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Andy Stanley - The Fundamental List Part 5 Fundamental 5 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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So today I would like to begin with a question that if you are a
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Christian, you may have been afraid to ask because it's like, I don't
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can we ask questions like that? So I'm just gonna say maybe what you
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were thinking. But it's also a question that you may have asked in the
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past, and it's why you're not a Christian anymore, or it's why you
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lost faith. Right, It's a question you had the courage to ask,
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and asking the question it became an off ramp to faith or maybe undermine your
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faith. And so here's the question, why can't the Christian God just forgive
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and forget? I mean, can we ask that? Right? It's like
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why did somebody? Why did somebody have to die for somebody else's sens Is
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it okay to ask that? I mean, I mean it's God. God
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could just like do whatever God wants to do. Right, So what's with
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all the dying? You know? I mean, you forgive people all the
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time without dying for them. In fact, you forgive people all the time
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without requiring someone to die. So if we could for just a minute,
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those of us who are Christians, and if you're not a Christian, you're
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like yes, exactly. This is why I'm not a Christian. It's about
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one if you ask this obvious question, if we could just for a moment,
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I'm with you, step outside our faith system for a minute and just
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kind of look at it. Doesn't the whole idea of somebody has to die
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for somebody else, especially a god person. Isn't that a bit barbaric?
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Does it seem a little bit unnecessary? And you have to ask the question
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because this is at the core of Christianity. I mean, this is an
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essential, this is fundamental, This was there from the very beginning. In
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fact, there's the first century creed. This is kind of interesting the geeks
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like me. It's a creed. It's older than any of the Gospels,
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Matthew Martin, Luther John, it's older than any of the Apostle Paul's letters.
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It was created maybe in the first weeks of Christianity, or certainly the
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first months of Christianity. And here's the creed. This is the English version
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of a Greek creed. And in Greek there's a little bit of a rhythm
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to it, because they wrote creeds in such a way that people could memorize
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them easily, so here's my version of this creed. Here's how it would
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sound in English. Christ died for our sins and was buried. He was
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raised from the dead, he was raised on the third day and was seen.
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Christ died for our sins and was buried. He was raised on the
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third day and was seen. There's kind of a rhythm to it, and
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in Greek it has the same kind of rhythm. Because this is how they
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learned theology. They created these creeds and from the very beginning, this is
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what Christians believe, that Christ died for our sins and was buried, he
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was raised on the third day and he was seen. Now, this doesn't
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answer the question that this just makes the point that this is fundamental, This
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is like core to Christianity and they believe this early. But why did he
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die? Why doesn't God just forgive everybody? Why did he as some Christians
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think, why did God have to kill his own son? Or why did
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God allow have to allow his son to be killed? There's Christians with all
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kinds of views on how all that works. Right, and just to kind
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of poke the bear a little bit more, what kind of religion would incorporate
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something like this into it? Right? What kind of religion would make something
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as crazy as as a core tenant? Now, if you raised entner around
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church, you know the Sunday School answer. And I don't mean to discount
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the answer. It's just that we were all taught an answer to this early
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on, because you know, it's an important thing, right, And the
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answer is, of course, that our sin earned us punishment, and Jesus
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took our punishment for us. That's that's the standard, you know, textbook
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answer, that our sin earned us punishment, Jesus took the punishment for it.
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But again, we're talking about God. Can't God do whatever God wants
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to do? Right? I mean, think of it this way. Why
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would God create a standard so high that none of us can attain to it
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and then hold us accountable to it, right, and then kill his son
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in order to somehow make us rite with him. It's as if his hands
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were tied. It's as if he had no other choice. It makes the
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whole system kind of makes God look a little bit powerless, maybe a victim
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of his own arbitrary rules. Some of you are thinking, Andy, you
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think you're about to talk to me out of Christianity? Where are what are
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we doing here. You know, I thought you're supposed to encourage me and
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move us forward. But I mean, but I mean, this is the
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question that begs to be asked. I mean, like, you know,
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sand my wife, she doesn't make me pay for my errors. What kind
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of relationship would that be? Some of you are thinking, I know,
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a marriage relationship, That's what kind of relationship that would be? Right?
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We have to pay for your errors when you do something wrong? Maybe so,
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but not a good relationship. So the point is this whole idea of
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Jesus dying for our sin is fundamental. It's essential. It has been there
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from the very, very very beginning. But not only is it fundamental and
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essential, it's also an obstacle. And maybe it was an obstacle for you
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because it has been an obstacle, as we're going to see from the beginning
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as well. Today we are continuing our series The Fundamental List, recovering the
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essentials of our faith. And the question we're asking in this entire series is
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what does a person have to believe in order to be a follower of Jesus?
