Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - None Of My Business

Transcript

Andy Stanley - None Of My Business · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:00
Speaker 1: So today, kind of jumping into the deep end kind
0:03
Speaker 1: of quick, I want to introduce or remind you of,
0:08
Speaker 1: or maybe you'll hear for the first time, an imperative,
0:11
Speaker 1: a command in the New Testament that we're not inclined
0:15
Speaker 1: to take very seriously. Now, if you're new to Bible study,
0:18
Speaker 1: the Bible is divided between the Old Testament and New Testament.
0:20
Speaker 1: The Old Testament is really the backstory of the main story.
0:23
Speaker 1: The main story is the coming of Jesus. So if
0:25
Speaker 1: you're just going to begin reading the Bible today, begin
0:27
Speaker 1: with one of the accounts of the life of Jesus.
0:29
Speaker 2: The book of John, the book of Luke are a
0:30
Speaker 2: great place to start.
0:32
Speaker 1: But in the New Testament, the church or people who
0:34
Speaker 1: are Jesus followers are given specific commands. And this is
0:37
Speaker 1: a command that, again, you may have never even heard
0:40
Speaker 1: it before, but it's like, whoa, that's like for the
0:43
Speaker 1: advanced class. But if you grew up in somewhat of
0:47
Speaker 1: a dysfunctional home, maybe a mom with an addiction or
0:50
Speaker 1: a dad with issues, or maybe just the whole thing
0:52
Speaker 1: was just chaos. My hunch is, that you would be
0:56
Speaker 1: better off today as an adult, as you're figuring out
0:59
Speaker 1: adulting or as you're figuring out parenting and marriage, you
1:01
Speaker 1: would be better off if somebody who saw what was
1:04
Speaker 1: going on in your family back then had taken this
1:08
Speaker 1: imperative seriously. Also, if you had taken this imperative seriously
1:14
Speaker 1: or somebody close to you had taken it seriously, you
1:17
Speaker 1: may have avoided your greatest regret in life. Again, if
1:21
Speaker 1: somebody close to you had done what we're gonna talk about.
1:25
Speaker 1: And this is part of why we're talking about it.
1:27
Speaker 1: I hope that all of you, even if you're not
1:29
Speaker 1: a person of faith or maybe of a different faith tradition,
1:32
Speaker 1: I hope that you have someone close enough to you
1:35
Speaker 1: who would take this seriously if you.
1:37
Speaker 2: Ever find yourself in a tough spot.
1:40
Speaker 1: Now, if you've ever been on the receiving end of
1:43
Speaker 1: what I'm about to show you, you may have been
1:47
Speaker 1: offended initially. and then grateful eventually. And eventually may have
1:53
Speaker 1: taken a while, but eventually you would look back and
1:55
Speaker 1: you would be like, you know what? That was so
1:57
Speaker 1: offensive and I was so mad and I was so
1:59
Speaker 1: bothered by that, but wow, I'm so grateful that person
2:03
Speaker 1: did that. The challenge is, in a world and in
2:06
Speaker 1: a culture like ours that values autonomy, you know, you
2:09
Speaker 1: do you, I'll do me, and, you know, you don't
2:11
Speaker 1: bother me with what you do, and I'm not going
2:14
Speaker 1: to force you to do what I do. You know,
2:15
Speaker 1: that's kind of the world we live in. This really
2:18
Speaker 1: doesn't sit very well. I think that's part of the
2:20
Speaker 1: reason that we have a tendency to ignore it. Fortunately
2:24
Speaker 1: for me, I'm a church kid, you know, raised in
2:26
Speaker 1: church my whole life, and I had people in my
2:30
Speaker 1: life who took this seriously. I don't know if they
2:31
Speaker 1: ever knew this verse, but this was just kind of
2:34
Speaker 1: the rhythm of the life and the rhythm of the
2:37
Speaker 1: relationships we had. And I'm so grateful for that. So
2:41
Speaker 1: this is an imperative for Jesus followers. So if you're not,
2:44
Speaker 1: so here's the real quick, if you're not a Christian
2:47
Speaker 1: or used to be, but you're not anymore, you're different
2:48
Speaker 1: faith tradition. Please at no point in this sermon do
2:51
Speaker 1: you hear me saying, this is what you need to do.
2:53
Speaker 1: I have no authority to tell you what you need
2:55
Speaker 1: to do. And because you don't recognize Jesus as a king,
2:59
Speaker 1: you don't need to take anything he says seriously until
3:02
Speaker 1: you take him seriously. And then you should take what
3:04
Speaker 1: he says seriously. And the way we think of it
3:05
Speaker 1: around here, if somebody predicts their own death and resurrection
3:08
Speaker 1: and pulls it off, We just go with what they say, okay?
3:11
Speaker 1: So we're simple people. But anyway, so you can sit
3:14
Speaker 1: this one out, but I think you'll find this relevant
3:17
Speaker 1: because I think if you'd had somebody who did what
3:18
Speaker 1: we're about to talk about at some point in your
3:20
Speaker 1: life or at some point in the lives of your parents,
3:23
Speaker 1: maybe your life would be different.
3:26
Speaker 2: So even though it's an imperative, I promise I'm gonna
3:30
Speaker 2: get to it in a minute.
3:32
Speaker 1: This is easy for church attenders to view as a suggestion.
3:37
Speaker 1: And one of the things that makes it easy to
3:39
Speaker 1: view as a suggestion.
3:40
Speaker 2: Are rows of people.
3:42
Speaker 1: Rows make it easily avoidable. The other thing that makes
3:45
Speaker 1: it easily avoidable is simply reducing Christianity to a list
3:48
Speaker 1: of things that a person believes. But Christianity isn't a
3:53
Speaker 1: list of beliefs. Christianity is a way of life that
3:56
Speaker 1: Jesus demonstrated for us. So here it is.
3:58
Speaker 2: Okay, so no more buildup.
3:59
Speaker 1: So this is the Apostle Paul who met Jesus after
4:02
Speaker 1: his resurrection. And he's writing to Christians, some of whom
4:06
Speaker 1: he's never met before. So he knows some of them,
4:09
Speaker 1: but not all of them. He's been there. This is
4:11
Speaker 1: to Christians living in the Roman province of Galatia, which
4:13
Speaker 1: is modern-day Turkey. And here's what he says to them
4:18
Speaker 1: and to us. He says, And the someone is another
4:27
Speaker 1: brother or sister. And wrong, the Greek term means a trespass.
