Getting Real with God & Man - Part 3 (Romans 14:1-12)

You don't need to stand yet because we're not going to be reading the passage just yet. But church family, we are in part three of a message titled Getting Real with God and Man. And I actually am very fond of the title, Getting Real with God and Man.

If you know anything about this church, we have ministries called uh Real Life Network. We have Real Radio. We have Real Impact. Uh we believe in being real, authentic, warts and all. You know what that means? It means that we're imperfect people, but God saves imperfect people. And what he does, so God gets all the glory. He uses us flawed as we are new creatures in Christ. Yes. Positionally secure in the Lord. Absolutely. But as long as we live in this world and as we serve the Lord, the king of heaven, uh the the drama is that you and I are doing heavenly work with earth earthbound vessels. That is our bodies and that is our struggle, isn't it? And so uh but the whole push for you and I is to give to others what Christ has given us and that is eternal life and that is the forgiveness of sins. And when we talk about being real with God and man, there should be a beautiful, what's the word, is this the right word, to coalesce, um, homogeneous, where it all comes together. God is your Lord. He is your savior. Uh, you are following him and at the same time you and I are to be reaching out to those around us. And it all begins by you and I reaching out to the household of faith, brothers and sisters in Christ. That is the theme of Romans chapter 13, 14, 15, and even out to 16 about how does the body get along together?

You know what's funny about this getting real with God and man is the thought entered my mind uh that it's a sad reality for sure, but you and I being human beings as we are, um, have you noticed that when it comes to church life, we so often have a thought like this uh among others, is why can't you be more like me? You say, "How dare you, pastor?" No, I'm talking about you. No, it's you. You say in your mind, into your head, among those you know, "Why can't they be more like me?" In other words, why can't they have opinions like I have so we can all just get along? Now, as humans, that's what we do. And this is the dynamic of life. Listen, some of you are looking at me and you're going, "You must be married." Because when you're married, being married is one of those dynamics where, "Honey, everything would be great if you just, if you just agreed with me, it would all be great." But it doesn't work that way. In fact, let's push that. What it, what it actually does in married life with Christ is that you've got two separate human beings coming together as one, and we have different opinions. >> We have different dynamics. What are we supposed to do about that? According to the Bible, we're supposed to remember first of all that as a married couple, we are one flesh come together. That means we're supposed to make it work. And if we trust God, are you listening? This is free marriage counseling right now. I wasn't planning on this. If both of you come together willing to obey God, the uniqueness and the opposing opinions by the two of you coming together makes for a better marriage, a better relationship, and a better understanding.

Fast forward into our church life. We've all got various opinions. But when we come together under the submission of Christ in his word, things happen. >> Amen. >> Great things happen. >> And the church moves in power, advancing the name of Christ, teaching the doctrines of God from the Bible. And as diverse as we are, we're on the same page. >> It's absolutely spectacular. It's amazing. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1:13, "In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." This is God bringing the church together as one.

In our previous studies, we looked at this regarding this topic of getting real with God and man. We saw that in the first point was it means in verses 1 to 3 that you and I have a grounded faith. Just quickly, because it's been a few weeks since we've been together. A grounded faith as a believer. If we are going to be uh real before God and man, it means this: that we are going to exercise a practical faith. In other words, don't talk about being a believer. Do it. >> Wow. Exercise a compassionate faith. Compassionate understanding, compassion from God's point of view. We stressed that last time together, not from our view of compassion, because ours is flawed. God's view or God's way of compassion is perfect. And then finally, we saw in our study last time together was that uh we are to conduct ourselves within a unifying faith. And that is the unifying faith means we are going to surrender our opinions where they don't matter. They're just preferences, and we are going to lay down those external things and we're going to come together anchored to the word of God. Opinions are fine, but we don't want to make them the all-important thing. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, "You guys have taken the word of God and you've neutralized its power because you've replaced the Bible," he told the scribes and Pharisees, "with the traditions of man." Meaning, religion will often grab the truths of the Bible and throw them out of the church and then establish man-made religion and say, "This is the right way." When in reality, it's just your opinion. And when we have an opinion, it's to be exactly that. That's your opinion. It doesn't mean I have to take it. I I might. It might be a good opinion. The bottom line is this: it ain't Bible. It's got to be Bible.

