SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Before I pray, I want to draw your attention to something that said earlier that God speaks a language that we understand.
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of names for God in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Some of them are pretty big and hard to understand, but uh there's one you just sang about that's uh really simple and available to everybody in this room.
SPEAKER_02: There's a guy a long time ago, very smart, named Augustine, and he said this.
SPEAKER_02: Augustine was a pagan, he was a womanizer.
SPEAKER_02: He he couldn't stop.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Boundlessly, I'm held by a love and lust for women.
SPEAKER_02: He just couldn't stop.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and finally he came to faith, and all that stopped.
SPEAKER_02: He wrote these words.
SPEAKER_02: He said, God, our hearts are made for you, and they're restless until they find their home in you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you don't have to be very religious, you don't have to know the words to any of the songs we sang today.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean you're a bad person.
SPEAKER_02: It just means, hey, you need to come and keep coming, and you'll kind of learn some new ways to thank God for being God, okay?
SPEAKER_02: But one of the things I want you to know about God, one of the names that we believe applies to God is home.
SPEAKER_02: When he says come home, he's saying, Come here.
SPEAKER_02: Come home.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because you were created for a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: You're created by God for a relationship with God that glorifies God.
SPEAKER_02: And so he's gonna speak a language today you understand.
SPEAKER_02: So when you just think about God, just think in terms of home.
SPEAKER_02: This is what I was made for.
SPEAKER_02: You may like, eh, yeah, dude, I've done a lot of bad stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Though you have sinned, he has mercy and pardon.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more.
SPEAKER_02: God has more grace than you have sin.
SPEAKER_02: God has more goodness than you have badness.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a contest, it's an invitation.
SPEAKER_02: Remember that today.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you for the truth of your word.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the reality.
SPEAKER_02: Is that where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more.
SPEAKER_02: There were times in my life where I just thought I'd sinned so much as there's no way God could forgive me, but you did.
SPEAKER_02: And you said, Come home.
SPEAKER_02: Come home.
SPEAKER_02: That's not home.
SPEAKER_02: That is not home.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what I created you for.
SPEAKER_02: Your heart is never gonna be at peace in that.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, I pray that we would just bring our hearts home to you today.
SPEAKER_02: So, Lord, speak to our hearts, fill our head with the truth so it finds expression in our hands this week.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You can have a C if you've got a Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 8, John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: And we're in this uh little three-part little thing we're calling a conversation in three movements.
SPEAKER_02: And uh uh, because it starts back in verse 31.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus would have conversations that are so consequential uh that they just kind of flowed over a period of time, and they were so much said, we gotta just kind of break it down and kind of say, okay, let's take what this means, take what this means, take what this means.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh we we we did the pr the previous two movements, uh, and this third movement is just it asked this question what are the implications of Jesus being God?
SPEAKER_02: What are the implications of Jesus being God?
SPEAKER_02: Because let me just say this.
SPEAKER_02: I know it's easy to come to church and kind of think, yeah, I don't know how that really affects my life.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I want you to see how the Bible, how practical and relative the Bible is, and how relevant because it relates to where you are and how we live.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just want to jump in and start reading verse 48.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this conversation has been going for a while now between Jesus and these very religious people, the Jews, the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: And the more Jesus talks, the angrier they get.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, these cats are amped up and they're kind of like, now, wait a minute, we want to believe in you.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, Well, this is what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: This is earlier in this chapter.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, no, wait a minute, we we don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Well, you don't get to, there's no such thing as self-defined Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: And it applies to them and it applies to every one of you in this room.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody that's watching or listening online, you cannot just say, Well, I've got my own special relationship with God, and me and God got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_02: That's not Christianity, that's your version of humanism.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible does not condone that, it doesn't endorse that.
SPEAKER_02: And so these guys are kind of mad because they think Jesus ought to be grateful that they've chosen to believe in him.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, Here's the implications of believing in me, and now it comes to a crescendo as he kind of in no uncertain terms lets them know, hey, I'm not just a good moral teacher or prophet.
SPEAKER_02: I'm God with flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_02: And they go berserk.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it like this in verse 48.
SPEAKER_02: The Jews answered him, because Jesus says, Whoever is of God hears the words of God, and the reason why you do not hear them is that you're not of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's verse 47.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 48, they respond, the Jews answered him, Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and you have a demon?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me, yet I do not seek my own glory.
SPEAKER_02: There's one who seeks it, and he is the judge.
SPEAKER_02: Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
SPEAKER_02: The Jews said to him, Now we know you have a demon.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham died as in the prophets, yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
SPEAKER_02: Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets died?
SPEAKER_02: Who do you make yourself out to be?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_02: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
SPEAKER_02: It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God, but you have not known him.
SPEAKER_02: I know him.
SPEAKER_02: If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.
SPEAKER_02: But I do know him, and I keep his word.
SPEAKER_02: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it and was glad.
SPEAKER_02: So the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and you've seen Abraham?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_02: So they picked up stones to throw at him.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: It it it it all this all kind of comes unhinged because Jesus says, Hey, I I I am, I know I've seen Abraham, I was before Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: I am the pre-existent God, I'm the Son of God sent to the world, and they're like, that just does it.
SPEAKER_02: We have got to kill you.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself, when's the last time you made someone so angry they picked up rocks to kill you?
SPEAKER_02: Now, when my wife gets angry at me, which for whatever reason, I don't know why she gets them angry, but sometimes she does.
