Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - Reclaiming Irresistible

Transcript

Andy Stanley - Reclaiming Irresistible · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:01
Today what I wanted to do, and it's a little bit awkward, so
0:04
trust hope you'll trust me. I wanted to tell you to spend a few
0:07
minutes talking to all of our churches to give you the backstory of my book,
0:11
Irresistible, And I promise I'm not trying to sell books. In fact,
0:14
if you've been here for very long, I never talk about my books
0:16
and church. The only time I ever talked about a book was once I
0:19
gave everybody a copy, but we were much smaller than Okay, I would
0:23
have to get a second mortgage on my house to buy you all a books.
0:26
So the point of talking about this today to all of our churches is
0:30
that you are very much a part of this book and very much a part
0:34
of this journey, and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to talk about
0:37
that. For several reasons, you don't even really need to read it,
0:41
because to some extent, we have all for those of you who've been here
0:43
for a long time, we have experienced this together. Twenty three years ago.
0:47
Next month, we're coming up on our anniversary. Twenty three years ago
0:50
next month, we came together to do something unusual. We decided that we
0:54
wanted to create a church that unchurched people would love to attend. And I
0:59
had never been in a church like this, and those of you who've been
1:02
on this journey with us for a while, you'd never been in a church
1:03
like this. We were told in the Southeast you couldn't do this because the
1:07
Southeast was so churched. If you tried to do something different, people would
1:11
just be critical. And they weren't completely wrong about that. And our goal,
1:15
this is very important. Our goal was not to create a church for
1:19
unchurched people. Our goal was to create a church for church people that unchurched
1:23
people would love, for Christians who were concerned about their neighbors, and for
1:27
Christians who were concerned about that brother in law that just wasn't going to go
1:30
back to church, and for Christians who were concerned about the people they worked
1:34
with and the people that they went to school with. And predominant, primarily,
1:37
I should say, this was for a church for people who were concerned
1:41
about the next generation. A church were seekers and starters and returners could seek
1:48
and restart and return. And so we realized early on, and many of
1:53
you were with us at the time, we realized that if we were going
1:56
to reach people that nobody else was reaching, we were going to have to
2:00
do some things that nobody else was doing. And whenever you do things and
2:04
other people aren't doing, and whenever you're the first, people are a little
2:07
bit concerned in fact that they sit up straight and they pay attention, and
2:10
it's easy to criticize. In fact, it's human nature to criticize things that
2:14
you don't understand, and it's human nature to criticize things that you cannot control.
2:17
But we decided, in spite of that, because of the Great Commission,
2:21
we were going to reach people that nobody else was reaching, and we
2:23
were going to take a chance and do some things that nobody else was doing.
2:25
And we did. And when I say we did, I mean we
2:29
did. I mean you did, and we were criticized. I'll never forget
2:32
when we were meeting in Dunwoody Baptist Church over in Dunwoodie on Sunday nights.
2:36
We met for the first three and a half years every other Sunday night.
2:38
I can remember looking as I was preaching and seeing pastors that I knew from
2:42
the area, from the Atlanta area, not sitting standing in the back with
2:46
staff like this watching our service, and about halfway through the sermon they would
2:51
leave. So they just had to come and make sure, yeah, this
2:53
isn't going anywhere, and they would leave. Nothing to see here, nothing
2:57
to learn here. And now I was always so curious about why they weren't
3:00
any more curious. But they weren't curious, and that's okay. But it
3:02
didn't matter because we did some things nobody else was doing to reach some people
3:06
nobody else was reaching. And it worked, and it multiplied, and we
3:09
went multi side and we went you know, internet, and you know,
3:13
it's just been absolutely incredible what's happened. And not only have we grown,
3:16
we've grown with the right kinds of people. We've grown with people who were
3:20
far from God and many of you, we are a part of your story.
3:23
You were baptized here, you raised your kids here. Today at North
3:24
Point, I looked up on the stage and half the band these were guys
3:29
that were pretty much born or raised in our church, who are now you
3:31
know, second generation coming back around to serve the local church. It was
3:36
amazing. Then in two thousand and five, we did our first conference called
3:38
the Drive Conference, and every other year since then we have hosted a conference
3:44
where we were churches from all over the country and now from different places in
3:46
the world show up, and we do show and tell. We say,
3:50
this is what we've learned over the last two years, this is what we've
3:53
discovered over the last two years, this is what we've changed over the last
3:55
two years. And we have just been very open handed to churches all over
3:59
the world to say, come learn from us and take it home and contextualize
4:01
it for your own community or perhaps even your own country. So now,
4:05
consequently, because of your hard work and your extraordinary generosity, especially for those
4:10
of you who've been here for years, their churches all over the place.
4:13
And my wife this weekend is at Red Rock Church in Colorado. She texted
4:16
me last night and I wish I should have just brought the text. She
4:18
said, Andy, you would be so proud about everything about this church.
