Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - The Fundamental List Part 4 Fundamental 4 with Joel Thomas

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Andy Stanley - The Fundamental List Part 4 Fundamental 4 with Joel Thomas · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Well, I want to welcome all of our Atlanta area churches as well as
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all of our network of churches around the country across the world. It's really
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a humbling thing to be able to join with such an amazing group of people
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a week after week. I hope your morning has gotten off to a great
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start already. We've had a great morning worship as we've jumping in today,
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and I'm excited to continue in our current series. I want to begin with
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a question, and here's the question I want to begin with. Have you
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ever seen an injustice in the world and you thought yourself, why doesn't God
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do something about? Filling the blank? Why doesn't God? You see something
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you think, why doesn't God do something about that? We usually wonder this
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when we look around and we see something that seems absurd or or it's definitely
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seems not right, Like why in the world is the only thing our two
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political parties can agree on is borrowing more money? Like why is that?
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Like? I mean, it's crazy, like we need to borrow more money
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so we can pay the interest on the money that we already owe. I
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mean, it's it's like it's absurd. But I'm not just talking about things
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like that, talking about things that like really seem wrong, like that's a
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first world problem. But like when you look at in the world and you
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wonder, Like you think about God's goodness and his mercy, and you think,
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why would a good, merciful, just God allow natural disasters, pandemic
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disease, genocide, the tyranny that we see in the Ukraine and things of
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that nature. And maybe they're not just far away things. Maybe in your
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world, maybe somebody you know, maybe somebody you love, has been a
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victim of injustice, and maybe they're large injustices or small justice. But you
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see these things and you're like, Where's God in all of that? And
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one of my huge ones is when I see people getting away with mistreating or
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abusing children. And I think most of us can agree on that one.
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It's like I just wonder. I'm like, Okay, God, like,
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where are you in this? Why would an all powerful, all good God?
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Why won't Why wouldn't he do something? And our real question is why
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doesn't He do something? Now? Like I don't want them to wait,
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like it's like, okay, they're gonna get what's coming. I'm not okay
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with that. Why don't you do something? Could you intervene and do something
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right now? And the truth is is this is the reason many people have
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a difficult, difficult time believing in the God of the Bible or or a
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lot of people walk away from or at least re evaluate their faith. And
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maybe that's you. Today we're continuing our series The Fundamental List, and if
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you haven't been with us, we've been talking about recovering the essentials of our
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faith and what we're attempting. The question we're attempting to answer is what is
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the bare minimum? What are the core things that you can't be or you
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can't do without to be a Christian the way Christian was defined in the first
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century. Like we've been we've been asking the question like what's essential, what's
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indispensable, what's central to what we believe? If you want to be a
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follower, not not just a believer in Jesus, but what do you have
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to believe in order to actually be a follower of Jesus and and be considered
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a Christian? What's what's essential? And and then what's peripheral, what what's
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not central, what's what's sort of debatable? What are the things that are
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cultural, maybe the things that are heretical, maybe the things that are definitely
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not fundamental, that that need to be left behind. Because there's a lot
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of people in our world right now they're deconstructing. As Andy said a couple
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of weeks ago, he said that when when what's peripheral or debatable or cultural,
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when that becomes central, the Christian faith for a lot of people becomes
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untenable and it becomes something that that that that it becomes like a burden that's
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pressed on them that they can't bear anymore. And they're just like, if
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I have to take on all of those things, because all these things just
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keep in layered on to what it is to be a follower of Jesus or
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to be a Christian, if all those things are layered on, I just
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can't do it anymore. We want to shed those things and walk away from
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it. So far in the fundamental list, we we have a list of
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three things. We're three parts in Today is part four, and the very
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first one we said is central to all the other things. In fact,
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it's a reference point for everything else, and that is that Jesus is God's
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Son and our King. And interestingly enough This is the only thing Christians have
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agreed upon since really the time of Jesus, I mean all. A lot
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of the other things have been debated, but this is central. This is
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the core of central, essential to our faith. That God sent his son
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into the world, and he sent him to be our king, to be
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our leader, to be our ruler, to be the one that we surrender
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our lives to and to follow. In part two we talked about the fact
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that Jesus when he came, he came to illustrate and demonstrate what God's like.
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And this is really important because you look around and you hear some stories,
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and you hear people represent God, and you look at Christians in the
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world and you go, what is God like? And there's lots of representations.
