SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information in our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, take it and open up to Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row somewhere, and I am on page 939.
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: We good?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to continue.
SPEAKER_00: Romans last week we talked about the shameless gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God and the salvation for anyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile, to the Jew being the religious person, the Gentile being the non-religious person like I grew up.
SPEAKER_00: Just a pagan kind of hellraiser redneck type.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody here relate to that?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I see that one hand.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sean.
SPEAKER_00: You and I'll have lunch after this is over.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of these religious people can go do whatever they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You can go have finger sandwiches at the meet and greet.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, all of y'all better go to that, or I'm going to be eating Swedish meatballs till Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: There's enough of them back there.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you today about why the seasons change.
SPEAKER_00: Why the seasons change.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know it or not, but a week ago it was like 92 degrees here.
SPEAKER_00: And then Friday morning, I don't know where you were, but when you walked out Friday morning, whoo! I walked out and I stood in my driveway like a child standing in sunshine for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, because it was 47 degrees.
SPEAKER_00: I had to go back in and get a coat.
SPEAKER_00: I went and had breakfast yesterday morning with some friends.
SPEAKER_00: I rocked a barn jacket.
SPEAKER_00: I walked in there like, dude, where'd you drive in from?
SPEAKER_00: Antarctica?
SPEAKER_00: Shut up, man.
SPEAKER_00: No more sweating.
SPEAKER_00: At least till next week.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, why the seasons change?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells you that.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.
SPEAKER_00: For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_00: So they're without excuse, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations with those that are contrary to nature, and men likewise gave up natural relations with women, and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves, in their bodies, the due penalty for their error.
SPEAKER_00: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
SPEAKER_00: They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
SPEAKER_00: They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.
SPEAKER_00: Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them.
SPEAKER_00: Why do the seasons change?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, last week we talked about how he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, but then he says, because it's the power of God unto salvation to anyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, I'm not ashamed to talk about God to people because there's nobody that's beyond the pale.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody has sinned so much, no one's had such an experience that God's kind of given up on them.
SPEAKER_00: And then he kind of turns a corner and he gets really serious.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 18, for the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, when the sentence starts with four, he's explaining something.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Because.
SPEAKER_00: Because the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm so passionate about the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you just read that from verse 18 to verse 32, like we did, it can sound like a mouthful.
SPEAKER_00: You can walk away overwhelmed, or you can sit here and think, man, thought I was stupid before I came today, and now I'm confirmed in it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not what God wants.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of really breaks up.
SPEAKER_00: There's three points that Paul's making in this passage, and I'm going to share them with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is simply this: that the wrath of God is never uncaused.
SPEAKER_00: The wrath of God is never uncaused.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wake up some days just in a bad mood?
SPEAKER_00: It's like you just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
SPEAKER_00: Like somebody asked me last week, they said, Hey, do you ever wake up grumpy?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, I usually let her sleep and she's in a better mood after that.
SPEAKER_00: No, when the Bible talks about the wrath of God, it's not like God got up on the wrong side of the world and God's like, all right, I'm tired of people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna send a big you know right now that there's a huge superstorm fixing to collide on the East Coast, that there's a hurricane and a jet stream and then a cold front are all gonna collide in New York.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, some of y'all are thinking, like, that's right, service them liberals right.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're gonna get.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, turn the channel from the Fox News channel, okay?
SPEAKER_00: There's other things out there in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what am I it's not like when the Bible talks about wrath, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Wrath is God's righteous response to unrighteousness in humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Wrath is God's righteous response.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like, say, when I grew up, my best friend's dad was an alcoholic, and he would call me everyone.
SPEAKER_00: We lived a hundred yards apart on the railroad track.
SPEAKER_00: I lived on this side, he lived on that side.
SPEAKER_00: He would call me and say, Hey, my dad's been out drinking all night.
SPEAKER_00: Can you come home so when he gets here, he doesn't kind of get rough with my mom?
SPEAKER_00: And I would go over and we'd kind of stand there, we'd greet him and kind of walk him into the house and get him in bed so he could just sleep it off.
SPEAKER_00: So when you hear wrath, don't think of like an alcoholic stepdad coming home in a bad mood.