4:23
They get it. So really, you've just made an extraordinary difference. And
4:29
so this has just gone on and on. Now we have a network of
4:30
churches and it's just it's been absolutely amazing. But in the early days,
4:34
in fact we continue this, but in the early days, the thing that
4:38
set us apart from other churches is that we were focused on the church environment.
4:42
In fact, we had three things that were guiding kind of lights as
4:45
we established these churches all over the city and all around the country. We
4:48
wanted appealing settings. That's why the first time you came here, if you'd
4:51
come from a traditional church, it was like, wow, you know,
4:54
it feels more like home than a church. Engaging communication. It wasn't enough
4:59
to tell the truth. We wanted to tell the truth in a way that
5:00
was engaging, especially for middle school student, high school students, college students,
5:05
and adults. And helpful content. This was the thing I was always
5:10
just banging the table about, Hey, it was true, but was it
5:12
helpful? It was true, but was it helpful? And our goal was
5:15
not to make church easier or more interesting for church people. Again, it
5:19
was to make it more appealing and more engaging for people who had left the
5:24
church, who had walked away from the church, or who were considering faith
5:28
for the very first time. And you led all of this, You modeled
5:30
all of this, you funded all of this. You were uncomfortable with all
5:34
of this, some of you and you got involved with all of this,
5:36
and consequently we've been very, very, very successful in terms of numbers and
5:42
in terms of influence. But while we were busy doing all those fantastic things,
5:48
things that we are going to continue to do, by the way,
5:51
today is not we're going in a different direction. It's not that at all.
5:55
We're going to continue to make it better. We're going to continue to
5:57
make it as interesting as possible and as engaging as possible. But while we
6:00
were busy doing all of that, our world changed. Our world changed because
6:06
of the Internet, and because of the Internet, now all the information and
6:12
the misinformation in the world is at everyone's fingertips, including children, middle school
6:17
students, high school students, and college students. What you may not know
6:21
is this that after nine eleven, two thousand and one, after nine to
6:26
eleven, after we were you know, the world trade centers were attacked,
6:29
and our country was attacked. Following that, in fact, in the two
6:31
or three years following that, there was a firestorm of religious skepticism that swept
6:38
our country. Initially it was anti Islam skepticism, but now that very very
6:44
very quickly it turned into skepticism about all religion, and some very witty,
6:49
very educated, and very convincing atheist authors published several books and sold millions and
6:56
millions of copies. They became rock stars on university campuses. They became rock
7:00
stars and debates, and unlike years before where you had to buy a ticket
7:05
and attend a debate, unlike years before, we had to buy a ticket
7:09
and drive to a city and actually show up on a university campus to hear
7:12
someone speak. Those days are long gone. And suddenly everybody in our country,
7:15
everybody in the world, but everybody in our country, had access to
7:19
all of this misinformation as this group of people began to really war against all
7:27
religion, and over time it turned to Christianity in particular, and it fueled
7:31
the rise of something that many of you, most of you know about,
7:34
that all of you should know about. It fueled the rise in our country
7:38
of what are called the nuns, the nons, the people who are religiously
7:42
unaffiliated currently, and all of this happened while we're working hard in creating churches
7:46
and baptizing kids and doing all this cool stuff. Right currently, about twenty
7:51
five percent of everybody in America, twenty five percent of Americans would consider consider
7:58
themselves religiously unaffiliated. Now that's a high number, but the staggering statistic,
8:03
and the thing that bothers me and I want it to bother you as this
8:07
In two thousand and seven it was just sixteen percent, sixteen percent to twenty
8:11
five percent. That is millions and millions of people. And the thing that
8:15
bothers me the most and the thing that I want to bother you the most,
8:18
is this that thirty five percent of men and women, thirty five percent
8:22
of men and women who were under thirty five years old, considered themselves religiously
8:26
unaffiliated, and most of them grew up in church. Most of them grew
8:31
up going to camp, most of them grew up hearing the same kinds of
8:35
sermons that many of us heard growing up. And maybe most alarmingly of all,
8:41
is this that seventy percent of the unaffiliated, of the nuns, the
8:43
non religiously affiliated, about seventy percent view the Bible as completely irrelevant, ancient
8:52
myth, ancient literature, certainly not inspired. And more and more and more
8:58
there is there is a mood meant to argue that the Bible is not only
9:01
a fiction, that the Bible is harmful. And when this group of people
9:07
are surveyed and the Pew Research Center does these surveys every other year, and
9:11
they get more and more and more statistics. At the end of the day,
9:13
when this group of people are asked, why did you leave your religion?
9:16
Why are you religiously unaffiliated? Why did you walk away from your local
9:20
church? Why did you walk away from a church you grew up in that
9:22
your parents grew up in the bottom There's many, many presenting reasons, but
9:26
at the bottom of it all, the primary answer is simply this. They
9:31
just don't believe any more. And I'm going to pause there and say this.