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But the scripture says, in fact, Jesus said about himself, you
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want to know what the Father's like. You look at me, you look
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at the son. That was in part two and then last time we were
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together, Jesus defines sin. Number three. Jesus defined sin is anything that
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harms you or others. And Jesus talked a lot about sin, and a
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lot of times we get accused of sin or people get shamed or judged,
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And we're gonna talk a little bit about this today for sinning. But Jesus
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was really specific about his definition of sin, and sin is anything that you
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do that's harmful to you, which is why He's given us the instruction he
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has or harmful to other people, and following the way of Jesus is never
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going to be harmful to you or to the people around you. Well,
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a couple of months ago, Andy came to me and he said, hey,
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listen, I thought it would be fun for you to participate with me
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in this series. And I was like, I'm in. And he said,
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great, you take the reality of Heaven, Hell and the Final Judgment.
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And I was like, that doesn't sound like so much fun to me
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anymore. Like I don't know why you thought that was fun. Maybe that's
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fun for you, doesn't sound so fun for me. But here we are.
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And so we're gonna go for it if you're all right with that today,
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if you're not too bad, we're going for it anyway. But it's
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related. It's related to this question here, why doesn't God do something about
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the injustice in the world or the things that are that are not right in
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the world, and this, this question, it reveals something that's universal.
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It's a universal innate desire in all of us. The universal are innate desire
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for judgment and justice. You've seen this, We've seen this recently in our
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world. Diverse groups of people are powerfully united for better or for worse,
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around things they're convinced are not right. When we see things that are not
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right in the world, and you can rally around people around this, I
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mean, this is one of the most powerful unifiers in our world. When
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you see things that are not right, it's it's easy to get a group
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of people rallied around that and against things. It's it's you've seen this.
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It's easier to rally people against things, and it is even to rally people
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for things. But where does that come from? But why do we care?
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And isn't it isn't it true? And we don't think about this this
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often? But you're an above average audiences. I want to I want to
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challenge you today when when you see something that's not right or to know something
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that's not right assumes a standard of something that is right. I mean,
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if you know something is not right, you're you're simultaneously claiming to know that
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there's something that is right. You're claiming to know that there's some sort of
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ideal that's that this thing that you're judging is falling short of. And whether
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we agree or disagree on where the ideal is or where it comes from,
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it doesn't matter. Logical deduction says that we believe that one exists, and
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that's true for all of us because we all find ourselves judging things at times,
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and in reality, what we're doing is we're judging something against our version
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or our view of what the ideal is. And the irony is this is
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a popular criticism of God. Oftentimes, Jesus came to illustrate, as we
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said, and to demonstrate what God is like. And sometimes we look at
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the stories of the Old Testament and it seems like what Jesus illustrator demonstrates,
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it's out odds with what we see in the Old Testament, that God of
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the Old Testament. And the reason is is because when God actually decides to
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do something and deliver his justice, we don't like what he does, or
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we criticize what he does, or we at least question what he does.
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And there's so many people who are like I like Jesus in the New Testament,
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but I don't really like the God of the Old Testament. And we
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try to divide these things. I mean, a good example of this is
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the flood, and some of you don't believe that that happened, But the
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story of the flood is a flood is a story that represents God in the
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Old Testament, and it actually what it represents in the Old Testament. It
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represents God's judgment. I always have to think when I write judgment because I
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want to put an E after the G judgment. It represents God's judgment.
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If you think about this, and God's judgment seems harsh, I mean,
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is there really only one righteous person in the world? I mean, is
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Noah the only guy? And is it really necessary, really necessary to flood
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the world and rid the world of all the other people? I mean,
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come on, when you think about that, you think, why would a
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good God do that? But we want God to do something when we see
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injustice in the world. And the thing is is we want him to do
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something until he does it to us, right. We want God's judgment,
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but we want it our way, and we want it against other people.
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We don't necessarily want it against us. Now here's the amazing thing. The
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third story in the collection of stories in our Bible, at the very beginning
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of the scriptures, the third story at the beginning of our Scriptures is about
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this very thing, and it's the exact tension that exists when things are not
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right or things are not as they ought to be in the world. And
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so if you have a Bible, I want to jump into that story.
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If you don't have a Bible, I've said this a lot of times.