SPEAKER_00: That's not who God is.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible, when we say that the wrath of God is uncaused, when God displays his wrath, he does it for a reason and with a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When God displays his wrath, his displeasure, he does it for a reason and with a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us three reasons that God displays his wrath.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, his perspective is all-knowing.
SPEAKER_00: And look at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For the wrath of God is revealed, and then these two words, from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's perspective is all-knowing.
SPEAKER_00: See, you kind of read that.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever's not under the gospel, it's under the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: Don't turn there.
SPEAKER_00: But Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, of the Bible, it says the word of God is quick and powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, it's sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: It's able to pierce to the divide and asunder of joints and marrow.
SPEAKER_00: You know what marrow is?
SPEAKER_00: It's the stuff inside your bones.
SPEAKER_00: God gets down to the core, it pierces to the dividing asunder of joints and marrow.
SPEAKER_00: And then here's the part we don't like.
SPEAKER_00: It becomes a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: As if that's not bad enough.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It basically says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, uh, it says, no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him on whom we must give an account.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's those two words that the Bible says, no creature in all creation is hidden from God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro about the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament says, no creature in all creation is hidden from God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: It says we are all naked and exposed.
SPEAKER_00: Two words that you didn't think you would talk about in church today, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to be naked.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing to be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: Allow me to demonstrate.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 12 years old, excuse me, 11 years old, me and y'all are all going to hell on a slip and slide.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting today, let me apologize to these perverts that I pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Let me demonstrate.
SPEAKER_00: There was one woo-hoo.
SPEAKER_00: That was my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: No, when I was 11 years old, I spent the night with my friend David Hawkins and about 12 of us, a bunch of buddies, we went out to their farm.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is I grew up in East Texas in a small town.
SPEAKER_00: That's when kids could go outside and play.
SPEAKER_00: We'd go outside all day, and my parents didn't care.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: We were fine.
SPEAKER_00: We all had BB guns and bicycles.
SPEAKER_00: What more did a kid need, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so we were out, we were probably nine miles out in the country, built a big bonfire, and I remember Randy Shields said, Let's go streaking.
SPEAKER_00: This is 1976, 1977.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all even know what streaking is right now, do you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, some of your parents are kind of going, well, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of naked and exposed, so we all stripped down to our birthday suits and left our tennis shoes on and down to the gate by the road by the highway, which was probably about 300 yards.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run down there and back, back and jump around the fire.
SPEAKER_00: It was like Lord of the Flies without Tom Hanks, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we all got our clothes off.
SPEAKER_00: We are just a bunch of uh there's 12 hairless electric chihuahuas running around, and they said, Go! And we all took off running, and we're running down there.
SPEAKER_00: 300 yards is a long way.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if you know it.
SPEAKER_00: When you're naked, you run faster.
SPEAKER_00: You're aerodynamic.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're splashing through the wind.
SPEAKER_00: And we get down there, but 300 yards is a long way.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you know it's a long way.
SPEAKER_00: We got there, you had to run, touch the gate, turned around, we start back, and about the time we start back, someone slows down on the highway and turns in.
SPEAKER_00: It's Philip Hawkins, David Hawkins' dad.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to be naked, it's another thing to be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: He pulled that Blackford pickup in, he started up that road, and 12 little boys just scattered like roaches with light coming on.
SPEAKER_00: It's naked as the day we came into the world, nothing on but tennis shoes running everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: And no one was standing out in front of the truck going, We're nude and we're proud.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Hawkins smoked a pipe.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember that because I remember thinking this distinguished man's not gonna be happy with us.
SPEAKER_00: And he pulled the truck up and he got out and he goes, You boys, come on out of them woods.
SPEAKER_00: You're in no condition to be in the woods.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's my farm.
SPEAKER_00: I should be asking the questions.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing running around naked on my farm?
SPEAKER_00: I never forget, and by the way, I've not been shrinking since.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that all every creature in creation, that's all of us, before God is naked and exposed.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: See, the wrath of God is never uncaused.
SPEAKER_00: God displays his wrath for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: His perspective is all-knowing, he knows everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you, you, where are you gonna hide?