9:37
For some of you, this is not somebody out there somewhere. This
9:43
is the story of your children, isn't it. This is the story of
9:46
your grandchildren. This is what happened your sister in law, your brother in
9:50
law, and you just don't understand it because they heard all the things you
9:54
heard. They believe all the things you believed. And now when you have
9:56
conversations with them, it's like they're not even antagonistic. I mean they're not
10:01
even defensive. They just basically say, that's good for you, that's your
10:03
truth. I don't believe it anymore, and you can't even figure out what
10:09
it is they don't believe anymore, and you can't figure out why they don't
10:11
believe it. For others of you, you are right in the middle of
10:15
this with your children or your grandchildren, your college son, your college aged
10:18
daughter, your son or daughter, or your niece or nephew that's in graduate
10:22
school and fueling this mass exodus. Fueling this mass exodus, is this that
10:28
once upon a time, once upon a time, a person had to read
10:31
the Bible to know what was in the Bible. Once upon a time,
10:35
when most of us grew up, if you wanted to know what was in
10:37
the Bible, you actually had to go find one, borrow one, steal
10:41
one out of a hotel, you know, drawer. Imagine stealing a Bible.
10:45
That's kind of weird. You know. When I was a kid,
10:48
When I was a kid, my dad's pastor, he and he was parked
10:50
in his reserve parking spot at First Baptist Atlanta, and somebody broke in his
10:52
car and stole his Bible. It's the only thing they stole. I thought,
10:56
what are they going to do? Read it? Vow shout, not
11:00
go there, you know. Anyway, the point being the only way to
11:05
find and the old day is the only way to discover what was in the
11:07
Bible, you had to have one in your hands and read it. And
11:11
most people in a bygone age respected the Bible even though they hadn't read it.
11:16
And most people hadn't read it. In fact, your experience is like
11:18
mine. Some adult when you were a child, they gave you your first
11:22
Bible. They said, this is God's Holy Word. It's all true,
11:24
and you believed it was all true, and you had not even read it.
11:28
And I'll tell let you in on a little secret. Let's keep this
11:30
in the room. Chances are the adult that handed you your Bible and told
11:35
you that it was all true they hadn't read it all either. But that's
11:39
just the way our culture worked. Because everybody had so much respect for the
11:41
Bible, very few people read it. We left it to priests and preachers
11:46
to tell us what was in it. But those days are long gone because
11:52
now you, your kids, your grandkids, and the future generation and this
11:56
generation can discover what else is in the Bible without even owning or opening or
12:03
touching a Bible. This calls for a different approach to what we're doing,
12:13
and post nine to eleven, this created the perfect storm, the perfect opportunity,
12:18
and skeptics exploited. Skeptics exploited a flaw in the modern version of Christianity
12:24
because they had something that previous generations of atheists and skeptics didn't have. They
12:30
had the Internet. They had an all access pass to every single curious person
12:37
in the world, and they have leveraged this extraordinary tool to preach their gospel
12:45
of disbelief to undermine the credibility of Christianity. And they have exploited a flaw
12:52
in our modern, post Reformation version of Christianity, a flaw that is very
12:56
difficult, almost impossible to exploit in a culture that holds the Bible in high
13:01
esteem. And the flaw is simply this. It's a false assumption. It
13:05
is a shared false assumption regarding the foundation of Christianity. And when I say
13:11
a shared assumption, I mean this that Christians assume this. Non Christians assume
13:16
this. Post Christians assume this. Your son and daughter, a grandson or
13:20
granddaughter that walked away from faith assumed this. If you're considering losing faith or
13:26
dismissing your faith, or walking away from faith, this is something that you
13:28
assume as well. And this false assumption that has been with us since the
13:33
Reformation has finally begun to take root, and we're finally paying a price for
13:37
it. And it's why I wanted to talk to you about it, and
13:39
it's why I wrote the book Irresissible Since the Reformation, and we're not going
13:43
to go back and do a lot of history. But since the Reformation,
13:46
Protestant leaders, teachers, and preachers have taught that the Scripture is the final
13:52
authority for Christians. This was the whole point of the Reformation, that the
13:54
Church isn't the final authority, that the Scripture, the Bible is the final
13:58
authority Christians. In fact, we most of us grew up hearing that or
14:01
thinking that. Even if you didn't grow up in church, you assume,
14:03
well, the Bible does marching orders for Christians. So consequently, for generations
14:09
and generations and generations, preachers have said, the Bible says, the Bible
14:13
says, the Bible says, the Bible teaches, the Word of God says,
14:16
the Word of God says, and when you hear the Word of God
14:18
says and the Bible says, Basically, what they're communicating is, at the
14:20
end of the day, the bottom line is if the Bible says it.
14:24
That's all we need to know. If the Bible teaches it, we believe
14:28
it. If the Bible says it, then that settles it. And that
14:31
kind of language, generation after generation after generation has left generations of Christians assuming
14:37
that the Bible is the foundation of our faith. Don't leave early. It's
14:45
not and it never has been. But most modern Christians think it is.
