you And the last thing your life will shine.
Consume me from the inside out. Let justice and
grace become my embrace. To love you from the
inside. Thank you. Thank you. We choose to wear
a crown that isn't scarred to win my heart. What
kind of love tells me I'm the reason? You've
done it already. Praise God. This is going to
be something you've never seen before. So hold
on. Even though this is a text that you may have
heard before. I hope you have. My goodness, it
would be terrible if you hadn't. But this is
going to be something. Okay, here we go. Alright,
so the sermon title is Responding in the Moment.
The text is Matthew 7, 7 -12. I am going to read
that to you now. Amen. Thank you, sir. Ask, and
it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and
to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what
man is there among you? When his son asks for
a loaf, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks
for a fish, will he not give him a snake? Will
he? If you then, being evil, Know how to give
good gifts to your children. How much more will
your Father who is in heaven give what is good
to those who ask him? In everything, therefore.
In other words, after all of that that we just
read, because all of that is true, in everything,
therefore. Treat people the same way you would
want them to treat you. For this is the law and
the prophets. The first thing I want you to see
in this text that is very obvious, if you don't
know this, if you do not know this point that
I'm about to give you right now, then I'm sorry
to say it's probably that you're not saved. And
you might want to think about it kind of seriously
and ask yourself if that's true, what do I need
to do? And it is this. God is responding. God's
not dead, and he's checking his mail. Email is
fast. I sent an email to my wife with some details.
She has the notification turned on her phone.
I was sitting in the living room. I pushed the
button send. I heard one, not even a second,
like a quarter of a second later, she received
the email in the office. And I thought, you know
what's funny about that? Because it left my phone.
It went to the cell tower. It went to the internet,
probably toured Europe, came all over the place
and back to her cell phone. One room away, 10
feet away, less than half a second later. Email
is fast, but calling out to God is faster. I
could tell you a dozen stories about how people
said, I am going to, I see God wants me to, and
they confessed the need for God to do something,
and God was already miraculously intervening
on their behalf before the words had ever gotten
out of their mouths. I think I'll start tithing,
and the phone calls are coming, and the money
is aligning, and so on, and it's already done
before ever. They've written a check. I think
I'll start praying more. And already they feel
the presence of God at work in them and affecting
them before they ever have actually prayed any
more than they had previously. I think I'll start
studying the word of God and taking the Bible
in more. And already it starts cropping up in
them and they begin to remember verses that they
had memorized way back in the day and how God's
word can work daily in and out just because they
made the commitment before ever they actually
picked up their Bible again and began to read
more words or listen to more sermons online or
anything like that. God is responding. He's not
dead and he's checking his mail. And there's
no faster moving mail than prayer or a commitment
to God. Here in these verses, it says, when a
person seeks, they find. When a person knocks,
it's opened. He says, look at you evil people.
When your child asked for a loaf, would you give
him a stone? When your child asked for a fish,
would you give him a snake? Who do you think
God is? That God would be cried out to? by a
people that desperately need him to intervene,
and he would just ignore them. No, God is responding.
In Mark 11, verses 24 to 26, it says this. It
says, Therefore I say to you, all things for
which you pray and ask, believe that you have
received them, and they will be granted to you.
That's Jesus. Whenever you stand praying, forgive
if you have anything against one so that your
father who is in heaven will also forgive you
your transgressions. But if you do not forgive,
neither will your father who is in heaven forgive
your transgressions. And so this verse says that
God is not dead and he's checking his mail. And
if you will lift the things that you care about
up to God, he will hear you and he is actively
responding to prayers. But notice. It also says
that you have a responsibility. You have a call
by God to forgive others their transgresses against
you. And if you will not forgive them, then God
will not forgive you either. Thereby saying that
God's response is tied to something. And here,
that something takes its form in forgiveness.
In Galatians 6, 7 -11, it says, Do not be deceived.
God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this
he will also reap. See, people start to think
that God is not responding. That they can do
this or that, or they can fail to do this or
that, and that God is just going to sit on his
hands. He's not going to do anything. But Paul
tells the Galatians very clearly, God is not
mocked. Don't start to think that someone's getting
away with something. Do not be deceived. He says,
for the one who sows to his own flesh, that means
when you do what your body wants instead of what
God wants, the one who sows to his own flesh
will reap from the flesh corruption. But the
one who sows the Spirit will from the Spirit
reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing
good, for in due time we will reap if we do not
grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people, and especially
those who are of the household of the faith.
So again, this understanding that God is not
mocked, and that ultimately He will pay back
every bit of... our doing on this earth, this
understanding of that is tied then deeply to,
he says, doing good to all people and especially
those who are of the household of faith. In John
14, Jesus says, I will ask the Father and he
will give you another helper. There's a response
for you that he may be with you forever. That
is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot
receive because it does not see him or know him.
But you know him because he abides with you and
will be in you. God is responding. In Joel 2
.32, Acts 2 .21, and Romans 10 .13, essentially
the Acts verse and the Romans verse are quoting
the Joel verse. It says, if anyone calls upon
the name of the Lord, they will be saved. That's
how I got saved. I called upon the name of the
Lord. I'm like, I don't know what this is going
to be. I don't know what's going to happen. I
don't know what I'm going to have to do. I don't
know what I've got to give up. I don't know what
life's going to be like, but here's what I know.