SPEAKER_00: There's nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing the Bible tells us when he talks about the wrath of God is never uncaused, the opposite of faith is unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think a little bit this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Can you think a little bit?
SPEAKER_00: You got three minutes, two minutes of thinking in you?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's the part.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I say that the opposite of faith is not works, it's unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Remember last week, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of God unto salvation to anyone who believes, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek or to the Gentile, to the unbelieving person, to the religious and the non-religious person.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is displayed.
SPEAKER_00: It's demonstrated, it's made obvious for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: So, and then he says, the right this gospel comes from faith for faith.
SPEAKER_00: See, the righteousness of God is intended, the gospel is intended to cause you and I to get right with God and to live righteous lives.
SPEAKER_00: So see, the opposite of faith is not works.
SPEAKER_00: The opposite of faith is unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the part that makes God angry about that.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other word to say.
SPEAKER_00: Makes God wrath.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where the wrath of God, why the wrath of God is being revealed or poured out from heaven, from a God's eye view of the world who sees everything.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: It's because people act unrighteously because they want to suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That word suppress means to hold down.
SPEAKER_00: You say, I I you maybe you're kind of like, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_00: Have did any of y'all watch any of the presidential debates?
SPEAKER_00: At any point, did you want to just reach through your TV and choke one or both of those people?
SPEAKER_00: Are you like, just somebody tell us the truth?
SPEAKER_00: Because after the debates, I don't really watch a debate, I watch afterwards, and they have a thing called the fact checker.
SPEAKER_00: Know that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we gotta like get every little morsel and extrapolate it and get down to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because human nature is to suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Why does that make God so angry?
SPEAKER_00: Why does God care?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus said in John chapter 8, when he comes into the world, he can and he said, Hey, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want you to live in suppression, he wants you to live in freedom.
SPEAKER_00: The third reason for the wrath of God, the Bible tells us, is just what about the guy in Africa?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, what say, what?
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 19, Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, for what can be known about God is plain to them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, the wrath of God's being revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19, for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
SPEAKER_00: For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_00: So they are without excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while you'll get in a spiritual discussion with somebody, and they'll say, Oh yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about the guy in Africa who never hears, who's never heard the gospel, who's never had anybody preach to him?
SPEAKER_00: This is where the Bible speaks to that.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, what the Bible says in no uncertain terms, it talks about two things you need to understand this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, general revelation.
SPEAKER_00: General revelation.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible talks about general revelation, he's talking about in creation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says, so what can be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious through what has been made.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, general revelation, it points out God's existence.
SPEAKER_00: You can't look and see some things in creation and not believe that there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just kind of uh because the Bible says, hey, what may be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, let me just answer the question to the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Why do the seasons change?
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants all of you to realize that not only that He is, but that you're created for a relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough to say, well, there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to act on what you know.
SPEAKER_00: But some of you might be thinking, well, I don't know what you mean when you say that God's made it obvious when it's been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_00: So they or that excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Translation, what the Bible's saying is that there are some things that God did in creation that ought to cause you just to go, yes, there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: I brought a few examples.
SPEAKER_00: For example, here's one.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's three services in a row.
SPEAKER_00: When that went up, y'all was like, oh country road, take me home.
SPEAKER_00: I can just picture yourself zipping down that row with a nice cable knit sweater on, some coffee in the cup holder, and the can and the convertible top down, some James Taylor playing softly on the CD player.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Here's another one.
SPEAKER_00: How do you look at that and go, well, you know, that's really not creation.
SPEAKER_00: That's not really evidence of a divine creator.
SPEAKER_00: The tectonic plates of the earth shift, and when they get on top of each other, the resulting byproduct is geological forces cause these upshoots, and they're mountains.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: How do you stand there and look upon that and kind of go, geology explains it all?
SPEAKER_00: Or how about this?
SPEAKER_00: How do you like to live in that little village?
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that light roof at the bottom is not a retirement home.
SPEAKER_00: We have a time share there.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what do they do with the we do?
SPEAKER_00: Or what about this?
SPEAKER_00: That's like an underwater cave, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's a belief.
