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 got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and uh open it up to Romans chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll continue in our series entitled Raise, where we talk about living the reality of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the second part, and we're just going to get halfway through this and we'll finish out Ray's next week.
SPEAKER_00: If you weren't here last week, I told you, and I mean this, the resurrection is kind of like turkey.
SPEAKER_00: You only have it once a year.
SPEAKER_00: But you should have it more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We should talk about the resurrection more than that in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to talk to you this morning about what the resurrection makes us believe.
SPEAKER_00: What the resurrection makes us believe.
SPEAKER_00: And if you got your Bible, keep it out because we're going to look at different places.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to begin reading in Romans chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Early on.
SPEAKER_00: Except parts of the Bible that you don't really, when you first start, you're kind of just on cruise control.
SPEAKER_00: You're just kind of reading through there.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see the Bible makes great doctrinal statements early on in books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes these words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was a descendant from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now just stop and read that last part again because Paul's kind of introducing himself and his credentials, and he says, But I'm an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, think Old Testament, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: See, the first thing that the resurrection really demands that we believe is a really simple thing that we so often take for granted.
SPEAKER_00: But in this multicultural, politically correct, pluralistic, all kinds of tolerance age, the one thing the resurrection enforces on us and says, you have to believe in the resurrection, you're believing in this, and it's simply this that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is God, and you say, Well, that's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that, you would be surprised because you can say, I don't know if you ever know, you can say God, the big man, the man upstairs, the heavenly father, and nobody you work with will say anything.
SPEAKER_00: But when you kind of sharpen the focus and say Jesus, all of a sudden those are fighting words.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you say Jesus, you're saying something about everybody in the world because in Jesus, it's like I referenced my prayer, in Jesus, uh like it's like the angel said, You shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people.
SPEAKER_00: And just the name Jesus, it implies something about humanity, but it also implies something, makes a statement about God.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: More than any doctrine in the church today, the doctrine of Christology, don't get hung up with that big word.
SPEAKER_00: Christology basically means what do you understand the Bible to teach about Christ?
SPEAKER_00: More than anything in America, and especially in America, but in the world, Christology is under attack, not on a theological basis, but on a practical basis.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the way it sounds.
SPEAKER_00: If all roads lead to God, then what does it matter what you believe about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I've been asked that question so many times.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean on the mission field, by some native person living in a hut.
SPEAKER_00: I mean by well-dressed people at Cafe Express in town center.
SPEAKER_00: All roads lead to God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's the big deal about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That's a crystallological question.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: when we assume mistakenly and we believe that people accept what we assume, we are ill-prepared for that conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And we were kind of like, uh, and then you text me, you have that conversation, you text me and go, hey, wish you would have been here at lunch today.
SPEAKER_00: My buddy said this, and I didn't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I wish my pastor was here.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, the Spirit of God was there and you were there.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't need me, you didn't need anybody that works at this church.
SPEAKER_00: You had everything you needed.
SPEAKER_00: But see, the mistake we've made in the American church is we just assume everybody believes that, that Jesus is God, and they don't.
SPEAKER_00: Most people in the world believe there's a God, if they believe there's a God, but they believe that all the world religions are just different paths that you take to get to God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Bible doesn't teach that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says two things about Jesus: that he is exalted, and we'll see in just a minute, and he's exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: The only way to have a relationship with God is through his son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that today?
SPEAKER_00: That's if you don't believe that, then there's no sense going to Romania.
SPEAKER_00: We're just wasting gas and airline tickets, and you're going to go confuse a lot of people that need to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: See, the resurrection is kind of the validation, it's the stamp.
SPEAKER_00: It's God saying, Jesus saying, hey, here you're you're now left without excuse as to what you believe about me.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Son of God declared in power.
SPEAKER_00: See, the resurrection kind of overturns relativism.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the resurrection, what you see is that Jesus is not just a prophet or a teacher or a good person.
SPEAKER_00: All things that people have said, radical.
