SPEAKER_01: Father, tonight it is such an honor just to be with your people and be in your presence, God.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that compares to your presence.
SPEAKER_01: Father, the last thing we need this weekend is a word from some pastor in Austin.
SPEAKER_01: God, we need a word from you.
SPEAKER_01: We need your touch.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we need your presence in our lives, God.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that you would change us, God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Just right now, in the quietness of your heart, I want you to pray that from the guy that just kind of walked in, and you don't know why you're here, for the person that's been walking well with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Would you just pray that the Lord would speak to you this weekend?
SPEAKER_01: That you would hear his voice.
SPEAKER_01: And that he would change you.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask him to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Have the courage.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray that my preaching tonight would not be in persuasive words of wisdom, but be a demonstration of the Spirit and power so that our faith would not rest on the wisdom of man but the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask that tonight in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You guys can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Gentlemen, it is an honor to be with you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Matt Carter, my pastor in Austin, Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Been a friend and fanboy of Neil McClendon for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is good to be here with you.
SPEAKER_01: He preached, uh, I planted my church 17 years ago in Austin, and he came and preached for me one Sunday, and I'm still counseling people for that until one to pay him back.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he called, I said, Neil, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: There you are back.
SPEAKER_01: That's a true story, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: But um, he's also had an immense impact on my life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually uh I didn't even realize it until I was planning on what I was gonna talk about, but the talk I'm gonna give in the morning tell a story about Neil.
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know if he even remembers this, but I was walking through cancer and he kind of called me out of the blue one day.
SPEAKER_01: And uh it was one of those probably most significant spiritual moments of my life.
SPEAKER_01: It's top five.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you guys about that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: But uh I want you to open up your Bibles to the book of Mark, chapter one, tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter one, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I gave them my scriptures, so we won't have those tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can get that remedy by tomorrow, but Mark chapter one, verse 13, and we'll get there in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna talk tonight about something that was sort of eye-opening for me in the last few years, and that was just sort of the difference between sort of the religion of Christianity and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a big difference between the two.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk about that difference tonight.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's made a huge impact on my life, understanding the difference with the hope that we can understand it too, and then begin to walk in it.
SPEAKER_01: If I were to say the word gospel to you, what comes to mind?
SPEAKER_01: Don't shout it out, just think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Say the word gospel, what comes to mind?
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times we think about a choir.
SPEAKER_01: When we hear the word gospel, we think about a style of music.
SPEAKER_01: When we hear the word gospel, maybe we think about it's a synonym for truth.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody says that's the gospel, they mean it's the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But the word gospel actually comes from um the Greek word uangaleon.
SPEAKER_01: It comes from the Greek word uengaleon.
SPEAKER_01: And it was originally used in a military context.
SPEAKER_01: That was kind of the first original meaning of the word gospel or uangeleon.
SPEAKER_01: And it basically back in the day, um long time ago, biblical times, if you lived in a city, um, and maybe it was walled, it was out in the middle of nowhere, and you uh looked out in the horizon one day, and there was uh a foreign army that was ascending upon your city, and they had intentions to attack your city.
SPEAKER_01: What you would do is you would send out the home army to defend the city, and they would go out and they would fight them on the field of battle.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem was for the city is that you would have no idea whatsoever what was going on.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is back before Twitter, and so you didn't know if your army was doing well, you didn't know if they were doing poorly, um, and so you would just be waiting back at home, you know, the wife and the kids and and the families to be waiting back there, and they had no idea if they were gonna live or they were going to die.
SPEAKER_01: It was a tense time.
SPEAKER_01: And so if the if the home army lost, then that's that's bad.
SPEAKER_01: It was game over.
SPEAKER_01: It was not gonna be a very good day for the city.
SPEAKER_01: That means bad things were gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: The foreign army was gonna come and take over the city.
SPEAKER_01: But if the home army won, then what they would do in order to let the families know that they had been victorious, is that they would send, the home army would send a messenger back to the city.
SPEAKER_01: Send a messenger back to the city, and the message that that messenger gave to the city was called an Uangalion.
SPEAKER_01: And translated into English, that means gospel or good news.
SPEAKER_01: And so Uangelion, this gospel, this message of good news was a proclamation.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, was a proclamation to the city that a battle had been won for them.
SPEAKER_01: It was a proclamation to the city that a battle had been won for them.
SPEAKER_01: The messenger would stand up on the city walls, and everybody would be down below, and he'd say, Today I bring to you, you and Galeon, good news.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna die, you're gonna live because a battle has been won for you.