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Not what must a person do to follow Jesus? Where we talk about
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that all the time, we're stepping back from that and asking the question,
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Okay, what are the essentials? What's the irreducible minimum of things you have
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to believe? I all kinds of churches, believe all kinds of things,
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But what is core? What's essential? What's fundamental? And the reason is
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such an important question, as we've said every week, is that there are
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so many versions of Christianity. And each version of Christianity, each denomination or
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each expression of Christianity, has its own terms and conditions, right, has
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its own traditions, has its own expectations, has it its own way of
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doing things. Some of them have different use different bibles, different types of
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Bibles. Now they have Bibles that some Christian expressions have Bibles with books in
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it that we don't even use or recognize. They baptize different, we do
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communion different, they pray different, they worship different. There are so many
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expressions, so it's hard to sort it all out and figure out. Okay,
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that's fine, I'm not being critical, but give me the like,
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take me to the bottom line. What must I believe in order to be
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a faithful follower of Jesus? And as we've said every week, and I'm
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kind of digging at all of us when I say this, the only thing
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all these different expressions of Christianity, all these denominations, all these churches have
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the only thing we have in common because we're one of them, we're part
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of the problem. The only thing we have in common is we think we're
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right, and we think the other people aren't right or less right, or
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they're too right, or they think they're too right, or they're too righteous,
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or they're not you know, they don't read the text the way we
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do. They don't understand it, they don't prioritize. So every group,
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every church, thinks we've kind of got the corner on the market. So
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that makes it confusing. And the other reason this is important is because,
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as we've said every week, from the very beginning and every generation, but
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from the very beginning, from the second century on and every generation, new
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and novel ideas get woven into different streams of Christianity. They're new things,
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they're novel things. They're not Jesus things. They're cultural things, they're traditional
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things, they're comfortable things. And sometimes they're not just new and novel.
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Sometimes they're toxic, and sometimes they're destructive, and sometimes they're demeaning to groups
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of people. And when these new and novel and toxic ideas get woven into
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streams of Christianity, oftentimes they are elevated to doctrine in theot and you have
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to do it, and you have to do it this way. They become
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fundamentals. And if you reject some of these new and novel ideas, even
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the toxic ones, well you're out. You're not a real Christian, you're
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not a true Christian. And when that happens, and maybe this is your
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story, when that happens thoughtful and mature people, and you are both thoughtful
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immature, I just know it right, thoughtful and mature Christians. You know
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what we feel like we have to do. Sometimes we feel like we just
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we just have to step back, Like we just got to step back from
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our church, step back from our denomination, step back from that group that
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Bible study. We just have to step back and maybe begin to deconstruct.
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And by deconstruct, this simply means I got to step out of organize the
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religion for just a minute, and I got to sort this out in my
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own head. I got to sort this out for myself. I've got to
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rediscover what's essential, what's core, what's the irreducible minimum and minimum. Because
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I feel like my church or my denomination or my group has added so many
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things to it and I just gotta step back again. Maybe that's your story.
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Maybe the tone or the posture or the approach to faith just made you
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uncomfortable with your church or your group of churches. It didn't seem to you.
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And you weren't trying to be too judgmental, because you don't like judgmental
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people. That's one of the reasons just that back. But it just seemed
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to you that the tone and posture, an approach of your church, it
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wasn't very Jesus like. It wasn't very christ Like. The people in your
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denomination or your church, or whoever it was, they knew the Bible.
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They talked about the Bible all the time. You began to wonder if they
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knew Jesus. So this is so important. It's important for all of us.
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It's important for all of us all the time. So what is fundamental,
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what is essential? What's they can't do without? Specifically in terms of
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what we believe, what's essential and what's merely cultural, what's familiar, familial,
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comfortable. You know what's versus what's peripheral, because then we're going to
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move on when cultural and peripheral become as whenever, something that's merely cultural but
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not essential or peripheral, that's not essential, when it becomes an essential,
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when it becomes a fundamental, when it's late, when it's raised to the
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top shelf, the good news is no longer good news for some body.
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And this is why some of you struggle with Christianity, because there's no room
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for your son, there's no room for your daughter, there's no room for
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your husband. You fit fine because you were raised in it, but there
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just doesn't seem to be room. And suddenly, what was supposed to be
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good news of great joy for all people, it's not good news for someone
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you love. Non Essentials eventually always become obstacles to someone's faith. Now,
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so far, we have discovered several essentials. I'm going to run through them
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real quick as we build on this list. Number one, we discovered Jesus.
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In order to be a faithful follower of Jesus, you have to believe
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that Jesus is God's son and our king. Because he said that about himself.
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Number two, Jesus came to illustrate and demonstrate what God is like.
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This is what Jesus said he came to do. He said, if you
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you've seen me, you've seen the Father, and you were maybe you were
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here in that second week. When I asked this uncomfortable question, there was
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almost a gasp in the room. I asked the question, when you hear
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God and you hear Jesus, do they elicit two different responses in your heart?
