SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Mark chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: And as I said earlier, we just want to spend the next couple weeks kind of unpacking what is for us a mission statement of our church, that we exist to help people, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're about.
SPEAKER_00: We're helping people.
SPEAKER_00: I was in the lobby talking to my friend Dave Morris, who's knows more about stuff than I do.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Hey, we've got a uh one of our families in our church, they got some stuff at their house that needs to be fixed.
SPEAKER_00: And first thing he said out of his mouth was, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, All right, well, I got to go to Kansas City and da-da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we talk about helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God, what do we mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: I want to begin this morning by unpacking and talking to you about this statement, helping people to know God.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible gives us a great picture of this in Mark chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says that when he returned to Capernaum, after some days, it was reported that he was at home, and many were gathered together, so there was no room, not even at the door.
SPEAKER_00: And he was preaching the word to them.
SPEAKER_00: And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four of them.
SPEAKER_00: And when they could not get him, they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that?
SPEAKER_00: He is blaspheming.
SPEAKER_00: Who can forgive sins but God alone?
SPEAKER_00: And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Now, by the way, sometimes the Bible uses big words and puts words next to each other that doesn't always make sense.
SPEAKER_00: But basically what they said is Jesus read their mail.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew what they were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he said was based on the fact that he knew what they were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Did you follow that?
SPEAKER_00: And by implication, let's bring it down in this room, he knows what you're thinking right now.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was with you on that first part, but I didn't like that second part so much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still mad at Johnny Manzel because they lost.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Whoopsie.
SPEAKER_00: Did I say that out loud?
SPEAKER_00: Come back with me.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, and he said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk.
SPEAKER_00: But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.
SPEAKER_00: And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want us to come at this passage, kind of looking at it through that the lens of that last sentence we read, where all the people said, We never saw anything like this.
SPEAKER_00: If you have an NIV, a new international version of the Bible, it says, We have never seen anything like this before.
SPEAKER_00: And just by way of introduction, just ask yourself, when's the last time those words came out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you just said you just spontaneously combusted and said, I've never seen anything like that in my entire life.
SPEAKER_00: Much less at church.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's some phrases that are getting away from us that should be coming out of our vocabulary more often.
SPEAKER_00: I just not I just didn't want to go past that and and and not just point it out.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, stuff happened uh that people did not have a frame of reference for, so they had to say, I ain't never seen anything like that before in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I how how do we get at this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's three things that the three major points that the text makes this morning that I want to kind of point us to.
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is, what does it mean helping people to know God?
SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, you experience God for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You experience God for yourself, and you're like, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1 and 2 again.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and when he, Jesus, returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home and many were gathered together, so that there was no room, not even at the door, and he was preaching the word to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what the Bible says, you say, I I don't know how you get experience God for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: In biblical days, when people would have an encounter with God and they'd experienced God and their hearts were changed and they gave their lives to Christ, they said, I I I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you're the Son of God, I believe what you say.
SPEAKER_00: It was one of those things that they just couldn't keep to themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so the text is really subtle.
SPEAKER_00: It says, when it was it was reported that he had come home.
SPEAKER_00: Now, basically, when it says it was reported, word got around that Jesus had done some stuff and he couldn't go anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was at home, and people were like talking about him, and they were like, oh no, by the way, he's in that house right down there.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, all of a sudden, a throng of people just showed up.
SPEAKER_00: So many that you couldn't get any room.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was packed up, and then the Bible says, even at the door, now that's a subtle reference to something else.
SPEAKER_00: When you had a guest of honor in your home, people would want to come, it was like the ticket to have, everyone wants to be at this event.
SPEAKER_00: They would leave the doors open.
SPEAKER_00: And the poor in this city couldn't come inside, but they could stand at the door so they could listen to what was going on inside.
SPEAKER_00: And basically they were saying, not only was the event sold out, the standing room only section was sold out.
SPEAKER_00: There were so many people there.
SPEAKER_00: And just get this.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean when you say experience God?
SPEAKER_00: But look at the look up right above chapter two where we started reading.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the end of chapter one, starting in verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, If you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean, and Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourselves to the priests and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.
SPEAKER_00: But he went out and began to talk freely about it.
SPEAKER_00: Now stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: You would think that if the Son of God told you to keep your mouth shut, you could keep your mouth shut.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: Is that not what Jesus just said?
SPEAKER_00: Let me just look at it again and see.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there it is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, even it says, and hey, by the way, and Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, see to it that you say nothing to anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 45.
SPEAKER_00: But he went out and he began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the desolate places.
SPEAKER_00: People were coming to him from every quarter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this guy, see, here's the thing, when I say experience God for yourself, what's this got to do with helping people?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you and I experience God, the way God set this up, now the church wastes a lot of energy trying to get you to open your mouth and say something.