14:52
Most of the Christians that left church thought it was. Most of the generation
14:56
that walked away from church walked away from church to assuming it is. And
15:01
modern skeptics and those that are undermining the Christian faith assume that it is the
15:05
foundation of our faith as well. And this assumption has left many with the
15:11
impression, and understandably so, that as the Bible goes, so goes the
15:16
Christian faith. If you can undermine the credibility of the Bible all sixty six
15:22
books, are any one of the sixty six books, or any part of
15:26
any one of the sixty six books of the Bible, that Christianity comes tumbling
15:31
down. As you've heard me say before, it's like a sixty six card
15:35
house of cards, and we're going to pull out Genesis or we're going to
15:37
pull out leavitigus, or we're going to pull out something in revelation, or
15:41
we're going to pull out some supposed, you know, contradiction in the resurrection
15:43
stories out of the Gospels. And if one part of it isn't true,
15:46
then the Bible isn't true, And if the Bible isn't true, Christianity is
15:50
false. In fact, one of the most prominent new atheists in the introduction
15:54
to one of his books, I'm not gonna mention his name of the book
15:56
right now. We're going to talk about that in the series to come in
15:58
the Internet. The book, he says this. He says, Come on,
16:02
Christians, this is how it works. If Christianity is true, then
16:06
I have a frightful surprise waiting for me when I die. But if the
16:11
Bible is false, then Christianity is false, and you're all living a fairy
16:17
tale. This is the assumption of the modern Church. And I understand how
16:21
we got there, and I'm not being critical of anybody, but the time
16:23
has come for us to call out and draw a circle around this false assumption.
16:27
Not for our sake, I'm fine, not for your sake. You're
16:30
probably fine for your children's sake, for your grandchildren's sake, for this generation's
16:34
sake, and for the sake of the next generation. With the help of
16:38
the Internet, the skeptics have done a masterful job exploiting this false assumption about
16:47
Christianity and what is the church? Then? How has the church responded?
16:49
In my opinion, the church has done nothing. Churches preach and teach as
16:55
they've always preached, and they've always taught. They keep preaching the same way.
16:59
They just tell children, here's your Bible, it's all true. Believe
17:02
it. The children believe it, because the children will believe anything adult tells
17:04
them to believe. The most adults haven't read the Bible. They just assume
17:08
it's all you know. It's since you know the way, because of the
17:11
way they received it. They've held on to their childhood view of the scripture,
17:14
and consequently they hand that off to another generation. And then they graduate
17:17
from high school and we send them into an increasingly post Christian culture, and
17:22
when they come home with real academic questions, we give them Sunday school answers,
17:26
and no wonder they're walking away from faith. Now, there is a
17:32
group that has responded to all of this. Some Christian authors and apologists,
17:36
and they've written many, many books defending the Bible. And I think I'm
17:41
not exaggerating. I think I have read every single one of their books.
17:45
Ask my wife. It's all I listen to because I love apologetics and I
17:49
love this stuff. But here's what I know. The average twenty two year
17:52
old, twenty five year old, thirty year old, in fact, the
17:53
average human being is not going to do that. And all it takes is
17:59
a little bit of the wrong thing to undermine the right thing. So years
18:03
ago, I was sending it home and I'm on my computer and I'm watching
18:07
another rant by one of these very smart, very witty new atheists, but
18:11
at a university campus, just dismantling the Bible and consequently, in his mind,
18:15
dismantling Christianity. And the crowd was cheering and the students were chanting,
18:19
and I mean, he was just having the best time. And as I
18:22
sat there listening, I thought, you know what, defending the Bible is
18:26
the wrong approach to this. I mean, there is a defense of the
18:29
Bible if you've got a lot of time and undivided attention, but you're just
18:32
not going to get that from a whole generation of Christians that the better approach,
18:36
the better approach would be to address the false assumption that's driving all of
18:41
this energy. And so after watching that video years ago, about eight years
18:45
ago, I decided to change my approach. I didn't announce it. I
18:51
didn't come in here and say, hey, from now on, here's what
18:52
I'm gonna do. Here's what I'm not gonna do, because I was figuring
18:55
this out. But I decided I am not going to be a part of
18:57
the problem. We are not to be a part of the problem. I
19:00
care too much about my kids. I care too much about your kids.
19:03
I care too much about this generation and the next generation not to respond.
19:08
And contrary to some people's opinion, not only I changed my approach, but
19:12
I didn't change what I believe. In fact, just the opposite. I
19:17
am more convinced than ever. I would say to anyone, regardless of their
19:19
belief system, I'm without any and I wouldn't blink. I mean, I'm
19:22
so confident that following Jesus will make your life better, and following Jesus will
19:27
make you better at life, and you should follow even before you believe.
19:32
You should follow until you believe It'll make you a better parent, a better
19:36
friend, a better boyfriend, girlfriend, employee, employer. I mean,
19:40
following Jesus will make your life better, it will make you better at life.