And so now we can stand as we stand in honor to read the word of God together. Romans chapter 14. And I'll begin in verse one. And uh, you'll pick it up in the even-numbered verses. It's already a very familiar part uh, as this is our third installment today. So verse one, he says, "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. >> For one believes, he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables." >> Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. to judge another servant to his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. >> Oh, I love that. Verse five, "One person esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. >> He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. And he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and give thanks. >> For none of us, listen. For none of us lives to himself, no one dies to himself. >> If we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. >> Beautiful. Verse N. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. >> But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. >> For it is written, 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God. >> And all God's people said, >> "Amen." You may be seated, church.

Diving into this now, picking it up, we're looking at the second argument of this. And again, the first being that we are to have a grounded faith. Paul is talking about Christian maturity here. Uh, you may be reading this for the first time. Maybe you're visiting or you've just dropped in and and you read that that portion of the Bible and you're saying, "What in the world is he talking about?" regarding eating, not eating, days, not days. Uh, what? And this is all of Paul's, the Apostle Paul's announcement to the believers in Rome that you need to be make sure you need to make certain that your walk, your relationship with God is based on a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ versus one that is rooted in rules and regulations. Why does the Bible over and over again stress that fact so much? Answer: We have somehow been programmed in our fallen state that if we have rules and regulations to keep, we like that type of boundary. We like that type of setting where we can check the box because we feel good about that. And if I've done this, this, this, I'm working on that one. I'll come back to that one, but I got the other one. And those three are hands down easy. And when we can check those boxes, we have a sense not of accomplishment, we have a sense of arrogance. That this is why in religious circles when you have a list of dos and don'ts as that which gives you access or attainments. Think about what is it? Is it Hinduism? What is the one that's all about reincarnation? Until you get it right. >> You just Well, you you did it you did it better this life compared to your previous life, but the next life you got to do better again. Oh, boy. Good luck. No, no, no. But see, it's so built into us that without trusting God and coming to him in faith, we are legalistic and we are bound to just give me 10 steps, pastor, as to how I can be right with God. Sorry. Well, isn't there ten commandments? Yeah. Have you read them? You can't do them. The best you can try. You still fall short of it. Now, those ten commandments are great and they're awesome and they're holy and they're pure, but I don't have the strength to do them. And uh neither do you. And so, we need God's grace and we need God's mercy. And so we're to have a grounded faith, that practical faith, that compassionate faith, and that unifying faith. That's what we studied last time.

And now we look at this getting real with God and man. Number two, if you're a notetaker, is this verses 4-9. And that is getting real with God and man requires us to know who we are. You say, "What do you mean? Are you implying I don't know who I am?" I'm going to say this. The Bible says in the book of Jeremiah that our hearts are desperately wicked. I know it's for a service and you got here and and you got up early, but I know you're insult you're getting insulted right out of the gate. It's okay. We're all in this together here. The Bible says our hearts are desperately wicked. They're selfish, self-centered, and we cannot understand our own hearts. We don't understand our motives. We don't, what what ferments and comes out. Jesus says comes out of the heart. And so without a new heart, we will function in our, what the Bible says, our fallen state. And you say, "Well, I don't know if I agree with that." Well, how about this? Just entertain this for a second. If you see a group picture, you're in the group and maybe it's at camp and there's 200 of you, or maybe it's the corporate uh, you know, team photograph. Who's the first person you look for in the photograph? There you go. Okay. We are We are self-centered. You don't care about anybody else in the picture. And then you go, "Can we take it over? My eyes were closed." And everybody's eyes were opened and they're going to say, "Nope. I look really good. Too bad on you. You should have had your eyes open." But the whole thing about that is we are fixated with us first. No one looks at a group photo and says, "Look how great you look. You look so great. Oh, and look at you. And look at you." No. The first thing out of our mouth is, "Oh, that's horrible of me." Yet, in reality, it's exactly what we do look like. Have you seen a picture of yourself lately? I don't like it. I don't like it. Cuz you always think, "That's not me, right? That's not Do I really look like that?" I always ask Lisa, "How old is that guy on TV right there?" "Oh, he's almost 68." >> Wait. Um, I'm almost 68. Do I look like that? Is that how old I look? Yeah. And then that's it. That's it after that. But have you noticed that in life? It's quite bizarre. And yet it's a reality. Very, very powerful. And uh, all of this speaks to the fact that you and I need to really know who we are. In verses 4-9, that's what the apostle is teaching us.

