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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.
156K followers
0:00 We are in a message series called Binge worthy. And we have been talking about culture. We've been talking about movies, and we've been talking about how culture relates to scripture. Now, some people have a hard time0:11 with this, and some some old school Christians would because they say, you know, culture is culture. Just leave culture and let it be. And then let's just talk about the Bible. We we are part of culture. Okay? Christians0:22 are part of culture. Amen? Like, we're here. We can't avoid it. And Jesus said we're the salt of the earth. We can't be salt if we stay in the shaker.0:34 Amen, somebody. We're only effective if we let God shake us out onto onto the culture. So we've gotta know what culture is about. What does culture emulate? What does culture worship? What does culture0:45 love? What does culture reveal about us? And then we turn to scripture. So first Timothy chapter 1, if you got a bible, go to first Timothy chapter 1 because scripture speaks0:57 to us. So culture is part of us. Scripture speaks to us. We resonate with culture because we're also human. We're also wrestling with the flesh, the ugly side of us, some1:09 people would say. But we need scripture and that is important because it is God's word to us and we are made in the image of God. So this is why we do things like binge worthy and we talk about movies or shows and the1:21 bible is because both resonate with us. And while culture might reflect us, Jesus through his word can change us. Amen somebody. And so I wanna talk to you. It's gonna feel a1:33 little bit like Father's Day today. It's gonna be a little bit of a Father's Day message, but I don't want to feel like all the women now can just kinda check out or elbow their husbands the entire time.1:45 We're gonna speak to everybody. And here's the title. The reason why I say this is because the title is right there in your notes. Cobra Kai and the faith my father gave me. When I say father, and ladies, you can feel1:56 free to do this. You can cross out father and put mother. I'm not just talking to fathers, but I do believe that fathers are essential in our culture.2:08 They're essential to children. They're essential to the family. We live in an age where fathers are derided. We live in an age where men are derided. When the2:20 male gender, and there is only 1 male gender. Amen. Is being vilified and blamed for everything and add whiteness to it, and there you go. You basically2:32 got Hitler reincarnated. I mean, this is where our culture has has crazy has has has ridiculously led us to hate a certain person based on the color of their skin or their2:44 gender. And and we've got to remember that culture's always wrestling with the problems of the past without the author of2:55 life. That's really what culture is doing. And so while culture can seem crazy at times, we go to scripture because we know that the truth is there. What culture doesn't have, God has. And he3:07 said in his word that we shall know the truth and the truth will what? Set us So we're gonna go to the scriptures about the importance of fatherhood and motherhood. But really what3:19 I'm talking about is spiritual mentorship. Can I get everybody to say mentorship on the count of 3? 1, 2, 3. Mentorship. Mentorship. That's really what this message is about. Spiritual mentorship. Cobra3:31 Kai. Cobra Kai. Anybody a fan of the Karate Kid movies, video people, other locations here, Karate Kid. I was raised on a steady3:42 diet of Daniel san and Mr. Miyagi. Wax on. Wax off. Paint the fence. Paint the house. Come3:54 on, right? I love those movies. And I was raised on them, and I just got inspired. I was like, man, what I should really do for the church is just a little demonstration to show you.4:06 I mean, that's come on. Of course, what you don't know is how much I had to saw through the board before service to get that4:18 right. Didn't know how that was gonna go. Pray for my hand. Amen. Karate kid was a cultural phenomenon. Spoke to people like me. I was born in the seventies, but I was raised in the4:30 eighties. And and and in the 19 eighties, there were 2 evil empires for 10 year old boys. There were 2 evil empires in the 19 eighties for 10 year old boys. The Soviet Union and Cobra4:42 Kai. Cobra Kai was the evil empire of 19 eighties film and television. And it was the bully4:53 empire. Right? Daniel LaRusso raised by a single mom, New Jersey. They go across the country. She relocates her and her son to LA and and he gets into school. But then before you know it, he's getting beat up by this5:05 gang of kids led by Johnny Lawrence. Johnny Lawrence who everybody hated in the 19 eighties. He was the pretty boy. He had the coif5:17 of blonde hair covering his forehead, the leather jacket, the cool motorbike, car, girlfriend. He had the looks, and he was the top karate champion in5:29 the All Valley region of LA in the 1980s. And Johnny Lawrence just picks a fight over and over again with Daniel Larusso. It's not much of a fight. Daniel Larusso is getting his butt kicked5:41 every single time he turns around. Some of it Daniel Larusso brought on