SPEAKER_00: One guy said, I think Jesus is kind of like Che Guavera.
SPEAKER_00: And I almost just reached across the table and choked him out right there.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, Well, what do you mean, Che Guevara?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's kind of like he was for the little man, he overthrew the government.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I thought just when I thought we were out of morons, you and I had lunch.
SPEAKER_00: We got a deep supply.
SPEAKER_00: There's just an endless supply of them, keep coming.
SPEAKER_00: See, the resurrection kind of overturns relativism, this kind of a man be pamby.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it just doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Because in it you see that he's not just prophet, teacher, he's not just radical, he's not just your best friend, he's not a friend of the oppressed, the downcast, the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just love and in mercy.
SPEAKER_00: In the resurrection, you see that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to see how controversial that is, look no further than the three biggest religions in the world right now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jew, look at the Jews, look at the Muslims, and look at Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Just briefly, I just tell you, just in a really over-generalized simplification, Jews do not believe that Jesus is their Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They believe he lived and he died, but he didn't rise again.
SPEAKER_00: He just did.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, you can look in the Bible, and we'll we'll get to Matthew 28 in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that, hey, the chief priests and the leaders called these guys in and gave them money and said, Hey, tell everybody that his disciples came and took his body in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: And it says to this day the Jews believe that.
SPEAKER_00: They don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because if Jesus is really risen from the dead, then they're without excuse, and all of a sudden, something's got to happen.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the Muslim faith.
SPEAKER_00: One of the they say he was one of the great prophets, not the greatest one.
SPEAKER_00: He lived as an esteemed man of God, but he wasn't crucified.
SPEAKER_00: It just seemed like he was.
SPEAKER_00: I've always wondered how do you fake that?
SPEAKER_00: How do you pull that kind of trick off?
SPEAKER_00: But if you're a Christian, what you profess to believe and what the Bible teaches is that Jesus lived, that he died, and he rose from the dead, and because of this, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_00: If you got your Bibles, turn to Philippians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Romans, just turn to the right.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to assume, and I want you to turn if you've got a Bible, and if you don't have a Bible, pick one up on your pew there and take it home with you.
SPEAKER_00: And happy birthday.
SPEAKER_00: That's my gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want you to just look up on the screen and kind of go, I'm kind of tired.
SPEAKER_00: I stayed up late last night, had a big day yesterday, and just kind of because you need to kind of train your mind to know where things in the Bible are.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest passages in the New Testament on the Christology, on who exactly is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's what he did in the like verses five to ten, and then there's why he did it.
SPEAKER_00: That last part.
SPEAKER_00: He says that every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that Jesus did here on earth, he did to bring glory to his Father God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_00: Everything he did.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that the Son, he came to glorify the Father, and the Spirit is left here to glorify the Son.
SPEAKER_00: That's just that's just the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: In the resurrection, Jesus is without doubt proven to be the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is God.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, what do you keep your finger in Philippians 2 and turn back to the left if you would to Isaiah 45 in the Old Testament?
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you something.
SPEAKER_00: You need to make the correlation.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 45.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start reading verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have to blame Ross.
SPEAKER_00: He got me all excited with them songs about the name.
SPEAKER_00: Because when the Bible says that he's highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that you can't feel about all the other so-called messiahs and gods in the world the way you feel about Jesus, because God doesn't feel that way.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't look down and say, hey, you're all trying hard, you're all doing good, you seem to be sincere.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let you in on the base of your sincerity.
SPEAKER_00: That's never gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_00: It's never like in the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 19, there was 850 false prophets of Baal, and there was one man that knew God named Elijah, and they kind of had a contest.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Whoever God answers with fire, that's who's really God.
SPEAKER_00: They did all their stuff, they couldn't get a spark going.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah just prayed and said, Lord, so all these people know that you're the God in heaven who answers with fire.
SPEAKER_00: Just send fire.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it just came and just kind of burned up this all this altar they'd built out of wood, and he poured water on it, and it was soaked three times.