SPEAKER_02: She does this.
SPEAKER_02: She holds her finger up and she says, Stop talking.
SPEAKER_02: Just stop talking.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, No, I just gotta talk more because clearly you're not understanding me, because if you understood me, you would agree with me.
SPEAKER_02: And then she does the other finger and she goes, Stop talking now.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, just let me no, no, stop talking.
SPEAKER_02: I know it's hard for you, but stop talking.
SPEAKER_02: My wife is so nice, she will not say, shut up.
SPEAKER_02: And I say, You want me to shut up?
SPEAKER_02: No, I want you to stop talking.
SPEAKER_02: And then if I persist, she'll go, full of love, shut up.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going, see, that didn't feel so bad, did it?
SPEAKER_02: Never once in my in my life has my wife said, wait right here, I've got to get a rock and big enough to kill you with.
SPEAKER_02: But that's what happens here.
SPEAKER_02: That why do these people get so angry?
SPEAKER_02: And what are the implications of Jesus being God?
SPEAKER_02: There's three of them.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, first of all, we're free from seeking our own glory.
SPEAKER_02: We're free from seeking our own glory.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 50.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Jesus says to these guys.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is he's kind of explaining it.
SPEAKER_02: He that they they they accuse him of being a Samaritan and having a demon, and he says, Hey, I don't have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me, yet I do not seek my own glory.
SPEAKER_02: There's one who seeks it, and he is the judge.
SPEAKER_02: Now later on, he says, uh, down about verse 54, he says, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
SPEAKER_02: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Just lay that phrase over all of your social media platforms and just ask yourself, what is motivating my behavior?
SPEAKER_02: Just kind of let this settle in.
SPEAKER_02: Whose glory am I seeking by what I'm about to do?
SPEAKER_02: I had a conversation a while back with a 17-year-old young man.
SPEAKER_02: I like 17-year-olds.
SPEAKER_02: I remember being 17, and sometimes I want to go back and choke that 17-year-old now that I'm not 17 anymore.
SPEAKER_02: But he was talking about social media and he's talking about all these things I've never heard of.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I'm on this and I'm on that, and you know, and because he said, you know, I spend about two to four hours a day, sometimes more, on all my kind of building my social media.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, managing my social media, and I said, What do you, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: So he goes, Oh man, I gotta build my brand.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what?
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Your church should be out there.
SPEAKER_02: Man, you should have a brand.
SPEAKER_02: You should be you should be engaging in branding marketing, and you personally, you should have a brand.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, dude, I have a minivan.
SPEAKER_02: I don't get a brand.
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02: And everything's about that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just thought, let me just ask this question.
SPEAKER_02: I said, hey, what motivates this?
SPEAKER_02: Who are you trying to glorify?
SPEAKER_02: I said, because show me what's on there.
SPEAKER_02: There's pictures of him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you've ever done this, I'm not mocking you.
SPEAKER_02: I kind of am.
SPEAKER_02: There's pictures of him with his shirt off, turned sideways in a mirror, taking a picture of himself.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, for the love of God, my man, whose glory is this?
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, I'm looking good.
SPEAKER_02: I got a six-pack and everything.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, and the world needs to know that.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Yeah, I said, I got a 12-pack.
SPEAKER_02: The world doesn't even know that.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, oh, dude, it's all about brandy, man, because chicks check me out.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, what in the world?
SPEAKER_02: I just kept coming back and I said, hey, what motivates this behavior?
SPEAKER_02: Whose glory are you seeking?
SPEAKER_02: Who are you?
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I don't know about glory.
SPEAKER_02: I said, who are you making much of?
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Well, me, who else?
SPEAKER_02: Remember being so young you couldn't lie?
SPEAKER_02: You're just so full.
SPEAKER_02: And he's just like, hey, I'm just kind of full of myself.
SPEAKER_02: So I stand in the mirror, I take my shirt off, and I take pictures of myself.
SPEAKER_02: Now again, if you do that, I'm not making fun of you, but I kind of am.
SPEAKER_02: Because here's the deal.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, whose glory?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus' life is so countercultural.
SPEAKER_02: Don't miss this in the text.
SPEAKER_02: His life is so countercultural.
SPEAKER_02: They say to him, Aren't you a Samaritan?
SPEAKER_02: Are we right in saying that you're a Samaritan and you have a demon?
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself, what does the culture around you accuse you of?
SPEAKER_02: And if the answer is nothing, then it may just be an indication to you that maybe you seek the same things that they seek.
SPEAKER_02: Because one of the things we should notice from the submitted life of Jesus is how consequential our lives become when they're no longer lived for our glory.
SPEAKER_02: The life of Jesus stands out from this culture, and they have to mock him.
SPEAKER_02: They have to say, and he just explains by saying, Hey, I don't seek my own glory.
SPEAKER_02: My life is submitted to the cause of someone else's glory, and they go berserk.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the Bible talks about this in a couple places.
SPEAKER_02: One of them is in Psalm 115, verse 1, that Psalmist says, Not to us, O Lord, but to your name be the glory.
SPEAKER_02: But I want you to see in graphic detail how real the Bible is.
SPEAKER_02: This is in 1 Peter chapter 4.
SPEAKER_02: This is after the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: Peter is kind of writing and kind of saying, Yeah, that thing that Jesus talked about, it's real for Christians too.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1 says this Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Arm yourself with the same way of thinking.