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We'd love for you to have one wherever you are. If you don't have
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a Bible, you can't afford one, we would love to give We'd love
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to get you one. But I think the scriptures are so incredible that it's
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worth opening up for yourself. And if you if you have a smartphone,
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the Bible app is free. And if you have one and we want to
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follow along, i'd love for you to do that. Well, we'll put
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the words up here on the screen, so really quick context. Genesis chapter
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one and chapter two two accounts of creation. One is more poetic, the
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other gives more details of the creation story. Genesis Chapter three is the famous
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story of the eating of the fruit. The serpent tempts Adam and Eve,
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and and and the ideal if you will this, this is sort of the
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ideal in the beginning, the ideal is lost. The fall of man happens
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as it's as it's described, and Adam and Eve have to leave the garden,
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which is this idyllic place that God had created for them, and death
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enters the world, and now sins entered the world, and things are are
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not completely right. And they they leave ashamed and cover up and hiding from
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each other and from God. And that's just in the three chapters end of
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the story. So we get the chapter four and we find out that ab
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and Eva are starting their family and they have two kids, Cain and Abel.
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Caine's the older one, Able's the younger one. Genesis Chapter four,
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third story in the Bible. Genis Chapter four begins this way. Now,
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Abel he kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. So we find out
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at the very beginning that Abele's a farmer excuse me, Able as a shepherd,
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and Cain's a farmer, and both are doing meaningful work. By the
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way, work is not a curse of the fall. God gave a man
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meaningful work before. He wanted him to fill the earth and subdue it to
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rule over it. And so they're both doing meaningful work by design. And
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Abel is a shepherd and Cain's a farmer. And in the course of time,
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Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the
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Lord, and Abel he also brought an offering, but he brought the fat
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portions from some of the firstborn of his flocks. So they're both making sacrifices,
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which is sort of strange at the very beginning, But there's something in
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aid in them that knows that they need to make a sacrifice, which again
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seems like a little bit of a strange thing. But we all do this,
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don't we. I want you to think about this in your life.
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You make sacrifices all the time. You sacrifice in terms of your time,
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and you sacrifice in terms of your money. And we offer our talents and
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we leverage our assets towards other things, and we do this. We do
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this, and we try to sacrifice. And when we try to sacrifice,
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we try to make the right sacrifices, don't we. You think about this,
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and this is a daily thing. Sometimes we do this consciously, sometimes
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unconsciously, But you're trying to sacrifice the right things and make the right decisions
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for the right reasons, sacrificing for the right people and the at the right
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time. And you're doing this because you want things to go well for you.
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You want things to go favorably for you. So we want to prosper.
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We want to make the right sacrifices so that we can leverage the resources
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that we have so things that will go well for us. And and we
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see in the story the able Able is making a sacrifice. Now I don't
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I don't you have to kind of read between the lines here, but basically
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what this means when when Abel's giving his first and best to God, he's
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he's making God the priority of his life. It says that he brought the
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fat portions and he brought the first, the first born of his flock.
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Able's basically going my priority, the first and best of mine. I'm gonna
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give first to God. I'm going to see God as the priority in my
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life. And and Cain, Cain, he makes a different sacrifice. And
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what Cain does is he just sacrifices sort of his leftovers and he fate.
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Caine actually keeps the first and best for himself, and and in many ways
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it's it's sort of the same same sin as as in the beginning of Creation.
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He sort of decides, no, no, I'm most important. Is
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this stuff that I have? It's for me first, not for God or
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for others first. And so this is how canaan Abel decide to make their
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sacrifices. So the story goes on, and the Lord Lord looked with favor
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on Able and his offering, of course he did, but I'm Cain and
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his offering he did not look with favor. So here it is this is
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it God? Maybe for you, if you're new to faith or new to
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being a Jesus foller, I want you to think about this as the ideal
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if you're not ready to embrace the story in its totality and who God is
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in the story. It's God that the ideal is judging their sacrifices, and
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according to God's judgment, the judgment that God makes is that able sacrifice is
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favorable. He Able puts himself in a position where he can be faith by
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God, and Cain's sacrifice is unfavorable, which just side note and a little
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bit of a you know, nerdy preacher thing. Is I always used to
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get these guys mixed up, Cain and Abel, But you'll never get them
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mixed up again. Because Abel had the favor of God. That's why he
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was favorable. I hat a little bit of applause on that one. He's
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he's favorable, so so so Abel, things are gonna go well for Abel.
