invest your own time, your own energy, your own effort.
The stuff that we just talked about, working together as a group to see that actually be possible. Jump back to the text, verse 10. It says this, And he said to them, Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. Okay, there's a cultural thing going on here. In the Old Testament, when the prophets would go into a town to proclaim the message, if it was received, they would stay there and let their blessings stay there.
Okay? If they rejected the message, the sign that they would do as a sign of condemnation against them was that they would shake their sandals. They would shake the dust from their sandals and move on. So that's what he's talking about here, is that look for those type of people that will receive you. And again, what we've been doing in this series is saying, here's what Jesus did with his disciples. Now, how do we learn from it?
And specifically in this text, he's actually sending the disciples out. They're going out. So it's not really in the context of their day-to-day lives. It's more, he's actually sending them to places. And the church is still a sending agency. We still send people to other cities and other states and to other countries to share the gospel and to plant more churches.
That's why our church partnered with City Church for our gift project. Last year, we gave $2,300. And 25 people from Columbia, South Carolina moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. And I'm happy to tell you that they have since doubled moving there. So now they've got 25 that moved in and 25 that were actually from Knoxville.
And starting in January, they're going to be beginning like a worship service. It's like we've got to be a part of that. That's why we're a part of a church planting network with them and with three other churches. That's why in the future, we want to partner with unreached people groups and other parts of our world to see them become Christians. So the church does send out.
But for us, what we're looking at today is how do we take this same idea and apply it to right now? How do I apply this to the everyday? And here's how we say it. Here's how we say what we're looking at in this passage. Build with those who want to build. So in this passage, it says, Go to people who will welcome you into their homes.
Some of the other gospel accounts say like, Go to people of peace. People who are open and receptive to your message. And if people aren't, just shake the dust from your sandals and keep moving. And so for us, we want to build with those who want to build. That means we're going to pour the majority of our time and energy into those who are receptive. Now, this isn't an excuse to be lazy or to not be persistent.
It's a strategy thing. If someone is open and receptive to the gospel, you want to spend the majority of your time there. There's a lady in my community group that when she talks about me inviting her to be a part of our group, she says, Well, I basically just ran out of excuses. Yep. I'm persistent, if nothing else. I think the word she used was annoying, but let's not split hairs.
But what it's talking about here is building with those who want to build, going after those who are receptive. So how do we do that? Reach people in your calendar. Reach people in your calendar. Here's what I mean. Okay.
What? Y'all don't like the popping sound effects as we talk? Here's what I mean. We are surrounded by people constantly. The people that you work with, the people that you are in relationship with. And honestly, these are the easiest people for us to reach.
And one of the most common excuses that people give for not being on mission is that, Man, I don't have time. I don't have time to add something else into my schedule. Well, here's the beauty of seeing all of life as your place, as your means for being on mission. First of all, it kind of makes that excuse crumble apart. But that means that every situation, every relationship, every circumstance that you find yourself in is an opportunity for you to build relationships and to be on mission.
Work, school, coworkers, I already said work, neighbors, friends, family, the person at the gas station, the person at the DMV. All of those are opportunities for us to begin building relationships. So you can ask two questions to kind of figure out what are my options here? How do I spend my time? How do I spend my time? Who has God already placed me around?
How do I spend my time? What are the things that I do? And who are the people that God has already placed me around? And for the majority of us in this room, whether it be school or work, that is the place that you spend the majority of your time outside of anything else. I mean, we spend so much time at work or at school. And so we actually begin to look for ways to be in relationship with the people that we work with.
Here's how that shows up. Just imagine for a second that instead of going out to eat, going to eat lunch by yourself or maybe even just going to sit in your car for a couple of minutes of peace and quiet, you actually began inviting the people that you work with to go have lunch with you or you began going and sitting in the break room to look for people that you could have a conversation with, to begin building a relationship with. What if the people that you actually asked, how are you doing, that you actually stopped and listened? I'm for real. Like these are the people that you're in school with or that you were with.
They really don't have an option to not be around you. And so you get to begin to be strategic. All the other things we've already talked about, like praying and asking for God to be active in their lives. And then as you begin to talk with them and build relationships, you're going, okay, God, help me actually listen. Help me be able to share good news with them. Help me be able to encourage them.
Help me to be able to help guide them in the life situations that they may have going on. Before I started working for our church, I worked at Dick's Sporting Goods for two years. And I got to experience this firsthand. There's a guy that's a part of our church whose name is David. And David and I worked in the same department at work. And we just, I just talked to him.
We built a relationship. We talked about things that we had in common. We talked about Clemson. We talked about our love for golf. Then I found out, like he's got a pretty odd last name, that one of his cousins was one of my professors at PC.
And then we went out to lunch together. And then he and his wife started hanging out with our community group. Like it was just building normal relationships with someone who was receptive. Let's see. Let's see if I can tell another story.
My group's laughing because I tell these stories all the time. But it's not even just in the good times. It can also be in the frustrating situations. So there was this time, I know you're all going to find this hard to believe. There was a time when I did something at work that I wasn't supposed to do. I was hitting golf balls in the golf simulator when I was supposed to be helping people.
And someone went online and wrote a comment about how nobody could help them because he was too busy working on his chip shots in the range. And Tony Ando was the store manager at the time. But they didn't know who it was. And so they went to the golf pro and said, who was it? Who was watching it? And the golf pro was, I really don't know who it was.
And he came to me and he goes, look, dude, this was you. You were watching the department, right? And I was like, yes, I was watching. He's like, look, man, I'll just tell him I didn't know who it was. I was like, man, I can't do that. I'm asking you to be dishonest and I'm not being real.
So I went to Tony's office and I sat down and said, hey, I just want you to know I was the person who was watching the golf department. I'm sorry. I was doing something that I should not have been doing. I just want to apologize because that's not who I am. I'm a Christian. And so I just wanted to ask for your forgiveness.
And from that moment, the relationship that Tony and I had changed because I was willing to go and admit a mistake. And even in admitting my mistakes, was able to share the gospel in a way that I had not been able to previously. That's what I'm saying. We've got all these different opportunities at work. So begin reaching the people who are in your calendar.
The second thing is this. Be a friend who is a Christian. Simply be a friend who is a Christian. Another reason that people give for not being on mission is that I'm afraid. Now, they may not say this. They may say things like, I don't want to hurt people's feelings or I don't want to lose friends over this or I don't want to mess this up.
I don't know enough. But if we actually believe the gospel is good news for all of life, all of that just kind of falls apart. Because ultimately, we get to do this with other people as we're praying for God to be active and at work. So we just get to be a friend who is a Christian. It's not always going to mean that you just come out with your Bible laid open and just telling them all of this stuff. Be a friend who's a Christian.
You begin listening. Here's how you do it. You begin listening to what's going on in their life. And when they come to you and ask, what should I do about this in my marriage? What should I do about this with my money? The way you get to respond is, well, I'm a Christian.
So that impacts how I think about this. But here's how it is. Here's how I would handle that. Here's what I believe to be true. Nobody's offended by that because you're talking about what's true for you. You get to begin looking for people who've invited you to things.
Who's the person that always wants to come talk to you at work? Or talk to you at school? That may be the very person that God wants you to reach. When you go for walks in the neighborhood, who's the one person who's like waving to you and wants to talk to you? Like, go be their friend who's a Christian. I already told you a little bit about how that shows up at work.
How it shows up in the frustrating situations. It's all of life. If following Jesus is primary for you, it's eventually going to come out in the conversations that you have. You don't have to put this weird pressure on yourself to tell them everything about Jesus. You begin to listen to their life and love them and serve them well. And eventually God will open the door, whether it's through you or somebody in your group, to share the gospel with them.
So the way we answer Jesus' call to be sent out is that we go together, that we trust God, and that we build with those who want to build. So the question becomes, for those who have answered Jesus' call to come follow him, the question becomes, are we answering that call to be sent out? Are we actually going and sharing the gospel? Are we looking for those opportunities all around us? Because there are no unsent Christians. And for those who have been radically changed by the gospel, who realize that Jesus came on mission to save us, to give us ultimate fulfillment and life in him, how much more do we want to go out and share that with other people?
And we get to do it with other people in the context of normal, everyday life. We get to begin praying and praying for other people that our group members have relationships with. That we get to build with those who actually want to build, throwing parties and going to football games and doing all the things that God's called us to do because there are no unsent Christians. We get to follow Jesus in our normal lives going out. And so Raz and Isaac are going to come back up and lead us in a song as we close. But I want to help us see how we can respond in three ways today.
The first one is this. If you're not a Christian, the first thing that we talked about this morning is the way that you can respond this morning. Jesus' call to you first and foremost is to come to him. And we invite you to do that, to come to him, to repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus and begin a lifelong, eternal relationship with him. If you're a Christian and you've listened to what we've been talking about today and you know that you've been sent, but you're thinking about work and you're thinking about family and you're just realizing, I haven't been doing this. That's part of what Jesus calls us to do.
And so my invitation to you this morning is to repent, to repent of that. And then the third thing is change. Actually begin to go. Don't just leave here and go, man, that's such an inspiring message. We should be on a mission. That's great.
No, actually, your life begins to change. My hope for you is that you walk out of this room today thinking specifically about people at work or people that you're in school with. And you begin thinking about the conversations that you're going to have with the people in your group about how you can begin to serve together, how you can invite each other in on the mission. And that as the years go by as a part of our church, we would see more people become Christians and more community groups multiplied as Jesus does work in the city as we join him on his mission. Let's pray.
God, we can't do this without you. We don't have the ability to. We can't change people's minds. We can't change their hearts. And so first and foremost, God, we pray that you would be working in the lives of the people around us. God, we thank you for the wonderful opportunity you've given us to actually go out and share the gospel.
God, I pray that we would leave today and actually begin making plans for how we can reach our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers. God, there's so many people who need to hear the good news of the gospel, and you've given us the opportunity to do that. God, I pray that through our community's own mission that you would begin to do work, that you would help people repent of their sin, that you would help them place faith in you. God, that you would give us courage and boldness and joy as we follow you in it. In Jesus' name, amen.
Motley Crue
Transcript
Good morning, my name's Chet. How y'all doing? Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Mark chapter 1. We are currently taking a little time to walk through sections of the book of Mark to begin to understand what it looked like for the first followers of Jesus. And then from there, kind of saying, okay, how does that apply to us?
How do we do that? How does that look here in South Carolina in 2016? And so we've got two weeks left, and then we'll be moving on to other things in the fall. But I'm excited about today. I think what we're going to do is we're going to hop in, and we're just going to jump in and look at a couple of different passages, kind of right in a row, kind of quickly. We'll spend a little bit of time talking about them, but we're going to go through three passages in Mark chapter 1, 2, and 3, and then kind of just discover something together and talk a little bit about how that played out for them and then what that looks like for us.
So I'm going to pray, and then we'll jump in. God, we thank you for the opportunity we have to study your word, and we pray that through your Holy Spirit you would help us respond, help us respond to the truth of the gospel, help us respond to you in the way that you desire your church to be. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we're going to start with a passage we've read a couple of times.
We're going to be in Mark chapter 1, starting in verse 16, and we're going to go through this one the quickest. But it's Jesus calling his first disciples. So it says, I love that Mark puts that note in there, that they were fishermen, because he would assume that you thought them throwing a net into the sea was weird otherwise. So he's like, they were throwing a net in the sea. They were fishermen. Like he clarifies for you.
So anyway, Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. We looked at this passage last week and talked about how we, as Jesus calls us, were called to give up what is primary to us to follow him. And that's how that works for everybody.
But what we're seeing right here is that Jesus calls four guys who are fishermen to follow him. Now they were, James and John were most likely younger than Simon and Andrew because James and John were still with their father. Simon and Andrew were not. They are fishermen, which is a respectable trade. Put them in kind of a, they would have been rougher guys, but it's a blue collar kind of middle class Job depending on how well their fishing business goes. So it seems like the Zebedee has a couple of boats maybe and a couple of people already working for him.
So whereas James and Simon and Andrew were just kind of leaving their boat, James and John are leaving their dad with hired guys. So he's got more of a crew going for him. But this is kind of middle class Jewish men that begin to follow him. They would have been, we find out more about them later, but they're devout Jews. They're followers of Judaism. So they would have gone and celebrated the festival, the feasts and gone to the temple for sacrifices and would have been a part of a synagogue.
They were normal average. Jews in first century Judaism. Okay. So that's who starts following Jesus in John chapter one. And I'm not John chapter one. They do start following in John chapter one.
Also, that doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today. They follow him in Mark chapter one, what we just read. Let's go to Mark chapter two, verse 13 through 16. We're going to look at the next disciple that Jesus picks up. So it should be on the same page or just one page over verse 13.
He went out again beside the sea. So he's in the same general area and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. Okay.
So he sees a tax collector named Levi. Luke calls him Matthew. That was the same name, just his Jewish name or his Hellenistic kind of Greek name. But Levi and Matthew, the same guy. And he sees a tax collector and he says, follow me. Now, this is immediately an issue for the other four guys following Jesus. tax collectors.
Um, um, because tax collectors were not liked in this culture. Now we, we, we, we're not fans of the IRS mostly just because they take money from us. I mean, we're pro having schools and roads and ambulances, but, uh, we, we really don't want the IRS to take any more than they have to. Um, tax collectors at this point, we're a little bit different. So we're in, uh, Judea, which is a traditionally Jewish place that would be Israelites would live there.
And they were free up until, um, BC 63 when the Romans took over. This is AD 30 ish at this point. So it's been about the amount of time from us to world war two or a little bit before world war two, when Rome took over and subjugated the Jewish people. Tax collectors were Jewish people who worked for Rome, taking taxes from other Jewish people to pay Rome to occupy the territory. So they took money to pay for the Roman soldiers who lived in the area.
It would be as if, uh, Pearl Harbor was just the beginning of the Japanese attack. They make landfall and we begin to fight with Japan. And while we're doing that, uh, Germany takes over the rest of Europe and then they attack the Eastern seaboard and they begin to, uh, assault us from the Atlantic. And then eventually the United States caves in and crumbles to the access powers and Japan and Germany meet in the middle, uh, in Kansas and high five each other. And the U S falls and is subjugated by the access powers in world war two. That amount of time of us being underneath German rule and your neighbor, your friend, people, you are live near work for Germany, taxing you to pay for German soldiers to rule the United States.
That's what Matthew did. The Romans were not, uh, to be trifled with. And whenever there was an insurrection or rebellion, they would roll in, capture everybody and execute them. They've, there's times where they would crucify people leading up into cities where the whole roads leading into the cities were of crucified individuals on the road leading into the city. To show you this city tried to rebel against us. Many people most likely knew of family members and friends that had been executed by Rome and tax collectors worked for Rome to keep them there.
They would have been ceremonially unclean. So they, Matthew would not, or Levi would not have, uh, been a part of normal Jewish life, would not have gone to the temple, would not have celebrated, uh, the feasts. Uh, most tax collectors were excommunicated from their, excommunicated from their synagogue. He's a traitor. To most Jews. It's possible that these four men who were fishermen actually had to pay him taxes.
He's at a tax booth on a road that many people would have brought their supplies down. And he has full authority to walk over to you and to assess the value of whatever you have and take whatever tax he wants. He just looks through your stuff and says, okay, this is how much you owe me. And if you can't pay him, he takes it out of the cargo that you're taking. So they may have had to pay him in fish or money on their way back from markets, but tax collectors were not appreciated, tolerated, but mostly hated.
And Jesus walks over to him while he's at his tax booth and says, you're going to follow me. So if you're Simon and Andrew and James and John, immediately, earlier when you got called to follow Jesus, you were thinking, this is amazing. I get to follow Jesus. I must be kind of special. There's got to be something. What did he see in me?
And then he walks over and he asked a tax collector to follow him. And immediately they have to be rethinking this. They've got to be this moment of like, looking at each other like, are we okay with this? Like what? I mean, he asked him, but what if he actually follows him? And it says that Matthew does, gets up and follows him.
And it's like when you, when you're in high school and you got called to the office with a bunch of other students, when you showed up, you looked at the other students to try to figure out like what y'all had in common. Like, are these the type of people who are here because they're in trouble? Are these the type of people who are here because they've done something good that smart people did? Like, do you know what I'm saying? Like they're looking around, you're trying to decide, why am I here? Why are you here?
What's this crew here? And so as soon as he picks a tax collector, the disciples have to be going, okay, this is different than I thought it was going to be. Let's keep reading. And as he reclined at table in his house, that's Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus, when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
So when they, the Pharisees and the scribes see this, Jesus is having a party with Levi and Levi's friends. So it's a bunch of tax collectors and sinners. They immediately asked, why are you, why does he hang out with these people? Sinners to them was a whole class of people. So we use the term sinner as we're all sinners.
We've all fallen short. None of us lived up to God. We've all rebelled. They had sinners as a class of person, an identifiable class of people that had chosen to live a life outside of following Judaism. That, that were marked by their sin, by their vocation, by their decisions, by their lifestyle. They were marked by their sin.
So it'd be similar if, you know, at the beginning of maybe middle school, everybody had to show up and stand in the gym for a little while before they would let you go to class. It'd be similar if you changed up your patterns, and then one of your friends came to you after about a week and said, hey, when'd you start hanging out with rednecks? Hey, when did you become best friends with the goth kids? Hey, when'd you get so smart? Nice khakis. Like, whatever.
Like, you've begun to hang out with some identifiable crowd at this point, and that's what they come over and say, why, what is he doing? Like, he shouldn't be hanging out with this group of people, these sinners, and what we know is the disciples didn't answer him, Jesus answered them. I'm willing to bet the disciples at this point didn't have a good answer. They don't really know. They're just following Jesus like they're, he called them to, they're going to. They've committed.
I don't know if they had a good answer at this point. I think they showed up to this party and saw that, it was a bunch of tax collectors and sinners who, as they, as good Jews would not have spent time with. I think they walked in. It'd be like, it'd be like, maybe in high school for you, you get invited by a friend to a party, and you show up, and when you show up, you walk down into a basement, and there's 15 people playing Dungeons and Dragons. And for you, you just immediately think, oh no, I've entered the wrong basement. This is not, like, I don't, I don't know how to talk to these people.
I don't have any kind of, I don't know what to do here. Maybe, when I just told that story, you thought, no, that sounds like a wonderful basement. Okay, so for you, maybe you got invited to a party after a football game, and you walk into a room, and everybody in there is still reeks of sweat. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it is for you, but that's, that was them. They walked into a place where they immediately walked in the room and thought, oh no, I'm not, like, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be here.
This doesn't fit for me. And that's, that's the, the four guys that were following when they have a party with tax collectors and sinners. But Jesus immediately, as he begins his ministry, says, no, I'm, I'm breaking down some walls on who's okay and who's not okay, and on who we're going to be friends with, and who we're going to welcome, and who we're going to love. I'm not following the, the set rules. So you need to go ahead and get geared up for that.
And it gets worse. Let's go to chapter three. Now this is the twelve apostles, or the twelve disciples. I just want you to read you this list, and they stick this guy at the end that I think is very interesting for us. All right, almost at the end.
So we're in chapter three, verse thirteen. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. These are the guys that are going to make it in the picture of the Last Supper. When he told them, hey, everybody sit on this side of the table if you want to be in the picture. These guys? Okay.
And he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. We're going to talk about that call next week, being sent out to preach and cast out demons. He appointed the twelve, Simon, whom he gave the name Peter, which just means rock, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, so that's, he uses that name instead of Levi here, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Okay, that's second to last guy, Simon the Zealot.
Your version may say, Simon the Canaanite, and it means the same thing. That is a political party that was as anti-Rome as you could get. They believed that this land was given to them, to their ancestors. The land belonged to Israel and his people. The land belonged to the Jewish people, and no one else had any claim or right over it. Rome did not need to be there.
Rome had no right to be there. Not only was Rome's oppression and subjugation, a stench in their nostrils, but Rome's religion was as well. And they fought actively, to have a free Jewish people. Now, in AD 6, so that would be a couple, 20 years before this time, Rome put out, said they were going to do a census. They were going to take, and count everybody there, and the Zealots, the Canaanians said, no, nobody, nobody take part in their census. If you answer their questions, if you take part in their census, if you show up and do what they say, you are actively saying, they have a right to be here, and they do not have a right to be here.
That was one of their first, kind of, teamed up political things, that the Zealots did. They get increasingly more aggressive. They eventually have a group of Zealots, kind of after this time, but this, it's the, follows the same thought process, that are called the Sicari, that just means dagger men, and they actively worked for destabilization through terrorist Acts, on people who were friendly to Rome. So when they would get, they would have daggers underneath cloaks, in large crowds, and in the large crowds, they would walk up, and stab somebody, just to make large crowds, be a scary place to be, if you were friendly towards Rome, and to actively try to destabilize Rome.
So this guy, Simon the Zealot, so much the Zealot, that it had to be listed next to his name. Like if you have a friend called Dave the Libertarian, I have a guess, on what kind of conversations, how conversations are going to go with this guy. This is Simon the Zealot. Like this is, he wears this on his sleeve. Okay, now can you imagine, we don't know how Simon became, a part of Jesus' followers, but I'm assuming, the first time he and Matthew, had a conversation, it got very uncomfortable, very quickly. What do you do?
Oh, I was a tax collector. No, for real. Don't even joke like that. And Matthew's like, ha ha, ha ha ha, ha, ha ha. I mean, I'm assuming, you know, like if you have a group of friends, and you have, you know, your friend Dave the Libertarian, and you have another friend, that like, you're hanging out, and you realize all of a sudden, like, oh, these two people don't ever need to talk to each other. Like, I need to, if they get close to each other, I have to like, start a diversion.
Like, you see them starting a conversation, you go, ah, just knock over a lamp or something, because there's just no way, this is going to keep the party good. Breaking the lamp was better, than what was going to happen if they talked. These are both in the 12 followers of Jesus. Because Jesus begins his ministry, and what he says is, I choose who follows me, and I'm breaking down the standards for you, on who's okay, and who's not okay, and who can be in, and who has to be out, and who God loves, and who God doesn't love, and who's welcome, and who isn't. That's what Jesus does from the very beginning.
The disparity between a zealot and a tax collector. Recently, when they had the discussion about taking the Confederate flag down from atop the state house, I saw a video of when, I think it was a group of Klansmen from North Carolina came to protest. So, thanks for visiting our state. A group of KKK members came to protest. I remember watching a video of them. They had, you know, right to march in their little, cute little outfits to march on the state house, and one of my favorite videos was a guy holding a tuba who just showed up also, because he's a free American, and he's walking on the sidewalk next to them while they're marching, and every time they walk, he's going, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, burp, just to completely undercut what they're doing.
I've also seen videos of when there's been different situations going on in cities where the Black Panthers will show up and even seen where they got permission to carry rifles and walk up and down streets, and it is as if Jesus walked over in the middle of the march where the guys playing the tuba walked over to a Klansman and said, hey, you, come follow me. And in the middle of the march where the Black Panthers were protesting came and said, hey, you, follow me. Both of y'all are going to belong to me. Both of y'all are going to be a part of the 12 guys that spend the most time with me, and both of y'all through me are going to overthrow the world with the gospel.
That's the disparity between these two guys. Okay. It keeps going, though. Jesus begins this. Now, you would say, well, yeah, but all of these guys are Jewish men. It keeps going.
