You are listening to the sermon podcast from Rocky Creek Church. Find more resources online at Rocky Creek dot church. I invite you to turn with me to all my favorite passages of scripture. We're going to be in Luke chapter 6 verses 20 through 26.
I brought up my golf driver here today with the driver warmer which is just a couple things you need to know about this. This is my favorite animal in the Bible. Okay, by the way, just to know today is Palm Sunday so it's very appropriate for us that this donkey would be here keeping the driver warm because I definitely don't ever have the driver warm. Okay, anyway, that's another story for it.
But I got this because I've told my family this for a long time that the donkey is probably my favorite animal in the Bible. Especially if you think about Palm Sunday, here's the reason why. Nobody knows the donkey's name, nobody really knows where he came from, nobody knows what school he went to. All he did was that he brought Jesus, he brought the people, brought Jesus to the people and I really feel like that's just kind of his part in the story and really what I'm hoping and praying that I can do today is kind of get out of the way and allow you to see this.
But I got this driver really and I got this driver warmer years ago because I never played golf until I was in my mid-twenties. And the first time I ever played golf, I teed off when my brother-in-law was getting married. So that was what he went to that Saturday morning in December. And so I am going to play golf with a guy who played on the high school golf team and some other men who play really very often.
And the first time I was ever going to hit a golf ball off the tee with a driver, I had a group of people who do this very, very frequently and I thought, what could go wrong? Well, let me tell you how it got worse, okay? Because it was December and because it was below freezing when our tee off time was, everybody had to get backed up basically waiting until it kind of got to a certain temperature where we could go. So by the time I teed off, there's over 40 men waiting for us to move so they could go, no pressure.
You know what I'm saying? None whatsoever. And I can remember, I just get up there going, this is going to be horrible. I put the ball on the tee, I take the driver, I crank it as hard as I can.
And with 40-something men watching no one knew where it went. Okay, like I don't know if it's shanked to the right, I don't know if it's left, I don't know if it's behind us. I literally look at the guy's like, I have no clue where that went. I thought, you know what, we're just going to act like we're just going to get another one and just keep moving.
Okay, it was so bad that first thing that I thought maybe this will get better. And so we started keeping tabs on our little scorecard there. And you know, based upon someone who grew up playing football and baseball and basketball and soccer, when I looked at the scorecard, I was winning. You know what I'm saying?
Like I was doing really, really well. In fact, like I was being everybody and I was like, this is pretty awesome. And then somebody told me that that's not exactly how you score things. And if you don't know this, why somebody were laughing, golf is really one of the only sports in the world that the high score does not win.
It's a low score that wins. It's a stupid, stupid game is what it is. Okay? It's the only time I ever score a whole lot and they're going, actually, you're losing.
Okay, like it's a pathetic. Now that day I actually did beat somebody in our force when we were playing and he surrendered his golf clubs and he's never played ever since then. Okay, because he thought if I'm losing with that guy, I just quit. You know, and so that's really what happened that day.
But the thing about golf is it really is upside down. How you typically would score things, you do the opposite. So what you would typically think is the high score wins, but actually it's the low score that wins. And it's a game that flips everything on its head and allows us to think differently.
The reason why I bring that idea to your mind is this is exactly what Jesus is going to do here today in this passage of Scripture. Jesus is going to give us a list of values that do not look like you're winning. In fact, if you look at the world and you do what Jesus is saying, it's going to look like you're losing. Okay?
But if you do what Christ has called you to do, no matter what the world says, it's actually an upside down kingdom. And what he's doing is he's flipping the scorecard for everything that you and I hold dear. The stuff in this world says that's when you're winning. Jesus is going to say actually, you're losing.
And the stuff where you think that you're losing, actually, you're winning according to Christ. And so with this, the setup of this passage, remember that Jesus says ministry is continuing to increase. He just called 12 disciples who would also serve apostles. He now comes down and he says that in verse 17 that he stood on a level place with a large crowd and he starts doing all kinds of ministry to them.
And now he's going to start preaching. But I want you to notice something in verse 20, it says, then looking up at his what? It is disciples. He said, and I want to make sure you see this really quick before we even go into what he said.
Jesus gave this word to the committed, not the crowd. Okay? Jesus is going to give the following words to the committed people who are wanting to learn from him as students and hopefully be sent out by him. So this is not a word that those that are outside of the committed are going to understand.
