Hey, good morning everybody. So great to see you guys. Thanks for joining us.
Some of you guys know we started a series on Easter and we just called it,
Let's Talk About It, and addressing common questions in the faith.
And we began with the most fundamental thing was who is Jesus, right?
And we talked about how he's the eternal king. We talked about how he's the living one,
and that he's with us every single step of the way.
And so that was a great start. And then we talked about what, you know,
to be honest, one of the common questions we find is about the Bible.
How can we believe the Bible, depending on all the different things that people hear,
and we addressed it with different issues and different kind of background facts on those things.
And then we talked about last week is the issue about, well, how can God be good
if, you know, there's so much evil and suffering in the world?
And we understand if that's a question that people are wrestling with,
and many of us have wrestled with that, and maybe continue to wrestle with that,
depending on our background. And so we understand those things.
And this morning we're continuing that series. And to be honest, part of it is kind of premised on
the question about how you get to heaven, right? And we always try to make that clear, right?
In church, doesn't everybody try to at least make that part clear?
And so even with kids' ministries, all that, and there was a children's ministry teacher I heard about
that she was trying to test her kids that, hey kids, how do we get to heaven?
That kind of a thing. It's like, do we get it by giving all our stuff away
and helping people? And then a class went, no! Right?
And then he says, do we get it by just kind of being nice to people
and doing all good around the world? And they went, no! And then she said this,
well, so how do we get to heaven? And all of a sudden it was like this, super quiet.
And then one of the kids from the back says, well, you've got to be dead first.
And you know, well, that's a fair thing, right? You don't get the new one
until you turn in the old one first, right? And so we understand how that is.
But even kids get a little confused, and so people get confused as well.
And one of the things that I think that we see about this aspect is that to be honest,
so often we think about that, about being good, to be honest.
And that we, you know, there's great value in being good, but sometimes when we look at this,
you get a little bit of a comparison. You guys ever been like this at least?
You know, I know I'm not perfect. Everybody says that. How many of you guys agree we're not perfect?
Right? Nobody's perfect, right? But sometimes you ever get that where you just kind of go like,
but at least I'm not like, right? And I know at least, you know, I'm better than, you know,
this one right there kind of a thing. And I've thought that, you know, when, I might not have been the best,
but it reminds me of when I was still a bunch younger, just became a believer,
I was going to church on the North Shore, so we'd hang out on the North Shore all day.
And in the summer we would swim. We'd swim in Waimea Bay, right?
I don't know if you guys have ever, like I mentioned, summer that I would swim in Waimea Bay.
I wasn't a guy to go surfing in Waimea Bay in the summer, in the winter.
But in the summer, it's just like a flat like a lake, and we'd be filled with schools of HALALU.
Which is a big-eyed skat, if you kind of know what that is.
And it's a great fishing thing, but there would be schools like as big as this room.
And, you know, it's just fun to swim out, and, you know, when the, you know, away from the fishermen,
sometimes I'd just like dive through, be like, y'all, kind of like, you know, swim and it parts, right?
And there would be sailboats would come and dock in the bay.
And so sometimes you'd swim out there and, you know, chit chat, talk story with the guys on the boat,
and one day I'm out there and I'm talking to this guy or lady on the boat,
and then I noticed there's a kid that was right next to me, right?
And he saw I was out there, and so he came out and so I'm talking to the boy.
And then all of a sudden, we just see all these fish going like this chit chit chit chit chit, jumping on the surface, right?
And the guy on the boat just looks at the place where the fish jump, and then he looks at us.
And then a little further, it goes around and we see all the fish jump chit chit chit chit chit.
And he looks at the fish and he looks at us.
Now, why, you know what? Anybody know what that means when the fish are jumping out of the water like that?
There's something that wants to eat them, right?
So they'll jump out of the water to get out of the way, right?
And so the next time he's just making a circle, just seeing his circle, jumping chit chit chit,
and then he looks at the fish and then he looks at us.
And this is what I thought.
I might not be the fastest swimmer in the world, but I just got to be faster than this kid.
And then we both kind of made it in, right?
And, you know, thankfully nobody got injured or anything,
but we couldn't tell if it was a giant papilla of fish or it was a shark, right?
So the thing is that, but this is the thing, it's comparison.
I didn't need to be the best. I just needed to be faster than him, right?
And so sometimes we can think about it like that, but this evening or this weekend,
you know, we're addressing this not because that for some of us or many of us,
we've already settled this issue. We know it's not about how good I am,
but to be honest, it is a, there's a, generally most of us, we feel this imperative.