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Do they elicit two different emotions? I said, do you like one
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better than the other? Is there tension between God and Jesus? If so,
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you have some work to do, because Jesus came to say, came
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and said, the only way you're going to know what God is like is
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to watch. I mean. Number three, if you're going to be a
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faithful follower of Jesus, you got to accept or believe Jesus definition of sin,
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and Jesus to find sin is anything that harms you or another person,
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Anything that harms you or others, whether it's on a sin list or not.
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And then last time we said, if you're going to be a faithful
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follower of Jesus, the other thing you have to believe is that Jesus promised
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justice in the end, that he's going to return as a judge of mankind.
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We're going to talk a little bit about that in a minute. He
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promised justice in the end and invites us to trust him in the meantime.
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And then today is the least surprising, and I think, in fact,
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I know for a fact that many of you thought, in terms of a
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fundamental list, we would begin with this one. This is the least surprising,
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but perhaps the most perplexing. So we're going to add to our list
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what we were all those of us raised in church, raised to believe that
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Jesus died for your sin to reconcile you to God. And the people who
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were closest to the action Jesus first century followers, they assure us this is
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fundamental, it's core number. The person that made it the clearest and talked
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about it the most was Saul of Tarsus, who was a Pharisee who became
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a Jesus follower. And this is important. The chronology of this is important.
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Sawlived Tarsus, or the apostle Paul as he's known in the New Testament.
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Paul became a Jesus follower four to five years after the resurrection, not
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forty five years or fifty years. Four to five years after the resurrection of
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Jesus. Saw of Tarsus becomes a follower of Jesus, and in his writing
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and in his teaching, he highlights the importance of this core doctrine and teases
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it out for us. Here's how he states it. Then we're going to
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get back to the question of is it this kind of ridiculous to believe in
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the first place. Here's what he says. He says, now, brothers
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and sisters, and real quick, this is a letter to Christians living in
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first century Corinth, and he had already been there several years before. So
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now he's writing them this letter to remind them of what he had told them
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several years before. And again, the chronology of all this is so important.
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Here's what he said, now, brothers and sisters, I want to
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remind you, because this is what I told you when I was with you
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before. I want to remind you of the you on gillion little Greek there
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if I preach to you, And the reason I put the Greek term here
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is is not to show off you can google this, Okay, you don't
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have to be that smart. This is why it is. It's important.
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Ewan gillion. This Greek word was originally translated in Old English as god spell.
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Remember god spell, which means good news, and it's where we got
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the word gospel. But actually we shouldn't even have the English term gospel in
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our New Testament texts. It should just say good news, because that's what
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this word means. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you
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of the Gospel, the good news that I preach to you. And by
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this gospel, by this good news, you're saved, saved from your sin,
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You're reconciled to God, which is fundamental. It's important, right,
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well, but how important? He says, I'm gonna tell you for what
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I first received. For what I first received, I passed on to you
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as of first importance. In other words, of all the essentials, of
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all the fundamentals to believe, this is perhaps the most important one in terms
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of the practicality and the implications for each of us personally. And in the
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Greek text, this means it's first and foremost. It's not just important,
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it's more important than all the other important things, and then he quotes this
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creed that I told you about up top in the message. He quotes this
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creed created by the early Church, and that he had taught to believers when
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he was with him years earlier visiting Corinth. Now, real quick, the
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reason they created this creeds is because there was nothing to read. They created
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creeds because there was nothing to read. There was no Christian literature. The
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Gospels hadn't been written, Paul hadn't written in any of his letters, and
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most people couldn't read anyway. Only about fifteen percent of people who lived in
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large cities could read. And as you moved outside a large city in ancient
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times, people didn't have anything to read. There was no point in reading,
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so they couldn't read. So they created theology around these creeds. And
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so the apostle Paul reaches back and takes this creed and he includes it in
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this letter to the Christians living in ancient Corinth. Here's and the interesting thing
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too, this is kind of for geeks like me. This is one of
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the reasons that we believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead because this creed
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was so early. In fact, the fact that this Creed already existed and
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it was circulating. It was evidence of the fact that the early Christians believed
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and embraced the idea of Jesus substitutionary death on the cross and his resurrection.