And I say that because it's very important. Some of you have been trying to teach biblical values to people who don't trust the Bible. Guess what? It doesn't make sense.
It seems like you're flipping the scorecard, which we are. But unless you actually started in the first place of I want to be a follower of Jesus, nothing about what I'm going to read right in a moment is going to make sense to you. It will not make sense. He has appointed these folks to be students and then to be eventually be sent.
And he's going to give these words to it by what you understand something before I tell you all the things that you'll be blessed by doing are all the woes that will come to you if you don't do. Make sure you hear this. These are not prerequisites for discipleship. They are proofs of it.
Okay. What I'm about to tell you is not something for you to take two of these and call Jesus in the morning. This is not okay. I need to manufacture this in my life.
Therefore to somehow show Jesus that I'm worthy of discipleship. In fact, the opposite is true. You can't come to discipleship saying anything about your own qualities or your abilities. You come to a place of saying, I don't have what it takes.
And Jesus goes, now we're in a place to start. Now I'm going to teach. These are not prerequisites of what you have to do before you start being a disciple of Jesus. But they are proofs.
If you are a disciple, these things will come about in your life. Not perfectly. Not the first day. But gradually over time.
Jesus is going to begin to teach what it looks like for those who actually follow him. Showing us, okay, you ready for this? That what looks like a blessing now may prove empty. And what may seem empty now may actually prove to be a blessing in the long run.
Okay. So let's look at what he says here. Then looking up at his disciples, he said, blessed are you who are poor because the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now because you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh. Blessed are you and people hate you when they exclude you and insult you and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leave for joy. Take note, your reward is great in heaven for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.
But what do you who are rich for you? For you've received your comfort. What do you who are now full for you will be hungry? Well to you who are now laughing for you will mourn and weep.
Well to you when all people speak well of you. For this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets. Now hopefully Jesus has gotten our attention by this because there is quite a contrast of what he's going to say with the world values and what Jesus here is saying that a disciple of his ought to value. Jesus is now flipping everything that we think to know to be true.
But he's also showing us that the kingdom of God is not something that's just different than the world. It's opposite from the world. It's a complete alteration of what you and I think ought to be true. And I don't know if you caught this or not.
But in this there's kind of this contrast that is showing. Now some of you might even realize that some of these verses you heard in Matthew, Matthew chapter 5 verse, Matthew chapter 5 through 7 is Jesus' sermon on the Mount. And he gives these beatitudes there in that. But also in Matthew's account doesn't give all of these woes.
And so what we don't know is is this just Luke and Matthew reporting from the sermon on a different situation or did Jesus preach from this content in two different places or multiple places? You all sometimes preach or say things a couple of times by the way. Okay you don't even know that right? Sometimes you say this in different places.
It says that Jesus actually in verse 17 he came down and stood on a level place. So some people call Luke sermon from Jesus here, the sermon on the plain rather than the sermon on the Mount. Or was he just on the level place on the top of the mountain? We don't know.
But I do know this. What Jesus is giving us here is a contrast of two very competing worldviews. I want to show you this in the chart. Okay?
Because really the blessings in the woes actually went together. I don't know if you caught this or not because Jesus basically says here's what the blessed life looks like. And here's what someone who's going to have a whole lot of woes. Now if I were to cover up the row that says blessings and woes and I would say there are some of you in this room right now who are poor, hungry, you're weeping a lot and you're hated by people.
And some of you in this room right now are rich, full, laughing a whole lot and accepted by everybody in your world. Which one is blessed? You know which one you'd say, don't you? You would say, well the column on the right are the blessed people, right?
Those who got a lot of money in the bank account, those who got all their appetites met, those who just are laughing because life is so wonderful and joyful and there's no problems in the world. And those are accepted by everybody. Man, that's the blessed life. That's what I've been looking for right there.
And before there was even a term called the prosperity gospel, Jesus just flips this whole thing on its head. 100%. You want to talk about blessed life? You're poor.
No, watch a TV preacher, Jesus who said something opposite, right? Blessed are you that are hungry. Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought I had all of my needs met. If I'm not even if I pray, I'm never going to go without.
Blessed are those who weep. Like why would you cry? Like everything hard should be removed from our lives and hated. No, no, I'm going to follow Jesus and he's going to make everybody like me.
