The Conversation of the Weird - Part Three

That last statement of that song. We are all forms of the very things that we love could not be more true. That is so true. John Calvin said the heart is an idol factory. And that's true. You are you will worship something. Everyone in this room is religious. Everyone in the world is religious. You have have something you're seeking after to give you life and satisfaction. It can be golf, it can be a career. It doesn't matter. It can be all kinds of whatever it is. But you start to become that. And the thing that Tim was saying that I couldn't agree with more is you were created by God to design on putting Him in that place and to enjoy other stuff, good stuff. Nothing wrong with golf. I mean, maybe I don't know way I play, I don't know. But there is a place of satisfaction and joy in that. But not worship. You're created by God to worship him. All of life, therefore, is theological. It's totally theological. I know I'm a theology freak. I like theology. I actually read I'm kind of a collection of systematic theologies. I know I'm a geek, but I do. I like reading about theology and how I can better understand God. But that's because ultimately, not just so I can get all my dotted I's and cross T's and you'll hear about that later on. It's really not that. It's really because ultimately what I want is I want to know God better. And if I know God better, the real God, the Almighty God, if I know Him, that will change me from the inside out and it will satisfy me. We're going to start a series, not today, but next week. And then it's going to be just a two weeker with something that you have to have God on the right place in your life. Not only a good view of Him, but you put Him in the throne of your life. A good view, a proper theology, and as they say, orthodoxy and orthopraxy you have to live that in order to have any understanding of this. And this is a topic that's been a burner with me for about a year. And I'm just going to on our 10th anniversary, I'm just going to take a break from John instead of trying to take a passage of John and twist it to make it say what I want to say like I normally do every other week. This week I'm just going to take a break and we're going to talk about something that's been a burner of mine for, like I say, about a year. And it's the whole concept of generosity. And you think that you think all great. He's going to talk about money. Darn right I'm going to talk about money. That's part of it. But I'm talking more of are you living a life that has your hands open? Are you living a life where you're a generous person with your time, your talent, your treasure, your heart? I mean, do you give your heart to people? Are you a closed person? And God designed you to be a generous person. God is a generous God and designed you to be a generous person. And that is the way you'll receive the most satisfaction. And so I got this kick on this thing right now and I got a couple of weeks I want to preach on. It ending in our 10th anniversary. And on our 10th anniversary, we're going to have a huge party. We're going to have one service from 09:00 to 10:00. Then we are going to party from nine, from ten to 1130. An hour and a half. We're going to deck out the gym. There'll be trapshooting for the guys. Make that work. I don't know what we're going to have a lot of fun things, though. It's gonna be a big event in the gym for an hour and a half, just partying and celebrating ten years. Ten years what God has done in our midst. And so we're excited to do that this week, though. This week we are back in John for one more week and then we're going to take that two week break. And I just want to give you a little heads up on that is coming now. I came to know Jesus Christ as my savior, as my though I became a Christ follower, whatever you want to, however you want to call it in 1983, which many of you weren't even born then. So I know that haha, that funny. Yeah. But just, just the the old people in the room are laughing. The rooms are like, what's funny about that? It's like, yeah, I have a cough here. Excuse me. And in 1983, my favorite radio station right now is Jack. I'll admit it, there's a lot of 80s stuff that they play, a lot of 70s stuff. I grew up and I like to bang my head. You guys heard me play Pat Travers in here. Nobody recognized Pat Travers except for Scott Scott upstairs. He knows everything about music. But you got your Pat Travers you got your stones you got your Alice Cooper you got your AC DC you got your lead Zeppelin I mean, I like to bang my head. All right? That was my stuff. And so 1983, I made a commitment to Jesus Christ and some songs, like by Alice Cooper, for instance, one of them was having a hell of a time Wish You Were Here. And it's about a person in hell who's wishing someone else were there. It's not really the nicest thing to want on other people. And so I thought maybe I should just maybe not be banging my head all the time on this stuff. Maybe I should integrate some other more positive influences. And so I thought, is there any music that's of a Christian nature