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This happened immediately. This was accepted immediately, not eventually, as skeptics often
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argue. So Paul tell us, what's so important, what is the first
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importance? What's so essential, what's fundamental? Here's what he says. For
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what I received, I passed on to you a first importance here. It
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is Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he
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was buried. Now, you're gonna want to write this down because I think
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this is probably my greatest insight for the day. Do you know why they
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included and was buried, Because that's how you know someone's dead. I see
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anybody write that down. I thought, Yeah, that's that's how you know
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someone's dead. They're buried. Their point is when Jesus died, he didn't
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swoon, you know, he didn't resurrect, you know it because he had
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just passed out, and he's like, no. Part of the gospel is
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he died for our sin and they buried him. He wasn't dead, he
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was just dead. He was dead dead right. Then he goes on and
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he says this, now he was buried, that he was raised on the
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third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared. Do you know
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why they included in this creed that he appeared. That's how you know he
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actually rose from the dead. They didn't dream this. But listen to this
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detail. Now, Remember, the apostle Paul has been in and out of
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Jerusalem several times. He knows Peter, he knows John, he knows James,
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the brother of Jesus. They've had conversations. These conversations are recorded in
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the New Testament. Listen to what the apostle Paul writes to these Christians in
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Corinth, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
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and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve and look at
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this and after that, after that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers
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and sisters at the same time. This is what he was told by the
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men and women who were there, most of whom are still living. And
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this is the subtext of this. Is hey, Paul saying, if you
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don't believe me. Just get on a ship and go to Judea and make
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your way to Jerusalem. There are hundreds of men and women in Jerusalem right
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now who saw the resurrected Rabbi from Nazareth. I'm not making this up.
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There's not two or three of us that thought we saw him. Over five
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hundred people saw him at the same time. Not again, he's not writing
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years and years after the event. He's writing just a few years after the
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event, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
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And then here's my favorite one. Then he appeared to James, his brother.
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I know, I say this all the time. See James doesn't follow
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Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. James thought his brother was
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crazy. It's his brother. What would your brother have to do to convince
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you he's the son of God? Hey, Cande couldn't convince you he's the
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son of God. And James is a normal guy. He's like, okay,
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he was really good. He was mom and Dad's favorite. He got
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all you know, okay, and he would made straight A's okay, but
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he's not the son of God. Okay, give me a break. And
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then James, the brother of Jesus, seized his resurrected brother, and he
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calls his brother his Lord Love. That he appeared to James and then to
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all the apostles. So the point is, this is essential, fundamental,
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back to our the way that we say Christ died. Christ died for our
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sins. Christ died for sins and was buried. He was raised on the
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third day, and it was seen, or to make it a bit more
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personal for somebody here today, Christ died for your sins, was buried.
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He was raised on the third day, and he was seen. Now,
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my hunches, most of you believe that. In fact, you believe it
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before you got here. Most people watch him believe that. But some of
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you were skeptical. And that's understandable. Again, let's go back to the
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question. Okay, so that's what the first century church taught. They taught
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it immediately, not eventually. But why did he have to die? Why
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couldn't Jesus just get up and announce forgiveness to everyone, pardon for everyone,
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forgiveness for everyone, amnesty for everybody. He had the authority to do that.
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In fact, we talked about this a few months ago. Jesus used
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that authority on several occasions. One of the most famous stories in the New
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Testament. He's teaching in a house and they hear all this commotion on the
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roof. They drop a paralytic down on a mat to be healed. Remember
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this, And when they settles down there in front of Jesus, Jesus looks
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at him and he's his son, your sins are forgiven, to which I
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think the guys thought, that's not really what I'm here for, but I
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guess that's a bonus thanks. I'm here to be healed. But Jesus just
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announces. The kid doesn't even for ask for forgiveness or confessities to Jesus says,
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boom, you're forgiven. Then there's let little get together during lunch and
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Jesus with some Pharisee and his friends, and a woman slips in and she's
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got a bad reputation, and Jesus just interrupts and points toward and says,
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woman, your sins are forgiven. She didn't even ask, she didn't confess,
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she doesn't even say she knows who he is. Your sins are forgiven.
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Then, the one that's just mind boggling, hanging from the Cross.
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He praised this prayer we've all heard, Father, forgive them like them being
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the people who arrested me and got me here, them peeing, the people
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who nailed me. Here, them being the soldiers who are you know,
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negotiating for my valuables and my robe? Father forgiven. So Jesus had the
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power to just announce people's forgiveness. He did it at least three time in
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the Gospels, which means he probably did it three hundred times during his earthly
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ministry. So why did he have to die for sin? A couple things
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before I give you the real reason. And this first one. If you're
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skeptical or not a Christian, I get it, you're gonna think this is
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a dodge. It's not a dodge. I just need to make sure you
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know there is in a very important category. Okay, And here's the category.
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Something can be true, whether we fully understand it or not. You
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just got to remember that every single day you leverage this every fact. This
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explains your technology. You have no idea how it works right, and when
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it doesn't work, what do you do? Well, everybody knows you unplug
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it, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in and it just
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magically comes back on. You don't even understand that part, right, I
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don't either, Okay, So there you just need to remember there is a
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category that says something can be true or real whether we understand it or not.