SPEAKER_00: They refer to it, the locals refer to it as a blue hole.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder why.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Just think for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine being the cat that first discovered that?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine like a ship of rednecks showing up about two cases of low saw into the wind?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Billy Bob, come here and take your pants off.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna tie a rope around you.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you jump in there and see what's down there?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going down there, and then the guy all on the bow of the ship, all right, we're gonna do rock, paper, scissors.
SPEAKER_00: Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! Alright, take your pants off.
SPEAKER_00: You're in.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the guy that first person to go down there and plumb the depths of that, what he came back and what language he used to describe what he saw?
SPEAKER_00: See, this is what Paul means when he says, What but be known about God is obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has made it obvious.
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't want to be known, why does he make things like this in nature?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, still unconvinced.
SPEAKER_00: Got some rednecks in here.
SPEAKER_00: I can feel you in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't going nothing like that.
SPEAKER_00: Bunch of beliefs, bunch of commies, I'll tell you what.
SPEAKER_00: How about this?
SPEAKER_00: What about that?
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of y'all are kind of like, mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's known as a red stag.
SPEAKER_00: If you see one of those on opening season, you'll fall out of your deer stand.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get bug fever somebody, you'll just jump up and start shooting everything.
SPEAKER_00: Your friends will come running, did you get anything?
SPEAKER_00: No, but I emptied the gun.
SPEAKER_00: Or what about this?
SPEAKER_00: We were in the rainforest in Costa Rica.
SPEAKER_00: Myself and Michael Elder and Bart Cardi, our missionary over there, and we're carrying PVC pipe up the side of a wet mountain covered with clay, holding on, looking down, thinking, if I follow my wife's getting insurance money.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking to one of the Indian, one of the Glammy Indians, and I'd ask him through the interpreter, I said, How do y'all know when there's a God?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, When it rains and when our babies are born.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm neutral.
SPEAKER_00: I'm neutral.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in any religion.
SPEAKER_00: But I know there's a God when my children are born.
SPEAKER_00: And I smiled and I said, You know, the Bible says the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I quoted Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says they've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so that they without excuse.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's general revelation.
SPEAKER_00: General revelation means that you see things in creation, and there's something in you says there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: You can't consider yourself a Christian just because you say there is a God.
SPEAKER_00: See, the other form of revelation is special revelation that says not only is there a God, but you realize I was created by him to know him.
SPEAKER_00: So when the Bible says, when we say that the wrath of God is uncaused, but basically what I want you to understand is it's not that God just got up on the wrong side of the world and said, I want to cause some bad things to happen just to mess with people.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: The wrath of God is God's righteous response to people's unrighteous choices.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing the Bible tells us this morning is that with knowledge comes responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 says, For although they knew God, general revelation, they knew that God existed.
SPEAKER_00: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
SPEAKER_00: Now hear this again.
SPEAKER_00: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that by what they could look around and see in creation, that they knew when the cold front came through on Friday, they should have got up and said, Man, thank you, God, that you're in charge of the world and I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Although they knew God.
SPEAKER_00: What did they do?
SPEAKER_00: There's two things they didn't do.
SPEAKER_00: They did not honor Him as God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God doesn't expect you to act on somebody else's knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what God expects of you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and it's been a while since you've been in church, or maybe you've never been before, this is the first time you've been to church in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Know this.
SPEAKER_00: Relax.
SPEAKER_00: There's no pressure.
SPEAKER_00: God expects you to act on what you know to be the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And when you act on that, he reveals more.
SPEAKER_00: And a little bit more and a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says in Luke chapter 12, about verse 48, unwhome much is given, much is required.
SPEAKER_00: The more God reveals to you, the more God expects you to act a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: Not out of behavior modification, but out of understanding.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says, though they knew God, they did not, they did, they made two mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, they did not honor Him as God.
SPEAKER_00: How do you honor God as God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's easy if you're married.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you men in this room are married?
SPEAKER_00: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_00: You honor your wife, you relate to your wife in a way you don't relate to anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says you honor God as God the way you do it.
