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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 And and this morning, I want us to talk about the gospel today. We should talk about the gospel every time we gather at the church, but today, I wanna remind us of the important message0:12 that we're gathered here around, what our kids are gonna be getting baptized in to declare that they believe today, that precious message that has changed the world, changed0:24 our lives. In first Corinthians 15, Paul says, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.0:36 Anybody being saved in this place this morning? I look he's talking to church people. He's talking to church people. He said, hey. You're being saved. That's why sometimes sometimes church people ain't so saved0:48 because they're still in the process of being saved. I love that. And it says you're being saved. As you receive the gospel, you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I1:00 preached to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you as a first importance what I received that Christ died in accord for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was raised in our1:11 third day. I'm sorry. In accordance with that he was buried. And on a third day, he was raised in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12, and he appeared to more than 5001:21 brothers at once. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. And that message, Christ died. Christ was1:33 buried. Christ rose. Christ appeared. Yeah. It's why we are in this place today. If that's not true, later in that chapter, Paul will1:44 say, there's no point in being here. If that's true, then you're in the wrong place. You should be you should be sleeping right now, enjoying a a day off or going1:56 golfing or going fishing or doing something. But if that message is true, it makes all the difference in the world. It changes everything about us from the inside to the outside. And2:08 I wanna talk about that today, this weekend at Waters Church. Is that okay? Yeah. Amen. I didn't need you to say yes, but I'm gonna do it anyway. It's nice to hear you say it.2:20 Let's pray. Father, thank you for the chance to gather in this place to hear you, to receive your word. I pray the holy spirit speak through me, speak to all of2:32 us, change us, transform us, renew us, remind us, challenge us, conform us to the image of Jesus. Help us to see2:43 him. Him and him only. In his mighty name we pray. And everybody said. Amen. Amen. Amen. High 5 your neighbor and tell him that's what it's like to get to church on time. There you go.2:57 Good morning. I wanna talk to you today on the title of the message, not forgetting the gospel. When we forget the3:08 gospel, we forget the gospel to our own detriment. When we forget the message of Jesus, when we deny its historical, existential3:20 reality, we do so to our own demise. The church that was what built many of the institutions of our country and3:31 started many of the universities of our culture began to deny the reality of the gospel in the early 19 hundreds.3:43 In the early 19 hundreds, men and women of this country began to get too smart for the message of resurrection and healings and miracles and signs and wonders. And so because of3:56 scientific discovery and a naturalistic view of the world, many of the movers and shakers of the church in the last century decided to deny the central message of the church for all centuries. The4:07 message that there was a Jewish carpenter named Jesus. He walked in the Earth for 33 years. He performed miracles and signs and wonders and raised the dead and healed the sick and cast out demons4:19 and then they put him on a cross and they buried him. And then 3 days later, he rose triumphantly from that cross, and he went to the father, and he sent the holy spirit, and the church was born just like we just sang4:30 about just a few moments ago. But that message got too outdated in the last century, and I believe that we're living in this century with the results of forsaking the gospel in the last century. And many4:42 of the churches in the main streets of America, we call them mainline churches because they were the main event churches in this country for over 300 years. They have denied the miraculous. They have denied the4:53 supernatural. They have denied the spiritual nature of our faith to their own demise, to their own detriment, and many people have seen the failure of those churches for the last hundred years. Let us not be 1 of those5:04 churches. Let us not forget the message of Jesus Christ, death, burial, and resurrection. And let us never deny that it is the gospel power on the salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew and to the Greek and to the5:15 Gentile. Let us not forget that that's why we are here. And Paul says that to the Corinthian church. You know, the Corinthian church was 1 messed up church. It was 1 messed up5:27 church. The book of Corinthians, which is read oftentimes in weddings, particularly first Corinthians 13, love is patient, kind, gentle, all that kind of stuff. Alright. Well, this passage, that Bible passage and passage5:39 we just read comes from a book called first Corinthians, but it's really not a book. It's a letter. It's a letter from a guy named Paul. He was a hater of