Isn't that the goal? Jesus says at the beginning of these disciples journey, that's actually the complete opposite. You are blessed what verse 20 says when you are poor and woe to you what verse 24 says, if you are rich. Now some of you may go, is he talking about materially rich or poor or is he talking about spiritually?
I think he's talking about both. Jesus would say, in some of the amount of each other five, blessed are you who are poor and what? Spirit. Okay.
Now I'm going to say this, sometimes being poor financially, poor in spirit or rich in spirit or rich financially can go together. And here's why I want to say this, especially in the United States of America, we have been taught the more money you have, the more blessed you are and the less you need God. That's it. You need to find yourself where look how hard I've worked, look what I can prove, look what I've done God and you want to literally brag about all of it.
And he's saying, look, the danger here may not be in the possessions that you have, but in the self-sufficiency that it lies to you that you don't need God. Wealth can create an illusion by the way that you can handle it all, right? It just creates this illusion. I got this in a control.
Look at my bank account. Nothing can go wrong. Yes, it can. The difference between the poor people, God says, Jesus says, yours is the kingdom and the rich people says, guess what?
You've received your comfort. Don't expect any others. Blessed are you the second kind of category? If you're hungry.
This is blessed are you verse 21. If you're hungry now because you're going to be filled, contrasting in verse 25, whoa to you. If you're full, because guess what? One day you're not going to be full, you're going to be what?
Hungry. See this hunger can reflect, obviously physical stuff. Maybe I've given up stuff so that other people can be blessed. But it's also saying that there's a longing inside of you for something that can truly satisfy.
My mom would never allow me to eat snacks before dinner because she wanted me to make sure I got to the good stuff. And I think Jesus is saying, some of you have filled your bellies with the cotton candy of this world. You can't sit down and feast at his table anymore. You're full.
Oh, it's stuff that won't satisfy you. But in the moment you feel like you have what you need, but fullness can dull our awareness for our need for God. And the satisfaction that we have, we think it's supposed to be now. We're not worried about the later.
Third category, blessed are you who eat. Okay. Whoa to you, who laugh. Yeah, I'm the honest with you.
This one bothers me. I am not a very emotional person. And I'm looking at this and going, what's wrong with me? Okay.
My kids have jokingly said, yeah, we've seen you cry three times, three baptisms, three kids. Okay. And I have no more children. So I guess that's it.
Okay. Now some of you would say, just wait, you get older. You start crying more. Well, thank you for just encouraging my little heart.
You know what I'm saying? Okay, maybe that'll happen. Some of us are more emotional people than others. Some of us are really, we can be all kinds of different ways.
What is this saying? Some of you would probably say, okay, some of us need a little bit more emotion in our lives. Some of us might say we might need a little less emotion in our life. What is Jesus saying here?
He says, blessed are you who weep now because you will laugh, contrasting, woe to you who are now laughing for you more than we've. I think here, Jesus is saying there must be a weeping that is grief over sin and brokenness. When is the last time that you have been broken about the horrific state of this world and it caused you to be devastated? Not affecting me.
You know, the people that are struggling down the street or around the world doesn't bother me. That's the problem. It should bother us at some level. It should grab our hearts at some level.
The weeping, the grief over sin and brokenness, the laughing is just living for the present pleasure and nothing bothering us of spiritual nature. It's a joy that is here in the moment or a joy that is or sorrow that is coming. Which one is it? In the fourth category, he says verse 22, blessed are you and people hate you when they exclude you and insult you and slander your name as evil because what?
Because of the Son of Man. So, blessed are you that are hated and woe to you who are accepted. Get this when he says, blessed are you when all those things happen to you according to the Son of Man. I want to make sure you understand the distinction here.
There are some people in this world that are hated that are Christians and they are not hated because they are living for Jesus. They are hated because they are jerks and no one wants to be around them. That is not what Jesus is saying. It's something you're like, I'm really blessed.
You are a blessing. We love you and we're thankful for you. But you can be hated because you're not like Jesus. But you can also be hated because you're like him.
This is talking about, blessed are you when you're hated because you're attached to the Son of Man. And people don't accept you because the values that you stand for. And blessed are people when they insult you and slander you. And obviously you walk in the room and get real quiet and it's really awkward because you know they're talking about you.
Blessed when that happens to you because your reward is great. But woe to you everybody loves you because you literally compromise on every single issue. So there's this difference here. And so the acceptance often comes from compromising truth.