SPEAKER_00: You relate to God in a way you don't relate to anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when the disciples said to Jesus, hey Jesus, we're kind of back here talking among ourselves and we're kind of curious, what's the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're not real smart.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this guy was a fisherman, that guy was a tax collector, that guy was a moron, now he's just an idiot, but still, I mean, what I mean, tell us in plain, simple, just put it down here where we live.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Because all the law and prophets hinge on these two commands.
SPEAKER_00: Alrighty then.
SPEAKER_00: Got it.
SPEAKER_00: So God's not giving you a test today, He's inviting you to just act on what you know.
SPEAKER_00: Though they knew God, they didn't honor Him as God.
SPEAKER_00: Second mistake they made, they didn't give thanks to Him.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like for you right now in your life to give thanks to God?
SPEAKER_00: My oldest turned 15 yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife and I looked at, she had some friends over and we didn't want to embarrass her.
SPEAKER_00: You know your kids are growing up when for their birthday cake, they don't want something with for she said, I want a chocolate chip pound cake.
SPEAKER_00: And then when we said, What do you want for your birthday?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, I want a gift card to iTunes and I want to go to a gun range.
SPEAKER_00: My wife comes to me and she goes, What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means we're awesome parents, is what it means.
SPEAKER_00: It means next year when she turns 16, she's gonna get an NRA membership.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to stand over her birthday party and go, from my cold dead hands.
SPEAKER_00: Like Charlton Heston.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are kind of like, You're a frightening man.
SPEAKER_00: Well, to frighten you is my nine-year-old came to my room last night.
SPEAKER_00: I was watching football, and she goes, Dad, can I go to the gun range too?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
SPEAKER_00: If anything, we'll get your mom's BB gun and shoot the neighbor's cat.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't I give thanks to him?
SPEAKER_00: See, the issue, and don't miss this, beloved.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is not that they didn't want that they didn't want God.
SPEAKER_00: All of you want God.
SPEAKER_00: If you hear anything today, hear this.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is not that you don't want God.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of you in this room wants God.
SPEAKER_00: But here's where your sinful nature manifests itself.
SPEAKER_00: You want God on your terms.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't want God as He's revealed Himself in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the first exchange they made, which brings us to the last point.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the exchange rate.
SPEAKER_00: When you go to another country, you got to change usually currency at the airport.
SPEAKER_00: They have a currency exchange, and the exchange rate varies and fluctuates, and the exchange rate it starts off bad and it just goes from bad to worse.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Look right there.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think I'm making it up?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: They claim to be wise and they became fools because they said we're smarter than God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the mortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
SPEAKER_00: Bad idea.
SPEAKER_00: They exchanged the glory of God, the glory of the immortal God for images, for an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Looks like man or birds or animals and reptiles.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Why would they do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you do the same thing when you say stuff like, Well, my God is a God of love, and my God's not a God of wrath.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that God gets angry with people because that's just bad, and my God doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, that's not the God of the Bible, that's the God of your preference, and that's an idol.
SPEAKER_00: You've exchanged the truth, the revealed truth of God, for something you prefer.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the bad part of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to go into this.
SPEAKER_00: But see, when you refuse to have God as God, you obligate yourself to less than God as God.
SPEAKER_00: That makes sense to anybody but me.
SPEAKER_00: When you refuse to have God is revealed in the Bible as God, do you obligate yourself to less than God is God?
SPEAKER_00: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this will help it make sense.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have ever been on a bad date?
SPEAKER_00: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_00: Put your hand back down.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you knew 10 minutes in this is bad?
SPEAKER_00: Put your hand up.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I remember going out with a girl.
SPEAKER_00: I went out one day before I met my wife.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of the time I was in the library reading books about God and Jesus, waiting for her to come along.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine, shut up.
SPEAKER_00: A friend of mine set me up with a girl who was like the third runner up in the Miss Texas pageant.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, dude, she is gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00: And she wants to go out with you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, sure.
SPEAKER_00: Ten minutes in, I was praying Jesus would come back.
SPEAKER_00: So I would not have to listen to her talk anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I was just like, and we put Vaseline on our teeth so our lips don't stick to our teeth.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, and I put a gun in my mouth, so I don't have to listen to your talk anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Went on forever.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Take that feeling.