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This is this is He's got God's blessing and and and his sacrifices are
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favorable. And even if you're not a Christian, you still believe that some
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sacrifices are more favorable than other sacrifices. You make some sacrifices that are unfavorable,
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and you sacrifice the wrong things and things don't go well for you,
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and other times you sacrifice the right things and they go well for you.
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So obviously, Cain, he doesn't like this. He he Caine gets very
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angry and his face is down cast, which is precisely what happens when you
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get judged, isn't it. When we feel judged, we oftentimes we feel
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shame and we feel embarrassment when when somebody calls us out. But but that's
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vulnerable, and we don't let We don't want to seem vulnerable, especially or
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being judged, because that feels weak. And so with the corresponding emotion that's
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unvulnerable is anger. And so we that that shame or embarrassment. It often
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presents itself as resentment. And so this is what's happening with Cain is is
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he's angry and his face is downcast, and he doesn't want to look up
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towards God. He doesn't want to relate to God. And the Lord he
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comes to Cain and and he said, why are you angry? And why
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is your face downcast? Which you know again this is this is a strange
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thing. It's that this isn't this isn't normal. But but his he's angry
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and he's downcast because he's being judged. That's exactly what happens when we're judged.
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And and so so Cain, he he feels angry and he feels downcast.
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And God comes to him and he says, look, if you do
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what is right, will you not be accepted? And if you do not
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do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. He involves this
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idea of sin. If you do what's right, your sacrifice will be accepted,
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things will go well for you. But if you do not do what
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is right, Sins crouching at your door and it desires to have you,
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but you must rule over it. It's sort of like, this is what
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God's response is. It's like, I mean, okay, Kane, duh,
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I mean, what do you think was gonna happen? I mean,
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if you make the right sacrifices, and we know this, things go typically
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go fairly well, as well as they can go in a broken and difficult
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world. But things go typically well. But if not, if you don't
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make the right sacrifices, if you don't live in the right way, like
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you invite the consequences to your doorstep, is what he's saying. Like,
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sins comes crouching at your doorstep. And here's the thing. These things will
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catch up with you eventually. They're at your doorstep, and you've invited him
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there because of the choices that you've made. Now this is so important.
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This is there's sort of a subplot within the story. Cain's not just anger
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with God, and his face is not just downcast because of God. The
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sacrifice of his younger brother is judging him. The way his younger brother is
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living, the way Abel is living is a tangible representation of the ideal of
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the ideal way you should live, and the choices that you should make,
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and the decisions and the right sacrifices. And whether you believe these are two
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real people in this story happened or not, it doesn't even matter, because
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the story is exactly right. I believe the story because Jesus affirms it,
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but the human experience confirms it. Think about this when your wife raves about
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how wonderful her friend's husband is and he is, by the way, or
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when your kids talk about how great their friend's parents are and they are,
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or when your boss highlights how how competent your coworker is and they are,
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you feel simultaneously it says how insufficient, incompetent or lame you are. And
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you may be, by the way. But but this is how you feel,
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right, isn't it. I mean, this is how you feel either
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way, we feel judged and it doesn't feel good. And there's two options.
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The first option is we can be inspired by that. We can be
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inspired by the comparison that that that we sometimes think is unfair and and and
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it's it's something that shouldn't be made. But we can either, you know,
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be mad about that and be angry about that and feel judged about that,
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or we can decide to be inspired and reach towards the ideal and stretch
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the best we can. Or we can do what Caine does. Cain said
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to his brother Able, he said, let's go out in the field.
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And while they were out in the field, Caine attacked his brother Abel him.
