WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.720 This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:06.080 For more information in our church, please visit GrahamProquay.org. 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.640 I want to talk to you today about the insufficiency of being human. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:13.599 And what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1 is this. 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:24.320 He says, But our brothers could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ, I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:27.839 And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.520 For while there's jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human a human way? 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:42.560 For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:45.439 I want to begin with a statement this morning. 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:52.320 And my statement is this is that sometimes I say things that nobody in the room but me understands. 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:57.280 And y'all are like, Every Sunday, dude, are you kidding me? 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:59.280 That's what we do every Sunday. 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:03.200 We shave our legs and come and listen to you blather on, and we don't have a clue. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:14.480 Well, it dawned on me because about six weeks ago or something like that, a month ago, because I say this a lot around here to the staff, and they'll tell me something, and I go, Well, you can't help it. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:15.280 You're just a human. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:20.480 And they look at me, and one day one of them finally said back to me, Well, so are you, and I said, No, I'm not. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:24.159 And they were like, That explains a lot right there. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:33.599 Uh but but what I was trying to say, and I thought I had told them before, because we have a staff devotional on Tuesday mornings and staff meeting, I thought I talked about this, and apparently I had, I hadn't. 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:40.959 And they had all been talking about me behind my back about what do you think he means when he says that they're just human, they can't help it, or they go, hey, I saw. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.439 And I'm like, they can't help it, they're just human. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:47.840 And I'm not saying that's okay because, and I was like, I've never explained this to them. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.400 So I in Savaging, I just said, here's where that comes from. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:51.760 1 Corinthians 3. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:55.439 Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and don't think church is in building. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:59.599 He's writing to people, and he's saying, Hey, here's the deal. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.640 You're you're doing this and you're saying this and you're acting this way. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:05.280 And aren't you being just merely human? 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:11.360 Which, by the way, was the greatest insult you could bestow upon a Christian in the biblical times. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:15.199 And for some reason, we've kind of let that fall to the wayside. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:20.159 And what back then was the greatest insult is now just like a natural explanation for our lives. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:34.560 And so on the day that everyone makes their New Year's resolutions and you kind of figure out what I'm gonna do and you redouble your efforts to do again this year what you were unable to do last year or what you did for 10 days or two months or whatever, and then kind of petered out and just quit. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:39.919 I just want to rescue you from that and just say, if you make one resolution this year, make it this. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.960 Resolve to not be merely human this year. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.719 Just make it your thing because I hear it all the time. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:54.400 Well, I'm just a human, God knows all, and God knows what I can take, and that's just what I can do. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:56.400 Well, my secretary came on to me. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:57.520 What was I to do? 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.039 I'm just a red-blooded American man, I'm just a human being. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:02.560 No, you're not. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:13.439 If you profess to know God, if you profess to be a Christian, to be a Christ follower, to be a person, to say that is to say I'm a Christian, is to say that the Spirit of God lives inside of you. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.919 And if God, men and women, don't miss this. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:22.639 If God lives inside of you, then for the rest of your life, you can no longer say, I'm just a human. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:37.520 That excuse is taken off the list of responses for why you screwed your life up or why you sit in front of your TV consistently and drink yourself into a wine-induced stupor before you go to bed. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:38.560 I'm just human. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:39.919 That's what I do. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:41.599 Not okay. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.439 Not sufficient is probably a better word. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:47.759 Paul says, hey, you're doing this. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:50.240 Aren't you acting like mere human beings? 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.599 And what he's trying to infer and say to these people is that you're so much more. 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:04.960 Because to say I'm just a human is to reduce Christianity down to nothing more than moralistic therapeutic deism. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:10.719 Deism being the thought, moralistic basically, let me make people think that I'm really a good person. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.599 Therapeutic, it's all about me feeling good. 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:27.120 Deism, well, deism is the belief that God created the world and he got it spinning and he put it in orbit and like a balloon full of helium, it just floated off, and he's not really involved with it or concerned about it and can't do anything about it. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:32.560 He just watches from a distance as it all kinds of come unhinged and comes apart at the seams. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:42.240 And and deism is more practical, I mean, more prevalent than we realize, because there's a lot of people that think God has nothing to do with the day-to-day workings of the world. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:44.000 You realize that, don't you? 