We feel this drive that we are supposed to be good, right?
That there's, there's a value in being good and there is tremendous value in being good.
Let's say that there's tremendous value in being good.
But sometimes then that becomes translated isn't being good, good enough, right?
You know, I don't, I don't have to worship in a church.
I don't have to worship with other people. I worship when I'm out in nature, right?
I worship when, and people will say all these kinds of things and I understand.
So if you've already settled this issue and you have peace with this issue and you realize this,
you know, this, in that sense, this message isn't for you.
It's for the people that you talk to. It's for the people that you live with.
It's for the people that you, that you work around.
And but for some of us, to be honest, this, this is a legitimate question.
And a lot of us have asked this. I know I've asked this at different seasons in my life.
And so we're going to look at three different kind of permutations that that takes.
And then we're going to look at a thing at the end of that.
But so there's four points this morning. And I know it's a little different,
but I'm just going to be really kind of talking about what sometimes I engage,
when I engage with people, some of the things that I hear.
And so implied with that, I think is this, that when people said,
don't you know, isn't being good good enough kind of implied in that is, you know,
I'm good, you know, I'm basically good, right? You know, I know I'm not perfect.
And I get that all the time. I know I'm not perfect, you know, but I don't murder.
I don't steal. I don't rob people. I try to follow the golden rule, right?
But, but here's the thing. There's a problem with trying to be good to get into heaven.
And one of those things is that we can always qualify what we can always define what is good, right?
Have you guys ever tried to work with people to solve a problem?
And he says, what's the good answer to this problem?
Like how we take care of our parents? Sometimes, man,
that's not an easy question, right? So like, this is good. So like, what's a good vacation?
Sometimes we cannot even decide that, right? Like, what's the best way to raise our kids?
Sometimes that's not the easiest question, right? And so, because there's a lot of different perspectives.
And then you've got to think about, like, what percentage of your actions has to be good, right?
Is it, is it like school? 90% in A, 80% of B, 70% of C,
and 60% of D, but it's still called passing. How many of you guys know that? D is still passing.
My, one time I asked my kids, how, how are you in school? And then one of my sons said, oh, I'm pretty good.
And then I saw the report guy go like, you and I, we have different definitions, right? That kind of a thing, right?
And so, some of us, we just think this, as long as my good, I have more good than bad, shouldn't that be enough?
So what does that mean? 50.1, right? Right? 50.1. That would be more, right? That would be more.
But, you know, if God had a percentage like that, that that's how he judged, you know, how many of you guys in school,
you've ever been in that place that you go like, sorry, missed it by that much, right? You took the final.
Could you imagine standing before God and just saying, waiting for the final tally, and then God come to you and say,
sorry, missed it by that much, right? If God doesn't do that, he wants us to be able to understand clearly where we stand.
And so even this morning, that's kind of like that point. I'd like us to understand where we stand clearly,
because he doesn't want you to guess and hope that one day when you die, I have no idea what's going to happen when I die.
He doesn't want you to be in that place. He wants you to have confidence. Do me a favor, turn to your neighbor and says,
God wants you to have confidence. But it's just not in how good you are, right?
And so what we find is, in fact, what God says about that is that not only is nobody perfect, but it's kind of like to the core to each person.
It says it like this in Romans chapter 3. It says, as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even, how many? One, not even one.
There's no one who understands. There's no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have all become together, become worthless.
There is no one who does good, not even one. Now, is this saying God is saying you guys all evil and rubbish? No.
He's just saying nobody's going to get into heaven by being good, because to be honest, none of us are that good.
You know, like when my son, last week, he was saying he wanted to eat pizza, and we make pizza at our house every once in a while,
but when we make pizza, I always make the dough. So I said, I can make the dough if you want. He says, yeah, I'll make the pizza.
I worked in a pizza shop. I'm an expert. And so I said, no problem.
And so on Saturday or Friday, I started making the dough for Sunday, right? So it gets that yeasty kind of full taste.
And Rika, my wife said, hey, why don't you tell Marky to come down and then he can learn how to make that dough for himself so he doesn't depend on you.
I said, that's a good idea. So my son's upstairs in his room, and I already kind of got some stuff in my hand, but you know, I get to manage the text.
Marky, you want to learn, come down and learn how to make pizza dough? And this was his response.
No, I'm good. I felt all warm all over. I'm so glad you're good. No, that's not what I felt. I was like a little irritated.
And my response was not really, right? You're not really right. And because the thing is that good to what? Right?