and that's when contemporary Christian music was just starting. I mean, a song like we just sang here oh, my gosh. That was not even somebody handed me it was either an album or those black things that have grooves on them. They handed me one of those. It was by a group called the Second Chapter of Acts. And anybody? Second chapter of Acts. Yeah. And nothing against it's. Two women and a guy who sings kind of like a woman and an acoustic guitar. And that's it. Okay. That's it. Yeah. They're not here, I hope, or listening to this, but it ain't Led Zeppelin. Let's just put it that way. Okay. It's not zeppelin. It's not stones. I'm struggling here. This is what I got. What was the other one? The guy ain't Buddha on the throne. Which song is that? Who's that by? Imperials. Yeah. So that's kind of where the music was at in the it's like, oh, man, this is tough. This is tough. Around that time, somebody I got a claim to fame my claim to fame is that my folks used to own an avocado green refrigerator and avocado green oven that were both bought at Zimmerman Appliance. So, you know, there's a few people know that because I'm from Hipping, Minnesota. Thank you. I'm from Hipping, Minnesota. Hipping, Minnesota. Zimmerman Appliance. They had a son by the name of Robert Zimmerman. Anyone? Bobby Dylan. Right. And Dylan went through a phase, and actually, I still think my theory is he still has a lot to say about his Christian beliefs. But he went through a phase where, man, he just tossed everything and he was just in your face about his Christianity. And he cut two albums, some would even argue three, but Shot of Love and a Slow Train Coming. There's a slow, slow train coming round of men anyway, thank you. Dylan cut this album, Slow Train Coming, and I wore this thing out, man. I had a tape of this thing. I wore this thing out. And one of the songs in here is a song that is called You Got to Serve Somebody. Let me just read you the lip. I won't sing it because that'd get me in trouble. I know. Sorry. But he says and you got to kind of hear dylan's, if you like dylan, if you don't there's something wrong with you there'll be prayer down front for you afterwards. He says you may be an ambassador to England or France you might like to gamble you might like to dance you may be the heavyweight champion of the world you may be a socialite with a long string of pearls, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Oh, yeah, you're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. He's not being I mean, Dylan here is putting pretty right in your face about his belief. You have to serve somebody you may be a state trooper or you might be a young Turk. You may be the head of some big TV network I loved his rhyming here. That's genius. That's a stroke of genius. Turk network. You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame, you may be living in another country or under another name, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, sir. You're going to have to serve somebody. You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride. I remember hearing this as a brand new follower of Christ and thinking, he's ripping apart clergy who are not followers of Jesus. Had a big impact on me as a brand new follower of Jesus, saying, wow, they're clergy who are not followers of Jesus. You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side you may be working in a barbershop you may know how to cut hair. You may be somebody's mistress, maybe somebody's heir but you're going to have to serve somebody yes, indeed you're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. Might like and this is just include this lyric because this is just a stroke of genius with lyrics. Might like to wear cotton, might like wear it to wear silk, might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk, you might like to eat caviar, you might like deep bread. You might be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in his kingside bed. But you're going to have to serve somebody. That just preaches. I yelled those lyrics out and it's rocked too. I mean, Dylan I'm a Dylan nut, so I mean, that rock for me. But what it really helped me too was to realize in John chapter seven and eight, we've been in this a while now. John seven and eight are passages where it's really clear what Dylan said. There is actually good theology, not the cotton silk thing, but that you're going to have to serve somebody. You can serve the world and all the things you can just serve that glittery thing and all the things that you think will satisfy you. And you say, you know what? This will satisfy me. Yummy, yummy, eat up. And you realize two things. One is it didn't satisfy you. And two, ultimately you were chasing after something that was not of God. And if it's not of God, Dylan, one of the greatest theologians of all time, says you're serving the devil. You can serve the devil or you can serve the Lord. And that's something that will satisfy john seven and eight, in my opinion, is at least is hitting me right between the eyes. If nobody else is getting anything out of this sermons in these last