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:53.439 I mean, just this just this weekend I had a conversation with a friend of mine who said, you know, I don't think God has any control over the rain and all this stuff. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.720 And I was like, whoa, what? 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:57.920 What? 00:04:58.560 --> 00:04:59.120 What? 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.560 Oh, it's not even New Year's Eve, and you're talking like a drunk person. 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:03.600 But they weren't. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:05.279 They were just they believed that. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:08.720 And by the way, our world is full of people that believe that. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:10.959 And here's the reward for deism. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:12.720 Here's the payback for believing that. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:16.319 Because God's not really involved in the affairs of this world. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:19.680 You don't have to live connected to God. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:22.319 Because he's disconnected from you. 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:26.959 See how easy the payoff, how subtle that is, and yet how profound it is. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:28.639 Oh, God's not really concerned. 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:30.480 I don't have to be concerned. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:32.399 That's the end of the sermon. 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:33.759 Thanks for coming. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:35.600 Now I want to talk to you. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:36.319 I wasn't kidding. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.720 That's all you get on the insufficiency of being human. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:40.000 I don't know how to say any other way. 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.240 The staff is so sick of me saying they're just human. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:43.120 They can't help it. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.360 They look at me and go, that's so arrogant. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:46.800 No, it's so biblical. 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:57.120 Because unless you embrace this year, that if you are a Christian, if you're here today and you're visiting, you're like, I don't know about all this, I'm just I'm just checking it out, then you're off the hook. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:00.240 The requirements of the Bible do not apply to you. 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:15.279 But for me, as someone that says, I'm in a relationship with God, there was a point in my life where I was brought by the Spirit of God to an understanding that I'm sinful and separated from God, and only God can make me right with God. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:18.720 I am so screwed up that Jesus had to die for me. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:25.120 And the good news of the gospel is that I'm so loved by God, Jesus was glad to die for me. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:27.360 He was glad. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:34.399 I didn't make him, I didn't back him into a corner, I didn't, I wasn't moralistic, I wasn't good enough to deserve that. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.600 I don't take a shower in order to take a bath. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:39.920 Try that on your kids. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:47.279 I don't know about you, but my kids, every night it surprises them they have to take a shower or a bath and brush their teeth. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:49.360 And so they just fall on the ground. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:50.879 Hey, it's time to take a bath. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:54.639 Oh, goodness! Like, that's what y'all did today. 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.360 You thought of some wicked way to punish us. 00:06:57.839 --> 00:06:59.600 It's called a shower. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:02.160 Like, well, you smell like a squirrel. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:04.079 Go get in the shower, okay? 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.360 But it never ceases to, or brush your teeth. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.360 I mean, it's like they've been shot with a rifle. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:12.720 Oh, oh, brush our teeth. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:17.360 Just look at my wife and go, is this run in your family? 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:19.360 Because it didn't run in ours, okay? 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:21.439 This had to come from. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:27.199 But Paul says, hey, listen, it it's it's not okay. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:34.639 You have the Spirit of God inside of you, and so to cop out and go, I'm just a human is no longer an option. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:38.240 So, because that's true, then how do we appropriate? 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:40.720 Because here's the practical thing about God. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.720 God uses means to achieve his ends. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:49.680 And so I want to, I really, that's what I want to talk about today, because that's the that's the that that's the sermon. 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:50.399 I don't understand. 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:52.319 Being merely human is not even an option. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:53.839 Let's don't waste time thinking about it. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:58.160 Well, okay, Neil, but but no, no, no longer an option. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:13.759 That means, students, that you can't think the way your friends think about relationships, you can't think the way they think about clothes or food or their body or sex or grass or pizza or cologne or none of that stuff. 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:22.560 You have just you your mind is so reshaped and altered by the truth of the gospel that it's just you're not merely human. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.319 And the beauty is that you and I stop being merely human. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.439 It reminds everybody else around us that there's more. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.240 I didn't realize there was more until I went to work for James Sewell. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:37.200 He's just a guy I went to work for. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:46.879 You've heard me talk about it before, and I just remember thinking, you are either crazy, or my life is really, really, really missing something. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:48.799 And it was the latter. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:51.919 And every time I was around him, I was reminded of that. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.519 And I was drawn to that. 00:08:53.679 --> 00:09:02.480 He was like a clown on fire, and I remember just thinking, man, there's something about that old guy right there that's jacked up. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:06.080 He was 52 years old. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:08.080 And he sang. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:10.399 Like in church. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.440 I'd never seen men sing in church. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.519 Except I went to this crazy church when I was a kid, but they were like, you know, old people and stuff. 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:26.960 And I think he just reminded me early on that it's just not okay, it's not enough just to be human. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:34.159 And so, because God uses means to accomplish his ends, I want to just briefly tell you how do you how do you get there? 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:37.440 How do you practically escape being merely human? 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.600 Number one, go back to the beginning. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:40.960 Go back to the beginning. 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:42.720 Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:43.840 What do I mean in the beginning? 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:44.799 This is what I mean. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:48.480 Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, the Bible says this, it'll come on the screen. 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:50.000 Paul says, I'm sure of this. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:51.440 Now you've got to be sure of this. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:56.159 You've got to get this in the marrow of your bones, not in your head, but in the marrow of your bones. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:57.200 Be sure of this. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:59.919 That he who began a good work in you. 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:01.679 Now just stop right there. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.159 He who began a good work in you. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.320 That he is not me. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:09.120 I didn't begin a good work in me. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:11.519 You didn't begin a good work in you. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:13.519 Here's what sustains me. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:19.759 I have never gotten over the reality and the understanding that my being a Christian is not my idea. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:22.480 It's God's idea. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:29.440 If you believe the Bible, He began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:35.200 That's a reference to the end of the world, which is according to the Mayans, is happening this year, so you better get your act together. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:39.440 You got about 11 months, and then he's gonna lay the wood to you. 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:42.559 It's he who began a good work in you. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:43.840 What do you mean go back to the beginning? 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.519 I go back to the beginning, and it it it's it's this boundless well that I drink from. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:57.440 It's this effusive, overflowing, glorious, thirst-slaking fountain that you just are drenched in. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.200 It's like screwing the lid off of. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:07.279 I remember when I was growing up, some thug in my neighborhood where I lived, kind of over in the hood, got the tool that you unscrew a fire hydrant with. 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:10.960 And I remember somebody came outside and said, they've got the fire hydrant open. 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:13.200 And I was like, I'd never seen that. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:16.240 By the way, that water comes out of that bad boy. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:19.519 I mean, they screw that thing off, it was shooting from here to that wall. 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:24.639 I mean, there were kids lining up, taking their shirt off, and then trying to drink it. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:28.559 We all went to school the next day. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:29.919 Our mouths were misshapen. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.159 They're like, oh yeah, you drink out of fire hydrant. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:33.679 I don't know what you're talking about. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:42.879 See, that's the beauty of just embracing this simple truth that my being a Christian is God's idea. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:45.519 He began this good work in me. 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:51.440 And to not believe that, it's not like drinking out of a fire hydrant. 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:59.519 It's like standing in front of a Coke machine that just took your money and you're beating on the machine, trying to get it do what it's supposed to do. 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:02.799 That is man-centered theology. 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:06.960 You've been ripped off, and nobody knows it more than you. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:09.519 So, how do I, how do I do this? 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:11.279 I go back to the beginning. 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:18.240 There's also a danger here in going back to the beginning because you can go back to the beginning and there's nothing as big as God to point at. 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:19.600 There's no moment. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:21.919 Begin this year by asking yourself this question. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:29.840 Do you go back and can you point at a place and a time where your life went from being merely human to being what the Bible says it could be? 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.240 To being what Jesus said in John 10 and 10. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:37.919 He said, I come so you can have life and have it to the fullest, to have it more abundantly. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:41.360 When did life become more abundant for you? 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.600 And let me just say this, and please hear this. 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:54.240 If you're here today and there's nowhere you can point on, point at along the timeline of your life and say, it was right there that God intersected my life, and I've never been the same. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:00.480 If you look back and you go, I go back to the beginning, it's like, well, I was born, I lived here, I did this, I did that, I did that, that wasn't good. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.480 Back up, start over, do this. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:07.679 But there's no period and place you can say, that's where it started for me. 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.159 And I've not been the same ever since. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:15.679 That I'm gonna tell you, I'm not gonna suggest you, I'm gonna tell you, you don't have a relationship with God. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:31.120 And the danger is that the church has gotten so good at giving you moralistic, therapeutic, self-help advice that you can go to the church and be active every Sunday and never know God. 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:34.320 Because the church is so creative these days. 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:36.000 And oh, we got children's ministry. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:40.960 You drop your kid off on a water slide and they shoot out, and SpongeBob is our Sunday school teacher. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:48.559 And they come out with cotton candy and a popcorn ball and a craft that they made, and they're like, I want to come back next week. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.360 And you never stop and ask yourself, what are we coming back to? 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:52.960 And what are we coming back for? 00:13:54.240 --> 00:14:04.720 And so when I said go back to the beginning, I just I'm I'm just acknowledging there's some danger in there because some of you, if you were honest, you go back and there's nowhere along the line where you can point to and say, That's where it happened for me. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:09.679 Not this is where I started going to church because my wife just rode me and said we're gonna go to church. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:12.159 But this is where it began for me. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:16.480 And if it's never happened for you, why don't you come up after the service and talk to one of us? 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:18.879 And you today that can happen for you. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:20.879 That's the beauty of it. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:24.879 Second thing, how do you how do you how do you escape? 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:26.000 You go back to the beginning. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:27.840 Secondly, you remember the gospel. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:32.159 You remember the gospel, you say, Well, that's that's what do you mean the gospel? 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.159 Gospel just means the good news. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:35.039 The good news. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:37.759 Paul says it like this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:40.639 He says now in verse 1 and 2, he said, I would remind you. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:41.840 Don't miss that. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:42.639 I would remind you. 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:43.039 Why? 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:47.600 Because we forget, we just move past it, we outgrow it. 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:51.759 We're like, I got that, you know, I made the hundred on the Jesus pop quiz. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:53.200 I know all the answers. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.399 The gospel is not answers, it's intimacy. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:06.639 It's living closely connected in a daily, practical, real way with the God of the universe. 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:19.039 It affects the way you think, what you watch on TV, what you look at on the internet, how you spend your money, the way you eat, the way you exercise, everything having to do with anything. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:27.120 Paul says, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preach to you, which you received, and which you stand, and by which you are being saved. 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:32.559 If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.399 You say, Well, I what what what do you mean? 00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:38.480 Let me just tell you three things about the gospel. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.559 When I say remember the gospel, the first thing about the gospel is the gospel is cosmic. 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:48.480 I don't want to talk much about this because tomorrow I'm uh I'm talking about gospel centrality at a school here in town. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:49.759 Uh for six hours. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:50.639 Pray for those people. 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:51.840 They're gonna get it. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:58.399 Uh because I've just been just just just I'm just like blah. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:01.440 You say, what is gospel centrality? 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:04.879 I'm gonna begin by telling them Jesus tells the story of these two builders. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:06.320 One of them said, Hey, you know what? 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:07.840 I'm gonna just do the quick thing. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:09.519 I'm gonna build my house on the sand. 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:16.240 And the other one, Jesus said, He dug down past the levels of sand till he found the rock and he built his life upon that. 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:26.240 Gospel centrality, men and women, is a big religious sound and phrase, but basically, it's you and I building our lives on the most sure thing we could ever know in this world. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:32.879 It is not the stock market, it's not your relationships, it's not your bank account. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:37.759 By the way, despite all the good and bad news, the stock market was up 6% this year. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:42.399 Some of you are like, what's the stock market? 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:44.480 That's my question. 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:46.080 There's a stock market? 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.639 You say, well, what do you what do you mean? 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:53.279 See, the gospel is cosmic. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.240 What I basically mean is the gospel is bigger than we've been told. 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.639 Don't think cosmic as in space cowboy. 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:01.039 Think the gospel, see, here's what we've been told. 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:10.400 The gospel, the good news is that God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life, but you're sinful and separated from God, and Jesus came to bridge the gap. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:13.359 And that's true, but that's not the gospel. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:15.599 The gospel doesn't start and end with me. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:21.039 The gospel really, if you when I say it's cosmic, it's big, it goes all the way back to Genesis 1.1. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:31.839 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.440 And you say, Well, how is that the gospel? 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.079 I don't get that. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:35.759 I mean, it's just, are you kidding me? 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:37.599 What do you mean it's cosmic? 