I can't die and go to hell. That can't be the
end of my story. And so I need salvation. And
I said, Lord, will you save me? As if I wasn't
sure. And he said, oh yes, and he did. Those
who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved
because God is actively responding. So saith
the Bible all over the place. The second thing
to see on this text then is that everyone is
on a journey to meet God. Every single person,
lost or saved, doesn't matter, smart or quote
unquote dumb, ignorant, informed, weak, poor,
rich, healthy, unhealthy. Every skin color, every
social background, every economic standing, everybody
is on a journey to meet God. In Hebrews 9, 27
to 28, it says, a pretty famous verse that you
may not remember the reference, it says, inasmuch
as it is appointed for men to die once and after
this coming the judgment. So Christ also, having
been offered once to bear his sins, to bear the
sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation
without reference to sin to those who eagerly
await him. God is responding. And everyone is
on a journey and God knows it. And God knows
exactly what response those people need. And
essentially, his greatest response then is sending
Jesus. But notice that we are on a journey because
everyone will die once and then comes the judgment.
Unless, of course, Christ comes first and then
we'll skip right to the end. 2 Corinthians 5,
verses 6 to 10 says this, Therefore, being always
of good courage and knowing that while we are
at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. One of my
favorite verses. We are of good courage, I say,
and prefer rather to be absent from the body
and to be at home with the Lord. In other words,
we'd rather that there. If you walk by faith,
not by sight, you will realize that it's going
to be better there. It doesn't matter how good
you get it here. When you get there, it's going
to be better. So all your efforts to make it
better here are going to come up feeble compared
to what it's going to be like there that's already
being prepared for you. And there's nothing you
can really do about that. It's already being
prepared for you. If you are a follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, we are of good courage,
I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the
body. and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore,
we also have as our ambition, whether at home
or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For, here it
is, we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body, according to what
he has done, whether good or bad. Who's each
one? Everybody. Everybody is on a journey to
God. Doesn't matter what they're doing right
now or whether you like what they're doing right
now or whether you can communicate with them
or understand them or what your barriers might
be. Everyone, everyone, everyone is on a journey
to God. Each of us will answer. It may well be
said that all of us will experience regret. The
truth is there are things in my background now
that if I allowed evil spirits to get a hold
of me, I regret them now. I think about now,
oh, it's almost like a traumatic flashback when
I think about some of the terrible things I did.
But I also realize that evil spirits are trying
to slow me down from doing what and being what
God would have me do and be now. And so I push
that stuff away and I get on with the business
of the Lord. But in that moment, all of us are
going to hear about all the things that we did.
Now, judged by the righteousness of Christ, I
understand you can still go to heaven. It isn't
that we did not honor God the way God would have
had us do. But the chief thing a person will
be judged for is what he has done with the Son
of Christ or with the Son of God, who is Christ.
So in other words, Jesus did not come to condemn
the world. You recognize that? Jesus did not
come to condemn the world, but they're condemned
already by what they have done with the Son of
God. So the question is, what did you do with
the Son of God? And if you're here today and
you did not accept the Son of God fully to be
in charge of your life, you're still taking part
of that for yourself or letting something else
take place or anything else rise up into the
presence as a God, get your worth, get your love,
instead of all of that being dedicated to the
Lord, then you've got a problem. And your problem
is, you're ultimately going to stand before God
because you're on a journey. And everybody's
journey, in some sense, will meet at that point.
Everybody, everybody will answer. And I would
submit to you that everybody will have regret.
But the ultimate question is, what have you done
with the Son of God? In that moment, maybe again,
we'll experience, like, for the first time, an
unending gratitude. Why do I say that? Because
I feel like if we were experiencing unending
gratitude now, we wouldn't be sinning against
God like we are. Even accidentally or incidentally,
we'd be thinking about, Oh, I shouldn't do that,
right? If we were eternally grateful. Once you
get there and it's no longer a matter of faith
and our faith fluctuates day by day as to whether
we make the right decision or not, whether we
were found faithful or not, when we get there,
that'll be done. We'll be like, yeah, it was
all true. Here I stand in front of Jesus. And
he says, well done, good and faithful servant.
Come on home. But still, there's that moment
where you're like, oh, I shouldn't have done
that. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't
have done that. And it's probably going to go
by in a blink of an eye because time there is
not like time here. It's not like you're going
to spend an hour regretting it. It's going to
be quick. But the truth is, from then on, eternal,
unending gratitude that we have been accepted,
that we did accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Unending because it will no longer be in faith,
but it will be seen. Unwaning and waxing. That's
what waning and waxing means, going up and down
like the moon does. Regardless, we are all headed
to that meeting. All of us are headed to that
meeting. And then Jesus says, in light of that,
in light of the fact that God, you can get lost
in the... seek and find and knock and he'll open.