Christianity, an ardent opponent of Jesus and the movement until5:51 Jesus found him, changed him, transformed him, put him on 180 degree turn, and he became an ardent proponent of the church, a messenger of the gospel, a missionary of the highest order. And then he wrote 1 third of the6:02 New Testament, and they are letters to the churches that he started. He would go from city to city and plant the church, plant the church, and that's what we're doing because that's what we need to do in this country. We6:11 need to plant churches, not just any kind of church, not just white churches or black churches or conservative churches. We need to plant Jesus centered gospel preaching people loving6:23 churches in every city we could possibly find. And by the way, we're days away, days away from starting our South Coast location. Another church6:34 to preach the gospel. Now, if this is on your heart to give to that final push, we are absolutely looking for that. So if you can give to the final prayer, give6:46 money to the final push to get South Coast open, now is the time to do it. I know a lot of our big givers are like, I'll do it when you ask me. Well, consider yourself asked. Alright? Today, put it in the6:58 offering box on the way out or give at water church dot org slash give today. But anyway, planting church is what Paul did. He would plant the church, and then he would move on to another town. And 1 of the churches that7:07 he planted was in Corinth, first century Greek city, now Roman city, named Corinth. And that church, when he left, got jacked up. Has anybody ever been to a jacked up church? Yes. I know. If you haven't been7:19 to 1, you just came to 1. Just letting you know. Every church is jacked up because we're all being saved. We just talked about that. We're all being saved. Okay? This church was messed up. This church had factions and7:30 divisions. He was saying, I'm of Peter. I'm of Paul. I'm of Cephas. I'm of Apollos. It means I only follow that guy, this guy, that guy. And we do that today as a church globally to this day.7:41 I follow the pope. Will I follow Luther? Will I follow Calvin? Will I follow Jacob Arminius? I mean, we we go through all these, people that we think are are really the truth bearers, and and we forget that they are just7:52 tools in the hand of the truth, Jesus Christ. But anyway, they were divided. They were factional just like the churches all over the world. They were also very immoral, sexually immoral. They were they were8:04 sleeping with prostitutes on the streets and in the in the shrine prostitute centers of ancient Rome, and they were you know, going to church Sunday, but then but then fornicating on Friday. A lot like a lot of single8:15 people in the church till this day. Married people too. I shouldn't I shouldn't just leave the married people as if they're saints. We all know you guys mess up as well. But anyway, they were doing all that kind of8:25 nonsense. They were taking people to court, each other to court. They couldn't resolve their differences. They had to go to the court system of the pagans to to to resolve their differences much like the church is today.8:37 We don't we don't work it out. We don't sort it out. We don't forgive and move on. We we we gossip. We slander. We got on Facebook and we post. We do all kinds of things to to to demonize our fellow brothers and sisters8:46 and and for some of you, you gotta stop doing that because for some of you, you gotta remember that the people that you demonize in the church are the only people going to heaven with you. Whoo. And just of8:58 just for kicks, Jesus might put your mansion next to their mansion. Talk about an awkward morning out there. You know what I'm talking about? So, they were hating on each other. They were taking each other9:10 to court and they were denying the resurrection. That's the last thing that he talks about here in chapter 15 and I think that when a church denies the resurrection, that church forfeits its right to exist.9:23 We're here because Jesus is alive. We're here because he rose and conquered death and hell and the grave. We're here because he holds the keys of hell and death. We're9:35 here because he's the way, the truth, and the life and no 1 comes under the father except through him. Amen. And our purpose as a church is to spread that message. So often that message gets so tainted and so9:47 covered up by all the fabrications of men and women who manipulate and distort. And I think that the enemy is always after the message of the gospel. Take out your notes if9:58 you're you're here. Take out your notes in house. If you're online, go to watershurch dot guide. Not forgetting the gospel, first Corinthians 15. We already read that passage in verses 1 and 2. I wanted to give you a10:09 quote. It's from William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army from the last part of the of the 18 hundreds. Talking about the 19 hundreds and the 18 hundreds, William Booth said, the chief danger that confronts the10:20 coming century will be religion without the holy ghost, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without god, heaven without hell, and Christianity without Christ. Amen.10:32 I mean, he nailed it. Again, because of the rise of scientific discovery and and humanistic naturalism, the church abandoned the central message