himself. But Johnny Lawrence was the original 19 eighties bad boy and pretty boy wrapped into 1. And everything that we5:52 hate about him from the movies and well, the first movie, Karate Kid, we we realized was a facade really through this new show that they they have they started to produce called Cobra Kai,6:05 which is on Netflix. Started on YouTube, now it's on Netflix. And it's a series where it doesn't really focus on Daniel LaRusso. It focuses on Johnny Lawrence. In fact, first scene is with6:16 Johnny Lawrence waking up now in today's world. And he is a shadow of his former self. Where he was from the rich side of town, he is now broke.6:29 Where he looked like he had everything going for him, he has nothing going for him. He's working a dead end job. He's a deadbeat dad. He's divorced. He's an alcoholic. He's drinking6:40 Coors banquet for breakfast. He's cooking Spam in the morning, watching 19 eighties movies, listening to 19 eighties music, and driving the epitome of the 19 eighties cool car, a red6:52 Pontiac Firebird. I mean, is living in the past. And so that brings me to the first clip. Watch this.7:05 So that's the opening scene of the show if you haven't watched it yet. And really what you see is that the script has completely flipped from the 19 eighties. Whereas Daniel was the poor kid with the broken home and7:15 living in, you know, the lower class apartments, he's now a owner of multiple automobile stores across the All Valley and a wild success. And and7:27 Johnny Lawrence is now what Daniel LaRusso was. And that's where the story begins. And we find some amazing things out about fatherlessness in this show. Because what we realize is7:39 that the Johnny Lawrence that we saw in the 19 eighties was actually just a facade. It was just a facade. Really, the backstory that they present in the show is that he was7:50 also fatherless. His father either left or died. We don't know for sure from the show, his biological father. And his mother, this poor single mom, decides to marry a rich upper class erudite in8:02 LA who affords him the luxuries of high class living but does not give him the love of a biological or at least emotionally loving father.8:14 And he's only rich because his mother married up. And he's much older than his mother and everything. And so the issues of his home life, not having a healthy relationship with his8:26 father, probably are what led him to join Cobra Kai in the first place led by the most evil man for 10 year olds in the 19 eighties, John Kreese. John Kreese would have been like, you know,8:38 the Stalin of the 19 eighties. And you could say that the reason why John Kreese had such an impact on Johnny Lawrence was because Johnny Lawrence didn't have a real close relationship with any father figure at home. And8:47 what we really see is this, is everyone everyone needs someone older than them to believe in them. Everyone needs a mentor. Really, we do. And8:59 if we don't get it from home, we can get it from somewhere else. But but listen, I'm trying to tell you is that someone needs to believe in me. No. Someone needs to believe in you. Someone needs to come alongside of us9:10 and put our arm around us as a father or mother figure. Amen? And and say, I believe in you. You've got what it takes because the world is hard. Life is difficult. Challenges come. Bullies show up.9:22 And what are we gonna do when they do? We need someone who will give us some mentorship, some guidance in life. And I already referenced it, but what we've got a real problem within our country, I'm telling you right9:33 now, it is fatherlessness. It is fatherlessness. More children are born without their biological fathers than are born with them now in this country. And all the research shows that when you don't9:45 have a biological father or a father figure at home, could be adoptive you you're more likely to do drugs, more likely to end up in prison, more likely to live in poverty for the rest of your life. Dropout rates are9:55 astronomically high for fatherless kids. It's unbelievable what's what what god proves in his word time and time again that when fathers and children are not connected in heart, there's a curse that comes upon the10:07 land. That's the last chapter of the old testament. Malachi chapter 4. And fatherlessness is a curse on our country and our culture. And there is an answer for John Eldridge, he talks about this in his10:18 book, The Wild at Heart book, which I highly recommend. But he says the following, quote, We live in a time when most men are essentially fatherless. They have no man taking them through the many10:30 adventures, trials, battles, and experiences they need to shape a masculine heart within them. They find themselves on their own trying to figure life out. Their fears, their anger, their boredom, and their10:41 addictions, many of these come out of a fatherless place within them, a fundamental uncertainty in the core of their being. A guy we're going to talk about later, his name is Donald Miller. He grew up without a father.10:53 And his mother paraded him a bunch of deadbeat boyfriends his entire young adult life. And he writes many books about this, about11:05 fatherlessness and what it did to his own life. And