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And the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus may go into that bucket for
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you, And that's okay. There are a lot of very practical things in
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that bucket. I am talking with a wire over my ear and a three
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inch by three inch little metal packet with a battery on my belt. And
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if you're on the internet, you can be on the internet anywhere in the
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world and hear me talk. Now, if I had to wait until I
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understood that to apply it and implement it, it would never be implemented.
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But by faith, I put this thing on every single week and it works.
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And I don't know how it works, but it absolutely works. So
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I just want you to know, and this is gonna create an on ramp
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for somebody. It is okay to believe something is true without fully understanding it,
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or apply something you don't fully understand. You do it all the time.
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This is why I say, and again, this isn't This isn't a
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dodge. This is connected to really the foundation of my personal faith. This
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is why I say all the time, if someone predicts their own death and
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resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever that person says, whether
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I I fully understand it or not. Right. And this isn't a laugh
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line. This really is the bottom line. This is my apologetic for my
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faith. See, it's not blind faith. When you watch someone crucify it
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and die and then you have breakfast with them on the beach a few days
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later, that's not blind faith. That's Oh, my goodness, God has
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done something. This is who he is. Jesus is who he claimed to
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be, and you just tell me what to do. I'm gonna do it.
22:23
I don't have to understand it. I don't have to like it.
22:26
You rose from the dead. I'm in I believe. So following Jesus isn't
22:33
blind faith. Following Jesus is a step in the direction of an informed faith
22:37
because of the resurrection, which means from time to time He's gonna say things,
22:41
or do things, or ask us to do things that don't make perfect
22:44
sense to us. That's okay. Now. The second thing to keep in
22:48
mind is this and This goes back to part two of our series. If
22:51
Jesus, if Jesus came to explain what God is like, and if God
22:56
says that my sin separates me from him, then accept that is true.
23:00
If Jesus came to explain what God is like, and according to Jesus in
23:04
the first century teachers of the Gospel, that my sin separates me from God,
23:11
then because Jesus said it, I can accept it that's true, and
23:15
I can accept the penalty attached to my sin. I may not like it,
23:18
I may not consider it fair, but so what because on the flip
23:22
side is we're going to see in a minute Jesus has offered me forgiveness.
23:26
And if he says it required his death to pay for my sin, I
23:32
don't understand. I can't. Who am I to argue with that he's offered
23:34
me forgiveness. I'll take it whether I understand it or not. But those
23:41
are kind of the sidebar things. Here's here's the real thing. I think,
23:45
here's the more fundamental, intellectually honest explanation for why Jesus had to die
23:52
for our sin. In other words, there's a sense in which this kind
23:55
of cosmic equation. You know this cosmic confusion. It's not quite confusing as
24:00
it appears. Here's why I say that, like you, God values justice,
24:07
and like God, you value justice. In fact, the reason you
24:11
value justice, the reason we even have a concept of justice, is because
24:15
we are made in the image of God. But here's the bad news.
24:21
Your sense of justice, my sense of justice, is flawed. It's damaged.
24:30
It's self centered. We say we want justice for all, only Superman
24:34
wanted justice for all. We don't really want justice for all. We want
24:38
spray can aerosol justice. I want justice on you. I just want to
24:44
put a little justice on you. But I don't want to get any on
24:45
me. Right. In other words, I don't want to be held accountable
24:48
to all the bad things I've done. I just want to make sure you're
24:51
held accountable and that you come to justice and that you get what you deserve.
24:53
But I don't want to get any on me. This is evidence of
24:57
our flawed damage, self centered sense of justice. Let me make it more
25:03
personal. I don't know you, but let me just tell you about you.
25:07
You get far more wound up about other people's sin than your own.
25:12
You yelling at the TV Democrats and the corrupt Republicans. You know, I
25:18
mean, you can get so wound up about other people's sin you you can't
25:22
even remember a time in your life you were that wound up about your own
25:26
sin. You know why, don't want to get any on me. Don't
25:32
you spray? Oh, don't you spray toward me. I'll spray towards you.
25:34
Because we're our Our whole understanding of justice is flawed. We have a
25:38
sense, there's a shadow we have. We know there's a concept of something
25:42
to work toward, but it's it's broken our army to say it this way.
25:48
Our inability to grasp God's righteousness causes us to overestimate our own righteousness.
25:56
I mean, let's shoy it this way. Don't read your hand and and
26:00
don't cut your eyes. Anybody. If you ever met a self righteous person,
26:03
I don't know who they are, but let me tell you about them.
26:06
They have no clue that they're self righteous. They just think they're right
26:10
all the time. One hundred percent of the time they're right, And they're
26:14
so uncomfortable to be around. And you walk away and you're like she and
26:17
he is like they they are just they're so self righteous, and they don't
26:22
know their self righteous and they don't know how flawed their self righteousness is.