SPEAKER_00: And can you imagine being married to that person?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you refuse to have God as God, you obligate yourself to less than God as God.
SPEAKER_00: I was in college, a friend of mine got married when I was honeymoon and came back.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're single, you think marriage fixes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you single people think when I get married, it's gonna be all better.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be two ticks and no dog.
SPEAKER_00: My friend came back, we said, How was it?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, It's horrible.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What?
SPEAKER_00: He goes, our first night.
SPEAKER_00: They'd been married maybe nine hours.
SPEAKER_00: They were in their honeymoon.
SPEAKER_00: He just comes out splashing on aqua velvet, he's ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: And she's laying in bed, staring at the ceiling.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Babe, what's wrong?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I just made the biggest mistake of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: When you refuse to have God as God, you obligate yourself to less than God as God.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got to spend the rest of your life trying to make it look satisfying.
SPEAKER_00: That's the hard part.
SPEAKER_00: Second exchange.
SPEAKER_00: They exchange.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says they didn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: It says verse 24, therefore God gave them up to the lust and the lust of their hearts to impurity.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't bring something from the outside to bear on them, he removed his restraining influence, and what was in their hearts got the best of them.
SPEAKER_00: And they dishonored their bodies among themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, they refused the truth about God.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, we'd rather believe a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And as if that wasn't bad enough.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26 says, For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
SPEAKER_00: And men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we in the church can get all lathered up about what is unnatural.
SPEAKER_00: But before we talk about what is unnatural, let me just say this: it is natural for a man to marry a woman and want to have relations with that woman.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, that's why your husband got married.
SPEAKER_00: I won't say, like I said, at the 915 service, because your kids are in here.
SPEAKER_00: But men get married to a woman because they want to have married relations with that woman.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you men are kind of like, keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And by the same token, men, your wife got married because she wants to be intimate with you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's hard to do if you're a jerk all day and come home at night and insist that you get your needs met.
SPEAKER_00: You okay, ladies?
SPEAKER_00: Is that an amen?
SPEAKER_00: Preach, wave offering.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You can't come home and play the, oh, well, you know, I'll tell you what, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I sit down with people in marriage council, they go, well, you know, my husband's, you know, addicted to pornography or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And he just come over and I ask, tell them what your intimate life is like.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we really don't do that much anymore.
SPEAKER_00: So I just slide a piece of paper across the desk and hey, write down a list of all the women your husband can have sex with.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not gonna have sex with him.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not saying, uh-uh, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00: Don't pull away from me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's your fault, ladies.
SPEAKER_00: If your husband goes off and does something stupid, that ain't your fault.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying it's natural for married people to do married things.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: I wish I could see your faces.
SPEAKER_00: You were like, okay, we got it.
SPEAKER_00: Please, for the love of God, move on.
SPEAKER_00: Because my kids freak out.
SPEAKER_00: I can't even kiss my wife.
SPEAKER_00: My kids literally fall on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: Like what?
SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
SPEAKER_00: Be 20 years in January.
SPEAKER_00: I still enjoy kissing my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And the last time they start clapping.
SPEAKER_00: I said, don't clap.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to be married for 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you got married in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: That's natural.
SPEAKER_00: It's unnatural to get married and then it falls apart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you, you got divorced, it wasn't your fault.
SPEAKER_00: Your partner went off the deep end.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, it was your fault.
SPEAKER_00: The beautiful thing is you're forgiven by God.
SPEAKER_00: Learn from it and be different in your next marriage.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, let's let's just we get all lattered about what's unnatural.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get them homosexuals.
SPEAKER_00: What about you, heterosexuals?
SPEAKER_00: He called us a name.
SPEAKER_00: Have I said enough about that?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, move on, please.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not natural for a man to be with a man.
SPEAKER_00: Not natural for a woman to be with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what they vote on in Washington.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what they say in the presidential election.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, they're gonna bring it out.
SPEAKER_00: You know, around your same-sex marriage, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says it's not natural.
SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation with two men who are trying to adopt a son.
SPEAKER_00: They said, Would you pray for us that we'd be able to adopt a son?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, No, I won't.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I don't like you, and I'm not gonna call you names or anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's just if this is so okay, why can y'all not have kids?