And so as we look at this together, um, mark this down if you would. It it means that uh, I'm not you and and you're not me, church. We're a family. By virtue of the definition of a family, there's more than one. Listen, if you're if you're a married couple, you're a married couple. It could be said that it's a family, but not technically according to the definition. A married couple creates a family, and you may have one child or 100 children. The point is this: that every single one of us are different, and every single one of us in the body of Christ have been given, listen, have been given to each one of us. You, according to the Bible, God has gifted my life by giving you to me to be a brother or a sister in the family of God. That seems very simplistic, but I think it's where we need to start. So many times in the Christian world and in the church community, we are broken up into segments. We have self-segregated the church into compartments. Well, that's where the old people sit. They sit over there. The young people sit over there. The black people sit over there, and every other color in between sits there, and then the white people sit over there, and all that makes God's heart sick. That's not how the kingdom of God is. When we begin to find out that the word of God teaches about ourselves from the inside out and who God is in that relationship, I come away with a tremendous value for each and every one of you. It's a fact of God. We are a family. Isn't it neat to know? I hope it's for all of us, but I cannot predict such a thing. Only God knows. But I, as a pastor, I hope every single one of you are in heaven. And then I'm going to hope the same thing for second and for third service. >> Here's the deal. We got to practice on getting along. And we start with knowing ourselves. >> And the reality is that it's going to require you and I to know who we are. And when we look at the first argument, look at verse four. Uh, I'm not you and you're not me. Well, I wish you were more like me. And this is the problem because I wish you were more like me too in certain areas. In the areas where I don't like, I don't want you to be that way. Watch. Watch how human nature works. You might say to me, "You know what, Pastor Jack? I get along with everybody who thinks like I do." I understand what you mean by that. The problem is that's not real life. That's not church. We are in a family. That's why. Listen, sometimes the church, sometimes we don't get along. Proves we're a family. Why is the carpet that color? Because it was cheap. How come the walls are that color? They're they're white. We we light them with different colors with the with the bulbs. It's cheaper than painting. Well, I don't know if I agree with the color of these chairs. If I had if I was on the chair committee, I would have picked it. Who cares? They're just chairs. You know what I'm saying? But we can get all bound up in our particular angle and make it a big deal. And Paul is saying, "Hey, we need to come together and understand something right now that we as believers, we need to really get real before God and before man and live out our lives that Christ has instructed us to live and not make our own preferences and opinions as it were the 11th commandment." What does Jesus want? And the number one thing we get out of verses 4-9 is the fact that he requires us to know who we are. And that's a very good thing.

Look at verse four. It says, "Who are you to judge another servant? For his own master, before his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand." I want you to mark that very powerful announcement that he makes right there. Who am I? Who am I to judge what's going on in your life? It it the whole argument presupposes that I've got my standards by which you are acceptable in my life. If you meet my standards, you are thus acceptable in my life. Listen, we're not supposed to do that. If you just meet the criteria of our clique, you can be in our group. That makes God want to puke. >> That makes God sick. And thank God, the kingdom of heaven is not like that. Because if you and I really know who we really are, we will walk in this life graciously, kind, and tenderly because God has forgiven me a great amount of sin, folks. He has washed my soul clean. I don't need to point out, think about how dumb this is for me to point out and to consider your faults. Mine are worse. Why? Cuz they're mine. Are you with me? >> Who are we? That's why I per I firmly believe that a person walking close to Jesus ought to be the least proudful person you could meet. >> I wish I could say that there's no pride at all. But that would have to take death for us to leave these bodies. But you I don't think you can be a Christian saying, "Oh, you need to hear the message I just gave. It was great. I taught a message on humility. It was the most amazing message I've ever given." You say, "Oh, that'd be horrible." Yeah, but listen, maybe that's not your genre of of life or ministry, but maybe it's at the company or maybe it's in the home where it matters the most. >> Amen. >> But we've got to be very careful to understand that getting real with God and man requires you and I to know who we are. And so as we look at this, the argument is so very powerful. I'm not you and you're not me. And it's wrong for me to say this, that, or the other thing about your particular moment and place of where you're at with God. Well, why can't you be more like me? I cannot be more like you. Even if I wanted to, I'm not you. Or you might say, "Oh, Pastor Jack, I wish I were more like you." No, no, you actually don't mean that. God help us if the person says, "Yes, yes." Wouldn't it be nice if you were more like me? That would be the worst of the worst. But if you were to say, "Oh, I I'd like to be more like you." No, no, no, no, you don't. Because I know me and I know that there go I but for the grace of God. >> Are you tracking everybody on this? This is important stuff. This is important stuff.