26:26
You know why, well, because they've overestimated their ability to know what's right
26:30
and wrong. They've overestimated their own rightness, and their self righteousness is so
26:36
prideful and so gross that you just don't even want to be around them.
26:38
It's almost impossible to have a relationship with them. You're not aware of your
26:47
own self righteousness either. Neither am I. Because it's flawed, it's broken.
26:52
We know there's justice, and we know that justice should be done,
26:56
but it's I compare justice and I compare rightness to the peer people around me.
27:00
Who has ever stood in the presence of God to compare their rightness and
27:06
their sense of justice and that context nobody. So we have an inability to
27:15
grasp God's righteousness, and it causes us to overestimate our own righteousness, and
27:19
consequently we underestimate the severity of our sin and we underestimate the weight of our
27:26
offense. So on one hand, the whole thing seems to be a huge
27:30
overreaction. God has to allow us son to die for our sin, what's
27:33
the big deal? But it's because of our perspective. It's because of how
27:37
we compare righteousness and self righteousness to each other. The problem is the world
27:45
is a very dark place, and our eyes have adjusted to the darkness.
27:53
We imagine a better world. But even what we imagine fall short years ago.
28:03
And I've told you this story actually years ago. Some of you may
28:06
have heard it before. But so when my kids were we have three children,
28:08
and then when they were six, five and three, our daughters,
28:11
our youngest, I had just purchased a previously owned car. It was super
28:15
dark green. I just loved this car, so the nicys car I'd ever
28:18
had, it was previously owned. And a while in the garage and I
28:21
look and there are scratch marks about six or eight scratch marks about this far
28:26
across the hood, right at the hood of the car, in this dark
28:30
green paint. And it was not an emotionally neutral moment for me. Just
28:36
let me just put it that way, okay, It's like ah, and
28:38
I knew this wasn't like somebody in a parking lot did this. This was
28:41
one of my children. So I marched all three of my children out there
28:45
right and my daughter, my three year olds she was about three she looks
28:48
at the scratches and she's just daddy, Daddy. I plackedice my letters with
28:56
a walk and I look closely, and sure enough it was a bunch of
29:02
little capital a's a A A. And she scratched right through the paint with
29:07
the rock. So how do how does an adult communicate to a three year
29:15
old the significance, the expense, the inconvenience of what she's done? How
29:27
does an adult explain to what three? I mean? She knew she had
29:30
done something wrong just to look in my eyes? Right, she knew this
29:33
was not a I wasn't gonna reward her. Hey, kids, let's all
29:34
go get right, you know? You know, how does an adult explain
29:41
that in a way that what is eight hundred dollars? It cost me eight
29:44
hundred dollars to get the whole hood repainted? Is years and years ago.
29:47
What does eight hundred dollars mean to a three year old? What am I
29:51
supposed to supposed to ask her to pay for it? So? You know
29:56
what I did? What any good parent, please don't miss this. I
30:03
accommodated to her capacity. Let me tell you one of the great things about
30:07
the Christian God throughout the Bible Genesis all the way through. Your heavenly Father
30:15
accommodates to your capacity because he's a good father. So I got down on
30:22
my knees and I looked Ali in the eyes, and I said, please,
30:26
don't practice your letters with a walk on Daddy's car anymore. And she
30:33
said, yes, sir, Daddy walked off. No wonder, we want,
30:44
no wonder. We think we're so much better. Have we ever stood
30:48
in the presence of righteous God and then looked at our righteousness? No?
30:52
So with all that in mind, I want to read you something we're going
30:55
to wrap up. Okay, this is so important. So the apostle Paul
30:59
writes this theological tone. It's not really a letter, it's kind of a
31:03
letter to Christians living in Rome. He's never been to Rome, and the
31:06
church in Rome is very Jewish, whereas he's been talking to Gentiles. So
31:10
he writes a letter to the Christians in Rome to explain to them what he's
31:12
been saying to the Gentiles, because they're explaining it a little bit differently.
31:17
And there was tension between these two versions of Christianity. Acts fifteen's where it
31:22
all kind of came to a head, and they decided, Hey, if
31:23
we're gonna have gentiles and Jews together, we got to make some concessions.
31:26
Right. So the apostle Paul writes this letter, and he explains why God
31:33
had to invite his son to die for your sin. Here's how explained.
31:37
It's a little bit theological, but it's so powerful. Here's what he writes.
31:41
I love this. Therefore, no one will be declared right before God
31:45
or righteous in God's sight by doing good things, rather through the law.
31:51
Through the law that we people tell us is the law in terms of how
31:53
you obey God, or just your internal conscience. He is, we all
31:56
have a conscience, we know right from wrong right, And he talks about
32:00
that in Romans. He said, no one will be declared righteous in God's
32:02
sight by the words of the law. Rather through the law. We become
32:06
conscious of our sin. You are conscious of your sin. You have mistreated
32:10
other people, and you've mistreated yourself. You are conscious of your sin.