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:38.720 Let me ask this question. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:55.920 How many of you this year, looking back last night before you passed out or you chose to go to bed or whatever, looking back over this past year, how many of you came through things looking back that if you would have known last year on January the 1st, you'd have thought, there's no way I can get through that? 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:57.119 Just see your hand. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.319 You're like, hey, I went through something this year, and now there's no way. 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:02.400 Let's take it up real high if you would. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.720 Just put your hands down. 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:07.359 Some of you are like, yeah, there's no way. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:12.480 I mean, if God would have told me on January 1st of 2011, by the way, guess what this year holds? 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:13.839 You'd have been like, oh. 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:19.200 Oh no, you didn't. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:21.759 No, that's for my neighbor. 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:23.440 I got his mail again, God. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:24.960 Let me take this over to him. 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:26.799 Look at me. 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:29.279 This is what I mean when I say the gospel is cosmic. 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:37.359 It's so big that in the beginning, see, that which way back that was void and formless and dark, it was unknown to you. 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:38.240 Guess what? 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:43.519 The moment that the doctor said, by the way, the test comes back, has come back, and it's positive. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.279 We need to get another test to confirm, and then we got a plan of action. 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:48.000 Guess what? 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:52.319 All that was void and formless and dark, here's the gospel. 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.039 Here's why what I mean when I say it's cosmic, it's big. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.000 The Spirit of God was hovering over that. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.480 Long before you got there. 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:02.799 God had a plan for it. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:12.880 God didn't have an idea, He had a sovereign plan for effortlessly claiming his due glory in that. 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.160 Of just saying, Yea me. 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:20.240 Yea me. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:30.000 You're gonna sing songs in church after this that are gonna come alive and explode off of your tongue because the way I'm gonna be faithful in the midst of this. 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:32.319 I'm not gonna all of a sudden be faithful. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:34.559 I've never been faithless. 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.279 That's what I mean when I say the gospel is cosmic. 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:43.039 Second thing about the gospel, the gospel alone has the power to save. 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:46.400 Look at look at me. 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.839 I don't preach long if you're a viscer, so you gotta listen fast. 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.640 Be an invitation for you, Ronnie, right after the service, right over here. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.559 You and Wade Burgess are laughing. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:58.079 I can feel you right now. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:19:59.759 You say, What do you mean? 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:01.839 The gospel alone has the power to save. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:08.960 If you and I are gonna escape being mere human, ask yourself, where am I gonna find the power to do that? 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:11.680 Because it's all you've ever known. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.440 And by the way, there's a lot of company in humanity. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:20.880 It's it's just most people you meet are just kind of like, oh, it's just who I am. 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:28.720 It's just there's a lot of company, and so you gotta like escape the gravitational pull of mediocrity. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.119 And your only hope and my only hope is the power that is ours in the gospel. 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:36.799 Paul said in Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:40.799 It is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:48.880 To the Jew first and then to the Gentile, to the religious and to the non-religious, to the Republican, to the Democrat, to the rich, to the poor. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:56.400 Everybody across all spectrums, the gospel has power in it to change that person's life. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:01.279 Third thing about the gospel, because I don't want you to just hear, remember the gospel. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:02.559 Okay, check, got that number two. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:03.519 What's next? 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:09.680 Third thing about the gospel, the gospel most glorifies God. 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.039 You say, Well, what do you mean? 00:21:13.359 --> 00:21:17.599 Remember at Christmas, and there's so much to say at Christmas, and we just kind of tune out. 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.559 We want it to be sentimental, and hey, we know the drill. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:21.759 No, you don't. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:29.200 When the angel came and said, Glory to God, the first thing the heavenly host announces about baby Jesus. 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:34.720 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests. 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:35.680 Remember that? 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:37.200 Have you heard that before? 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:40.400 Like every Christmas, we preachers roll that out, do we not? 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:42.720 You're like, let me guess, glory to God in the highest. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:43.519 We've heard it. 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:44.480 Shut up. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:47.359 Here's why preachers say that. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:51.920 Because you'll never find peace in a gospel that doesn't give God all the glory. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:56.400 And yet, some of us are ruthlessly committed to that. 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:57.440 You say, What do you mean? 