Your master is Jesus Christ. Not any one of us in this room >> and nobody else in this world. >> Jesus is not only your Lord and Savior. He is your master. I love the old King James version Bible. Many times you've probably noticed I will I will quote scripture sometimes when I'm when it's off my notes, it's in my head and it pops up. I will often uh jumble it up because I learned under Chuck Smith at Calvary Costa Mesa back in those days, it was all the old King James Bible. And so all of that's in my head, but in reading the New King James, it's the thous these and the thine and it's all been changed. That said, when giving out the word of God like this, the fact remains that the word for you and I is Jesus is our master. And the actual Greek language is we are his, what's the word? >> Slaves. Thank you. Slaves. Say slaves. A lot of modern translations, because of the concept of the word slave, they erased it from the original Greek meaning of the Bible. They might have been politically or socially sensitive. I get it. But we don't have the right to change the meaning of God's Bible. And the word means you, I, we are his slaves. And and it shouldn't shock us. Every one of us are slaves to something. The beautiful thing is I traded in my slavery to this world on June 20th, 1977. And on that Monday night, I chose Jesus Christ to be my master. >> And uh, I was happy to find out that when I started reading my Bible, he was happy to have me as his slave. You want to be free, folks? You want to be free, you want to be set free, become his slave. >> Become the slave of Jesus and you'll be free. >> But your master is Jesus and nobody else in this world.

Matthew 7 verse one says, "Judge not." The word is condemn. Technically, condemn not that you be not condemned. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? You know that, you know, the people who are sin sniffers and faultfinders. These people, they're really impressed with themselves. And so they're always calling out other people's shortcomings. So Jesus is saying, "Why, why are you looking at your the speck in your brother's eye?" And this is this speck. It's like it's like a little tiny piece of dust. You've got a speck of dust in your eye. Look at you. Jesus is saying, "Why are you doing that?" Look what he goes on to say. This is actually awesome. He says, "But you do not consider the plank in your own eye." >> Is that funny? Don't you think that's funny? Hey, you've got some dust in your eye. And the guy looks back at you and he says, "I may have dust in my eye, but you've got a 2x4 by by 10 sticking out of your head." Isn't that hilarious? I mean, you got a God had a sense of humor. I mean, come on. But watch what happens. Or how can you say verse 4, Matthew chapter 7, to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye," and look, "a plank is in your own eye, hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Oh, let me tell you how how wrong you are about everything when you've got this log sticking out of your face. You're blind, but you're calling other people out. And Jesus says that's wrong. Can you imagine going to a, is it an ophthalmologist? What's the eye surgeon? I always get it. There's the optometrist. That's your eye doctor, right? The glasses. And then there's the ophthalmologist, which like, you know, cut your eyeball open. Can you imagine? Would you go to a blind ophthalmologist? Come on. Come on in. I'm the best, I'm the best rated blind doctor in the state. Lay still as I get the speck out of your eye. You're blind. You may have a doctorate, but you're blind. And Jesus is saying, "Watch out for this." And Paul is saying the same tremendously powerful in 1 Corinthians chapter 4:5. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5. The Bible says, "Therefore, judge nothing before the time." This is a powerful statement. "Don't judge anything before the time." What is the time? Until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. We don't know this. He does. Then each one's praise will come from God. We are never, listen. We are to be discerning. We are to recognize and we are to call out when someone is blatantly, observably living in sin, doing a sinful thing. It's clear. We're supposed to be fruit inspectors. The Bible makes that very clear. Jesus said, "You'll know them by their fruit." But I cannot judge and you cannot judge my motives. Think about, I don't even know my motives. How can you judge my motives and I can't judge yours? These are things that will be revealed before the throne of Christ. But when we insert our religiosity and our legalism into the family and we begin to pick and choose and qualify people based upon their level or lack thereof of Christian maturity, we are in error. We, as we mentioned last time together, we're in gross sin. I told you that this message, this chapter, I don't like teaching it because I have to deal with myself too much. I told you last time together, I don't want to teach this portion because it hurts too much. Some of you, by the way, wrote me letters and said, "I completely disagree with you." Now, if you were not here, you ought to go back and listen to it because it created a little bit of a firestorm because the scripture made it very clear that for those who desire to eat this or to drink that or not eat this or to not that and this other thing, and I mentioned things like, and I told you upfront, I said, "I don't even agree with what I'm about to say. I'm trying to come to agreement with it." >> Amen. But God's word says what you eat and what you drink is not a basis of judgment. >> I don't want to say that because I feel like if I say it, then you're going to say, "Oh, that's awesome. After church, let's go let's go uh eat uh what's what makes me sick? Sushi. Let's go eat sushi and pound some beers down." I don't want you to do that. God doesn't want you to do that. And you're not to take it that way. But listen, what was given in the teaching and it's going to be coming again in a moment. I'm setting you up right now. Is that God says this is the issue. And in Christ, we've got freedom not to hang ourselves. In Christ, we have the freedom to walk away from what not is edifying. So Paul the Apostle said, "All things are legal for me to do, but I choose to come under the obedience of Christ." >> And if you're sitting here today and you take what I just said a moment ago as a license to go sin, it proves that you actually have religion without a relationship with the eternal God. Because if you go down to Joe's Bar and Grill after the service and say, "Hey, my pastor said I can kick back on some on some bruskies here." No, I didn't. That's what you heard. That's what you want. Yeah, it's a risk. I got people all riled up. I made in one of the services I said something to the effect about a tattoo. And boy did I get it. You can't be saved and have a tattoo. Wow. Well, I guess I'm saved then because I don't have a tattoo. Think about think about the logic of that. I don't have a tattoo. I'm going to heaven. Hear the arrogance in all that. Then I pointed out to a person that said it's absolutely wrong regarding what you said. But it wasn't wrong. If you have a tattoo and you want to accept Jesus Christ and be saved, God bless you. A tattoo is not going to keep you from getting saved. If you are a Christian and you got a tattoo, you know, sorry, but your name was just erased out of the book of life. In the book of Revelation, Jesus himself said, "I'm going to write on you my name." >> Okay? So, I didn't buy a tattoo company. I'm not endorsing tattoos. I don't have any vested interest. I'm just saying we've set up human criteria. >> That doesn't exist. >> And we need to walk in wisdom. >> But the Bible tells us, as I said, I when we set up these man-made rules and regulations, it's heartbreaking. Lis and I a couple of days ago got home from uh Peru and the tremendous opportunity I had to speak to the leadership of In-N-Out Burger, their leadership team where they were rewarded with a a Costa Rica and uh uh Peru uh trip for their top performing stories and walking around Cusco, Peru or Machu Picchu is. You've heard of that before. And you learn about the history how the Spaniards came in in the name of God. They took all their gold, the Incans gold. They took all the gold and they began to kill people. And in fact, they they murdered the chieftain because Cusco was the seat of the Incan Empire. And then when they were done doing all that, they said, "And now now we can introduce to you Catholicism." No, real listen. And the and the people said, 'Are you nuts?' So listen to that people today. You go there today and there's ancient ornate churches there. Nobody goes in them. Why? Because when you mention Jesus, uh-uh. Don't I don't want no Jesus. You keep that away from me because we know what that's all about. Didn't that doesn't that break your heart? >> That's not what Jesus is about. >> But uh listen, God intended a relationship. What what man does is he sets up rules and ordinances and regulations. And it's not of the heart. It's not for real. And without us being a true recipient of God's grace, how are we to minister to other people? When was the last time I'm not blame this as a I'm putting this on all all of us, starting with me first. When was the last time you got alone and and remembered the life that Jesus rescued you out of? When you sit back and remember how you spent your weekends, what were you thinking about during the day? How did you spend your money? Whatever it might be. And then Jesus walked into your life. What a difference. What a change.