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So you can either stretch towards the ideal or you can try and rid
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it from your life. And the Lord said to Cain, he said,
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where's your brother Abel? And Kane says, I don't know. He replied,
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am I my brother's keeper? And some of you didn't even know that
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that came from the Bible. Am I my brother's keeper? Which is a
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phrase that's lived on into the world. It's sort of this, I mean,
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this isn't my responsibility. And the Lord asked this question. He says,
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what have you done? What have you done? This is a really
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important question. It's a question that's relevant for you and for me. And
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so what has he done? I mean literally he's killed his brother, but
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functionally, instead of choosing to make a more favorable sacrifice, which was an
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option for Cain. By the way, it's not like he's completely out of
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favor with God forever. It's like, you can change, you can course
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correct, you can begin to make the right sacrifices, favorable sacrifices. But
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Cain decides not to do that. Instead of doing that, he attacks,
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and he eliminates the thing that represents the ideal that's judging him, and he
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destroys the judge because he resents it. We do this too, I mean,
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maybe not murder, but when we see someone or are compared to someone
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who's a more ideal whatever it is, than we are, we do our
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very best to discredit or to eliminate the judge. It's like, oh,
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wow, Tina, Tina's husband. Yeah, he's thoughtful, he's a really
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amazing guy. Too bad, he's ugly and he doesn't make much money.
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And have you seen the car he bought for it? I mean it's terrible.
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And he's a crappy golfer too. I mean, I mean, come
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on, you don't want to be married to Tina's husband? I mean,
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do you? I mean, I mean, I think you got it pretty
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good the way you are. I mean, it's things are pretty good here,
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aren't they. I mean, this is what we do. And you
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know I sort of jest. But the truth is is it's easier to destroy
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it, to tear down the thing we're being judged against, than it is
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to pursue it, than it is to humble ourselves and stretch toward it and
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to prioritize it. And if that's all there was to this story, that's
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more than enough. It's more than enough for us today. But most people
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don't know what happens next in the story. In fact, most church people
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people have been around church their whole life. I mean, because the second
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part of the story is not what gets highlighted, but the second part of
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the story is the most important part of the story. God comes back and
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he says, listen, your brother's blood it cries out to me from the
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ground, which is sound. That's just a hunting phrase in general. He
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says, Now, look, you're under a curse, and you're driven from
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the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
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And when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for
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you, and you will be a restless wanderer on earth now. As haunting
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as that language is, I actually read that and I go, wait what
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I think he's letting him go? Like I mean, it seems like Cain's
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getting away with it. I mean, it's anybody with me? I mean,
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just just think about it for a second. He's killed his brother and
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he basically just lost his job. That's it, I mean really, I
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mean, okay, just all powerful God, that's how you're gonna deal with
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this situation. I mean, is anybody with me? I mean maybe I'm
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the only crazy one. Anybody here? I mean, by show of hands
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at all our locations, wherever you are, this's important. Is anybody else
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think Cain deserves a harsher punishment than losing his job? Anybody with me?
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Raise your hand's real high? Okay, I want you to look around.
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Raise your hand. No'll keep your hands up. If people don't have their
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hands up, you should be suspicious of those people. Cain killed his brother.
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People. But look what Cain says. Cain says to the Lord,
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my punishment is more than I can bear, which is like what me and
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my brother used to say to my mom when she would deliver the discipline in
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our household that did not bother our backside whatsoever, because we didn't want judgment
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from our dad. Like it's like, oh no, it's more than I
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can bear because I don't want anymore. But this is really not that big
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a deal, you know. It's like, that's what I would expect him
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to say. He goes on, He goes today, you are driving me
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from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence, and I
24:17
will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill
24:22
me. Okay, maybe God's a little smarter than I thought he was,
24:27
and justice will be served. But the Lord said to him not so,
24:36
anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over by my hand. And
24:45
then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him
24:51
would kill him. I struggle with this for a long time. I've thought
24:55
about this for a long time, and I read and I listened to a
24:57
lot about this. Why would God do that? Why would God protect Cain?
25:04
And the best I can tell is it's because of God's grace, Yeah,
25:10
his grace for Cain. But more than that, I think even more,
25:14
Yes, it's extraordinary grace towards kin. But I think even more than
25:18
that, it's towards those who would want to take up the cause of Abel.
25:23
It's Abele's family who would be tempted towards retribution. I want you to
25:27
think about this for a minute. I mean, this is this is this
25:30
is way more relevant for us murder or or or injustice or when people are
25:37
discriminated against, where people are hurt, it provokes and promotes revenge, doesn't
25:44
it. It causes us to want to do something to get back at or
25:49
to avenge the people that we love. And Abel has a family, and
25:55
he has descendants. We know this, and and they're going to be tempted
25:57
to go after Cain. That's just that's natural, and that's normal in the
26:02
broken, fallowing world that we live in. But tolerance for retribution it destroys
26:07
societies. When anybody and everybody can take justice into their own hands, it
26:11
destroys people, and it destroys society. Playing judge and taking justice into their
26:18
own hands just makes Abel's family just like Caine. God doesn't want that for
26:25
them. See, the role of a just judge is too much for any
26:30
one of us to bear. That's why in our societies, we have juries.