SPEAKER_00: In the biblical times, people couldn't keep their mouth shut.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when Jesus sternly told them, hey, shut your cake hole, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Zip it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be just just knock it off.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he walked out and he just freely, he just couldn't help himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's that great scene when Alabama was playing.
SPEAKER_00: Can I say Alabama in here this morning and you're not going, whoo, ha, all that stuff?
SPEAKER_00: Because some of you'd like, roll dud.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, it it it's it's it's just a game.
SPEAKER_00: Gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Breathe.
SPEAKER_00: Wade Collier was in a bad mood this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, well, man, it just put me in a bad mood.
SPEAKER_00: Get a life, loser.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great scene in Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: There's a rice player.
SPEAKER_00: This is back in the 40s or 50s somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: The guy was running for a touchdown.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was running down the sideline, and a guy on the Alabama on the Bama team just couldn't take it.
SPEAKER_00: He came off the bench and tackled him.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: The guy's just streaking free.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's running, I think he's running a kickoff back.
SPEAKER_00: He's just going.
SPEAKER_00: And they asked the kid after the game, they said, What were you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: He said, and I quote, I just had too much Bama in me.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your calls, we have a winner.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this guy, the leper, who got healed, and Jesus sternly told him, Shut your yapper.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy's like, I just had too much Bama in me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help it.
SPEAKER_00: I had to freely.
SPEAKER_00: See, we've got it backwards.
SPEAKER_00: People couldn't keep their mouth shut back then.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can't get you to open your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: One of these things is not like the other.
SPEAKER_00: See, because when you experience it for yourself, because see, if not, you can't really help people.
SPEAKER_00: You can advise people, you can say, Well, that church over there, there's a lot of cars in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that church over there, they got this and they got that.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just say, just think back.
SPEAKER_00: Was there ever a time where this was so fresh in your life that you just couldn't keep your mouth shut?
SPEAKER_00: You just, you, you, you didn't get in business environments and kind of go, well, yeah, I don't want to lose the bid here.
SPEAKER_00: I better tamp down the God and Jesus talk.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm not saying take a family Bible to work tomorrow and put it on your desk.
SPEAKER_00: When people come in, you look at it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what I got there?
SPEAKER_00: BAM! How about this?
SPEAKER_00: How about be the best in your industry?
SPEAKER_00: And when people ask you why you why you have so much integrity and why your people work so hard, say, because we work to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stop putting fishes on the back of your truck because it's kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of, you know, uh that that that ain't getting it done.
SPEAKER_00: Just just hey, just experiencing for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This was fresh.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't keep, and that's the way God set it up.
SPEAKER_00: God set it up where we're so freshly connected to him.
SPEAKER_00: We can't keep our mouth shut.
SPEAKER_00: It's winsome and free and just comes right out.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, well, I guess I better say something.
SPEAKER_00: It's, hey, I cannot help but say something.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing, helping people to know God.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: The text says, secondly, know what it means to help someone.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says this in Mark chapter 2, and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four of them.
SPEAKER_00: And when they could not get him near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't you like to be at church and that happened one day?
SPEAKER_00: Something interesting happens here.
SPEAKER_00: We have a metal roof on our building, and when it rains, it just sounds like they're herding cats up there.
SPEAKER_00: And people always come up and say, Hey, could you hear the rain today?
SPEAKER_00: That was really loud.
SPEAKER_00: Can you do something about that?
SPEAKER_00: And I always think to myself, what are you like?
SPEAKER_00: A midiot?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, a midiate is a moron wrapped in an idiot.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this because I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I heard, of course I heard.
SPEAKER_00: Are you?
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, well, it was kind of, and I always think, what would it be like if one Sunday somebody just fired up like one of them round circulars and started just cutting a big hole, and all of a sudden they lowered a guy tied to like I I wanted to duck take Lance to a cot and lower him down today.
SPEAKER_00: Just have him up there in the rafters in the dark where you never look up there, and all of a sudden I pull like a chain and boom, he drops down.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking.
SPEAKER_00: Now you gotta envision this again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking, and all of a sudden stuff starts falling down, and people are looking, and then and little kids are like, look, look, look, look.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad my parents made me come today.
SPEAKER_00: Look, there's a man that's paralyzed hanging from the ceiling.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has not missed a beat.
SPEAKER_00: He's just talking.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says he was preaching the word to them.
SPEAKER_00: Which, by the way, was the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is just shucking the corn, and there's a guy, ee, ee.
SPEAKER_00: And people are like, uh, is he distracted?
SPEAKER_00: Men are like, he's not distracted.