SPEAKER_00: And then God said, Oh, by the way, go kill all those people.
SPEAKER_00: It just makes you want to watch true grit, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, hey, we're gonna establish once for all who it is that really knows God.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 45.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember in Philippians 2, it was said of Jesus that he has exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_00: So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: You will bow in this world out of relationship, or you will bow in the next out of reverence.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter, but you're going to bow.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just be clear about that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Now look at Isaiah 45, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: God says this: Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's not harsh.
SPEAKER_00: He tells everybody everywhere, turn to me and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: For I am God, and there is no other.
SPEAKER_00: By myself I have sworn, for my mouth has gone out in righteousness, a word that shall not return to me.
SPEAKER_00: Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: What is Paul saying?
SPEAKER_00: What is the Bible teaching us in Philippians 2 when he kind of paraphrases or basically applies what the Bible says and what God says of himself in Isaiah 45?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, This is true of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What the Bible's telling us, not what I'm telling you, not what your grandma told you, not what religious people tell you, what the Bible tells you, that you see it verified and validated in the resurrection, is first and foremost that Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: Because if Jesus is not God, then we have no gospel to take to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: You have no reason to get up today.
SPEAKER_00: You have no hope for the future.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is not God incarnate, God with skin on him, then none of this matters.
SPEAKER_00: If all roads lead to God, then just pick your one that makes you the most comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Like people pick churches in America.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what makes me the most comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: I think I go to that.
SPEAKER_00: And then they're 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, and they realize I don't really know anything.
SPEAKER_00: Well, because you you made life choices on the basis of what is most comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, hey, let's just be clear about something.
SPEAKER_00: In the resurrection, Jesus is declared and proven to be God.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, and I want to kind of go back to something I mentioned at the end last week.
SPEAKER_00: Second point in the talk this morning is simply this is that judgment is purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn in your Bibles to this, but that Acts 17 passage will come up that we referenced last week.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we said last week that the resurrection starts the clock?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to keep talking to you until you answer back.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I said that the resurrection, the Bible tells us, once Jesus, see the new creation's already started.
SPEAKER_00: We're not waiting to get to heaven for the good stuff to happen.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus, when his disciples said, How shall we pray?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Pray this way.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Stop being neutral and lazy and doing nothing and telling everybody, well, when I get to heaven, I'm really gonna kick it in gear because I'm gonna get a new body.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be fat and lazy and none of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're supposed to be right now bringing it to bear on us, on this earth, by our obedience.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible says one day the knowledge, the glory of God is gonna cover the earth as the water covers the sea, the reason that's gonna happen is because you and I are contending for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing that and saying that, which brings God glory.
SPEAKER_00: So when I'm at Cafe Express and a guy says, Well, I appreciate the fact you're religious, but all roads lead to God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not being radical or upstartish.
SPEAKER_00: When I just say, actually, that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: You you you you know that all roads don't lead to God.
SPEAKER_00: And then, by the way, everybody around, like in every table around there, all kinds of looks up like, lighten up, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you hating on that guy?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not hating on that guy.
SPEAKER_00: And these aren't aborigines that live on the Australian Outback, these are pearly white Fort Bend County people that go to churches and they don't know anything.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, dude, do y'all teach the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, our band rocks.
SPEAKER_00: One guy told me that.
SPEAKER_00: When I said, Do y'all teach the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: He said, We got an awesome band.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, our band rocks.
SPEAKER_00: Come here, son, I'm gonna whip you right here.
SPEAKER_00: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_00: Look at this Acts passage from Acts 17 when I say judgment is purple, because last week we left it and it sounded kind of foreboding.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think that God's just kind of like hacked off with the world and like a drunken stepdaddy's gonna come in and start just hitting people.
SPEAKER_00: Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has fixed a day.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why does God tell people to repent?
SPEAKER_00: Because he wants to be right?
SPEAKER_00: No, he is right.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man he's appointed.