Eventually, Jesus dies on the cross and then he tells his followers, this goes to the world. The gospel goes to the world. That I died for sinners goes to the world, not to just Judaism, not to just this area, this type of people. You spread this to the world so that on Pentecost, when Peter stands up, all the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit and Peter stands up and preaches. When he preaches, do you know what language it was in? All the languages.
Every person there not only heard it in their language, but their dialect. So if there were multiple Americans there, I would hear Southern English. And somebody else would be like, Jesus is wicked good. Like, that's what they would have heard. But it was all languages because everybody was welcome.
And then as the book of Acts continues, one of the craziest things happens. People who aren't Jewish start following Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit. They actually have to, it's such a big deal to them that Jesus would save non-Jewish people that they have to get together and hold a meeting and talk about it. And basically all they say is, look, the Holy Spirit filled them like he filled us. If Jesus wants them, he can have them. He can do what he wants.
He can welcome anybody he wants to. And the church becomes the, the gospel message begins to spread to everyone who's ever walked on the face of the earth. So that Paul says this in Galatians 3. I'm going to have it, we'll have it on the screen. There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for all are one in Christ Jesus.
What he's saying there is that your racial breakup, your racial status, your family history doesn't matter when it comes to repenting of your sin and following Jesus. Your social status, your economic status does not matter. There are no privileged people before Jesus. Your biology does not matter. Jesus doesn't save men over women or women over men. There's not one that's better.
They're created by him and they're both loved by him, saved by him. All are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. What he's saying there is everyone who belongs to Jesus is now one big family. And he immediately goes on from here in Galatians to talk about we've all been adopted. I don't care what your background was.
I don't care what your philosophy of life was. We all belong to Jesus now. We've all been adopted. That's the church. That's why we as a church family do community groups the way we do. We don't have age group based community groups.
So we don't have college groups or we don't right now have a student group. We don't have any kind of like well this is for single moms or this is for married couples. We don't do that. First of all one of the reasons we're not doing that is if we did that some of you would be by yourself because we're not a really big church. I'm starting a single mom group but have fun. Like you would just but the other reason is that we're a family.
So from zero to 102 we all belong to Jesus. We all gather together. We all worship together. We all belong to him. We've been made into a family. We've all been adopted regardless of your background or your current situation.
You belong to him. One of the pushbacks I've heard people give on this before and while we do groups the way we do people say well yeah okay but you're saying like I've got to be in a group with all these random people. Jesus got to pick who he hung out with and my response to that is yes and that's still the system. Jesus gets to pick. Matthew didn't get to pick. I don't know if he like levied a complaint he was like hey Jesus I saw that Simon the zealot's going to follow you.
Where's your suggestion box? I'm just going to hand this directly to you or me and some of the other guys were talking which is progress because when he first joined nobody was talking to him. Yeah Jesus picks. He picks who's going to be in your family. He picks who's going to be around you and we respond by loving everyone. Loving all the people Jesus gives to us to love.
So here's here's what I want us to do for just a second. I want to help us see something. So we're going to take just a minute to begin to understand what happens like how we have what how Jesus has to work in us for us to overcome some of this. What's got to go on where we need to repent and then what this actually gets to look like in the church. That's kind of what we're going to spend the rest of our time doing. So first thing I want us to do is this.
I want you to realize that every single one of us in this room has a list of what makes you good and what makes you okay and what makes you lovable. You have a list of these are the good people. These are the people that know stuff that are smart that make good decisions. These people and these people aren't. Every single one of us has that. Simon had it.
Matthew had it. The other four middle class disciples had it. All of them. So we're going to have some equal opportunity mocking this morning which is pretty normal for us. If you're new, welcome. Goal really here is to kind of hurt everybody's feelings.
Hopefully we'll accomplish that. If your feelings aren't hurt that just means we didn't mention you and I hope you get your feelings hurt for being left out. Okay. Our goal here really is to just point out here's how we're doing this all the time. Here are the lists we have. All the time going on in our hearts of what's good what's not good.
So we're going to start off with as any good you know center line moderator would we're going to go after conservatives first. Alright. So this is the conservative list of who's good who's bad who's in who's out who God loves who God doesn't. At the top of the list we got NRA members also known as home defenders slash American heroes. A little bit underneath them we have Fox News the only bastion of truth and genuineness on television even though no one wants to hear it they're in it not for the money but for truth and justice. Alright.
Bastion of truth and genuineness on television even though no one wants to hear it they're in it not for the money but for truth and justice. Alright. Fox News a little bit under them we have Ted Cruz just under Ted Cruz whoever Ted Cruz endorses. He comes in just a little bit under Ted Cruz underneath that we have and this is a good bit down the line here
We have people who compare having a dog to having a child so if you're conservative that's not a good thing like you can't just act like a child and a dog are the same thing underneath that a good bit down we have murderers I mean we're working through the whole list here guys I'm just hitting some highlights underneath murderers we have the liberal media and the lies they feed to the American populace and underneath the liberal media at the very bottom we have anyone who plans to vote for Hillary
And if you're a conservative I mean you almost wanted to shout amen but you realized we were kind of making jokes at you so you had to you had to hold it in but it's not just conservatives we have we made a liberal list as well for people this is what makes life good this is what makes you smart at the very top the best thing in the world Barack Obama I don't know if it's slow jamming the news whether he's reading mean tweets or I don't know getting rid of Osama bin Laden and ruling the free world
Osama bin Laden top of the list doesn't get better than that a little bit underneath that we have safe spaces where you can go maybe color maybe listen to some music that's unoffensive have no one say anything that you disagree with and be free underneath that we have free college college and universal health care the twin sisters of a modern society of what is all that is good and holy and righteous in our beautiful future underneath that
We have environmentalists actually out there saving the world every day did y'all know that? literally saving the world amazing amazing people underneath them we have people who don't believe in global warming you live in Columbia South Carolina you don't believe in global warming I mean in five points people just catch on fire periodically okay if they weren't sweating so much it just helps it counteracts it
Puts it out alright underneath that we have gun owners also known as psychos and underneath them Donald Trump a walking nightmare that has come from the upside down to rule and reign over the free people causing harm and havoc wherever he goes but it's not just maybe it's not just politics it's not just your particular political affinity we have lists for everything so we made a tough guy list so if you're macho you got hunts and lift weights up there
Now it can go either way you can be a guy who just really hunts like you're just that's your thing it can be lift weights if you do both that's amazing if you can do both at the same time you're at the top if you can get some curls in while you're in the stand if you can bench press whatever you kill like that's that's great underneath that we have never shows emotions other than anger or hunger I think that one can make it on the list
Underneath people who don't show emotions is you cried once at Braveheart we might we might let gladiator slide as well underneath that we have anyone who lets their wife drive while they're in the car and we're being a bit fast and loose with the word drive underneath that we have anyone who watched the notebook underneath that anyone who watched the notebook and wasn't forced to underneath them
Come people who can read now if it's a box of ammunition or like some whey protein and you gotta figure out how many scoops that's okay but otherwise not an okay thing underneath them people who do read and at the very bottom of the list people who read the notebook we've got one more this is we're gonna start bottom down on this one and this is just Christian culture the moral majority the background
Backbone of America American life we've got at the very bottom of this list scientists and the lies they're trying to feed our children above them we have fornicators above them we have people who swear potty mouths above them we have people who don't listen to family friendly radio they most likely swear people above them people who share
Repost share if you love Jesus post on Facebook out there fighting the good fight you guys every time that comes along they think I love Jesus repost it's not that hard it's just a click guys that's fine I just don't want to be there on judgment when all those pop on your feed and Jesus watch you
Keep on scrolling I'm just saying alright people above that people who watch God's not dead they're a little bit above them on the list but above them we have people who enjoyed God's not dead and then at the very top and he's been here a while Tim Tebow okay so those are all the lists we made we did have fun would like to share
A bunch more with you but those are the ones we've got here's the thing we're joking but not really see we're doing that all the time you've been trained to do this since you were a child you did this when you went to elementary school and then middle school who am I going to hang out with who's okay who's not okay who are my people who aren't my people how do I know I'm okay how do I know
I have value how do I know what's good and what's bad you see I need to be in the categories of what's good and then if this is good this has to be bad if this is what makes me okay the opposite has to be terrible that has to be what God doesn't like that has to be what makes you a bad person I mean and we we naturally drift towards the people
Who we agree with so that 95% of the people we hang out with that we spend our time with that we talk to agree with us when it comes to politics have similar social economic standing to us have similar similar similar family family backgrounds have similar educational levels skin looks the same culture
Looks the same attitude about life is the same we naturally drift towards these are my people and because we do all these things we're good we're okay we're lovable and we do it all the time you can see someone at Walmart and know whether or not I could be
Friends with them based off of what they're wearing based off of how they're acting you have an attractive one you have a dress one you have like we've got all of these it's something everybody in the room has something that you're using to say this is what makes me okay this is what makes me lovable this is why these are the good people
And what we can see from how Jesus picked the disciples and then what happens on Pentecost and then what happens with the early church is that Jesus immediately shows up and says no throw your list away it doesn't count it does not matter there are not good people and bad people there are bad
People and me that's what Jesus says there are sinners who need a savior and there's me a savior that's why his first message was repent and believe the gospel Jesus shows up and says anyone is welcome if they'll turn from their sin
There are no other qualifications so I want to tell you three things that happen if we as a church actually embrace what we're called to as followers of Jesus number one it'll be awkward it'll be awkward there'll be moments where you get to a conversation and you go
Oh we are so completely on different pages here like this is just weird I don't even know how to keep talking to you I really want to just argue with you I feel like you are so wrong about this like there are going to be moments that it's
Just awkward like that awkward may be the best that may be like the high water Mark it goes downhill from there there are times with my group I was just got to thinking about this and taking some notes and this is this has
Been the awkward is a very good description of my community group since I've been able to be a part of this church all the community groups I've gotten to be a part of like at best a lot of times we were just awkward like it was just a group
Of people that should not be in the same room together outside of Jesus like it would not naturally hang out with each other if we walked into a lunchroom this table wouldn't exist like people naturally divide themselves it wouldn't have been the group that was hanging out at
My house that wouldn't have been a lunchroom table like I've had conversations it's so fun for me the guys in our group get together and eat at Eggroll Station every Thursday Eggroll Station is right down the road it's a cash only place I keep seven dollars in my wallet at all times for Eggroll Station
If I got robbed he's like give me everything in your wallet and I opened up and saw I just had seven dollars I'd be like no I can't this is earmarked for Eggrolls I guess you just have to shoot me like but it's so fun because when we get around that table those guys there's conversational shift to one subject and you can see two or
Three people just being like I don't even know the words that are being used anymore and then it's fun because I get to do follow-up conversations with people so I've had a conversation with a guy in my community group where he asked me where we had a discussion about what interest was interest like on your credit card he didn't know what interest was
What's GDP what's return on investment I've had these conversations I've had conversations with like what's a Twitter what's call of duty I have had conversations where like in my group because it's such a random group of people somebody will say something about like they need to get a new band saw and someone else like what what kind of music do they play like I've had
Conversations with people about the frame rates on televisions that are best for gaming if you are playing Street Fighter had that conversation had a conversation about what what the difference between 90 grain and 100 grain bullets in a small handgun especially if it's a concealed carry for a lady had that conversation had conversations about woodworking had conversations about why Kendrick Lamar is the
Greatest rapper that's ever walked on the face of the earth and had to listen to four or five songs to learn that didn't like I I got invited to a party one time I showed up at the party and it was one of those situations where I walked in immediately was like oh these aren't these are I would not sit at this lunchroom table like these aren't my people I'm mad at them just like and I just kind of walked around from conversation to
Conversation waiting for like a word that I understood and I heard the word Star Wars and I was like all right I've seen that I'm a fan of Ewoks although I know people make fun of that and so then I got in this conversation and what they were discussing was how in the first trilogy lightsaber battles were much different from the second trilogy and the second trilogy made more sense because if the sword is made out of light you wouldn't have to wield it very
Harshly you could just kind of swing it like this and when it hit things it would just cut through it because it's not an actual sword but in the first movie they use them like they're really heavy swords and that didn't make any sense and then when it kind of came to me there was like a pause I said I liked it when Yoda used his lightsaber that's all I had and they were like good and then they just kept talking eventually I was just like I get best sometimes this is just awkward on the Venn diagram of what brings you together the only thing
Everyone's going to have in common is Jesus at the middle and that's exactly how that's supposed to be because Jesus calls everybody Jesus welcomes everybody and it doesn't have anything to do with likes dislikes background anything other than you're a sinner in need of a savior it's gonna be awkward secondly you're going to get your feelings hurt you're gonna get hurt you hang out with a church you were going to get hurt they're gonna get in arguments Simon the zealot and Matthew didn't just magically click there was some frustration there was some discussion there was how on earth do you
Believe that how is that okay you're gonna get your feelings hurt you're gonna get in some someone's gonna say something they're gonna make a joke because from where they come in life that's a perfectly okay thing to make a joke about but they just made a joke about your sister they're gonna make a joke and it absolutely isn't funny to you you're gonna get hurt and you're gonna have the option of walking away or pressing in of going to him and saying hey that's not that's not a funny joke for someone who follows Jesus and here's why that's why that's not okay and here's why I'm hurt right
Now because I like I thought we were cool but that's like you you just you just completely acted like I don't even exist or matter the the people that you in your life have said I can't stand I can't believe that somebody would oh my goodness I don't know if I'd ever be able to get along with somebody who was so rich they had a trust fund and they never had to work a day in their life I can't stand people who just are a drain on society and they just sit around their house waiting for their welfare check to show up I can't believe these black lives matter people I can't stand cops who on earth are you to say all lives matter
What does that even what are you even trying to say right now all the people that you've sat and said I couldn't be around somebody who acted like this voted like this had this attitude about this every single one of them is invited by Jesus to be his every single one of those comments you've made Jesus is actively after that person to make them his and if we actually look like his church you're gonna get your feelings hurt there's gonna be some arguments there's gonna be some frustration because what Jesus does is he steps into a giant group of sinners and says all of you are messed up all of you are selfish all of you think you're better than everybody else and
You're all welcome because none of that's true you're not better than anybody else you are messed up you are selfish you need a savior the third thing first is it's gonna be awkward secondly you're gonna get your feelings hurt thirdly this is beautiful because the only way this works is that Jesus Christ died on a cross to save sinners and to forgive us of our sin the only way this works is that none of us lived up to what we were called to and all of us needed a savior and Jesus saves sinners and because all of the conflicts we're gonna have and all the frustration we're gonna have and all the hurt feelings we're gonna have are going to deal with either I sinned against you or you sinned against me or one of us started it but we both went actively after it to harm each other all of
That is sin and Jesus already paid for sin everything that needs to happen for us to stay an eternal church family has already happened because Jesus paid for sin so we can forgive each other we can keep loving when it's hard we can keep having conversations when we don't want to we can weigh in when things are difficult we can walk up to someone and say hey I know you well enough to know you're actively trying to follow Jesus but what you just said hurt me so bad you have no clue and have that conversation trusting that Jesus is gonna be at work and that ultimately he forgives sinners and that when you even if you roll up into that conversation with a bad attitude and accuse them of things he they can forgive you and you can forgive them and Jesus can be at work in this and it's the only organization organism group family on the the planet that
Includes everybody that welcomes everybody it's Christianity doesn't show up Jesus didn't show up to Matthew and say hey you can follow me if you'll be this type of person he didn't show up to Simon he didn't show up to to Andrew and John and say hey you can follow me if here are the rules first here's what you've got to do first what he shows up and says is follow me the only thing that excludes anybody from the church is believing that they don't need Jesus is is holding on for dear life to their list and saying no this is what makes me okay and I have to have this everybody who lets go of that and walks into the empty hands that Jesus gets welcomed because there is no list that you can hold up in front of God and be saved by it's Jesus that saves us I don't care what other it could be a homeowners organization homeowners association in Malibu California or a gang in Detroit they all
Have this is what makes you okay and this is what excludes you and the church doesn't the church has Jesus makes us okay and holding on to anything else is what excludes you but everybody else who shows up and says I have nothing other than Jesus is welcome everybody's welcome because there are no disqualifying factors he saves sinners now Jesus went to work on Matthew because Matthew needed to change and Jesus went to work on Simon because Simon needed to change and if you if you say not I'm a Democrat like I am there's gonna be things because of Jesus that you can't be okay with that need to change if you said no I'm a Republican there could be things that need to change because you follow Jesus that's the way it works everybody's brought to Jesus so we all show up with all of our sin and Jesus goes to work on us to make us more like him okay and then because of the gospel
We get to we get to love each other we get to be friends y'all our culture says that you and I can't disagree and still still be friends Jesus says we can't do you know that you can disagree with somebody and still be their friend did you know that you can disagree with somebody and still be their friend like an actual friend like a still talk to them friend not like okay we're cool but we're not gonna talk anymore because we disagree you know this do you know how freeing that is do you know that as a Christian you should have friends that you disagree with on some very real issues to the temptation for us all is to say yeah we can disagree but not on all these things that are actually really important and then we just bring our list back in we actually get to disagree and still love each other and still connect with each other and still be friends one of the ways the early church practiced what Jesus has called
Them into here you ever read in the New Testament where Paul says greet each other with a holy kiss I just recently learned what that meant I always thought it was weird now it's amazing because I just thought kissing each other was weird and I didn't know what a holy kiss was be honest with you I'm not like a hugger like I and I'm working on this I've had people come at me before like this and I've been like nah I got live for real not just like I said no like stuck my hand I was like no I'll shake your hand I did that to one person I saw them like visibly like hurt inside like I so every time I read holy kiss I was just like this sounds terrible that's weird let's not institute that one but here's what it was here's why they did it in their culture when they greeted each other they kissed that was the cultural greeting the same way we would shake hands they they kissed it was just a normal cultural thing if you
Were on the same social level as the other person you kiss cheeks if they were below you they kissed your hand and the caste system the social structure system it was it was well known who was where if they were well below you they kissed your feet or vice versa if they were above you you kiss their hand if they were well above you kiss their feet that was what they did all day long so all day long they were rehearsing who's important who's at the top who makes it here who's better who's in the middle who am I equal to they were rehearsing that all day long that was what their culture did and Paul says no no no no when the church gets together everybody gets kissed on the face that's a holy kiss because that system doesn't apply to us everybody's welcome everybody's loved there is no hierarchy we all belong to Jesus and we're all sinners so when the church got together it was greet each other with a holy kiss everybody
Celebrate that we're all the same because Jesus is great so I love that imagery so we're gonna stand up right now and kiss it no I'm just kidding um here's what we're gonna do we're gonna repent because that's the appropriate response to the good news of the gospel we can be saved by Jesus based off of not our merit but his his love not our work we're gonna repent and here's how we're gonna do this I'm gonna read through a list we're gonna just talk through a little bit there are some people large groups of people that you treat poorly even if it's only mentally that you think about differently than other people that you look down on that in your head you're rehearsing the ladder in your head you're rehearsing the list of this is where I am this is where you are and you're gonna need to repent you're gonna need to ask Jesus to forgive you and to help you and to change you right now you're gonna need to ask Jesus
To help you see this there are individuals that you've done that to in our church family in your community group that you just kind of avoid because it's awkward you just kind of avoid because maybe they said something one time that you didn't like and so instead of addressing it with them or talking to them about it you just kind of write them off they're a jerk I don't like them they have an attitude they constantly cause this issue they they they on a regular basis say this which is hurtful and instead of loving them and talking to them you've just kind of said that's it I don't have to deal with you anymore I'll be in our I'll be in your group I'm not gonna cause you any problems but I don't have to talk to you you're gonna need to repent some of you maybe actually got in an argument you both remember and you're gonna need to go talk to each other and forgive each other and
Talk about it and repent there are gonna be some people that you don't need to talk to there are people who are awkward they exist that's as like that I mean I don't have a scale but that is like an objective thing there are people who just make conversations weird or who just and maybe you've been treating them differently there's some people who are just kind of rude and they need that addressed in them but one of the ways you're gonna repent is starting to love them again not walking over to them and saying hey when you've been really rude I've been offended by that and so I quit hanging out with you but I'm gonna start hanging out with you again because I'm really great that's not repentance that's not what that's gonna look like hey you always make me uncomfortable because of the sermon I'm gonna be your friend again don't do that just start being their friend again just start
Loving them start answering their phone calls start hanging out with them go sit next with them go start a conversation you don't need to tell them some people you're gonna need to tell them you hurt me we need to talk I've been treating you differently I've written you off I've stopped talking to you I've been cordial but I hadn't been loving okay so here's a list just to help us think who would it be weird for you to be seen with giving the normal social circles you run in who would it be weird for who would your friends say hey why were you hanging out with them what was that about that may help you realize okay I'm treating some people differently even if I'm not doing it intentionally I don't naturally just talk to them I
Don't naturally just act like we're on the same level is there anybody that you are really just thankful that you aren't so thankful I'm not like them thank you Jesus that I was born here thank you Jesus that I'm like that person anybody you're afraid of you feel uncomfortable when you talk to them because you believe they're elevated above you anybody you just don't like I just don't like them I get on my nerves I'm not saying you can't have friends and that having people you enjoy being around more is sinful not saying that don't hear that you can have friends you can have people you enjoy being around more you should that's normal I'm saying you can't say oh I don't like them so I don't have to hang
Out with them that's not true anybody you ignore or avoid sometimes it's not intentional it's just you don't think you'd have anything in common you think they don't want to talk to you they're really smart that'd be weird I don't know they're kind of in a whole different life stage I wouldn't have anything to talk to them about they probably don't want to talk to me I make things awkward so that person doesn't want to talk to me like you've already picked them out so you're just avoiding them and acting like Jesus hasn't called us all to be family and who are you critical towards who is it that you say I can't believe they I would never who is it you talk about when they're not there can you believe they did that rather than talking to them
Is there anybody you're holding a resentment towards you're bitter towards again some of these are going to be large groups of people maybe you're really uncomfortable with a different race and thankfully Jesus is at work in our church and we we are somewhat racially diverse we are trying to be more racially diverse which means we have to lay down some of our preferences I'm white most of our leadership is white and like real white like whitey white like type of music type of dress type of thought process which means we have to lay down some of our preferences we have to say this I know I like this better but that doesn't mean it's correct we're working on that we're continuing to try to work on that and and if you realize you know I just kind of treat this race differently or this
Large group of people differently don't pick someone in our church family who fits that description and go have them represent that entire group do you in a conversation you can start trying to befriend them you can start trying to talk to them but don't go over to them say hey I just want to let you know I've been unless you've been racist towards them then yeah fix that talk to them repent some people you're gonna need to talk to a specific person you've been avoiding you've been critical towards man's gonna come back up and we're gonna sing and thank Jesus that he makes us into a family that because of the cross our sin has been paid for that we're free and that we actually get to love one another and relate to one another forever that heaven all of those lists to die and it's just a Jesus lifted up and glorified forever and us as a beautiful family that gets
Together around the one table that makes perfect sense let's pray God I pray that through your Holy Spirit you would help us repent you'd help us see where we're treating people in our church family differently where we're acting as if we're above them or they're above us we're acting as if we haven't been made into a family we have nothing to talk about there's I don't have to be their friend they get on my nerves God I just pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work that you'd help us to celebrate the forgiveness that we have in you the joy and the hope that we have in you you'd help us to repent of where we're wrong pray Lord where we treat people differently based off of wealth race
Voting habits God where we have our list I pray that you'd help them to die and us to love you more and to love people more because you call all sinners to repent and be saved by your free grace and your death on the cross in Jesus name Amen
October 2nd, 2016
Follow Me
Transcript
Well, good morning. We are in a series called Follow Me. We're in our third week. We're just taking some time to look in the Gospel of Mark and see what it looked like for the disciples to follow Jesus. Our first week, we basically just covered the idea that the Gospel is news. It is not advice.