SPEAKER_00: He's a carpenter.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna bid on this roof repair as soon as he's done.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't miss a beat.
SPEAKER_00: See, no, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Know what it means to help someone.
SPEAKER_00: Three things.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, you think you're helping people, and you're not really helping people, you're just making yourself feel better.
SPEAKER_00: So, so three things about helping someone.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, start with the obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Start with the obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Most people look at the paralyzed guy and think he needs to walk.
SPEAKER_00: If we get him to Jesus, Jesus can heal him and it'll all be good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks at him and thinks, he needs to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Because when the Bible says, and then they lower him down, and Jesus looks at him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, by the way, the Bible says, when he saw their faith, we'll talk about that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Start with what is obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Humanity's greatest need is for a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: You can help a lot of people and really not help them.
SPEAKER_00: You're just making them more comfortable on their way to hell.
SPEAKER_00: You feel better and they feel helped, and I'm not saying don't do stuff to help people.
SPEAKER_00: This church is all about helping people, but we don't want to just help you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to help you to know God.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we help you is because we know God.
SPEAKER_00: We're not a bunch of non-discerning oofs down here, kind of going, hey, we don't know what kind of goes on around.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, we know.
SPEAKER_00: There's con men show up.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody showed up not long ago.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I need$25 for gas.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
SPEAKER_00: What business is it of yours?
SPEAKER_00: If you want$25 of my church's dollars or my dollars, it's gonna be my business.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see your gas gauge.
SPEAKER_00: Why you gotta see my gas gauge?
SPEAKER_00: Because you might be a con man.
SPEAKER_00: You might be a liar rolled up here looking for drug money.
SPEAKER_00: What makes you think I'm a drug addict?
SPEAKER_00: Because your eyes are dilated like little BBs and you're tweaking like this, like a little monkey on speed.
SPEAKER_00: You want$25 or you just want to lie?
SPEAKER_00: I want$25.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, I'll give you$25 of my own dollars if you'll just tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need you to pay me to tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Then why'd you lie when you pulled up here?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of portion are you?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just a janitor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just here cleaning up today.
SPEAKER_00: Well, give me$25.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not both enough.
SPEAKER_00: I can look at your gas cage.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get gas gauge.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: And I ain't judging you, I'm not hating on you, but the church needs to be discerned.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can help people, quote unquote, and never meet their deepest need.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is a very generous church.
SPEAKER_00: Wildly generous.
SPEAKER_00: We help so many people, but we can't just undiscerningly, oh, you want money?
SPEAKER_00: Here you go.
SPEAKER_00: That's bad gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to the guy, can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I wish you'd give me$25.
SPEAKER_00: I love people that are that honest.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I tell you what, I'm gonna pray, and when I'm done praying, I'll give you however much you think you need.
SPEAKER_00: He said, All right.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray and he goes, How about five?
SPEAKER_00: I got it burning a hole in my pocket right here.
SPEAKER_00: He said, What?
SPEAKER_00: I think people want the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Even the con man wants to know, hey, somebody knows that I'm a pathological liar.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, by the way, you got a pastor because you you're you're welcome here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're the janitor.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know I'd be welcome?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll put a good word into the pastor.
SPEAKER_00: See, start with the obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Humanity's deepest need is not gas money.
SPEAKER_00: It's not to borrow a truck to move something.
SPEAKER_00: It's, hey, their deepest need is for a faith relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: Change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You ever go to the eye doctor and they go, one or two?
SPEAKER_00: One or two.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was the second one and the fourth two.
SPEAKER_00: Can we get those together?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, they don't think that's funny.
SPEAKER_00: We're running a business here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I thought you were just shaking me down for insurance money.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: And what do I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean when I say change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Change the lens from your expectations to your responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00: Your life would get markedly different and better and a whole lot more spiritual if you just change the lens and stop looking at the world through the lens of your expectation, which is in you, for you, and by you.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder why your life is pretty much the same?
SPEAKER_00: It's always been, regardless of how many churches you've been to.
SPEAKER_00: And I love you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know I love you?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been to six or eight churches, and that's all you complain about, is all the churches you've been to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say, beloved, the issue is not the churches you've been to, it's you.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad you came for this?
SPEAKER_00: It's you.
SPEAKER_00: Because you got the same expectations.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we sing that song.
SPEAKER_00: That's an old song.
SPEAKER_00: Don't we know the new song?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that was a new song.
SPEAKER_00: We're always learning the new song.
SPEAKER_00: Good Lord, every time I come, we're learning the new song.
SPEAKER_00: It's cold in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing in here?
SPEAKER_00: We hear you.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't care.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a litany of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I hear you.