SPEAKER_00: Well, why do you think we can't have kids?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not natural.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, all of you know somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody come up to me after they said, Well, you know, what about somebody like a really famous Christian came out as a gay?
SPEAKER_00: You know, do gay Christians go to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, gay Christian is an oxymoron.
SPEAKER_00: It's like jumbo shrimp.
SPEAKER_00: Not natural, not not germane to what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are you telling us?
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, when you make the exchange, it just goes downhill from there.
SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon God removes this restraining influence in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And what you see is the further you walk down the road, the less there is to violate.
SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon you get to verse 32, since they didn't think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, verse 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, that word to acknowledge means to hold on to, to get your arms around and cling desperately and joyfully to.
SPEAKER_00: They said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We don't think that's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, and covetousness, and the list just goes on.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say something to your students.
SPEAKER_00: The hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm 48 years old.
SPEAKER_00: I'm broke.
SPEAKER_00: You can't fix me.
SPEAKER_00: I believe every part of that Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't hate those that don't.
SPEAKER_00: I got people in my own family that don't believe all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's really awkward when we get together and they ask me questions to make a point, and I smile and go, no, that's not what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: I have to tell my brother, no, it's wrong you live with your girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: You're just judging me.
SPEAKER_00: No, God's judging you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_00: That's idolatry, that's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, students, it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy when you're in fourth, fifth grade.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: About seventh grade, you realize you got some thugs in your school.
SPEAKER_00: By the time you get to high school, you realize, man, we're going to hell in a handbasket.
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to look around and kind of think, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, am I the only person?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not.
SPEAKER_00: You got to see fit to acknowledge, to hold on.
SPEAKER_00: You want to graduate, having held on to the knowledge of God, regardless that all hell's breaking loose around you.
SPEAKER_00: You got teachers that are women that have women roommates that are their partners and men that have men partners.
SPEAKER_00: You don't go to school and and make a fool of yourself and say stupid things like, it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: That's the best thing you could come up with.
SPEAKER_00: You've been in church this long and your heart does not break for people and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This is not natural.
SPEAKER_00: I like you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to hate on you, but it's not natural.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we don't insist on the truth of what the Bible says, ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_00: When the homosexual repents, where do they come back to?
SPEAKER_00: If you all just exchange the truth of God for a lie and sell out and the salt loses its saltiness, when the homosexual wakes up one day and is pierced to the heart by the truth of God, who does he come to?
SPEAKER_00: Who does she go to to say, can you help me?
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul says, Hey, by the way, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the seasons change.
SPEAKER_00: And look at me, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: The seasons change because God wants everybody, gay, straight, natural, unnatural, to know that not only He, that there is a God, but they were created by this God to know this God and to have a relationship with him and live according to his word, which is not limitation, but it's freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why Jesus said, You'll know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth will set you.
SPEAKER_00: What if?
SPEAKER_00: That's the heart of God all along.
SPEAKER_00: Is it you and I'd be free?
SPEAKER_00: Not a bunch of self-righteous, opinionated people go around sticking your finger down people's face.
SPEAKER_00: But just free people.
SPEAKER_00: Just free, winsome, liberated people.
SPEAKER_00: That by nature are wretches and should be burning in hell.
SPEAKER_00: Me at the top of the list.
SPEAKER_00: But God, who's rich in mercy, made me alive, revealed himself.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today and you're like, man, I'm not I'm not into all this.
SPEAKER_00: Relax, we're done.
SPEAKER_00: But know this before we're done.
SPEAKER_00: That the seasons change and leaves turn red.
SPEAKER_00: They used to be green.
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants you to look around and be reminded that there's a God and you can know him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not hiding.
SPEAKER_00: What made me know about God is obvious because God has made it obvious.
SPEAKER_00: It's that public and it's that available to any one of you in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Your great God is so satisfied with himself that he could have remained anonymous and still been satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: But he chose not to.
SPEAKER_00: He made things like babies and chocolate and sex and leaves and people.
SPEAKER_00: And in making all that, he screams to you, I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: Avail yourself to this available God.
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.