And these people, the first group are aligning with the prophets and the second group are aligning with false prophets and make everybody feel good with what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Now let's do this in evaluation side just to make sure we get the understanding here because Jesus is not describing life here. He's reversing it from the inside out. And so the question is not which list you agree with.
The question is which list describes you best today. That's probably a good evaluation test, right? Because if the first one is blessed are you who are poor because the kingdom of God is yours contrasting but woe to you who are rich because you receive your comfort. Here's what I want you to see.
If you're not dependent on God, you've decided that you don't need him now or forever. If you have God go place where you're not poor in spirit, you're all good because you're so awesome and you have it all together and you don't need God. Now you're also saying I don't need him later. I don't need him forever.
You are saying that I am good all by myself. This is the American way. This is self-independence. This is pride upon pride upon pride.
And I'm going to let some of you guys know this. When he says blessed are you who are poor. You may never fought this way but before Jesus, you were not just someone who was struggling. You were spiritually broke.
There was a deficit against you that you could not pay back. I want to make sure you hear me say that. It's not like you need a little bit more time and you are going to catch this thing up. You are bankrupt.
I do not have it. I cannot pay it back. I am done for. It's so spiritually broke.
But wealth and comfort in this passage, they're not condemned but trusting in them are. Blessed are you who are poor because you know you need something. But woe to you who are rich because the comfort that that riches brings you, that's what you'll get. What else do I get?
That's what you want it right? Have any of you got to replace in your life where you realize that comfort can become a substitute for God? Man, this awesome vacation we're experiencing here. Look, this fantastic house that we get to live in.
This wonderful car. You know my wife can be in this temperature and I can be in this temperature. We are living it up man. This is sweet life.
This is wonderful. Look, look at all that we've done. I don't care how hard you grind. I don't care how smart you are.
I don't care how many hours you work a week. If you look around your life and look at all the blessings you have and think you've done it all, that is a type of self-righteous pride that is despicable to God. I don't care if you go, yeah, but you got to see my bank accounts. You got to see all this stuff.
Look, I've worked harder than anybody in my family and I've gotten this. The very fact that you have this breath is a gift from God you were not promised. Friend, I need you to know this. Oh, I'm smarter than everybody in my class.
Who do you think gave you that mind? You know what? I've worked harder than anybody in my business. Who do you think is giving you the ability to do that?
We brag about all the stuff we can do. But comfort allows us to lie to ourselves and become a substitute for God and the issue about not what we have, but what do we trust? What do we put our trust in? If you chase the world's happiness now, you're going to miss it.
The happiness in heaven forever. You're going to miss it because your self-reliance indicates that your efforts can open any door in this world or in heaven. You think you can get it. Jesus would say, what is it?
Prophet? For a man to gain the whole world and lose his what? Soul in the process. So many of us have gained everything in this world.
We have drained it, dry and gone yet we're speared bankrupt. We're not where we need to be. He then says, blessed are you who are hungry now, we're 21 because you'll be filled. Verses 25, what's you who are now full because you will be hungry.
I need you to know just like your, maybe your appetite is not where it needs to be in the things of God. If you're not hungry for God, it's something else that's filling you. Some relationship, some pursuit, some thing, some situation. You don't even have the capacity to hunger for God because you've been dabbling at the crumbs of this world and it's filled you up, but not with the good stuff.
I know there were things in my life that so oftentimes I have found myself full on the things of this world and not having a desire for the things of God. And I need you to know something this world has lied to you and me. It has told us that it can provide satisfaction and it cannot deliver. Guarantee, how many times you got that next thing and you thought this is it, it can never be better and three months in, you're like, you know what, probably should have bought that step.
I mean, this thing's already busted. I mean, you know what, so it's got something a little bit bigger than us. You know, we need to have one of those in our backyard. And just something like, you're at a place going, I never thought we would be in this comfortable position and all of a sudden it's not enough.
The world will lie to you. It'll say, buy one more of these, get a little bit more of that and you'll be content. No, you won't. It always moves.
This world tells us to chase all that it has to offer and you'll be satisfied, but it's never enough. What satisfies us now can leave us empty later. And what feels good now, we're not satisfied us forever. The third kind of section here where it says, bless are you who weep now because you will laugh versus woe to you who are now laughing for you will mourn and weep.