4:32
Speaker 1: This is something they've been caught doing, something that's hurting
4:35
Speaker 1: them or hurting somebody else. He says, brothers and sisters,
4:39
Speaker 1: if someone is caught doing wrong or in a trespass, you,
4:46
Speaker 1: he says, you should share your concern with another brother
4:50
Speaker 1: or sister as a prayer request. That way, it's not
4:53
Speaker 1: considered gossip anymore. Somebody's like, I need to read the Bible.
4:59
Speaker 1: I had no idea. Yeah, sometimes I just make things up.
5:02
Speaker 1: But this is kind of what we do.
5:04
Speaker 2: It's like, did you hear about so-and-so?
5:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard about that.
5:07
Speaker 2: Well, somebody should talk to them. Yeah, they should.
5:09
Speaker 1: Let's just pray. Lord, bring someone into their life that
5:12
Speaker 1: has the courage and the relationship and the wisdom. We
5:16
Speaker 1: just pray for wisdom. Let's all pray.
5:17
Speaker 2: That's what we do. I mean, that's sort of normal.
5:20
Speaker 1: If you're not a Christian, you have your own version
5:22
Speaker 1: of that, right? So let's just talk about them, not...
5:24
Speaker 1: So here's what he actually says. Brothers and sisters, if
5:28
Speaker 1: someone is caught doing something wrong, you who live by
5:31
Speaker 1: the Spirit, that is, men and women who are sensitive
5:35
Speaker 1: to the promptings, the inner promptings of God's Spirit that
5:38
Speaker 1: lives in us, those of you who are paying attention
5:40
Speaker 1: to those inner promptings, you should, he goes on, he says,
5:43
Speaker 1: you should restore that person gently and Restore, the little
5:48
Speaker 1: term to restore means to put into order, to put
5:51
Speaker 1: back into order, to bring unhealth to health. And he
5:55
Speaker 1: says you do it gently because gentleness is actually a
5:59
Speaker 1: fruit of the spirit, that a person who's living according
6:01
Speaker 1: to God's spirit is a person who's gentle. That doesn't
6:03
Speaker 1: mean they're soft on stuff. It doesn't mean they're not ambitious.
6:06
Speaker 1: It just means when they're dealing with other people, they
6:09
Speaker 1: take the other person into consideration. They are gentle.
6:12
Speaker 2: To which we read this and we're like, no, thank you.
6:17
Speaker 1: Because their sin, if somebody is sinning or wrongdoing or
6:21
Speaker 1: trespassing or whatever it is, and it has to do
6:23
Speaker 1: with their family or their work or their morality or whatever,
6:25
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just none of my business. And that's
6:28
Speaker 1: what average church attenders say because that's just, you know,
6:32
Speaker 1: it's just easy to get by with that if all
6:34
Speaker 1: you do is believe stuff but aren't actually committed to
6:37
Speaker 1: doing what Jesus taught and what his disciples taught us
6:40
Speaker 1: to do. And I say that, and I do that
6:42
Speaker 1: all the time, I sort of differentiate between, you know,
6:45
Speaker 1: Christians and followers and believers and followers. And I say
6:48
Speaker 1: that because of what the apostle Paul says next.
6:52
Speaker 2: Again, it's another imperative.
6:54
Speaker 1: And again, if you've been on the receiving end of
6:56
Speaker 1: this and benefit from it, you're all about this.
7:00
Speaker 2: He says this, look, carry each other's burdens.
7:05
Speaker 1: And he's talking about people who are of the same
7:07
Speaker 1: worldview and the same faith tradition, you know, people who
7:10
Speaker 1: are attempting to follow Jesus. He's like, look, when you
7:13
Speaker 1: see a brother or sister, another Jesus follower who's dealing
7:16
Speaker 1: with something, he says, I want you to get up.
7:19
Speaker 1: This is literally, I want you to get up under
7:22
Speaker 1: whatever it is that's weighing them down to whatever degree
7:25
Speaker 1: you can get up under it and help them carry it.
7:28
Speaker 1: And in this case, in this particular context, he's talking
7:31
Speaker 1: about decisions they've made that they may not even view
7:35
Speaker 1: as wrong, but you know are leading them in the
7:38
Speaker 1: wrong direction or undermining the integrity of their family. He's like, don't.
7:44
Speaker 2: Stand back and go, wow, dude, I hope that works out.
7:46
Speaker 1: He says, no, I want you to engage and I
7:48
Speaker 1: want you to help them carry their burden. And again,
7:52
Speaker 1: in this case, it's unchristlike self-destructive behavior. Behavior that's an
7:57
Speaker 1: off-ramp to faith, behavior that's an off-ramp to family, behavior
8:02
Speaker 1: that's an off-ramp to their integrity, behavior that's moving them
8:06
Speaker 1: in a direction that's clearly that they're going to regret
8:09
Speaker 1: it later on. Now, he says, look, and don't push back.
8:15
Speaker 2: This isn't interfering. You're not interfering.
8:17
Speaker 1: He's already given us the word.
8:18
Speaker 2: You are restoring. It is your business.
8:24
Speaker 1: And it's your business, he says, because he or she,
8:27
Speaker 1: and this is like, we're so used to this language,
8:28
Speaker 1: it just goes right past us. He says, it is
8:30
Speaker 1: your business because they are your brother and they are
8:34
Speaker 1: your sister.
8:34
Speaker 2: Now, I need to talk about this for just a second.
8:36
Speaker 1: This is another one of those astounding things about Christianity
8:41
Speaker 1: that has impacted our culture. This is part of what
8:43
Speaker 1: has Christianized our culture that we're not aware of because
8:46
Speaker 1: we just swim in it all the time. The language
8:49
Speaker 1: brother and sister, we use that all the time. I mean,
8:52
Speaker 1: all the time, not all the time, but from time
8:54
Speaker 1: to time, a guy, I'll just say the guys, will
8:57
Speaker 1: refer to someone they've never met before as bro, right?