You can get wrapped up in those words. There's
a lot of good sermons in there probably. But
in light of the fact that God is responding and
in light of the fact that we are all on a journey
to that moment at which we will stand before
God, in light of all that, it says, therefore,
because all of that is true, treat others as
you would want to be treated. It's an interesting
command, actually. James warms that it probably
will be our tendency to be partial to certain
people over other people. He says, if however
you are fulfilling the royal law, according to
the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as
yourself, you're doing well. But if you show
partiality, if you choose some people over other
people, for example, you're committing sin and
are convicted by the law as transgressors. For
whoever keeps the whole law and yet offends in
one point, he has become guilty of all. For he
who said, do not commit adultery, also said,
do not commit murder. Now, if you do commit murder,
but do not commit... I'm sorry, if you do commit
adultery, but do not commit, I'm going to say
that again. Now, if you do not commit adultery,
but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor
of the law. So speak and so act as those who
are to be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment
will be merciless to the one who has shown no
mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. I get it
that the world is filled with people that make
your skin crawl. I get it that the world is full
of people that make you go, I'm talking to them,
but they're just not hearing me. Or they're doing
things that I can't hardly stand to be around.
I don't know what percentage of society is like
that, but I'll tell you that on some days it
feels like 99%. People that I just can't be around.
They're just not doing the things that I can
tolerate. Judgment will be merciless to the one
who has shown no mercy. We think about correction,
vengeance, hate, or sin. Leviticus 19, 17 -18
says, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen
in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor.
In other words, you can correct them when they're
doing what's wrong, but you can't hate them in
their heart, in your heart. And this is the problem.
What we do is we don't want to reprove because
society says you can't correct somebody. Society
says none of your business. Society says leave
me alone. Society says shut up. That's just your
opinion. Walk your own truth, which is all a
falsehood, by the way. Society is pushing you,
lying to you. The Bible says you can. reprove
your neighbor. That means you can go to the person
who lives in the same country as you. Whether
they're in the church or not, you can go to the
person who lives next door to you. You can tell
them when they're doing something wrong. Even
though you don't know them. You may not know
their first name. You can be in the grocery store
and you can see a parent that's disrespecting
their child. It's probably hurting them maybe
or psychological abuse or even a child that's
disrespecting their parents. You can walk up
to somebody that you don't even know and you
can say, You really should do this. And I understand
that's not going to save them. And if they would
correct it and make it better, it's not going
to make it any better for them. And yes, it'll
be a lot easier for you to keep your nose out
of it. But the scripture says very clearly, you
may surely, you surely should, you may surely
reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur
sin because of him. In other words, you don't
do anything that would be sinful against God.
You don't hurt them. You don't get an angry feeling
in your heart. You don't abuse them verbally.
You don't blow them up on social media. You don't.
Slash their tires or storm off saying bad things
over your shoulder. You don't do any of that
because you don't incur sin even though you see
what they're doing is wrong. And I would take
that one step further and say you don't incur
sin as in you don't dismiss them. You don't forget
the thing that we're studying today that what
you ought to do to them is what you would have
them do to you. No matter how bad they are, you
do to them what you would have them do to you.
That's what it says. Back to the top of verse
17, it says, You shall not hate your fellow countrymen
in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor,
but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall
not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against
the sons of your people. But you shall love your
neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. That's like
a period there. He's just saying, you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. You're
going to question me. Go ahead. Walk away from
me. Go ahead. We're going to meet again. I'm
not done responding. You will reap what you sow.
I am the Lord. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 12, 29 to 31, Jesus answered, the foremost
is, talking about the great commands that essentially
sum up all of scripture, says the foremost is,
hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,
and you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your
mind, and with all your strength. And then in
verse 31, he says, the second is this, you shall
love your neighbor as yourself. Then he says,
there is no other commandment greater than these.
Oh. Be holy as I am holy. Oh, well, that guy
is not holy. I can't have anything to do with
him. Well, you just made be holy as God is holy
a greater commandment than love your neighbor
as yourself. Careful. He says there is no greater
commandment than these. There is no other commandment
greater than these. Recapping briefly then, we
have essentially three points that we noticed,
didn't we? The first one is that God is responding.
God's not dead and he's checking his mail. realize
also that everyone is on their way. Everyone
is on a journey to come before God. Everybody
and everybody that you encounter, that will be
true. If they're still taking breath, their brains
are still waving, then they're on their way to
meet God. They might have a while yet before
they get there in human terms, but it'll seem
like a blink of an eye measured against eternity.
So you may dismiss them for three decades, like
30 years. Then both of you get there. They're
there. You're there. And if they're saved, you're
going to spend an eternity with them after having
nothing to do with them for 30 years. Are you
comfortable with that? Everybody is on a journey
on their way to God. And then, therefore, treat
others as you want to be treated. It does not
say treat others as they treat you. It says treat
others as you want to be treated. And that brings
us to our conclusion already. It's a doozy, including
an object lesson that will probably take you
by surprise, most of you. And our conclusion
is this. We need to realize that in reading this
scripture and the scriptures that support it,
that it's not your image or my image that's at
stake. It doesn't matter what you look like in
front of people. It doesn't matter what people
think of you. It doesn't matter if they spam
your social media with nasty comments about your
hairstyle. It doesn't matter if they don't like
your shade of makeup or the clothes that you
choose. It doesn't matter whether you can accurately,
perfectly convey what it is that you're trying
to say or you stumble over your words because
it's not about your image at all. It's not your
image that's at stake. In Genesis 1, God said,
let us make man in our own image. But then things...
went downhill from there. Those who are made
in the image of God, Adam and Eve, the first
man and woman to ever live, they sinned against
God. They chose a form of provision that they
thought would give them what they desired outside
of God. An internet guru defines it this way.