19:42
I honestly, I don't know why everybody wouldn't want the narrative of Christianity
19:48
to be true. I don't know why everybody wouldn't want to think that everybody
19:52
gets justice in the end, regardless of what happened to them in this life.
19:57
I mean, who wouldn't want that right? I don't understand why everybody
20:00
wouldn't want to think there is a God in heaven who loves you so much.
20:03
He has invited you to call him father, and he has taken care
20:07
of whatever obstacle there is between you and him. I mean, even though
20:11
it's hard to believe, even though it's difficult to believe. I don't know
20:14
why everybody wouldn't be leaning in trying to figure out how to believe it.
20:19
So I'd even change my view, and I did not change my view of
20:22
or respect for the Bible. In fact, I'll let you in on a
20:26
little secret. Sandra and I are empty nesters. Now. One of the
20:29
cool things about being empty nester if we can get up in the morning early
20:32
and get our coffee and sit and read the Bible and have the nerdiest conversations
20:36
you have ever heard of your life, because our kids are gone and we're
20:38
not rushing off to school, and we talk about it. And she's in
20:41
seminary, my daughter's in seminary, my daughter in law's in seminary. I
20:45
mean we're like nerd upon nerd. I mean we love the Bible and we
20:48
love theology. But I love the generation of students and college students and high
20:56
school students that have left unnecessarily and I want them back. So I adjusted
21:07
my approach, not at an adjust my belief system, but I adjusted how
21:11
I talk about the Bible when I'm preaching and teaching. I stopped saying anything
21:15
that I thought would lend fuel to this false assumption that as the Bible goes,
21:21
so goes Christianity. And I embrace to the best of my ability.
21:25
And I don't get it right, I don't get it perfect. I mean,
21:26
I'm embraced to the best of my ability. What I think the first
21:30
century, our first century brothers and sisters approach was to their faith, to
21:33
the foundation of their faith, and so I stepped back away from leveraging the
21:37
Bible says. The Bible says, the Scripture teaches, the Scripture teaches,
21:41
and I began I embraced an approach that argues from and anchors to the event
21:47
of the resurrection rather than the authority of the Bible. I'm gonna read that
21:51
again. That my new approach. And I've been preaching and teaching this way
21:55
for about eight years, an approach that argues from and anchors to the event
21:59
of the reserrame rather than the authority of the Bible. Because and everyone knows
22:03
this, but it's time that we take what is true and elevated. Long
22:07
before, long before there were Christian scriptures, long before there was a the
22:14
Bible. Long before all of that, there were Christians, and not just
22:18
any Christians, extraordinary Christians, men and women who daily risk their life for
22:26
what they believe. And no one ever stood up in their church and said,
22:29
the Bible says. The Bible says, the Bible says, because it
22:30
would be one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years before there was an
22:34
old and New Testament labeled the Bible. These were extraordinary men and women.
22:40
Because sandwich between the Temple and a Roman empire. Remember, Rome was not
22:45
the first person to launch a persecution against Christians. It was the Temple sandwich
22:49
between temple and empire. They survived, and they thrived, and they weren't
22:56
fueled by a book. They were fueled by an event. This was a
23:00
group whose faith was tougher than Roman steel and tougher than Roman nails, to
23:04
which many of their friends were nailed to Roman crosses because of their faith in
23:11
Jesus. And here's what's undisputable. Today Rome is full of crosses commemorating the
23:18
death of Jesus. The city of Rome and the city of Jerusalem is full
23:22
of Christian tourists. How did that happen? What did they know that we
23:26
don't know or have forgotten. So I've done my best in these past few
23:30
years to step back, to step back, and to teach and to preach
23:34
from the standpoint of anchoring your faith and the faith of your students, and
23:41
the faith of our churches to the event of the Resurrection, rather than the
23:45
authority of Scripture. It began with a series that some of you were here
23:48
for, called Christian Some of you remember that two years later, brand new
23:53
two years later, toughest nails two years later, at last two years ago,
23:57
this fall, who needs God? This spring ninety and after ninety after
24:02
math. I've not spent every single sermoner, every single series doing this.
24:06
We need to talk about practical things, but I've done my best to bring
24:08
you back and to try to lead you into this more formidable faith, the
24:14
faith of our first century brothers and sisters. I stopped saying a long time
24:18
ago. The Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says, the
24:19
Bible says. And what I did instead is I tried to draw your attention
24:23
to the people in the narratives James. Every time I teach from James,
24:29
I say, James, the brother of Jesus, what would you have to
24:33
do to convince your brother that you were the son of God? And everybody
24:37
chuckles, and I'm like, that's James. When James died for his faith,
24:41
he died believing his brother was his lord. What did James know?
24:47
Let's look at James instead of the Bible says, in quoting James, Peter
24:52
Peter, who betrayed his best friend and then he had to face his best
24:56
friend. We all know what that feels like, let's see what Peter has
25:00
to say. John who introduced us to the idea that God is love.