SPEAKER_00: Bring a sweater.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Is that really the cross you want to die on?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm just like this paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all called me last night after I sent the tomorrow email.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, you okay?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of got after us in that email.
SPEAKER_00: No, I just don't want to die from your small.
SPEAKER_00: I just love you.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes you drive us crazy.
SPEAKER_00: How's that?
SPEAKER_00: Love you, but full of love.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when you live in your expectations, what we want is we want others to create for us a feeling that can only be had through obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When you live from your expectation, what you really want and expect is all of us to give you a feeling that can only be had because of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: When you move from expectation to responsibility, all of a sudden it's game on.
SPEAKER_00: And every day is pregnant with the possibility that something bizarrely inexplainable could happen.
SPEAKER_00: You come home from work, men, and you walk in, you got this kind of wild look on your eye on your face, and your kids are like, Dad, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: You just start off dinner by saying, instead of, I hold school today, did you have any homework?
SPEAKER_00: How are your friends?
SPEAKER_00: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: You just start off by saying, I saw something today I've never seen before.
SPEAKER_00: Your kids, you don't have to beg your kids to listen to you then.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, rock and roll with your bad self.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, dad.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: I I I give you a great example.
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard the story of David and Goliath?
SPEAKER_00: You're kind of like, are you kidding?
SPEAKER_00: We live in Texas.
SPEAKER_00: You know how all that got started?
SPEAKER_00: Because one little kid embraced his responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there, but just write down 1 Samuel chapter 17, verses 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: We all know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, David killed Goliath and cut his head off and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: This is how it got started.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse 17 sets the stage with these words.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesse, David's dad, said to David, his son, Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp of your brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand.
SPEAKER_00: See if your brothers are well, and bring some token from them.
SPEAKER_00: That's sexy right there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't that stir you in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: You read that and thought, oh, that's a rhema right there.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm gonna journal about that.
SPEAKER_00: Right now y'all are gone, what's a rhema?
SPEAKER_00: That's a right there.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's a let me draw your attention to this last sentence where the father said to the son, see if your brothers are well and bring some token from them.
SPEAKER_00: And bring some token from them.
SPEAKER_00: And because this kid saw life through a lens of his responsibility, my dad said, take bread and cheese.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: This is like at seven in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Later that night, he comes home, opens a back screen door, and walks in, and his dad's watching TV, and he says, Uh, Dad, remember what you said about bring some token from them?
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, I brought a token.
SPEAKER_00: And he turns around, he's holding the head of Goliath in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And he just drops it.
SPEAKER_00: Bam! And by the way, I was thinking about a few things while I was walking home with the head of this big rascal, and I got a couple of things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need a bigger bedroom and a later curfew and a new car, and I'm gonna need some more allowance because I done set it off up in there, and they want me to be king, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You got me ferrying bread and cheese like I'm some errand boy.
SPEAKER_00: Here's your token.
SPEAKER_00: Bam.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't get up that day and say, Today I will kill a giant.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He got up that day and embraced his responsibility of, I gotta do what my dad says.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, boys and girls, so do you.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's sexy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, students, the reason some of you aren't spiritually significant is because you're disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: You got a wayward little rebellious.
SPEAKER_00: Hard.
SPEAKER_00: You spend too much time listening to music and not enough time listening to your parents.
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are going, Oh, I wish my kid was in here.
SPEAKER_00: I love my I got two kids.
SPEAKER_00: Love my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I have to, I make my kid.
SPEAKER_00: Every time my 15-year-old is like, Dad, this new artist, I play her Johnny Cash song.
SPEAKER_00: I say, hey, your little boy bands are like scarecrows coming to the bonfire.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna get burned down.
SPEAKER_00: Bam.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, this week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us, Demi Lovato was allowed to make an album.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to hell on a highway, people.
SPEAKER_00: Say, what?
SPEAKER_00: Just just just no pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Just just change the lens.
SPEAKER_00: Just think, hey, what if I just went from my expectation?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope it justifies me shaving my legs or we're gonna go look great.
SPEAKER_00: Just to my responsibility today, I'm gonna do, just say to the Lord, Lord, I'm gonna do and say whatever you tell me to do and say.
SPEAKER_00: And just see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing about how you gotta about helping people believe some things forever.
SPEAKER_00: Believe some things.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by forever is the older we get, the more universal we become.
SPEAKER_00: Things that used to be really sharp, boundaries for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of, ah, well, you know, I mean, we just uh just believe something.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there are behaviors that can only be explained by what a person believes.
SPEAKER_00: There are people you look at and their life only makes sense if you know what they believe.
SPEAKER_00: When you see two guys in August riding bicycles around Houston with dark pants and white shirts and ties, you think, boy, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: They believe something.