he said that without fathers at home, women tend to become victimized and men tend to become oppressors. And the reason why is because what does the scripture show us11:16 but a father who loves us in God. And not just loves us, but you've got to get these 2 thoughts together. A father with all the power in the11:28 universe. Right? All the power and strength in the universe that if he wanted to, he could squash us like a bug without even trying. But at the same time, a father with all that11:40 power and limitless compassion and love for us. And when you have a father like that, when you have a person like that in your life, it makes all the difference. Someone with all the11:52 power in life that you need to give you strength and confidence and all the love and compassion that you could desire to give you that sense of belonging. We need this. We were dying for12:04 this. Well, that brings me to first Timothy. First Timothy chapter 1. Let's let's stand together because we're read this together at all of our locations. First Timothy chapter 1, just the first couple of verses and then12:15 some middle verses here in the chapter. Paul is writing. Paul the apostle is writing this to a guy named Timothy. That's the name of the book. And he's become a spiritual father to a fatherless kid named Timothy, who12:27 is also the pastor of a church in the city of Ephesus in the first century. Listen to what he says in the first verse. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the command of God, our savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope,12:39 To Timothy and then the next 3 words my true child. To Timothy, my true child in the faith. Grace, mercy, peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Skip all the way down because12:51 we're going get to the heart here of this passage, the opening of the letter. Verse 12, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.13:03 Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love13:15 that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received13:27 mercy. Interestingly enough 1 of the key phrases of Cobra Kai is no mercy. I received mercy. And he says, for this reason, that in me as the foremost of13:39 sinners, the chief of sinners, he says this, that Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be13:51 glory and honor forever and ever. Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Let me put it14:03 another way. That you might fight the good fight, holding faith and a good conscience. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Father, thank you14:15 that we have absolute access to your presence through Jesus Christ, our Lord, your son. Speak. May my words be what you want them to be.14:27 May our ears hear and may our hearts receive truth that transforms us and roots us in your everlasting love. Help us to see Jesus, him and him only. In14:39 his mighty name we pray. And everybody said, Amen. Amen. Have a seat at all of our locations. Fatherlessness. There was a young man, pastor of a first century church in Ephesus. 2000 years ago, pastoring a14:51 church in a very large city, probably the third largest city in the Roman Empire, ephesus. You can go there today. It's a relic of what it once was. But it was a thriving metropolis, probably about 250000 people15:03 in population. That would be millions today. And and a young inexperienced guy named Timothy was the pastor of the first15:14 church of Ephesus. First church of Ephesus. He's young. He's got a believing mother and grandmother, but scripture makes clear that he doesn't have a believing father.15:27 And the scripture says his father was a Greek. That's another way of saying he was an unbeliever. And so while he's got this great Christian heritage from his mother side, his maternal side, his paternal side15:38 probably completely disconnected from Christian faith. Probably wanted nothing to do with Timothy's chosen profession. Like you're not a if you're not a15:50 believer, you're not really interested in your son who's leading a church that that that is part of this upstart movement started by this unknown Galilean prophet named Jesus who they crucified. Like like, you you16:02 gotta see this in a modern context, how hard it is for young people when their father doesn't believe. But in the first century when Christianity in the Asian world was a minority group, like a a a a ridiculed16:14 group, a hated group, despised group. And Timothy is a pastor of a thriving church with a father who doesn't believe. And you know what he needed? He needed someone to put his arm around him and say, you got this,16:25 Timothy. Because if you read first Timothy and second Timothy, I mean this guy this guy was so insecure. This guy was so needy for affirmation. The bible has not 1 but 2 letters16:37 written to him from the apostle Paul. And then we and if you read first and second Timothy, you can kind of glean insights into what was going on in Timothy's heart. First we learned that Timothy was tremendously16:48 insecure. Young people typically are. They're insecure by nature because they're young. They don't know who they are. And Paul writes to him, Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of what? Fear. In other words,16:59 timidity. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power, sound mind. What we also find out about Timothy is that he's got some stomach issues. I don't know if he's whatever, some disease that17:11 we would now be able to diagnose. But he's got stomach issues that he can't get over. And so Paul tells him, don't just drink water. Have a little wine to settle your stomach. And all the sipping saints said, Amen. You17:23 know what I'm talking about? But anyway, he's got some I don't know how I got off there already. He's got some health problems. And I think about how many young people today growing up with health problems because of bad17:35 diet or bad hereditary issues or whatever. And so he's got health problems. He's got insecurity problems. He's got this this group of people in the church that are belittling him17:47 as well. Because Paul tells him, don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, Timothy. So I wonder how many times he showed up to church there was some old church goer or some old church man saying, you're the17:58 pastor? Look at you. You you could barely shave. You're not gonna tell me anything. So he's got these these guys looking down on him, then and then, Hey. He's a young man. Timothy was tempted just like every other young18:08 man. That's why Paul will write to him in in second Timothy. He'll say, flee the youthful desires of lust, Timothy. Don't have anything to do with that stuff. Get out of that stuff. That's where that's what God saved you18:18 from. So just like every other young person on the planet, Timothy wrestled with the sin nature. And so Paul's writing these letters to Timothy to say, look, I got your back. And look at the first 2 verses again. We'll18:30 put it up on the screen. 1 Timothy 1. He says, to Timothy, my what? My true child in the faith. How awesome that must have been for Timothy. You're18:41 struggling. People look down on you. People are disbelieving in you. On top of it all you got your own internal insecurities. You got this stomach issue that won't go away. He's probably prayed time and time and time18:52 again. No healing for the issue. And to have Paul the apostle of all people, someone who met the Lord Jesus Christ personally, someone who had been to heaven personally, someone who wrote 1 third19:04 of the New Testament, this giant of the faith right up there with Moses and Elijah to have him write you a letter and say, hey Timothy, you are my true19:15 child. How powerful that must have been. You know what it teaches us? I want you to write this down, first thing in your notes. We need a gospel sensei, keeping with the Cobra Kai19:27 theme. Because that's what this show is all about. It's about Johnny Lawrence finding himself becoming a sensei or a mentor in the Cobra Kai method. And19:39 Daniel LaRusso in reaction becomes a sensei in the mister Miyagi method. That's really what the show unpacks for 4 seasons. What young people and I think about this and I want you to hear19:50 me. If you're a young person, listen to me. And young is a relative term. So you need a sensei. You need someone who will mentor you and teach20:02 you. And older people, again old is a relative term, you need to be 1. Can I get a good amen from all the old people? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You20:15 gotta reach out to these people. And and I think that this is 1 of the things that is missing sorely in the American church. In the American church, we're really good20:27 at having buildings and gatherings on Sunday. Like that's happening in almost every city in this country right now. We're really good at doing music. We're really good at preaching. We're really good at20:38 gathering on the weekend. But we're really bad at mentoring. What we are actually doing is we're becoming victims of what our culture is doing,20:50 dividing and conquering. You ever notice this about our culture right now? It's just constant division. White versus what? Black. Male versus21:02 female. And young versus old. Stupid millennials. Okay, boomer. Right? Right? That's that's what's happening right now. And I'm21:14 telling you, this is the work of the devil because he is the god of division. He divided the angels in heaven. He's bringing division to our our ethnicities. He's bringing division to our genders.21:26 He's bringing division to our aged and young. And he's doing that because he knows that if he can divide us, he can conquer us. But the answer to all this division is to reject the narrative that the21:38 news organizations wanna put on us and to receive the uniting power of the Holy Spirit and tell each other, I don't care your skin color. I don't care your gender. I don't care where you come from. If you are in Christ,21:49 you are my brother or sister in Jesus name. We're together. We're together. We're gonna come together. We're gonna beat the devil back because he hates when we come together and God loves when we come together. But we22:01 need a gospel sensei. And I think about my own life, the mentors that I had in my life, men who believed in me. Pastor James Wyke, who was the first guy to let me preach22:13 at the age of 19. Like, years old. You don't let 19 year old preach, 19 year old 19 