Because sometimes it's a comparison. And yeah, sure. This is the problem about comparing yourself to say that you're good.
Because inevitably, most of us, this is what we do. We compare our strong suit. We compare our strengths to somebody else's weakness.
Right? And everybody has weakness. And everybody has strengths. And you know, sometimes that people get discouraged when we compare our weakness to somebody else's strength.
And you know, to be honest, that people do that all the time today. You know what you call that? Social media. Right?
When they look at that and they're comparing their life to somebody's highlight reel. And the reality is if you even ask them, that's not how they live.
Right? That's what was staged. And so what we have to understand today, people do that all the time. And that's one of the reasons that even, you know, governments, they're trying to struggle.
How can we limit social media? Because you know what? They found as social media increases, depression, anxiety among youth are just rampant.
It's out of control. But it's not just youth, right? It's like when you get in this comparison game, it just kills you. It robs something of you.
And so God says, no, that's not the standard by which we get to heaven. And then at times I hear people say this,
well, you know, I just try to let my conscience be my guide. Right? And not that Jiminy Cricket is sitting on their shoulder or anything.
But it's good to have a good conscience. Right? How many of you guys want to have a good conscience? It's easy to go to sleep at night when we have a good conscience.
Right? But to be honest, here's the problem with conscience. Conscience is good, but it's not enough. Right?
Conscience is good, but it's not enough because anybody here ever have a bad habit? Right? Yeah, if you have a bad habit, though, this is one of the things that you learned.
You didn't always have a bad habit. We develop bad habits, right? So if the first time you smoked is horrible, wasn't it?
The first time you smoked anybody, the first time you smoked was horrible. But somehow you got over that.
And then the next time it wasn't so bad, it wasn't so bad. And the next thing, you know, it's just normal. Right?
You know what that shows us? Our consciences are malleable. They're not the same. It's not static. The more that you go against your conscience, you know what happens?
That just becomes normal. Nobody's born with a drinking problem. Right? Nobody's born with a drug problem. Nobody's born with an anger problem.
These are things that develop. Right? And why do they develop? Because our conscience can be shaped.
And if you look at anybody, nobody started that way. Right? When we were kids, we were a little, you know, rascal.
We were a little kolohe. At times we, we, there's one day, I remember, I don't know who thought of it, but there were these little rocks in my grandfather's yard
that fronted like this big street, but there were these giant bushes in the front. And so this is what we thought.
Like somebody said, I bet you I can hit the car with the little rock. Right? As it drives by. And so we would try to do that.
And then all of a sudden one day this, this car pulls in and this uncle, big uncle, like, what is wrong with you kids?
And they're like, that's what got us to stop. Right? And so like all of a sudden we couldn't tie our action. Right?
To some kind of a negative result. It started as a little rock. But you know, in Colorado this week, there's three teenagers,
they had the same idea, except they use rocks like this and they were driving in the opposite direction.
And they thought it would be fun to throw rocks at oncoming cars. Unfortunately, they struck a woman through the windshield,
gave her this massive head wound and she died. She died. They got arrested this week.
And the thing is that when they saw what happened, they didn't know she died, but that the car pulled off the road.
They turned around to take pictures. And there's one of the kids said that when he saw what had happened,
he felt a little bit guilty. And one of the other kids got kind of excited. They didn't start like that.
In fact, they did it seven times before that night. But it probably started like me with the little rock.
And it just, right? And is, am I saying this because these kids are evil? No.
But we all know that your conscience, it didn't start like that. And so that's the problem a little with conscience,
is that our conscience, even though God given, it needs to be strengthened. It needs to be built.
If your conscience is not being built with truth, with God, with courage, to be honest, your conscience goes often in the wrong way.
There's a lot of people do a lot of crazy stuff and they go to bed totally okay. It doesn't bother them. Why?
Because their conscience, the Bible talks about gets seared. It gets scarred.
You guys ever, you guys, anybody have any scars on you? You know, like I got some, I got a knee surgery.
I have different things. And you know, one of the things that was noticeable was that this is what was noticeable.
There was no feeling in that area. And so sometimes this is what happens.
It's the reason why you don't feel guilty because you don't feel anything. Right?
And so it says it like this in 1 Timothy 4.
The Spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits.
And things taught by demons, such things, such teachings come through hypocritical liars.
Who's what? Consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
It's the same, you know. Hey, when I yell at my girlfriend or I yell at my boyfriend or I yell at my kids or whatever it is,
in the beginning you feel bad. You keep doing it. It's just normal. Right?