9:01
Speaker 1: Some guy's wallet falls. Hey, bro, bro, bro, you dropped
9:04
Speaker 1: your bro. Because we're this brother and sister. I have
9:07
Speaker 1: a friend I used to coach baseball with years ago.
9:10
Speaker 1: He was not a Christian, didn't pretend to be a Christian.
9:14
Speaker 1: And I'm the pastor and had this thing. But he
9:16
Speaker 1: called everybody brother and sister all the time. All the time.
9:20
Speaker 1: It was just like, hey, sister. Hey, brother. It's just
9:22
Speaker 1: common language. Okay. In the first century, that's not the case.
9:25
Speaker 1: Because in the first century, it was a very segmented culture.
9:29
Speaker 1: And slave owners never referred to a former slave as
9:32
Speaker 1: brother or sister anymore. They certainly didn't refer to slaves
9:36
Speaker 1: as brothers. The rich didn't, you know, refer to the
9:39
Speaker 1: poor as brother or sister. I mean, it was a
9:41
Speaker 1: very segmented society. And yet this language, this family language
9:46
Speaker 1: was part of Christianity from the very beginning. And Jesus
9:49
Speaker 1: inserted it into the vocabulary and Christians picked up on it.
9:52
Speaker 1: And this was the amazing part.
9:53
Speaker 2: I'm getting off the topic of the sermon.
9:55
Speaker 1: They would meet together in homes, The first church is
10:00
Speaker 1: met in homes. And there would be slaves, slave owners,
10:04
Speaker 1: former slaves, servants, merchants, all kinds of people that just
10:08
Speaker 1: didn't normally mix. And they would begin to refer to
10:12
Speaker 1: each other and treat each other like brothers and sisters
10:14
Speaker 1: within the context of the church. This rocked Greco-Greek, Greek
10:19
Speaker 1: and Roman culture. This was just so unusual and so powerful.
10:24
Speaker 1: And then Peter, when he's talking about marriage, he tells husbands,
10:28
Speaker 1: remember husbands, that your wife... is your sister in Christ.
10:35
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, so all that differentiation, all that, you know,
10:39
Speaker 1: I'm more important. It all just started going away. Anyway,
10:43
Speaker 1: back to us. Okay. So this whole idea of somebody's
10:45
Speaker 1: in sin and I'm going to go talk to them
10:47
Speaker 1: about their sin.
10:47
Speaker 2: I mean, this is, this is, I.
10:51
Speaker 1: Mean, This is what average Christians think. That's just, that's optional, right?
10:54
Speaker 1: That's like maybe an option for super Christians. I mean,
10:57
Speaker 1: isn't that actually the pastor's job? So if I see
11:00
Speaker 1: somebody kind of messing up, I'm just gonna.
11:01
Speaker 2: Call the church, right?
11:03
Speaker 1: Okay, listen, this next line. Again, there's these statements in
11:08
Speaker 1: the New Testament just don't get enough airplay.
11:10
Speaker 2: This is one of them.
11:11
Speaker 1: This next line cannot be overstated or overemphasized. Listen to
11:16
Speaker 1: the reason the apostle Paul gives for this imperative to carry.
11:20
Speaker 2: One another's burdens.
11:21
Speaker 1: And if you see somebody who's fallen into sin or
11:24
Speaker 1: going off in a different direction to restore them, listen
11:26
Speaker 1: to this.
11:26
Speaker 2: He says, carry, back to the verse, carry each other's burdens.
11:30
Speaker 1: And in this way, in other words, by getting up
11:33
Speaker 1: under their burden, and in this case, getting up under
11:35
Speaker 1: their sin burden, approaching them, confronting them gently. He says,
11:38
Speaker 1: by doing this, by attempting to restore, by coming alongside them,
11:43
Speaker 1: by risking your reputation, by risking offense.
11:46
Speaker 2: He says, when you do this, ready for this? You
11:48
Speaker 2: will fulfill this.
11:50
Speaker 1: Fulfill means like there's a ditch and you fill it
11:52
Speaker 1: back up, you restore it, you complete, you bring something
11:55
Speaker 1: to completion. He says, when you do this, you are
11:58
Speaker 1: completing or you are applying.
12:02
Speaker 2: The law of Christ.
12:06
Speaker 1: The law of Christ, if you've been around, this is
12:08
Speaker 1: another one of those things that I wish was way
12:11
Speaker 1: up in the mix in preaching and teaching and Christianity
12:13
Speaker 1: would change everything.
12:14
Speaker 2: The law of Christ is the law.
12:16
Speaker 1: That Jesus gave. And the law that Jesus gave, he
12:18
Speaker 1: gave in that final Passover, we talk about it all
12:20
Speaker 1: the time. He says, a new command I give you,
12:22
Speaker 1: it's going to replace all the other ones. It is
12:24
Speaker 1: the supreme command. It's the command that eliminates the needs
12:27
Speaker 1: for all the other commands because it fills in the
12:30
Speaker 1: gaps in everyday life and it fills in the gaps
12:32
Speaker 1: in all the relationships. The law of Christ is you
12:35
Speaker 1: are to love each other the way that I have
12:37
Speaker 1: loved you. You are to love each other the way
12:39
Speaker 1: that I have loved you. And Paul says, if you
12:42
Speaker 1: want to fulfill Jesus' one overarching command, one way you
12:46
Speaker 1: do that is by doing for others what God through
12:49
Speaker 1: Christ has done for you. That is, you get up
12:52
Speaker 1: under their burden and you approach, even when it's uncomfortable,
12:57
Speaker 1: You approach even when you don't think it's any of
12:59
Speaker 1: your business because you care about that person. So for
13:03
Speaker 1: Jesus followers, this isn't optional or peripheral or I'm going
13:07
Speaker 1: to call the church. This is essential and it's central.
13:11
Speaker 1: It is an expression. I mean, Paul goes right to
13:15
Speaker 1: the point. He says, this is the law of Christ
13:19
Speaker 1: in action. This is what it looks like. This is
13:23
Speaker 1: what it acts like to follow Christ. Jesus.
13:26
Speaker 2: It's where he's going to lead you.
13:30
Speaker 1: He's not going to lead you to call the church.
13:33
Speaker 1: He's going to lead you to call the person. He's
13:36
Speaker 1: not going to lead you to just pray about it.