In 2 Corinthians chap 10 verse 12, the Bible says, "For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who promote themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves." Notice the criteria. Human achievement and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. The word in Greek means they are ignorant. If you compare yourself to human standards that you have set, oh look how good I am. And God says nope, my standards, Jesus, my son, that's the standard. And nobody can attain that standard obviously. But God gives us the ability, the Bible tells us, to be born again, to become a child of the living God. I want to read something because I it's good and it's I want to I don't want to flub it up, but we're talking about Christian maturity here. And so, indulge me for a moment. What is Christian maturity or maturing faith? It is a faith that is truly tolerant and patient with those who are in need of maturing with Jesus Christ. H do you need to m do I need to mature in my relationship with Jesus Christ? A maturing faith are for those who need to grow deeper. Do you need to grow deeper? I need to grow deeper. It's for those to who they need to know Jesus better. I need to know Jesus better. Those who need to live for others. I need to live for others more. Are you I hope we're agreeing on this. >> Maturing faith is those with a developing prayer life. Do you ever feel like you have prayed enough? I never feel like I've prayed enough. By the way, this is my way of working this out of my own head. You know why I believe we never feel like we pray enough is because I don't think God actually ever wants us to close the door on prayer. >> Pray without ceasing. >> Exactly. Pray without ceasing. In other words, you should have an attitude of talking with God >> 24/7, 365 until he comes back or you drop dead. One or the other. And that's fine, too. Think about it. Before you drop dead, you're talking to God in your thoughts. you're talking to God and you drop dead and you'll be talking to him right then and there. She's like, "Well, hey." And I, as I was saying, we make a big deal about prayer. Oh, no. You got to wait. Take a breath. Let it out. You talk to your family. You talk to your friends. Talk to God. Just talk to them. Well, do I have to get on my knees to do that? Is I can't always do that. No, you don't. >> You don't have to. >> You can, but you don't have to. Sometimes I can't close my eyes. is I'm the one flying the airplane. Bring it in for a landing. Don't close your eyes, but you can pray. >> It's a whole attitude of the mind. >> A maturing faith is for those who want to worship God more. Well, then I need my faith to mature. So I wrote in my notes if you have if you're looking at page four. So let me ask you, how are you doing in these descriptions of having a grounded or maturing faith as a Christ follower? We all need to grow and I'm so grateful that God is patient.