few days, man, I am chapter eight is hitting me right where it is. We're in the middle of John chapter eight. If you want to grab a Bible, flip it open to John chapter eight. There's an insert and we still have those little books around. You're free to take one of those if you'd like. You can take a gospel of John. John, chapter eight. We are in the middle of this. We're calling this thing Conversation of the Weird because this thing starts out so wacky, it's like they're not even talking to each other. Now, admittedly, we call the whole thing Conversation of the Weird. John, chapter eight we've gotten this week, we'll get past the weird part and we get to the straight confrontational part. It is really confrontational. In fact, it's going to get worse next week, in three weeks when we get back to it. But it starts off with Conversation of the Weird. If you haven't been here, or even if you were here, I kind of need to update you a little bit and just give you part ones and part two. Part one, if you remember, is Jesus makes a statement in John One, verse twelve, he says, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. It's a radical statement that starts everything off. By the way, I don't mean to ruin it, but John One or John 812 says, I am the light of the world. He's speaking to a crowd. And at the end of this chapter, if you look at the end and that's a couple of weeks from now, three weeks from now, they're going to try to kill him. That's where this thing has gone. They are going to say you're demon possessed, and try to kill him. Starts off with, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. They don't like that, but they don't really listen to him. There isn't hearing happening, hearing of the sense where they kind of hear the words, but their hearts are so hard that they're not able to hear it. And this has freaked me out thinking, how did they get so hard? How'd the hearts get so hard? I figure these guys down there are in their forty s or whatever, these religious rulers probably to get to that status, or in their forty s or maybe even fifty s. And I think, man, these people should know better how'd they get that hard? They were clergy. The pharisees and rulers are the ones confronting Jesus. They're going to call him demon possessed. And it's freaked me out a little bit thinking, man, what is it that's causing them to these people? How'd their hearts get so hard? I got to watch my heart. It could get that hard. Their response back to him is, hey, wait a minute, you can't do that. You're saying you're the light of the world. There's only one of you. Who's your other witness? Jesus says this. He says, I'm the one who testifies for myself. The Father who sent me is the other one. Their response back to him is, who's your daddy? Remember that. Where's your father? Now, that comment, who's your daddy? Is extremely important. In fact, that's all we're going to talk about this week. Who's your father? Where is your father? Jesus is going to say, you don't know my father. Then he's going to say to them, okay, now listen, I'm going to go away and you are not going to be able to follow me. And so they say, Are you going to kill yourself? And he says, no, you don't understand this at all. He says this. He makes this clear. You are from below and I am from above. Or better to put it this way, he says, you are of this world. I am not of this world. If you read other gospels, the other gospel writers like to use the phrase that Jesus loved to say the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is in opposition 180 degrees to the kingdom of this world. The world the world and all its glitter and the kingdom of God are in opposition to one another. He says, you're from this world, I'm in this world, you're Am. I am FM. We are not connecting here. Then he tells them this. He says, you know what? If you don't get to a point where you come and see that you're in the wrong world and you need to say, jesus, I want into this world, and you want to jump ship into this world. If you don't do that, he says, you'll die in your sins. You're going to live eternally in a world that does not satisfy. Bible calls that hell is being separated from God eternally. And the thing about it that we don't sense here on this earth is God has given what we call common grace on this earth. So take your next breath. I can take a breath. It's because God has given us grace to take the next breath. Everyone, everybody gets a next breath. If you're healthy, I mean, you get a next breath. So this eternal won't be that way. It'll just be nothing will satisfy even slightest won't satisfy you. They reply back, who are you? Jesus says I'm just who I said I always was. And while all this is going on, it says that some people in the crowd believed in him. That looks like good news. It turns out to be bad news. These same people that said I believe in you or at least professing faith in Jesus Christ are the ones in a few verses later are going to say, you're demon possessed, pick up rocks and try to stone the guy. There wasn't a long held belief here. Jesus says if you really this