SPEAKER_00: And of this he's given assurance to everybody by raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was raised from the dead, God now has a perfect judge by which everybody in the world is going to be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So when I say that judgment is purposeful, that's what we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_00: That started the clock.
SPEAKER_00: God now, when we said that Jesus is the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 that he's the first fruits from among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And whereas there's first fruits, that means there's going to be one more time, where there's first fruit, there's going to be more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Like Monday is payday for us here at the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so because I tithe on first fruit before my check ever shows up in my in my bank account, I just write a check and tithe off of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's my first fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm saying to God is, God, I'm giving this because I believe, here's my first fruit, because I believe there's going to be more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to live like, well, God, I'm going to get this and I'm going to get paid.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, God, I want one of those new tailor-made rocket balls drivers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to buy one of those, and then I'm going to take my wife out, and then my kids need shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And then I want to go down to Galveston to the beach for a day.
SPEAKER_00: And then, if I got anything left, here's the change.
SPEAKER_00: You can have it.
SPEAKER_00: That's last fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's not first fruit.
SPEAKER_00: See, first fruit means there's more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: There's more people going to be raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, everybody is.
SPEAKER_00: And see, what do you mean judgment is purposeful?
SPEAKER_00: He has set a day when he's going to judge the world in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: If you get your Bibles, turn to the book of Psalms, Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see something.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is purposeful.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody knows that except the people.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now get this.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: This is and I want to put a smile on judgment because we don't like judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: People talk about Jesus or God.
SPEAKER_00: They say, well, I'd like to think about God as loving, not judgmental.
SPEAKER_00: Well, reality is not determined by what I like and what you like.
SPEAKER_00: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I I prefer my God to be, it's kind of like you're ordering a drink.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like mine shaken, not stirred.
SPEAKER_00: What's that got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_00: I'd like a wife that did everything I told her to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you can figure out how to do that, tell me.
SPEAKER_00: Because my wife does a certain amount of things in the day, and then I ask for something else, and she's like, I'm done with you.
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: You are wearing me out.
SPEAKER_00: You're the neediest man I know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I got some friends that are really needy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just done.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I move, you ask me for something, just get it yourself.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Ain't got to yell at me.
SPEAKER_00: See, put put put a new face on judgment today.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
SPEAKER_00: His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has made known his salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: To the house of Israel, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at me just for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed already twice the Bible has talked about all the ends of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Over here?
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed all the so no one's going to be able to say, Well, I just never knew.
SPEAKER_00: I just didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Break forth in joyous song and sing praises.
SPEAKER_00: Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn, with a joyful noise before the King of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let the sea roar and all that fills it, and the world and those who dwell in it.
SPEAKER_00: Let the rivers clap their hands and let the hills sing for joy together.
SPEAKER_00: What are they so excited about?
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next sentence.
SPEAKER_00: Verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: Before the Lord, let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, nobody's gonna get a raw deal or an unfair shake.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna come and judge the world with righteousness and with equity, and creation, the Bible says, is pretty jazzed about that.
SPEAKER_00: You say, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't want to give you too many Bible verses, because I'm supposed to like read three sentences and give you seven things to do to jazz up your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, just a little aside, people have been asking, like six years ago when I first started, I talked to the book of Song of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all were around back then?
SPEAKER_00: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_00: Because people are like, would you ever do that again?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I told you six years ago, have you forgotten?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're just asking, should we do that?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're just kind of wondering.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, we place a high priority on the value.
SPEAKER_00: Lance said weight, now we're off on a planning routine this past week, and we're gonna do uh we'll do uh the mission of the church next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: How does the resurrection influence the mission of the church?
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm gonna preach through the book of Ruth, and then I'm gonna preach through the book of Galatians, and then we'll do Ecclesiastes, and then we'll do the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: That's and we'll have some topical stuff thrown in.
SPEAKER_00: That's about the next five years of the preaching schedule here at our church.
SPEAKER_00: In case you're wondering what I'll be doing, that's what I'll be doing.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be in Romans for, I don't know, maybe three years.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's like throwing your kid in the deep end of the pool and just kind of going, kick paddle, kick paddle.