It's not here's how you ought to live. It's a story. It's news about something that has happened. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died in our place for our sin on a cross. He was laid in a tomb and then three days later he rose again fully alive and ascended into heaven as the king of the universe. That's what we believe as Christians.
And we believe that that news, that fact from history, changes everything for us. That we can be made right with God again. That we live our lives in light of that information. Then the next week, last week, we talked about that there are no unrepentant Christians. That part of the Christian life is to follow Jesus, seeing our sin and turning from it. And that is a continual, lifelong process.
That Christians see their sin and turn away from it to Jesus. That it's not repent and do good works. It's not turn away from your bad deeds and do good deeds. It's turn away from your sin to Jesus. And so we're kind of continuing along with that today as we talk about what it looks like for us now to follow Jesus. How does that show up in our lives now?
And I heard this illustration one time and I think it's helpful to kind of get us started today. If I showed up late today, so if I just came running up a second ago and ran upstairs and was out of breath and sweating because I had to run. You know, there's like four stairs there. So, of course, I'd be sweating. And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry that I'm running behind. It's good to see you all this morning.
I feel like because I'm running behind, I should explain myself. So on my way over here this morning, there was a lady who had a flat tire. So I got out to help her while I was helping with the tire. I lost my balance, fell into the road and an 18 wheeler ran over me. So but glad to get all that straightened out and to get here this morning.
Like immediately your response is no. No, it didn't. Either really my are your options at that point is I'm a liar. That did not happen. I just am not good at lying. So I pick something way too extravagant.
And you'd be like, that's not like you. You've done poorly. You know, you want enough details to sound like it's real, but not too many details to sound like it was rehearsed. And you want some credible things. Getting hit by an 18 wheeler is incredible. Either I'm a liar or I'm just crazy.
Like I actually believe I was hit by an 18 wheeler. But my brain just doesn't work right. Like I buy that is not true. Those are your two options. And here's what the point of that is. If if I was hit by an 18 wheeler, the reason you know that's not true is because that would have had visible, tangible, real life effect on me.
Like there are consequences to that. You can't get hit by a portly person on a bicycle and not like have that go poorly for you. There's going to be some scuffs. There's going to be some problems. There's going to be some dirt in my hair. Like it's not going to go well.
You can't get hit by an 18 wheeler and it not have an effect. And the thing is, Jesus is bigger than an 18 wheeler. When when you meet Jesus genuinely, realistically in life, he has a tangible effect on you. It shows up. So for someone to say, oh, I'm a Christian and there's no evidence whatsoever.
It's simply not true. And so that's what we're looking at as we walk through the series is to say that we believe news. We're not saying this is what you have to do to be a Christian. We're saying Jesus died for us. And because of that, it affects us. This event happened and it changes us.
And that actually shows up in our lives. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump back into Mark. We'll be in chapter one today. But let's pray real quick. God, we just ask that you and your faithfulness and your love for us would be at work in our hearts today. To help us see ourselves clearly and see you clearly as we continue to ask the question of what it means to follow you.
In Jesus name. Amen. We're going to be in Mark chapter one. We're going to pick up in verse 16 right where we left off last week. So last week, Jesus began preaching.
The kingdom of time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. So we just talked about that repentance is the way that you enter into the way you respond to the coming kingdom and the way you live in the kingdom. And immediately following that, we're going to see him begin to interact with people that will be his disciples, would be his followers. So it's on page 543.
If you have a blue and white Bible, if you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. It's our gift to you. Verse 16. Later in the series, we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at that. I will make you become fishers of men. But today we're really just looking at the follow me and kind of their response.
Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And then immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. Okay. So what we just saw is Jesus picks up four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John.
Simon and Andrew are brothers. Simon later becomes Peter. Jesus gives him a nickname. And James and John also get nicknames. They're called the Sons of Thunder. That doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about today, but just while we're covering nicknames.
And so he gets four disciples today. And here's what happens. He walks up into the middle of them working. Simon and Andrew are throwing a net into the water. James and John are mending their nets in a boat. And he just walks up and says, hey, follow me.
And they do. They drop what they're doing and they begin to follow Jesus. And this moment in their lives redirects the course of their life. This moment here where they drop what they're doing and follow Jesus changes everything for them. So that all four of these men, three of them will die for their faith in Jesus.
They will die for having said yes to Jesus saying, follow me. And John dies not of being murdered, but he dies while being exiled on an island for his faith in Jesus. So he dies of old age on an island where he was exiled. He was boiled in oil before that. He just didn't die. But all four of these men, this moment in their lives where Jesus says, follow me, and they say yes, drastically alters their life.
And here's what I want us to see from the very beginning. Jesus is disruptive. Period. Period. He's disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things begin to change.
That's just how it works. He doesn't just slide in and everything works swimmingly and exactly the same from that point on. He's disruptive. He steps in and when he steps in and when he comes into your life, he messes things up. He changes up your schedule. He changes up your time.
He calls you away from what you're doing to do other things. Like Jesus automatically, when he comes into your life, is disruptive. Some of you, if you would sit in here today and say, I'm a Christian, but Jesus, he's not disruptive. He fits right in. Fits right into my schedule. He's fit right into my life.
He just slid right in and has just been helpful. He hadn't tried to change anything. Hadn't like, I would just put forth. That's not Jesus. You. It's not Jesus.
Because Jesus is disruptive. That's how he works. That's like saying, I want to get a tattoo, but I don't like needles and I don't want it to hurt. You don't want to get a tattoo. I want, I want a Lexus, but I want it to have the rolly kind of windows. You're not getting a Lexus.
That's not, they don't make those. That's not how that works. And if you say, no, no, Jesus is fit right in. Like he hadn't been disruptive at all. That's not Jesus. You don't meet that Jesus in scripture.
The Jesus that walks around in scripture is absolutely continuously, aggressively disruptive. When Jesus comes into your life, things change. Now I want to show us something. I want us to take a minute to look at something. I think Mark does very intentionally in this passage. So when we write books, so the way, the way Westerners write books.
And if you read books, I know a lot of people in America don't read another book after they graduate high school or college. But maybe you remember reading some while you were in high school or college. Maybe some of you are in high school or college and you're familiar with books there. It's like a television, but you have to, you have like, okay. Anyway, the way we write books is there's information about the scene and the setting and what it looks like. And a good author can really help you like picture it.
So they talk about the way things smelled or the way things looked or what the room was like. They give you some scenery. They paint it up a little bit. So J.K. Rowling or Rowling, I don't know how to say her last name. She wrote the Harry Potter series, you know, Harry Potter, Voldemort, all that stuff.
She wrote a bunch of books and they were all very well written and they're all thick. And they got thicker and thicker as she went. It's like she had more and more to say as she went along. And she does really well with like painting up the scene. But she recently wrote a play called The Cursed Child.
She wrote a play. She what? She co-wrote a play. That's actually not the important part here, guys. I wish you will see in a second. But thank you for keeping me honest.
I don't know enough about Harry Potter to be talking right now. Which now makes me want to say a bunch of bad things. But like, you know, in Harry Potter, Dumbledore Calrissian has to take the ring of power to Mordor. You're welcome. The difference between a book and a play. This is the point I was getting to, although I gave way more information than I needed to.
The difference between a book and a play is this. In a play, every bit of information matters. It's just dialogue. And if they give any other information, it has something to do with the story. If they give any other details, it has to do with the setting. It has to do with what the characters are doing.
It does not, in a play, when someone writes out a play, they don't write up a whole bunch of scenery for you. They don't explain the way people felt. They just give you the dialogue and they give you some key, essential information. The Gospels are written like that. If there's information in the Gospels, it was written down for a reason. It was not just because Mark was like, and it was a pretty day outside, and the breeze was blowing.
He doesn't do that. The information given is important. So we're going to walk back through and we're going to put a little bit of pressure on the way Mark writes this because I think he did it on purpose. I don't think he wrote it out this way by happenstance. I think he was led and through the leadership of the Holy Spirit wrote it out specifically the way he did. And so we're going to look at this.
Okay, go back to verse 16. So he tells us what they were. This is who they were. They were fishermen. That's how they understood their place in the world. That's how other people understood their place in the world.
That's how they knew who they were. They were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their what? They left their what? Yeah, this is participation time.
And I know like we don't usually do this. Nets. Yes, they left their nets. They were fishermen and they left their nets. Okay, let's keep going. And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending the nets.
Okay, how does he describe James and John? Does he tell us they're fishermen? No. What's he tell us about them? What's their identifying marker? Son of Zebedee.
So are they fishermen? I would assume so. They're in a boat working on nets. But he doesn't call them fishermen. He calls them son of Zebedee. And then he says this.
And immediately he called them and they left what? I got a lot of time, guys. I'm good. They left what? Yeah. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
So they left him in the boat. They left him with the other people who were fishing. They left him with the nets. But that's not what Mark says they left. What Mark says they left was their father Zebedee. So what he just did was he said, Simon and Andrew were fishermen.
That's their identifying marker. And when Jesus called them, they left their nets. And James and John were the son of Zebedee. That's their identifying marker. And when he called them, they left their father Zebedee. Jesus is not only disruptive.
He walks into your life. He takes whatever you use to identify yourself. Whatever is absolutely primary to you. And he says, I'm taking the place of this. You have to let go of this for me. That's how Jesus works.
The only position he accepts in your life is first place. That's why it was important for Mark to write down that the fishermen left their nets and the sons of Zebedee left their father. Because if you ask them, what was the hardest thing to give up that day? Simon and Andrew are going to say, we were fishermen. We had to give up fishing. We had to give up our nets.
We had to give up possessions. We had to give up our career to follow him. That was what was going through their mind. That was what they had to let go of. That's what they were looking at and thinking about when Jesus said, follow me. But if you ask James and John, what did you leave?
They say we left our father. Because that's how they understood their existence. That's how they understood their identity. Let me explain something to you. We were designed by God. We were created.
So we're creatures. We're designed because we're creatures to have something be primary for us. Something has to be foundational. Something has to be the most important. It's just the way we're made. And everyone in this room has something in that spot.
And whatever you use to find your identity, whatever you use to say, this is how I fit in the world. This is what makes me okay. This is what gives me purpose. This is what makes me want to wake up tomorrow. Whatever you put there is God functionally for you. Whatever is your purpose, your identity, how you would describe yourself, how you know you're you and that you matter.
Whatever you put there is God because that was the role he was designed to fill. When he created us, that was the spot that he's supposed to be in. What gives us life and purpose and worth and value is him. That's why when Jesus shows up, that's the spot he claims. It's the only spot he'll take. So when Jesus comes into your life, not only is he disruptive, he is aggressively disruptive because he wants to claim primary role in your heart, in your time, in your life.
So for a Christian, we talked last week about life being a life of repentance, continually turning away from sin. We honestly don't sin until we've put something else in that spot. Until we've looked at Jesus and said, I'd rather have this than you. That's what leads us into sin. Thinking that something else matters more than Jesus so it's worth pursuing more than he is. So that we'll say no to him to say yes to that.
When that happens, we've moved that to the spot of superiority. Does that make sense? Anything that goes in number one slot, everything else ultimately serves that or everything else ultimately can be bumped out of the way, out of life for that. So let me give you an example. On your budget. Let me go back real quick.
A budget is a thing that you use to know where your money goes. Some of y'all. Talk with our toast team. They will help you make a budget. They are helpful. Okay, on your budget, there are things at the top on your expenses that matter more than the things at the bottom.
Unless you like alphabetize it, but just you realize there's a rank system here. There are things you're paying for first before you pay for other things. So when you start to run out of money, there are things you say no to. You pay your rent before your Netflix bill. If you've got that backwards, our toast team will help you make a budget. This is how this works.
First, you're paying your electricity before you're going to Frankie's Fun Park. There are things that go to the top of the list that when things get tight, when money gets tight, you're choosing what are we paying and you're paying what's most important. And if anything gets above Jesus, ultimately he serves that or he'll get bumped out of the way for that. So if you said, my family, my children matter most to me. And Jesus, I love Jesus and I worship Jesus and I follow Jesus, but ultimately my children are at the top. And maybe you wouldn't say it that way, but your life says that.
Here's what happens. Jesus is a means to an end for you to have a good family, to have safe children. Oh, it is so wonderful to know that the God of the universe loves your children and you can ask him for things. And you can ask him to protect your children and watch over your children and help your children. It's so good to know that the God of the universe will help provide for your children. So you're using Jesus for the safety of your children.
Your children are well behaved if they actually follow what the Bible says. They don't cause problems. They treat their parents well. That's one of the ten, you guys. Honor your mother and father. That's in the Ten Commandments.
It actually has a promise. It'll go well with you if you do. Like, that's great. And so if you have children that are in Sunday school and they're reading their Bibles and stuff, it makes them happier. It makes them better. It keeps life good for them.
And Jesus serves your children. But if your family starts falling apart, if your children become rebellious, if their health fails, if God says, I want you to be a missionary, to Africa, suddenly it's a, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I got kids. Can't. I didn't sign on for this. I got to worry about their safety. I got to worry about, like, their primary.
I got to, I started following you because I thought you were going to help me have a good family. I started following you because I thought you were going to help me protect my kids. I started following you because you were, like, what? You see, Jesus is serving them the whole time. And this happens with all kinds of things. So I, I know in my own life, when I have, in my marriage, I've sinned.
I've sinned against God. I've sinned against Anna. And I found, that I know the Bible says you should repent and confess. You should tell your wife what you did. And my response to that is, no, thank you. Kind sir.
Like, this is, this has been a real thing in my life where I have had very big things I needed to talk to her about. Because I have found that when you tell your wife you sinned against her, she doesn't like it. That's something I picked up on. And so I wasn't really willing to talk about it. And here, here's, here's what I came to realize. I was saying no to Jesus.
No to our relationship being good. No to me following him. Because I really wanted to protect the relationship I have with my wife. I was defending that one because I was more afraid of her being upset with me. More afraid of her leaving. More afraid of her, the discomfort that that would cause.
And so what I was saying was, no, no, no, Jesus, you're great for a lot of things, but in my marriage, I'm going to let her kind of rank above you. And we can do this with anything. You can do this with success. You can do this with pleasure. You can do that. I mean, you name it.
So if, if pleasure is primary for you, then your time and your money go towards what brings me the most enjoyment. What makes me the happiest? What, what do I enjoy the most? Like that's, that's how I understand the good life is that I can do what I want. I can eat out when I want. I can go to, to movies.
I can go on vacations. I can, that's the good life. And then Jesus shows up and says, Hey, uh, your money isn't meant to terminate on you. You should actually start giving some away. And you go, Ooh, I really can't. My budget's really tight.
When, when Jesus says, follow me. And when pleasure says, follow me, you follow pleasure. Work. Get your time, your energy. You spend your money on things that help you work better, that make work better, that I need this clothes for work. I need this suit for work.
I need this equipment for work. And, and then when Jesus steps in and says, no, this is how your family life is supposed to work. This is how following me is supposed to work. You say, no, no, no, no. When work says, follow me, or Jesus says, follow me, you follow work. Because the, the one thing Jesus is going to call you to drop is the one thing you're using to give yourself an identity.
And he's going to call you to, to get rid of sin. And he's going to call you to turn away from a lot of things. And a lot of that may be hard. You may like it. The thing that, that you're going to have to wrestle with the most and the thing you're going to want to pick up the most. And the thing that in your story, you're going to say, I had to leave behind is the one thing that you were using.
To identify yourself, to give yourself value and worth. Whatever it was in your heart that was primary. So here, here's our goal today. If Mark was writing about you, what does he say? Jesus walked up to, blank, and he said, follow me. What, what does he say was your identity?
And what does he say you left behind? Now here, I want to point something out to us. James and John stay the son of Zebedee. Simon and Andrew do fish again. Fishing isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage.
Having Zebedee be your dad isn't bad. That's not the point of this passage. Honoring your father, understanding your life in relationship to your father isn't bad. That's not the point. Your children, your spouse, working heart, pleasure. Pleasure isn't bad, y'all.
It's actually really enjoyable. Have y'all noticed that? God made it that way on purpose. The Bible actually says that pleasures are at his right hand forever. Like, he's the one who made pleasure pleasurable. It's good.
All those things are good. Most everything that we would put as primary in our life is actually a really good thing. A gift from God. The issue Jesus has is they can't be number one. And you're going to have to say no to them to say yes to him. That's why he says stuff like, if you come to me and you don't hate your father and mother, your children and your wife, and it's like, whoa, hate?
What? How do you say that? Like, that's crazy. You said to love your enemies, to love those that hate you. How are you then going to tell me to hate my wife? That sounds like really bad marriage advice.
His point isn't to actively hate. His point is that he has to be so far above everything else that nothing else compares. That's why he says if you don't deny yourself and take up your cross, you can't follow me. That's why when people come to him and say, Jesus, I'm going to follow you. And he says, come on. And they say, well, let me go bury my dad.
And he says, no, let me go back and tell my family goodbye. No, it's crazy. What he asks of us, how disruptive he is, but what he steps into every single follower of his and says, this thing right here that you used to make your identity out of this thing right here that you used to say, this is what makes me. Okay. This is what gives me value. This is what gives me worth.
This is how I know life makes sense. That thing right there has to move. That's the place I get. And so for those of us who have said, I'm following Jesus. It's pretty, pretty simple. Not real hard.
I'm not sure he's shown up and done that for you yet. I'm not sure you've moved that out of the way for him yet. So what would, what would your story be? What is it that you sacrifice for? What is it that you give your time and energy and money for? What is it that you use to understand your existence and light up?
You don't have to have it. You can be really poor and it can be money. You just know that once you get money, you'll be happy. You can be single and it can be your future magical spouse that rides unicorns and comes down from rainbow, rainbow land. Like I, I don't know. You could have some future.
Once this happens, I'll be happy. Once this happens, I'll be good. This is what'll fix me. And I'll bend heaven and earth to get to it. And if following Jesus helps me get there, great. I'll let Jesus work for me.
Proverbs 14, 12 says this. We're gonna have it on the screen. I love this verse. It is so helpful to me. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. It's not a very uplifting verse, but it is very helpful.
Some of you maybe have been sitting here going, no, no, no. The thing I'm chasing after Jesus would be totally on board with. It's good. If I get that, it would be good. It's not a bad thing. That's true.
It probably isn't, but this is true. There's stuff that we look at and say, if I just got that, I'd be happy. If I could just do this, it'd be fine. If I could just reach this, achieve this, be this, have this title, have this amount of money in the bank, have this type of success or this type of family or live in this type of place. And what Proverbs says is there's a way that seems really right to you and ultimately leads to destruction. Won't fix you.
Won't save you. Won't save you. Leads to death. So when Jesus steps in and says, I want to be primary, he's actually offering us joy. He's actually pursuing our joy. So, Jesus, if he wanted your begrudging submission, could get it.
Are you aware of that? I don't know. A lot of people just understand Jesus as being really nice. He controls everything and is in charge of everything. He could show up and immediately be like, bow down and you would. Did y'all know that?
We know that? We good on that? He can do that. He can put you in a submission hold. He can do it. That doesn't bring him a lot of glory.
It brings him glory because he's ultimately in charge of everything. But that's not his desire for you. His desire is that you would enjoy him. That you would love him. That you would respond to him. You see, begrudging submission isn't his desire for you.
Enjoyment of him is desire for you. See what? The reason he comes in and says, I have to be primary is because he is primary. He's the best thing you could ever get. He's the best thing he could ever offer you. If Jesus showed up and said, Hey guys, just want to let you know you should all be chasing money.
Then money would be God. And Jesus should serve it. When Jesus shows up and says, you should all get rid of everything and love me. He's saying, this is the best way to happiness because I'm the best thing that exists. And it's actually in our enjoyment of him that he gets a lot of glory. Do you, if some of you are married, some of you are dating, some of you aren't dating yet, but maybe you want to date or want to get married or something.
Do you imagine that when you, before you were married, did you imagine, I can't wait till I meet a person who begrudgingly submits to marrying me. Oh, I can't wait for the day that we celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. And they look over at me and say, I did my duty. And every day was drudgery. Because you're the worst. But I stuck with it.
I can't, I just cry just thinking about it. Like, did you do that? Do you think about that? Is that your goal? Would that be enjoyable? Would you get a lot of pleasure out of that?
No, that, that what you want is someone who loves you for you, who appreciates you, who enjoys you, who wants to be around you because they enjoy you. They like it. 50 years in, they say it didn't feel like 50 years. Some of it, some of it did, but it felt, it was mostly good. We've been married for 50 years, 42 good ones. Like, whatever.
That's what you want. And that's Jesus when he says, I want to be primary. It's not, I want you to begrudgingly submit to you, submit to me. It's, I want you to understand that I'm the best that could ever be offered to you. And Isaiah 55, we'll have this on the screen as well. There's a prophet's writing and he says this, come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Um, this, this is reused, rephrased in the book of Revelation, talking about coming to God, coming to heaven, that that's, he freely gives good things that you don't have to have money to come get from him. That's grace that Jesus dies and freely gives us himself. And he says this, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? You know, the, the two commodities you'll have in your life that everybody has, you have some money. That's one of them. That's one of the ways that we place value is money.
The other one's labor, your time and energy. And what the prophet's saying is why, why do you spend your money and your time and energy on something that ultimately will not satisfy you, that ultimately will not bring life, that ultimately cannot hold the weight of being the foundation of your life and your identity? Why do you do that? Why does your, why does your labor and your money go to something that will not fix you, will not make you okay, will not satisfy you? Listen diligently to me. Pay attention and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. See, I love that. He says, eat what's good, eat rich food. The call of Jesus to us to come to him is not, Hey, I've got a worse offer. You like that good stuff.
How do you feel about terrible things? That's not what he says. He says, come to what's better. Come to what actually satisfies. Come to what actually fills you up. Come to what actually fixes you.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. In the Old Testament, God came to David and said, I'm going to love you and I'm going to make a king out of you forever. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus. The prophet Isaiah is saying, come to Jesus. And he'll make the same promise with you that he'll welcome you and love you forever.
And he'll give you rich and good food, which is ultimately what your soul needs. You see, we all have something. We all have something that we're using to say, this is who I am. This is what makes me okay. This is what makes me good. This is why I get up in the morning.
There's a journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge. He's talking about political hopes and failures in his book. And he, he talks about that. They had this political guy that they just really wanted to get into office. And they said, we, he said, we got exactly what we asked for. And then he has this quote.