And so this is the problem with conscience. It can change and often changes depending on what you feed it.
And so that's one of the problems. So we don't get in because we just try to follow our conscience.
Although following your conscience is good if you have a good conscience. Right?
Following your conscience is good if you have a good conscience.
Now, some people will say this then.
Well, shouldn't I just be true to myself? The world is crazy. I don't know about the world.
I cannot change anything. I just got to be true to myself. Right?
And there's some sense about that. We know if we want to be the best self that's out there, that's good. Right?
Where does this come from? You know, Robert Frost said it like this,
that two roads diverged in the wood and I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference.
Like, hey, everybody was going down this road. I went another way and that made all the difference in the world.
Before Robert Frost, Shakespeare said this, this above all else to thine own self, what? Be true.
Right? And so in Western culture, this aspect of being true to yourself is like such an important part.
And yeah, okay, but here's the thing, true to yourself, but what's in your heart that you're going to be true to?
Because sometimes we say this, I just want to follow my heart. That's an extension of that. Right?
I just want to follow my heart. But isn't that dependent on what's in your heart?
Anybody know somebody with an angry heart? Do you want them just to follow their heart?
No, because maybe what will happen is then somebody driving on the freeway,
not that any of us ever get mad driving on the road, but that you interpret somebody to disrespect you or cut you off,
and then what happens? Just fly into rage. Right?
So they arrested a gentleman, right, the other day because he'd been doing this for months. Right?
We're not asking that guy, follow your heart. And by the way, you don't sit over there.
That guy's not over here. I just kind of stick in my hand out like that.
But just, he's not Quentin. But here's, we don't want that guy to follow his heart. Right?
If you had moved into a place and you have a young daughter or you have a wife or whatever,
and then you notice that your neighbor, he's a peeping Tom, do you want him to follow his heart?
Absolutely not. It depends on what's in your heart. Right?
And so if everything was good, then that would be great. Right?
If everybody was just all good, then that would be wonderful. But what if somebody just says this,
even if I see something I like, it's mine to take. Right?
Then if that's filling your heart, then we wouldn't want that, would we?
You know who agrees with that? CVS, Nike, Walmart.
Because they're closing a bunch of these stores in some major cities like Portland, San Francisco,
because they are saying this. There's people that say, hey, you know what?
If I see it, I need it or I want it, that's good enough. I'm just going to take it.
And they're not able to stay profitable. Theft is so high. Right?
Lost prevention officer, they're trying to figure out how to do this stuff
and let it still be available for people that we don't, you cannot lock everything up. Right?
But to be honest, this is not a mainland problem. Because anybody who works in retail
or you have friends who work in retail, ask them, how bad is this problem?
My daughter who was working in a clothing store just said that every day people come in and still,
and to be honest, they know who they are, some of them. Right?
They walk around, and you know what? It's out of control. Ask your friends if they work in retail.
They'll tell you, this is not a mainland problem. This is just a problem today. Right?
And so today people are struggling about this aspect. Right?
So it's like, if it's not just follow my heart, right? If it's not just this aspect of,
hey, I just do what I want. And so I need to see, be just true to be true to myself.
If that doesn't work, then why is that? Because God says this, that to be honest,
at times it's what's in our hearts the problem. And to be honest, you and I, at times,
we don't even know what's in our heart. There's been times where I've scolded my kids,
why did you do that? And what is the answer? I don't know.
And I used to think, you don't know. And then I look back at my own life.
And there's been many times that basically people have told me, why did you do that?
And I use different words, but the answer basically is, I don't know. Right?
And because I don't know. I didn't know at the time. Sometimes you know when? Later.
At times you know later. Sometimes I thought, I'm doing this for your good
when in reality I was doing it for my good. Right? But sometimes you don't see it.
You justify. And so this is what God says in His word. Jeremiah 17.9.
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is? But I the Lord search all hearts and examine secret motives.
Sometimes it's like even secret to you. I give all people their due rewards
according to what their actions deserve. The reality is all of us were a mixed bag.
Right? We're all a mixed bag. Some of those thoughts are great. And to be honest,
some of those thoughts we hope that they never go beyond a thought. Right?
Because all of us have those kinds of capacities. Now, there's a couple kind of permutations out there
that sometimes gets kind of mixed in that is the fact that at times people will say this.
This whole aspect of being good is sometimes people will talk about like,
isn't it just everybody has their own way? Every culture has their own way?
Isn't it enough that people just follow their culture? Right?
Because what's wrong in one culture might not be wrong in another culture.
And I understand that because we travel around the world. We're in Myanmar.