32:14
And being conscious of your sin is because you know the rules externally or internally.
32:17
But knowing the rules and even keeping the rules doesn't make you right with
32:22
God. It just reminds you that you're a rule breaker. You're hopeless.
32:24
You're doomed. You can't work your way into a good relationship with God.
32:29
Right then he says this, there is no difference because he's writing to a
32:32
Jewish an expression of Christianity that's more Jewish than gentile. He says, But
32:37
come on, before you get all high and mighty, all you Jewish folks,
32:40
there's no difference between jew and gentile. Famous verse alert, for all
32:45
have sinned and fall short of the goodness, to glory the majesty of God.
32:52
I'm better than you, and I'm not as good as him. And
32:58
then God shows up levels the play and field. Jude gentile, good people,
33:04
not so good people. There's no difference. Olive sin and fall short
33:07
of the glory of God. And that's the bad news. Here's the good
33:08
news, he says. And just this all falls short because all of sin
33:13
all are justified, that is made righteous. Put back on a level playing
33:20
field. Relationally with God freely by his grace, not through doing good things
33:23
or even being true to your own conscience. Through the redemption the buy back
33:29
program. God's gonna buy back the sinners. God's gonna redeem the sinners.
33:32
God's gonna pay whatever he has to pay to get the you know, get
33:35
the sinners out of the hole and get the sinners back into a relationship with
33:38
him through the redemption that came by King Jesus. Wait, wait, wait,
33:45
this can't be Wait you're telling me God sacrificed the final King, that
33:54
God sacrificed his king, that the king willingly sacrificed himself so that I can
34:00
be made right with God. This is why it's called good news. And
34:08
God gets better. And God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the
34:14
shedding of his blood to be received by faith. See, the question isn't
34:20
can we explain it? Well? The question is that do we understand it
34:22
all? The question is are we gonna use the microphone? Are you gonna
34:27
use your computer? Are you gonna push that button that cranks up your car?
34:30
Are you gonna put in a code that opens the safe? Are you
34:32
gonna use the technology? Are you gonna sit around and wait till you understand
34:36
it? He says that we receive by faith. The question is have you
34:40
done this? Have you done this? And then he keeps going. He
34:45
says, and not only that God put on a show, I mean he
34:50
put on a spectacle. He'd put on a show. He did this to
34:52
demonstrate his righteousness because in his patience, his forbearance, he had left the
34:59
sin committed beforehand unpunished. Here's what this means. The human race did not
35:07
get what it deserved when it deserved it. That before Christ came into the
35:12
world, God overlooked and was patient with the sin of every human being who
35:16
had ever been born and who had ever died, until he could get to
35:20
the moment that he sent his son to pay for their sin in the past,
35:24
our sin in the future. This next part, it's amazing. Listen,
35:30
listen to this. He did this another he did this. He did
35:32
this to put on another show. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness.
35:37
This next part we read right by this is epic. He did this.
35:42
He did this to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time. Pause. What
35:49
Paul is saying here is this my generation talking about his generation. He's like,
35:53
can you believe it? Are you kidding me? We are the generation
35:58
Me and Peter and John to Marry and all the other Marys and Martha and
36:01
all. We are the generation. We are the generation that God chose to
36:07
show up to redeem the world. He did it in our lifetime. You
36:13
Corinthians, come with me to Jerusalem. I'll introduce you to the people who
36:17
are part of this story from beginning to end. He did it at the
36:22
present time so as to be just, because he's just. He calls us
36:27
to account. Hey, you're a sinner, your sinner, your center.
36:30
You fall short, you fall short. You fall way more short than him.
36:32
But you both just fall short. Everybody fall he called he's just,
36:37
so he has to point out injustice. He has to point out injustice and
36:39
us. He's both the justice is beautiful language as so as to be just,
36:45
and the one who justifies those who have faith in Christ is so beautiful.
36:50
He says, I'm going to call you out because you're a sinner,
36:52
and then I'm going to deal with it myself. I'm gonna call you out
36:57
because you have fallen short. We're not going to dodge that. We're not
36:59
playing game. You fall short, and there's a penalty to be paid.
37:02
I'm gonna be I'm gonna pay the penalty. I'm gonna be just and the
37:08
justifier. Ali, don't scratch Dad's car up anymore. I love you.
37:15
I'll pay for it. Go see your mama, the just and the justifier.
37:22
So why did God require Jesus to die for your sin? Because of
37:31
his justice, he demands payment. Because of his mercy, he delayed payment
37:42
because of his grace, he made the payment himself one more time. Because
37:50
of his justice, he demands payment. He's just, you understand justice.