Human beings are made in the image of God in
a few points. First of all, we have evaluative
thinking. That means we can think. We have the
capacity to evaluate circumstances, draw conclusions,
and we see God doing this all throughout Scripture.
God is responding, and he's logical, reasonable,
and faithful in his responses. Humans, like God,
can think, evaluate, and draw conclusions. We
were created in the image of God. Also, we have
purposeful choosing. Both God and humanity have
the capacity of agency. God and humans both have
the capacity to decide on a goal and a course
of action to reach that goal. Animals don't do
that. Nothing else does that. Humans were created
in the image of God. We have an emotional experience.
We know that people have emotions. We experience
our world through emotions. Our emotions can
lie to us and so on, but the reality is we experience
our world through emotions as we perceive them,
and they even affect our senses. People will
believe something is true, feel something is
true emotively, and then it makes them see that,
even though that's not what's actually there
to be seen. We are not detached machines. What
many people forget is that this is true of God
as well. God has emotions. The scripture is very
clear, both in the Old and New Testament, that
we see emotional expressions ascribed to God.
Our emotions come from the fact that we are made
in God's image. They're only messed up now because
the image is messed up. And then we have deep
longing. Humans have deep longings at the core
of the soul. Parents know the anguish of a child
who has scorned their love. We know the longing
for relationships to be restored and for the
broken to be healed. We cannot define such things
as simply expressions of emotions. They go way
deeper. You try to control your emotions, but
they're spewing out of some deep part of you
that is longing for something that's not yours
to have. Like when we lose a loved one and we
long to have them back or we long to have a reason.
We long to be able to bargain and we long to
be able to negotiate with the powers that be
and hope even God, if we believe in God. We defend
ourselves with our emotions against our own deep
longing for the person that we've lost and we
get angry. And because of sin entering in and
the effect of that sin being passed down, we
were all present in Adam and Eve's DNA. And because
of sin and the effects of that sin being passed
down to us, our heart was corrupted and twisted.
Instead of being inclined toward God, its basic
direction is now toward self. We want what we
want and we don't care what he thinks when we
are in our self, in our flesh. The mind, the
understanding that was given to us by God was
darkened. To put it simply, fallen humans simply
don't think straight. The heart gives the basic
direction toward self and so the mind processes
everything through that grid and devises strategies
to preserve the illusion of independence so we
think we can be okay without God. Since the mind
is now darkened, fallen humanity choices are
now foolish. It's not that we have lost the ability
to choose. It's rather that our choices are made
on the basis of a deceitful heart and a darkened
understanding. And so we think we can take what
we want or what we want. We think that evil things
will actually be good for us. How else to explain
choosing temporary satisfaction that ultimately
leaves us empty over the full satisfier of our
soul? We wind up in addiction. Dopamine addiction
even. Watching screens. TV. Reading. playing,
sex, music, all of these things we use to temporarily
satisfy when the full satisfier of our soul exists
where everything is silent, in a room with absolute
deprivation of sound and stimulus, just you and
God. Not only does fallen humanity experience
unpleasant emotions, but these unfulfilled longings,
these longings that we have in our soul for relationship
and purpose remain largely unfulfilled. And that
explains the search of most people. We crave
for that emptiness to go away, so we search for
some form of relief. Finally, fallen humanity
lives in a state of disconnection. That's the
one we kind of get. We look at the scripture
and we see very clearly that God kicked them
out of the Garden of Eden. We see that they didn't
walk in the coolness of the garden with God anymore.
We see that their relationship between them was
screwed up. And then as we get outside, we see
that it's a relationship between men and men
because we see Cain, Kill, Abel, murder and anger
and lust and deceit and slander and gossip. Idolatry
of all forms takes up residence in people because
the longing, the disconnection from God. We were
created to have. Jeremiah 2 says it this way
in verses 12 to 13. He says, be appalled. And
that means disgusted. It's like, be sick, oh
heavens. That's what he's saying. So the heavens
should be sick at this and shudder. Be very desolate.
That means alone, wiped out without anything.
declares the Lord, for my people have committed
two evils. The people of God have committed two
evils. One, they have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns,
a cistern is a well, broken cisterns that can
hold no water. So the first great evil that they
had perpetrated was that they had found another
source. See, the lie that was perpetrated against
Eve was that God was somehow stingy, that he
wasn't giving her everything that was. And she
could just reach out and take it for herself
against God's wishes and find sustenance and
fulfilling in her soul, in mode of stability,
relationship, wisdom, clear thought, all just
by taking that fruit that she was not allowed
to take. And so God through Jeremiah reminds
us that the first of the great evils was that
we forsook God. And the second was that we carved
out. These cisterns, wells that have holes in
the bottom, they cannot hold water. We found
other solutions and people are still trying to
do that today. But when we are born again, when
we turn these concerns and all other significant
concerns over to the God of heaven through His
Son, Jesus Christ, which, by the way, is the
only way to have them dealt with, then we are
born again and we are given a fresh start, a
new heart, a new mind. Our transgressions and
our willingness to accept those transgressions
as the norm are gone behind us. That's what chapter
5 of 2 Corinthians is all about. And we are given
the sacred responsibility which mankind was created
for, which is what? To represent God. To represent
Him. To be created in His image. And an image
is a thing. I have miniatures that don't represent
anybody. But I have pictures that represent my
loved ones. And I don't go and talk to the pictures.