But look at verse four. He goes on to say, "And he will be made to stand. You and I will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand." >> You and I, listen. I love this. God is able. Oh, I I never do enough. I never pray enough. I never give enough. I never I never. What? Calm down. God is able to do this in your life. I've told you for years, Christianity is not what you do. It's what God does in you and through you. >> The greatest description of a Christian life is yield. >> Just yield. >> And he takes over. Philippians chapter 2:3 says, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." >> Are you enjoying your Christian life? You should be. You should be enjoying even in this crazy world. You should be enjoying the dynamic of your Christian life. >> Amen. >> And if you're not, you're doing it wrong. Stop trying to push a block up a hill. >> Just take a walk with God, will you? The Bible also says, listen, in 2 Chronicles 16:9, the Bible says, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him." Notice it says loyal to him. Are you guys with me? >> It doesn't say whose hearts are perfect. Whose hearts are loyal. In other words, what's your pursuit? Do you pursue God? Do you want to pursue God? Is does it sound attractive to you that you can get closer to God? Absolutely. God says, "I love that. My eyes are on you." Don't you love that? I remember years ago, forever ago, um Phil and Peggy, you guys might remember this for Pastor Chuck was telling us uh when he was raising up their family, uh one of his sons looked all nervous and all this kind of stuff. And this his son comes to him and says, "I heard in Sunday school today, Dad, that God is always watching me." And he says, "That's right, son." And he saw the terror in his son's face. Oh, some people feel like some some of you feel like that. He said, "God's watching me." And so his son was just mortified. Clearly, he had crossed the line somewhere in Sunday school class. And the teacher said, "God's watching you. So, Dad, is it true he's watching me?" And Pastor Chuck said, "Oh, absolutely true. At all times, he's watching you." And he could see this the spirit of his the will the just kind of the kid started to wither. And Chuck said, "It's it's because God loves you so much, he can't take his eyes off of you." >> And that's good. And that is correct. That's a beautiful thing. God will make you able to stand. God will take care of you. He'll prop you up and strengthen you. I heard a song the other day and I just wanted to work it into the message based upon that 2 Chronicles verse. God's always watching. So I heard, I forget who sings this, but "Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you." Every >> uh >> I don't know. I wasn't asking for I mean, I was okay. The fact is this is that the love of God for you, the scripture says it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. >> God's goodness should cause you to run from the evil and run to his arms. And even though you might be laden with sin, you come in repentful, tearful, you're you're convicted, you're mortified. I've been found out and my sin, as the scripture says, David says, is ever before me. I can see it. And God says in his word, "Bring it to me." >> Amen. >> Our tendency is to go run and hide and bury it somewhere in the garden and then mingle among the bushes and hope he doesn't walk in and say, "Jack, where are you?" I am convinced if Adam and Eve would have walked out of that garden and said, "God, we blew it. Please forgive us." I think God would have made an offering and you and I would be walking around now in a garden.

Some of you may or may not be aware of this. Most of the church is uh pretty used to hearing this all the time, but I'm going to trust it's for you this morning. And it says that he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know," this is God speaking, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you." Can you imagine that? God says, "I know what I think about you." And you go, "Really?" Yep. Says the Lord, "Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." >> That's a loyal heart. Not a perfect heart. We don't have it. But do you want him? You want Christ to forgive you? You want God to erase away. Listen, God will erase by the blood of Christ all of your sin. That's why, listen. Because Christ lives. Because God is real. That's how you and I know sin. You know, the stuff you don't bring up, the stuff that only you remember, the stuff that you hope nobody else remembers, or the stuff that you hope nobody finds out. God says, "I'll wash that away if you come to me. Come to me. That stuff will kill you. Come to me." That's how much he loves you. Isn't that how love works anyway?