that made the church the church.10:44 The gospel. But today, the gospel is under attack from a different story. Not denying it but distorting it. The devil will always try to distort the the gospel. Minimize it. Get you away from it.10:56 Because he knows better than most pastors that the gospel is the power of god unto salvation. And I got news for everybody who's a Christian. You've a Christian a long time. Some of you11:08 like, well, I heard the gospel a long time ago and I received and I moved on from that. You never move on from the gospel. You gotta keep going back to the gospel. You gotta go back to baptizing yourself, beating it11:20 into your heart that Jesus died for you. You are lost. You are undone. You are a sinner. You are you are on your way to hell, but the grace of god found you and claimed you and made you his own through the death, burial,11:32 and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of god. You gotta go back to it. Martin Luther, I mentioned him already and I and I appreciate him. He's not my my guy 100 percent, but I appreciate his contribution to the11:42 church. But he said in the 15 hundreds, you gotta beat the gospel into your head every single day. Yeah. Because every single day, you forget it. Right. You forget you're saved by grace. It leads to pride. It11:54 leads to pride and arrogance for the people who think they can obey and it leads to despair and sadness and depression for those who can't obey. And so the gospel keeps12:06 us centered. It keeps us founded Not on my works, not on what I've done, not on what I did last week, but on what Christ did in history. To be centered on him. So let's define12:18 the gospel. But I wanna do it with 5 points from a negative point of view, what the gospel is not. And then I got 5 points of what12:25 the gospel is. That's right. I've got 10 points.12:30 God help you. False gospel number 1, the god shaped whole gospel. Now, some of you believe this and you gotta stop. Well, there was a god shaped hole inside12:42 my heart. There are songs about it, preachers preach about it, and a lot of you say it. Well, I was just looking for something. I don't know. I had everything else good. My family was12:54 good. I had a good job. I had good kids. I was happy. But there was something missing. Let me tell you something. Jesus has never been missing a day in his life. You don't13:06 add Jesus to an otherwise partially complete life. And you can't fit Jesus in your heart anyway. I I remember this came to light in my own life when I was leading13:18 my children when they were very young. My first 2. And 1 night, very precious moment in my parental life, I sat them down and I explained who Jesus was and I said, do you wanna invite him into your heart? I said that.13:29 You wanna invite him into our into your heart? Oh, yes, daddy. And we prayed the prayer. We invited Jesus into our heart. And then the next day, my son Connor, he's an analytical kid. He said, if Jesus is so big, how13:39 does he get in there? It's a good point, Connor. And I went back to the Bible and I realized that the Bible never ever says, and some of you are gonna be blown away by this. The Bible never ever13:51 says, invite Jesus into your heart. You don't invite Jesus into your heart. You surrender your entire life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He's14:03 lord. He's god. He's the alpha. He's the omega. The scripture says, nothing that has been made was made apart from Jesus. You can't fit god14:15 into a portion of your life. You surrender all of your life to the God who gave you life. It's not the God shaped world. It's something that implies. It implies that Jesus was lost. So and a lot of people,14:27 you you you verbalize it like this. You say, something was missing. Something was missing. Again, no. No. You were missing. Amen. Yeah. Were Jesus says this in Luke14:39 chapter 19 verse 10. He says, the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. This way, you're stop saying, I found Jesus. You didn't find Jesus. He14:50 found you. Yeah. He was never lost. You understand? He knew exactly where he was every moment And he's not lost for you. And the idea again, here it is. It's like you're walking along and15:02 everything's fine. You're like, woah. What's that? Oh, Jesus. Hello, Jesus. Oh, now I feel better. And this is the problem with that idea as well because then it's also feelings based.15:14 Feelings based. Young people, listen to me. I I I know. I know. Your feelings are are are are everything that's true about you. That that's what the world tells you. Can I tell you that that's just not true? That's a lie15:26 from the pit of hell. What you feel is not real. What you feel will change. You don't even know what you are yet. You don't even know what life is about yet. You can't even vote. So stop thinking you know everything15:38 about you because of your feelings. Feelings will lie to you and deceive you. You need the truth that is objective, that is certain, that is grounded in history, that is grounded in a reality that is around you15:50 and includes you. But it's not you feeling out the world. It is Christ saving you from your feelings. But if you make it about what you feel in your heart, then you'll give up on the faith when you don't feel it anymore.16:01 I can't tell you how many people do that. Well, I