26:33
And even in that, if you ask people who've been on a jury,
26:34
if they've been in a really difficult trial or a murder trial or something
26:38
where you're to determine somebody's future and the justice for somebody else and you're not
26:42
sure what the what the answers are if you ever talk to somebody in those
26:45
situations, I mean, you wrestle and you struggle, and you lose sleep
26:49
and you can't eat. I mean, these are difficult things. It's because
26:52
we weren't designed for that. You weren't. You weren't designed to be a
26:59
just and a final judge of anything, and we're not good at it anyway.
27:03
Right, how many times have you prejudged or misjudged somebody or something unjustly?
27:08
I mean, just just last week, my two boys, we have
27:11
bigs and littles, We have teenagers, and we have two little guys,
27:15
our nine and seven year old, and the nine and seven year old coming
27:17
running in the room and I heard them fighting in the other room. They
27:19
come running in. The seven year old's crying, The nine year old's running
27:22
behind him to make sure he tells the right story. Then the seven year
27:26
old comes in the provoker, I'll call him. He comes running in and
27:29
I've seen this a thousand times before. I know exactly what's happening, So
27:32
before it even starts, I just jump in and I go, tell me,
27:34
what did you do to your brother? I know you did something,
27:37
you know, and I just I just go off and I let him have
27:40
it. And my nine year old goes, no, no, no,
27:42
that's actually not what happened. Dad. I started it, and I'm like,
27:47
I am not worthy to be your dad. And so I started apologizing
27:52
to my seven year old. And the truth is is we're not good at
27:56
this. We're quick to judge, were we judge incorrectly, we misjudge.
28:00
So here's the thing. God puts an end to this right away. He
28:04
despite Cain's appalling crime against his brother, no one's gonna receive to seek retribution
28:11
against Cain or else. Nobody can do that. And then this is the
28:15
strange part. We don't have time to look into this today, but the
28:18
strange part of the way that this part of the story ends is is Cain
28:22
on brand by the way he continues sinning, and he decides he's gonna continue
28:26
to act as if he's God, which again is the same sin as in
28:30
the gardens, the first sin. And if God's gonna avenge him seven times,
28:36
he is gonna avenge his kids seven times because He's like, this isn't
28:40
gonna end with me, and Able's kids might take take retribution against my kids.
28:44
And so if somebody touches one of my kids, I'm gonna avenge them
28:47
seven times, and my grandkids, I'm gonna avenge them seventy seven times,
28:52
and its spirals and all the way down the line generations later comes Tubalcane,
28:59
which is of kin, and he's created He's he's credited with creating weapons of
29:03
war, and things are out of control and destructive in this lineage of this
29:11
family and the next story in the scriptures. Anybody know the next story in
29:15
the scriptures? People get nervous when I when I kind of like give Bible
29:21
quizzes in church, But you know, it's not a bad thing. We
29:23
used to do that all the time in church, Like the preacher would wait
29:26
for the answer, like I'm kind of stalling right now, but I'm giving
29:29
you a really I'm giving you a really big clue right here, Like anybody
29:33
know the next story that happens in the scriptures. Nobody the flood, and
29:41
it is by no coincidence. By the way, this is this I think
29:45
about this. This is mind blowing to me. This is an archetype for
29:49
everything that happens after the fall. Do you know this? Like this?