SPEAKER_00: And that belief produces this behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Just believe some things forever.
SPEAKER_00: You say, like what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, how about this, for example?
SPEAKER_00: Like, sin is wrong, even if my kids do it.
SPEAKER_00: You just you just believe it.
SPEAKER_00: How about this?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is the standard, not culture.
SPEAKER_00: Just just just just the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Or how about this one?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus goes to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I lost some of you there.
SPEAKER_00: I had an experience this week.
SPEAKER_00: I I some of y'all come up to me and you go, hey man, them stories you talk about, that stuff really happened.
SPEAKER_00: Like, no, I was short on material and I just pulled something out of the air.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: This past week, great example.
SPEAKER_00: Someone come up to me.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, what do you think about what do you think about what the Pope said?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't really follow the Pope.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want the Pope say, Well, the Pope was talking to a bunch of atheists, and he told them they don't have to believe in God to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be a violation of their conscience, and God does not want them to violate their conscience, and so they don't have to believe in God to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, That's not true.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You better be careful disagreeing with the Pope.
SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, what did you just say?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is my friend.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not making light of the Catholic Church or anything.
SPEAKER_00: Relax, don't send me emails.
SPEAKER_00: This is my friend who went to Catholic church until he's about 10 years old, and now he's like 56, and he hadn't been since then.
SPEAKER_00: But boy, he's Catholic.
SPEAKER_00: I told him, I'm more Catholic than you are.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Boy, you can disagree with the Pope.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I don't disagree.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I said, did the Pope say that?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I said, the Pope's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I said, if my own mom said that, and I and I and I I I'm closer to my mom than I'm the Pope.
SPEAKER_00: If my mom said that, she'd be wrong.
SPEAKER_00: There's just things that you got to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Because see, here's the thing: if an atheist can go to heaven by not believing in God, then there's another way you can get to heaven besides Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you got a God that contradicts himself because this God said of himself in John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No man comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: It says in Acts chapter 4, verse 12, they're preaching to these people, and they're telling them, they're loving them enough to say, Hey, we want to shoot straight with you.
SPEAKER_00: They said, There's no name given under heaven whereby which men should be saved except the name Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't care who they are.
SPEAKER_00: Me, you, anybody that says, Oh, there's another way, that's not the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now, did I get up that day and think I want to have a spirited discussion with somebody and make them mad?
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: But I got up that day believing some things.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I'm 49 years old.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how long I have on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: I'll die believing that Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I'm narrow-minded or prejudiced or bigoted, but that explains the way I relate to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when I meet people and I say, hey, do you have a pastor in your life?
SPEAKER_00: I don't ask them where they go to church because everyone's got a church somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I get tired of watching people, you go to church anywhere?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what church do you go to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know that Baptist church up off 510?
SPEAKER_00: Does it have a name?
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember the name of it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever forget where you go to church?
SPEAKER_00: That's like somebody asking you, what's your wife's name?
SPEAKER_00: She's a good woman.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could remember.
SPEAKER_00: It'll come to me in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with an M, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Uh blonde, about five foot ten, great cook.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I don't want people to be awkward.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't ask people anymore, do you go to church anywhere?
SPEAKER_00: I ask them, Do you have a pastor?
SPEAKER_00: And every one of them says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: What's that?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody just loves you and is going to be there for you and walk through life with you.
SPEAKER_00: No, man, I never had that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a pastor and I'd like to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever need anything, you can call me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to judge you, but I'm not going to lie to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: What if I don't want to hear the truth?
SPEAKER_00: That's your problem.
SPEAKER_00: Because we all inside, God hardwired you to know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because the truth, Jesus said, sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You think church and God wants to bind you up, so you can't you're going, you have to follow the rules.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to set you free.
SPEAKER_00: You're not free right now.
SPEAKER_00: I told a guy smoking a joint one that one time.
SPEAKER_00: Have that conversation.
SPEAKER_00: He's just burning it down.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, by the way, I used to smoke pot.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't intimidate me.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you smoke the herb, the hippie lettuce, the chronic, whatever you're calling it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not better than you.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, you think I'm free, I'm free, I'm free.
SPEAKER_00: You're bound up.
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't quit that.
SPEAKER_00: If I cut your arms off, you'd smoke with your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Got yourself point there.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't say to him, you filthy, wicked Mara Joanna, toker smoker, Steve Miller's looking for you.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, hey man, do you have a pastor?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_00: He blew smoke in my face.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't inhale like a good Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: I held my breath and took one for the team.
SPEAKER_00: Just just believe some things.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's some things about Christianity that are exclusive, they're just true.