year olds preach. But he did. And he gave me a chance to cut my teeth. I mean, was only 12 people in the audience, but22:24 nonetheless, gave me a chance to step up and try. And then I think about in college I had a pastor, his name was pastor Pete Privatera. Pastor Pete Pastor Priveteri used to call him22:36 Pasta Primavera. Amen. I love that guy. And and he let me lead worship, and he let me, you know, take charge of things, and he believed in me. And then he would take me while I was in college, would take me to diners,22:48 and he would treat me to lunch. I mean, you're a poor college kid, man, somebody treating you to lunch is like heaven. Right? You win a lottery. I remember 1 time at that diner in Philadelphia, and he gave me a book. It22:59 was called The Purpose Driven Church written by Rick Warren. And that book changed my life. And think about how many things can happen in your life when you have someone who believes in you. Know, Isaac Newton famously23:11 said the following. He said, if I have seen further than others, it's by standing on the shoulders of giants. And so often, older generations23:23 are following the dictates of this culture and the god of this world by despising younger generations. Oh, don't like their music. I don't like how they dress. I don't like all the way they23:35 do. Okay. Yeah. Let's back the truck up and talk about how your parents talked about you. Because they didn't like how you dressed either, did they? They didn't like those sock hops that you used to go to. Come on.23:47 They thought Elvis was the devil incarnate. Come on. Right? They complained about your music while you're complaining about their music. Look, this younger generation, I'm telling you, I've23:59 felt this more now in the last 5 years and especially after COVID than ever before in my life. Young people in our culture are dying of thirst for someone who's24:11 older and been there and done that who will believe in them. Help me. I need help. I need to know how to be a father. I need to know to be a mother. I need to know how to raise kids. I need to know how to find the right24:22 spouse. I mean, are dying for this. And if the church just reflects the culture and that mantra and that narrative of division and hate the younger because they're stupid and uninformed, if we just follow the dictates of24:34 this culture we will lose that generation to the God of this world. I want us to rise up and reject the narrative the devil's given us and believe that God is for us and he's gonna bring us together to change the world24:45 in Jesus' mighty name. All that to sum up. Write this down if you're taking notes at all locations. Every Christian should have a Paul and a Timothy in their24:57 life. Think about this relationship, Paul and Timothy here. But you know, Timothy would grow up. And in second Timothy 2 2, Paul says, now what I've taught you, you teach other young men in your church.25:09 Isn't cool? This is how the church carries on, ladies and gentlemen. This is how we continue on. Okay? Paul, who's your let me ask this question. Who25:21 is your Paul? And if you don't have 1, get 1. Let me ask this question. Who is your Timothy? Who have you decided to take under your wing, take under your arm, say, look, I believe in you?25:34 I love when our location pastors preach. I love it because I've invested in these men in classes, in training, to teach them to do that. It is 1 of the passions of my life. And I want them to do it with you25:45 guys. And you say, well, how do I get involved in Small group. Small group at our other locations down here in Florida. We do the men's night and women's night so far because we're a small church right now. But it'll25:56 grow. What are we doing? We're investing in relationships. Because you can only grow so much by sitting here and staring at me for 45 minutes. And some26:08 of are like, 45 minutes? What pastor, what preacher are you talking about? Okay, 55 minutes. Alright, nonetheless, you can only grow so far that way. At some point, have to stop facing front and facing26:20 each other and get to know each other and say, who are you? You know, I think about I think about this. The the best books that I've ever read, the best shows I've ever watched, the best26:31 restaurants I've ever eaten at were all recommended to me by a trusted person, trusted friend. What are you missing out on because you are trying to do Christianity26:43 isolated? You can't do it. You can't do it. It'll change you. The potential for new relationships is a potential to catapult your life forward. Okay. I gotta get to the message or we're never gonna get done. Let's26:55 talk about faithful fathers or faithful mentors or faithful mothers, whatever you wanna call. You can scratch out and put whatever you want there. A faithful father, number 1, write this down, is transformed by grace. So27:04 what kind of mentor should I look for or what kind of mentor should I be? Answer, transformed by grace. Say that with me on the count of 3. 