37:54
Because of his mercy, he didn't require people to pay immediately, like he
37:59
didn't require you to pay pay immediately, and because of his grace, made
38:06
the pain in himself. There's an epic conversation between j. R. Tolkien,
38:10
you know, Lord of the Rings, j R. Tolkien and C.
38:13
U. S. Lewis. Before C. S. Lewis was a
38:15
Christian, JR. Tolkien would take him on these walks. In fact,
38:16
you can go see where they used to walk together, and he'd have these
38:20
conversations with see us Lewis where he was trying to convince him of the veracity
38:23
and the truthfulness and the epic nature and the reliability of Christianity. And at
38:28
one point in a conversation, according to C. S. Lewis, j
38:31
R. Tolkien turns to him and says, don't you see it's the true
38:37
myth not mythology. It's the true myth. A myth is a story that
38:40
incorporates and explains how the world works. He's going to see us. Hey,
38:45
we both write fiction, we both write these narratives, we both create
38:47
these alternative worlds. But my friend, the story of Christianity, it's the
38:53
true myth that explains everything. It's the perfect story. It's history, it's
38:58
his story, it's your story. It's why. It's good news of great
39:02
joy for all people. And anything that dumbs that down, and anything that
39:07
dilutes that at anything that creates unnecessary separation or unnecessary steps, needs to be
39:12
eradicated. Because it's good news of great joy for all people. Your heavenly
39:15
Father accommodated to your capacity. He is just and he's the justifier. It's
39:22
perfect, and you've been invited. Jesus died for your sin to fix you
39:30
and God to reconcile you to God. And the question is not do you
39:34
completely understand it or can you explain it? The question is have you received
39:38
it, accepted it, submitted to it, surrendered to it. And if
39:45
not, there's no better time than the present. Because this is essential,
39:52
it's fundamental. It is first and foremost. So if you've never done that,
40:00
or maybe you did it as a child and you're not sure it took
40:02
you're not sure you understand. It's understood. I'm going to invite you to
40:06
pray a prayer with me. I just made up this prayer. I greet
40:07
it to you real quick. Here's where's what the The prayer is just the
40:10
way of saying to God, I want to do this, I want to
40:14
do this transaction. You're justin. I am definitely a sinner. You're the
40:17
justifier. I can't do it myself, Heavenly Father, I've sinned. I
40:22
follow in short of your standard of right living. My sin created a debt
40:25
I cannot pay. I believe Jesus' death paid my sin debt. I'm placing
40:32
my trust in Him as savior forgiver. Lord. Amen. So here's what
40:37
I like for us to do. If you're a Christian, I'm going to
40:40
ask you to pray this prayer out loud with me, because if you if
40:45
today's your day, it's like I get it. I mean, I've heard
40:49
these things before, but I've never understood it like this. If this is
40:52
your day, it's not because of good preaching. It's because that's just the
40:57
thing the Holy Spirit does every once in a while where it's it's suddenly there's
41:00
an I got it moment. And if this is your day, I want
41:04
you to hear yourself pray this prayer out loud. But I don't want you
41:07
to be embarrassed, So I'm gonna invite all of us to pray it out
41:10
now. If you're saying andy, good, try didn't get me. I
41:14
get that you have questions I'm sure I could never answer, so I don't
41:15
want to embarrass you. You don't have to pray this out loud, obviously,
41:19
but I would love for those of us who are Christians to do that.
41:22
And if this is your day, then this is your prayer. So
41:25
let's just pray this out loud together. Ready, Heavenly Father, I have
41:30
sinned. I've fallen short of your standard of right living. My sin created
41:37
a debt I cannot repay. I believe Jesus' death paid my sin debt.
41:45
I'm placing my trust in him as savior forgiver. Lord, Heavenly Father,
41:57
it's too good to be true, and yet there's so much evidence that it's
42:02
true. So wherever this lands with us, would you give us the courage
42:06
to fully embrace it. And Father, this is a reminder for some Christians.
42:10
It's been a long time and they've been away and they're back and it's
42:14
oh yeah. I pray they would just embrace this moment to say I'm going
42:17
to follow. For the man or woman or a student, it's the first
42:21
time they understood it. Give them the courage to hang on with both hands
42:24
and say yes, I'm in. But whoever this lands with us, give
42:28
us the wisdom to know what to do, the courage to do it.
42:30
And Heavenly Father, on behalf of all of us, thank you, thank
42:32
you, thank you. Thank you for not sending an eleventh commandment to keep,
42:37
not a list to keep. We fall short every single day. We
42:40
needed a savior, not a do over. Thank you for sending Jesus as
42:45
our savior. Thank you for demonstrating your power by raising him from the dead,
42:49
eliminating any question we might have regarding his authority to make such a bold
42:53
promise. And we pray all of that in Jesus' name. Amen.