25:03
And John did not believe that life was lovely, or the world was lovely,
25:07
our culture was lovely. But John who stared into the eyes of Love,
25:11
who stared into the eyes of Jesus and determined, this man is God
25:15
in a body. And if God is anything like this man, and if
25:19
this man is anything like God, and if this man is God, God
25:25
is Love. And I've done my best to draw you into the history behind
25:29
the narratives and to focus and to anchor your faith to the event of the
25:33
resurrection. How many times have you heard me say this? If someone predicts
25:37
their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever that
25:41
person says. I have said this every single chance I get. And I'll
25:47
tell you why, Because when you begin to doubt, and your son or
25:52
your daughter begins to doubt, I want you to know that you can anchor
25:56
your faith and their faith, not to the sixty six books of the Bible,
26:00
but to the event that launched this thing. To begin with, every
26:04
Easter, for the past five Easters, I've begun our services the same way
26:07
I've said this. Hey, if you're here today and this is your first
26:11
time in one of our churches, here's what we want you to know.
26:14
We believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, but
26:18
not because the Bible tells us. So it is better than that. I've
26:22
said that the last five Easters in a row. Why because I want to
26:26
anchor people's faith, and I want you to anchor your faith to the event
26:29
of the Resurrection, not the sixty six books of the Bible. Do I
26:32
think there's anything wrong with the sixty six books of the Bible. No,
26:34
this is not about me, This isn't even about you. This is about
26:38
a generation we're losing that we're losing unnecessarily because I'm convinced ninety nine percent of
26:42
the people who have walked away from faith did not walk away from anything that
26:47
had anything to do with the essentials of our faith. And that has to
26:51
change. And I want all those people to come back because I believe that
26:55
following Jesus will make your life better and make you better at life. The
27:00
first century Christians, the second century Christians, they knew what we either didn't
27:04
know or have forgotten that the foundation of our faith is not it is written.
27:11
The foundation of our faith is something happened. Our epic story does not
27:17
begin in Genesis. Our epic story begins Easter morning, when disheartened and sad,
27:23
and broken hearted and disillusioned men and women stared Intoue an empty tune and
27:30
met their resurrected friend and Rabbi who they would later declare as their savior.
27:34
Our story, come on, your story, your children's story, our grandchildren's
27:40
story does not hang in the balance of whether sixty six ancient documents are all
27:45
accurate at every level and could be proven true. The story of our faith
27:48
hangs on a single event. Now, if you think I'm making this up
27:52
art of discounting the importance of scripture, please pay attention. In fact,
27:56
the Apostle Paul, who brings us about half the New Testament set it back.
28:00
The Apostle Paul in the book Irresistible, I spend a lot of time
28:03
on this. The Apostle Paul, who, in this is unimaginable, in
28:06
the course of a day, went from a law abiding Pharisee who was so
28:11
committed to the law and the Temple that he was rounding up Christians and having
28:15
them tortured and executed. In the course of a day, he went from
28:18
a law abiding pharisee to a Jesus follower in one day. And when the
28:22
scales fell from his eyes, he not only could see physically, he had
28:26
extraordinary clarity about the contrast between the old Covenant and the New and the Apostle
28:33
Paul himself says, there's only one thing. There's only one thing that serves
28:37
as the foundation of our faith. And if this goes away, our faith
28:41
goes away. And it was not something written. Here's the words of the
28:45
apostle, Paul himself. This is big, he said. And if Christ
28:49
has not been raised, our preaching is useless. And so is your faith
28:56
and your faith and your faith and your faith and your faith and your faith
29:00
and your faith and your faith. To wait, wait, wait, wait,
29:03
wait, Paul, that's kind of risky. I mean, you're saying
29:06
the whole thing teeters on a single event. Paul would say, yes,
29:11
do not be mistaken. This is not the it is written religion. This
29:15
is the something happened religion. And if this happened, game on, God
29:22
has done something in the world for the world and if this did not happen,
29:26
ignore my preaching, and ignore your fairy tale faith and go back to
29:30
the temple, or go back to your polytheism or your paganism, because Christianity
29:34
is not true. Christianity rests on a single event, and the Apostle Paul
29:42
did not say this about anything else. The Bible did not create Christianity.
29:51
I want the next generation to know that. I want them to know if
29:55
they decide to walk away from the Christian Faith, they're not walking away from
29:59
a book. They are walking away from an event that has been documented,
30:02
and more importantly, they are walking away from a person. The Constitution did
30:08
not create our nation. The company handbook did not start your company, and
30:15
the Bible did not launch Christianity. If you think I'm anti Bible, you
30:26
don't know me, and you've misunderstood me. Let me put it this way.