13:39
Speaker 1: He's going to lead you to do something about it. Now,
13:43
Speaker 1: backing up real quick because I might have lost you.
13:44
Speaker 1: I'm kind of going fast and I'm all over the place.
13:46
Speaker 1: So wait, wait, wait, Andy. Here's where you lost me.
13:50
Speaker 2: How, if I can explain this again, how does sticking.
13:53
Speaker 1: My nose in someone else's sin business fulfill the law
13:55
Speaker 1: of Christ?
13:56
Speaker 2: Like what? It's doing for others what he did for you.
14:05
Speaker 1: Jesus doesn't ignore and abandon you to your sin, right? Right? Jesus,
14:12
Speaker 1: God the Father, through Jesus, by sending Jesus into the world,
14:15
Speaker 1: he demonstrated it and illustrated it on planet Earth, that
14:18
Speaker 1: God our Father does not ignore us, ignore our sin,
14:23
Speaker 1: or abandon us to our sin. In fact, we sing,
14:26
Speaker 1: if you're part of one of our churches, we sing
14:29
Speaker 1: a song that emphasizes this all the time, and I
14:32
Speaker 1: love these lyrics to the song that some of our song,
14:35
Speaker 1: our lyricists wrote. We sing this. We're not, remember this,
14:39
Speaker 1: we're not your trophy children. that you abandon when we
14:44
Speaker 1: don't act like trophy children anymore. We're not your trophy
14:48
Speaker 1: children that you abandon when we don't get it right,
14:51
Speaker 1: when we go off the rails, when we get caught
14:53
Speaker 1: up in something, when we say yes to something. We're
14:56
Speaker 1: not like, oh, I'm only proud of you when you
14:58
Speaker 1: make me proud. We're not trophy children that you abandon
15:03
Speaker 1: when we roam. And your heavenly father says, I need
15:09
Speaker 1: you to be my hands and my feet. In my eyes,
15:12
Speaker 1: in my ears, in the lives of your brothers and sisters,
15:16
Speaker 1: when they fall into temptation, when they start to go
15:20
Speaker 1: off the rails, when they dip into self-destructive behavior, or
15:23
Speaker 1: when they begin to harm others, either intentionally or accidentally,
15:27
Speaker 1: or when they begin to lose faith, I want you
15:30
Speaker 1: to approach them gently and do everything you can to
15:33
Speaker 1: restore them. And there's no guarantee that it's going to work.
15:37
Speaker 1: But do not abandon them because of their sin.
15:41
Speaker 2: That's what the Pharisees did.
15:45
Speaker 1: I won't even ask you how many of you want
15:46
Speaker 1: to be a Pharisee, right? I mean, you remember this scene,
15:50
Speaker 1: John chapter 8. We've all heard this story.
15:52
Speaker 2: Even if you're not a Christian, you've probably.
15:55
Speaker 1: Heard this story about the Pharisees finding a woman who
15:58
Speaker 1: was caught in adultery. It's the same language that the
16:01
Speaker 1: Apostle Paul uses, that she was caught in adultery. and
16:04
Speaker 1: they drag her up the southern stairs to the temple mound.
16:07
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way to overplay the.
16:09
Speaker 2: Drama of this.
16:10
Speaker 1: They drag this woman, caught in adultery. This is one
16:12
Speaker 1: of the top 10, okay? Drag her up to the
16:15
Speaker 1: temple mound at the top. I mean, right over there,
16:17
Speaker 1: they're sacrificing animals for sin. They're in the holiest of
16:20
Speaker 1: holy places. Jesus is there teaching. They drop her down
16:23
Speaker 1: in front of Jesus. You remember this story? And they say,
16:26
Speaker 1: this woman was caught. The same terminology Paul uses. If
16:29
Speaker 1: someone is caught, In a sin. In a trespass. This
16:32
Speaker 1: woman was caught in adultery. And the law of Moses.
16:36
Speaker 1: And if you want to check it out. It is
16:37
Speaker 1: right over there in that building. Right there. There's a
16:40
Speaker 1: copy of it. This woman was caught in the act
16:43
Speaker 1: of adultery. And the law of Moses says she dies.
16:48
Speaker 1: And they were not wrong. Fortunately for her. Fortunately for you.
16:53
Speaker 1: Even though you may not believe this. Fortunately for me.
16:55
Speaker 1: And fortunately for us. Someone greater than. Then Moses had
17:00
Speaker 1: touched down on planet earth. In fact, one of the
17:03
Speaker 1: things that got Jesus in trouble, he claimed to be
17:05
Speaker 1: greater than Moses. He claimed to be greater than the temple.
17:08
Speaker 1: They're like, you're just sick. I mean, how can you
17:11
Speaker 1: be greater than God's temple where heaven meets earth, right?
17:15
Speaker 1: Someone greater than Moses had dropped down and he stepped
17:19
Speaker 1: into the scene and he was the king. And you
17:22
Speaker 1: know the story. He did not stone her. He restored her.
17:30
Speaker 1: And this is what we have been invited to do
17:33
Speaker 1: for one another. Because Christianity is one another. It's not
17:39
Speaker 1: believe a list so you go to heaven when you die.
17:41
Speaker 1: It is one another, one another, one another, one another.
17:46
Speaker 1: And this is one of the one another's. And the
17:47
Speaker 1: apostle Paul says, this is such.
17:50
Speaker 2: An important one another.
17:51
Speaker 1: It is right on the nose of fulfilling the law
17:57
Speaker 1: of Christ. If you've been a Christian for any length
18:02
Speaker 1: of time, like me, or even, I mean, I've been
18:05
Speaker 1: a Christian since I was six. You know, when I
18:07
Speaker 1: was six, I went to a Christian kindergarten. And Aunt Pat,
18:10
Speaker 1: who wasn't my aunt, that brother-sister thing, it just kind
18:13
Speaker 1: of goes, you know. So we all called her Aunt Pat.
18:16
Speaker 1: She was the teacher.
18:17
Speaker 2: And she had all the kids come up and sit
18:19
Speaker 2: on her knee. And she had, I still remember this.
18:20
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you have these snapshots of childhood.