And I don't hug the pictures. And I don't lick
the pictures. We don't dance together. And we
don't eat dinner together. I eat dinner with
real people. And I hug them. And I don't usually
lick them. But I hold pictures in my hand. But
that ain't them. But the people are the people.
And we are supposed to be... miniature representatives,
if you will. If God is bigger than everything,
then we are miniature at best representatives
of the God of the universe. Created in His image.
And as a born -again Christian, that's what you
must do. His image is on you as a Christian.
His image is moving through you as a Christian.
And that's what's at stake. To this end, we are
His agents of forgiveness and His heralds of
righteousness and His ministers of reconciliation,
one and all. We become the body of Christ and
His body sacrifices itself for those who would
hear. Let me say that again. We become the body
of Christ and His body sacrifices itself for
an image in the minds of those who would know
God. You just need them to hear. You just need
them to see. You just need them to be reconciled.
Love others and do for them what you would have
done for you as an image bearer of the living
God. Now, there is an important aside here that
I have to say to you. It's important. It's very
important. And that is that snapshots are dangerously
misinterpreted. I've never played professional
football. But it would be entirely possible for
somebody to put me in a professional jersey and
uniform and pads and all that kind of thing and
then take me to a professional stadium with my
foot dragging across the line and I'm hovering
above the ground. I dive and catch a football
and someone who does not know me at all and I'm
wearing a helmet, whatever, and says Stevenson
across the back might think, oh, there's that
guy who played for whatever and think that I'm
a professional football player. Snapshots are
dangerous. What you see in a snapshot in a moment
in time, what you assimilate, causes people to
judge, causes people to feel a certain way about
people, and it can be bad. And it can be bad
for Christians. It's not what I'm talking about,
per se, and I'll show you why. At one point in
time, I met Elvis' half -brother at a conference,
and he told me a story. I'm just going to tell
you the first part of it so you can see the snapshot.
He said that he wanted to date a girl when he
was 17 years old, and she was a professing Christian.
And she said, no, I don't date. I can't date.
But what you can do is you can come to church
with me on Sundays and Wednesdays for youth group,
and we can see each other there. Not ride together,
but we'll meet each other there, and we'll see
each other there. And we're like, every girl
in the room right now is going like, oh, you
know, that's kind of a lot, isn't it? Doesn't
that make it seem like Christianity is kind of
really stodgy and, like, can't even date? I mean,
can't even date as a teenage girl? So that snapshot
makes her look kind of bad, right? It makes Jesus
look kind of bad because it's taking away from
us the basic things that seems like every right
in our society. I had over, I don't know, over
the last few decades, I've had at least three
conversations where I sat down with somebody
who was going to church, but they weren't going
to just one church. They were going here and
there and all over, and they weren't the church,
and they weren't doing ministry. They weren't
called to ministry in the church. They were just
kind of all over the place. And I said to them,
look, you've got to stop just going to church.
You've got to stop going to church. Because that's
not what it's about. It's not about just going
to church. It's about something more than that.
But if you take that snapshot, if there's that
conversation where I sit down with that person
and say, look, you've been coming to our church,
but I don't want you to come anymore. It's pretty
bad, isn't it? It's a pretty bad snapshot. Or
you sit down with somebody who's struggling financially.
Why are you struggling financially? I'm a Christian.
I've been struggling financially for years and
years, and I've never quite been there. We never
quite got there. And you say, well, I mean, I
hate to ask you this under these circumstances,
but do you tithe? Do you manage your money in
a biblical way? No, you know, I try to tithe.
I've done that up and down from time to time,
and I've been close. Sometimes I got close to
10%, whatever, like that. I say, well, you know,
if you're not going to do what God wants you
to do, then there really isn't any way I can
help you. That's a pretty bad snapshot, isn't
it? In that moment in time, that looks pretty
bad for the person who's saying, look, I can't
help you. I was at the life station. I had two
young ladies in the back of the room, and they
were taking turns coming in and out because they
wanted to hear the preaching, but they had a
little kid with them who was like less than a
year old, and they were acting up. and they were
trying to feed him and everything. So they were
taking turns going in and out so both of them
could hear as much of the preaching as possible.
There's a man sitting two rows in front of them,
and at the end, he'd come up to me. I'd talked
to him multiple times before. I'd shared the
gospel very clearly with him. He'd come up to
me, and he says, I'm going to ask you a question.
He started asking me some questions about some
Old Testament verses. And I said, I'm going to
stop you right there. So I'm going to stop you
right there. I'm just going to say to you, did
I clearly explain the gospel to you, that you
need to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
and if you accept him, you'll be saved. Then
after that, we can worry about all these other
things and maybe we won't even need to. Just
be born again. And he said, yes. And I said,
and you have not done that. You're not willing
to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
correct? And he said, that's correct. And I said,
okay, well, I'm just going to say it this way.
I'm done with you. I'm done. I've offered Jesus.
Jesus has offered himself and you're denying.