1, 3, transformed by grace. And that's exactly what27:16 Paul says. Look what he says in verse 12. He says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful. Judged me faithful. Interesting phrase to say27:28 judged me faithful. What is Paul saying? Is he saying, I I checked off all the spiritual boxes, and and God Jesus saw that I was worthy. And so he judged me faithful, and he made me an apostle. No. No.27:40 Because look what he says in the next line. Appointing me to his service, though formally I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. What it means to be judged faithful here is that God27:51 decided to make Paul faithful, to give Paul the power and the potential to transform the world by his grace. That's why he says, I thank28:03 him who gave me strength. Though formerly I was this, God made me that. And you gotta understand something about your life because Paul is exhibit a that God can take28:15 anyone, absolutely anyone and transform them into a potent tool in the hand of God to transform the world. This guy hated28:26 Christianity. Jesus said I'm gonna make you a proponent of Christianity. This guy wanted Christians dead. He said I'm gonna make you turn Christians alive. That's what Paul is. That's who he is. Formerly. He was formerly28:38 that. And now he's ready to serve the world and the purposes of God. The words are so potent in this text. Blasphemer, that's somebody with abusive speech.28:49 Persecutor, that's somebody who's violent. He he the scripture says he laid violent hands on the body of Christ before he was Christian. And then he says, incident opponent, the word is hippotes in Greek. It29:01 means an arrogant. We get hubris from it. It means an arrogant attitude. How many know you guy you got a guy who's a abusive talker and a violent man and an arrogant29:13 man? You don't want that guy for your dad. Right? Any man that lays a hand on his wife is anathema. And and any man who29:24 abusively hits his children I'm I believe in spanking, but there's a line where you're not spanking anymore. You're just taking out your rage on your kid. I mean, don't call yourself a Christian.29:37 That's abusive. And and this is who Paul was. He says that's who I was. Back to Cobra Kai, that's who Johnny Lawrence was. Why? Because he was trained by John Kreese.29:48 And the show shows this, that just to kind of stick it to Daniel LaRusso, he resurrects Cobra Kai. And the mantra of Cobra Kai, 3 word mantra. Kenny's got it on his shirt over30:00 here. Strike first. Strike hard. What's the last line? No mercy. No mercy. Like, doesn't get any less Christian than that, does it? Like, Jesus was like, hey. When they strike you in30:12 the cheek, strike first. No. No. He's like, you know. Right? And so he starts this dojo, Cobra Kai, up again to train young kids to do what ruined his life.30:24 Why? Because when you're not tethered to something good, you'll tether yourself to anything, even the tyranny of your past.30:36 That's where he is. So ironically, as he's training kids in Cobra Kai, Daniel LaRusso is training kids in Miyagi, Mr. Miyagi's mantras. And 1 of the30:48 kids that Daniel LaRusso takes under his wing is the biological son of Johnny Lawrence. This creates great tension and they finally meet up in Home Depot after Johnny31:00 Lawrence's student beat Daniel LaRusso's student students Johnny Lawrence's biological father in the championship match. Watch this.31:14 So Johnny Lawrence is confronted more and more with the reality of what poison he has ingested with and through Cobra Kai, and he's lost his son and his son in the process. And and it's a31:25 testimony to the reality that he knows he needs to change. Look, if you wanna be used by God to change people, to be a mentor, you need to change. But here's the bad31:37 news, you can't change. You can't change. And this is the truth of every human life. We know it every single January and February because every31:49 January first, we try to change and every February, we're back to who we were. You can't change who you are. Only God can change you. And that's what Paul the Apostle32:00 tells Timothy. I was an abusive, hateful, violent killer. Verse 13 though. But I received32:12 what? Mercy. Because I had acted ignorantly. And the grace somebody say grace. Grace. The grace of the Lord. Look at that next word. Everybody say Overflowed. The32:24 word is like a spring just gushing up plenty of water. The the the grace of the Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. See here's the32:35 power of the grace of God. I said this a couple weeks ago. Hear it again. The grace of God is not just God's ability to forgive you of your sins. The grace of God is32:46 God's favor over you to produce in you a different character, a different mindset, a different heart, a different life. The grace is God's32:58 power to change you. And Paul says the grace overflowed in my life and I'm a new person because of Jesus Christ. Is that true for you?33:10 Amen. Like that's who I am. I'm not up here because I'm a good person. I'm up here because of the grace of almighty god. And it's good news for anybody who feels like they aren't worthy to be used by god because if Paul33:21 could change if god could change Paul, god can change you. Because I'm pretty sure I could ask about all your unspiritual resumes before Jesus in this house, and I bet none of you would say that in your former life33:33 you used to kill Christians. But Paul did. Here's