SPEAKER_01: And men, that's what the word gospel means.
SPEAKER_01: The word gospel is a word that indicates that there has been a battle, and the battle has already been won.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's called the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of the heartbeat of what I'm talking about tonight.
SPEAKER_01: The essence and the core and the foundation of our faith is not a religion, it's a gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The foundation, the core, the essence of Christianity is not a religion, it is a gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's the good news that Jesus Christ went to the battlefield of sin and death on our behalf and through the cross and through his resurrection, he has emerged victorious, and we're not gonna die, we're gonna win.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel we're gonna live, rather.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is the good news of a battle that has already been won for us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the essence of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And the tragedy that I'm seeing for so many of us in Christianity is this is that we take Jesus' dream for us.
SPEAKER_01: We take Jesus' dream and his plan for us, which is to be a person, a man, that walks in the freedom and the power and the joy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The good news of a battle that's already been won.
SPEAKER_01: And we trade it in.
SPEAKER_01: We trade it in for just sort of another expression of religion that our faith was never meant to be.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and Jesus never intended it to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I know this because I've done this myself.
SPEAKER_01: I did it for years, actually, in my life and still struggle with it at times.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I grew up in church.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in uh a little church called First Baptist Athens, Texas, in East Texas, and um and I've I met Jesus there, so I'm thankful for that.
SPEAKER_01: But as I look back on my time at First Baptist Athens, which was nine months before I was born till 18 years old when I went to AM, but my entire time as I look back on the messages and the sermons that I remember, I don't know if they intended to do this or if they would even realize that they were doing that looking back, but I realized that pretty much every sermon and every Sunday school lesson that I ever heard kind of boiled down to this.
SPEAKER_01: That as a Christian, there's things that you do, and that as a Christian, there's things that you don't do.
SPEAKER_01: That was sort of the message I took away from first Baptist Athens.
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of subtly taught that as a Christian, as a believer, there's a good list, and then there's a bad list.
SPEAKER_01: And I was taught that God, He really likes it, and He's pleased with us when we do things on the good list, right?
SPEAKER_01: But then God doesn't like it, and He's not pleased with us when we do things on the bad list.
SPEAKER_01: That was the subtle message I was being taught through my childhood.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a good list, bad list, do things on the good, God likes you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do things on the bad list, God's not gonna like that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I had a really bad habit, a really bad habit of doing a bunch of stuff on the bad list.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like that when they were 17?
SPEAKER_01: Just four of us?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that was that was me.
SPEAKER_01: And so growing up, hearing that message that was being told to me when I failed, which was often, it would crush me.
SPEAKER_01: Crush me.
SPEAKER_01: And I would think to myself, man, that there's no way that God can be pleased with me.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that God could love me because I just did that.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought that.
SPEAKER_01: I just experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way God could love me or be pleased with me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would go month after month after month of sort of doing more things on the bad list than the good list until I would go to youth summer camp, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then I would go to youth summer camp, and somebody like Neil McClennan would be preaching, and I would get really convicted of my bad list stuff, and and I would, and I would, I would cry a lot, and I would tell God I'm never doing anything on the bad list again.
SPEAKER_01: And that would, of course, y'all know the story, it lasts two or three weeks, and then you mess up and you fail, and and then you'd go back to camp, and then you'd mess up and fail, and you go back to camp.
SPEAKER_01: And that was sort of the cycle that I repeated throughout my childhood.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember it so many times in my childhood, my young years, through times in college, and I'd do something, I remember thinking, I I hate myself because I can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, am I even really saved?
SPEAKER_01: Because if I keep failing here or doing this wrong, am I even saved?
SPEAKER_01: Now, but then as I look back, there would be seasons during my childhood and even in my life today that I would, and I do this at times where I would go through a significant stretch where I would be good.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd do more things on the good list than the bad list.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the good thing about those times is that I didn't hate myself, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But the but the bad thing is that I replaced when I was doing good, I didn't hate myself, but the bad thing is I replaced that self-loathing with some good old-fashioned self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me on that?
SPEAKER_01: So that that was my Christianity for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_01: It was this big pendulum swing.
SPEAKER_01: I've been I've been good.
SPEAKER_01: God loves me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been bad, God doesn't love me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been good, God is pleased with me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been bad.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way God can be pleased with me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's why I say that's a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of folks do that.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in ministry a long time.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of folks do that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I say that's a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: It's a tragedy because, again, it really isn't at all the message that Jesus taught us.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Again, the essence of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: The essence of our faith, kind of the foundation of our faith, is the truth that God loves you, and that God accepts you, and that God rejoices in you, not on the basis of what you've done right or wrong, but on the basis of the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And when that sinks in, it's life-changing.