SPEAKER_02: For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, no longer for human passions, no longer for me and my appetites, my favorite addiction, but for the will of God.
SPEAKER_02: Said differently, no longer for my glory, but for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: He continues.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.
SPEAKER_02: Now just stop right there.
SPEAKER_02: For the time that is past, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, I've sinned enough.
SPEAKER_02: I'm tired of being ruled by my appetites.
SPEAKER_02: I'm tired of scratching every itch I have.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to grow up and grow out of this behavior.
SPEAKER_02: For the time is past that suffices for doing what Gentiles want to do.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you're thinking, Gentiles is a reference to people that don't know God.
SPEAKER_02: What do these people want to do?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible's unblushing in its honesty and its knowledge of human depravity.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the time is past.
SPEAKER_02: That is past suffices for doing what Gentiles want to do.
SPEAKER_02: What do they want to do?
SPEAKER_02: Live it in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you.
SPEAKER_02: They call, they say you're a Samaritan and you have a demon.
SPEAKER_02: One translation says that you don't plunge into the same flood of dissipation.
SPEAKER_02: They malign you, but they will give an account to him who's ready to judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, they're surprised when you're not joining them in the same flood of debauchery.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself this question: What surprises other people about you?
SPEAKER_02: What surprises other people about you that they kind of go, hey, I just kind of thought and I said, No, no, no, I don't live for my own glory.
SPEAKER_02: See, the submitted life of Jesus is so counter-cultural that people have to accuse him of things because they just can't fathom that not everybody lives like them.
SPEAKER_02: So the first thing the Bible tells us, this first implication of Jesus being God is that we're free from seeking our own glory.
SPEAKER_02: We're free, we're liberated from smallness, and we're invited into the muchness of God to live for something bigger, better, and beyond ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, the Bible tells us that death no longer has power over us.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when Jesus talked, it's it's kind of like the lyrics to an old school Eminem song, uh, Marshall Mathers, uh lyrical genius.
SPEAKER_02: Like he says things like when he first came out, like working at the Burger King, spitting in your onion rings, and you're like, I'm not going to Burger King anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I'm done with that.
SPEAKER_02: But I mean, the kid, the guy is just a genius, but he's angry and he's just can just torch people lyrically.
SPEAKER_02: But you have to kind of listen to his music four or five times to get what he's saying.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, same way with Jesus, because in verse 50, he describes himself, it just says, Hey, let me explain my life.
SPEAKER_02: I don't seek my own glory.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's why I'm like I am.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 51.
SPEAKER_02: Right on right underneath that he says, Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes on and unpacks it because the Jews said, Now, now it's official.
SPEAKER_02: We know you have a demon.
SPEAKER_02: And then they relate to all these famous religious people.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Abraham died.
SPEAKER_02: Is it the prophets?
SPEAKER_02: Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death?
SPEAKER_02: Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets who died?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, who do you make yourself out to be?
SPEAKER_02: See, Jesus is saying something about himself when he said, Hey, whoever keeps my word, they'll never see death and they'll never taste death.
SPEAKER_02: Let me explain to you what Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever go eat with somebody that eats fast?
SPEAKER_02: You get your food and you're like cutting into it, and three bites in, they're done, and your first question is like, Man, did you taste it?
SPEAKER_02: My friend Billy Foote is that way.
SPEAKER_02: Billy Foot just, I mean, he just scarfs it down, and Marcy's like, Can you please tell Billy not to eat fast?
SPEAKER_02: I've known Billy since he was 20, 19 years old.
SPEAKER_02: He eats that way all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, okay, I'm cutting my second piece of steak.
SPEAKER_02: And then he just sits there and watches you eat.
SPEAKER_02: It's really awkward.
SPEAKER_02: It's not that he eats fast, it's that he's done.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, so, hey, are you gonna eat that?
SPEAKER_02: Here, just eat mine too.
SPEAKER_02: Just take it.
SPEAKER_02: But every time I think, hey man, did you taste that?
SPEAKER_02: Okay, did you savor and enjoy that?
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: By the same token, when Jesus says, Hey, whoever keeps my word, they'll never see death, they'll never taste it, ask yourself this question: How do you die and not taste death or see death?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what Jesus is teaching them and teaching us that for the Christian, now, if you're not a Christian right now, I'm not mad at you, I'm not hating on you, but I'm gonna shoot you straight.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm fixing to say doesn't apply to you.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the things you should think about because in this little subtle Bible passage, Jesus is answering one of the fundamental questions of human existence, and it's this what happens when I die?
SPEAKER_02: What happens when I die?
SPEAKER_02: Some people think that when you die, it's like this you die, and then you know you're in the grave and you're in what's called soul sleep, and then thousands of years later when Jesus comes back, oh, everybody get up.
SPEAKER_02: Time to go to heaven, and everybody's like, oh, okay, good.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, the Bible nowhere teaches soul sleep, purgatory, limbo, any of that.
SPEAKER_02: Nowhere in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It just doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Some people think, uh, another way of looking at it, some people kind of think, hey, I died.
SPEAKER_02: And then it's a couple hours, they gotta check my papers and see if I did enough good stuff to bad stuff, see if I got the stamps I can cross the border into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And so a couple hours later, when I pass through customs, boom, I get in.
SPEAKER_02: That's not biblical either.
SPEAKER_02: What is biblical?
SPEAKER_02: I'll read it to you in the Bible in just a second, but I'm gonna give you an audio of what it's like.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter how you die.