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:02.799 You see, the gospel most glorifies God, and if We're honest, we have to say that we hate that part. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:08.079 Because the gospel reminds us that we are unable, deficient, sinful. 00:22:08.319 --> 00:22:10.240 There's nothing we can take credit for. 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:12.880 We have no inherent means of rescue. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:17.519 Therefore, we have to admit that only God can save us. 00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:22.240 And here's why, here's where bad theology comes in. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.160 Pride is the source of all bad theology. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:28.880 Because pride says, no, wait a minute. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:30.799 I had something to do with that. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:35.599 Well, let me just ask you: what do you point to in yourself that made God choose you? 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.720 What is it that God looked down and said, that would be a good investment of my love? 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:56.880 But human pride, it's not human nature. 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.759 Maybe human nature, but it's just pride that kind of says, now wait a minute. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:16.720 If you'll come up to me on a consistent basis in this church and say, Well, I wish you wouldn't say all that stuff about God did it all, we didn't do anything, and I just ask a question, and I'm not trying to, I'm just trying to be their pastor and say, Well, tell me what did you do that made this possible? 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:23.039 Because if you did something, then you've got something to claim and take credit for. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:26.160 And God has to share his glory with you. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:34.960 See, here's the pride-swallowing, ego-destroying power of the gospel. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:37.279 There's nothing for you to take credit for. 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:41.119 But here's the beauty of that. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:51.519 Any of you screwed up, wicked, selfish people who are just like me by nature can be transformed by the power of the gospel. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:53.599 You don't have to deserve it. 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:58.960 You can be hung over right now, and no doubt some of you are. 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:04.880 And I'm so glad you're here. 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:09.279 That's how much I believe the gospel. 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:15.680 It's not for people who have their act together, it's for people who can't get their act together. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:23.119 The problem in the American church is it's full of smug, self-righteous people who don't need it. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.519 That's because they've forgotten the gospel. 00:24:28.720 --> 00:24:32.720 Don't ever forget, or else you're gonna outgrow the good news. 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:35.759 Thirdly and finally, how do we how do we escape being human? 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:36.880 Give us something practical. 00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:37.920 Here's something practical. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:41.920 Thirdly and finally, you have to embrace this that God is for me. 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:45.119 That God is for me. 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:47.759 You say, well, oh, I I think I believed that. 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:48.880 No, you don't. 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:51.039 No, you do not. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:57.680 If you really believed that God was for you, you would do crazy things like observe a Sabbath. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:24:59.839 You would take a day. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:02.079 Do you hear how wacko that just sounded? 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.279 Some of you are like, he's Jewish. 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.759 I thought this was a Baptist church. 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:12.400 Pinch the baby, we're leaving. 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:14.559 Yes. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:16.079 Let me say that again. 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:25.200 If you and I really believed that God is for you, you would take at least one day out of your week and do nothing. 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:31.440 You just rest and bask in the fact that God is for me. 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:39.519 He's gonna establish my business, my salvation, as Psalm 62 says, my salvation and my honor depends on God. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:48.640 And boy, that just, oh, that some of us hear that and you're like, well, that's just laziness. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:51.359 Here's what the Bible says. 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:52.799 We mean God is for me. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:54.880 Romans chapter 8, verse 31. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.319 Paul says, What then shall we say to these things if God is for us? 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:02.799 By the way, when he says if in the Greek it's really sense. 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:10.319 He's not asking a question like, well, on the off chance that God might be for you, he's for you. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:12.240 Do you realize that? 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:15.599 People say to me all the time, Boy, I wish I had your personality. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:18.240 You don't need my personality, you need my understanding. 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:22.720 I don't understand a lot, but I understand this: that he's for me. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:24.160 That he likes me. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:27.039 He doesn't just love me because the Bible says he does. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:33.920 He likes me because he set his affection upon me and he chose me, and I'm accepted by him. 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:36.079 He is for me. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.759 My life is not a representation of what I'm capable of. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:42.480 My life is a reflection of who God is. 00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:46.000 And that's not pressure, that's sonship. 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:49.039 He says, What shall we say to these things? 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:51.440 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:52.799 And then he gives us list. 00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:54.640 He who did not spare his own son. 00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:59.440 By the way, if you need a reminder that God is for you, look to the cross. 00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:01.519