SPEAKER_00: But it's one of the most grace-filled books in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're visiting today, realize this we don't want to beat you over the head with information, we want to marinate you in intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: We want your neighbors to look at you and go, man, you really love your wife.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: And ladies, we want your friends to look at you and say, Hey, since you married that cat, you seem a lot happier.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, it's like Song of Solomon, Shulamith, this woman.
SPEAKER_00: She starts off by saying, Don't look at me because I'm not taking care of.
SPEAKER_00: Body.
SPEAKER_00: And by spending time with this man, just in the next chapter, it begins with her saying, I'm the rose of Sharon, I'm the lily of the valley.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, check me out, because I got my nails done and my hair's looking fierce.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to tell all my men when we go through that again, I'm going to tell you, hey, the way you love your wife should change the way she feels about herself.
SPEAKER_00: And if she doesn't, for the better.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, yeah, it changed the way I feel about myself.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, I do not have the gift of discernment.
SPEAKER_00: No, for the better.
SPEAKER_00: For the better.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to, I got off on that because I don't want to overwhelm you with a bunch of Bible verses, uh, but I do want to teach you the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm going to stand before God, and Lance is going to stand before God, and Wade's going to stand before God, and Jerry's going to stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to give an account for what we told you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what you need to know about our church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't speak to you on the basis of what I want you to do, I speak to you on the basis of what I want you to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Because once you understand it, the doing just happens.
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00: Because I think the church in America, we're raising activists.
SPEAKER_00: We just give you four or five things to do every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not about once you understand the Holy Spirit in you, it'll tell you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: It just happens.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I want to make four statements about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And then I want to introduce the last point, which will be the whole summer for next week, and then we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: Is that fair enough?
SPEAKER_00: This is crazy, but I but I mean this.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is good, number one.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is good.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are like, you have lost your mind.
SPEAKER_00: No, it is.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment when it comes to God and Psalm 98 and creation and the and the rivers clapping their hands, going, Yes! Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't gonna make you turn to it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn to it.
SPEAKER_00: But just write down Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8 tells us that the creation is groaning in travail as a woman in the pains of childbirth, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So it's waiting for this judgment day so that creation can be restored to its pre-fallen state.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I told you last week the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in nature, it's not as beautiful as it's gonna one day be.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Because the the creation is under the curse.
SPEAKER_00: That's why in Genesis we looked last week, how God said, Hey, cursed is the ground because of you, Adam.
SPEAKER_00: Now you gotta work it really hard to get food from it.
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful, but it's not as beautiful as it's gonna one day be.
SPEAKER_00: See, judgment is good.
SPEAKER_00: You say, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it shows that God cares about what he's made.
SPEAKER_00: It shows that God's cared.
SPEAKER_00: And people, you know, like I said earlier, people are like, well, I don't like to think of God as judgmental, but it's loving.
SPEAKER_00: Well, see, here's the problem with that.
SPEAKER_00: God's not determined by your preferences, he's established by his nature.
SPEAKER_00: And God judging what he has made is a good thing because it shows that he cares about what he made.
SPEAKER_00: Let me bring it down to where we live.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all went to the dessert auction a couple weeks ago or three weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here go to that?
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask this question.
SPEAKER_00: Did anybody in here submit something to the dessert auction?
SPEAKER_00: Did anybody hold your hand up?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't raise your hand to this.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you can remember what someone paid for your dessert because they were judging what you made.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And some of your husbands went home and I mean uh men, some of your wives came home and said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I slave in that kitchen for three hours and somebody paid 50 bucks for that.
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: And then that goose pull over there.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody paid$300 for that.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, scoreboard.
SPEAKER_00: Because my friend Alton over here, he had a blueberry couple that somebody paid$500 for.
SPEAKER_00: And because you're following sinful people, some of you went home and you thought, hey, they didn't pay enough for what I put in the dessert auction.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you care about what you made.