SPEAKER_02: How you die, the manner in which you die, does not affect your eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_02: I get asked all the time.
SPEAKER_02: People say, hey, well, so-and-so, you know, he died from this and he died, da da da da da.
SPEAKER_02: The manner in which you die doesn't change your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Do you feel that in the room right now?
SPEAKER_02: Some of y'all are like, oh, what you because I get asked all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And so, this is what the Bible says death is like.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it's like this.
SPEAKER_02: The other thing is like, hey, you die, and then thousands of years later, oh, get up.
SPEAKER_02: Some say you die, and then maybe they check your papers, you get to go in.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it's like this.
SPEAKER_02: The moment that person ceases life in this world, they wake up in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Their spirit's in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because to be absent from the body is to be present with God.
SPEAKER_02: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_02: I tell you where I get it.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 1 to 10 says this.
SPEAKER_02: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_02: Now notice that he says, For we know.
SPEAKER_02: For we know, because the Bible is saying, I want you to know this.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to be certain of this, that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, now look at me.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter if somebody else destroyed it or you destroyed it yourself.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't change anything.
SPEAKER_02: We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_02: For in this tent, this body, we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_02: If indeed by putting it on, we may not be found naked.
SPEAKER_02: For while we are st while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened.
SPEAKER_02: Not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_02: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_02: So we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_02: We know that while we're at home in the body, we're away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For while we walk by faith, not by sight, yes, we're of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
SPEAKER_02: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you're an observant person, you look up there and you go, hey, some of that stuff's in bold and some of it's not.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that?
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible is never one-dimensional.
SPEAKER_02: It's beyond 3D.
SPEAKER_02: It's like 4D or 8D because there's so much here.
SPEAKER_02: And so, so what do I take away from a passage, from this passage?
SPEAKER_02: Uh, don't try to joll us down.
SPEAKER_02: Just get your phone out and just snap a picture of the screen.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just point to about seven or eight realities just in this text right here.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is this I was created to live forever.
SPEAKER_02: I was created to live forever.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
SPEAKER_02: That your body, this is the tent.
SPEAKER_02: I've been in the room, in the hospital room, when they unhook a man from life support because he's just not there, and they're just breathing for him.
SPEAKER_02: And the minute that thing just goes flat, and I just say, Hey, your dad, your grandpa, he that he's not here.
SPEAKER_02: This is just the tent he lived in.
SPEAKER_02: The moment he's his life stopped in this earth, his life began in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: One guy was standing at the foot of the bed and he's like, I'm gonna get a cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_02: Just walk to the nursery station.
SPEAKER_02: Other people were singing, other people were crying.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody said, Well, should we go after him?
SPEAKER_02: He's he's not grieving.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't have to grieve like you do.
SPEAKER_02: He just realized, hey, this ain't my dad.
SPEAKER_02: This is a tent my dad camped in for 88 years.
SPEAKER_02: My dad just struck his tin and moved into his permanent dwelling.
SPEAKER_02: And what he's saying is, I'll drink to that.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I want to drink with him too.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Yeah, down the hall, bring me a cup of that coffee.
SPEAKER_02: And the nurse was standing in the corner of the hospital room.
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Well, this is kind of strange.
SPEAKER_02: I said, as Christians, death doesn't have power over us.
SPEAKER_02: We don't even taste it.
SPEAKER_02: And she was like, Okay, whatever that means.
SPEAKER_02: Which means, stop talking, leave me alone.
SPEAKER_02: I was created to live forever.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, in this body, I'm going to suffer.
SPEAKER_02: See, the body, the Bible's not idealistic or Pollyanna.
SPEAKER_02: Hey guys, no.
SPEAKER_02: In this body, you're going to suffer, for in this tent we groan.
SPEAKER_02: While we're still in this tent, we groan, being burdened.
SPEAKER_02: You're going to suffer.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, it's not about being set free, which is a Greek mindset.
SPEAKER_02: It's about being, uh it's about being forever.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Because he says, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus lived, there are a lot of Greek uh uh philosophers, and and and and the way a lot of people thought was that the body was evil, flesh was evil, spirit was good.
SPEAKER_02: So they would say, especially this group of people called the Gnostics, they're like, We don't have flesh.
SPEAKER_02: We're spirits.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have sin.
SPEAKER_02: 1 John, the epistle of 1 John, towards the back of the New Testament, is written to combat this heresy.
SPEAKER_02: That's why he says in chapter 1, hey, if anyone says without sin, they're a liar.
SPEAKER_02: And then it got out to be a liar.
SPEAKER_02: Because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul is getting at here.
SPEAKER_02: He says, hey, it's not about not that we'd be unclothed and just set free from this evil body.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Your body's not evil.
SPEAKER_02: Your body's created by God in the image of God, and you should steward your body.
SPEAKER_02: He says, not that we'd be unclothed, but that we'd be further clothed.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, hey, we're prepared for forever.
SPEAKER_02: Four things for the Christian, death is a transition to life.
SPEAKER_02: He says that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_02: Another thing, the Holy Spirit resides in us as assurance of these things.
SPEAKER_02: He says He's given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_02: The God of the Bible is the only God that is, is the only deity.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's a lot of other false gods, but the only God that is, he says, hey, I don't just say things.
SPEAKER_02: I put my spirit inside of you as it is earnest money, it's down payment as a guarantee that what I'm saying is true.