30:32
Your birth certificate did not birth you. When people came to the hospital
30:38
when your mama had you, nobody asked to see the birth certificate. In
30:45
fact, if I were to call your mom, if she's still alive,
30:48
and I were to say, hey, what's more important to you the birth
30:51
certificate or the baby you birthed, hopefully, she would say, the baby
31:00
birthed. When people came to the hospital after your mother had you, nobody
31:04
asked to see the birth certificate. They wanted to see the baby. And
31:10
the thing I love about you and I love about our church. For twenty
31:12
three years, we've been showing people the baby, and I say, we
31:18
keep doing that. And if it means we have to do some things that
31:21
other people aren't willing to do, to reach some people that other people aren't
31:23
reaching, that's what we do, because that's what you have always done.
31:27
The baby that showed up as an adult man on the banks of the Jordan
31:32
River, and John the Baptist looked at him and said, oh no,
31:36
or oh yes, or oh good, or oh my, it's about to
31:38
happen. The promise given to Abraham all those years ago is about to come
31:42
true right here in our generation. Behold the final lamb of God who has
31:48
come to take away the sin. Your sin and my sin is the sin
31:52
of the whole world. The baby who grew to be a man, and
31:56
the apostle Paul would say about him later in Ephesians two, and if you
32:00
doubt what I'm saying, you need to look up Ephesians two twenty later.
32:02
You know what the apostle Paul said about Jesus. He said, the foundation
32:07
of our faith is a person. Jesus, the cornerstone, the very first
32:12
stone laid, the thing that determines everything else about in the building. The
32:15
foundation of our faith is not it is written. The foundation of our faith
32:19
is something happened. God send his son into the world. The same baby
32:23
that grew to would be a man that, after his resurrection, would gather
32:27
his closest followers and he would say something that it was just crazy. Nobody
32:30
would say this unless there was some evidence to back it up. And they'd
32:37
seen him die, they knew where he was buried. Several of them had
32:42
breakfast later with him on the beach, and now there he was alive in
32:45
front of all of them, and he makes a statement that I hope you'll
32:49
wrestle with He says, no, but who would say this? All authority
32:54
in heaven and earth has been given to me. Do you know what the
32:58
final authority for your life as a Christian is. It's a person. It's
33:05
Jesus. My final authority is Jesus. The foundation of my faith is Jesus.
33:09
It's a person. That's what Paul said, and the authority is Jesus.
33:14
That's what Jesus said. So as the Bible goes, Christianity doesn't go.
33:17
The skeptics have it wrong. Unfortunately, most Christians have it wrong.
33:22
The people who walked away had it wrong, and we together are going to
33:24
get it right. It's not as the Bible goes, so goes Christianity.
33:29
It's as Jesus goes, so goes Christianity, or goes, or Christianity goes.
33:34
And if you want to know how Jesus goes, don't cross examine the
33:38
Bible. That's what skeptics do to take down Christianity. You'll need to cross
33:44
examine a list of people and a list of unexplainable events. You don't cross
33:51
examine the Bible. You have to start with the document called Matthew and ask
33:54
Matthew where did all this intricate, detailed come from. And when you're finished
34:00
with Matthew and you're able to write Matthew off, the game has just begun,
34:02
because then you got to wrestle with Mark, who tradition says got his
34:07
information from the apostle Peter. And once you've discounted Mark just getting started.
34:12
Then you got to go to Luke, who said, I thoroughly investigated all
34:15
these things. Then you got to go to John, who lived to be
34:16
an old man. When you're done with John, then you got to take
34:19
on Peter. Then you got to take on James. Did I mention that
34:23
James is the brother of Jesus? Did I mention he was stoned illegally and
34:30
he went to his grave believing his brother was his lord. Before you discount
34:35
Christianity, you gotta wrestle with James. And then if you get through all
34:39
that which you want, then you're confronted with the apostle Paul, who's smarter
34:43
than you can ever imagined being the apostle Paul who said, whoa, whoa,
34:46
whoa, whoa. Hang on. I was a proponent of first century
34:51
Judaism, and I became a Jesus follower. I have been there and I
34:55
have done that, and i have spent time with Peter, and I've spent
34:59
time with John, and I've spent time with the other apostles, and I've
35:02
been to Jerusalem. I'm telling you God has done something among us and the
35:07
entire Old Covenant was pointing to this period of time and this man, Jesus
35:14
rose from the dead. And after you've taken on each one of those individually,
35:19
then you have some more explaining to do. You've got to explain the
35:22
survival of the church sandwich between again, Empire and Temple. He realized the
35:27
first people that launched the persecution of the Church wasn't Rome, it was the
35:30
Temple. How in the world did the Church survive all of that? Why
35:35
is Rome full of crosses? Why is Jerusalem filled with Christian tourist You have
35:38
to explain that. Then once you get through that, you've got to explain
35:42
jesus extraordinarily detailed account of the destruction of the Temple. How in the world
35:47
did he give that much detail to something that was actually going to happen that
35:51
was considered impossible when he made the prediction. Why is there no mention of
35:55
the four year Jewish war between Rome and the people of in any of the
36:00
Gospels or any of the literature of the New Testament. Why is there no
36:02
mention of the destruction of the Temple in any of the Gospels or any of
36:07
the documents of the New Testament, Because it hadn't happened. Yet these documents
36:10
weren't written one hundred years after the fact. They were written while the temple
36:15
was still standing. You got to explain all of that. You can have
36:19
Genesis, you can have Levitigus, you can have accidents, you can have
36:22
you have Revelation and Filima, and you can have first, second, third,
36:23
John. Just give me two Gospels and First Corinthians, game on,
36:28
Jesus rose from the dead. That's where we anchor our faith, and that's
36:32
where we must anchor the faith of the next generation. And for the record,
36:38
and we're going to talk about this a lot in our next series.