SPEAKER_00: You were judging because you care about what you made.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God cares about what he made.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing I want to say about judgment, which we don't talk about.
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you heard a full sermon about judgment?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, this would be the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, indifference is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Indifference is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Just here's why.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of love is not hate, and it's not anger, it's indifference.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
SPEAKER_00: And see, our hypocrisy is most on display.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just think a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Just think a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Our hypocrisy is people, and people's hypocrisy is most on display when we insist, oh, God loves the world.
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't God let them tornadoes hit the Midwest?
SPEAKER_00: I thought God was a God of love.
SPEAKER_00: How can he let that happen?
SPEAKER_00: We insist that God loved the world, yet we also insist that he remain indifferent to it.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have it both ways.
SPEAKER_00: See, the opposite of love is indifference.
SPEAKER_00: And because God so loved the world that he gave us one and only son, he can't be indifferent to it.
SPEAKER_00: He has to respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it like this: if you went to work tomorrow and somebody you don't even know walked up to you and said, By the way, I don't know, I need to tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you were ever thinking about asking me out the coffee or lunch or anything, but don't, because I don't want to spend any time with you, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know you, and I don't want to know you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much, and walked off.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of y'all are kind of like, What kind of crazy?
SPEAKER_00: That would be awkward because you'd first kind of look around and see if anybody else noticed, and then it would be hilarious.
SPEAKER_00: You would call people right then and go, guess what just happened?
SPEAKER_00: Some guy I don't even know came up to me and said blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Really?
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And then with each surpassing day, it would get funnier and funnier and funnier.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine going home tonight and your spouse saying it to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's not funny at all, is it?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you love that person.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be indifferent to them because you love them.
SPEAKER_00: See, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's just passive indifference.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, men, if you're just kind of coasting right now in your marriage, you're not engaging your wife, you're not having hard conversations, you're not drawing out what's in her heart, you're not giving her what she needs.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't hate you, she's just indifferent to you, and you've taught her to be that way.
SPEAKER_00: It's not hate, it's just indifference.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing the Bible tells us is it's not judgment's not a contradiction of God's love, but it's an expression of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a contradiction of God's love, it's an expression of it.
SPEAKER_00: Just think of your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday, our youngest, our eight-year-old, went to the beach with some neighbors and some friends.
SPEAKER_00: And they got to the beach, and I tell them the same thing I tell everybody.
SPEAKER_00: The babysits my kids or watches my kids.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if something happens to my children and you don't die defending them, I'll kill you when you come home and tell me what happened.
SPEAKER_00: For some reason that's awkward.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: And they kind of look at me, and one guy went, You're like a preacher, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And you're serious, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: And so the family would send us pictures from the beach, you know, still alive.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife's like, That's not funny.
SPEAKER_00: They got the message.
SPEAKER_00: Not funny.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't understand that unless you have kids.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have kids right now, you're like, wait, he's so violent.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, but if you got kids, you have a capacity for love like you never have, and you have a capacity for violence like you never knew existed.
SPEAKER_00: Them little kids at Mother's Day out that bump your kid, knock him down, you're like, You hit that horn at Minnie Man, beep, beep.
SPEAKER_00: You want Mama Bear to come out here and slap the taste out of your mouth?
SPEAKER_00: You better leave my kid alone.
SPEAKER_00: But see, you understand, if also if you have kids, here's the thing you understand that judgment is not a contradiction of love, it's an expression of it.
SPEAKER_00: So if we got back from the beach last night, was worn slap out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, kids get so tired they can't make rational judgment.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, babe, it's 10 30.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this kid's been at the beach since noon.
SPEAKER_00: It's 10 30, and she's just like, babe, you gotta brush your teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like, listen, you're gonna brush your teeth, you're gonna get a spanking and then brush your teeth.
SPEAKER_00: That's the only two options you got.
SPEAKER_00: She's beyond the pail, she just couldn't get together.
SPEAKER_00: Marcia was like, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think she hates me.