29:52
In the first few chapters of the Bible, the ideal is created in the
29:56
garden, the ideal is is created. You know, you remember this part
30:00
the tree in the garden. There's the ideal world that Adam and Eve a
30:06
in and and then they sin against God and and they're cast out of the
30:11
garden, and the ideal is lost. And things are not right in the
30:14
world. Things are not going well in the world. And there's there's two
30:17
paths. There's two options for how you can live. You know, it's
30:21
not like it's not like there's only one way to live. There's there's two
30:23
sort of separated paths for how you can live life. And you can either
30:29
choose to live and make the right sacrifices and live one way that's favorable,
30:33
or you can choose to live another way and it's it's not favorable and it's
30:36
not gonna go well for you. And in the end, there's judgment for
30:40
this. I mean, this is just the first few chapters, just really
30:44
quick. And this is a side note. I try to make a case
30:47
as much as I can. This thing is brilliant. Do you know what
30:52
we hold in our hands? From a sociological and psychological perspective, the story
30:57
this book, just the few chapters, is inconceivably brilliant, and we take
31:03
it for granted. And just the first few chapters you don't even have to
31:07
read far. You find the meta narrative for all of human history. How
31:14
to live, how not to live? We said in week one Jesus came
31:21
to show us that he shows up as a rabbi. He says, follow
31:23
me, I'm gonna show you how to live. And we said in week
31:27
one of the fundamentalists that Jesus is God's son, and he's our king,
31:32
and he's the ruler, and he's he's gonna have the final judgment. He's
31:36
God's final king and he gets the final say. In fact, he tells
31:40
us in John chapter five, he says, the Father judges no one,
31:42
but he's given all judgment to the son. And when we think of final
31:48
judgment, I mean this is this is fun to talk about. It kind
31:51
of makes people nervous. But when we think of final judgment, what everybody
31:55
wants to hear about is, Hey, what's gonna happen in the end?
31:56
Like how are people gonna be judged? And who's gonna actually get to show
32:00
up and go to the pearly gates and who isn't and when is that gonna
32:05
happen? And how is that gonna happen? And we use big church words
32:07
like eschatology and and and rapture and like what what's gonna happen in the end?
32:13
And I'm not making fun like like those are those are all important things
32:15
and and and key things that the Bible talks about. The problem is is
32:21
is none of that is actually really clear as to what happens in the end.
32:24
But but preachers like me oftentimes they use things like you know, stories
32:30
in the scripture and people are like somebody's like things are off the rails.
32:34
Wait till Andy gets back, like what are we talking about? But like
32:38
we we use things like this to like scare people, like scare people into
32:43
things, to literally like scare the hell out of people and scare people into
32:47
other things. And it's like that's what we want to do, and and
32:51
and and again. Jesus promises judgment, and he the details and the sequence
32:55
are honestly aren't clear. And it is clear that there will be a judgment
32:59
in the end, and and the things of the kingdom of heaven and the
33:01
things that are from the enemy, the things that have hell will be separated.
33:07
But we don't we don't. We don't know the details. We don't
33:09
know when this will happen, and how and for how long? And and
33:14
and those are all things that are non essential that we get fixated on.
33:19
Here's what is on the fundamentalist. What is on the fundamentalist is that Jesus
33:23
he promises justice in the end, and he invites us to trust him in
33:30
the meantime. Jesus promises justice in the end, justice will be served,
33:37
all will be made right. And in the meantime, in the meantime,
33:43
he says, will you trust me? Will you trust me? For how
33:52
to live this life? How the proper way to live out being my follower
33:58
in this world in a broken world, the best way, the best possible
34:01
way for things to go well, for you to go, things to go
34:05
favorably for you, And we're to live in light of this promise. You
34:09
see this same temptation that existed with the first humans. This is this is
34:16
gonna be one of my most fun drawings. It's gonna be a hard one.
34:20
But the same temptation that existed in the beginning still exists in the world.
34:27
I mean, we think of the stories of the Bible, is these
34:30
old Bible stories and they're archaic, and I mean, did any of that
34:34
stuff really happen? And you know, we saw it on a flannel graph
34:37
and now somebody's drawing and on a chalkboard, and that's all a little bit
34:39
strange. But but you know, we hear these stories and the scriptures and
34:45
we wonder like does that really exist and does that really matter? And does
34:49
that really relate to me? But the truth is is there's still an enemy,
34:54
and there's an enemy that's that's tempting us, and he's tempting us to
35:00
put ourselves first, to put yourself first in every situation, to not trust
35:06
Christ and the way he's asked you to live and the way he's encouraged us
35:09
to live our lives, and he's asking you to trust him. Jesus asked
35:14
you to trust him, but there's also an enemy that he's come and Jesus
35:17
that he's come to steal and to kill and to destroy. And the truth
35:22
is is is when we trust Jesus and we choose to live our lives one
35:29
way, we actually bring the favor of Heaven down into our lives. And
35:32
you know this. You bring good things when you follow the way of Jesus.
35:37
Things go well for you, and they go well for people around you.