is conversation of the weird part two last week. He says, if you really believe in me, if you really want you hold to my teaching. See, believe is a verb in the present tense. I know we're locked in time. Present means now, and it still means now. It never means when. I said now last. It means now, now. So now do you believe? Not did I believe or I will believe, but I do believe, you know, present like it's it's like now, but not when it did happen. It'd be really freaky if you're like listening to us on like, online. Because when I did this is not when I did it, but now. Are you holding to my teaching now? Where are that's? That's your indicator. I don't care about the past. Where are you now then? You're my disciples. And then he says this you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We looked at this last week. They reply back and say, wait a minute. We're Abraham's descendants. We never been a slave, anyone. How can you possibly say we'll be set free? Jesus says, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. You're a sinner, you're a slave to sin. Everybody is born here. Everybody except for Jesus Christ, who's born sinless. Everybody else is born here in this world thing in this camp, a slave to sin. He says, you need to be set free. You need to be bought. You need to be taken out of that kingdom world and brought into the kingdom. He says, now, a slave is no permanent place in the family, but sun belongs to it forever. So if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. We talked about that last week. I don't care what you brought in this week, last week, any week, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you claim to say Jesus Christ, I trust in you alone. If you claim to say not just doctrine, but the real Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, he gives you power. And that power is to break sin. I don't care what you're addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex. I don't care what it is you're addicted to lying, gossiping. I'm an angry person, I'm a bitter person. I'm just bad at cards. Whatever it is that your area of issue is, jesus Christ will break that. It's a promise. He says, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. Now, it may not feel like that, but you are set free. The other master you may be listening to, to use the analogy of last week, but you are not on that side of the fence anymore. Jesus then says in verse 37, he says, I want to acknowledge something to you so we get this on the table. I know that you are Abraham's descendants. I know if you do a DNA test of you, we'll find some of Abraham. I got that back. Yet you are ready to kill me. He knows they're ready to kill him. Remember, it's September, October of 30, 32, 33, and he's going to be crucified. March, April 30, 334, whatever, just a few months later, because you have no room for my word. I'm telling you what I've seen in the Father's presence, and you do what you've heard from your Father. So Jesus, with that little implication there, comes back and says, who's your daddy? And here's where we're going to this week's conversation of the weird, part three. What's their reply to when Jesus says, you hear this from your father? They say, Abraham is our father. Now why is that such a big deal? Why is it such a big deal for these people to say Abraham is our Father? It doesn't resonate with us at all. Genesis, chapter twelve, the theological significance of why they invoked this name of Abraham. Verse one of Genesis twelve. Lord said to Abram, by the way, his name was Abram until God changed it. His wife's name was Sarah, until changed it to Sarah. Leave your country, your people and all your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you, I will make your name great and you'll be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you. So Abram left as the Lord had told him, and Lott went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he sent out from Heron. He took his wife Sarah, his nephew Lott, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in heron, and they set up for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. The promise given to Abraham, which starts in Genesis twelve and goes all the way through Genesis, through Abraham's life, is that you will become a great nation. That was the start of the Jewish nation. Abraham just chose this guy, nothing special about him necessarily, god just chose him. And this guy becomes the father of Israel, which is the father of the Jewish nation, becomes the father of a son whose name is what? Isaac. Right. But he also had another son, what's his other son's name? Ishmael that's going to become very important here just a little minute, just a little mint, I say that, yeah, become important here just a minute. That there is actually two sons, Isaac. And Isaac goes to Jacob and Jacob goes to the twelve tribes, there's twelve kids then, and it goes throughout them and this starts to multiply and they become the Jewish nation. Moses talks about this in chapter seven. He says, for you are a holy excuse me. For you are people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession, so he chose abraham starts this nation for himself, says the Lord did not set his affection on you and chose you because you were more numerous than other peoples. It was just Abraham and his wife and his nephew and a few other people that were with him. Not many. In fact, you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generation of those who love him and keep his commands. But there's more. But those who hate him, he will repay to their face by destruction. He will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him. Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees, and laws I give you today. Even Moses says, you know what? Don't trust in your birthright. If you hate God, guess what? See ya. You don't just get in because you're part of the birthright. These guys were thinking, hey, we got Abraham's DNA in us. We are good to go. Jesus is going to reinterpret something radically here. Verse what's? Second half of verse 39 839. Jesus says this if Abraham excuse me. If you were Abraham's children, jesus says, then you would do the things Abraham did. Stop right there. Jesus says, if you were Abraham's children, implying you're not children of Abraham. I just got done saying I'm acknowledging that you're descendants of Abraham. You're a descendant out of it. I'm not arguing that. Look at the family tree. Boom. Abraham good to go. What I'm saying is you're not a child of Abraham. Whoa. That is a radical statement. Jesus is changing something that from this point on will be different, will be radically different. Christianity changes everything. Let me read the rest of this. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things that your own father does. There's that who's your daddy? Thing again. He's not quite saying who it is, but who's your daddy? Your father. It's not Abraham. Now, I'm not necessarily trying to embarrass somebody. It's a fine thing. Is anybody in this room we had one for service. Is anybody in this room actually a descendant of Abraham? Has anybody come from a Jewish background? I get one, two, two. Now, if it were just the physical descendants of Abraham, if it were just the physical descendants of Abraham, we'd have enough for we could I guess we could have three services. We had three people in two services who are physical descendants of Abraham. Paul, jesus said remember, Paul does this all time. Jesus says something in a line. Paul says in chapters. And I just want to read a little bit of what he says in Romans, chapter nine, three weeks, three quotes from Romans. Okay, romans, chapter nine. Starting in verse one, paul's going to speak about this very issue. In other words, what does it really mean to be a true child of Abraham? Because that's the question. The promise comes through Abraham. God will always bless the children of Abraham, but what does it mean to be a child of Abraham? Paul speaks this. He says, I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. He says this a radical statement. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel, whoo paul's saying, I am a theologian. I mean, he's obviously par excellence. He wrote part of the Bible. So he's saying, I will give up my salvation, I will go to Hell. So these other people, if I could do that, I would man, I love people, but that's, whoa, that's a radical. He loves these people. He says, theirs is the adoption of his sons. There's the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is trace the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised. Amen. Now, he says this. It is not as though God's word had failed. And here it comes. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Just because you're a physical descendant does not necessitate the fact that you are really part of one of God's chosen people doesn't mean anything. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring would reckon abraham had two sons. He had two physical descendants. One was by the promise of what God said would happen, and one was because Abraham said, dude, I am getting old, I need a son. He slept with his servant girl and had a son. And God said, that's not the promise, but he had two sons. They're both physical. It has to come through the promise. Paul says, in other words, it is not through the natural children who are God's children, but it is children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. Whoa. What I'm saying here is, if you are in this room, if you're here and you're a person who trusts in Jesus Christ, if you're a Christ one, that's what Christian means. If you're a follower of Jesus, then in God's mind was you when he said in Genesis twelve to Abraham, I will bless you with a great nation. You're that nation that's you well, those are fighting words, okay? Those are fighting words that Jesus just said, says, you know, I'm, I'm discounting your birthright. You don't have a birthright. Look at how they respond. Again, it goes to, it goes. A little bit to conversation of the weird here. They come back and they say, hey, we're not illegitimate children. What? Is that a weird thing to say or