SPEAKER_00: Babe, she can't even do anything right now.
SPEAKER_00: She's so tired.
SPEAKER_00: She's just sitting there, just I'm not judging her.
SPEAKER_00: I love her.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing for you is to go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: Usually she gets up at seven o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: I left the house this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I walked there and she goes, just sound.
SPEAKER_00: She may be asleep right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's not judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: It's not judgment to do what you know is right for the people you love.
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's love.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to tell you about a judgment is just it it that there's an it well, expressions versus ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: Expressions versus ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I can connect this and we'll introduce the next Sunday sermon and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: What I mean when I say it's expressions versus ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 12, verse 2 says this, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, that means they die.
SPEAKER_00: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.
SPEAKER_00: Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
SPEAKER_00: See, the resurrection is a universal, very understood biblical reality.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to go into this.
SPEAKER_00: I read too much this week.
SPEAKER_00: I read, I was all over the place, but I just love it.
SPEAKER_00: But but but remember the story of Lazarus when Lazarus died?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus showed up, and Bethany and Mary and Martha were like, oh, my brother's died.
SPEAKER_00: If you had been here, and Jesus said he'll he'll live again.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I know he'll live again at the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus rising from the dead wasn't like some unforeseen thing.
SPEAKER_00: They all believed in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That he rose in the middle of his life and all by himself.
SPEAKER_00: That was the unique thing.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's this universal understanding that there will be a resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel even bears it out.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, there are many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what what what are you telling us?
SPEAKER_00: When I say that there'll be expressions uh of judgment, uh expressions versus ultimate, what I mean is this in this life there'll be expressions of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: There will.
SPEAKER_00: There just will.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, things will happen, and you'll ask yourself, is that God trying to get my attention?
SPEAKER_00: Very well could be.
SPEAKER_00: That's an expression of God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: But there's an ultimate judgment that the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about in Daniel chapter 12 there, back in Acts 17, God's appointed day when he will judge.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me let me see if I can connect this to your life.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever hurt you, wrong you, cheat you, abuse you, and then they die before you could get closure?
SPEAKER_00: They died never having said, I'm sorry what I did to you.
SPEAKER_00: They died never coming back and saying, hey man, we forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's people that worked on this property, I won't tell exactly what part, where we hired a contractor to do something, and he ran out on us.
SPEAKER_00: He he subbed out the job, he underbid it.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said, Man, I'm gonna I'm gonna lose money.
SPEAKER_00: Not my issue.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't bid the job.
SPEAKER_00: And so he came back and I tried to be gracious, and basically I think he stuck us for$1,500.
SPEAKER_00: It was about a$12,000 job.
SPEAKER_00: And then he sent a check for about I sick to our financial secretary.
SPEAKER_00: She called him all the time, once a week.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, just wanted you to know when we can expect another payment.
SPEAKER_00: And then just one day I just realized the Lord said, just let him go.
SPEAKER_00: Just forgive it.
SPEAKER_00: So I called him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure he saw my phone on the color ID, and he's like, ooh, don't answer that.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, I just want you to know that we're we're gonna absolve this debt, we're gonna absorb this.
SPEAKER_00: God's been so good to us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: The right thing to do is for you to pay your bills.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you're not gonna stay in business if you keep cheating people, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you're not getting away with this, you think you're getting away with something in this life, you have to get an account for this and the next.
SPEAKER_00: So you want to practice doing things right.
SPEAKER_00: Because when he gave me a business card, he had a little fish on it.
SPEAKER_00: And I took it and I just said, Hey, what does this mean to you?
SPEAKER_00: That's a sobering responsibility there.
SPEAKER_00: You cheat people, you overbid things, you kind of stick the screws to people just to get a nicer, bigger truck.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm not saying you're crooked, I'm just saying when you put that fish on there, that means you're gonna do it the way Jesus would do it.
SPEAKER_00: So I called him one day, I left him a little message.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Jesus pays his bills.
SPEAKER_00: He told me to tell you that.