He says, the really terrible thing about life is not that our dreams are unrealized, but that they come true. So the worst thing about life is not that we don't get what we want, but that we do get what we want. And ultimately doesn't satisfy, doesn't fix us. The worst part about life is that all our little dreams come true and it wasn't good enough. Jim Carrey says this. In our culture, I got, I got quotes from a couple of different famous people because in our culture, we've really bought into the idea that if you were really rich, good looking, uh, and had like people knew you, then you, that would be great.
That would be the best. Like we, our culture's kind of just bought into that idea. I know that I've bought into that idea every time the lottery gets really big and I go buy a lottery ticket. And I'm filling out my little Numbers and bubbling them in. It's like the, you know, first time I've done a scantron since high school. And I, I think, wouldn't it be so great to get $43 billion or whatever it comes up to?
You know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's been crazy recently. You remember the one this past summer or whatever, when everybody was going crazy past spring? Like I think I'm running around thinking, oh, it would be so good. And really what I think in those moments is if I had a lot of money, I'd be fixed. I wouldn't want anything else.
I'd be happy. I'd be content. Everything would be good. I'd skip everywhere. I'd giggle. I'd just giggle.
And people would be like, why are you giggling? You're a grown man. I'd be like, I'm so rich. You don't even know. I giggle anytime I want to. Here's a thousand dollars.
Don't tell nobody. Like I could do whatever. Our culture, we really believe that. We really believe that if you had power, if you had fame, if you had money, you'd be happy. You'd be fixed. So I've got a couple of quotes from people.
Because really, celebrities should be the happiest people we've got, right? They should be so content and so happy and joyous and fun to be around, right? Okay. So here's Jim Carrey. I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed so they can see that it's not the answer. Jim Carrey says, I wish all your dreams could come true so that you could know that wasn't it.
Okay, but maybe you're like, well, Jim Carrey, really? Liar, liar? That's who we're talking about here? Here's Brad Pitt talking to the Rolling Stones, like the Rolling Stone magazine. Like, it doesn't get cooler than this, you guess. Brad Pitt, Rolling Stones, this is amazing.
So some of you, I know you've just thought, man, if I could just have Brad Pitt's money or if I could just have Brad Pitt's, maybe his wife or his face or his like abs, life would just be better if I just had a little bit of Brad Pitt. Like if I could just be kind of as cool as Brad Pitt in even his bad movies, life would be better. Here's Brad Pitt talking to Rolling Stones. What does it mean anyway? I had an idealistic thought of what fame is. I thought, yes, lovely, I'm going to be famous and everything will change, but it doesn't.
If you ask me, I say toss all this. We have to find something else. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I'm sitting in it and I'm telling you that that's not it. I'm the guy who has everything. I know.
And I'm telling you that once you have everything, then you are just left with yourself. It doesn't help you sleep any better and you don't wake up any better because of it. See, the problem with us is that we won't ever get everything. I'm not going to win the lottery, so I'll continue to believe that it'll fix me. See, these guys have it and they're going, guys, this isn't going to fix you. At best, once all your dreams are fulfilled, you're just stuck with you and there's got to be more to it.
I got one more from Tom Brady. He says this, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. You know, I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think, God, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be.
I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. What else is there for me? When Jesus walked up to Andrew and John, when he walked up to Simon and James, and he said, follow me, his invitation was one of joy and life and hope, even though it ended in hardship and death for them. It was the best invitation they ever got. Because he said, even if this all works out for you, it ends in death.
It doesn't end in joy and satisfaction. It's not what will fill you up. Your only hope is me. And the only position I'll take is first. If you're a Christian, that's the position of Jesus in your life. That's why we continually repent, because we continually see that we put something else up there.
So our goal today, I've got a few questions to just try to help us identify. What do I have as primary right now? What, what's in that spot for me? What have I placed in that spot? So if you're a note taker, take some notes, write some stuff down, and then we're going to end a little bit differently today than, than we usually do.
But I think it'll be helpful. So I've just got some questions, some things to run through pretty quickly to try to help us find, if Mark was writing your story, what would he say? This is, this is her name, this is how she identifies herself, and this is what she's got to let go of for Jesus to be primary. What would he say? This is his name, this is his identity, and this is what he's got to let go of. Okay, what's Jesus not allowed to mess with?
It's pretty straightforward. What in your life can he not touch? What is it he reached for, reaches for, and you pop his hand? Say, no, no, no. I didn't invite you here for that. What's your, can I still go to heaven if?
You hear people ask that question, can I still, well, can you still go to heaven if blank? Sometimes it's a genuine question. Other times it's, hey, can I love this thing more than Jesus and still get there? What's the one thing you've been arguing in your head about? The whole time we've been talking. What's the thing that keeps popping up and you keep going, no, no, no, no, that's not that.
Jesus loves that. That would be great. That's not, that's, that's not it. What's the one thing you don't want me to bring up? What's the thing if I started talking about it right now, you'd be like, okay, this is the worst sermon I've ever heard. That's probably it.
That's the thing you're really afraid he'll come take from you. That's the thing you really have to have. You don't want him to mess with it. Okay. So these are a little less straightforward.
If you're having a hard time thinking about it, really trying to figure out is Jesus in that spot or is something else there? So this is just, is he there? Is he not? Are you reading your Bible? Do you have a prayer life? Is that something that takes up your time?
If we're trying to figure out are we following Jesus? Are you more discipled by Netflix? Or ESPN? Or YouTube? Or some other app I haven't heard about? Does he take up your time or is there something else?
Something else talking to you more, teaching you more about how life should work, about how you should understand your worth and your value? When you see your sin, how do you respond? Do you repent? Are you heartbroken over it? When you see that something else matters more to you than Jesus, what do you do? Do you care?
What's the easiest thing for you to spend your money on? See, there's some things when it comes to your money you have to think about. There are other things where it's like your wallet magically appears in your hand. What will you spend your money on? Where do you place value when it comes to your, when you look at your budget? Is it your own comfort?
Is it most of your money goes to savings because that's one of the best ways to control your future? Is it status symbols like clothes and cars and houses? Something that makes it look like you've arrived? The opposite side of that is where does Jesus fit into your money? Does some of your money go to his church, to his people, to people who don't have money or food? How much of your budget looks like Jesus was radically generous towards you?
So of course you're radically generous towards others. What's the thing you organize your schedule around? And what's the easiest thing for you to organize your schedule around? When there's scheduling conflicts or time conflicts, what wins? Do kids win? Does your own leisure time win?
Does work win? Does work win? What's easily put in the schedule? What gets easily bumped? What are you laboring for? Where's your time and energy go?
All right, let's look at your emotions for a second. What are you angriest about? What do you have the hardest time forgiving? You see, our emotions are usually tied to things we love. What are you most afraid of? What are you most afraid of losing?
Here's the last one, and this is a big one. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a specific category where you always win? You see, there's some things Jesus is going to show up, you're going to read in the Bible you already kind of agree with, and so when he says you should do this, you just say, yeah, smart, sounds good. And there are other things he's going to say, you should do this or you shouldn't do that, and you're going to go, whoa, I'm going to need you to explain. I'm going to need you to win me over.
So maybe some of you, when he says, hey, you should be generous, you go, yeah, we should. We should be generous, and we should be giving to the poor, and we should be helping the homeless, and the people who aren't probably don't really follow Jesus. And when he says you shouldn't have sex if you're not married, you go, whoa, but we're in love. But we really, like, we care about each other, plus I'm also pretty sure that passage probably doesn't really mean what people say it means, and they didn't really, you know, it's translated from other, like, you know, and some of you are like, no, no sex.
That's right. We shouldn't have sex unless you're married. And then the Bible says you should have sex if you are married. But, like, those are the rules. But it's like you should give up some of your money, and you're like, well, some, how much, what's the percentage?
It's really tight. My money's tight right now. When you and Jesus disagree, who wins? And is there a category right now where you just win? Jesus died for you. Because he loves you.
When Jesus invited them to follow him, he was already on his way to give up everything for them. And when Jesus invited you to follow him, he had already given up everything for you. He'd laid it all down so that you could be related to him, so that he could bring you back to himself. He's ultimately trustworthy, and he is absolutely after your joy. And that's why he won't let you have the harmful things you want. And that's why he says, I have to be primary, because that's the only thing that leads to joy and life and satisfaction and hope.
And if anything else gets put there, it throws your life out of whack, it robs you of joy, and ultimately it ends in death. Jesus died on a cross so that you could be his, so that you could have ultimate joy and satisfaction and hope in him forever. He's trustworthy. He loves you. And him calling you to put something down is for your own good, for your own joy, even though it's going to be really hard. I think Simon and Andrew forever remembered the day they put their nets down.
And it wasn't just letting go of the nets, it was genuinely deciding, I'm going to follow him and I'm leaving this behind. And I think James and John forever know the day they looked at their father and said, I'm following Jesus. I think they remember it. And I think something happened in their heart that day that every time they saw their father again, they loved him, but he wasn't in the same spot anymore. It wasn't how they defined their life anymore. They were going to follow Jesus.
They were going to go for bust. No matter how that worked out, because they knew Jesus was worth it. And how much more for us on this side of the cross, knowing how much he's going to give up for us to welcome us and to make us his. Can we follow him and trust him? So here's, here's how we're going to end today.
We're not going to play any music. We're not going to make this any smoothier. Here's what I want us to do. If you've been sitting here today and genuinely the Holy Spirit has been pressing on you, this is what you got to put down. This is the thing you're holding on. This is the thing you won't let go of, and you've got to put it down.
You've got to walk away from it. You've got to follow me. If that's you, here's, here's what I want us to do. I just want you to take a minute. I want you to write it down. I want the cards in front of you.
And here's what we're going to do. And here's why we're going to do it. I want us to have the opportunity to walk down and lay the card up here. And here's why. When Jesus came to James and John, when he came to Simon and Andrew, they had the opportunity to make a movement. They had the opportunity to act immediately.
Now, they had to continually reinforce that from then on. It's going to be really hard to stand up and walk over here and lay something down, but it's going to get exponentially harder the moment you walk out of there. This will be the easiest time to lay it down. Because it's just a mental step for you to say, I'm trying to lay this down, Jesus. I want you to be primary. I'm trying to follow you and I'm trying to say no to this.
But every other moment, you actually have to do it. See, James and John and Simon and Andrew had the chance to move. They had the chance to let go of the nets and walk. They had the chance to look at their father and walk. And I want us to have the same opportunity to make a movement, to concretely put this in our brains. This is what I'm trying to do.
I know that Jesus saves me. I know that he died for my sin. I know that I'm free and I don't have to accomplish anything for him and I don't have to earn anything for him. But I know he's got to be primary and I've got to let go of this because it leads to death and it doesn't. It robs me of joy and my hope is found in him. So I want you to have the opportunity to move.
And I want it to not be smooth or easy. We're not cutting the lights off. We're not playing music. I think there was an awkward moment between Zebedee and his sons. And I think if Jesus has been working on you, you need to move. This will be the best time to do it.
And then you'll have to continually do it as you walk this out with church family, as you continually confess and repent this and continually try to set it down. Let's pray. God, we thank you. Thank you that you love our joy and our hope and our life more than we do, that you were willing to die for it, to rescue us, to make us yours. God, we thank you that with you is joy and pleasure and goodness and rich food. And I pray that you'd help us to quit trading it out for something smaller.
Quit chasing after something that won't satisfy us, that won't fill us up. And God, I pray that you'd help us to respond. I pray that you'd help us to respond now. But more than that, God, I pray that you'd help us to respond every day for the rest of our lives to continually follow you, to continue to set something down, to continue to say goodbye to something, and to continue to put you in the place of primacy in our lives. We thank you that you're good and that you're trustworthy and that we can follow you. And we love you in Jesus' name.
Amen. I'd encourage you to respond if the Holy Spirit's been working in you, to know that Jesus looked them in the face and said, follow me, and you have the same opportunity today to follow Jesus, to let something go, and to follow after him where there's joy and freedom and life and hope, ultimate satisfaction. And don't just do it because you feel like you're supposed to, because we're talking about it or because that would be the thing to do. Do it if you actually genuinely are saying, Jesus, I want to follow you and I want you to help me. I'm going to sit down. In a minute, the band's going to come back up and we're going to sing together and celebrate that Jesus is good.
Repent and Believe
Transcript
Well, hi, how we doing? Wow, not any better than earlier. I was taking a shot. I thought we had woken up a little bit. I'm sorry. We are in our second week of our Follow Me series, and I'm excited about this series.
Last week we got to celebrate baptism, and we got to just kind of intro this series, talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing in this series. And I'm excited because we're just taking some time to say, what does it look like for us in Columbia in 2016 to follow Jesus? Like, how does that show up? What does that look like in life to be a Christian? And I think it's going to be helpful for us because as a church we've got a lot of new believers, a lot of people who are like, okay, I believe this gospel. I believe that Jesus died for my sin.
Like, my faith is there. Now what? Like, what do I do now? And then we've got a lot of people who maybe you've been a Christian a while. You'd say, yeah, I'm a Christian, but it's like I'm just now trying to get into the swing of actually following, letting this kind of impact day-to-day life for me. And so I'm just excited about this series.
We get to just take a little time in the Gospel of Mark to look and see, okay, what did it look like for Jesus' followers? What does Jesus say? What is this supposed to – how is this going to show up for us? And particularly helpful because our culture is just kind of confused about Christianity. So if any Christians on any kind of media, any kind of TV show or anything, like we really have two types of representatives.
Just so you all know, like when somebody is writing a sitcom and they make a Christian character, like here are our options. Condescending, judgmental. Like we've got that character. A lot of times it doesn't have anything to do with actually how they behave. So like if you think of Angela from The Office, she's just condescending, but she doesn't behave any better.
Like she just looks down on everybody and then does the same stuff. And it's like, okay, so hypocritical and condescending. And then we just get kind of like goofy slash weird. So we've got Ned Flanders. Every once in a while in like really intense movies, we'll just have like a weird person on the street holding a sign. Like they're just a bit part where it's like repent, the end is nigh, and that's it.
And then like, you know, the robot kills them or whatever. And so like those are the characters we get. Even in the South where supposed to be the Bible Belt, supposed to be more Christians, we're just kind of confused about what it means to be a Christian, what it looks like to be a Christian. And so like I have conversations with people. I remember I was working with a guy and he found out I was a pastor. We were starting a church.
And he said, oh, cool, yeah, like you're a Christian? I was like, yeah. He said, yeah, me too. I used to go to a Lutheran church with my mom when I was little. And I was like, okay. But that was it.
He didn't have anything else to it. Like there was the, I went to this VBS. Maybe I prayed a prayer. I got baptized when I was young. My favorite one, I was talking with a guy I played football with in high school. And I said, are you a Christian?
He said, Chet, I'm black. So yeah, at the time I was white and I didn't know about the exemption. Like I didn't, I didn't understand. I just was kind of like, I don't know. But like that's kind of, I was born in the South.
My mom went to a Methodist church. My uncle was a deacon. Like we have all these answers for like, this is what makes me a Christian. And you don't find those in scripture. So what we're looking at is saying like, what does it look like to be a Christian?
How does this show up? Because if we actually believe something, it shows up. If we actually believe something, it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we, like what we do. And that's what we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at. Like you ever met somebody who just believes in coffee?
Like they, they believe in it. I believe in coffee. I had someone tell me earlier that I needed to get a camelback with coffee in it. But like people who believe in coffee, they buy coffee. They get things to grind coffee. They, they have coffee with them when you see them.
Like they, you ever met a vegan that actually believed it? They told you. Ever met somebody who did CrossFit and they believed it? Like they, that's like, that's how they introduce themselves. It's like, hey, I'm Chet. Hi, I do CrossFit.
Well, okay, back up. Like, I don't know. Like if you, you know what I'm talking about? Like someone who's really drank the Kool-Aid for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. Or libertarians, those people, they believe it. Like they will tell you.
Like if we believe something, it shows up in life. And if we're actually a part of something, that shows up also. So if I told you, and I haven't told many people this, but I am actually on the Dallas Cowboys football team. Like if I told you that, your immediate response is, no. No, you're not. And if I said why, you'd be like, well, how much time do you have?
You don't live in Dallas. No, you're not. You are unathletic. Like this isn't happening. Like do you want me to keep going because it's going to get offensive? Like there would be things.
I'd have to go to practice. I'd have to be there. I'd have to, like, what do you mean? Like you must be defining this differently. And so in our culture, there are a lot of people who say, I'm a Christian. And immediately it's like, you must be defining it differently than the Bible does.
And so as a church, what we want to do is say, like, what does the Bible say to be a Christian? What does the Bible say would show up? What does the Bible say life looks like for us as Christians? And so that's what we're spending the next four weeks just looking at some basic. This is a part of your life if you're a Christian. For every Christian in the room, for every Christian in any room, anywhere, this is a part of your life.
Let's pray and then we'll jump into Mark. God, we thank you that we do get to follow you and that we get to believe good news. I pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, speak to us this morning and work on our behalf that we might grow in our understanding of what it means to follow you. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
So how do you know you're a Christian? What does that look like? What shows up? And so let's jump right into Mark chapter 1. We'll be in verses 14 and 15 today. We're going to look at the first words out of Jesus' mouth in Mark chapter 1.
If you have one of the blue and white Bibles on the row, it's going to be on page 543. If you do not own a Bible, take this one home with you. That's our gift to you. I want you to have a Bible. So 14 and 15, these are the first things Jesus says.
So it starts off this way. Now after John was arrested, that is John the Baptist. He had a big beard. He wore camels like hair, cloak thing, stood in the woods and yelled at people and ate bugs. So we don't get to hear much about him today, but there's a brief outline for you.
There you go. Eight bugs, lived in the woods, yelled at people. Some of you have an uncle like that. So after he was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. So stop there for just a second.
We talked about this last week. We said that the gospel, that word there means good news. And that is the primary difference between Christianity and every other religion, philosophy, thought process. That we have news. We have news about an event that happened. See, what Christianity says is that Jesus died on a cross, was buried in a grave, and three days later he rose from the dead.
And that through his death on our behalf, we can be saved. That he can pay for our sin. He can pay our debt before God. And that's news. It happened. We share that.
Christianity is not primarily a bunch of advice. Here's what you need to do to be good. Here's how you ought to behave. Here's the things that you need to do to be a Christian. And so even in this series, what we're saying is here's what shows up if you are a Christian. So we believe the news that Jesus died for us.
And if you actually place faith in Jesus, here's what shows up. Not do these things and then you can be a Christian. If you miss that, you miss the whole thing. Does that make sense? Like if you are a Christian, you'll do these things. Not do these things and you can be a Christian.
So the difference is between a king and a president. So right now we got people running for president and they are trying to show you that they're presidential. Like I'm pretty sure that was actually a thing that Trump said. I'm going to be so presidential it's going to blow your mind. It's like that automatically didn't sound very presidential to me. But okay.
Like you're going to be like, whoa, how presidential is this guy? That's a terrible Trump impersonation, but just go with me. Like they have to prove they look presidential and then maybe we'll let them be the president. Does that make sense? But if you were a king, if you were a prince or a princess and you had parents who were king and queen, they would say things to you like, hey, that's not how a queen Acts.
Hey, that's not how a king Acts. You need to do these things to act like a king and what they would be saying to you is because you're royalty, this is how you live because you're going to be king because you're going to be queen because you're already this identity. This is what shows up in your life. Whereas presidents, it's act this way and you might get to be it. Does that make sense? So what we're saying is if you're a Christian, this shows up.
That's the whole point of this. If you believe the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, if you believe that news and it changes you. Here's what shows up. So here's what he says. We're going to look at Jesus's message. So this is what he began proclaiming the gospel of God.
So we're going to see what he proclaimed. What's the gospel of God? What's he saying? And then we're going to see how he tells us to respond. Okay. And then we'll take what Jesus said in about two, like one sentence, and we'll make that last about 40 minutes.
You're welcome. So Jesus says this, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
So when he said this to his Jewish hearers, they knew what he was saying. When he says the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. What he's talking about is when God first made everything, it was the kingdom of God. He was in charge. He was the king. And humanity existed under God's rule.
Over creation, but under God. That's where humanity was placed. And everything was good while God was king. But Adam and Eve, our first parents, rebelled against God's kingship. They wanted to be king and queen. They wanted to be in charge.
They said, rather than having our lives orbit around you, we want everything to orbit around us. I want to be the center of the universe. That's what Adam and Eve said. And just so you know, every other human that has ever existed immediately lined up right behind Adam and Eve and said, that's the plan I'm going with as well. So your life has been you at the center trying to get everybody else to orbit around you.
Trying to get everybody else to think about you. Worry about you. Take care of you. Exist around you. That's been your goal your entire life. The way you walk through your day is, what do I like?
What do I want? How do I feel about that? What makes me happy? What makes me sad? That's how we process life. I have an 18-month-old.
That is the core of his little soul right now. My wife and I talk about this all the time. He is such an easy child to be a parent to when he is getting everything he wants. So easy. That's what makes me a great husband. Like, I'm a great husband when I get everything I want.
Like, that's how that works. And he's terrible when he realizes he doesn't get to be the center of the universe. And here's what he does. He throws things. Anything he's holding, or if he's not holding anything, he just throws a fit. He, like, yells and lays on the ground.
We've had to start grabbing him and saying, hey, you're not going to get to act like this. Nothing good happens here. Like, we've begun to train him that he doesn't get to be the center of the world. And here's the thing. I'm the same way. I just know that throwing fits doesn't work.
So I use flattery. Am I lying? I've learned. If you don't want to do what I want to do, my response shouldn't be, ah! And, like, hit you in the head. That's not going to work well.
I've moved beyond 18-month-old Chet, but I'm still doing the same thing. I just want you to care most about me. And that doesn't seem like so much to ask. The problem is, that's the same thing you want. That's why I went, we take a group picture. Whose face do you look at first?
Your face. I've actually taken a picture with just me and my wife. She showed it to me. And I looked and said, that's a good picture. And she has responded, my eyes are closed. And I was like, mental note.
Look at her face first. Before you talk. Because all I did was look at me and was like, I look great. Like, that's... Post that one to the Facebook. She's like, my eyes are closed.
It's like, well, we could crop you out. Nobody's going to care. Just put it on Facebook. But, like, that's... Our life has been, what do I like? What do I want?
And our goal has been to have... And nothing. Nothing makes you more miserable. Nothing makes you more unenjoyable to be around. Or sucks more joy out of your life. Than you having to be the center of everything.
And you worrying about, what do you like? What do you want? How am I feeling? How am I... Like, that sucks joy out of you. So what Jesus says is...
God was the king. And the Old Testament, when we rebelled, the Old Testament promised... After promise, after promise, after promise, after promise... I'm going to fix this. I'm going to right the ship. I'm going to be king again.
We're going to realign humanity and history back where it's supposed to be. And so Jesus steps on the scene and he says... The time is fulfilled. And every Jewish person understood immediately what he's talking about. The time is fulfilled. The promises are coming true.
What God has said repeatedly through Old Testament prophecy. Every time you've gotten together at the synagogue and read this. Every time you've had a festival or a feast. Every time you celebrated the Passover. What we were celebrating was that God's going to fix it. This is going to be the end.
And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Meaning God is on the march. He's on the move. His kingdom is approaching. It's at the door.
And he is going to reestablish his reign over the earth. And here's the thing. Everything works better when God's in charge. You ever been on a team that just had a great coach? And when that coach was there, everything just worked? Great school with a good principal.