what? It's just a weird thing, right? We're talking about Abraham here, and now you're talking about illegitimate children. He says, Jesus, these Jewish leaders are saying we're not the bastards here. Does that string a bell to anybody? What's going on? Who's the bastard? Jesus. Hey, you want to talk about father? All right. Jesus. Guess what? We did the math. Your mama and your daddy was only married two months, and they had you. We're good at math. You're the bastard child, not us. Don't tell us who our father is. You're the one who we don't even know who your dad? You say something about this Holy Spirit thing? Nice. Yeah, people have been using that one for a long time. No way. Virgin birth. Sure we're not illegitimate children. It's just a shot. It's just a shot right at Jesus. It's to wound him. Once again, they're just trying to wound him. And then they say, the only father we have is God himself. Now, Jesus shows amazing restraint to not respond to their urine. Illegitimate child. It's amazing. He shows restraint, and he picks up on the second part. AHA, you're saying you're Abraham kid now. You're saying you're God's kid. In other words, God is your father. Not, of course, God's the father of all of us, of every living thing, but in a real sense. In a sense where God? We are connected with God. We're sons of God. Sons and daughters of God. Jesus picks right up on that, and he says, If God were your father, implying if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I'm here. You say god your father. Guess what? I'm standing right in front of you, and you want to kill me. I have not come on my own, but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? And he answers his own question, because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father. And now he's not going to hold back anymore. He just says the devil. You belong to your father, the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he's a liar and the father of lies. Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear, and he just answers it plainly. And this is a tremendous shot right back across the bow for them. You know the reason why you don't hear me is you don't belong to God. Now, you gotta this is tense. This is face to face, lip quivering, body shaking tension. This is conflict. Jesus and the religious rulers of the day, he says, you know what? It's not that you just have a little messed up theology. You don't even belong to God. And then he says, just like the Southern preacher would say, you're child of the devil, that's just fun to say. I think I pre when acts when they had that children, I think I did that sermon nine times just going, you're a child of the devil. That's what he says to these religious people. You don't belong to God. And you know what? You're a child of the devil. He's going to give him four reasons why. Four proofs that they are not Abraham. They already kind of got over that one, that God is not their Father, that they're in this world and they're people of this world, and that their actual Father is the devil. Wow hooftah. These are fighting words here. He's going to give four reasons why. First one is he says in the beginning of that, he says, if God were your Father, you would love me. Here I am. I'm standing right here in your midst. I don't care what your theology is. I don't care how conservative you are, how liberal you are. I don't care about that. I'm standing right here. God the Son, second person under the Trinity, and you don't love me. It's a radical statement, jesus Christ saying, if you love God, you love Jesus Christ equal. If you don't, you can't make that can't make that equation. It's a radical thing that he's saying. Second proof. He says this whole conversation or the weird thing, you're not hearing me. You're not listening to me. Why are you not listening to me? My language is clear, isn't it? It sure is to the outside person. But he says, Why don't you get it? And he says, Mike, you don't get it because you are unable to hear what I say. Well, they're hearing the words, but they're just not making any sense out of it. Why doesn't it make any sense? The very bottom, he explains why. He says, he who belongs to God hears what I say. The reason you don't understand me is you don't belong to God. The proof is we're having this conversation that is going nowhere. You're not hearing me. Third proof of these people being children of the devil. He says, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. Right now, when you're standing there, religious rulers, what you want to do is you want to kill me. You know in your heart that you want to kill me. Isn't that a little weird that go to church and we start hacking on people? Isn't that weird? Isn't it? Where do you get that from? There's something in you, a murderous heart. You know, it religious rulers. You can sense it. It's coming out. It's coming from your father. You have a murderous heart. Fourth thing is Jesus says, I'm telling you the truth. And if you don't believe that, here's a shot here. I'm going to give you a little chance. In just a second, any of you give me one