don't feel the same anymore. I don't feel it. I mean, I've been through many seasons where I don't feel it. And you're gonna go through many Christian see many Christ16:13 following seasons where you don't feel it because it's not about feelings. It's about faith. Amen. You think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego on the way into the fire, they were like, I really feel this. I16:25 feel this. I feel no. They felt the heat. They felt the the the the burnings soon to be their death. Okay? They they came out singing but they went in being like, oh god, this is gonna hurt. Okay.16:37 And and sometimes in life, that's how it is. You feel a little bit disconnected. You feel but that's the hole in the heart gospel. You gotta get away from that. You gotta get away from that. There was a great16:48 writer from, oh, a century previous. He talked about the dark night of the soul. The dark night of the soul where you're gonna go through a season where you just don't feel like God is there. Yes,17:01 great men and women have done that. Even in the Bible, Elijah ran from God. He said, kill me. I'm ready to die. Jeremiah said the same thing. Moses said the same thing. David said the same thing. Many17:13 of God's best men and women got to the point where they're like, I don't feel it anymore. Just take my life. God was like, it's not about what you feel. It's about what I'm doing. Amen. In spite of what you feel. This is17:24 the good news, by the way, of rejecting the feelings oriented gospel because here's the good news. No matter what you feel, god is doing something real. No matter what you're feeling inside, god is active on the outside.17:36 No matter what others think you are, god knows who you are. No matter what your heart is telling you, God's word will always be speaking truth to you. Now we get this idea of inviting Jesus17:48 to our heart from Colossians 3 15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. But it doesn't say invite Jesus in your heart. It says let his peace rule there. And the Bible does say in Romans that we have to believe in17:59 our heart that God raised him from the dead. But the Bible also says in first John that God is greater than our hearts. The wonderful passage is if our hearts condemn us, we know that we still don't have to follow18:11 the condemnation that comes from our hearts because god is greater than our hearts. Isn't that good for anybody who showed up and didn't wanna feel like they were saved that I, you know, weren't feeling like they should18:22 go to church. Like your life should teach you this at some point that faith is not about feelings. Amen. Bible says in first Peter 3 15, in your hearts, honor Christ the lord as18:33 holy. In other words, he's first in my life. He's the owner of my life. I don't fit god in where I18:45 feel empty. Right. I surrender all of my life to god. Amen. Who chooses to put me where he wants me. Now you18:57 gotta get this, man. You gotta get this because it's gonna set you free. It's gonna set you free from the feelings oriented, whole in the heart gospel. Gospel false gospel number 2, the life improvement gospel. Now, this19:08 1 is popular in churches like ours. I like to think that I'm self aware enough to understand where Waters Church fits in the global historical movement of Christianity.19:21 And where we fit is in the comfortable confines of cool church. Cool church. You know, there's19:33 white steeple church in the downtown area. There's marble church, most of them are Catholic. You know, there's pop church and then there's cool church. Cool church19:45 is when your worship leader wears skinny jeans. Your pastor wears excessive jewelry sometimes. Bracelets and necklaces. I don't have 119:56 on today but usually I do because I wear necklaces only when I preach to tell all the teenage kids, I'm cooler than you think. That's the only reason why. That's the only reason why. My20:08 you'll notice I do not wear bootcut jeans. Okay? I'm I'm keeping up with the kiddos. Okay? And that's the only reason. Every other day, I'm in shorts looking like a slob. My wife is like, why don't you put some effort20:20 in the house? Well, because it's a cool church, you gotta look a little cool. Gotta dress a little cool. Gotta have cool lights, cool speakers, cool screens. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. The problem with20:32 the cool church is the cool church has also started to abandon the gospel for a life improvement gospel. Come and we'll teach you how to have great kids,20:44 a great marriage. 