Or a great job with a good boss. Or maybe it was your home life. Maybe some of you were blessed. You come from a healthy home life. And when your dad was there. Or when your mom was there.
Everything just worked. And then when they had to travel for business. Or when the boss wasn't there. Everything just started to fall apart. That's earth. God was in charge.
And when he's the king. Everything clicks. Everything works. You ever been around a household where the children are in charge? Functionally? Like they don't have a job.
They don't pay for stuff. They don't drive the car. But they're in charge. Have you ever seen that work well? Like y'all have seen this, right? You've been to Walmart.
Like you've seen like the meltdowns. Where the parents are just trying to appease the child. And like you shouldn't be paying attention anymore. But now you've stopped. And you're going. Just hit them.
Take them down. You're bigger than they are. You can do it. Like you start rooting for the parent. Hey, now would be the time for some discipline. Like I mean just something.
Go for it. Children's miserable. Household doesn't work. That's earth, y'all. We've taken over. And we're miserable.
And this system doesn't work. And Jesus says the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is coming. The king is returning. God's about to fix this. And throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are used interchangeably. So when he says the kingdom of God is at hand. That's also the kingdom of heaven. Meaning when God's in charge. It's heaven. When God's in charge.
Everything works the way it's supposed to. And that's actually what the church is supposed to look like. A little picture of heaven. The way we interact with each other. The way we relate to one another. The way we treat money and time and relationships and forgiveness and hurt feelings.
We're supposed to look like a little picture of heaven. So Jesus says kingdom's coming. Now he's going to tell us how to respond. So a king is on the march. And he's going to tell us here's your response. And here's how this works.
If you are not a Christian. This is how you respond immediately to the kingdom. This is your first immediate response to the kingdom of heaven. To the kingdom of God. And if you are a Christian. This is how you live continually.
It is your continual response to Jesus. So this is how we respond immediately and continually. So everybody needs to be paying attention because you're on one of those tracks. Alright so here's what he says. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.
That is the response. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. That's how you respond immediately and that's how you live continually. Okay now we've got to do a little bit of work here. Because we don't use that word a whole lot.
What we do here if you've been hanging out for a while. We use the word repent a good bit. But we don't in life. Like you don't use that word. You're not like late for dinner and go sorry. I turned the wrong way on 378.
So I had to repent and come back this way. Like you don't say that. It's not a word we use. Like you only hear that like maybe in your life. Like a sweaty preacher yelled it at you. Or your grandma said it to you.
Or it feels like some sort of Old Testament word. But it's the first thing out of Jesus's mouth when he starts his ministry. So it's massively important. The simplest. If you want to really shrivel it down. The simplest term is.
It means to change your mind. To change your mind. But it's used with so much weight. And so continually throughout scripture. It has massive implication. What it means is.
Stop the way you're thinking. Stop the way you're acting. And turn away from your sin. Agree with God about your behavior. Agree with God about your sin. What Jesus.
The first thing out of his mouth is. God's coming. And you need to change. God's coming. His kingdom is coming. And you're not going to fit in.
When he gets here. This behavior you've got going. Isn't going to cut it. The creator of the universe is coming. And you need to change. That's Jesus's first thing he says.
Now. I think. We would have wanted him. To say something different. And even culturally. We kind of act like Jesus said something different.
Like repent was like. Old Testament stuff. Maybe his. Bug eating cousin. John said that. They were cousins.
I didn't take out that earlier. But maybe John said that. Said repent. But Jesus. You know what? Jesus showed up.
Like Jesus showed up. And he kind of. He floated. Or at least sashayed. I don't know if he floats. He's got feet.
So maybe he sashays. And his little. His little train was doing like this. And then he said. Guys. Guys.
Guys. Get in here. I just. I came all this way. Because I just. I just want to hug you.
Like that's kind of how we act. Like I'm just here to just say. It's okay. It's okay. Everything's going to be fine. You.
You're special. You are. So are you. Like that's. That's what he came to do. Right?
To just like. Just warm hugs. Like he's Olaf. Jesus is Olaf. Hi. I'm Jesus.
And I love warm hugs. Like that's. And here's the thing. That's not what he says. But can I tell you something?
What he says. Is so much. Better. And so much more freeing. Than what we think. We want him to have said.
Let me explain. One reason why. If Jesus showed up. And said. I'm God. I'm the son of God.
And I just want to tell y'all. You're doing great. And everything's fine. I immediately have some massive problems with that. Because what he just said was. The kingdom of God is coming.
And when it gets here. It's going to look like this. What we already have. Because if we're fine. Then we fit perfectly into the kingdom of heaven.
And what he's saying is. This is heaven. And what Jesus just would have said was. I'm perfectly okay. With sex trafficking. And I'm perfectly okay.
With slave trade. And I'm perfectly okay. With systematic oppression. And injustice. If Jesus showed up and said that. We have massive problems.
That's okay. That's the kingdom of God. That's what heaven looks like. You're not mad about that. Nobody's going to take up the sword. Nobody's going to fight for the weak.
Nobody's going to stand up for the oppressed. Nobody's going to take up the cause of the poor. And the voiceless. Nobody. You're showing up and saying that's fine. That's a problem.
If Jesus showed up and said. Everything's great. Let me tell you something. We would have to take up the sword. We would have to. But no.
He shows up and says. This isn't okay. And so we get to follow after him. In a gracious way. To oppose injustice and oppression. We get to follow after him.
In joining him. In him saying. This isn't alright. And let me tell you why. It's also beautiful that he says this. If you're honest.
If you actually sit alone with yourself long enough. You know that what our culture is telling you. Is garbage. What our culture says is this. You're special. You're wonderful.
There's nothing wrong with you. And you just need to believe and believe. In your heart. In yourself. Just believe in yourself. And even if you have evidence to the contrary.
That you're not special and wonderful. Just negate it. And just repeat to yourself over and over again. No I am special. I am wonderful. That's why we can sit down with somebody.
And they can be consistently lying. Like have a pattern of this. And be like. Hey you're lying. And they say. Well look.
I'm not a liar. Based on what? I believe in my heart. I believe and believe. Like there's just this. This we're told culturally.
To just trust yourself. Believe in yourself. And here's the thing. That only works if we don't think about it. But I actually need Jesus to show up.
And say exactly what he just said to me. There's so much freedom in him showing up. And saying hey. You're not okay. There's things about you that need to change. You can't just say that's my personality.
No. Well your personality makes you a jerk. You should stop. You should fix that. Like there's things about you that are not alright. And you can't just say.
Well this is who I am. This is how. No. He shows up immediately and says. You need to change. Now.
He doesn't stop there. He says repent. And believe the gospel. And for me. I would have thought he said repent. Which means stop sinning.
Surrender. To what God says is correct. What God says is true. What God says is right. You would think he would say that. He would say repent.
And do good. Repent from your bad ways. And do good ways. Repent from your wrong ways. And do the right ways. Right.
Like that's what I would think would be the opposite of that. But what's he say. He says repent. And believe the gospel. What he says is. You need to turn away from your sin.
But I've actually got somewhere for you to take it. You see Jesus went to the cross. To die for our sin. So that our sin can actually be forgiven. That we get to bring him our sin. And he takes care of it.
He calls us to believe. What he's actually inviting you into. Is joy. And rest. And hope. That's the invitation of repentance.
So maybe. This is your first time hanging out. And you're like. Thank you so much. For this uplifting. Heartwarming message.
Of I'm a terrible person. So excited. First of all. If it's your first time. That's the first thing Jesus would have said to you. So you're welcome.
Secondly. It's an invitation. Into absolutely 100% what you need. I'm going to give you a small example. Just between my wife and I. Try to help you see this picture.
Of what Jesus is actually saying. Is so freeing to you. You see. I've been married for seven years. My wife and I dated for four or five. Before that.
She's not here. So I don't have to get that right. Four or five. And. Here's what I need from my wife. In our relationship.
I need her at times. When things are bad. And they aren't going well. I need her to like. Get next to me. Put her arm around me.
Kiss my cheek. Say hey boo. I believe in you. Like this is going to be okay. Like we're going to be fine. Like I need her to look at me sometimes.
And just say hey. Like this is going to work out. We're going to be okay. Like I need her to. To put wind in my sails. I need that.
Like I need her to hope in me. And in us. I need her to have that. For our relationship. Like if she just followed me around. Being like hey.
Just going to let you know you're terrible. Hey. On my way home from work. I made a list. Of how much you've disappointed me. Like if she did that.
It would be massively difficult. To be her husband. Like it would be. It would rip the soul out of me. But. If she wasn't aware.
That I'm a sinner. And if she wasn't aware. That I fail. And fall short. And that I'm weak. And all of her expectations of me.
Were just. I'm perfect. That would crush me. And the best relationship. We could have. Would be me.
Putting on a false front. A veneer. Wearing a mask. Hiding from her. Because I would never be able. To let her know.
That I failed. That I'm weak. That I'm. That I fall short. I got. I would have to pretend.
Around her. So if Jesus shows up. And just says. You're terrible. And stops there. Yeah.
That's crushing. And if Jesus shows up. And just says. Hey. I believe in you. You can be amazing.
What we would believe. Is that maybe other people can. But I can't. And I'm exempted. From that message. But what Jesus shows up.
And says. Is exactly. What we need to hear. Which is. You're broken. And weak.
And I'm going to make that okay. There's hope. And joy. And rest. For you. For all of you.
Who fall short. For all of you. Who can't get it together. For all of you. Who are not able. To always do.
What you're supposed to. For all of you. Who have. Taken your. Your past. And just.
Jacked it up. There's hope for you. You need to repent. You need to surrender. You need to turn from that. But you need to come to me.
Where there's joy. And hope to be found. That's why Acts 3. 19. Says it this way. He says.
Repent. Therefore. Turn back. That your sins. May be blotted. Out.
You see. We turn away from our sin. Because we actually have a place. To take them. To Jesus. We trust.
That he's able to. Pay for them. To cover them. For us. This is. The intro.
And. The lifelong. Process. Of being a Christian. It is a life. Of continually.
Repenting. Of sin. And believing. The truth. Of the gospel. That's.
Life. As a Christian. That we. Don't have to be perfect. That Jesus. Makes us perfect.
And that we can. Continually. Repent of sin. And trust him. And here's the issue. Here's the.
Here's the thing. The opposite. Of. Sin. Is not. Good behavior.
But it's. Belief. It's. Faith. The reason we sin. In the first place.
Is that we're not. Believing the gospel. We're not believing. That Jesus is who he says he is. And that he's accomplished. What he said he's accomplished.
And that joy. And hope. And life. Are ultimately found in him. The reason we're chasing. After these other things.
Is because we're not believing that. And that's why he says. Repent of your sin. And believe what's true. Because if you believe it. It automatically shows up.
You ever had. You ever told somebody. Hey. This is really good. And it looks funny. Like y'all are eating something.
And you're like. You should try this. And their immediate response is. You eat it. Maybe your friends trust you. I don't know.
If I tell somebody to eat something. They're like. You eat it. Like that's the response. Because what they're saying is. If you believe that it's good.
You'll have no problem with eating it right now. But if you don't believe that. I'm at least going to make you suffer with me. You'll have to fake through. And pretend like it's good. So sometimes it's worth it.
Like I'll be like. Like I was lying or whatever. And I'll eat it. And just like. You know. You have to try to fake it.
So that they'll eat some. And then you can be like. Ah. Now we're both idiots. But belief actually shows up.
Like it shows up in how we act. It shows up in what we do. So I can sit down with you. And ask you. What do you believe? And you can tell me everything.
In your little heart. That you believe that it's true. And a better way for me to find out. Would be to audit your time. And your bank account. Because if you actually believe.
That it shows up in how you spend your time. And how you spend your money. You see. The opposite of sin. Is belief. Because belief is what.
Changes our hearts. And changes how we act. And changes what we do. And ultimately invites us into joy. So it's an invitation.
Into joy. The Christian life is a life of repentance. Continually repenting. And continually believing the gospel. That when we sin. All we're saying is.
I don't really believe the gospel here. We're waving a flag. And saying. I don't believe that the gospel is true for me. So when you say.
This is my money. And nobody can have any. And I'm not supposed to be generous. What you're saying is. I don't believe the gospel is true. With my money.
When you're saying that. The best thing I can find in life. Is just to have sex. And to chase women. Or to get guys to like me. What you're saying is.
I don't really believe the gospel is true. That Jesus gives me my identity. And my hope. And my salvation. Like. Anytime we're sinning.
We have a belief issue. First and foremost. Because we don't realize. That the gospel has freed us up. From that. So it's not just to.
Modify our behavior. But to actually change what we believe. So that we can be set free. Okay. So let me tell you.
A couple of ways. That we kind of. Mess this up. There are some of you. In this room right now. You've been a Christian a while.
And you're like. I get the repentance thing. I realize that I'm supposed to see my sin and change. But the point of repentance. Is to lead us. Into the joy.
Of Jesus's salvation. So some of you. Are anxious. You're worn out. Because your whole life. Is trying to.
Fix your behavior. To modify yourself. To find all your sins. And get rid of them. But you've never gotten to the point.
That the point of repenting of sin. Is to believe. That the gospel is true. That you're free. That you're okay. You have three accountability partners.
And y'all get together. And talk about. How are you terrible. Here's how I'm terrible. And you never say. How is Jesus good.
How does the gospel set us free. How do we have. Freedom and hope. And joy in Jesus. Because the point of repenting. Is to believe.
If we're genuinely repenting. We'll grow in belief. And if we're genuinely believing. We'll be repenting. Some of you. May have bought into the.
Southern lie. That you can be a Christian. And that have no effect on your life. That you can say a prayer. I've. Been in church gatherings.
Before like this. Preacher talks about. Ten ways to be a better dad. Three ways you can find. Joy in marriage. And then at the end.
He says. If you want to be a Christian. Repeat after me. Hadn't explained the cross. Hadn't explained the cross. It just says.
Repeat these words. And I. Or. Every head out. Every head bowed. Every eyes closed.
No one looking around. If you want to be a Christian. Just look at me. Okay. Good. I see that.
I see that hand. I see those eyes. Whatever. Like. Just. Y'all been in this?
No? And then he'll say. Say this prayer. Raise your hand. If you just prayed that prayer. You're all Christians.
That's like a magic spell. That's not Christianity. Christianity is that you believe. And you repent. And that's a lifelong process. Of believing and repenting.
Now. If you actually believed. Jesus makes you his. And he'll keep you his. But one of the ways he keeps you his.
Is by continually leading you to repent. Continually changing your heart. Some of you would say you are a Christian. And you have not owned your sin. Acknowledged your sin. It's been years.
If ever. The last time you sat down with someone. And said. Here's how I was wrong. Here's how I sinned against you. Here's how I failed.
And here's how Jesus is good. You think that you can be a Christian. Without repenting. And that person does not exist in the Bible. One of the reasons why the Bible advocates. That at times you should.
Remove people from being a part of the church. Or treat them like they aren't Christians. Is because you address sin in them. And they don't listen. So you address sin in them again.
And they don't listen. So you get more people. And you address sin in them. And then at some point it says. Just know they're not a Christian. Because Christians repent.
Christians see their sin. Agree with God about their sin. Change their heart about sin. And follow Jesus. That is what Christians do. For a lifetime.
You will never outgrow your need for the gospel. But see repentance is a call to joy. And to freedom. In Jesus. It's exactly what we need to hear. You're not okay.
But I can make you okay. You're not fine on your own. And there's some things that aren't going to make it into the kingdom. But I will bring you into the kingdom. Because I'll pay for your sin. So let's say you became a Christian.
You became a Christian when you were in your. You were a teenager. Maybe you became a Christian when you were a teenager. Genuinely placed faith in Jesus. And then throughout your teen years. You really just kind of buy into the lie.
That the best way to have fun and enjoy life is through sex. Because our culture tells you that. Sex is where the good life is. Like if you've ever noticed the magazine racks. When you're in line at Target. What's it say?
What are like all the. Field and stream. All of them. Talk about. Here's how to have better sex. You'll notice.
None of them are saying. You should be having more sex. They've already got us to buy into that. They're just saying. Your sex should be better. Because more apparently didn't fix it.
So you buy into that lie when you're a teenager. That this is how life. This is where joy comes from. This is where hope comes from. And then because you're a Christian. Jesus leads you to repentance.
He goes to work on your heart. And he shows you that life and joy aren't found there. That ultimately they will not satisfy. And that your hope gets to be placed in him. And so you repent. You confess to the people around you.
Confess to your community group. And you turn away from it. Then in your 20s. You just start living your life. You're going for it. And you start realizing.
That you've now bought into the idea. That money and success. That things. That the goal. You hook, line and sink are the American dream. The goal of life is to have stuff.
And if I can fill my house with stuff. And if I can go on vacations. And if I can be comfortable. And if I can have a title. And if I can have. Like I'll have hope and joy in life.
But because you're a Christian. Jesus goes to work in your heart. And he shows you that that's bankrupt. That it's empty. And so you repent. And it's a 10 year long battle.
In your soul. To believe that the gospel is true. And that money won't satisfy you. And it won't fill you up. And it won't give you purpose and meaning. In your 30's.
You start trying to question. Like what. Where does my. Where does my worth come from. Where does my purpose come from. And maybe you answer it with.
It's by having wonderful kids. If I can just have a healthy little family. Then I'll know I'm okay. Maybe it's. It's if I can have a good career. That means something.
If I can wake up every day. And go do exactly what I want to do. Like that's. That's where I get hope from. Maybe you answer it that way. Maybe you answer it with kids.
Or perfect family. Or good Job. But you don't have either. You're not married. You don't have kids. You don't have a good job.
And so you've answered the question. This is what will fill me up. But you don't have it. So you're depressed. You're broken. But Jesus steps in and says.
You're broken. But I've got good news. I've got the gospel for you. Which is. These things won't fill you up. Won't fix you.
Won't give you worth. But I can. And so maybe in your 30's. The biggest thing that he leads you to repent of. Is where your hope and your joy and your worth are found. Maybe you spend your 30's walking through that with him.
Over and over and over and over again. This isn't going to make you okay. This isn't going to fix you. And he reminds you over and over again. That the gospel is true. That Jesus died for you.
To welcome you. To make you his. And to give you worth. In your 40's. Maybe you begin to. Start realizing that you.
You've. Kind of spent your life. On yourself. And you haven't cared at all. That your neighbors don't know Jesus. You haven't cared at all.
That nobody around you. Knows him. And you start realizing. You know. I haven't. I haven't shared the gospel.
I haven't spent any of my life. Towards something that. Eternally matters. And so you begin to. To repent. Jesus begins to work in your heart.
Maybe in your 50's. You start. Really struggling. With the fact. That you still have doubts. And fears.
And questions. And I should be further along. Than I am now. And Jesus shows up. And says. You're never going to outgrow.
The need for the gospel. You're going to need to. Continually repent. And continue to believe. And continually to follow after me. Maybe in your 60's.
All the things. That you've put your hope in. That make you. You. Are falling apart. Your body's falling apart.
Your kids are out of the house. You used to be the one person. That everybody called on for help. And now people are asking you. If you need help. You're going to have to retire.
From your job. Or you can't do it the way you used to. And you start in your 60's. Realizing. I don't have an identity anymore. And Jesus.
Breaks you over your sin. And says. You need to believe the gospel. That your identity. Always came from me. Maybe in your 70's.
You start questioning. What's your legacy. And how's my name going to continue. And he starts reminding you. That his legacy. And his name.
Matter most. And my hope. And prayer for us. As a church. Is that each of us. Would spend our life.
Year after year. Day after day. And decade after decade. Repenting. And being renewed. And called into.
The hope that is only found. In the gospel. Some of you are in here. And you say. I'm a Christian. But I just feel stagnant.
I feel empty. And my question to you would be. When was the last time you repented? When was the last time you sat down. With a blank sheet of paper. And said.
Jesus. Show me my sin. Because I can promise you. He loves to answer that one. Because when he shows you your sin. He calls you to himself.
Every single time. The goal of you seeing your sin. Is so that you would get more of him. When Jesus says. You need to repent. And believe the gospel.
You need to turn away from your sin. And run to me. That's the call. Christians. Repent. And if you say you're a Christian.
And that's not a normal pattern of life for you. The Bible says. To test yourself. To see whether or not you're in the faith. Which means. Hold your life up to scripture.
And see. Is this showing up? It says. To work out your salvation. With fear and trembling. And here's how.
Repentance ought to look. You ought to see your sin. And be broken over it. Your heart ought to break. Over the fact. That your sin.
Caused Jesus to die. I want to. Let's read. Second Corinthians seven. Real quick with each other. Paul says this.
As it is. I rejoice. Not because you were grieved. But because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief. So that you suffered no loss through us.
For godly grief. So your heart is broken. It's grief. You're grieved over your sin. You're mourning it. Godly grief produces a repentance.
That leads to salvation. Without regret. Without regret. That's like a Nike t-shirt. No regrets. Like that's what Christians get to have.
Is a repentance. That leads them to salvation. Where you're not condemned. You're not overwhelmed by your sin. You're free. Your shame and your guilt.
Are gone. Your brokenness is gone. Because Jesus was broken for you. That you are grieved over your sin. But then you're welcomed into joy.
It says worldly grief produces death. Some of you have worldly grief over your sin. It's killing you. Because you're not believing the gospel. It's crushing you. Because you're not turning it into joy.
Which is that Jesus died for it to set you free. Some of you are just condemning yourself. Just telling yourself you're terrible. You get the idea that you're broken. But you don't.
You realize that you don't deserve anything from God. You've fallen face first into the dirt. And you've said God I'm broken. But you need to realize that Jesus bends down. Picks you up out of the dirt. And says I love you.
See on the cross our sin is shown to be terrible. And God's love is shown to be great. Jesus died because our sin is heinous before him. And he died because he loves us so much. That he was willing to save us from it. You need to see your sin.
You need to agree with God about it. You need to be broken over your sin. Your heart should be wrenched inside of your chest. That you know that you don't deserve anything from him. And then you need to be welcomed into enjoying Jesus. As you confess openly to the people around you.
I'm a sinner. Because anytime as a Christian we confess. We're confessing our sin. And that Jesus is our savior. We confess two things. We make the confession of our sin.
And that I wouldn't be able to confess this if it weren't for him. Band's going to come back up here, Matt. Bianca are going to come. We're going to spend a little time this morning. They're going to sing a song here in a minute. We're not going to sing with them.
We're just going to take a minute to sit and ask God the question. Where do I need to repent? Where do you want to work in me? What do you want to cut out of me? What do you want to set me free from? What do you want to draw me closer to you in?
Because his goal is to give you more of himself. Set you free from sin. And welcome you to himself. If you would say you're a Christian. I have a couple questions for you. Do you see your sin?
Do you repent? When you're faced with that your life doesn't line up with scripture. What is your response? Do you run to God? Do you own it? When you're repenting, are you blame shifting?
Well, I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't have done this. And really, it's not sin. It's like I've got some weaknesses. You know, nobody's perfect. Do you actually own the fact that this won't fly in God's kingdom? But Jesus is good enough to work on it in me.