SPEAKER_02: Another thing, these truths are intended to encourage me.
SPEAKER_02: He says, so we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_02: You can be getting the snot kicked out of you by life and be of good courage.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_02: Let me speak to what's in the room because we live in a culture that is glorified suicide.
SPEAKER_02: There's a show on Netflix, 13 Reasons or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Now we're all trying to combat, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, we all get it pointing.
SPEAKER_02: There's people in the Bible that were just like, you know, God, this stinks.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just ready to check out, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: We all get to low points in our life.
SPEAKER_02: When you get to a low point in your life, don't make a decision that's going to affect you and everybody else for the rest of their life.
SPEAKER_02: Pick up the phone and call somebody and say, hey, I'm not in a good way.
SPEAKER_02: Can I come over?
SPEAKER_02: And the answer is always yes.
SPEAKER_02: You hear me?
SPEAKER_02: Hello?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, don't don't just think, oh, well, you know, hey, to be absent from the body, be present with God.
SPEAKER_02: It's not your life.
SPEAKER_02: You don't get to decide.
SPEAKER_02: Now I know people that have decided, that made that choice.
SPEAKER_02: Does that mean they don't go to heaven?
SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
SPEAKER_02: It means they leave a trail of heartbroken people here on this earth.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah 10, verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: Oh Lord, I know that a man's life is not his own.
SPEAKER_02: It's not in his will to direct his steps.
SPEAKER_02: Because if it was in my will to direct my steps, I would take the easy path every time.
SPEAKER_02: I would just, all through life, I would just choose whatever was easy, not what was formative.
SPEAKER_02: To be away from the body is to be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: That's why it's just one clap.
SPEAKER_02: Boom.
SPEAKER_02: Leave this life and they're in the next one.
SPEAKER_02: I was created to live a life that pleases God.
SPEAKER_02: He says, whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
SPEAKER_02: And lastly, this is my life on this earth will matter in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It's that last sentence.
SPEAKER_02: He says, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_02: Your life on earth, it will matter in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about good works.
SPEAKER_02: This is, by the way, this is a reference to what's called the Bhima seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: This is not the great white throne judgment where people that don't know God are judged and are assigned to hell.
SPEAKER_02: And they're convinced on that day, hey, I'm not going here because I was homosexual or because I smoked weed or because I loved whiskey too much.
SPEAKER_02: People don't go to hell for their sins.
SPEAKER_02: People go to hell because they don't trust Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's the only reason.
SPEAKER_02: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: That means that people that love whiskey and struggle with their sexuality and struggle with opioids are welcome in this church.
SPEAKER_02: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_02: Because the hope of the gospel extends to everybody.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody asked me one time, they said, How many Democrats do you think you've got in your church?
SPEAKER_02: I go, We have Democrats here.
SPEAKER_02: They go, No, seriously.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I hope we have a I hope I hope we got more than you think.
SPEAKER_02: Because when in heaven, God's gonna make you watch CNN for a thousand years.
SPEAKER_02: And this guy looked at me like, that's not funny, Pastor.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Listen, to be in a world full of people that look like you, think like you, and live like you, that's not heaven, that's hell.
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: I said, I was talking to my wife not long ago.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey, how's life these days?
SPEAKER_02: How am I treating you?
SPEAKER_02: And she said, Oh, it's good.
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Living with you is not as easy as you think.
SPEAKER_02: She goes, I love you.
SPEAKER_02: You make it sound like it's just, ooh, man, you're a piece of work sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, and I love her and she loves me.
SPEAKER_02: But again, life on this earth will matter in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Because Christians, I mean, non-believers are judged at what's called the great white throne judgment.
SPEAKER_02: This is referred to the Bemisy of Christ because you're judged not only or not you're gonna get into heaven, but what is gonna be the reckoning for the life you lived on earth.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he says, that's why he says, hey, so each one may receive what is due, what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_02: So, hey, you may think, hey, man, it doesn't even matter.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I feel like I'm down here just kind of wet in my pants in a dark suit.
SPEAKER_02: It gives me a warm feeling, but nobody notices.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: You good over here?
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: When you get to heaven and you stand before God, God's gonna say, I noticed.
SPEAKER_02: I noticed.
SPEAKER_02: And it matters because here's the thing: this is my sick confession.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I get tired of doing good.
SPEAKER_02: I just look around and I think, hey, this world's full of stingy people, God.
SPEAKER_02: They ain't generous, they ain't looking out for anybody else.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the guy that's always having to go the extra mile.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, how can I just be selfish for a little bit?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that.
SPEAKER_02: And God just kind of chuckles and says, You can be selfish the next time you see me being selfish.
SPEAKER_02: Never mind, I'm good.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: But then I gotta remind myself, hey, my life on this earth will matter.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, there's a guy named Neil deGrasse Tyson, he's an astrophysicist who's really smart about a lot of things, but he's dead wrong about death.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_02: Because he says this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, We have no evidence of consciousness after you die.
SPEAKER_02: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_02: We have no evidence of consciousness after you die.
SPEAKER_02: For us, we fear death because we're born knowing only life.
SPEAKER_02: He says, for me, the knowledge that I'm going to die creates the focus that I bring to being alive.
SPEAKER_02: Now stop and hear that again, because that is sounds just incredibly brilliant.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, people in Hollywood love this guy.
SPEAKER_02: He's on Jimmy Kimmel, he's on Colbert, Stephen Colbert's show.