1 1 church in Texas did a whole series, a 7 part series on having great sex. My word. That's that's fine. I pray20:56 your sex life is thrilling with your spouse, but the message of the gospel is not about how to have great sex or great kids or a great spouse or a great house or a great retirement package. The21:08 message of the gospel is that Christ died and was buried and rose again. And sometimes, life might go poorly for you21:19 after you receive the gospel. It might cost you. In fact, Jesus said it's gonna cost you. That's why he said count the cost. You wanna follow Jesus? Oh, it's easy21:31 in America. It's so easy in this country where right now, so far, it's legal. It's somewhat culturally acceptable. For21:43 now, that could change tomorrow. Yeah. Who knows? With the rapid succession of our cultural digression, it could change before I'm done preaching. Someday, it's gonna cost you21:55 dearly to serve Jesus. And all the life improvement people are going to run for the door. Jesus said, you're going to have people hate you because you're my22:07 disciple. You're to have people turn against you. You're gonna have difficult relationships. Your father might not appreciate your faith. Your mother, your sister, your spouse, people in your22:19 own home, they're gonna become your enemies because of me. He said, I didn't come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword. I'm gonna divide people from their own families because this is what it means to follow Jesus.22:30 He's God. He's Lord of all. And so if he's Lord and God, then putting him first is the only appropriate human response. And the rest of world doesn't get that. The rest of the world is still busy22:42 trying to fit God in where they want. A Christian surrendered heart and soul and mind to who he is. George Barna, a pollster for American churches says22:54 this, to increasing millions of Americans, god, if we even believe in a supernatural identity, exists for the pleasure of humankind. He resides in the heavenly realm solely for our utility and benefit. Although we are23:06 too clever to voice it, we live by the notion that true power is accessed not by looking upward but by turning inward. What a what a true sentiment of the reality of 2023:17 first century Christianity especially in cool church. I'm not here to tell you how to have great kids. I'm not here to tell you how to have a great marriage. I I believe that Jesus can help you. I believe he can change23:28 you but but he helps you. He helps you not by changing them but by changing you. Yes. The problem with your kids is you. Fathers who want discipline and23:40 mothers who won't put their foot down and they'll cater and they'll coddle and they'll wonder why there's snowflakes in college. And Jesus comes and says, stop it. Don't spare the rod. Spank.23:51 Discipline. Say no. It's fun to say no. I'll prove it to you. On the count of 3, everybody say it. 1 2 3. No. Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it.24:04 Daughter will tell you, I just dropped her off at college. She's going to Liberty University. I said, you are not going to any college where they don't know what a woman is.24:21 You're going to any college where they're confused about genders, okay? That crazy is typical of the world detached from god. That's not in the gospel. That's not in the truth of god's word.24:34 How did I get on this? Oh, no. So, you say no. You're disciplined. That's what god oh yeah. There we go. Okay. So, god wants to change your marriage by changing you. Don't24:46 come and ask me to pray for your husband. I'll pray for you. Submit, respect, honor. Well, he's not a Christian. Submit, respect, honor,24:58 and win him without words. Come on now. Oh, the most ignored bible verse across the spectrum of the female species. Why25:10 women come to my church? I have no idea. But anyway, husbands, I'm not gonna come and pray for your wife. You love, you respect, you sacrifice. You lay down your life. You25:22 don't spend 6 hours in the golf course and 1 hour with her. You put your wife first at the pinnacle. She's the only woman in your life. You don't go flirt with the girl at the water cooler. That's a disavow of your25:33 vow. You say yes to her every single day. Amen. You say yes when she has no makeup on. When she's pulling her hair out because25:45 the kids are nasty and then you get behind her and you discipline the kids and you put your foot down. So anyway, how did I get here? The life improvement gospel.25:57 Jesus fixed my things. What happens when they're fixed? Which brings me to gospel number 3, false gospel number 3, the higher power gospel. And and this is from AA and26:09 I understand it. Don't come and tell me afterwards. Well, AA was founded by a Christian named Bill W. I know. I know it was founded on biblical principles just like the26:21 university system of this country but it has been co opted by secularists. People who deny god. It has been turned into a program that is an infinitum.26:33 For the day you die. It's now and I find this with recovery people because I meet you all the time and you get you move from addiction to alcohol and drugs to addiction to recovery. Right. I'll beat that. Now you're26:45 addicted to recovery. You're you're you're you're in perpetual recovery and then they tell you to define yourself by the by the addiction. That's right. I'm an alcoholic. I'm an alcoholic. I'm an alcoholic. Where26:57 do you get that messaging? Right. I'm just asking you. I understand that they tell you27:30 Start defining yourself by his definitions and not the world's. And I, by the way, all the recovery people, all the addicts, I got news for you. Your addiction is not the problem.27:42 You think it is, but it's not. It's not. And this is why. Because as soon as you get over the addiction and you only came for the addiction, where are you gonna go when the addiction's gone? I call it the bounce back27:54 effect. You come because you're addicted, you get a little bit of help, you're not addicted anymore, and you go back out to the world, and then you get addicted again. Then you bounce back to us. Yep. Because