If you're a Christian, do you repent? Do you only repent when someone notices? Do you only repent when you get caught? Or do you own up to the stuff that nobody would know about? The stuff that I'm the only one who knows. And if I don't tell you, no one knows.
But I've got to tell you because Jesus sets me free from this. Some of you right now are saying, I can't do that. That's because you don't believe the gospel. Your value doesn't come from what you've done. Your value doesn't come from who people think you are. Your value comes from what Jesus has accomplished on your behalf and who he's made you.
As a Christian, I get to lay it all on the line and say, these are all the things that would have destroyed me, that would have owned me, that would have sent me straight to hell. But Jesus died for me so that I don't have to. I don't have to be crushed by it or owned by it. If you're a Christian and you say, you know, I repent, I see my sin. May I ask you this? Does your repentance lead you to joy?
Do you end up in belief? Do you end up in celebrating that God is gracious towards you? Ephesians says that he saved us for the praise of his glorious grace. You do not deserve salvation. You do not deserve grace. And in the moments when you see your sin the most, you get to praise his grace.
That he lavished love on you because he's good. And so when you feel like, I don't deserve this, I'm not worthy. Yeah, but Jesus is and he was worthy on your behalf and you are loved and cherished. Does your repentance lead you to joy? Does your repentance lead you to joy? So here's what we're going to do.
We don't repent unless the Holy Spirit helps us. We won't actually see our sin unless the Holy Spirit helps us. And even when we do see our sin, we won't care unless the Holy Spirit helps us. So for a minute, I just want us to pray that the Holy Spirit would go to work on our souls, that he would help us. He'd help us change, that he'd help us see our sin, that he'd help us hate it, and that he would impress upon us the love that he has for us. And then just right where you are, I want you to take a minute to ask God, where do I need to repent?
Where do I need to change? What in me do you want to cut out? Some people are going to need to get up and go talk to somebody. You're going to need to go confess to someone. And that's fine. Because we get to look like a little picture of heaven and Jesus' church confesses our sin and that Jesus is our Savior and that we're free.
We're going to act today like the gospel is true. We're going to believe that we're free from sin, that Jesus rose from the grave, that we're not conquered by our guilt and our shame and our debt. God, we ask that your Holy Spirit would move and work in this place. God, that you would lead your church to repent, that we would hate our sin, and that we would see the cross so clearly, to know that we're free, that we're loved. God, I ask you to work in us this morning.
Sept 18
The Gospel and Baptism
Transcript
We doing well this morning? Grab your Bibles, go to Mark chapter 1. We are doing a couple of exciting things today. We're having baptisms and we are starting a new series that we'll be walking through for the next five weeks. So we'll be in Mark chapter 1 today and we're going to spend a little bit of time for the next five weeks in Mark.
Just walking through what it looks like to follow Jesus. So we're going to be studying Jesus and his disciples. The Gospel of Mark was written by a close associate of the Apostle Peter, the disciple Peter. And so we are just looking at what Mark wrote and what it looked like to follow Jesus for them. And then we're trying to spend some time asking, what does that look like for us? Because I know when Jesus walked up to Peter and he said, follow me, and then he started walking, Peter could see Jesus.
So following him was pretty simple. It was like, I'm just going to walk behind him and then go from there, see what happens. For us, it's a little bit different. We've got to figure out what does it actually look like for us in Columbia in 2016 to follow Jesus. What does that mean with my job? What does that mean with school?
What does that mean with how I relate? And how does this work? And so that's what we're going to spend the next several weeks walking through and talking about. But we're kind of jumping that off today in Mark chapter 1. And we're going to look at one verse. But if we miss this, we'll misunderstand everything.
And so we're just going to study the beginning of the Gospel of Mark for just a few minutes this morning. And then we're going to celebrate in baptism. So I'm going to pray and we'll jump in. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love towards us. And we pray that we would grow today in our ability to joyously celebrate your active work on earth.
And we pray that we would grow in our understanding of what it means to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Mark chapter 1, verse 1. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Okay, so Mark starts off and he's not playing around. Like he doesn't take his time.
It's the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So other Gospels, we have four of them. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew gives a genealogy of Jesus. He's kind of telling us his family history. Luke starts off telling us about how John the Baptist was born and how Jesus was born.
And that's where, if you've ever been to a Christmas play, we read the nativity stuff from Luke. That's the one they read in the Peanuts Christmas special. Charlie Brown's Christmas or whatever. That's Luke. Luke starts off with this big theological treatise on Jesus is the Word who becomes flesh and he lives among us. And it gets really kind of confusing.
He inserts John the Baptist in the middle of it for the heck of it. Like he just kind of takes his time. Mark is just, this is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's like you went on a first date with Mark. You sat down at the table. The waitress comes up to see what you want to eat or what you want to order to drink.
And he's like, hold on a second. Do you want to get married? And it's like, what? And he's like, well, that's the point of dating, isn't it? Let's do this thing.
Like he's like straight up at the very beginning is like, this is the point of my book. Jesus is the Son of God. Like this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so what we're going to do is take just a second to understand that sentence. What the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God means. Because Gospel means something.
Christ means something. And him saying he's the Son of God means something. So I just want to, when he says Jesus Christ, Christ is not his last name. Christ is a title. It means Jesus, the promised Messiah. Jesus, the promised one of God.
Like he's the one that the Old Testament has been telling us. He's the one that the prophets have been telling us. He's the one we've been waiting for this whole time. Jesus is the promised one. And then he says he's the Son of God. So he starts off by saying, you know Jesus, you know that guy that everybody's heard about?
I want you to know that he's the Son of God. I want you to know that God came down. I want you to know that God joined us. That's how he starts off this Gospel. Okay. I don't know about y'all.
When I hear that, God came to earth. My immediate thought is, uh-oh. Like that doesn't sound great. Like I look around earth. I live here. I'm from here.
I look around earth and I think, we're not doing so hot. Like there's a lot that we have done poorly. And if God made earth, when he comes down, it seems like he's not coming down to give out high fives or participation awards. Or like just to congratulate us. Like it doesn't seem like he's going to show up and be like, hey guys, I just couldn't stay in heaven. I had to come talk to y'all.
Genocide? Brilliant. Racism. You guys are crushing it. Like he's not, like I'm immediately hesitant when I hear that God came down. And I know for a lot of us, our response is, I would like for God to come down.
I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. I'd like to, I want to talk to him about some of this stuff. Like I'm upset with him. But let me tell you a little story and how I kind of don't think that's true. When I was little, we used to go stay at my grandparents' house. And I had like 13 cousins or 12 cousins.
I guess I was one of them. So there's like 13 of us. And the way my grandmother's house was, she had a big house. Everybody would stay there. All the families would stay there. And then there was a basement.
And the basement was just covered in little like mats and pallets and sleeping bags and stuff for all the kids to stay. And the kids were aged from like 4 to 15 or something. And so then they would come tell us, y'all need to go to bed. And then they would close the basement door. And they would leave us alone. And we didn't go to bed.
But we, like there was always shenanigans and nonsense. Like there was, we were making noises. We were messing with stuff. We were doing things they had explicitly told us not to do. We were doing things that they hadn't explicitly told us not to do. But we were pretty sure they would have had they thought of it.
Like we were down there. I mean it was chaos. And then here's what would happen. At some point, we don't know quite when they were going to sleep. You know, we were younger, we had to go to bed early. But at some point, the door to the basement would open.
And at my grandmother's house, there was, the basement door was hidden. And then there was like this half partial wall with some posts holding it up. And there were steps coming down. And so you always got to see the feet of whoever was coming down the stairs before you got to see the face. And so when the door opened, it was everybody immediately pretending like you sleep. Like we all, like you just tried to, you just dove somewhere.
Sometimes like three of y'all in the same sleeping bag. Like it's super weird looking, but like everybody just got to act like they were asleep. And then you would try to peek as best you could to see whose feet it was. And what, because like if I saw my uncle's feet, he can yell at me. He ain't hitting me though. Like I'm not getting beat by my uncle.
His kids are in trouble. Like he's going to beat them in front of us. We'll all be scared. But like the best time, but if I saw my dad's feet, it's like that's a one and third chance I'm getting beaten. And depending on how, you know, how much energy he had, it might just be all three of us just line us up or whatever. If you saw my granddad's feet, that's equal opportunity beatings.
Like he can hit whoever he wants. He made everybody. And so there was this moment when the door opened that immediately you were like, like, oh, them coming down here, this isn't good. They're not coming down here to tell us well done. And that's the same when I hear that God came to earth. My immediate thought is not, well, good.
My immediate thought is, oh, I've got sin. I've got brokenness. We're not doing well. And if he takes us to task, if he makes us give an account, this is a problem. But there's a word that Mark sticks at the very beginning of this that fixes that.
He says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. And that word gospel, maybe some of y'all are familiar with it. Maybe you've, you grew up around church and you just know, well, gospel, you know, that's talking about Jesus. Maybe some of you didn't. And you're thinking gospel in that like a type of music. Or like, don't people say like, this is the gospel truth.
Doesn't that mean just like the truth of your truth? Like, I don't really know. I'm not heard that word a lot. When Mark used that word, it actually was a word that they used culturally at that time. There's actually an inscription that says the beginning of the gospel of Tiberius Caesar. Like, this was a term they used for a very specific type of message.
What it meant was good news. The word gospel is actually two Greek words stuck together that just mean news and joyful. It's like, this is joyful news. And here's how they used it. It meant life-changing, history-altering. You're never going to be the same again news.
I've got a piece of information for you that is going to radically change everything. It's that type of news. That's what gospel meant. So the way they would use this sum is they would have after battles. So when an invading force was coming, the king would, or the leader, the military leaders, the generals would take the army and they would lead away from the city.
And there would be a certain amount of people left in the city to defend the city. But they would go out to fight against the enemy. And if they won or if they lost, either way, they were sending people back to the city. Either way, whether they won or lost, they were sending people back to the city. But they had very different jobs.
If they lost, they sent military advisors. They sent some people hightailing as best they could, retreating, to come to the city and say, If you do this, you might live. If you put the military here, if you garrison this way, here's what's coming. And if we do this, if we hold on well, we might make it. There's a lot of things we got to do and not do in order to maybe make it. But if they won, they sent a good newser.
They sent a gospeler who was just going to come proclaim, we won. It was actually in history, in this story, we're not sure if it's true at this point, but there's a guy named Pheidippides. And after the Battle of Marathon, he ran 26.2 miles to the city to tell them, Joy to you, these are his last words, joy to you, we've won. And then as the story goes, Pheidippides dies. And for some reason, we heard this story. Some guy heard this story and was like, Huh, he ran 26.2 miles and died.
Do y'all want to run 26.2 miles and call that a marathon? After the Battle of Marathon? And it's like, why? To see if we die? No. What happens if we don't die?
You can put a sticker on your Xterra. Like, I don't know what the point is, but I believe in safety first, so I'll never run a marathon. But the point, like, they sent good newsers to go proclaim, We've won. The battle is won. And all you have to do at this point is live in light of that. The battle's won.
Get out the finest meats and cheeses. Like, we're just going to celebrate. The victory's been won. We're okay. You don't have to do anything other than just know this news is to be celebrated. And that's what Mark says.
He says, the story of the promised one, Jesus, the Son of God coming to earth, is earth-shattering, history-changing news. And that is the fundamental difference between Christianity and every other religion and every other philosophy and every other thought process, is that we have news and everybody else has advice. Every other religion, every other philosophy is sending out, here's what you have to do and you might survive. Here's what you have to do and God will love you. Here's what you have to do to have the good life now. Here's what you have to do to enjoy earth to the fullest.
Here's what you have to do in order to reach nirvana. And Christianity is saying, here's what's already been done. Here's the good news of Jesus. You were sinful. You deserved wrath. You deserved punishment.
You were guilty. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and lived on earth perfectly on your behalf and died gruesomely on a cross. And he was buried. And three days later, he rose again from the grave. He conquered death. He conquered sin.
He conquered all the enemies that had surrounded you. I have joy to you. We've won. The victory has been won. Jesus has won. He is no longer in the grave.
And if you place your faith in Jesus, you can be forgiven. If you place your faith in Jesus, you can be free. That's the gospel. The church is not a gathering of perfect, cleaned up people. The church is a gathering of the first people in the room to raise their hand and say, I'm so messed up. If somebody else doesn't do something, I'm in trouble.
We celebrate baptism today. There's going to be people over and over again getting to tell you, I'm so messed up. If Jesus didn't do something, I'm in trouble. Here's how Jesus rescued me. Here's how he paid for my sin. The point of this is not, I'm going to go do my good church thing.
I'm going to get baptized because you're supposed to. And then God will love me. That's not the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we could be free and that everything we've ever done to fall short has been wiped away because Jesus paid for it. And that's what we celebrate today. And that's what we'll be talking about for the next four weeks is how that news affects every aspect of our lives.
How it changes everything for us. So in just a minute, we're going to show some videos. People are going to get in here and be baptized to celebrate that Jesus Christ saves sinners and that we get to live our lives in light of some good news. Not trying to work really hard, to be really moral, to clean ourselves up, to make ourselves special. That Jesus was awesome on our behalf and we get to rest in the freedom that he's offered to us. Let's pray.
God, we thank you today that we get to gather to celebrate good news. God, that the entrance to being baptized is not, let me behave well, let me work hard, let me promise to do better. But the entrance is that you died, you were buried, you rose again, and you paid for our sin. And so as Christians, we get to be buried with you in baptism. We get to rise again out of the water, free from our sin because you paid for it. God, we thank you for the good news.
We love you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.
When the Spirit Moves in Power
Transcript
But happy, happy Labor Day weekend. If it's your first time hanging out with us, my name is Matt. I'm one of the pastors, and we're coming to the conclusion of a little two-week series that we've been doing. I was reading recently in a book, and the author shared a story that I want to share with you guys. In 1857, there was this young guy named Jeremiah Lanphier who had just been given a new job as a pastor on the south side of Manhattan. It was a really small church, and like anybody who's going into a new job, he was excited.
He was excited to get to know people, to start spending time with them. But it didn't take long for Jeremiah to become discouraged and frustrated, because it seemed like every person he met didn't have time to talk about God, wanted nothing to do with the church. It was like people just bypassed him in such a fast-paced city. And so not really knowing what else to do, he decided to pray. And as he was praying, an overwhelming sense of God's Spirit, God's presence came over top of him. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.
And so what he decided was, okay, I'm going to just invite people to pray with me and ask for God to continue doing this. That was his new plan of attack. So he decided that one day every week, he would put a sign outside of the mission, inviting people to come in and pray with him during the lunch hour. So that was his new plan. So he put out the sign, the day came, he went inside and waited.
Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. A half hour went by and nobody. And again, defeated and discouraged, he went to close up shop when six people walked in the door. And he was excited because people had come to pray.
So he just, he prayed with those six people. And he was really excited about it. The next week he put the sign back out, 20 people showed up. The next week, 40 people showed up. And those 40 people decided, no, let's, let's, this is great. Let's do this every day.
So they started meeting every day at the lunch hour until after a couple of months, there were hundreds of people filling the auditorium of that church at the lunch hour every day praying. They outgrew that space and they started meeting in other places all around Manhattan. And in a couple of months time, reporters estimated that there were nearly 10,000 Christians crying out to God at the lunch hour in Manhattan. And in just nine months time, 50,000 people came to Christ in Manhattan at a time when New York's population did not exceed 800,000. That's amazing. That's amazing.
Like doesn't that like raise every hair on your arms? Just going, I want to see God do something like that. I want to see God move and work in Columbia. I want to see an outpouring of the spirit where there's thousands of people coming to Christ. In fact, the pages of Christian history are filled with stories like this. It's happening right now with the underground church in China.
I mean, there's just thousands of people coming to Christ. We see stories like Peter in the book of Acts. And every time I hear these stories, I just, I long for that. Like I want to see God doing a work like that, outpouring his spirit. And what we talked about last week is that as Christians, we understand that prayer and the Holy Spirit are vitally important to the life of a Christian. But sometimes we have a hard time wrapping our mind around like, how do I pray on a regular basis?
How do I see the Holy Spirit moving and working in my life in the day to day? And we made the connection that the reason that we pray in the first place is that we need God. So in the same way that a child is wholly dependent upon its parent to get the things that it needs to take care of it, we relate to God in the same way. And God's answer to everything that we need is to send the Holy Spirit. So we get to be needy children with a good father.
And the good gift that our father wants to give us is the Holy Spirit. And so when we're praying, we're praying about everything and we're asking for God to send the Holy Spirit to be active and at work. I was talking with one of our group leaders this week and he was telling me, he said, you know, I've been a Christian for a while and I pray. But just in this last week have begun to pray. Instead of God help me have a good day at work, I've begun to pray. Holy Spirit, help me do what I need to do at work today.
Help me reach the people that I need to. Help me interact with these people. And he just said it made all the difference in the world because he was asking for God to be at work in his life. That's what the point of prayer is. And so what we're looking at today is a specific prayer in the Bible where the guy is praying about God bringing about restoration, bringing about redemption. And as we look at this passage, we're not going to see specifically the Holy Spirit talked about here.
So as he's praying for restoration, he's not asking for the Holy Spirit. But we know on this side of the cross and in light of what we looked at last week is Jesus teaches us to pray. When we're asking for God to redeem, when we're asking for him to restore, what we're actually wanting, what we need to be asking for is the Holy Spirit. And so the question we're trying to answer this morning is if that's the case, if we should be praying for the Holy Spirit and God desires to work and he's going to use the Holy Spirit to do it, how does that show up? Like what exactly is that going to look like in our lives?
So before we hop into the text, let's pray and ask God to open his word to us. God, we don't have the ability to comprehend your word outside of you moving and working through your Holy Spirit. So God, I pray that these would not be my own words, that they would be yours. God, I pray that there would be encouragement this morning as we understand the point of prayer and what we're actually asking for and how you desire to send the Holy Spirit to be everything that we need. In Jesus' name, amen. Grab a Bible, turn to Psalm 126.
So if you grabbed one of those blue and white Bibles in the chairs, you're going to be turning to page 333. We're going to be looking at Psalm 126 today. And if you haven't spent a lot of time in the Psalms, I would encourage you to. They're amazing. It's basically a collection of songs and poetry that kind of span the range of human emotion from love to anger to despair to worship. And the majority of the Psalms are actually written as prayers.
So they're prayers to God. In the Psalm that we're looking at today, the author is yearning for the same type of outpouring of the Spirit from the story that we just saw in Manhattan. It's the same kind of thing. He wants to see God move and work. And before we start reading, if you look, look just above the text. So if you grab a Bible, you may see it says, Song of Ascents.
Okay, all that means is this is one of the songs that the Israelites would sing, they would recite, they would pray as they were going up to Jerusalem to worship. And it was almost as if they were setting their minds on who it was they were going to worship, why they were going to worship. And so it kind of in light of that, I want us to be reading it. This is the people reminding themselves of who God is and how they ought to be relating to him. So Psalm 126 is just six verses, but there's a lot here.
Verse one. So the writer of this Psalm is recalling a time when God came to the rescue of his people. So he says, God, when you restored the fortunes of Zion and that word Zion, it's just used throughout the Bible to either refer to the people of God or the place where the people of God were. He said, you came and you restored the fortunes of Zion. And it must have been amazing. And while we can't see it, we can get a picture of how they're describing it.
He says, we were like those who dream. It's one of those like you're wiping your eyes trying to figure out what's it's that type of moment. We were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter. Our tongues with shouts of joy. We celebrated as a church family last week the return of college football.
Hallelujah. And so some of you hopefully have enjoyed that all week long. It has been a great weekend of college football. There's even college football tonight and tomorrow night. It's a glorious Labor Day weekend, guys. And most of you were probably glued to your televisions on Thursday night watching the Gamecocks play.
Okay. There was not a whole lot of expectation with the Gamecocks going into this season. Everyone was kind of wondering what the must champ era was going to look like. And according to the first half, it wasn't going to look very good. Because the Gamecocks went in to halftime down 10-0. But then they came out in the second half.
Perry Orth started completing some passes. Some of those wide receivers started making some catches. And Carolina found themselves deep into the fourth quarter tied 10-10 with Vanderbilt. And so they're way out from the end zone. It becomes fourth down. And the field goal unit comes onto the field.
And the smallest guy on the team, which I can't help but point out, guys, his last name's Fry. So a small Fry comes out onto the field at about 130 pounds. And that joker kicked that ball. And it would have been good for another six to seven yards. He crushed it. And the Carolina fans that were in that stadium went nuts.
They were losing their mind and high-fiving. And I'm looking at the screen going, it's just Vanderbilt, guys. Calm down. And all across our city and all across our state, people, like, you may not have even known the person. Like, the people in the stadium, they might not have even known them. But they're high-fiving.
They're excited. That's the type of unbridled joy that the psalmist is describing. We couldn't believe it. We were like those who dreamed. This is unbelievable. It was so unbelievable that even the surrounding nations were looking at it going, the Lord has done great things for them.
Not a God. The God. The Lord. The Lord has done great things for them. And so the guy who wrote this Psalm is remembering what God has done in the past. And in verse 4, he begins praying.
So in light of what God has done in the past, he then brings his request to God. So this is verse 4. He says this. Restore our fortunes, O Lord. Okay, so he started praying now. He's using the exact same language that he used up in verse 1 to remember what God had done in the past.
So restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Maybe your Bible says Negev with a V. Maybe it's Negev with a B. There's an exclamation point. So he's getting hype right now.
He's really excited about what he's praying and asking God to do. He says, restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. So the writer of this Psalm turns out of thanksgiving for what God had done in the past into a request. He says, okay, God, what you did, what you did in our past, how you rescued, how you redeemed, we want you to do that again. We need you to bring rescue and salvation and mercy.
God, come. Come to our rescue. And it's not hard to get the gist of what he's saying here. God redeemed in the past and there's a situation now where they need him again. And this is not, this is very akin to what we looked at last week when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray. The whole point was they were needy and they needed God's active work in their lives.
Like they needed the Holy Spirit to be moving and working. And they're in the same situation right now saying, God, bring about restoration. So it's not hard to understand what they're saying, but they are using terms that we wouldn't use on a regular basis. And I think if we'll take some time to just kind of unpack what they're saying, to talk about what's going on in their culture, it'll help us have a better understanding of how we ought to be praying. So you guys know this.
Israel is located in the Middle East, which is one of the like harshest climates in the world. It is mostly desert. So like picture the cartoon version of the coyote, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner and like the tumbleweeds rolling. And like it's that type of dry. It's arid.
It's hot. It's windy. Rains are sporadic. And the culture at this time was based off of farming. Oh, boy. It's like, could you imagine trying to plant crops in this kind of an environment?
And some of you, some of you have green thumbs like you. Maybe you've got some tomato plants or maybe you've got a garden. I know one of our group leader actually has a garden on her balcony of their second floor apartment. And you walk outside and it's kind of like you're in a jungle. And there's some spices over here and some tomato plants. It's actually pretty cool.
I'm impressed that it hasn't been scorched by the Columbia sun. But we don't talk about things in terms of farming in 21st century America because we don't interact with it on a regular basis. And so the language he's using, I want you to imagine that you've got to plant a garden. So you're thinking about the seeds that you're planting and the water and the sunlight. And the place that you had to do it is, oh, I don't know, the top of the Grand Canyon. And you've got a pretty good picture.