SPEAKER_01: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_01: That God loves you and He accepts you and He connects with you and He rejoices over you, not on the basis of what you've done or haven't done, but He loves you and accepts you and connects with you on the basis of what Jesus Christ has already done for you.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And as far as you have to go to sort of see this message is literally in the very first sentence of the very first message that Jesus ever preached.
SPEAKER_01: So let's turn there quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Mark chapter 1, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read it.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him.
SPEAKER_01: And now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus has been baptized.
SPEAKER_01: He began his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He's been led by the Spirit out into the desert.
SPEAKER_01: He was tempted by Satan.
SPEAKER_01: He did not fall into that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And then he began his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_01: And so John has been taken into custody.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes back to the Sea of Galilee and it says he's preaching the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is what he says, and I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: The first sentence of the first sermon Jesus ever preached, Mark 1.15.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus speaking and saying, Jesus said, The time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Repent and believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: First sentence, first sermon Jesus ever preached, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Repent and believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus rose up on the scene, and here's what he doesn't say.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he doesn't say.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't roll up on the scene and start preaching and say, hey everybody, the time is fulfilled, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: I got a new religion for you.
SPEAKER_01: So go out there and try to do all the things on the good list better than you did before.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He rose up on the scene, very first line, very first sermon, the time is filled, the kingdom is at hand, and I want you to believe in good news.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing he says.
SPEAKER_01: Now to understand sort of how powerful that is and significant that is, you have to look at the beginning of the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: And the beginning of the sentence was the first thing Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's key.
SPEAKER_01: That's critical.
SPEAKER_01: To understand how cool it is that our response is we need to believe, repent, and believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, to understand, hear this, understand what that means.
SPEAKER_01: The time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: You have to understand how God relates to you and I when we sin.
SPEAKER_01: How does God relate to us when we sin?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want to don't turn there.
SPEAKER_01: Um I just want you to listen because we'll stay there and mark.
SPEAKER_01: But in Exodus 34, 6, it talks about how God sort of relates to us when we sin.
SPEAKER_01: It says, then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so what the scripture says, just there very clearly, it's that God is compassionate towards us in our flaws and our failures.
SPEAKER_01: It says he's gracious toward us in our sin.
SPEAKER_01: It says he's slow to anger towards us and our failures.
SPEAKER_01: But the other thing that the scripture tells us is that God, even though he's slow to anger and he's compassionate towards us in our failures, he is also a God of justice.
SPEAKER_01: God is a just God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me read um uh let me read this.
SPEAKER_01: Numbers 14, 18.
SPEAKER_01: It says, the Lord is slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgressions.
SPEAKER_01: So far, so good.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is slow to anger, abundant and loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, but then there's there's a word but it says, but he will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: God is a loving God, he's slow to anger, but he's just.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what that means: he must punish sin.
SPEAKER_01: He has to, or he wouldn't be just.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna use a crazy analogy, far-fetched analogy.
SPEAKER_01: But let's say someone murdered your wife, or murdered your sister, or murdered your daughter, or something.
SPEAKER_01: He gets caught, gets taken before a judge.
SPEAKER_01: The guy walks in, he's the one, he's confessed it.
SPEAKER_01: There's evidence.
SPEAKER_01: This murderer is standing right there in front of you, you're in the courtroom.
SPEAKER_01: And the judge looks at the person that murdered your wife, and he says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling compassionate today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna let you go.
SPEAKER_01: What would you do?
SPEAKER_01: You would stand up, you start screaming at the top of your lungs, that is not just.
SPEAKER_01: We understand the need for justice to occur, and so God is slow to anger.
SPEAKER_01: He loves us, he's compassionate, but he is a God of justice.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen carefully.
SPEAKER_01: Even though God is very slow to anger and he's compassionate towards us, he has to punish sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the scripture has a term for that moment.
SPEAKER_01: The scripture has a term for that moment, and the Bible refers to that moment as the time of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: The time of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: And for the sake of time tonight, I'm not going to go in all the Old Testament examples of this, but God's people knew this.
SPEAKER_01: God's people knew that the phrase, the time of fulfillment, meant that God's patient endurance of his people's sin was fulfilled, and because of his justice, the wrath of God was coming.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_01: That's what the time is fulfilled meant.
SPEAKER_01: God's patient endurance of our sin was over.