18:23
Speaker 1: This is one of mine. Sit on her lap. And
18:25
Speaker 1: she said, would you like to ask Jesus in your heart,
18:28
Speaker 1: or would you like to thank God, would you like
18:29
Speaker 1: to thank Jesus for dying for your sin? Would you
18:32
Speaker 1: like to ask Jesus to come into your heart? We
18:33
Speaker 1: only had two options. I mean, she was not going
18:37
Speaker 1: to let you get through kindergarten without making this.
18:39
Speaker 2: Decision, right?
18:41
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, well, I want to ask Jesus
18:44
Speaker 1: in my heart. Of course I thank him for dying
18:45
Speaker 1: for my sins. I want to ask Jesus in my heart.
18:47
Speaker 2: So I've been a Christian my whole life.
18:49
Speaker 1: And as I've told you a thousand, not a thousand times,
18:51
Speaker 1: but dozens of times, a dozen times, you know, I...
18:55
Speaker 1: When you grow up like me and you sin, the
18:57
Speaker 1: problem is you know exactly where the verse is. It's
19:00
Speaker 1: not like I think, no, no, no. I can tell
19:02
Speaker 1: you both places, Old and New Testament, this is a sin, right?
19:06
Speaker 1: So there's so much accountability and so much guilt. So
19:08
Speaker 1: my point is this. If you grow up in any
19:10
Speaker 1: kind of Christian environment, whether you still consider yourself a
19:12
Speaker 1: Christian or not, you've asked God to forgive you hundreds
19:19
Speaker 1: of times for sin, right?
19:21
Speaker 2: Worse.
19:22
Speaker 1: you've asked God to forgive you for the same sin
19:26
Speaker 1: dozens and dozens of times. Even worse, you knew you
19:31
Speaker 1: were probably going to commit it again, and you still
19:35
Speaker 1: asked God to forgive you of your sin. And some
19:37
Speaker 1: of you quoted 1 John 1, 9, if we confess
19:39
Speaker 1: our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
19:41
Speaker 1: our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See there,
19:44
Speaker 1: you got to do it because, you know, you didn't
19:46
Speaker 1: do that. But, you know, you had verses to back
19:47
Speaker 1: this up. The point is this. When you ask God
19:52
Speaker 1: to forgive you, you are confident he forgave you based
19:55
Speaker 1: on what Jesus taught. And you also believe that he
20:00
Speaker 1: restored you rather than stoned you and abandoned you. And yes,
20:06
Speaker 1: there were consequences for your wrongdoing. There's always consequences for wrongdoing, right?
20:12
Speaker 1: But the point was, you at least internally know what
20:16
Speaker 1: it's like to be on the receiving end of being
20:19
Speaker 1: restored to your heavenly father through asking for forgiveness. And
20:25
Speaker 1: now we are instructed, we are required to be on
20:29
Speaker 1: the giving and the restoring end as well, just like
20:33
Speaker 1: our father did.
20:34
Speaker 2: In heaven. That's why it reflects the law of Christ.
20:39
Speaker 1: And the less deserving the other person is of our involvement,
20:45
Speaker 1: the more like Jesus you are, right? It's what God
20:50
Speaker 1: through Christ did for you and for me and for us.
20:53
Speaker 1: He stuck his nose in our sin business.
20:56
Speaker 2: It cost him his life.
20:57
Speaker 1: The good news is it won't cost you your life.
21:00
Speaker 1: Just some time, some embarrassment. It may cost you the relationship,
21:05
Speaker 1: but we are to do for others what God through
21:07
Speaker 1: Christ has done for us.
21:08
Speaker 2: It is the law of Christ, to which.
21:12
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Okay, Andy, good sermon, but hey,
21:17
Speaker 1: can't I just attend church occasionally? Can't I just believe
21:21
Speaker 1: some stuff and maybe give.
21:22
Speaker 2: A few dollars whenever the spirit leads?
21:25
Speaker 1: Sure, you can do that, of course. If, and this
21:29
Speaker 1: is Jesus' threat, not mine, if you can do that,
21:33
Speaker 1: If you want to stand outside the kingdom of God
21:37
Speaker 1: looking in and missing out and eventually weep and gnash
21:42
Speaker 1: your teeth because you lost the opportunity to participate in
21:46
Speaker 1: something in this life, in the kingdom of God that
21:49
Speaker 1: you were invited to.
21:52
Speaker 2: But I know I'm pushing hard, but.
21:55
Speaker 1: If you or maybe one day a son of yours
22:00
Speaker 1: or a daughter of yours begins to go in a
22:04
Speaker 1: wrong and difficult and dangerous direction, you're gonna want someone
22:10
Speaker 1: to step in front of them and address the direction
22:14
Speaker 1: they're moving in. It may be your husband, and you've
22:17
Speaker 1: tried and tried and tried, and you're gonna want another
22:20
Speaker 1: man or a group of men to stand in his way,
22:23
Speaker 1: to bring it to his attention, to risk their relationship
22:26
Speaker 1: if it might perhaps save your marriage. If you see
22:31
Speaker 1: a brother, a physical and literal brother, a literal sister
22:33
Speaker 1: moving off in a dangerous direction and they won't listen
22:36
Speaker 1: to you or you're afraid to say anything and somebody
22:38
Speaker 1: comes along and restores them, aren't you gonna be grateful?
22:41
Speaker 1: Are you gonna say, hey, that's none of your business. No,
22:44
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, thank you. Thank you, thank you.
22:47
Speaker 1: You did for my brother and my sister what, well, honestly,
22:51
Speaker 1: I've not.
22:51
Speaker 2: Been willing to do for.
22:54
Speaker 1: Others. If you're someone you love ever needs to be
22:58
Speaker 1: restored to, gently if they ever need someone to step
23:04
Speaker 1: in front of them in love interfere in their self-destructive
23:09
Speaker 1: family destructive behavior if you ever need that and someone
23:15
Speaker 1: does this you're going to be so grateful but If
23:22
Speaker 1: in this season of your Christian life, you're unwilling to
23:25
Speaker 1: do that, and yet you know you would appreciate it
23:28
Speaker 1: if somebody else did that for someone you love, do
23:30
Speaker 1: you know what that makes you? There's a word for that. Anyway,
23:33
Speaker 1: let's keep going. Okay, so anyway, here's the point of
23:37
Speaker 1: kind of this whole sermon.