When I talk about getting real with God and man, we're talking about living out an authentic Christian life. In reality, I don't think there's any other life to live. >> I'm talking about a personal, listen, I'm not contradicting myself. Listen carefully. I'm talking about a real, active, living, personal, private faith that's so real that it has to come out of you. It goes public eventually because you can't hide a light under a bushel, under a basket. I'm going to read you a compounding of scripture here. It's John chapter 4 and John chapter 7. You can follow on the screens. The Bible says Jesus is speaking, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him," notice when you drink water, folks, it goes inside of you. But ask yourself, is this you will never thirst? But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." That's what God wants for us. Coupled with John chapter 7. "On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. In other words, the Holy Spirit was not yet given to indwell the believer because Christ had not yet been crucified and resurrected. Up until the day of Pentecost, folks, the Holy Spirit, from the day of creation, could only come upon you and he would leave you. That's why David said, "Take not your Holy Spirit from me." Why did he say that? Because that's how the spirit of God worked in the Old Testament economy. Jesus comes and brings us a complete fulfillment of God's promises as he wrote in the Old Testament. "I will write my law in your heart. I will come into your very being and live inside of you. You will be mine, and I will be your God." That's an Old Testament promise describing the born again opportunity that you and I live in today where the spirit of God now lives in us. Listen, a private faith, sure, personal faith, absolutely, but it's impossible to hide it. God is working in some of your lives. You might even be shy. And you love God, but you're starting to almost percolate on the inside. It's like you were starting to bubble. And it's just like, oh man, this every every time I read my Bible, every time I go to a sermon, I just feel like I'm gonna explode. Why? Because God has put his word in you personally and privately. To possess you that God's truth might come out of you and splash, as it were, onto others. Get them all wet, as it were.

And so listen, I wrote this down. I know this is a big statement, but uh, it may be the most single most important verse in the Bible. So, well, that's a that's a big statement. Yes, it is. But listen, before I read this verse, during the days of COVID, I was shocked how many people I that I was meeting on this campus who started coming to church here because they couldn't go to their church. >> So, they started coming here and I I had more than once I had people come up to me and say, "Pastor, today you said, you said something I never heard before. I've been going to church all my life." What did you hear? You said, "I have to be born again >> to enter the kingdom of heaven." Never heard that before. Can you imagine? John 3:3 Jesus answered and said, that's to Nicodemus, "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus says to Nicodemus, let me tell you, Nicodemus's righteousness far out far out exceeds us completely. And Jesus says, "You're not going. You have to be born a new. You have to be born again." So when was the first account of somebody being born again? Can we qualify this? Is it can it be tested? Oh yeah. John chapter 20. This is awesome. John 20:19. "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week. This is post-resurrection. When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. That would be his right side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Verse 21. So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you. As the Father sent me, I also send you." And when he had said this, this is Jesus breathed on them. And he said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." The word means receive the Holy Spirit within you. That's the born again. When was the if if being born again is such a big deal to God and pastor, you just said it's the most important verse in the Bible. When Jesus in John 20 says, "Receive the spirit and he blows on them." The word is the spirit of God went inside of them. They were born again in that moment. They would not receive the power of the Holy Spirit until the day of >> Pentecost, where the spirit of God didn't come inside of them. Very specific Greek word is used. The spirit of God came upon them for ministry and for power. Remarkable. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:12, "For as

The body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, that is the body of Christ, the church, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink in one spirit.

Verse 14, for in fact the body is not one member but many. This is us, the church. You are who you are. Can I put it this way? Jesus Christ died for your sins and my sins. He did not die for my personality or your personality. You and I have a different opinion on this, but God loves the variation of our personalities. We would rather have people be more like the way we want them to be. And God says, "Nope. That's why I've made you the church. This person's really hard to like over here, Jesus." And Jesus says, "Yeah, ain't he though? So get on over there and love on him." Oh, God. Can't you send someone else to love on him? Did you know how bad you and I need one another? We don't even realize it. So, I don't know about that.

Listen, if there's anybody in under this roof or soon to be out in the parking lot and and it's like, "Hey, wait a minute. My bumper was further out than yours was." God is teaching you to love one another and to grow. It's quite remarkable. I'm not even going to get close to finishing this. I thought I did. I thought I didn't have enough material for you today.

And so in Acts chapter one, I mentioned the power coming upon. So I guess I should begin to wrap it up this way. When the moment you say, "Lord Jesus, I I understand now. I see that you died on the cross for my sins, the Bible says this." And even though I wasn't there 2,000 years ago, I know that I'm a sinner. I have bad thoughts, lustful thoughts, angry thoughts, or temperament or whatever it is that's not good. And I have a past. Oh God, you would say, "Please forgive me. I'm sorry for my sins." The Bible says in that moment you're born again, the Holy Spirit moves inside of you.