SPEAKER_00: So I just left the life message.
SPEAKER_00: I left, I said, I forgive.
SPEAKER_00: About a year later, somebody that that knew the story came up to me and said, Hey, uh, you ever think about that guy?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever happened.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe in the ultimate judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to keep score.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to keep score either.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Slobodan Milosevic?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me, like, I don't have CNN.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Bosnia, Herzegovina?
SPEAKER_00: I tried to explain this to my kids, my eighth grader the other day.
SPEAKER_00: She's doing a project on ethnic cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, what exactly is that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why'd you pick that?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, it was the only thing left.
SPEAKER_00: You ever try to explain ethnic cleansing to a 14-year-old?
SPEAKER_00: And she just kept asking one question why, why, why?
SPEAKER_00: Serbs and Croats, people that were neighbors, began to turn on each other and slaughter each other.
SPEAKER_00: And I told her about it.
SPEAKER_00: And Slobodan Milosevich was arrested as a war criminal, and he was on trial at The Hague, which is in the Netherlands, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of its own little entity, and he died in custody.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: And people on TV kind of going, he got away with that.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot the victims of the families that he he had killed.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone's like, he got away with it.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because many, Daniel says, are those who sleep in the dust of the earth, they shall awake some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
SPEAKER_00: See, if you believe in the resurrection, you believe that God has set a point where He's going to judge everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And so that allows you and I to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly and finally, and I just uh this will be the sermon for next week, but I just want to say this that the mission is urgent.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection teaches us to believe that the mission is urgent.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to read uh from Matthew chapter 28, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: You still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: This will sound very familiar, but I'm not going to read from the part you think I'm going to read from.
SPEAKER_00: That's next week.
SPEAKER_00: Where we talk about going to Romania and going to Costa Rica and going to Richmond, Rosenberg, and going to the four corners, and going to the prison down the road, and going to the nursing home.
SPEAKER_00: To all places we go, and going to Oklahoma City.
SPEAKER_00: All places we go, it's a part of our understanding that Jesus is God, that he died on the cross for everybody at the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You can't sit in one place and profess to believe that.
SPEAKER_00: But Matthew chapter 28, verse 1, it says, Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, that would be Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
SPEAKER_00: His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow.
SPEAKER_00: And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
SPEAKER_00: But the angel said to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.
SPEAKER_00: Come see the place where he lay, and then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, he has gone before you to Galilee, and there you will see him.
SPEAKER_00: See, I have told you.
SPEAKER_00: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings.
SPEAKER_00: And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.
SPEAKER_00: And if you skip down to verse 16, it says, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: I've told you over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember anything I tell you, remember when you read the Bible, listen to things that are repeated.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder why Jesus had them go to Galilee?
SPEAKER_00: They're in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was crucified there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a big major hub, kind of a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: But he's like, go to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: You know how far it is from Jerusalem to Galilee?
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't no subway, wasn't no buses.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, come on, you're the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you walk through walls.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, just do it right here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see how purposeful your God is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there.
SPEAKER_00: This is Isaiah chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: That's a chapter we only read at Christmas time.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish.
SPEAKER_00: In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali.
SPEAKER_00: But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Say, what?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Galilee was, when people would invade, it was the first place they'd come to.
SPEAKER_00: It was so used to being ransacked by these invading hordes and armies that they would just, they had no self-image.
SPEAKER_00: They were like, Yeah, okay, invade us.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody does.
SPEAKER_00: And this place had been an invasion.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, is now going to launch an invasion.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's from Galilee that he says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: See, what the Bible says in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the new.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason.
SPEAKER_00: The mission is urgent because the resurrection starts the clock.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that we can do right now in this life that we won't be able to do in the next.
SPEAKER_00: And the resurrection informs the mission of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we'll pick up next week.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Because your God is judge.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be.
SPEAKER_00: You are free to forgive and to live as forgiven people.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now.
SPEAKER_00: Stop being who you never were intended to be and be who you were intended to be.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.