We go to Fiji, Japan, different places. We've been in Philippines, in China.
And yeah, some of those places are good. But you know, I've gone to Fiji.
I didn't get to go this last trip and the trip before because of like a family thing.
But I've been a number of times and whenever I go, the welcome is tremendous.
They do a lovo which is like an emu. That's the thing is, and you know, like roast pig, all this stuff.
It's like amazing, super. Food in Fiji is killer. I just couldn't say that.
But I'm glad I didn't go to Fiji 200 years ago. You know why?
Because what might be on the menu 200 years ago might be me.
I don't know if you guys knew that, but they don't talk about it today.
But some people say, love your neighbors and some people say, eat your neighbors.
And it's like, which one would you rather say? That's just my culture.
Every culture is able to enshrine its best values and its worst.
If you look at our culture, we enshrine our best values and our worst values.
The things that we just say, it's like, to be honest, sometimes we know it's not great.
Sometimes we know it costs. Sometimes we know it's painful. Sometimes we know it's wrong, but it's legal.
Every culture has that capacity. Every culture has things that it enshrines, both good and bad.
And so this is why it's like just being true to myself, just being true to my culture, right?
To be honest, we can get away with a lot, right?
Every war that is fought, every war that is fought has people who are sincere on both sides.
Every war that is fought has people who are true to themselves or true to their country on both sides.
And so this is the thing, right? If that's all we're left with, not only are we not going to be good,
sometimes we're capable of horrendous evil.
Well, what's the solution then? If that's not how we get to heaven, well, how do we?
And the Scripture gives us some insight.
And one of those things is just be mindful is that we'll all stand accountable to God one day.
It doesn't matter who we are, it doesn't matter where we live, but this is true for each person.
And what are we standing accountable for? Well, a number of things.
Second Corinthians 5.10 says, we must all stand before Christ to be judged,
and we will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or the evil we have done in this earthly body.
So some of it is we're judged by what we do, right?
And to be honest, if you are at work, you're often judged by what you do, right?
But there's other things that you get judged by. What do you get judged by at work sometimes?
Attitude, right? I mean, you guys ever know this guy has a great attitude,
he has a positive attitude, so we promote that.
Well, God says at the same time, it's also our attitudes as well.
It's not always just what we do, but he says also what's in our hearts.
He said this in Matthew 5, 21 to 22. He says, you have heard that our ancestors were told you must not murder.
If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment. Obviously, that's universal, but he says this,
but I say to you, if you are even angry with someone, you're subject to judgment.
If you call someone an idiot, you are a danger of being brought to the court.
If you curse someone, you're in the danger of the fires of hell.
I read that for the first time, I go like, dang, I'm in deep kimchi, man.
I've done all these things. And here's the thing, God says this because, why?
Is it because he's trying to say to people, you guys are all worthless? No.
He's just trying to give us a reality check.
Because when I compare myself with my strength to my friend, or my neighbor, or to some guy I see on the street,
and I compare myself to their weakness, it's easy to feel good about myself.
But when I compare my weakness to somebody's strength, not so much.
He's trying to give us a reality check. It's not that saying to be good, trying to be good, is meaningless.
It's not saying that. It's good to try to be good.
It's not saying it's worthless to try to be sincere. No, be sincere. Don't be fake.
But it doesn't get you in the heaven, he's saying. Our societies would be better if we were, in some sense, true to ourselves.
But it presupposes, and we'll answer this later, what does it mean to be true to ourselves?
And what we're looking at this morning is, really God's just trying to say, like my son, I'm good.
And God's saying, I've got to be honest, not really.
There's a Shreed Evangelist guy, his name's Ray Comfort. Anybody know who that is?
He has this little exercise that, when he talks to people in the street, and I've done this for a number of years too,
as a missionary working with college kids, we were just, I've been all over, just talking with people,
approaching people in the street, doing different things. And sometimes we can share the gospel about Jesus,
we can share about God's love. But when we talk about this problem that God says that we're broken and we have sin,
sometimes people say, are you calling me a sinner? And I said, no, I'm not calling you a sinner.
The Bible is just saying, that's the case for everybody. And so sometimes people have a hard time reconciling that.
And so they'll say, no, no, no, I don't steal, I don't cheat, I haven't done all those things.
But then this is what he'll do. He'll run through these questions, and he says this,
let me just ask you this question, and we can play along, okay? Let's just play along, and you can answer for yourself.
He says this, he goes, I'm not going to judge you, I'm just going to ask you these questions.