Now, can somebody tell me what that feels like when you're like, "Oh, please forgive me." And the Holy Spirit moves inside of you and you, "Oh, wow. I don't know about you, but I've never felt anything that the night I got saved, all I knew was that message was true. I was convicted of my sins. God knew everything about me. And what I just heard a moment ago m gives gives my mind reason and hope. I want Jesus. I need Jesus." And I went forward and there are people crying around me. I'm looking at people on that Monday night. They're all crying. Oh God, forgive me, God. And I'm like, here's me. Look, here's me. I'm like this. I had nothing. I had no feeling. And I began to think, oh, it must not be working for me.

And then when you pray the prayer and you go back to the prayer room afterward, they give you new material. And I told the guy, "Hey, everybody around me is crying. I didn't cry. What's the deal?" He said something that I've used a thousand times since. He said, "Listen, do you understand the gospel? Can you tell me the gospel that you just heard?" I told him. He goes, "Yeah, you got it. You got it." Nowhere does it say feeling. Goosebumps tingle down the spine. Feel this. And you're saved. Listen, I'm grateful that I listened, kind of did the spiritual math, figured out, and this puts me bankrupt. Jack is hopeless without Jesus.

And so that young man in that counseling, that new believer's room said, "Nowhere in the Bible does it say it's based on your feelings." It's Bible says it's based on faith. Did you come to Jesus? Yeah. Do you want him? Yep. And he said this, "Why don't you why don't you tell me right now you don't want Jesus? You're going to give the Bible back to me and you're going to walk out of here and never step foot in this place again." I said, "Why would I do that? I don't want to do that." And he goes, "Exactly. Pretty clever, right? Pretty clever, right?"

Now, my friends, listen. For those of us, our pursuit now today is this. Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, not in you, upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all of Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Church family, when God saves you, please listen. You can close your Bible. Doesn't mean leave. Just close your Bible. We're done.

When God saves you, he begins his work of maturing you. When a baby's born, the mother begins her work of nursing that baby. And dad begins the work of changing diapers. But the baby doesn't grow by having its diaper changed. The baby grows nursing energy from mom. And with that investment, the baby grows. Jesus says, "You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. You must be born from above." The word means born a second time. And God will nurse you. And he's nursing us always with every Bible verse, every sermon, every song of praise. Every time we get together and fellowship, we are nursing the strength of Almighty God that he desires for you and I to have. And we are growing up in Christ. It's a relationship. It's alive. It's real. It's not Sunday. I was going to get to that, but I didn't finish my notes. It's every day.

He is every day. And so are you with him. Let's stand. Church. Father God, what an awesome God you are. What a glorious God you are. It would be a waste of time, but I get it. I could say for all listening right now, go and search all the religions that have ever been and those that are our today all around the world and see if you get such an offer where the God of the universe, the creator God says, "Bring your sins to me. Repent of them. Agree with me that you have lied. You've had lustful thoughts. You have a temper. You've sinned. You've crossed the line. You're not perfect."

[Music] If you can agree with me on that, God would say to you today, then come to me. I will wash away those sins and I will give you the righteousness of my son Jesus. And this has nothing to do with you establishing a religion. It has everything to do with you inviting me into your life to live. Friend, whoever you may be today, you might be watching right now by television or you may be in the sanctuary or out in the courtyard. Have you ever said, "Lord Jesus, come into my life and forgive me. Take possession of me. Own me, God. Remove my guilt and my shame." Friend, call upon him today. He's faithful to answer you. We pray in Jesus name.

Before I let you go, maybe most of us are believers in this room. and the spirit of God who already dwells within us. And we know that maybe it's time for you to be renewed with the power of the Holy Spirit. For you to say today with me, "Lord, I love you. I thank you for saving me. And I thank you for calling me to be a Christian at a time like this in human history, but I can't do it on my own. I need your power, God." So Jesus, you said that you would send the promise of the father, the holy spirit to empower us. And Lord, we're asking today as believers, Lord, send the renewing power and strength of your holy spirit upon us. Come upon us. Holy Spirit, cause us to stand and to fight and to uh be illuminaries and and to be righteousness and love and grace and mercy, kindness and gentleness to the world around us. Cause us to be salt and lights. It's all going to take your power, Lord. Come upon us. Holy Spirit, be the power that drives our life. And all along the way, may we give you all the praise and glory as we sense your hand upon us. We praise you and thank you in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen."

Amen. Amen. God bless you, church.