SPEAKER_00: Again, not because we're narrow-minded or bigoted, but just just just just hey, you're not helping people, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Finally, just believe God can change anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what these guys did.
SPEAKER_00: They believed God could change anyone, and so they go get this paralyzed guy.
SPEAKER_00: They found out Jesus was home, and they go get the paralyzed guy.
SPEAKER_00: Get up, we're going.
SPEAKER_00: Where are we going?
SPEAKER_00: You'll see.
SPEAKER_00: Put me down.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're not putting you down.
SPEAKER_00: They get there, there's a crowd of people, they can't even get him in the building, and so they're like, not deterred.
SPEAKER_00: We got this.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to our last point.
SPEAKER_00: Just how it means to help people to know God.
SPEAKER_00: Just display faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just listen to me carefully.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to misquote me, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus saw their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now, five times in verse 3 and 4 it says, and they, and they, and they, and they.
SPEAKER_00: It never gives their name.
SPEAKER_00: It just says, and they.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: So if you wonder when people say, well, they say, well, they're talking about these four guys right here.
SPEAKER_00: They are the original they.
SPEAKER_00: They got it all going.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Bible says, stay with me, because this is what it all comes down to for us, whether we realize it or not.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, My son, your sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, say, what Jesus says to this man is because of what he saw in these men.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: Now you can't take that out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, where are you going with this?
SPEAKER_00: Just relax.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw their faith, you see, here's the easy thing to do in church.
SPEAKER_00: Come to church and go, oh man, the liberals are taking over America.
SPEAKER_00: America's going to hell in a handbasket, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: What if America's like it is because the people of God don't have enough faith?
SPEAKER_00: See, we want to point the finger at all these other people and go, get them people, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm telling you what, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible says when he saw their faith, he did something unexplainable in this guy's life.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, We'd never seen anything like that before.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying to you and I, and no guilt, no pressure, just, hey, maybe the issue, maybe we have the capacity to change culture by exercising our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of pointing fingers and throwing rocks and saying, oh man, the gay community's just got an agenda.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, what are we going to do in 2016?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody asked me this week, what do you think about Hillary in 2016?
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we got to take back this nation.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, when you say that, you're acting like the power to do something about it is not already in you.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is not taking back this nation, the issue is displaying faith.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says when Jesus saw their faith.
SPEAKER_00: See, faith sees into a realm that nothing else can, and it produces lives like these.
SPEAKER_00: Like, now, unless I sound like a great man of faith, many of you have been asking, hey, Pastor, what are we going to do about a children's building?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: So, oh, when I got back from my sabbatical, I started checking with our financial oversight team and our financial secretary and saying, hey, you know, because we believe in manageable debt.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to do ministry, and then we're going to build what we've got to build in order to accommodate what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: And right behind me, right now, is the fellowship hall.
SPEAKER_00: That's where our children's meet.
SPEAKER_00: It's not designed for children's ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We're just making it work.
SPEAKER_00: So you say, Well, I think it'll be fine.
SPEAKER_00: Go back there and volunteer for a month.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be a chain smoker.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be like, I want to slap some of these kids.
SPEAKER_00: It's not their fault.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not supposed to be like that.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's here's my faith.
SPEAKER_00: So I said to our, because by the way, I said to her, I said, now what do we need to do?
SPEAKER_00: How much do we have to pay down on our debt so we can build a children's building and it just fit into our budget?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not going to stop doing what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to stop doing missions.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to stop giving, allocating 10% of our budget to missions.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to Costa Rica to build a school on the side of a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to Romania.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to Russia.
SPEAKER_00: We're going My Brother's Keeper, Holly.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to stop doing any of that.
SPEAKER_00: We're just but so because of that, we got to pay down a certain amount.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking, okay, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: And she said,$700,000.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there it was.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: In the first over, somebody whistled out loud.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, yeah of great faith.
SPEAKER_00: That was my thought, too.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I was hoping for more like$5,000.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, just take it out of my kids' college fun or something.
SPEAKER_00: And I went back, this is horrible.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's my confession.
SPEAKER_00: I went back to my office and I had like a low-grade depression for about five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And then I remembered in the Bible, I had read earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I read things in the Bible and I wish I didn't know them.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: I just, oh, I just, I wish I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I wish I didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Luke 17, and Jesus tells a story about this woman who just keeps coming to this unrighteous judge until she finally gives him, uh gives her justice.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, Hey, you gotta be like this.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, This, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm sitting there feeling sorry,$700,000?
SPEAKER_00: How much crack is she smoking?
SPEAKER_00: That couldn't be right.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, Hey, could you run the numbers again?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I don't need to run the numbers.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what it is.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to pay them that much, then we can start building on a children's building.
SPEAKER_00: And then that question rose up in me.