SPEAKER_01: Slowness of his anger is over, the time is fulfilled, and now his wrath is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus rose up on the scene, and the first thing out of his mouth was the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: The time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And so think for a second if you were a Jewish man in the first century, and you grew up, good Jewish boy, and you knew the you knew you knew the Bible, right?
SPEAKER_01: You knew the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're there hanging out by the Sea of Galilee, and um, and this guy named Jesus comes walking up.
SPEAKER_01: And you've heard about him, because he's been healing people, and he's been doing all this crazy stuff, and you've and the word's gotten around, and so you're like, oh, that's that Jesus guy that people said was healing people.
SPEAKER_01: And you know he's a prophet, at least.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're like, man, this guy might have a word from the Lord for us.
SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, Jesus starts talking, and the first thing out of his mouth is this prophet of God, the first thing out of his mouth is the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're a good Jewish guy, you know the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: What's going through your mind?
SPEAKER_01: What's going through their mind is all the stories you heard growing up when you were a little kid.
SPEAKER_01: You start thinking about the flood.
SPEAKER_01: You know the story.
SPEAKER_01: You know the story that God endured our sin and he endured our sin and he endured our sin, but there came a moment where the time was fulfilled, then he poured out his wrath.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing the math, you're thinking about Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that story where God endured our sin, endured our sin, endured our sin until the time was fulfilled, and and then he poured out his wrath.
SPEAKER_01: What's going through your mind when the prophet of God walks up on the scene, who you heard has been healing people and doing crazy stuff, and the first thing out of his mouth is the time is filled.
SPEAKER_01: What's going through your mind is uh it's time to grab the wife and the kid and the camels and the donkeys, and I'm getting out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Because what that means, that God's patient endurance of our sin is over.
SPEAKER_01: And he's about to pour out his wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus says the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: So, based on what you just learned, how would you expect Jesus to finish the sentence?
SPEAKER_01: You would expect him to finish the sentence the way everybody thought he would finish the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: You would expect Jesus, based on the Old Testament and what's been going on so far, you would expect Jesus to say something like, Look, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, so repent because God's about to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you would expect Jesus to finish the sentence because that's what had been happening up to that point.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus said, hear this what Jesus said would utterly set apart and would distinguish Christianity from every religion that's ever existed in the history of mankind.
SPEAKER_01: Because what Jesus said is this the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's saying, oh, the time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and you're grabbing your wife's wrist.
SPEAKER_01: Repent.
SPEAKER_01: You're looking for your kids.
SPEAKER_01: But then he says, and believe the Uengaleon.
SPEAKER_01: You're thinking, what did he just say?
SPEAKER_01: What did he just say?
SPEAKER_01: The time is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: God's wrath is coming because of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: God's patient endurance of my sin is over, and my response is I'm supposed to believe some good news.
SPEAKER_01: Man, here's what Jesus just said.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: If you hear anything I say tonight, I want you to hear it.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus just said in that sentence is yes, every single one of us, every single one of you, me, have fallen short of the glory of God, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying is, yes, all of you, all of us, have actually more things in the bad column than we do the good column.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, God's patient endurance of our sin is over.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, his wrath is going to be poured out because of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: But what Jesus is saying is that this time God's wrath is not going to be poured out on us.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying is this time God's wrath is going to be poured out on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul says in Romans 5.8.
SPEAKER_01: But God demonstrates his own love towards us.
SPEAKER_01: He demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: When you still had more stuff in the bad column, then you were good.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't earn it.
SPEAKER_01: You were messed up.
SPEAKER_01: You were lost.
SPEAKER_01: You were dead in your trespasses and your sins.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He died for you.
SPEAKER_01: But then watch this.
SPEAKER_01: If that were not cool enough, Paul says in verse 9, much more than.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's like, let's keep going.
SPEAKER_01: This is so cool.
SPEAKER_01: Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, more much more than having now been justified.
SPEAKER_01: That means declared not guilty of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Having now been justified by his blood, watch what it says.
SPEAKER_01: It says, We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That is the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is the good news of a battle that has already been won for you.
SPEAKER_01: And our responsibility is to believe into that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why did I say that this statement distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world?
SPEAKER_01: Like, why is why does that one?
SPEAKER_01: Why does that set us apart?
SPEAKER_01: Why did I say that?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just gonna read some stuff to you.
SPEAKER_01: These are my thoughts on why this distinguishes us.
SPEAKER_01: This statement distinguishes us from every other religion.