what I want you to write down. Anyone can be used for God because anyone can be changed by God. And if you wanna33:45 be a gospel mentor, you wanna be a gospel sensate, that's all it requires. Just let God change your life. You say, how do I do that? Surrender. Give up. Stop trying to be a good person or a religious person33:57 or an evil person and give your life. Surrender your life to Christ. Number 2, write this down. Faithful fathers refuse to be fake.34:09 This is perhaps the most important point of the message. Wanna be a gospel mentor? Don't be fake. Don't be a hypocrite. Can we understand what hypocrisy34:20 is? Hypocrisy is saying 1 thing and doing another. That's what hypocrisy is. And a lot of people like to say, the church is full of hypocrites. And then I used to say, that's true and I wouldn't mind 1 more.34:32 Like, come and join us. We're all hypocrites. Well, I changed that because a hypocrite is someone who says acts in a way that they don't believe. That's what a hypocrite is. They're an34:44 actor. But Christians, we believe that God had to forgive us. We had to and and by the way, we still believe that God has to forgive us. Amen, somebody.34:56 Anybody have a perfect record over the last, let's say, 1 week? Anybody? Perfect record? Didn't send it all this last week? Anybody? No 1? Shocking. How about 48 hours? Anybody have35:08 a good last 48 hours? 48 hours? How many of you are sending right now? You're like, yeah, got nothing on this. I can't even forget it. Just forget it. Right? That's who we are.35:21 And it's not hypocrisy to say, I'm a sinner who still needs grace. It's hypocrisy to say, I've arrived and I'm a good person. That's hypocrisy because you're not.35:33 How do I know? Because Paul wasn't. Look at verse 15. Probably 2 of my favorite verses in all the corpus of Paul Pauline theology. Here's what he says. Here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ35:44 Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. I got it in the NIV because I like the way it says it here. I'm the worst sinner. By the way, if you got your paper notes out, just circle am. Circle the35:56 word am. I am the worst. He didn't say I was, does he? I am the worst. And then he goes on, but I for this reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited36:07 patience. I am the worst. This is Paul chosen by God to bring the gospel to the nations, to bring the gospel to you through the writings in the Bible. And he's36:19 saying to us, I'm the worst. What is that about? You know what it's about? It's about what true Christian spirituality is. Let me unpack something for you because I don't know everybody here and36:31 I don't know everybody watching by video. But can I tell you that true Christian spirituality is not thinking you're getting better, it's understanding that you're getting worse and Christ is still enough? There's a36:42 story in John chapter 8. There's a story in John chapter 8. They bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus. You know the story? And they say, Moses' law says kill her. What do you say? And they're36:54 trying to trap Jesus because the law of the land didn't allow Jews to to practice capital punishment. So if he said kill her, he would have broken Roman law. They would have gotten him killed. If he says, don't kill her,37:04 he would have broken the Mosaic law, and he would have gotten ostracized by the Jews. So he says, let him who is out sin cast the first stone. 1 of the greatest lines in all the Bible. But pay attention to the next line37:14 because it says this, beginning with the oldest. They all left 1 by 1. And I always ask, why did the oldest leave first? Do you know why the oldest left first? Do you know why?37:26 Because he had more sin in his life. Why? Because he had just lived longer. He had just lived longer. You ever get to that point where you're like, when am I ever gonna stop? Anybody ever get to37:38 that point? If you haven't gotten to that point, it's because you're 12 years old. That's why. Just live exactly 1 more year, you'll realize, oh my gosh. There's things that I just can't change. I yeah. That's right. We37:48 are sinners in need of God's saving grace to transform us and change us. And growing in Christ, while we may transform in character, and we do, we do, we grow in an ever greater awareness38:00 of how much of us needs to change. See, it's not just not killing my neighbor, it's also not cursing my38:12 neighbor, and it's also not hating my neighbor and it's also not just ignoring my neighbor and it's actually38:23 caring about my neighbor and not just caring but loving my neighbor. And not just loving my neighbor, but what? Loving him as38:35 myself. Quick question. How many of us did that this week? How many? No 1. Man, I am here on a purpose. Hallelujah. It's hard, and it's not in us because we38:46 are fleshly and sinful. We need the grace of God to empower us. And Johnny Lawrence needs to make this transformation. Now he does it in a secular way, and for the sake of the story and the message that I'm preaching,Show more
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Guest Message - Pastor Geyser Pastor Tim Hatch
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