Now, I'm going to be blunt with you. There are
people in this room right now that's the same
way. Because you know the gospel. And instead
of Jesus being first in your life, instead of
him being Lord, which means he tells you what
to do and you do it. You're busy with your own
life, your own idea, fulfilling your own desires,
your own emotions. And so just the same as I
said to that person in a snapshot that looks
kind of ugly, I said, look, I'm just done. What
if God says that to you? And if you don't know
that that's possible in scripture, I'll show
you. It's a different sermon, but I'll show you
where it's absolutely possible. God said, look,
I offer, you deny, you decline. I'm done with
you until you settle this matter. And so, but
if you look at me in that moment saying to that
guy, I'm done with you. I've shared the gospel.
You won't listen. You won't accept Christ. I'm
done with you. And if you look in that moment,
that makes me look mean. It makes me look harsh.
It makes Christianity look judgmental, does it
not? Snapshots are dangerous. Had a recent conversation
with the person who professes to be a believer.
I love this person. I was under the impression
that this person loves me. In that conversation,
the person said to me, I was just about to start
to be faithful to God and do the things that
God wanted me to do. And now you and your church
have offended me and I'm not going to do that
now. To which I said to them, if you were going
to do it, you'd just do it. We're not going to
play that game. You're not going to blackmail
me. So don't say to me you were just about to
become faithful. I don't want to hear it. Now,
you take that snapshot. Does that not look mean?
Now let's go back over the stories again. The
story of Elvis' stepbrother. That young lady
that wouldn't date him that went to church, she
went to her church and got them praying. Twenty
-two years later, Elvis' stepbrother walks into
that church. He was in a hotel, read the gospel
in a Gideon Bible in a hotel, prayed to accept
Christ, and said, I've got to go to church. And
he went into that little country church outside.
I think it's, what is it, Memphis? That's where
Graceland is, right? Outside down there. And
he went to that little country church, and they
all... saw him come in and they got up and they
surrounded him and they were applauding that
he was there and they're like, what happened?
He said, I got saved. I don't know what's going
on. Why are you all doing this to me? And he
said, 22 years ago, they had put his name on
the prayer quest and they had not stopped praying
for him to be saved for 22 years. And that 17
-year -old girl who's now 39, married and with
six kids or something, living in another part
of the country, wasn't there. But her grandmother
was there and those people recognized that man,
the stepbrother of Elvis, the half -brother of
Elvis, and he was saved. saved and they had been
praying for him. And she said, as soon as we
get done with this service, I'm going to go call
my daughter. The girl that said, I can't date
you, but I want you to come to church. I'm going
to go call her because she's been praying for
you for 22 years. Now, does that girl look mean?
Does she look harsh? Does that snapshot speak
of reality? When she said, I can't date you because
you won't come to God. Does it speak of reality
now? No, it does not. The reality is that she
loved him. He didn't love her. She loved him
in the way that God wanted. She treated him the
way she would want to be treated. If she was
lost and going to hell, she would want somebody
to say what you really need. It's not a date
with a pretty girl, but God in your life. Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, to save you. Those are
true stories, by the way. The individual that
I spoke with, I said, look, several of them.
One walked away from our church, didn't come
back for years, and then said, boy, I screwed
that up. I should have been here the whole time.
Because it is another family that I went to have
that same conversation with. It was a Hispanic
family. And I'm not saying anything negative
about that. But when I went to go make my visit,
I was making a visit with a man and his wife.
And I got there. And all their kids and grandkids,
they were all there to visit with me. The pastor's
coming over. And I go in. There's an audience
of 13 people to talk to. And I told them all,
you've got to stop dating the church. You've
got to get in the church and be faithful in the
church and be the church. It's not about that.
And he said, well, you understand. He had come
to our church. That's how we got the conversation.
He said, well, you understand, if I do that,
it won't be your church because your church is
20 miles away. And I said, why do I care? I said,
I would love to have you, but you need to be
faithful and be the church and be fine with God.
So the very next week, they went to a church
in their local community where they had been
before, where they had a problem with the church
and a problem with the pastor. And he sat down
and had a conversation, joined that church, and
they're still there this day. It's been 20 years.
Now, does that snapshot where I said to them,
look, I don't want you to stop coming to my church,
does that make me look the same way as it did
then? No, it changes the image, right? So we've
got this idea. If you tell people what they're
doing wrong, if you reprove them, remember what
Leviticus said, you can reprove them. But that's
not love. And that's not true. You can reprove
and should correct. You can and should. And you
should point people to God. The verdict is still
out on the most recent conversation that I had
with this person. And I said, don't try to blackmail
me and tell me you're suddenly going to become
faithful because you could have done that all
the time. Verdict's still out. I don't know.
But the fact is this. God loves us. He wants
to use us as his image bearers. and it is not
your image that is at stake. It's His. The Christian
who confronts sin in a church member, the Christian
who tells someone that he has heard enough promises
to start being faithful, or tells someone that
they need to stop dating the church and become
faithful, or reminds them that tithing is biblical.
When I had that conversation years ago, I went
to Judy's house, and this is just one example,
but there are several. I went to her house, and
she said, well, I'm $180 short every month. There's
no possible way I can tithe. I said, well, how
much is your tithe? She said, well, it's like...