And he goes, okay, go ahead, shoot. Have you ever told a lie? Yes.
And then he goes, what do you call a lie? What do you call a person who lies? A lie, right?
Then he goes this, have you ever taken something that doesn't belong to you? Yes. What do you call that? A thief, right?
Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain? Like you hit your thumb with a hammer or whatever it is, like, yes.
What do you call that? The blasphemer, right? And he says this, have you ever had lustful thoughts about someone other than your spouse,
or had sexual relations with somebody who's other than your spouse? If you had puberty, you say yes, right?
What do you call that? An adulterer. And he says this, last one, he goes, well, I don't know, it's always depending,
but he goes, have you ever hated anyone? Yeah. And then he says this, Jesus said that if you hate someone in your heart,
it's like you a murderer. So he says, by your own words, you said that I'm a lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterous murderer, right?
So when you stand before God, if you try to stand on your goodness, how do you think it's going to go?
He said, not so good. Well, so is God just his business trying to tell people how miserable they are? No, absolutely not.
But sometimes until we can get honest with our weakness, we cannot receive God's solution. Why? Because we won't care, right?
We won't care. There's people out there that just don't care. Why? Because they don't realize their needs.
So that's what he's just trying to do when he does that. But so if we don't get away from just judging myself next to the next person,
who do I judge myself against? Really? Yeah, against God, against Jesus. And so this is God's solution.
I will send my son to live a life that you could never live, that you haven't lived. But he doesn't sin, he doesn't, he does good things,
but he has a goodness in his heart, right? And then because you and I, we cannot, we cannot always do right, and we haven't always done right.
And what we talked about is the reason why we're sinners is not because we sin, but it's we sin because we're sinners.
That's just the human condition. There's no human being that doesn't have that drive and proclivity in them,
times to be selfish, to take advantage, to hide, to lie, to do all those things. There's nobody who doesn't have that weakness.
This is what he said, I'm going to pay for that by putting all that on my son. So he says it like this in Romans chapter 3.
Let's take a look at what it says. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law.
So it's not trying to balance my good and my bad, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.
We are made right with God, how? By placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
And so when God looked across the planet, and he saw that to be honest, who once sin entered the world,
every person broken, reproduces a broken human being.
And so he says, nobody's going to make it. So I got to make the way for people to make it.
And he says this, for everyone has sinned, and we all fall short of God's glorious standard.
Is he trying to rub it in? No, he's just trying to make it clear.
Yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight.
He did this to Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Does he make us sinless? No, he doesn't.
But what he does is, he comes to take the penalty for our sins.
And when we put our faith in him, at that point, this is what God does.
He takes something in us that has been dead to him, our spirit, and makes it alive.
And so now there's a capacity to become responsive to God.
And then he says this, for God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin,
and people are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life shedding his blood.
This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past.
Some people think, well, what about all the people who died before Jesus?
For he was looking ahead, including them in what he would do in this present time.
God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just.
And he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
God doesn't grade on a curve, right?
He doesn't judge you by the next person.
At least you're better than him, right?
He doesn't say just be sincere.
So what does God do?
God is not in the business of trying to pick and choose and say, hey, you go to hell, and you go to heaven.
That's not how God works.
What is he saying?
He says the reality, if that we all were honest, he says, humanity, that means you and me too.
It's like we're all shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean, and we're floating.
We're destined to drown and die because of our inabilities, right?
We cannot rescue ourselves.
We cannot swim to the mainland.
We cannot do those things.
But this is what God does.
He doesn't just blame you for being in the ocean.
This is what he does.
He says, let me send you a lifeline.
He's called Jesus.
You don't have to pay for it.
You don't have to earn it.
You don't have to deserve it.
All you got to do is you got to recognize that on your own, you're just not good enough.
You're drowning.
He says, if that's the case, you grab ahold of him and you get rescued.
Why?
Because you had great grip?
No, because of the goodness of God.
And that's more or less the picture of it, right?
God desires everybody to be saved.
God desires everybody to be part of the family.
God loves every person, even the guy who threw the rock this week and took a life.
Unfortunately, he'll pay.
He'll still have to pay for his crime in an earthly sense.
But that kid can be forgiven.
What about the guy who has an anger problem and chasing people down and ever?
Like, does God love that person?
Absolutely.
You know what he's saying?
I want to forgive you too.
But we just need to be willing to be forgiven.
How do you do that?
Just be honest with yourself.
Be honest that we're not perfect.
Be honest, right?
And then it says this, if getting into heaven was based on how good we are, what would heaven be like?