35:39
But we also have done this. A lot of us have brought hell
35:44
up into our lives by making the choices we've had and by no other fault
35:49
of anybody but ourselves. And in some cases been you've experienced the fault of
35:52
other people's decisions, But many of us have experienced bringing hellish things and circumstances
35:59
up into our own lives and into our relationships because the way we've lived,
36:02
and you know this and you've seen it, some of you have experienced this.
36:07
But trusting Jesus to be the final judge and bring ultimate justice is choosing
36:14
to follow his way in the world, choosing to follow the way he taught
36:17
us to live. And in fact, Jesus taught us all sorts of things
36:21
He taught us not to return evil for evil. He taught us to turn
36:23
the other cheek. He taught us to be generous. He taught us to
36:27
go the extra mile, to love our enemies, to pray for those who
36:30
persecute us, to put others first, to live for later. As if
36:35
we really believe that He's going to bring justice and that there is eternal ideal
36:42
waiting for us one day. See, trusting him to bring justice to all
36:47
things is not doing nothing. There's all sorts of things He's taught us about
36:52
how to live our lives. But as Postle Paul tells us, we must
36:58
all stand before Christ to be judged one day. We will each receive whatever
37:01
we deserve for the good or the evil we have done in this earthly body.
37:07
This isn't to torture, to torment, or to terrify anybody. It's
37:12
to encourage us to provide hope. Nobody gets away with anything. Everyone will
37:19
give an account, which at this point this is where people try to scare
37:23
people. The truth is is, as Christians for eternal salvation, we're going
37:29
to be judged on the basis of Christ. In fact, that's what we're
37:32
going to talk about next week in Part five. It's all about that.
37:37
But the truth is, we will still all give an account for how we've
37:40
sacrificed and prioritized and followed and chose to trust him. In the meantime,
37:50
each one of us will give an account. Recently, I went through a
37:55
really difficult thing. And it wasn't, you know, very public, actually
38:00
a really personal thing. And I had a friend. I had a good
38:04
friend that I trusted, and I years ago invited him into a circle of
38:07
friends. And it's a circle of friends with people that I trust, and
38:12
we share things with and in that group we have meaningful discussions about how to
38:16
how to lead church, a group of pastors, and and and this friend
38:24
decided to betray the confidence of the group, particularly to betray me, because
38:30
I invited him into the group. And it cost another friend of mine significantly,
38:37
like all sorts of terrible things we're said about this person. And I
38:45
was mad because I feel like, hey, I brought you into this group,
38:49
and and now your decisions are hurting somebody I care about and somebody I
38:54
love, And it consume me for weeks. Some of you have experienced things
38:59
like this. In fact, it bothered me more than the person that he
39:02
targeted. It just consumed me. I actually full confession. I didn't plan
39:08
to tell you this, but I drafted several posts. I was ready to
39:12
go public. I was gonna go after this person, and like I got
39:14
enough followers, like people are gonna people are gonna know, like i'ma I'm
39:17
gonna take this on. And then I was reminded, he's gonna give an
39:24
account, but so will I. And it's not mine to judge. I'm
39:35
not a just judge. I don't deliver justice rightly. It's important. Don't
39:44
hear anything else. You will not be rewarded. We will not be rewarded
39:47
for how well we judge other people. We've gotten good at it. Ask
39:52
Christians, an't we You're not gonna be rewarded for that. Only the one
39:59
who made the ultimate sacrifice has earned that right. You see, when God's
40:05
final king came into the world and he decided to come and deliver his justice,
40:12
which is extraordinary, he came into the world and he said he came
40:15
to serve, and he came into the world. He said, I'm a
40:22
shepherd, and I'm the good shepherd. And instead of exacting his justice,
40:30
he delayed it. He chose to delay his justice, and he delayed his
40:37
justice so that everyone who hadn't lived properly, who hadn't made the right sacrifices,
40:46
who hadn't made the right decisions, who hadn't been lived perfectly, who
40:51
hadn't experienced the things of heaven that could go well for them and favorably for
40:54
them in life that have pulled hell up into their lives, those people,
41:00
those people would have the opportunity to turn to him and receive his sacrifice.
41:07
And he called himself the good shepherd who came to lay his life down for
41:13
his sheep, and in doing so he earned the right to be trusted.
41:21
Fundamentalist number four. Jesus promised justice in the end, and he invites us
41:25
to trust him in the meantime