Once again, I don't think Jesus is encouraging all of us to be emotional basket cases by any stretch of imagination. Okay. I don't think he's saying, hey, just start crying because of no apparent reason. I think he's probably saying something that all of us need to hear that there should come to a place in our life where we see the brokenness of this world and how simply messed up it is and it should bother us.
And I'm worried we've gotten so comfortable to it. It doesn't bother us anymore. If you're not broken over sin, you're comfortable with it. If the stuff in your life or in this world doesn't break you over the condition of how far we are from God, that means that you've gotten comfortable with it.
You've gotten accustomed to it. You're familiar with the things of Babylon. Jeremiah would say, my people have forgotten how to blush. There are things that we got so comfortable with and you go, well, this is just culture, you know, I'm not doing all these things.
But are you enjoying that other people are? Because that's the deal. All of us have got to decide what values to describe to in our life, right? What are the rules?
What are the things that we feel like or the lines? It's important for us to know. But I had experienced this in my life. I've seen this so often.
But I want you to know, it seems like you ever thought about something entertainment that we engage in these days. You ever thought about like if your grandparents just sat down and saw some of the stuff that you might even see on commercials, like what would they do? Like one, they would probably have so many medical conditions if they were to expose, right? Like the stuff that my grandparents would be enraged by, my generation is entertained by.
Look how quickly it changed. Like we would never think that some of the stuff, not only is it allowed or tolerated, it is shoved down our throats as accepted or else. That's the world we live in. And so some of us have gotten a place where, okay, I'm not going to do those things.
I want you to move your laugh about it. You know, I'm not going to engage in that activity. And I think that lifestyle is messed up, but it sure is funny, you know, very engaging and entertaining. And what is it doing?
Is desensitizing you to the standards of God? We have found ourselves laughing over sense effects on people rather than weeping about it. I don't know about your school or your workplace or what things will cause you to laugh about in your house or your group of friends. But can I just say something?
If there are jokes that you think are funny and would break the heart of God, you need to stop them. There is no situation in which God thinks that a racist joke is funny. There is no situation where God thinks about immoral lifestyles as let's joke about it and be light about it. There is no scenario in which God would allow you to see pain, to come to someone else and he said, enjoy that as entertainment.
There is no situation where it says. I have realized I have lost the edge of sin's effect on people because sometimes I will watch the news and I will laugh more about the state of our world than I'm broken by it. Okay, if you're a guest here, this is just part of the day where Pastor Travis just has to get honest with us. We're a little bit okay.
I need you to hear me say this in all sincerity. I don't care what election cycle we're in or what administrative kind of stuff's going on, but I am overwhelmed at the lack of civility and just downright decency that people around our world cannot offer to people who do not see like them. I don't care what side of what I all you're talking about. If people degrade other people, it should cause us to weep, not laugh, not excuse it.
What do you want me to do? The other side, I'm not asking about your political decision. I'm saying it is desensitizing us and we laugh at things we ought to weep about. Turn on the world wide news, right?
And stuff happening at a global catastrophe and we laugh at it. Who we bad it? Well, you know, they got what was coming to them. Do you realize that somebody, I don't care what country they're in or situation they're in, if they die and they don't know Jesus, they are spinning eternity in hell.
That's what the scripture tells me. You know, in Ezekiel 33, God says, God says, I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. I would rather you repent and live. Do you know what that tells me?
I don't care who it is. If there's somebody who's died without the hope of Christ, it should bother me. Look at, not just the world wide news, turn on the local news. Have you all looked around Rimmel County?
Some of the crime that's here and some of the mugshots that are out there and we see people and you see a mugshot and it's almost laughable. Look at the state of this person is or should we weep because of the family that's on the sidelines and the ditch right now. I have made other people's calamities like a laughing stock and she is going, the news should cause you to weep, not laugh. The entertainment today should cause you to weep, not laugh because the values that we're being desensitized to, there's no reason we would ever get to a place where we need to tell somebody to change.
You know what, we're enjoying it. We're laughing at it. We have to make sure we're not comfortable with the things that put Jesus on the cross. The last category, the lesser you and people hate you and they exclude you, they insult you, they slander you.
That sounds awesome, right? Okay. Wotee, when everybody's speaking well of you, you know why? I don't think in 2026 in the United States of America you can be loved by everybody if you're staying faithful to Jesus.