you're28:03 addicted to the recovery. That's not Christianity. Christianity goes deeper than your addiction. That's right. Amen. God does not say, I really don't like what you're doing. God28:15 says, I don't like who you are. I wanna change that. Right. Jeremiah 17 verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. The heart, your heart. The biggest28:27 liar in your life is in your chest. The 1 who deceives you most. Right here. Don't tell me the devil made you do it. You did it. And you did it because you28:39 wanted to do it, you stinking little sinner. You messed up more than you even know. Even the motivations for the good things that you do are messed up. Know.28:51 Even the motivations. Do you do you do you do the good things that you do in your life because you want good things to come back to you? My friend, you're a functional Hindu who calls yourself a Christian.29:02 It's all about the heart, my friend. The heart is deceivable of all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Which answers the eternal question. What's wrong with me? I don't know.29:15 Who can understand your heart? Only god can. The only 1 who can heal your heart and fix your heart and change your heart is the 1 who made your heart. And that's what Jesus came to do. Not to deal with your addiction.29:26 Your addiction is not the problem. Your heart is the problem. The addiction is the fruit that is tied to the root. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 12 33, either make the tree good and its fruit will be good or make the29:38 tree bad and its fruit will be bad. The tree is known by its fruit. Otherwise, god wants to do a deeper work in you than just getting you to stop drinking. That's right. We're getting you to stop watching porn or getting29:49 you to stop shopping endlessly or going into debt like crazy. He wants to fix what's in here. He wants to solve the true problem and the true problem is your heart and he30:01 takes your heart out and he puts his heart in. He says in Jeremiah, I will write my laws on their heart. So, I will cause them to obey me. That's the unobedience30:13 that comes from deep within and is not external for the sake of Christians appreciating me. I obey Christ because he's changed me and he loves me. False gospel number 4, the red letter30:25 gospel. The red letter gospel. All the college students pay attention. This is real popular with the young people because you're taught in college30:36 that there's 2 gods in the bible. There's the old testament god. He's mean and nasty. You don't wanna avoid him. And then Jesus came. He's got, like, the softer, cuddlier version. And so you don't really need to listen30:48 to the whole bible because after all, there's some offensive stuff in there. There's some stuff that you're cultured and appreciates. So don't worry about that. Just focus on the red letters. The red letters are what?30:59 The words of Jesus. If you've a bible like mine, the words of Jesus are in red. So they make a whole gospel about this. Famous preacher from the last century named Tony Campolo. He started a movement, the red31:11 letter movement. And really what they do is they even avoid a lot of the red letters. And they only appreciate the red letters that they like. So isn't it cute, Jesus tells us,31:23 to love our enemies? Oh, I like that 1. That's good. Let's accept that 1. 0, Jesus tells us to feed the hungry. Yes, you rich capitalistic pigs. Shame on you. Feed the hungry.31:36 Anyway, and they avoid, they avoid other passages that are also in red. Like, let's do a little test of the red letter gospel. You think the standards of the Old Testament god31:48 were high? Let's look at these red letters in Matthew 5 48. Jesus saying, you, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.32:00 Okay, red letter gospelites. How are you doing with that 1? Anybody got that 1 nailed? No. No 1. What is Jesus saying then? Are we supposed to avoid that passage?32:12 No. He's saying the only standard of righteousness that god accepts is perfection and you don't got it and no 1 does. And until you acknowledge that,32:24 you'll never turn to the 1 who purchased it for you. Yeah. I know. The red letter gospel. What an anathema. Very popular with the young people. But the old people,32:36 I got the next 1 for you. This is for you. All the old 50 plus, the patriotic gospel. The patriarch oh, god and country. My32:48 country tis of thee. No, it's not. There there's no covenantal agreement between god and America in this book. Do you hear me? God32:59 only made 1 covenant with 1 nation. They're the Israelites, so that's why they're still on the planet. Every nation that was around them is no more In the third 3500 BC air air era. Every33:11 nation that tried to eliminate them is no more. Every country that curses them is cursed. But with America, there is no covenantal agreement. Now some of you need to know your history to away33:23 from the patriotic gospel. Get a hold of history. In the last century, there was a cold war between this country and the USSR. The USSR was a33:35 secularist, atheistic government And they mandated atheistic education from age 0 to age 100. And they told everybody there is no God, the state is God.33:47 And so to differentiate that country, that movement from America, president Dwight D. Eisenhower in 19 52 decided