Nobody would want to be in heaven by then.
You know, I was like, in heaven it'd be like this.
So, Corrie, what did you do?
You were in heaven.
Oh, man, I was good.
I just helped all these people fix their cars.
I did all this stuff.
I served people and I would be like this.
Well, that ain't nothing.
You want to know what I did?
It'd be filled with braggers, right?
If that's what heaven was like.
But instead it says this in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.
That's what it says.
It says, instead, God saved you by His what?
Grace.
He gave you something you didn't deserve.
When?
When you believed.
When you can't take credit for this, it's a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for what?
The good things we have done so that none of us can boast.
Every once in a while I get a conversation with somebody and they get a little upset.
You know, because they think that in that process it's like we're saying that we're better than them.
And so sometimes it comes like this.
You, self-righteous Christians.
You guys ever heard that one?
To be honest, if we're really honest about it, a Christian is the least self-righteous person there is.
Because what you're saying is, no, I'm guilty.
I'm not good enough.
I just recognize it, right?
And that's what it's saying.
None of us can brag about this stuff.
Our righteousness is because all we were able to do was we recognized we needed him.
We recognized that he was kind and gracious and merciful and we received it.
That make sense?
And so some of us, to be honest, there's people in your life that they're stuck trying to earn their way.
They're stuck trying to justify, trying to be sincere and trying to be kind.
And so when we have a conversation, I'm not asking you to go blow them out of the water now.
But sometimes this is the thing is we don't see the logical end of our belief, right?
And so it's just this.
We all think we're good when we compare ourselves to somebody else.
But that's not what God judges us on.
And so the good news is this, everyone can find a way.
Because he says everyone, it doesn't matter where you've been, what you've done, and for many of us, it's a lot.
And I would say I'm one of those.
But when you recognize the kindness and mercy in God, then you can be open to receive it.
Does that make sense?
Hey, let's bow our heads.
We're going to pray.
Father, this morning, Lord, it's not trying to tell everybody that they're evil.
Lord, you just want us to be honest with ourselves.
Sometimes we use words and we use things in a kind of imprecise and we use it in a kind of general way.
And it's good to be good.
We're thankful.
There's value in that.
It's good to be sincere, it's good to follow our conscience.
But Lord, we know that the reality is none of us, none of us are good enough.
None of us can earn our way.
Lord, all of us, if we're really honest, we have our good parts, but we have parts.
Lord, if we acted on all the things that go through our heart,
Lord, this would be a terrible, worse world than it even already is.
But Father, we're thankful that you don't leave us to our own devices.
You came to be with us.
You came to be one of us.
You came to do the thing that we could never do and to pay the price none of us wants to pay.
And so Father, today we pray that those who are struggling with that,
Lord, I pray that they would have confidence, not because of their goodness,
but because of your goodness.
Lord, not because of their ability, but because of your ability.
And even when we take communion this morning, would your presence cover kind of like that spirit of judging themselves,
of feeling less than?
But Father, we're thankful as well that even if we haven't come to that place where we've been honest with ourselves,
we can. We can today.
And if you're here today, and to be honest, you've never said yes to Jesus because you just wanted to do it yourself.
This is the, this is the, it's good and it's bad, but God will let you do it by yourself.
If you say, God, I don't want you, Jesus, I don't want you, God will let you do that.
But can we just say this? If you just forward the tape, I don't think it ends well.
So this is why he's saying, let me help you.
Let me save you. Trust me.
And what you'll find is I'm good and I'm kind.
And this is, if that's you this morning and you're just, you're recognizing, if I'm real honest, yeah, I need Jesus.
That's you today. We're going to pray a real simple prayer.
And would you join along with me, whether you're at home or you're in the house,
and we're going to pray a real simple prayer. Let's pray.
Dear God, I haven't always been good.
I haven't always followed my conscience. I haven't always been sincere.
But I have my weakness.
But today, I turn away from what I know is wrong.
And I put my faith in Jesus.
Thank you that He died in my place.
So I wouldn't have to.
Would you come live inside me today?
Would you fill me with your presence?
Would you renew my spirit?
Forgive my sin.
Cleanse my heart.
And help me to grow.
To know you more.
To know your will and your ways.
To hear your voice.
And to grow deeper in my relationship with you.
I want to follow you.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for choosing me.
And would you bring people in my life
who are in this journey of faith as well.
That I can know you as an individual.
But I can know the strength and encouragement
of community, of relationships.
I say this so you can hear me.
And I can hear myself.
That Jesus Christ, you're my Savior.