sin show one sin in my life, can any of you prove me guilty of any sin? One. Take a shot. Oh, man. I know any of us said that the other person be up here all night writing, right? Jesus says this. There's nothing it's not their argument. When we get three weeks from now, we come back to this. Their argument isn't okay, we're going to list the sins. None. They're children of the devil. Now, this passage for me, John Seven and John Eight, have been for me a wake up call. It really have. I want to talk to those in the room who maybe have been a follower of Jesus Christ for a while, whatever a while means to you. 3510, 2023 years in my case. Last week, it really hit me when they were going round and around and these people were arguing with Jesus about being set free, and we've never been slavery and blind to truth. And I started thinking, man, what would that be like to be one of those people at that time you try to go there. I love to do that. I like to think, if what if I were there? What would I think? And how would I be? And would I possibly be one of these religious people? And the thought hit me, darn right you'd be one of those religious people. Sure, proud, as arrogant as anybody else, holding tightly onto what I think is right. It freaked me out. I like theology, and I like to try to figure things out and try to figure out how the Bible works. That's a good thing. But you can do that to such a point that you choke God out, you choke Jesus out. You become so into. This is the way it is, and this is the way I know it to be. And that was the way I understand that there's no room for Jesus anymore. Jesus says, you have no room for me. And it freaks me out. And I think, honestly, that one of the things that helps me more than anything is if you strip away all the layers of the onion in my walk with God. One of the things at the very bottom is fear, and a good fear. I mean, a fear that says, God, you are Almighty Jesus Christ. I could do all this and completely miss you. It scares the daylights out of me. Called the fear of the Lord. I think it's a good thing. You should quake kind of at it. It's kind of a weird thing is it simultaneously and those of you know what I'm talking about. Those of you been around for a while, you know what I'm talking about. This fear of the Lord simultaneously scares the bejebas out of you and at the same time brings joy. Anybody nod with me? You know what I'm talking about. It's this how does that work? It's there. It's just, whoa, god, you're awesome. Ain't that cool? Whoa. It scares me to death. This passage has been doing that for me. This passage I thought about what does it mean to be one of these people? Let me talk to people in the room who maybe are not sure where they're at in their relationship with Jesus Christ. I mean, I wasn't 20 years ago. I had no 23 years ago. I had no idea if you'd have put a gun to my set gun to my head and said, how does a person get to heaven? I had no idea. I went to church as a kid. No idea. I want to go back to John chapter three. John, chapter three is a guy by the name of Nicodemus. He's a religious ruler. He comes to Jesus at night and he says, rabbi, I know you're a teacher who's come from God. No one could perform the miraculous signs you're doing unless God's with him. Jesus, in classic Jesus teaching method, totally forgets what he just bypasses what he's talking about and drops a bomb. And the bomb is this. He says, I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. You see, all of us are born as children of the devil. Every one of us. You wonder why it's so difficult to do things that God wants you to do. Because you can't. You can't. You got you got to be born a child of God. Well, how do you get born a child of God? And that's where Jesus uses phrase. He says, you're born again. You have to be born again. You have to be born of God. You can't just be a person who's got a good philosophy in life. No, you have to be actually born again. Well, born again. What is that? That word is thrown around a lot. But it's a great word because you have to be a child of God. How do you become a child of God? Jesus talks about it. I skipped down. It's great to read all the John chapter three. But just for time's sake on how do you have the right father john three, starting in verse 16, says for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes present tense believes in him shall not perish future tense, but have eternal life. Then he says this for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he is not believed in the name of God's one and only son. Everybody starts here. You're condemned. But if by God's grace and mercy, you look to the cross and say, I want out of this thing, I want out of the muck, I want my sins forgiven, I want to know Jesus Christ, I want to be changed. And you throw yourself at God and you bank your hope on him alone, not the fact that you're part of a church denomination or Baptist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal or Catholic or whatever, nothing about that. You throw that stuff aside and you say it's not because of that. It's not because