SPEAKER_02: He's been on there nine or ten times.
SPEAKER_02: They love him because he's brilliant.
SPEAKER_02: He is really smart, okay?
SPEAKER_02: He's an astrophysicist.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about the galaxies expanding, and all we're gonna have in a thousand years are those galaxies and nothing, and da-da-da.
SPEAKER_02: And people are like, oh, and he hosts a show called Star Talk, where the whole thing is around him saying something profound and everybody, ooh.
SPEAKER_02: And he just kind of stands there and goes, Yeah, aren't I awesome?
SPEAKER_02: Look at that again.
SPEAKER_02: We have no consciousness after you die.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, that simple statement he's telling you he does not believe in heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible gives us two accounts where that cannot be true.
SPEAKER_02: One of them is Luke 16, where God dies and he goes to hell.
SPEAKER_02: And it says, in hell.
SPEAKER_02: He said, He lifted up and he cried out to Abraham and he said, Hey, I'm in agony here in this fire.
SPEAKER_02: If you have no consciousness, how do you know what hell that you're in hell and what hell feels like?
SPEAKER_02: And secondly, what we just read in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where we'll stand before God and we'll give an account for what we've how we've lived while in the body, the deeds we've done, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_02: You think God is so unjust that he's going to reckon you according to something you have no memory of?
SPEAKER_02: That's not God.
SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
SPEAKER_02: But he goes on and he says, hey, for us though, we fear death because we're born knowing only life.
SPEAKER_02: For me, the knowledge that I'm gonna die creates a focus that I bring to being alive.
SPEAKER_02: That's great sounding.
SPEAKER_02: And on some levels that's good, but that's scientific and humanistic, a scientific and humanistic view of life and death.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Okay, well, what's what's the alternative?
SPEAKER_02: The Christian view of that is simply this the knowledge that I'm gonna live forever creates the focus that I bring to being alive and allows me to not live for my glory, but to actually live for God's glory.
SPEAKER_02: The knowledge that I'm gonna live forever.
SPEAKER_02: That creates the focus.
SPEAKER_02: That means I don't fall in love with everything in this world.
SPEAKER_02: That means when a man walks into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and opens fire and kills people just because they're Jewish, I don't get depressed and throw my hands up and just quit and kind of go, What kind of world is this?
SPEAKER_02: Who's in charge?
SPEAKER_02: I know who's in charge.
SPEAKER_02: But I also know that that God that's in charge gave people a free will, and sometimes they use it for good, and sometimes they use it for evil.
SPEAKER_02: So I don't shake my fist at God and blame God for the poor use of man's freedom by man.
SPEAKER_02: Third thing the text tells us is simply this that Jesus is the divine son of God.
SPEAKER_02: He's a divine son of God.
SPEAKER_02: You know, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: He's been folding this into the conversation all along.
SPEAKER_02: They haven't been listening.
SPEAKER_02: Back in verse 24, he uses these words, ergo, I mean in the Greek, this I am phrase.
SPEAKER_02: I am.
SPEAKER_02: He says it in verse 24, he says it again in verse 28.
SPEAKER_02: Now, guys, you remember when you're a little kid, you had that little car, you put it on the ground and you pull it backwards, and it goes, and eventually you've got to let that thing go, whoa.
SPEAKER_02: He's been pulling this car back this whole conversation.
SPEAKER_02: First movement, second movement, third movement.
SPEAKER_02: He gets to verse 59 and they say, Hey, you're not 50 years old, and you've seen Abraham, and he says, Hey, before Abraham was, ergo I mean I am.
SPEAKER_02: The third time he refers to himself the same way God revealed himself to Moses way back in Exodus when God told Moses, hey, go tell my go tell Pharaoh to let my people go.
SPEAKER_02: And Moses is like, hey, man, I stutter, I'm a convict, I killed a man, I got a past, I'm out here living in the desert off the grid, I got solar panels and a raised vegetable garden, and I collect rainwater.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just eating it out, God.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want much.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to just be left alone.
SPEAKER_02: And God says, Hey, you think the fact that you're a murderer disqualifies you from being used by me?
SPEAKER_02: And God's like, Moses, well.
SPEAKER_02: Then he says, This, who do I tell them sent me?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_02: When you run out of excuses, flip it back on God.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, who do I tell them sent me?
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Ergo I mean.
SPEAKER_02: Tell him, I am sent you.
SPEAKER_02: So for thousands of years, these Jewish people have known that God refers to himself as I am.
SPEAKER_02: And so when they say, Hey, you're like 50 years old and you've seen Abraham, he says, Hey, before Abraham, I am.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, where's the big rocks?
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna get it now.
SPEAKER_02: They're just God, they go crazy.
SPEAKER_02: Now, by the way, notice this that they keep comparing Jesus to different people.
SPEAKER_02: They get mad because of Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Back in chapter 4, it was Jacob, the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_02: Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his flocks and his herd?
SPEAKER_02: Chapter 6, after the feeding 5,000, they find Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, Moses gave us bread in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02: Chapter 8, it's Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: Now it's easy to look at him and kind of go, yeah, those religious jerks, can you believe that?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what we do: we don't compare God to people, we compare God to our circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: We say things like this, hey, we we we prayed for a baby and we never got pregnant, so God can't really be real, otherwise, he would have answered my prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Or this, hey, my grandma was a good woman who never hurt anybody, she still got cancer.
SPEAKER_02: How can a God that loves people let that happen?