23:39
Speaker 2: This was so important to us.
23:41
Speaker 1: This is so important to us as a network of churches,
23:44
Speaker 1: our network of churches around the country and around the world.
23:46
Speaker 1: It's so important to us that 30, actually coming up
23:49
Speaker 1: on 31 years ago, next in October, 31 years ago,
23:52
Speaker 1: we decided to actually organize the entire church to this idea.
23:59
Speaker 1: To do everything we could possibly do to ensure that attenders,
24:05
Speaker 1: beginning with children, Middle school students, high school students, college students, singles,
24:12
Speaker 1: and adults. We wanted to do everything we could to
24:15
Speaker 1: ensure that people who were part of our church were
24:19
Speaker 1: so connected relationally in a healthy community that this would
24:24
Speaker 1: be built into their Christian experience. That we would create
24:29
Speaker 1: a network of groups where everybody had some element of
24:33
Speaker 1: accountability involved. Just built in relationally. Not a stranger showing
24:37
Speaker 1: up at their door, but already in relationship with men
24:39
Speaker 1: and women doing life together. Accountability, a sense of belonging.
24:42
Speaker 1: When I don't show up here, I'm missed. And if
24:44
Speaker 1: I quit showing up, they're gonna come get me. And
24:46
Speaker 1: a sense of care. When things go bad or things
24:48
Speaker 1: go wrong or suddenly there's a need I can't meet.
24:51
Speaker 1: We wanted this to be a way of life, not
24:53
Speaker 1: a program, a way of life. We wanted this to
24:55
Speaker 1: be part of the rhythm of life because when you
24:58
Speaker 1: read the New Testament, you cannot avoid this. It is
25:00
Speaker 1: one another, one another, one another, one another, one another.
25:04
Speaker 1: This is why I say if I had a vision
25:06
Speaker 1: for the church, and again, I don't get to be
25:08
Speaker 1: in charge of the church, just our church's. If I
25:11
Speaker 1: had a vision, it would be this, that people on
25:13
Speaker 1: the outside of our faith would see us, and they
25:17
Speaker 1: may not agree with everything we believe, but they would be,
25:20
Speaker 1: my vision is they would be envious of how well
25:22
Speaker 1: we treat each other and amazed at how well we
25:25
Speaker 1: love them. Because that is the message of the New Testament.
25:28
Speaker 1: That is the law of Christ. That is God through Christ.
25:31
Speaker 2: In the world through us and through his people. people.
25:35
Speaker 1: So from the very beginning, if you've been around, you
25:36
Speaker 1: know this, we created weekly season of life, small group
25:40
Speaker 1: opportunities for everybody. Weekly, not every adult group meets every week,
25:45
Speaker 1: but potentially weekly, you know, pre-arranged relational connection for every
25:52
Speaker 1: single group of people, every single segment of life, every
25:55
Speaker 1: season of life in our church. And we, our desire, again,
25:59
Speaker 1: wasn't to just add this on as an appendage. Hey,
26:01
Speaker 1: this is one of our ministries. We wanted it to
26:03
Speaker 1: be central to the church. So in contrast to other
26:07
Speaker 1: church models, we decided that circles are better than classes.
26:11
Speaker 1: This is why we don't have a bunch of classes. Now,
26:13
Speaker 1: there's a place, there's a time and a place for
26:15
Speaker 1: classes and a need for classes. And we do all
26:17
Speaker 1: kind of small, short-term curriculum and stuff. But what is
26:22
Speaker 1: central is in classes. We wanted people to actually be
26:25
Speaker 1: in community, to be doing life together. And this is
26:27
Speaker 1: why we say that circles are actually better than rows.
26:31
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you who understands this better than any group.
26:34
Speaker 1: And if you have ever been a part of any
26:36
Speaker 1: of these groups, I just want to.
26:37
Speaker 2: Tell you, your courage is inspiring.
26:41
Speaker 1: The people who figured this out a long time ago
26:43
Speaker 1: is A-A, N-A, C-A, Cocaine Anonymous. Years ago I went
26:48
Speaker 1: and gave a chip to a woman who was in
26:50
Speaker 1: a Cocaine Anonymous group. And there are all kinds of groups.
26:54
Speaker 1: They figured this out a long time ago. They figured
26:56
Speaker 1: out that sermons and rows leave too much wiggle room. Right?
27:03
Speaker 1: And you know what else they figured out? This is
27:05
Speaker 1: so powerful. They also figured out what the Apostle Paul's
27:08
Speaker 1: next verse says. Because he's not done with us yet.
27:12
Speaker 1: In this next verse, Paul points out why this level
27:17
Speaker 1: of connection and why this level of accountability is something
27:21
Speaker 1: we have a tendency to resist. In fact, some of
27:24
Speaker 1: you are listening and watching right now. and you're internally
27:26
Speaker 1: resisting it, you're probably the man, and the woman's like, God,
27:29
Speaker 1: please break through to him. And I get this. There's
27:32
Speaker 1: something in me as a man that's like, I don't
27:34
Speaker 1: need this.
27:35
Speaker 2: That's for babies.
27:36
Speaker 1: You just buck up and step up and man up.
27:40
Speaker 1: I get that, all that ego. I did an interview
27:44
Speaker 1: with Jeff Foxworthy, I don't know, almost a year ago,
27:47
Speaker 1: and I asked him what he would tell my son.
27:49
Speaker 1: Jeff Foxworthy, the comedian, and my son does comedy. I said, hey,
27:52
Speaker 1: what would you tell Andrew as he starts this, you know,
27:54
Speaker 1: this career path, you know, and, you know, you get
27:57
Speaker 1: all this, invited to all this stuff, meet all these
27:59
Speaker 1: people and all the temptation. He just immediately said, I
28:04
Speaker 1: would tell him.
28:05
Speaker 2: That your ego is not your friend. Your ego is
28:09
Speaker 2: not your friend.
28:10
Speaker 1: And I'm like, Okay, my ego, everything my ego tells
28:14
Speaker 1: me is wrong.
28:15
Speaker 2: Everything. You deserve, you need, you da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
28:19
Speaker 1: So of course what my ego tells me is I
28:21
Speaker 1: don't need a bunch of people in my life, right?