of, well, I know the Bible or how good I live my life. I'm banking my entire hope that Jesus Christ on the cross finished it, and if he didn't, I'm toast. That's what trust means. I got nothing except Christ on the cross. If Jesus, if it doesn't work, I'm going to hell. That's what it means. And Jesus says, whoever believes in Him that way shall not perish but have everlasting life. Hope is a place where we desire to have people. Wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, we love to have you here. We love to have you ask questions. But there comes a point, and it's a mystery to me. For some people, it's a very, very clear point in time. Other people, it's like, I don't know, last January I wasn't a follower of Jesus, and this January I am. I don't know, somewhere in there some bells and whistles went off fine. Talk about married people, ask them how they fell in love. It's a mystery. Okay, it's a mystery. But somewhere in there, something happens where you place your trust in Jesus Christ and you start to slowly come to a point where you trust Him. I trust you placing my faith in you. That's what the Bible means when it talks about being born again. That's what it means to have the right father. You can be religious as all get out and be in the world and be children of the devil. You can be a pastor, be a preacher preaching spiritual pride, as Dylan said. Now, my hope for us, and I don't know exactly how this works out is I know for a fact that there was a point in my life where I came to that point and I trusted Jesus Christ. And for many of you in this room, there's a point where where you have come and you know you've trusted Jesus Christ. And I know that's true. And I know that God is working in my life, and I've seen it happen, and I know he speaks to me and I know all those things. And yet this passage scares the daylights out of me. I'm not trying to give you the answer how that all works out, but I just see these people completely getting caught up in religiosity and missing Jesus, and that's what scares you more than anything. Listen, I love theology. I'm mostly Reformed in my thinking, I love that. But, man, I just scrap all that stuff and say, jesus, hold on to Your theology with loose hands. Hold on to Jesus with all Your worth. Don't miss Jesus. It's all about Jesus. If you miss Jesus, you've missed everything. I don't care how perfect Your thinking is, let's pray together. You Jesus Christ, we we just want you right now to be our guest in our lives in this church. Lord, I think of ten years of mercy towards this church. And Lord, by Your grace, You've kept us saying things like we just said a moment ago of keeping it about you and God. Those are the right words, those are the right concepts. But God, would you give us the right heart and the right attitude towards that too? It's easy on Sunday. It's easy Sunday mornings to keep you in that place. God, I just fear that the rest of my life I'd live like these religious rulers. Don't be any change, be a hard hearted, bitter person condemning others. I fear that I pray, Lord, for their edification, that you cause fear in here too, that those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ in this room would be afraid of slipping into a point where we would so hold on to our religious principles and our doctrines and our legalism, that we would miss you. And so, God, I pray for us. Oh, man, I pray Your hand upon this church that we've never slipped there, jesus Christ, the risen Christ, that you would invade this church, these people and this building. You'd fill us with power, you'd fill us with joy. You'd fill us with Your love sky. We can live that way on our own. On our own. I'm right back there. I'm right back there becoming a religious ruler. So. Jesus. We just need you. Lord, I pray for people in this room that today may be the day, Lord God, when they look to it and say, I don't want to be of the world anymore. The world, I'm done with that. I want to be in the kingdom. And today could be the day where they cross the line, say, Jesus Christ, I want to follow you. And right now, in the quietness of their heart, they're speaking to you. I pray that they would be and that you'd be giving them the grace and the courage. Spirit, you'd be regenerating hearts right now and just causing them to draw near to you and God, that they'd be opening their hearts to you and saying, jesus Christ, I want to follow you. Jesus, I want to be a follower of you. I will let you take my sin. You can have it. I am a sinner and I need forgiveness. And I need cleansing and I need power to live life. And I want to reorient my entire life to follow you, Jesus. Today could be that day for someone when they cross that line, I pray for them in this room that you give them the courage to do that, lord, for the rest of us who maybe years ago have done that, God, I just asked it to be the same exact thing. That we'd open our hearts up, that we'd reorient our lives to having you be the Lord of our lives. We are going to have to serve somebody, lord, would you give us the grace to make it you? We pray in Jesus name.