SPEAKER_02: Or this, hey, my best friend was killed by a drunk driver.
SPEAKER_02: I can't believe in a God that would let bad something that bad happen to somebody that good.
SPEAKER_02: We don't compare God to people because there's nobody to compare God to.
SPEAKER_02: We let our circumstances become the lens through which we look at God.
SPEAKER_02: And you have a blurred and clouded, cracked view of God.
SPEAKER_02: And we live separated from what we were created for, and that's to be at home in a relationship with this God.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're mad at him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why is this such a big deal in the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: Why do these men want to stone Jesus to death for what he said?
SPEAKER_02: Because he they understand the implications of him being God.
SPEAKER_02: He's different from the Father in personhood and function, but same in essence and being.
SPEAKER_02: He's not a manifestation of God, some astral projection of who God uh we think God could be like.
SPEAKER_02: He is God manifest.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is uniquely one with, but distinct from the Father.
SPEAKER_02: God manifests in human flesh.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you four things, and then we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, it means we have a God who keeps his word.
SPEAKER_02: It means you have a God that keeps his word.
SPEAKER_02: In a day and age of litigiousness where people sue over anything.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, anything.
SPEAKER_02: We had a neighbor live next door to us, and they hit a badminton shuttlecock into our gutter.
SPEAKER_02: And they moved down here from New York and they had friends down from New York, and they go, Oh, you ought to get that out because that's gonna cause a problem, and they're gonna sue you.
SPEAKER_02: And our neighbors, they're not, they weren't believers.
SPEAKER_02: They were like, no, Neil and Marcy are different.
SPEAKER_02: They will, I don't think they'd sue anybody.
SPEAKER_02: Travis borrowed my truck and was turning right here at the light, and a lady rear-ended him and just careened the bunker, the bumper.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, Man, it called me and goes, Hey, I don't know how to tell you this, I just got rear-ended in your truck.
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: You're never borrowing my truck again.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the best part.
SPEAKER_02: He got the information and he said, It's it's the dance teacher across the street at the high school.
SPEAKER_02: And I oh yeah, my daughter has her first period.
SPEAKER_02: So I emailed her and I said, Hey, I won't say her name.
SPEAKER_02: I said, You you hit a white truck, and I said, he was driven by a guy in Travis, but actually my truck.
SPEAKER_02: She wrote back, I'm mortified.
SPEAKER_02: I said, No, I think it's funny.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Here's the deal.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so rich, I've got two trucks.
SPEAKER_02: I've got like a 2012, and you hit the 2002, and we can do the insurance thing, or I've got a friend that can get me a used bumper and we just pay for it out of pocket.
SPEAKER_02: And she's like, Are you serious?
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: Your true character is revealed when you get the upper hand on people.
SPEAKER_02: When you're in a position of like, I said, if I put a new bumper on that truck, it would look like a diamond in a pig snout.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Well, I'll take it.
SPEAKER_02: We have a God that keeps his word.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: He he prophesied years ago that this virgin would conceive and give birth to a son, and you'll call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
SPEAKER_02: These things happened.
SPEAKER_02: This Jesus that was born of a virgin is talking right here.
SPEAKER_02: You can trust this God who keeps his word.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, God has acted personally at great cost to himself to do something about our greatest problem.
SPEAKER_02: God has acted personally at great cost to himself to do something about our greatest problem.
SPEAKER_02: Your greatest problem, by the way, is sin.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible says in Isaiah 59 that sin separates you from God.
SPEAKER_02: And God is acted to do something about that.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, this distinguishes Christianity from all the other world religions because this God doesn't have to be appeased by our religious behaviors, he appeases himself with himself.
SPEAKER_02: God satisfies God with God on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly, you have a resource you can trust in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Because it's the Bible that teaches us who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: He's more than a good man, a moral example, or a prophet.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches throughout what Jesus says here in John 8 that Jesus really is God.
SPEAKER_02: Fourthly and finally, this that life change is possible.
SPEAKER_02: Life change is possible.
SPEAKER_02: You still with me?
SPEAKER_02: We're done in about one minute.
SPEAKER_02: You still here?
SPEAKER_02: You got a minute left in you?
SPEAKER_02: Uh what do you mean life change is possible?
SPEAKER_02: I told you that the four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, these four guys hung out with Jesus, that they all wrote from their perspective.
SPEAKER_02: They all didn't tell the same exact stories.
SPEAKER_02: They told some of the same stories.
SPEAKER_02: Some of them emphasize different details of the story, but it's about the life and ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, that this really is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: And you guys should consider this for your lives.
SPEAKER_02: And so, right after that, this guy, Luke, he writes the gospel of Luke, but then he writes the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: It's the Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_02: Luke writes this to kind of say, and hey, not only was Jesus really God, but this is how the church got going, and this is what happened.
SPEAKER_02: And in the book of Acts, chapter 3, they're talking to this crowd of people that are starting to kind of feel like, right, bro, I think we might have screwed up by killing this guy on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: And they're kind of looking around and they stand up and they say these words.
SPEAKER_02: And I say life change is possible.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to how central Jesus has always been to God's plans for humanity.
SPEAKER_02: Acts chapter 3, verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that this Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
SPEAKER_02: Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
SPEAKER_02: Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
SPEAKER_02: You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.
SPEAKER_02: And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaim these days.
SPEAKER_02: You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your father, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
SPEAKER_02: God has raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
SPEAKER_02: Now, do you hear how central it is?