28:24
Speaker 2: Of course I do.
28:25
Speaker 1: And listen, 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul, because ego's
28:29
Speaker 1: been around since, you know, the Garden of Eden, right?
28:31
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul addresses this, and listen to how he
28:33
Speaker 1: addresses it, men.
28:37
Speaker 2: If anyone, this is in the same passage. If anyone
28:40
Speaker 2: thinks they are something.
28:43
Speaker 2: If anyone thinks they're special, if anyone.
28:47
Speaker 1: Thinks they're above this, I don't need that. That's for
28:50
Speaker 1: other people, less important people, less busy people. I don't
28:53
Speaker 1: need that. Now, this is the apostle Paul who wrote
28:56
Speaker 1: half the New Testament, whose name's gonna be around forever.
28:59
Speaker 1: So whatever you've accomplished, whatever I've accomplished, we fall far
29:02
Speaker 1: short of this guy, okay? He says, if anybody thinks
29:05
Speaker 1: they are something, because he knows we're gonna resist this,
29:09
Speaker 1: and this is so offensive.
29:10
Speaker 2: Okay, he said it, not me. If anyone thinks.
29:12
Speaker 1: They're something when they're nothing, it's like, what do you
29:15
Speaker 1: mean nothing?
29:16
Speaker 2: I'm something.
29:17
Speaker 1: And Paul would say, yeah, you're something compared to some
29:19
Speaker 1: other people that you compare yourself to. Yeah, you're something
29:22
Speaker 1: compared to other people that you compare yourself to, right?
29:27
Speaker 1: I'm not nothing.
29:28
Speaker 2: I'm something, says the man or the woman.
29:30
Speaker 1: Who's embraced the myth of autonomy that all you need
29:36
Speaker 1: is you.
29:38
Speaker 2: When in fact, he says, you are nothing.
29:42
Speaker 1: And I am nothing apart from the people around me
29:46
Speaker 1: and apart from the people around us. Listen to this.
29:50
Speaker 1: He says, if anyone thinks they are something when they
29:54
Speaker 1: are nothing, they deceive themselves. The easiest person for you
30:00
Speaker 1: to deceive is always the person in the mirror. This
30:05
Speaker 1: is why we get in trouble. This is why we justify.
30:09
Speaker 1: This is why we're entitled to. This is why it
30:12
Speaker 1: just makes sense to us even though it doesn't make
30:14
Speaker 1: sense to anybody else. And the apostle Paul is talking
30:17
Speaker 1: to Christians and he's going, come on, come on, come on,
30:19
Speaker 1: come on. you know better, you should live better. And
30:23
Speaker 1: if you will one another, one another, you will in
30:26
Speaker 1: fact stay out of those kinds of ruts and those
30:29
Speaker 1: kinds of habits and you won't drift. The bottom line,
30:33
Speaker 1: according to this, and this is the reminder for me,
30:36
Speaker 1: that that kind of arrogance of I'm something, he says,
30:39
Speaker 1: arrogance or the takeaways, arrogance is ignorance. I mean, when
30:46
Speaker 1: I meet, okay, this is just me. So don't take this,
30:48
Speaker 1: don't apply this. Okay. When I meet super arrogant people,
30:51
Speaker 1: here's the first thing I think. This is terrible. I'm
30:54
Speaker 1: probably not going to tell the other services. When I
30:57
Speaker 1: meet people who are just so arrogant, I think, this
31:00
Speaker 1: is what I think. Do you not realize you're going
31:02
Speaker 1: to die? Do you think you're going to live forever?
31:05
Speaker 1: It's like, arrogance is ignorance. Arrogance is ignorance of the
31:11
Speaker 1: fact that I am and we are dependent on the
31:13
Speaker 1: people around us anyway. Why not leverage that to our benefit?
31:16
Speaker 1: Arrogance is dangerous, right? And ultimately, arrogance isolates. And you can't,
31:24
Speaker 1: you know, the person that says, well, I just do
31:26
Speaker 1: my own Christianity. I don't need other people. No, you're
31:28
Speaker 1: not doing Christianity. You're doing something else. Just open the
31:31
Speaker 1: New Testament. But bending to lift and to get up
31:35
Speaker 1: underneath somebody else's burden, that's not arrogance.
31:38
Speaker 2: That's humility.
31:38
Speaker 1: Humility. And making ourselves accountable to other people, that's humility
31:43
Speaker 1: as well. And to do otherwise is to miss the
31:46
Speaker 1: opportunity to fulfill the law of Christ, to do for
31:49
Speaker 1: others what God through Christ has done for us.
31:52
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, and I gotta keep going, but I'll tell.
31:56
Speaker 1: You where I see this that's in my, tragically in
31:59
Speaker 1: my profession, it's pastors, because I'm around pastors and other churches,
32:03
Speaker 1: network churches, and every once in a while I'm, you know,
32:08
Speaker 1: A pastor will say, you know, we have groups, but
32:11
Speaker 1: my wife and I, we're not in a group. You know,
32:13
Speaker 1: we're busy. And then they talk about it's awkward to
32:16
Speaker 1: be in a group with people.
32:17
Speaker 2: Who go to your church and all the stuff. And,
32:19
Speaker 2: you know, so it's like we want everybody else.
32:20
Speaker 1: To do that, but we don't do that. I love
32:22
Speaker 1: what Pastor Ashley Wooldridge says. He says, pastors are supposed
32:28
Speaker 1: to be examples, not exceptions. Pastors are supposed to be examples,
32:33
Speaker 1: not exceptions. And this is an area where people who
32:35
Speaker 1: do what I do oftentimes make an exception because of
32:38
Speaker 1: how awkward they say it is to be in a
32:40
Speaker 1: small group with people that they're supposedly shepherding. Sandra and
32:43
Speaker 1: I have been in small group before we started the
32:45
Speaker 1: church and have never, ever not participated in a small group.