You're my Lord.
And I belong to you.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Hey, can we say congratulations to those folks?
So this morning, what we want to do is
when we take communion,
that's why communion is a big deal.
Because it reminds us it wasn't us.
It was Him.
Here's my encouragement.
We practice in open communion so you don't have to be a member.
But if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus,
we invite you to take communion with us.
But here's the one encouragement
and the one thing I want you to just consider.
The scripture says in 1 Corinthians,
when it comes to communion,
He says that you just have to not take it in an unworthy manner.
In other words, don't just think,
ah, just drinking juice and eating bread.
Now we don't really believe that that bread becomes
the body of Jesus and the juice becomes the blood.
But we do believe this.
That when we celebrate the Lord's sacrifice,
that Jesus comes in a very real manner
and fills our heart and fills this space.
So this is why He says,
so if there's something to get right, just get right.
Right? Something to confess, confess it.
Something to surrender, surrender it.
If you're cross-wise with somebody
and you've been all bitter and you've felt justified in being bitter,
you might be in some sense,
but don't let your bitterness become normal.
Make a decision.
Try to make peace.
As much as it depends on you, that's what it's saying.
And so if that's the case, then we say,
if you judge yourself, this is the good news,
you know what He says? Then I don't judge you.
Right? So that's that part.
Because He says, some of us, we don't consider that
and we don't care and we think it's nothing.
And He says, and believe me, He says,
sometimes it results in bad things in our lives.
So He says, just be mindful of that.
But we're going to invite you to take the elements in the back.
And if you need to get right, you need to pray,
you need to talk to Him.
That's what that time, we're going to have a time of silence
and then we'll pray together and take the elements.
Elements are in the back.
As you guys own place, go ahead.
Spirit, would you search our hearts today?
And we're asking God that you would forgive us
for some of the things that we've done,
but for some of the things we didn't do.
God, we know that even in this life,
when we try our best, we fail.
But Lord, we're thankful when we take these elements,
what you're saying is we're not failures, we're redeemed.
Father, we're thankful that when we take this,
when we confess our weakness,
you said then we find strength.
And Father, for some who are trying to battle,
some battle, and that, Lord, we don't know if we're going to win.
We thank You that when we take these elements,
what we're saying is we're not contending for victory,
we're contending from Your victory.
That, Lord, You won the battle, that You paid the price,
that You shed Your blood, that You broke Your body,
that, Lord, and that's enough.
It's enough to get us in the kingdom.
It's enough to forgive our sin,
but, Lord, that we still need it today.
Father, today, I need it more today than I did the first time.
God, and I'm thankful, it reminds me that You're here right now.
So Spirit of God, would You come, descend on Your people,
be to them the Spirit of strength, the Spirit of encouragement,
Lord, to silence every foul voice,
Lord, to break every chain.
Father, that it's not our strength, it's not our goodness.
We celebrate Yours.
Thank You that You thought of us.
Thank You that You chose us.
Lord, it's because You chose us, it's why we responded.
It's because of Your sacrifice today.
Would You take the bread?
Father, we thank You that although this is bread and juice,
Lord, we want to meet You as we remember
that Your body wasn't just broken for the sin of the world,
it was broken for me, and I am grateful,
and I'm reminded as I take the bread.
Would You take the bread?
And Lord, I don't stand in my own goodness today.
I'm standing in the robes of righteousness which You purchased
by the shedding of Your blood.
Lord, I'm thankful I don't have to outweigh my bad by doing extra good
or some sacrifice.
Lord, You said that You're cutting a new covenant that by faith,
putting my hope and my faith in You,
Lord, that You make me right with You.
And we're thankful the cup reminds us.
And Lord, we pray that that Spirit of righteousness,
Lord, would fill us today. Would You take the cup?
So Father, today we stand.
And Father, what we declare is that by Your stripes,
Lord, that we're healed.
Father, would You heal hearts that are wounded and broken?
God, would You be touching bodies that have been ill
or have been wounded?
Father, we're praying, God, that whatever it is
that we're contending against the enemy.
We're thankful, Lord, that we do it from victory
because You purchased the victory, Lord, not in some vain hope.
Lord, we're thankful that we're not just righteous
because we always act righteous,
but we stand in Your righteousness, Lord, we need You.
And so Father, pour out Your presence, pour out Your power,
pour out Your covering, Lord, every person, every family.
Lord, we just need it and we pray, God,
would we be a blessing to our home,
a blessing to our community, Lord, a blessing to our islands.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you for listening to this video.