I'm like 80 bucks short. I'm like, so you're
$180 short. You tie, that's another $80. Now
you're $260 short. So it really is $180 short
or $260 short, that much difference really? I
mean, you're short anyway, right? And she goes,
well, you know, duh, that makes perfect sense.
And so she said, okay, I'm going to do it. From
now on, I'm going to tie. Took her to the doctor's
office, dropped her off, came back. By the time
we got back, she had a message on her answering
machine saying that they were no longer going
to require that she keep oxygen in her home.
That's $100 a month, just like that. And another
message on her answer machine saying that back
payment that you had on your oxygen, which is
almost $200 a month, you no longer have to pay
that now because you never used any of it anyway,
so we're going to take that off your bills. All
she did was say she was going to start, never
wrote a check, never gave a dollar, and the calls
were on her answer machine that balanced her
budget with her tithe in it. God is responding,
and everybody is on their way to meet him. And
therefore, we should treat people the way we
would want to be treated. And that involves love.
Sometimes the snapshot of what you're doing may
look harsh, but it really isn't. In the schools
or in Sunday school, when a teacher takes the
teenager's phones away and they're all like...
oh, I got to put my phone in there, right? I
saw a video online about how they're all walking
up to the thing, put their phone in there and
they're putting something else like their calculator
or whatever. They're keeping their phone in their
pocket because they don't want to give up. Like
it's the end of the world if you don't have a
cell phone. You do realize that adults who are
over 30, their childhood did not include a cell
phone. Their teenage years did not include the
internet. People were living and working and
enjoying themselves and doing tons of stuff before
you could ever get on social media. If you watch
sports or social media, you understand. That's
a new invention. In fact, the science is now
coming out saying that the electromagnetic waves
of your phone is screwing up your body. And by
the time we're, I'll probably be gone, but by
the time Ricky's old enough to be 75, we're going
to find out that cell phones are killing people.
And I don't know if the science is real, but
it's out there right now. It's not peer -reviewed
yet. The bottom line is, you don't need it. And
when a teacher tells you you don't need it, you
need to focus on this lesson, you need to learn
what I've got to teach you today, that's not
a bad thing. That's an expression of love. They
care that you get ahead from where you currently
are. When a police officer writes you a ticket,
everybody likes to be mad at the police when
you get a ticket, right? If you're a believer,
you shouldn't be mad at the police. You should
realize that police officer is literally dealing
justice, which is an expression of God's love
in our community. You know what it would be like
if we don't have police? Just go live in Detroit
for a while. You can't get a police officer to
come unless somebody's bleeding or actively stabbing
or shooting somebody. For a fist fight, somebody's
on the ground being kicked in the face, may die
in the next 30 seconds, they'll say, file a report
tomorrow. Make sure they get to the hospital.
Maybe we'll send an ambulance. Do they need an
ambulance right now? Okay, we'll send an ambulance.
No police, because it's not in the budget. We
need the police. And when they write you a ticket,
you should be grateful that you've gotten a ticket
because that's an expression of their love towards
you. All of these pictures, when you have experienced
Christ's love, loving others as he does, becomes
an incurable condition because his Holy Spirit
and your regenerated heart have this reinstated
purpose to love. The same love does not allow
you to continue to facilitate sinful behavior
or encourage ignoring God's offers of repentance.
Asking for repentance is loving your neighbor
as yourself because if you or I were in sin and
headed for hell or chastisement, we would want
to know that, wouldn't we? We would want to be
loved. We would want to be called to salvation.
Our job is not necessarily to respond. and therefore
protect our image, which we always want to do.
Explain why we did what we did. We want to say,
well, that really wasn't me, or I'm so sorry,
even though there's nothing to be sorry for.
Protect our image. Even though this may feel
like protecting our witness, or letting our light
shine, our job is not necessarily to prepare
how we should respond in order to protect our
image. Rather, our job is to learn to do unto
others the way we... would have them do unto
us. Is that not what the Scripture said? Because
our first -hand experience as humans makes us
uniquely able to understand what they're going
through and to do this, and because this is how
God calls us to represent Him. We protect and
guard and steward the image of God. More, we
are the image of God when we treat others the
way we would want to be treated. You came to
church today expecting a fairly normal sermon.
I don't know if that's what you're getting. I
hope you're hearing from the Lord. But now, you're
going to experience something that you've never
experienced before, because I'm going to stand
before you and take my pants off. You ready for
that? My shoes off because they're interfering
with my pants. Here we go. You don't have to.
It's all right. Let them see it, brother. It's
for the Lord. Okay. Here's my innerwear. Everyone
see my innerwear? Here's my innerwear. Because
Sean has never seen my underwear before. Okay.
Right? So there's my underwear. Right there.
Okay? Now, if you take a snapshot right now and
we stop right here, this is going to look like
not a very good idea. Right? It's probably shooting
across Europe right now. Right? Because it moves
pretty fast on the electronics of the internet
and that kind of thing. But last night, I had
a dream. I was standing before you. And my innerwear,
by the way, in my dream was white, but I couldn't
find my white pair today, so the Lord let me
use this pair instead. Standing in front of you,
preaching. I got up this morning, I'm getting
dressed, and I pray. Every Sunday morning, I
pray, okay, Lord, what do you want me to wear
today? He picks out my shirt, he picks out my
pants, and he picked out that I should wear innerwear.