SPEAKER_00: When the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: So relax.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a guest today, I'm not talking to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a part of this church, let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: You know this, but let me just say it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna send a card to your house.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna have a big treasure chest up here where you come by and put your pledges in here.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do pledges here.
SPEAKER_00: Because that eventually turns into a loan shark and you fall behind.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta call you.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Billy Bob, you're behind on your pledge.
SPEAKER_00: It's none of my business what you do with your money.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not gonna pay the thermometer on the wall out there and have, you know, our goal up here and down here, and little kids are gonna be standing when you come in next Sunday, kind of going, will you help us?
SPEAKER_00: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy talk.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we're gonna do: you pray as a family and ask God what part you can play in that, and then do that.
SPEAKER_00: There's the program.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not, we're not gonna have a dessert with the top 10% of the givers, because I don't know who gives what.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I got friends giving me all kinds of advice.
SPEAKER_00: I need to kill some of my friends.
SPEAKER_00: That's my takeaway from this week.
SPEAKER_00: One of them said, you gotta get your top 10% of all your givers and have a dessert and a dessert banquet.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, why do you know who who gives what?
SPEAKER_00: If the Bible says don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing when you give alms or you give money, why should your pastor know?
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And when we pay down, when we pay down$700,000 on our debt, we'll start on a children's building.
SPEAKER_00: And that's my that's where my faith is these days.
SPEAKER_00: And so I sat at my desk and I was like, Lord, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: When you come, I want you to find faith on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, What about in this office?
SPEAKER_00: Would I find faith in this office?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, over my door I have a metal sign that says believe.
SPEAKER_00: I just looked up and saw that.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, please don't kill me.
SPEAKER_00: I just so I just walked out and I was like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00: So that's it.
SPEAKER_00: And then I remembered, I'll tell you this, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: And then I remembered, hey, there was somewhere in the Bible where Jesus, the disciple, said, increase our faith.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read that and kind of see what they said.
SPEAKER_00: And I was hoping it would be one thing, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read it, I was like, ah, see, I wasn't, I was looking for a like a nice little happy, shiny thing.
SPEAKER_00: What I read was in uh Luke 17.
SPEAKER_00: If I if you're in Mark, you can turn over to the right, or it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read this and we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I laughed out loud when I read this because I was like, oh man, that wasn't what I expected.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 17, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: The apostle said to the Lord, Increase our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, if you had faith like a grain of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.
SPEAKER_00: Will any of you who as a servant plower and are keeping sheep?
SPEAKER_00: Now we get that first part, right?
SPEAKER_00: We get that, yeah, if you had faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed, and basically what he's saying is there's two things here.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he's saying is very obvious, and it's this it's not the size of your faith, it is the object of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have big faith, you have to have a little bit of faith in a big God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so, when I think, I hear$700,000, like, oh, that's a lot of money.
SPEAKER_00: That's 350 people giving$2,000.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are like, oh, I can't give$2,000.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there's people in here that give a lot more than that.
SPEAKER_00: But what you do between you and God ain't none of my business.
SPEAKER_00: So if I call you for lunch in a couple weeks, you don't have to bring your checkbook.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not soliciting.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a person in this church can ever say, that guy asked me for money.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: We just believe God's gonna move on some people and it'll happen.
SPEAKER_00: When it happens, then we'll build a children's building.
SPEAKER_00: Until then, expect, get ready for the kid.
SPEAKER_00: You stingy Baptist, don't you feel bitter?
SPEAKER_00: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_00: The first one's obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, boom.
SPEAKER_00: This one's not so obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him when he is coming from the field, come at once and recline at table.
SPEAKER_00: Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink.
SPEAKER_00: Does he thank the servant because he did what he was commanded?
SPEAKER_00: So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants.
SPEAKER_00: We have only done what was our duty.
SPEAKER_00: That gets kind of confusing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me make it real practical for you, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Don't pay your kids to do chores around your house.
SPEAKER_00: That's just part of being your family.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't reward your kids every time they do something.
SPEAKER_00: That's free.
SPEAKER_00: But basically what Jesus is saying here is kind of like, hey, I love it when he says, hey, who of you has a servant comes in plowing from the field, says, sit at table, let me wait on you?
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, no, you wait on me, and here's my favorite part.
SPEAKER_00: And dress properly.
SPEAKER_00: Tuck your shirt tail in, slacker.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus is saying, and it's hard to understand, but it's really easy.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, you are never see, see, grace is us getting more than we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying in this parable is you're never gonna do so much for God that he has to wait on you.
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna do so much that God's gonna go, oh man, you're so good.
SPEAKER_00: You've been so good for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Sit down, let me wait on you.