32:48
Speaker 1: Not because we're trying to model something, even though I
32:51
Speaker 1: hope that's the case. It's because we need it. And
32:55
Speaker 1: it's been a value add. Now, Real quick, the problem
32:59
Speaker 1: with this sermon, you may think there's a dozen problems
33:01
Speaker 1: with this sermon, but one of the problems with this
33:04
Speaker 1: sermon is I've kind of made the whole accountability thing
33:07
Speaker 1: and the group thing and getting a small group, make
33:08
Speaker 1: it sound so ominous and serious, like let's get together
33:12
Speaker 1: every Monday night and we're gonna go around and share
33:14
Speaker 1: our sins and if you don't share yours, we're gonna
33:16
Speaker 1: share yours.
33:17
Speaker 2: That's not what small group is, you know that, right?
33:19
Speaker 1: No, those of you who've been participating for years in
33:21
Speaker 1: small groups know that it is a relational value add.
33:26
Speaker 1: It's way less complicated than your family of origin, and
33:29
Speaker 1: it is usually way more fun than your family of origin, right?
33:32
Speaker 1: And you now have brothers and sisters where you have
33:35
Speaker 1: something in common, the season of life, whatever it might be,
33:38
Speaker 1: and it's just a powerful, powerful thing. And many of us,
33:42
Speaker 1: literally thousands of us, have made lifelong friends through small groups.
33:47
Speaker 2: I just went to Brazil.
33:49
Speaker 1: I told you about that a few weeks ago. The
33:51
Speaker 1: gentleman that went with me, Jim, I met Jim in
33:54
Speaker 1: my neighbor's house the first night he joined our small group.
33:57
Speaker 2: That's where I met him.
33:57
Speaker 1: I met him in small group because another family said, hey,
34:00
Speaker 1: there's a couple. They've been at North Point. They're great.
34:02
Speaker 1: We're like, bring them in. And I feel like I
34:04
Speaker 1: have a lifelong friend. I met in our group the
34:07
Speaker 1: first night that we kind of reconvened. For small groups.
34:10
Speaker 1: And my story has been multiplied thousands and thousands of times, right?
34:14
Speaker 1: And these are the people who become the friends who
34:16
Speaker 1: would show up, step up, and throw their hands up
34:19
Speaker 1: if they saw me or if they saw the other
34:21
Speaker 1: people in the group begin to drift. And we want
34:24
Speaker 1: that for you because we all need it. Because I
34:27
Speaker 1: hate to tell you this. If you think you're something,
34:30
Speaker 1: if you think you're special, if you think you get
34:32
Speaker 1: to be the exception, that's dangerous. And we want to.
34:35
Speaker 2: Make it as easy as possible for you.
34:39
Speaker 1: To experience that kind of community. Last thing, parents, look
34:42
Speaker 1: up here. You don't let your kids miss school. Please
34:46
Speaker 1: make every effort not to let them miss small group.
34:49
Speaker 1: And here's why. Eventually school comes to an end, but
34:53
Speaker 1: we want the rhythm and the habit of small group
34:57
Speaker 1: to go with them for the rest of their life.
35:00
Speaker 2: Life and ultimately you.
35:02
Speaker 1: Do too so as we begin this new school year
35:05
Speaker 1: and as we're reconvening small groups and some of your
35:07
Speaker 1: kids are going to have new small group leaders please
35:10
Speaker 1: do everything in your power to make sure they participate
35:12
Speaker 1: in group just like we want you to participate in
35:15
Speaker 1: group we launch brand new groups every september and january
35:18
Speaker 1: and at this time somebody at your local campus is
35:21
Speaker 1: going to come up and explain some next steps and
35:25
Speaker 1: that's me so here's how it works Group registration opens
35:30
Speaker 1: on August the 23rd, but you don't need to remember that.
35:33
Speaker 1: And here's what group registration is. We're going to open
35:35
Speaker 1: up all the brand new groups. You get to choose where,
35:38
Speaker 1: night of the week, what kind of group. But you
35:40
Speaker 1: don't need to remember that. What you do need to
35:41
Speaker 1: do is to text NP Groups to 51255. NP Groups,
35:46
Speaker 1: of course, on your texting app, it's the opposite. But
35:49
Speaker 1: text NP Groups to the number 21255. And we're going
35:52
Speaker 1: to send you a reminder the morning that the group
35:55
Speaker 1: registration opens up so you're not late and you can
35:57
Speaker 1: find the group that you want to be a part of.
35:59
Speaker 1: We have men's groups, women's groups, married couple groups, empty
36:02
Speaker 1: nester groups, young adult groups. And, of course, all of
36:06
Speaker 1: your students, middle school and high school students and children,
36:09
Speaker 1: we're taking care of that on Sunday morning for you.
36:10
Speaker 2: They have groups as well.
36:12
Speaker 1: If your group, like our group, kind of takes a
36:14
Speaker 1: break for the summer because people are out during the summer,
36:16
Speaker 1: it is time to call them up and regroup. And
36:19
Speaker 1: you need to meet either the weekend before or the
36:22
Speaker 1: weekend after Labor Day. If you wait too much longer
36:25
Speaker 1: after that, the fall gets away from you. So make
36:27
Speaker 1: sure you pull them all back together. This level of
36:30
Speaker 1: community is not an add-on.
36:32
Speaker 2: It is essential.
36:34
Speaker 1: And we want that for you. And we've done everything
36:36
Speaker 1: we can to make it easy. So please take advantage
36:40
Speaker 1: of that. And if you're not in a group, make
36:42
Speaker 1: sure you get that. You text it in so we'll
36:44
Speaker 1: let you know when group registration opens. If you need
36:47
Speaker 1: to add some people to your group, We can help
36:49
Speaker 1: you with that as well. So that's what's coming up.
36:52
Speaker 1: Next Sunday is Promotion Sunday. So if you have kids
36:56
Speaker 1: in preschool or children and ages, they're all gonna move
36:58
Speaker 1: up and get new small group leaders. Many of them
37:00
Speaker 1: will get new small group leaders. Some of them will
37:02
Speaker 1: keep their small group leader because we love to move
37:04
Speaker 1: the leaders with the kids so there's a relational connection.
37:06
Speaker 1: And also next Sunday, I'm gonna begin a brand new series,
37:08
Speaker 1: four-part series entitled Every Day Courage. The beginning of a
37:13
Speaker 1: series is the best time to invite a friend.
37:15
Speaker 2: So invite a friend. We'll see you then. You're dismissed.