I'm like, I want to wear innerwear in front of
the congregation. Lord, that's got to be kind
of weird. And he told me exactly how I was going
to do it, exactly what's going on right now.
What I want to say to you is, this is what it's
going to look like sometimes. You do not need
to protect your image. You don't. Whatever image
the world can see of you personally right now,
your mustache, your beard, your shiny forehead,
your big belly, or your tallness, or your shortness,
or your long hair, your short hair, your pinkish
lips, or your red lips, your bright lipsticks,
anything that you can make them see, it's all
going to be gone. And if anything about you in
person would lead you, would lead them to come
to Christ, the way you look, the way you talk,
the way you act that is not specifically Christ's
image, it's not the love of God, then the end
result of it is going to be they're going to
go to hell because they're going to get saved
by Tony or saved by Hannah or saved by Caleb.
And that's not how you get saved. You get saved
by Jesus. And so you need to realize that you
do not need to protect your image. Rather, you
need to learn how to exhibit His image in every
situation. And sometime it's going to come out.
that as you do some of that, maybe take off some
external trappings that you have, the way that
you look and so on, that if you strip down far
enough, get rid of just enough of the trappings,
suddenly, the message of Christ becomes clear.
I'm a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist
Church, and I know... That God sent his only
son to die for us. And you may have to strip
off some layers. You may have to stop talking
about sports. You may have to stop talking about
what your opinions are. You may have to stop
talking about your job. You may have to stop
talking about your family. You may have to start
talking about Jesus. You may have to share the
gospel and so on. Now, here's the great blessing.
We have a God who is a great provider. And here's
what's going to happen. When you strip off that
other stuff and make the image of Jesus the most
important thing, then the God of heaven is going
to use you to represent him. And in so doing,
using you to represent him. Oh, wow. There's
no way. I can't get my underwear off. In so doing,
he may give you the kind of clothes that you
won't mind standing in front of. Not yet. People
are hard to deal with. They're frustrating. It's
a common phenomenon that Christians are offended.
Our sensibilities about how people act. Then
we feel we have to distance ourselves from them,
people who do not act according to what we think
is right. Pull away. And at that point, it simply
makes us impossible. We cannot represent Christ
the way we are called to. When you stop talking,
You have nothing to say. When you start living
your life as love toward the people that you
encounter, which is to say treating them the
way you would want to be treated, the image of
God is not only marred, it's lost. But if you
trust the Lord and let him strip some things
off you that you think you need and begin just
loving people and living this way, which is to
say doing unto them as you would have them do
to you. then Jesus will give you a set of clothes
that you won't mind being out in public in. Those
things we call the fruit of the Spirit. And that's
what it means when he says, you are the light
of the world. Hang in there when they tell you
to shut up and love them even though they are
not treating you the way you would want to be
treated. Love them even though you are not being
treated the way you would want to be treated.
Let Christ's commanded love for them overrule
your fear, your anxiety, or your concern for
appearances, and just deliver a gospel -centered
existence into an otherwise ignorant situation.
And if you have a new heart, then you must never
stop saying or showing, I love Jesus, no matter
what they do to you. If they throw stones, literally.
Break bones, literally. Crucify, literally. Burn
us at the stake, literally. That's the examples
that we have. Real people who are ordinary people.
Most of whom would never take their pants off
in public. Crucified, stoned, and burned. No
matter what they do to us, we must not fail to
represent Christ. If you fail to represent Christ,
you throw away everything. Let me say that very
specifically. If you fail to represent Christ
in your relationships, you throw away everything
that Jesus died for. I love to think that Jesus
died so I can go to heaven one day. That's awesome.
but that is not what he died for. He died for
new life, and yes, that means eternal life for
all of us as we represent him and the Holy Spirit
resides in us. Don't throw away what he died
for. You may still be saved, but as through fire,
as even the image of you, the image of you, the
image of you must be burnt off so that the image
of him can remain on you for an eternity. It's
not your image that's at risk. Stop worrying
about what you look like. and get busy loving
people and doing unto them what you would have
them do unto you. If we fail to exhibit Him,
we fail in every way. I ask the praise team to
come forward at this time and lead us in the
final hymn. I would encourage you today, if you
realize that you're not exhibiting Christ in
your life, repent and turn to God and make Him
first. If you realize that you're not loving
people and doing unto them what you would have
them do unto you, even though you know they may
not, right? If you're not behaving that way,
if you're not treating people that way, then
you repent. It's not my command. If it was, you
could just ignore me. These are the words of
Jesus. Treat others the way you would have them
treat you. And remember, that is because we know
God is responding and everyone is on a journey.
Therefore, we must. And it's not... Our image,
that's at stake. Stop it. It's pride, arrogance,
evil spirits that make you think that you can't
look a certain way to get the job done. God willing,
you never will. But if he called you to take
your pants off in public, and you were sure it
was him, and souls were at stake, if he called
you to take a bullet in your brain because you
refused to renounce the name of Christ, you better
do it. Just be sure it's him. And then do whatever
he's called you to as you exhibit the image of
Christ on earth. As we sing, you respond if the
Lord's leading you to do so.