You've got an idea of what they were up against. And what the psalmist is praying is for God to restore. And the language that he's using is that of farming, that of bringing about growth, bringing about a harvest. And he's giving us two ways that God does that. So there's an Old Testament scholar named Derek Kidner.
He says that this Psalm is basically showing us two ways that God works in the hearts of people. And so one of the ways we say that, so look back at verse 5. Look at verse 5 again. It says this, Those who sow, so sow just means plant, Those who sow in tears shall reap, that means gather, with shouts of joy. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. Those who sow in tears.
That sounds terrible. Like the psalmist is imagining land so dry that individual seeds had to be planted and like watered with tears. Like you know you're in bad shape if to get your tomato plant to grow, you've got to like cry over top of it. You know you're in really bad shape. And that's what he's imagining. But the psalmist understands that even though that may require exhausting patience and excruciating labor, the growth would come.
That's the way the verse ends. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. And what he's saying here is that part of God's response to our prayer, part of his answer for his presence and for him to be working, is to actually send to the Holy Spirit to help us labor and sweat and work and toil on the grind to see growth come about. Jesus talks about this in the Psalms. Not in the Psalms, in the Gospels. He tells a story about a guy sowing seeds and he says, some of it fell on the road and some of it fell among rocks and some of it fell among thorns, but some of it fell among good soil.
And that produced a crop of 30, 60, 100 fold. Like even in Jesus' story, he's talking about how hard it is to sow seeds and to be planting. And the truth is, we often see God work like this through us. So we talk about planting the seeds of the Gospel, spreading the Gospel in the lives of people that God has placed us around. So maybe for you, that's the place that you work.
Maybe that's with your neighbors. Some of you, that's with your family. So like with your kids or your spouse. And it's painstaking. Your investment in their lives is just hard. It's difficult.
There are sleepless nights and tireless days. And you're shedding tears because it's just difficult. You can all think about those relationships right now where you've been investing for so long and you're just not seeing any kind of result. You're not seeing God at work. So maybe it's a co-worker.
It's someone that you work with and you've been talking to this girl about her relationship with her boyfriend. And you've been sharing the Gospel with her and you tell her that her worth and value doesn't have to come from that guy who sounds like a jerk based off of the stories. It can actually come from Jesus and she's actually, she's receptive to that. And you run into her the next week at work and she's really excited to tell you that she has since moved in with her boyfriend and wants to go on a double date with you and your husband. What the heck? Right?
You hear that and you're like, oh, what happened? What happened to the good conversation? Or maybe there's a guy that you work with that you've been inviting him to go get wings with the guys in your group. He came to your poker night. He's kind of a skeptical type person so he asks a lot of questions. But he's starting to see how Jesus is the answer to those questions.
And he comes by you in the warehouse. Hey, dude, I got that job in Philly. And like while his hand's in there, you just want to like get one of those jabs in. Dude, I didn't know you were looking for a job. Ah, yeah, man, I've been trying to get out of this dump for a long time. What about the countless hours that I've spent like pouring into what happens to this guy now?
Some of you have been like investing in the lives of your children. So like you're trying to teach them how to obey and like why obeying is good and should be motivated by the gospel. And they just got the third note sent home this week. And school's only been in session for two weeks and you're running out of patience. Your investment in their life is difficult. Some of you, you've been working in your marriage to really have the gospel come to bear.
You're trying to learn how to communicate. But they said that comment again. They brought that thing up again and you exploded and now you're in other rooms. You're having a hard time seeing it. It's hard. Planting seeds, sowing seeds is difficult and painstaking.
Some of you, maybe you've got some neighbors. You've been building with them. You've been investing in their lives. Like you've been watching their kids so they can go on date nights. You've been helping them do some yard work. And then in a discussion late one night, you point out an area of their life where there's some sin.
And they automatically become flaky. Not answering their phone. Not wanting to come to the door. They've just checked out. Sowing seeds is difficult. And it's even more difficult to see the results.
But what we're seeing in this Psalm is that some gospel work is just like that. It's long and laborious and costly. But that's not the only way. That's part of it. We get another picture of how God wants to bring about restoration. Go back to verse 4.
So we kind of skipped over this. We're going back to now. This is the beginning of the prayer. He says, Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev. Okay, so now the Negev, I already told you Israel is kind of a desert climate.
The Negev was like the desertiest part of the desert. Like it was the hottest of the hot. It was the, you see just the bones laying around everywhere. It's a rough patch in Israel. But every once in a while, torrential rains would come through that area.
And the small stream beds that kind of wiggle through the land would fill up, would overflow, and would flood the land. The flat land would be covered in water. And the land was so dry that it would soak up all of that water. And almost in a 24-hour period, it would go from looking like a desert to a green field. The landscape would be transformed in an instant. Like it was just sitting there waiting for it.
And the psalmist, as he's writing that, he's praying and asking, God, do that. Do the miraculous. Take desert and turn it into living land. Take it and make it green. Bring life. That's the miraculous.
So when you look at sowing seeds, and God bringing about this type of flood, the streams in the Negev, it's unbelievable. And that's what he's praying for. And that's what the story from Manhattan is. It's God sending his Holy Spirit and working in a big way. 50,000 people coming to Christ in just a nine-month period. I referenced the underground church in China.
Within the last century, the missionaries who had been serving in China got kicked out. And Christianity as a whole began to be persecuted. So the church had to go underground. So they just had to basically be the church in hiding. And so the handful of Christians, and it was still a pretty decent number, in the last century, the best estimates they can give is that the church in China is currently 60 million plus in the face of persecution, where they cannot openly be Christians and share the gospel. It's the same thing that we see.
If you read the book of Acts, that's all about the big movement of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus dies on the cross, rises from the grave, and ascends into heaven. And when he ascends into heaven, there's basically 120 believers. And he tells them to wait, wait to do anything until the Holy Spirit comes. And the Holy Spirit shows up at Pentecost. Peter stands up and preaches.
And 3,000 people get saved that day alone. The gospel begins to spread from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. And within the century, they estimated that there were one million Christians. That's a huge move of the Holy Spirit. And every time I hear stories like that, I just want that. God was doing stuff that people laboring could not accomplish.
It was miraculous. And let's be real. If we're looking for God to bring about restoration, to bring about healing, to bring about salvation, and our two options are for us to sow seeds with tears, so to be empowered by the Spirit to do that, or for God to send the Spirit like streams in the Negev, like a flood, I don't know about you, this is the one I want. For lots of reasons. I want as many people to come to know Jesus as possible. I want them to know the hope and the life and the joy found in Him.
The other part is, I know what this is like. This is what life is like for a lot of us. Where we're sowing seeds and we're working hard. And if I can just have the flood, I'll take that because I know what I'm struggling with and what I'm working through right now. That even though the verse ends with, we'll reap with songs of joy, it still makes it difficult. And the truth is, if our only option was that we, like for restoration, was that we would sow seeds with tears and that's how the restoration came about, I think it would almost be easier than if we didn't know about the flood part.
But sometimes God works through us sowing seeds and tears and sometimes it comes through the flood. There's a story from South Korea in 1907. Christians had been there for a while. They had been sharing the gospel and there was a, it hadn't really gained traction, but there were some believers at this time. And so they decided that they would try to get all the believers together and hold a conference. And so the night came for the conference to begin.
And a man by the name of Mr. King walked up to the podium, visibly shaken. And in a trembled voice said, I must confess before God and before you that for the last several weeks I have harbored an intense hatred for Mr. Lee. And I repent before God and before you. And the room fell silent.
Because Mr. King had just admitted to hating the person who was hosting the conference. So all the eyes turned to Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee was visibly taken aback, but gathered himself and said, Mr. King, I forgive you.
And what happened next is indescribable. One reporter tried to describe it and here's what he said. What happened next was a poignant sense of mental anguish due to the conviction of sin. After Mr. King publicly repented before God and to Mr. Lee, Christians all across the room began to repent of their sin.
They began to cry out to God and to confess their sins. And they were going around the room, going to their brothers and sisters and repenting of sin. And they were shedding tears because they were broken over it. What began in the early evening continued on to 5 a.m. the next day. And the Christians gathered the next night and the next night and the next night. And by the end of the week, the missionaries didn't know what was going to happen because the presence of God's spirit was so strong in that place they couldn't contain it.
And so all of those Christians went back to their homes. And they sought out people that they worked with and that they lived near, people that they had harmed, people that they had sinned against, and they started repenting to them. And as they repented to them of their sin, the people began to understand the good news of the gospel and those people started becoming Christians. Within a couple of weeks, there were hundreds of new Christians in South Korea. This eventually spread to a local college campus. And by the end of the semester, 90% of the students at that college had become Christians.
Christians, the people who were in the city started traveling out into the rural areas. And then people from the rural areas were walking upwards of 200 miles to get to a city to hear what God was doing. In a year's time, 50,000 people came to Christ. Thousands of churches were planted. And the gospel began to spread to all the neighboring Asian countries. And it hasn't stopped.
If you know a South Korean Christian, you know what's up because they're not playing around. I want that. I want to see that. I want to see God do that. Within a five-mile radius of this place right here, which includes parts of downtown, there are over 60,000 people outside of a relationship with Christ. There are estimates of about 600,000 people in Lexington and Richland counties.
And if you apply those same statistics across the board, you're looking at 100, 150, possibly 200,000 people who don't know Jesus. You work with some of those people. And they don't know Jesus. You frequent the restaurants where they work and they don't know Jesus. They don't know the hope and the life and the joy found in Him. And as a church, we're not okay with that.
We want to see as many people come to Christ as possible. So when I hear stories of the Holy Spirit being poured out, I want that. I want to see streams in the Negev. I want to see God pour His Spirit out. And here's what's even harder to grasp. God wants to send those streams.
He wants to. It's all throughout the Bible. Psalm 2.8 says this, Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance. Matthew 9.38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field. Acts 1.8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Matthew 28 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
The Bible is filled with the language of God wanting to send the flood, wanting to send the streams. How do we know? Because the streams of God's mercy flow from the cross of Christ. It's the sacrifice of Jesus that actually makes true restoration possible. That every bit of sweat and labor and work that as you invest in the lives of people that God's placed you around is only a shadow of the sacrifice that Jesus made on your behalf. The song that we just sang is an old hymn.
There is a fountain. It says this, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And you hear that and you're like, that's kind of weird language, weird imagery, but it's not. So the blood comes from Emmanuel's veins. Emmanuel means God with us. That's Jesus.
What about the blood? Sinners, that's you and I, plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains. The flood of God's mercy and salvation and rescue come from the cross of Jesus. God desires to send it incomprehensibly more than you do. Even more than you want it. So much so that he was willing to allow Jesus to go to the cross to make it possible.
So how do you reconcile those two? How do you reconcile those two ways that God moves, that God brings about restoration? When it feels, when you're praying for streams in the Negev, when you're praying for the flood, and all it feels like is you're just sowing seeds in tears. Look at verse 6. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, shall return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. The harvest happens.
You see that? They come back with sheaves and with shouts of joy. And some of you this morning are tired. You're frustrated. You're emotionally burnt out. There are people in your life that you've just been investing in.
You've been sacrificing for. You've been pouring yourself out for it. And you're just not seeing the results. And I want you to see what this Psalm is saying. See the promise. Those who go out weeping shall return with songs of joy, carrying the results of the harvest with them.
Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't stop. Don't quit. God promises it. Don't stop.
The harvest is made possible because of Jesus. Not because of your ability to hold it together. Not because of your ability to be strong, but because of His. Keep fighting. The harvest comes. Jesus makes the harvest possible.
And here's the deal. Wanting to see God send streams in the Negev, wanting to see Him flood, doesn't stop us from continuing to sow seeds. So how do you reconcile these two? How do you reconcile them together? We keep sowing and we keep praying. We keep sowing and we keep praying.
These aren't mutually exclusive. It's not either or. It's both and. We keep sowing seeds and praying for God to send the Holy Spirit. And He's going to bring about the harvest. He promises to do it.
And sometimes it's going to be through sowing seeds. And other times it's going to be through a flood of His Spirit moving and working. Sometimes people talk about a big move of the Spirit and they use the word revival. There's a pastor in New York City. His name's Tim Keller. He's a really smart dude.
And so we're going to see what he has to say about this. I've got a quote. I want to put it on the screen. He says that revival is the intensification of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit through the ordinary means of grace. Okay, now English. Let's do English this time.
The big move of God's Spirit. So that's the intensification. Okay. Of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so it's the intensification. It's getting bigger.
It's a bigger move of God's Spirit in His normal operations. So what does the Holy Spirit do? We talk about this stuff all the time. The Holy Spirit leads us. He convicts us of sin. He leads us to repentance.
He helps us understand the Word. He is God's response to everything in our lives. He's what leads us in the day to day. He's what helps us have courage and boldness as we invest in the lives of people around us. So revival is the intensification of the normal operations of the Holy Spirit through the ordinary means of grace.
Okay, what's that? The ordinary means of grace are just the ordinary ways that God continuously works in our lives. So if you're using that farming metaphor, it's the tilling soil. It's planting seeds. It's watering them. It's the sunlight.
It's those types of things in the life of a Christian. It's the things that we know that bring about growth in us and growth in the lives of people around us. It's preaching the gospel. It's reading the Bible. It's praying. It's repenting of sin.
It's actually being invested in church community. It's going out and serving and being on mission. Like revival is not so much the Holy Spirit doing a new thing as it is pouring great power on the things that normal Christians are already doing. And so our response this morning, some of us, what we need to hear is, is keep sowing. Keep sowing seeds. Keep pursuing the ordinary means of grace.
Keep doing the ordinary while you're praying for God to do the extraordinary. And there's a ton of ways this shows up, but I've got four. I just want to show us this morning. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel to yourself and to others. The gospel is the life-changing good news.
It is not just good news that it's salvation. It is good news for all of life, which means that as Christians, we're thinking about how does the gospel impact me at work? How does the gospel impact me as I'm a dad or as a husband? Like, how does the gospel impact that? It means that we're actually opening our Bibles and asking God to show us and to help us be obedient. It means we're looking at the people that we work with and listening to their stories and what's going on in their lives.
And we're asking, how is the gospel good news here? How can I share the gospel with this person? That's the ordinary stuff of Christians. And we're praying for God to do the extraordinary, which is to actually cause belief, which is to actually bring about salvation. Some of us need to be praying for our entire floor at work to be saved. Some of us need to pray for our entire school to be saved because God can do that.
And so we do the ordinary while praying for the extraordinary. The other thing is this, we repent of sin. The Bible is clear that there is nothing that grieves the Holy Spirit more than unconfessed sin. Some of you may be sitting there this morning and you know, you know what God is doing in you right now. You know the sin that you're pursuing and you're not repenting of it and you're going, where's God's presence? Where am I?
I'm not seeing him move. I'm not seeing him work. Part of the way the Holy Spirit moves and works is through the repentance of sin. That's what happened in the story from Korea. That's what we're fighting for in our community groups through openness and honesty. It's the ordinary stuff.
And we're praying for God to do the extraordinary. In a culture where the mantra is you do you, do whatever feels best, we're praying for people to be convicted of sin and to follow what the Bible says. We're praying for the extraordinary while we do the ordinary. We persist in prayer. This is really what we spent most of our time talking about last week, is that we understand that we're needy. That's the story of the guy going to his house at midnight.
That's asking, seeking, knocking, persistently asking for God to be at work and to send his Holy Spirit. And we pray about everything. Work, family, relationships. There's nothing that we can't ask for the Holy Spirit to be involved in. And the fourth thing is that we're the church. Be the church.
Be invested in God's means to save the world. That's what the book of Acts is. That's what the New Testament is. It's Jesus continuing to work. So we do the ordinary while praying for the extraordinary.
This church began as seven people in a house. It is no longer. There have been people who have met Jesus and have been baptized. And there are disciples who are making disciples. And there is one group that became two groups that became four groups that is now six groups. It's the extraordinary.
We keep sowing seeds and praying for the flood. In South Korea before that conference, just a few months, just a few months before that conference, the missionaries got together. And they had been there for 23 years and they were tired. They were ready to give up. They had all but decided to pack their bags and go home. They had spent 23 years preaching the gospel and repenting of sin and praying and being the church with very little results.
And what God did through the ordinary means of grace was intensified the move of the Holy Spirit. The move of the Holy Spirit came through the ordinary means of grace. It started by repenting of sin and took the country and surrounding Asian nations by storm. So we keep sowing seeds, praying for God to send the flood. And so in this two-week series, what we've seen is that we're needy. We need God.
We need His active work. We need His presence. And so God wants us to pray, asking for the Holy Spirit. And as we do that, we pursue the ordinary means of grace, asking for God to move and work. So what does that look like for us?
For us as a church, that means we're a gospel-centered community on mission. It means everything. It means we preach the gospel. It means we read the Bible. It means we're pursuing Jesus. It means we're preaching the gospel on Sundays.
It means we're sharing the gospel where we go. And we're existing in community, in biblical community with each other, where we bear one another's burdens and we love one another and we fight alongside one another. And we're on mission to see more people meet Jesus in our city. It's the ordinary. And we're asking God to do the extraordinary. The way our church continues to grow is through the multiplication of healthy groups.
Josh said that earlier. Most of you are here because you got invited into a community group. Someone that was in a group invited you. And so you want to know the flood that we're praying for? And I want you to grab a card in front of you. Grab a card and grab a pen.
They're in the seats right there in front of you. Grab a card, grab a pen. You want to know what we're praying for? Remember, we're praying for 24 healthy community groups in 2019. Do the math. Yeah, we're six now.
That means it's got to double and become 12. And it's got to double again and become 24. We're praying for God to bring about 24 community groups by 2019. By the end of 2019. Because if we've done that, that means disciples are being made. People are meeting Jesus.
Leaders are being trained. Our city is being impacted by the gospel. God is doing work. And it happens through us doing the normal things that Christians are to do. And so we're going to spend some time praying. The band's not going to come up quite yet.
We're actually going to spend some time praying over these things. Like I said, some of you are tired this morning. Some of you are having a hard time seeing God active and at work. And you're struggling. And you want to. Like you need to see Him at work.
And so I want you to write those four things down. Preach the gospel. I want you to write that down. Repent of sin. Persist in prayer. Be the church.
Write those down. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to have some music playing in the room. We're just going to spend some time praying. So I'm going to kind of call these things out.
And I want you to start praying. I want you to start praying and asking God to be active and at work in you. For God to send the Holy Spirit to be working and moving. So that you can sow seeds. So you can not faint or grow weary.
Because it's hard. But Jesus promises that the harvest comes. He does work in it. So all across the room, I want you to bow your head. I want you to pray that God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel. That God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel.
That God would help you grow to love Jesus. To love his word and to want to follow. So all across the room, if you can let him know, what to say, God would help you grow in your own understanding of the gospel. Thanks for warning, 떨어�ctive, for the gospel.
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,
The Covenants Fulfilled
Transcript
Good morning. We're in the last week of our Covenant series. We've spent the summer walking through the promises that God made in the Old Testament about what He was going to do and how He was going to redeem His people. There's an old Greek epic called The Odyssey. It was by Homer. And in that story, Odysseus, who's the main character, he goes with the Greeks to attack the Trojans.
They eventually beat the Trojans through the Trojan horse. They defeat Troy. And then he gets stuck for ten years. So his wife's back home. He's stuck. And the whole odyssey is him traveling to try to get back to his wife.
And while he's gone, people just assume he's dead. And all these guys show up and start hitting on his wife. Like they're suitors. They're trying to get her to marry them. And so they just kind of encamp around his house. They're all, you know, talking, you know, mad game and trying to get her to fall in love.
And she's holding out as best she can and kind of remaining faithful. And Odysseus is trying to get back to her. And eventually he goes in disguise and actually wins his wife back. She holds a tournament and he wins his wife back and actually reclaims what was his all along. Because of his love for her, he pursues her and makes her his again. And as we have looked through history into scripture and seen God's big story of history, we actually see a very similar story where God through sin loses his people.
That we actually took part in the rebellion and he loses us and he promises, I'm going to get you back. And so we've looked at all the covenants as he's followed through pursuing to redeem and to reclaim his people. The biggest difference in this story though is that where Odysseus' wife was faithfully waiting for him, humanity and Israel were not faithful to God. We weren't waiting patiently for him to redeem us. We loved every single suitor that came along and hit on us. We listened to every little sweet word they whispered and thoroughly appreciated it and enjoyed it.
That's why the Bible repeatedly refers to Israel as God's wife. Like he says, I'm your husband. But he also says that Israel is a whore because they ran after every single other God that came along. But God is faithful to pursue. And so what we've been doing is walking through, looking at these promises, looking at these covenants and looking at how God has actively pursued his people to redeem them and bring them back to himself. And so we've been following along with this slide.
We've used this the whole time. We drew it up on a whiteboard when we first got started. What we said was we lost everything in the fall. We were in Eden and it was perfect and it was wonderful. And our relationship with God was great. We were his people in his presence, in his place.
And then we rebelled and we fell in sin and death, entered the world. And that God consistently made these promises and these covenants to work us back to the new earth, back to his place as his people in his presence, back to redeem the picture of what was lost in the fall. We said at the very beginning that all of this would help us understand the Old Testament a little better and help us see Jesus more clearly. That as we saw these promises, we would begin to understand more clearly who Jesus is and what he's accomplished for us. And so we lost everything in the fall. And the original covenant with Adam was that he and Eve would be fruitful and multiply.
They'd fill the earth. They'd have dominion over it. And they would worship God. But they don't do that. They rebel. And so then God makes a promise to the serpent that led them astray.
He says, sin's not going to win. Eventually there's going to be a, he says that I will put enmity between you and Eve, between your offspring, her offspring and you. She will bear a son and he will, you'll bruise his heel, but he'll bruise your head or he'll crush your head. So Jesus comes as that promised offspring to Eve. He was born of a virgin. All in the Bible.
When it gives genealogies, it says this guy had this guy, had this guy, had this guy. It's man to man to man to man. Every once in a while, they'll tell you this was the name of their sister. Every once in a while, they'll say, and this was his wife. If they somehow showed up in the story, but mostly they're just going to write down men's names. But at the very beginning, God says there's going to be a woman who's going to have a son.
And he's pointing to the virgin birth of Christ. So Jesus shows up as the fulfillment of that promise. He promises that sin won't win. And then we move forward a little bit. Noah's here and everybody is terrible. So God has wrath towards sin.
And the question we run into is what's God going to do with our sinfulness? And he's going to punish it. But he tells Noah, I'm going to redeem y'all. I'm going to save you. And then when Noah gets off the ark, he makes a covenant with him that he's not going to do this again. That he's still going to have wrath for sin, but he's not going to take it out on earth again.
He's not going to just pour it out on earth. He's actually, what we find out later, is he's going to pour it out on himself. That Jesus is going to take God's wrath towards sin on the cross. It comes to Abraham. He says, I'm going to give you offspring. And through your offspring, all of the world will be blessed.
Jesus is that promised offspring. He makes a blood covenant with Abraham. And he says, I will destroy you if you disobey me. That's what the blood covenant should have said. But what God makes the covenant with him, he says, I'll destroy me if you disobey me.