SPEAKER_00: No, and that sounds bad.
SPEAKER_00: But flip the script and think of it this way.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, God is always gonna do more for you than you do for him.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're never gonna put God in your debt.
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna say, you know what, I've been doing no.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Jesus is saying is, let this affect the way you think about God.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, he said, it's all about grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second part.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's not the size of your faith, it's the object of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, he says, it's all about grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's about this God who you are never going to serve so much that now he kind of owes you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just put it down where we live.
SPEAKER_00: Because every once in a while, I kind of like on Saturdays, I like to do manual labor on Saturday mornings because I think I earn the right for my wife to leave me alone the rest of the day.
SPEAKER_00: And if I want to watch three football games back to back to back, who cares?
SPEAKER_00: It ain't none of your business.
SPEAKER_00: Did I tell you I mowed an edge this morning and swept it up, and our neighbors got a blower.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you have a blower, you think that blower makes the grass disappear?
SPEAKER_00: You're just blowing it into my sidewalk, you lazy neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I think, because I do the debtor ethic with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I think I did some manual labor, and now you wait on me all day and night.
SPEAKER_00: And last night, I'm just being honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: Last night we had delicious dinner.
SPEAKER_00: My wife grilled pork chops, had butternut squash.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was it was the deal.
SPEAKER_00: And some uh uh quinoa.
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: She's not in here, is she?
SPEAKER_00: And then we got to talk about Starbucks.
SPEAKER_00: And one of my kids said, When's next time we're going to Starbucks?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, don't insult my awesomeness by coming around the side door.
SPEAKER_00: You wanna go to Starbucks?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Our 15-year-old, let's go, Starbucks! And I said, I'm gonna let y'all go, and I'm gonna stay here and just relax.
SPEAKER_00: Because in my mind, you owe me this.
SPEAKER_00: I worked hard for about four hours this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all gotta get up off of daddy.
SPEAKER_00: Daddy's tired.
SPEAKER_00: Daddy needs to watch football.
SPEAKER_00: AM loss.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in grief.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta watch more football to recover.
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm sitting there watching football on the couch and I hear clanging in the kitchen, and I'm like, babe, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Clean the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: I thought y'all were gonna start.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Well, it's kind of gonna clean itself.
SPEAKER_00: In a moment of weakness, I said, I'll get it.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all go ahead and go.
SPEAKER_00: Like she was shot out of a gun.
SPEAKER_00: She was out of there.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what a pig I am.
SPEAKER_00: This is the debtor's ethic, okay, and me.
SPEAKER_00: After about a few minutes, I thought, oh, I better get a knock that out.
SPEAKER_00: I walked in there and they were stacked on the counter.
SPEAKER_00: And my first thought was, she tricked me.
SPEAKER_00: We did not use this many dishes that didn't.
SPEAKER_00: She's been saving these dishes all day just to make a point.
SPEAKER_00: I'll show her.
SPEAKER_00: This is not hard.
SPEAKER_00: I'll have this done before she gets back.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going at it, and the dogs go crazy because they can hear my wife's van coming.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, she's coming.
SPEAKER_00: So I hurried up and got it all put up and then ran back in there and laid down on the couch.
SPEAKER_00: Click.
SPEAKER_00: But the whole time I was thinking, I did so much this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't have to do so much tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes I get a debtor's ethic with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I've done a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Now you owe it to me to leave me alone and let me do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you tricked me on those dishes on Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00: So next time I offer to do dishes, it really doesn't count because this was like double duty.
SPEAKER_00: I had that thought.
SPEAKER_00: That's horrible.
SPEAKER_00: Only thing's worse is if you think that about God.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve you fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells a story and says, Hey, by the way, you're never gonna put God at your death.
SPEAKER_00: And really what he's saying is, I'm gonna always be better to you than you are to me.
SPEAKER_00: That's grace.
SPEAKER_00: That increases your faith.
SPEAKER_00: So I sat in my office laughing out loud.
SPEAKER_00: I had to put the screen up on my window so they wouldn't come down there and go, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: I laughed out loud and I said, That's it?
SPEAKER_00: That's how you're gonna increase my faith.
SPEAKER_00: He said, That's right.
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna be better to you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you never be better to me, Neil, than I am to you.
SPEAKER_00: So shut up.
SPEAKER_00: And I just chuckled.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're here today and you think, hey man, I need to increase my faith, just take that with you today.
SPEAKER_00: Have faith in a God that's always gonna be better to you than you are to him.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands, I want to speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Your God only requires of you what he's already given you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is faith.
SPEAKER_00: What he comes looking for, you have.
SPEAKER_00: Just exercise it.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and give yourself to this privilege in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you, you're dismissed.