SPEAKER_02: Moses prophesied about this.
SPEAKER_02: And Samuel and all the other prophets prophesied, talked about, promised, went on record as saying, hey, Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_02: This Messiah is coming.
SPEAKER_02: This prophet that's like Moses is coming.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what he comes to do.
SPEAKER_02: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, Abraham said, In your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
SPEAKER_02: And then God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to do what?
SPEAKER_02: To bless you.
SPEAKER_02: What if there really is a God in this world and Jesus was his son, fully God, fully man, and he came to this earth not to condemn you and say, hey, yeah, you've been feeling like you're screwed up.
SPEAKER_02: Let me confirm it.
SPEAKER_02: You're screwed up.
SPEAKER_02: I'd drink excessively too if I was you.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: He says he's come to bless you.
SPEAKER_02: How does he bless you?
SPEAKER_02: By turning every one of you from your wickedness.
SPEAKER_02: Every one of you.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: This is a crowd of thousands of people.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Ain't one of you cats outsend the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I want you to hear, and we're done today.
SPEAKER_02: That God has come to bless you.
SPEAKER_02: He's come to bless you.
SPEAKER_02: And how does he bless you?
SPEAKER_02: He ain't like a late-night TV preacher who's gonna give you money, you're gonna win Powerball or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna bless you by giving you the power that only comes from a relationship with Him to turn from your wickedness, to turn from these habits that you can't seem to kick and these things that you can't stop.
SPEAKER_02: That's how God blesses you.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_02: If that's really who he is and that's why he came, why wouldn't you want to have a relationship with that God?
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: And Lindsay will come and she'll just kind of play and sing a verse or a song over you.
SPEAKER_02: Just ask yourself, hey, if this is really what God is like, not maybe the bad experience you had with religion or religious people, but what if he come to bless you by turning you away from these things that are killing you called sin?
SPEAKER_02: Again, why wouldn't you want to know this God?
SPEAKER_02: Let's think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_02: God, you begin this service and you end this service by saying, Come to me.
SPEAKER_02: You begin it by saying, Hey, come home, come home.
SPEAKER_02: Ye who are weary, come home.
SPEAKER_02: Because home is relationship with you.
SPEAKER_02: You're home to us.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts are restless, they're out of place, they're disjointed, they're fractured, they're hemorrhaging until they find their place in you, until they come home.
SPEAKER_02: And now you just kind of sing over us and say, Bring it to the table.
SPEAKER_02: Every table's an altar, so you just bring whatever you got.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not ashamed of it.
SPEAKER_02: Because the gospel is the power of God and a salvation to anyone who believes.
SPEAKER_02: So I pray for people in this room today, God, that need to believe.
SPEAKER_02: They need to believe the gospel, they need to experience the blessing of God and the power of God to turn away from our inbred, inborn wickedness.
SPEAKER_02: You have that capacity.
SPEAKER_02: Exercise that today, God, in our midst, we ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_02: You're welcome here all the time.
SPEAKER_02: I met a young man this morning.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Today's my second time.
SPEAKER_02: I really liked I might want to come back.
SPEAKER_02: I said, come back anytime.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to dress up, you don't have to act a certain way.
SPEAKER_02: You just come and be yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we have different activities going on all the time at our church.
SPEAKER_02: We like to make you aware of those through announcements.
SPEAKER_02: So let's just take one minute and be reminded of some opportunities for engagement that are happening here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: The First Impressions Team is a group of people committed to welcoming others to our church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a current member of the First Impressions team or you're interested in serving in this area, there is a meeting on November 4th at 11 45 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the Fellowship Hall.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions, contact Laura at GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Operation Christmas Child is right around the corner.
SPEAKER_01: Next Sunday, shoe boxes will be available on the front of the stage.
SPEAKER_01: In each shoebox are instructions for how to pack your boxes and how to drop them off once they're ready.
SPEAKER_01: Each box gives a child a chance to hear the gospel and provides a tangible reminder that they are loved and cared for.
SPEAKER_01: Midweek classes are canceled.
SPEAKER_01: Take this time on Wednesday night to enjoy being with your family, get to know your neighbors, practice generosity with others.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you've heard today, or would like someone to pray for you, some of our pastors and elders will be in front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_02: Let me reiterate.
SPEAKER_02: This time of year, people always ask us, what does your church believe about Halloween?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_02: If you go trick-or-treating, you ain't worshiping the devil, you're getting free candy, okay?
SPEAKER_02: What kid doesn't like free candy?
SPEAKER_02: So don't be some religious weasel and try to be goofy, okay?
SPEAKER_02: We know that some people think it's whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Some people think a lot of things that, you know.
SPEAKER_02: But let me just say this: if you stay home and you give out candy, give out good candy.
SPEAKER_02: Give out some Kit Kat and some Snickers and good stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Don't give out that taffy stuff that's wrapped in orange and black paper, because kids go home and separate and just throw that stuff away.
SPEAKER_02: Break yourself off some extra bucks and get good candy, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Because it makes Jesus look stingy when you give away bad candy.
SPEAKER_02: That's why.
SPEAKER_02: Bam.
SPEAKER_02: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_02: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: God could have cursed us all and been right in doing it and still be loving.
SPEAKER_02: But instead, he chose to bless us by sending his son to die on the cross so that you and I can be turned from our wickedness.
SPEAKER_02: Turn now and live.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.