SPEAKER_01: Because every other religion is defined by someone who tries their hardest to follow a list of do's and don'ts, hoping to please God.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone.
SPEAKER_01: But a Christ follower is defined by someone who repents and believes the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Every other religion says if you're bad and you don't follow the rules, God will punish you.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel says, the gospel says you were bad.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't follow the rules, and yet Jesus took your punishment for you.
SPEAKER_01: Religion says you want to please God, this is what you have to go and do.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel says God is already pleased with you because of what Jesus Christ has done for you in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Religion says, follow all the rules and maybe you can earn your way back to God.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel says the way back to God has already been earned for you by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You got to believe in it.
SPEAKER_01: Religion says, I've been good.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm entitled to blessing.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel says, God, if you never give me anything but the cross, I'm thankful because that is enough and you've given me more than I ever deserved.
SPEAKER_01: Religion says, listen, this is huge.
SPEAKER_01: This is huge for me right here.
SPEAKER_01: Religion says, I obey so that I might be accepted.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel says, I'm accepted.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I'm gonna obey.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all see the radical difference between the two?
SPEAKER_01: It's huge.
SPEAKER_01: It's infinite.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: We're somewhere along the way.
SPEAKER_01: We turn Christianity from being this unique, beautiful, grace-filled participation in the good news of a battle that's already been won, and we turned it, flipped it, just another run-of-the-mill, do-it-yourself, rules following works-based religion.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's a question for you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody were to follow you around for a couple weeks, and they could see the way that you lived, and they could actually hear your thoughts, they could hear your prayers, would they see a person that's trying, would they see a man that's trying to follow the rules of a religion?
SPEAKER_01: Or would they see a man that was believing and walking in the freedom and the power and the grace and the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Of a good news of a battle that's already been won.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: What would they see?
SPEAKER_01: I actually wrote down some of the ways you can sort of know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: So some ways you can know if you're walking in the freedom and the power and the joy of the gospel, a battle that's already been won for you, you've believed into that, or if you're sort of walking in this kind of religion that you've turned it into.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered man, a religious-centered man regularly experiences guilt.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you sin, you feel like you let God down again.
SPEAKER_01: But a gospel-centered man regularly experiences not guilt over sin, but sorrow over sin.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big difference.
SPEAKER_01: Not guilt over sin, but sorrow over sin, and that sorrow is quickly replaced by the joy of knowing that that sin was completely paid for on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered person runs from God when they sin because they fear the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: A gospel-centered person runs to God when they sin because they know Jesus already took God's wrath for them.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered person often feels like that Christianity is a burden.
SPEAKER_01: Often feels like Christianity is a burden because their faith is centered around this daily striving to follow all the rules, and following all the rules is impossible, or Jesus wouldn't have had to come.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_01: So if that's what you're doing, of course it's going to be a burden.
SPEAKER_01: But a gospel-centered man doesn't experience Christianity as a burden, but he experiences a profound sense that a burden has been lifted.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: Does that describe your walk with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Restful.
SPEAKER_01: If it's not, you're probably, you flipped it.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered person, listen, this is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered person repents and obeys.
SPEAKER_01: Religious-centered people repent and they obey.
SPEAKER_01: They repent and they obey because of an ungodly fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But a gospel-centered person repents and obeys because of the unimaginable grace and kindness that's already been shown to him.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_01: A religious-centered person, a religious-centered man, their worship is lifeless.
SPEAKER_01: Their worship is lifeless.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not trying to put you guys on the spot or make you feel guilty, and you definitely no need to put on any kind of act or anything like that, but I've been doing this a while.
SPEAKER_01: I can spot folks that their heart has not been captured by the gospel of this good news that this battle has been won for them.
SPEAKER_01: You can spot them.
SPEAKER_01: You can see it because their worship a lot of time is lifeless.
SPEAKER_01: Because seriously, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think happened back in the day?
SPEAKER_01: When the messenger stood up on top of the wall, and that all those people have been waiting there for days to hear, are they going to live or they're going to die?
SPEAKER_01: They've been waiting for days.
SPEAKER_01: They've got, they're just they're they're just gripping to know, is my husband still alive?
SPEAKER_01: Is my son still alive?
SPEAKER_01: Did our army win?
SPEAKER_01: Did they win the battle?
SPEAKER_01: Are we going to lose?
SPEAKER_01: Are we going to lose everything?
SPEAKER_01: And this guy stands up and everybody's like, shh.
SPEAKER_01: The dude stands up and says, Today I have for you a Uengaleon.
SPEAKER_01: A battle has been won for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to die.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to live.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think they did?