36:40
We don't take those documents, Matthew mart Luke, John, First Corinthians,
36:45
Romans Alars. We do not take those documents seriously because they're in the Bible.
36:49
This is something that is so undermines the credibility of our faith. This
36:52
makes us such easy targets. We don't take those books seriously because they're in
36:59
the Bible. These documents were included in the Bible because early Christians took them
37:06
seriously. This generation needs to understand that. So after years of modeling this
37:16
and trying to figure out how to get this right and leading you to a
37:20
more substantial firm faith. I wrote irresistible for the rest of the world.
37:27
And the reason I was able to do that is because you, as a
37:29
group of churches, an expanding group of churches all over the country, actually
37:31
all over the world, you have never taken your eye off the ball as
37:36
to why we do this. You have never allowed this to become just about
37:40
you and your convenience. You've never the lost sight of the fact that this
37:45
was never about us to begin with. This was never about you to begin
37:47
with. This was about the you next to you at work, the you
37:51
next to you at school, the you next to you on the bus,
37:53
the you next to you in the classroom. And speaking of us, here's
38:00
what Jesus said about us. I would like to know what Jesus said about
38:02
you. Here's what he said at the very end the same speech where he
38:07
said all authority belongs to me, he said, I talking about himself.
38:12
I will be with you always to the very end of the agent. And
38:17
do you know who you is those who are on mission with him? So
38:25
twenty three years ago we set out to be on mission to the best of
38:29
our ability with our Savior for the sake of the world, and you have
38:34
been so faithful to create on ramps for skeptics, and on ramps for people
38:38
who've walked away from faith, and on ramps for people who have questions.
38:43
Together, we have become a community of irresistible people with a message that's practically
38:49
impossible, that's difficult to resist. And so for those of you who've been
38:53
with us for years and have partnered with us and have trusted me, and
38:55
have put up with things, and have given and have served, I can't
38:59
say thank you enough. For those of you, those of you who are
39:01
new, those of you who are watching online. You live in the community,
39:05
but you don't ever come because of the traffic. Hey, we need
39:07
you. We want you to engage with us because we have important work to
39:09
do and it's going to take all of us. Because more than ever,
39:13
I'm just telling you, more than ever, what we're doing here and what
39:16
we're doing around the country is more important than ever because of the changes in
39:22
our society. We should not be afraid of what we might lose. We
39:25
should be more afraid of what we are losing. And we're losing a generation
39:29
and we are not going to sit by and do what everybody else is doing,
39:32
and even do what we've always done and let them slip away. We
39:37
didn't start that way, We've never operated that way, and we're not going
39:39
to end that way. When I talk to church leaders and other parts of
39:45
the country, I always try to end with this question. Here's what I
39:47
say, because they're looking at me like I don't know, and that's too
39:50
hard. I don't know, and the deacons and the elders, and we
39:52
don't do it that way, and we have to pain everything. And I'm
39:54
like, okay, okay, okay, let me just end with this.
39:58
What is the faith of the next generation worth? And I just let it
40:04
hang. And then I look at him and I say it's worth everything.
40:08
And then I tell him about you I do. I tell him about what
40:14
you've done. This is what you've done. Surrounded, I'm founding the kindness
40:30
of you. Love all struck in wander. My heart is overcom once in
40:38
four the chains of my past are gone. I'm changed. I'm changed,
40:52
I'm not who wise to be. I'm saved. I'm raised out of the
40:59
craven. Want to tell me, by the power your love geesus Hobby,
41:08
because of what you've done forever. I'm changed forever. I'm changed. I'm
41:27
changed. I'm changed, I'm not who wise to be. I'm safe.
41:35
I'm raised. You Cley that one tell me, by the power your long
41:45
cheus, hob because of what you've done. This, by the power your
41:55
love Geeus, that you've done. You didn't see me up there, that
42:30
was you. Listen, I'm done. Great churches are characterized by three things.
42:36
People who love Jesus. People who love like Jesus. And here's what
42:43
makes you extraordinary, people with a plan to ensure the next generation is introduced
42:47
to the love of Jesus. And that's who you are, and that's what
42:52
you've done. Let's do it some more.