to put under God in the33:58 pledge of allegiance of of of the United States. And then a few years later, he put in God, we trust on the monetary system, the money. Before the 19 fifties, those things were not part of34:10 our country and so, there was a whole generation that grew up thinking that god was pro America and that America is a Christian nation. There's no such thing, my34:22 friend, as a Christian nation. A lot of people will come and say, where's your flag? Where's the American flag in the church? There's only 1 flag in our church. It's got the name Jesus on it. It's over there in the34:32 parking lot. I mean, in the in the grassy area because there's only 1 flag worth flying for the people of faith, and it's the name Jesus by which we are saved. America is not God's country. I34:44 understand. It's been influenced by Christians. Thank God for that. A lot of the freedoms are because of our Christian heritage and the people who had Christian faith who built this country. Hundred percent agree with34:53 it. But America is losing all of that, forsaking all of that, running away from it. And they will go the way of all the empires before them into oblivion or irrelevancy but there's 1 nation35:05 that will stand the test of time and it's not a white nation or a black nation and it's not an American nation or a North American nation. It's the nation of people who are bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.35:16 It's the people who follow him and serve him and believe in him. So our message is not let's take America for god. We're not interested in that. We're here to rescue Americans35:30 in Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel is who America is. Come out from among them and be different. I understand the35:42 church the country you were raised with is gone. It's gone. It's not coming back. It never will. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is still saving men and women across the world.35:54 And your hope is not in the reclaiming of this land but in the beulah land of heaven that is yet to come. That's where your focus must be. So those are the false36:06 gospels. Let's talk about the real gospel. Are you ready? 5 points and then we're done. Number 1, understanding the gospel. Christ satisfied the demands of the law. He satisfied the demands of the36:18 law. Law places demands on us. Do this. We don't do it. We don't fulfill the law. We can't. None of us can. None of us is perfect. Christ was the only 1 who was perfect.36:30 He was the only good person by the way. He says in Matthew 5 17, Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I've not come to abolish them. I've come to what? Fulfill means I came to live the law36:41 perfectly and he did. He never sinned. He asked the pharisees, which where have I sinned? Show me. When they brought him before Pilate in the Sanhedrin right before his crucifixion, no 1 could provide cooperating36:52 evidence that he had broken the law. He was a perfect man. He fulfilled the law and the prophets. And the Bible, by the way, before Christ is pointing to Christ through the law and the prophets.37:04 You've gotta read the Bible for what it's about. The Bible's not about you. The Bible's not about making you great. The Bible's about Jesus. Amen. Who is the great 1 who humbled himself and made37:16 himself nothing so that you could become great in him. Yeah. That's the message of the gospel. That's the message of the Bible. So what we do is we life improvement gospel with this. We say, oh Joseph, Joseph had37:27 dreams and his parents and family hated him but he held on to his dreams and 1 day god made his dreams come true. So, we do the life improvement gospel. So, I have37:39 dreams and I know not everybody likes my dreams but I believe if I just hold on to my dreams, god will make my dreams come true. That is the exact wrong way to read the story37:51 of Joseph. The story of Joseph is this. He was the beloved son of his father. He was elevated by his father to watch over his brothers. When he brought his father, there's a bad38:03 report of what his brother's doing. The brothers hated him and rejected him. And the brothers cast him into a pit and sold him into slavery and wanted to kill him. And he was thrown into a pit then into a prison then38:14 into the bits pits of that prison. And in 1 day, God took Joseph from the prison pit to the palace and put him at the right hand of the most powerful man in the world, pharaoh. And Joseph wrote38:26 letters and sent grain throughout the world and provided food for the nations. That is not your story. That is Jesus' story. Amen. Who is the precious son38:37 of the father, who is brought his father a bad report of what his brothers were doing and when he brought the report of what they were doing was evil, they hated him and they cast him into a pit of death But in 1 day,38:47 Jesus raised him from that pit of death and put him at the right hand side of God the father. And Jesus Christ now is providing bread for the nations through the word of truth. Yes. That's how you read the Bible, my38:57 friend. The Bible is not about you. The Bible is about Jesus, and he fulfilled every prophecy and he fulfilled every law for you. And he's the only 1 who did it. He's the only 1 who was good.Show more
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