SPEAKER_01: You think they went, cool, awesome.
SPEAKER_01: See y'all later.
SPEAKER_01: You think they golf clout?
SPEAKER_01: Or do you think they lost their minds?
SPEAKER_01: Their fists pumping.
SPEAKER_01: Their hands are flinging in the air.
SPEAKER_01: They're shouting at the top of their lungs.
SPEAKER_01: They're singing.
SPEAKER_01: They're dancing.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because a battle has been won for them.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, religion.
SPEAKER_01: Religion never produces worship in a human heart, ever.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel always produces worship in a human heart that has believed into it.
SPEAKER_01: So what are you walking in?
SPEAKER_01: I'll end with this tonight.
SPEAKER_01: My youngest son is 15.
SPEAKER_01: My oldest son is a freshman at Ain't in this year.
SPEAKER_01: And he's an expensive sucker man right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to take up an offering later on, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: But my youngest son's 15, and he's he's my favorite kid.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't told the other ones that, but he's my favorite one by far.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's uh it's because he's so sweet.
SPEAKER_01: He's got the he's a good football player, he's a great kid, but he's just got this tender heart, and he's had it ever since he was a little guy.
SPEAKER_01: And years ago, man, I think he was maybe five.
SPEAKER_01: And so he was just a you know, four or five.
SPEAKER_01: He was still just a little dude, starting to talk really well.
SPEAKER_01: And my um older son was, you know, 10 or 11.
SPEAKER_01: My daughter was about 10, you know, I can't remember their ages, but he was about five.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife and I tried to decide one Good Friday if we wanted to let them watch The Passion of the Christ, the movie.
SPEAKER_01: And we were torn because it's rated R, and it's rated R because of violence.
SPEAKER_01: You've never seen it, Jesus just gets, I mean, they go into a lot of detail about what Jesus went through winning the battle for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: But we we decided we're like, I think we want to let them watch it because we wanted them to know at an early age what Jesus went for to win the battle.
SPEAKER_01: To win the war, actually.
SPEAKER_01: And so we let them watch it.
SPEAKER_01: And it was that scene where um Jesus has just gotten the crud beat out of him, and he's mangled.
SPEAKER_01: And it's that scene where he's he picks up his cross and he keeps falling down and he can't carry it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll never forget this.
SPEAKER_01: My little Sammy, call him Sammy, he was just a little kid.
SPEAKER_01: He's he starts crying.
SPEAKER_01: And I look at my wife like, oh man, we have just scarred this kid.
SPEAKER_01: He's going into counseling for sure.
SPEAKER_01: This is a bad idea.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got down beside him, put my hand on him.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, buddy, are you okay?
SPEAKER_01: Is this too much for you?
SPEAKER_01: Are you why are you crying?
SPEAKER_01: And he looks up at me, and this is what he said before Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Daddy, I wish I could carry that cross for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he said this, and I I just lost it when he said it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Daddy, I would use all my strength to carry that cross for him.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, buddy, I would too.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Little Sammy was on to something.
SPEAKER_00: That was our cross to carry.
SPEAKER_00: He was carrying your cross.
SPEAKER_01: But man, I have a new Angaleon for you.
SPEAKER_01: Got good news to share with you tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus took that cross for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he walked to the cross and he hung there.
SPEAKER_01: And he shed his blood and he died.
SPEAKER_01: And he rose three days later.
SPEAKER_01: And sin and death has been defeated forever.
SPEAKER_01: And so our response tonight is to believe into that.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Jesus, I'm tired of making this thing.
SPEAKER_01: I've made it where it's all about how I can please you, and I'm ready to believe the good news that the battle has already been won for me.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I know that as men, we like to fix things.
SPEAKER_01: We like to take things into our own hands, Lord, but there's there's one thing we can never take into our own hands, and and that's our sin.
SPEAKER_01: We needed a savior.
SPEAKER_01: We needed a new Angeleon.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank you that you came.
SPEAKER_01: And you won the war for us.
SPEAKER_01: Father, if there's any in this room that have never believed in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that just in the best way they know how tonight they would.
SPEAKER_01: They would trust in you, Jesus, as the Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, I pray for any men that walked in here discouraged because of whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Because they failed again.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that they would feel your joy tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And your love for them tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And your pleasure with them tonight if they're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That when you look at them, God, I pray they would be reminded you do not see their sin, but you see the blood of your son, and you are well pleased with them.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray they would live differently because of that truth.
SPEAKER_01: God, I ask these things tonight in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.