And Jesus fulfills that by being the sacrifice to pay for Abraham and Abraham's lineage's guilt. He comes to Moses, gives him the law, brings him into the promised land. And ultimately we find out that Jesus is the high priest and the sacrifice. The high priest that stands in between us and God and the sacrifice that pays for our sin. Jesus continually fulfills all these promises. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law on our behalf.
He comes to David and says, I promise that there will be a king that comes from your lineage that will sit on the throne forever. Some of y'all, you became a Christian or you're like, all right, I'm finally, maybe you weren't a Christian, you're going to check this out. I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to start reading in the New Testament. You're like, I'm going to do this for real this time.
You open the New Testament and it was like, this guy had this son who had this son who had this son who had this son who had this son. And you were like, oh my goodness, why does it start like this? And the reason is because Jesus came as the promised son of Abraham and the promised son of David. And the New Testament begins because it was writing to a people who knew these promises. And it's saying, I want to show you something. When Jesus shows up on the scene, he didn't come out of nowhere.
He's a child of these promises. And Jesus ultimately becomes the king who rules and reigns forever. And one of the things you hear about Jesus all the time is that Jesus died for our sin. And what we've said is that Jesus fulfilled these promises. The reason Jesus isn't just a point, but he's two points there, is that Jesus dies on the cross to pay for our sin. And then ultimately he returns to bring his church to himself to exist with him in eternity.
And we're kind of in that middle zone. But here's the question. How? How? Like, I see that he fulfilled some of those promises, but how does he do that? Like, what?
I know he died, but how does his death accomplish anything? Like, how does it fix the problem? Like, I see that he comes in line with these promises. I see that he's going to be the king. I see that he's going to fulfill the law. I see that.
But how does his death actually accomplish this? Let's go to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. This is in the midst of where we left off last week. Because where we left off last week, the people of Israel had had it all together. They had finally gotten it.
They were God's people back in his place, in his presence. And then they just derail. It is off the tracks. It's not even close anymore. They're held captive in another nation. There is no Israel.
There is no temple. There is no king. We read that Psalm where he says, you threw the crown and the throne in the dirt. Like, you have rejected and cast us off. And so Jeremiah is writing. He's prophesying in the midst of that.
And here's what he says. We're going to start in verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So he's referring to the law.
When he rescued the people from Egypt, he made a covenant with them. He said, if you'll just be good, if you'll just obey me, if you'll just follow these laws, then everything will be great and you'll stay in the land. It'll be wonderful if you'll just keep it together. But he says it's a new covenant. It's not going to be like that one. Which is good because that one didn't work out.
He says, not like the covenant that I gave them when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. So he says, I brought them to myself like a husband takes a wife. And I said, you're going to love me and I'm going to love you and this is going to work out. And they broke that covenant. They did not stay faithful to God.
33. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.
So the two main components of the new covenant that he's going to make with Israel is this. He's going to put the law on their heart. I mean, he's actually going to go inside and change their heart. He's going to change their love, their desire, their motivation. And he's going to forgive them their sin because that's the main issue that we have. That's the biggest problem with the old covenant.
The one that he says he's replacing was that God was fine. The people weren't so great. Like he held up his end. It was Israel that had the problem. Like we were the problem. Like is us, humanity that couldn't keep it together.
And so what he says is I'm going to step in and I'm going to fix the issue. You see, the sin was the issue. And so if Jesus is going to save us, redeem us and fix us, he's got to take care of sin. And there's two primary issues when it comes to sin. Our guilt. We've actually broken the covenant.
We've rebelled. We stand before God guilty. Those of you who are familiar with the Ten Commandments, like we can't even keep those together. And then Jesus shows up and he says it's not just adultery but lust. It's not just murder but hate. Like he even says it's worse than you think.
Your hearts are broken. We're guilty. We don't stand before God innocent. None of you can walk in in front of God, strut into his throne room and be like, Hey, just wanted to let you know I deserve to be here. And I was thinking maybe, not your throne, like I understand you're God, but maybe a little one where I could just sit next to you. And he'd be like, cool, hop on up here.
You're right. Everybody else is terrible but you. I was just actually writing in my diary about you today about how special you are. Like that's not going to happen. We're all guilty. It's not going to go well.
And we're going to continue to mess that up. So like let's say, let's say your fairy godmother shows up. If you don't have a fairy godmother, you should get one. I've watched Disney movies a lot with my son recently and they seem pretty awesome. Fairy godmother shows up right when you're finishing middle school. And about to go into high school.
And here's what she says. I've shown up and I've got a present for you. I've completely fixed your record and your transcript. You remember the chicken nugget incident from second grade? It's off your record. You're like, yeah, remember, I'm going to need counseling.
It's like it's off your record. It doesn't show up anymore. You remember the teacher you made cry in fifth grade? You remember the fist fight you got in in seventh grade? Gone. As far as your record shows, you've never even been to the principal's office except for twice to receive a commendation and a high five.
Like that's it. Like you, as far as your record shows, you're great. And I changed your transcript. Always. Always. You know how you actually are terrible at math?
Not anymore. When you get to high school, everyone's going to think you're a model student and you're really smart. Now, first of all, thanks. That sounds great. I really appreciate that. Secondly, that's actually not going to help me that much.
Because when I get to high school, I'm not going to magically be good at math. So my teacher might think I'm really smart. She'll just be more disappointed. She may even have a conversation with me where she thinks something's happened in my home life where she's like, you used to be really good at math. And now you're terrible. And I'll have to just be like, uh-huh.
And she'll be like, has something happened? And I'll be like, I can't tell the fairy godmother story because she's going to think I'm crazy. So I'm really just going to have to act like I got some other problems going on. Like immediately the issue is, okay, you can get rid of that, but that's not going to help me in the future. So Jesus has to take care of both.
He's got to handle both sides of our sin. He's got to handle our guilt and our rebellion. He's got to handle our future sin. He's got to be at work in future things that are going to happen. Because if Jesus just shows up and gives me a clean slate, that's really nice. For how long?
Day? Week? How long are we keeping that together? How long do we get to go before we can no longer enter into the throne room again? He's got to do both. Jesus has to step in and handle both sides of sin in order for this new covenant to be accomplished.
And here's what happens. This new covenant, God promises he's going to accomplish both sides. So if we fast forward in history, Ezra and Nehemiah and a couple other people come with them. They eventually rebuild the temple. They rebuild the wall. They eventually kind of have their own little kingdom again.
But it's not as strong as it ever was. And at some point, Rome takes over. Greece takes over. And then Rome takes over. And so when we pick up in the New Testament, the time of Jesus' birth, we have a king in Israel. But he's kind of a puppet king.
Like he doesn't have a whole lot of authority because Caesar is king over him. And there's also a Roman governor there. So they don't have the perfect system set up. And Jesus is born fulfilling massive amounts of prophecy. And the night before he's going to go to the cross, here's what he says to his disciples. And this is in Matthew chapter 26.
We'll have it on the screen. He... He... They're celebrating the Passover, which was Jewish people would celebrate the Passover every year. And it was a celebration of when the Israelites were brought out of Egypt. So they were brought out of slavery.
And they had... Right the night before they were about to be brought out, the last plague was coming on Egypt. And the angel of death was going to travel through Egypt and kill the firstborn son of every household unless you took a very pretty, perfect little lamb and killed it and painted your doorpost with its blood. You had to have a perfect lamb die to cover your doorpost. And this is similar to all the covenants God inaugurates with his people where something innocent has to die. If we've gone through this covenant series, if you've been here throughout this whole summer, a whole lot of animals have died.
Maybe it's been traumatizing for you. Like you should not have gotten emotionally attached to any animal that showed up in any of these stories. Oh, there's a goat there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not going to be there very long. That's how it's worked.
Every time there's going to be one of these covenants, there's blood that has to be shed. And that's the same with Passover. And that's what they're celebrating. But Jesus breaks from the script in the middle of them celebrating this. And here's what he says. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took the bread.
And after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body. So this is completely different now. He's not celebrating the Passover correctly anymore. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant.
Which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Luke chapter 22 says that Jesus says this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. So as they're celebrating the Passover, Jesus says, we're celebrating a new Passover. We're celebrating a new covenant. That when God brought the Israelites out of slavery, he's about to bring a whole new group of people out of slavery. And it's not slavery from Egypt.
It's slavery from sin. I'm about to be the perfect Passover lamb that rescues and redeems. To fulfill the new covenant. And when he talks about the new covenant, he's talking about what we just read in Jeremiah chapter 31. Jesus steps in and accomplishes both sides of this promise. So what the biggest issue was that all the people were still sinful.
They couldn't hold it together. It wasn't just that they needed more information. It wasn't just that they needed God's rules or his laws. Recently, I've been watching the Olympics. Matt, our other pastor, said that his wife asked him if he could take three years off and just focus on one event and try to compete in the next Summer Olympics when it showed up, what event would he pick? And he was smarter than me because as soon as he said that, I tried to think about what I would pick.
And then he said he would pick golf just so he could play golf for three years. He probably wouldn't make it to the Olympics. Golf was a good choice. I had chosen badminton in my head because I tried to think, what do I have a shot at possibly winning? And badminton seems like it's the closest one up there. Because here's the thing.
I've been watching the Olympics. I could have the best coach in the world. Like the Mr. Miyagi of diving or track and field. It ain't happening. Like I've been watching diving.
I was watching that the other day. Like they fold completely in half. They spin like 13 times and then they land perfectly in the water. Not happening. I don't care how much you coach me. Like I don't even think they sell Speedos in the size I'd have to put on.
Like these guys are like 115 pounds or something. But like it ain't happening. I'm watching track and field. You could coach me up all you want. Like it's not happening. I saw a tweet that said, I wish they would put an ordinary person in all the events just for reference.
That would be me. Like I'll catch up with you guys at the end. Like it just wouldn't. And that was it. Like it wasn't just that the people of Israel needed more information. It wasn't just that they needed to know what God's laws were.
It's not just that you need rules. We don't show up on Sunday to tell you the rules. Because let me tell you something. The rules aren't going to fix you. You can have the best coaches you want. You can have the most people around you that every time you step out of line would hit you with a stick.
Let me tell you something. You're not going to stop sinning. It's not going to fix the problem. It wasn't just that they needed to be away from the bad people. Because he brings them into the promised land. And he says we're going to kick everybody out and this is going to fix it.
But it doesn't. Some of you, maybe you've homeschooled your children and you figured that out. Keeping them away from the bad people didn't fix them. And maybe you haven't figured that out. And I'm sorry you had to find out just now. Didn't fix them.
They're still sinners. Maybe they had to be more creative or sneakier. But they're still sinners. Like it didn't fix the problem. We needed someone to step in and take care of our guilt and our rebellion. And they needed to take care of both or we were in trouble.
And Jesus steps in and in the new covenant accomplishes both. He fulfills all the old covenant promises. And he brings in the new covenant. Which is better than the old covenant. Because he takes care of the issue which is sin. Let's talk about how he takes care of our guilt.
He actually pays our debt and removes our guilt. So that God remembers your sin no more. If you've placed faith in Jesus, you've been brought into the new covenant. You've been welcomed into his new covenant people. And your sin does not exist anymore. Every so often when there's political campaigns, they kick around the idea of getting rid of all college tuition debt.
All student debt. All student loan debt. Those of you with student loans, just think about that for a second. I've lost you. You're going to think about that for a long time. Isn't that magical?
Like they throw this idea out. And if that happened, somebody gets into office. They sign a little piece of paper. And your debt is gone. If you had student loan debt, it's magic out of existence. Like it's not there anymore.
You'd pick up the phone. You would call and ask, hey, I wanted to find out about my student loan debt. And they'd be like, hold on one second. And they'd be like, click, click. I'm showing that you have a zero balance. You no longer have debt.
I don't know why this call center still exists. If it was completely wiped out, but just go with me here. You'd call once a week just to hear them say that. It's me again. Look it up. Tell me about that zero one more time.
Like that's what he does with our sin. If you are a Christian, when God goes to look up your sin, he doesn't find it. Because Jesus paid for it. It's gone. Now, immediately, whenever anybody brings up paying off college tuition, like forgiving all student loan debt. Because they use that word, we're going to forgive it.
There's someone in the room who goes, um, you can't just get rid of student loan debt. Someone paid for it. Just so you know how money works. Like, you know this person? Maybe you're sitting next to him. Don't look at him.
But just like, you know what I'm talking about. Like you were on your, I'm not going to have any student loan debt. Hi, like you're bouncing around in clouds. And they jumped up and tackled you. And we're like, let me explain to you about taxes. Like, that's what they jumped in to say.
Like, someone's got to pay for it because the school got paid. The government paid them. But then if the government just says, like the money doesn't just disappear. Somebody paid for that. And they're going to argue that taxes pay for that. Like, that's what they're going to tell you.
Some of you are going, okay, hold on a second. Jesus, like God just does some, some financial maneuvering. And suddenly I've got a zero balance on my sin. No. Jesus says, this is the covenant in my blood. The payment for our sin was death.
Some of you are in here and you're going, there's no way I can be forgiven for the stuff I've done. No way I stand before the God of the universe and I'm made okay. Because no way. Like some of you may even think the only way out of this is death. And I will tell you, your instincts are correct. You are right.
But Jesus died on our behalf. And the payment of the blood of the Son of God covers us. So it wasn't just some fancy footwork. The debt was paid. And we're no longer guilty anymore. Now that's enough to take a praise lap over and be excited about.
But if he doesn't take care of the other half, we're in trouble. Because if he just pays for what I've done so far, that's great. But I've met me and that's not going to last very long. If I need a cosigner, I'll get my wife up here. It's not going to last very long. So we need him to take care of our rebellion as well.
And that's what he promises. He says, I'm going to write my law on their heart. It's not going to be out there that you're going to have to follow. It's going to be in here. He's going to write it on our heart. He's actually going to help us follow.
He continually pays for our guilt once and for all. And helps change us so that we can actually follow. So if you love something, you don't need a rule. Like if you stepped in right now and said, I'm going to be your life coach. And I'm going to give you a couple of rules you have to follow. This fall, you're going to need to enjoy that it's cooler than it was in the summer.
And when it feels nice outside, you're going to need to go outside. I'd be like, I don't need a rule for that. Like I got that. Like I have a fire pit. I already have wood in it. It may at some point just spontaneously combust from the sun.
But if it doesn't, as soon as the first cool day exists, I'm setting that thing on fire and sitting out in my backyard for like hours. Just celebrating the fact that I'm not sweating unless I get too close to the fire. Like this is going to be magical. I don't need a rule to tell me to enjoy cool weather. I don't need you to say I've got to watch football this fall. I'm going to.
Don't need a rule. I may need you to help me with like grief counseling because I'm not so sure the Gamecock is going to be that great. But I don't need a rule. You don't have to tell me to eat meat. I understand that little cute animals should die for me to exist. I'm okay with that.
You don't have to give me a rule. I love it. I'm going to use two different types of animals and wrap one in the other one. Like I'm going to do that. I'm okay. I don't need a rule.
I love it. The reason Jesus steps in and begins to change our hearts is because when he starts changing our hearts and he changes what we love, we don't need the rules. The God's laws aren't burdensome to us anymore because they're in our heart. They're not overwhelming or crushing anymore because he's changing us from the inside out. We have one of our group leaders. He was telling me the other day.
He was like, you know, I used to just kind of hate people. I was like, that's fair. People are the worst. Which was funny to me though because they've got people in their house all the time. I mean, they've got like their houses open to the public basically. And he said, I used to just, I didn't.
He said, but I don't know. It's different now. Like I enjoy being around people. I like it. And I feel like that makes me weird. But that's okay.
Like God's changing my heart here. We've got a guy in our church family who got into business and was promoted. He's kind of overseas. He's a manager overseas, multiple people. And he was talking to one of our group leaders and he was just saying that he was like, when I first got into business, I got in it for a couple of things. I wanted to be a manager because you make more money.
Money was like a huge goal for me because it gave me prominence. It let people look up to me. He said, also when I was being a manager, I wanted to be a really good manager. But just because I wanted to be a really good manager, like I wanted it to be about me. So I was really good to my employees, but that was because that would make me a good manager and they would like me more.
I wanted to have the status and I wanted to have the finances and I wanted, he said, and it's just changed. He says, it's not about the money anymore. And I actually care about my employees. I don't just fake it so that they'll think I'm a good manager. Like I actually care about them and it doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they think I'm a good manager. And he's like, God's just changing my heart here.
And that's what happens. Jesus begins to change us from the inside out and it's slow and it's messy, but he goes to work on making us more like him so that he pays for our guilt and steps in and begins to work in our rebellion. And that's what we needed. Go to Hebrews chapter eight. See, Jesus died and rose again to redeem us, to make us his, and to invite us into the new covenant. It's on page 650, if your Bible looks like this.
Hebrews chapter eight. We're going to start in verse six, read through the end of the chapter. But as it is, Christ, that's Jesus, has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old. As the covenant he mediates is better. She's saying the new covenant is better than the old covenant. As the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.
Can we just pause for a second? The first covenant, what was the promise? Follow these rules and everything will be good. Is that a good promise? It seems like a good promise. We go into those kind of deals on a regular basis.
You make those. You hold up your end of the bargain. I'll hold up my end of the bargain and it'll be good. That sounds fair. Okay. That's the old covenant.
Here's the new covenant. I'm going to pay for your sin and I'm going to help you follow me. And at the end of the day, you'll be okay because I died for you. That's a better promise. Hands down. That's a better promise because it actually fixes us and takes care of our biggest issue, which is our inability to hold up the other side.
Since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, and now he's going to quote in the book of Hebrews, Jeremiah chapter 31, what we just read. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant.
So I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The new covenant makes us into a new covenant people. And they shall not teach each other, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. So if we believe that, if we've been brought in as a new covenant people through faith in Jesus, there's a couple of things that change about us, that go to work on us. One is we love and trust Jesus. There's a reason why we gather together on Sundays and we sing songs to Jesus. We talk about Jesus.
We point to Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus because Jesus is the mediator of our covenant. He's the one who's rescued us and redeemed us and paid for us by his blood. We love Jesus. I love it whenever I get to see you. You read these news articles every once in a while.
And there was a couple of shows every once in a while show this. But it'll be like an EMT or a police officer. Sometimes it's an organ donor and they meet with a person they've rescued. Organ donor they've given their organs for or the EMT rescued somebody or a fireman rescued somebody. And they just, they build a friendship based off of the fact that they were, saved them. They showed up and rescued this kid or they showed up.
And so this cop will show up to birthdays every year because they rescued this kid. They saved them from something. And that's the church's relationship to Jesus. We've been redeemed. We've been rescued. We've been invited into his family.
And we love him and trust him. And in the midst of trial, we trust him because we know ultimately he's for our good. He's gone to work on our behalf. He's paid for our sin. Secondly, as Christians, as those who've been invited in this new covenant, we confess sin. Because it's Jesus that makes us okay.
So I can talk openly about what's broken about me because it highlights how Jesus has redeemed and forgiven and gone to work. I realize that when I confess sin, it's not because I need God to, I need to get on God's good side. But I realize that the reason I'm sinning is because I've begun to love something more than Jesus. So that I'm willing to run from him for it. I'm willing to sin to get it. I'm willing to avoid him to chase after it.
And I begin to confess because I need more Jesus. I need to remember the covenant. And I can tell anybody anything. Some of you have been hiding in your community groups because you're going, I can't tell people this. They can't know this about me. It'll change everything.
They'll treat me differently. Not if they're new covenant people. They won't. Because new covenant people realize the only thing that makes me okay is Jesus and his work on my behalf. Not my behavior. My behavior because of Jesus doesn't show up in front of him.
And that's a really good thing. My sin is remembered no more. I'm free. You've been hiding. You don't have to. Some of you, maybe you've been treating people differently because of something they confessed.
Something you know about them. And the reason you're doing that is because you don't believe this. You don't believe the new covenant. You've begun to think that somehow something you did stands in front of the cross. And it doesn't. Jesus has made you okay and that's it.
And that's why we have freedom to gather together as a bunch of sinful people. And we're okay because Jesus is good. Not because we are. Third thing we do is we fight sin. We go to war because we believe that Jesus is at work in our hearts changing us to help us obey. So if I see you sinning, I'm going to talk to you about it.
Not because I need to bring the hammer down or I've got to fix you or I'm better than you. But I'm going to come talk to you about it because I believe Jesus is at work in your heart. And one of the things he's doing is leading you away from sin. So we're going to walk away from sin together. We're going to change together. I'm going to fight sin in myself because I believe that Jesus is at work.
He's on my team so I actually can win. And ultimately, we've walked through this series so that we can see how the old covenants point us to a new and better covenant. That Jesus on our behalf has rescued us, redeemed us, and paid for our guilt. And he's at work in us to make us different. And for every person in this room and for every person on earth, the new covenant is offered to you. That Jesus would pay for your sin and that he would come in and begin to work in you to make you different.
It's offered to all of us. We can covenant with God based on the new covenant offered to us through the blood of Jesus. And if you've never done that, you can today. You can place your faith in Jesus that he paid for your sin and that he'll come in and begin to work in you to help you in the future. Because for most of us, if you've been hanging around for a while and you're kind of on the edge, it's one of those two issues that's holding you back. God can't forgive me for this.
Yes, he can. Because you sin like a person and he saves like a God. And some of you are saying, okay, okay, okay. I get that he can forgive me for that stuff, but I'm just going to mess it up. But the new covenant is that he's going to go to work on your heart so that no, you won't.
Because he, throughout history, has been aggressively chasing after his people to make them his. And he's not going to lose you. He's died for you to redeem you so that he can come to work in your heart and he's going to keep you. That's how it works. That's the hope we have today. Matt and Bianca are going to come back up here.
We're going to sing together as a church family. And as a church family, if you're a Christian, we take communion to celebrate this new covenant. We do what the disciples did, what we read in Matthew chapter 26, where Jesus broke the bread and said, this is my body. Where he took the cup and he said, this is my blood in a new covenant. And we, as a church, gather together and remind ourselves of this new covenant that's paid for our sin. And goes to work in our hearts to make us different.
And if you're in here and you have some sin you need to confess, maybe you need to grab somebody from your community group. Maybe you need to spend some time talking to Jesus that you've ceased to believe the new covenant. That you've begun to live as if it weren't true. But you need him at work in you. And if you've never placed your faith in Jesus, this covenant is offered to you. You can place your faith in Jesus.
You can take communion today, reminding yourself that it was his body broken for you. It was his blood shed out for you to cover your sin. And in a couple weeks, you can get baptized as a new covenant member of the family. There's nothing standing in the way of you becoming a Christian because Jesus has already paid for all of it. Your sin can't hold you back. Your future failure can't hold you back.
Because Jesus has gone to work on the two major issues we had. Our guilt and our rebellion. He redeems us from both. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you make such good promises. God, we thank you that we were born in this time of history where we get the new covenant promises.
God, we thank you that you died for us. That your sin covers us. That you remember our sin no more. For all those who place faith in you. God, we ask that through your Holy Spirit you would draw people to yourself today. That you would bring more people into your covenant.
Into your love. Into your redemption. Into your family. God, we pray that as a church family we would always live fully walking as if the new covenant is true. That our sin is paid for. That we're free and redeemed.
That you're good. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Aug 21