I just don't. I think you can be loved by a lot of people but I think there's nobody pushing back on you. I don't know if you're being honest about what you believe because my beliefs, no matter how kind I am in delivering them, somebody's going to be upset. You know why?
Because the cross is offensive. I don't have to be offensive but it is. It is saying that our sin is so despicable to God that the Son of God had to die that ought to arrest some of us. Sometimes we have to speak truth and some people don't like to hear what they are but if you're not willing to be rejected, you've chosen the world's approval over God's.
If you're not willing to be rejected in your family for biblical beliefs, you definitely don't want to be with that group of guys that you're hanging out with that say, hey, I think the choking is going a little too far. You know what all those people who are saying, yeah, I know what the Bible says but you know what it's just these days we've got to change things up and you're not willing to speak up. Guess what? You are asking that the world would approve you and not God.
You made your decision. I, um, Jesus is going to say something to Luke 14 verse 26, it's very alarming where he says, if you do not hate your father, mother, and sister and brother, you're not worthy to be my disciple. And that may seem shocking to you but what he's saying is this, some of you are choosing a relationship over God. That's it.
So, all right, family, you have somebody that's walking outside the lines of what you know to be truth and you want to speak up but you know what? You don't want to make things awkward. You would rather keep them and what you don't realize is you're walking away from Jesus in his word. You are choosing them above God.
That's what this decision is always. Rejection is not random here. It's on account of the Son of Man. Romans 12 says, don't be conformed to the world.
And then verse 23 here, this is awesome. I think this is hilarious because he basically says, bless you if you're poor, you're hungry, you're weak. And when people hate, exclude, insult, and slander, you verse 23, rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Some of you all don't even think about leaping because you're hip will get messed up.
You know what I'm saying? This is a different level of, this is awesome. People hate me. People are insulting me to my face.
You know, they're talking about me behind my back. Isn't this awesome? Why, why can't you reach? Why would you even think about leaping for joy?
He says, you know why your reward is great wear in heaven. For this is the way their ancestors used to treat your prophets. Receive criticism now, reward forever. Slander now, well done, my good and faithful servant forever.
Approval by a bunch of people whose opinions change as soon as you leave the room, or affirmation of the Father in heaven who loves you. Which one? You got to make a decision here. You have to make a decision.
Sometimes our addiction for approval will not allow us to stand up and speak what we know has to be said. So the response for us is very, I think, very clear from the text. If this exposes your life, if you were saying, I don't like this church, this guy makes me feel bad, okay? I did not write this mail.
I am just called to deliver it. This is Jesus's words. You know, Jesus is always just really kind and easy and loves everybody. He just called every single one of us out.
You're like, not me. Okay, I'm going to read it again in just a little bit, okay? To make sure you see yourself in here because of today, if you're going, I hope so and so listen to this. You need to be listening to this.
Every single one of us. The issue is not what's happening now. What's coming next? What are you going to do?
And if this world feels like too much like home for you, you need to have your values flipped upside down. If you've never been on a Ford mission trip, you get off the airport and you go, whoa, these people speak a different language. This environment looks different when I'm used to. They drive on the wrong side of the road.
You know, I feel uncomfortable. I don't know what they're eating. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing.
I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know the customs.
I don't feel like I belong here. That's how we ought to feel in Greenville, South Carolina at some level. This is not home. The value system does not make sense.
If you feel so comfortable, you better check your heart. This world's messed up. So where does it start? You get poor in spirit and stop acting like you're rich and you got it all together.
It is a call to surrender. You get all of Christ when you come to the end of yourself. I want to say, first and foremost, I've got to surrender. I'm poor.
I'm spiritually broke. Salvation begins with your dependence on God, not on your personal effort. You don't just add Jesus. You yield to him.
A surrender. Second Corinthians 8, 9 says, Christ is the one who became poor so that we could become rich. Isaiah 53 says that he was rejected so that we could be accepted. The kingdom belongs to those that they need a king.
Not to those who think they are one. You've got to give up control and trust Christ fully. Just reality check. Is there anybody self-aware enough today to realize, you know what?
This whole version of me living for me for the last 27 years is probably not working anymore. I have seen what this can do. Maybe I ought to do something else. This is when you get poor in spirit.
Say, I don't have what it takes Jesus. I need you. And here's a picture, right? There's a cross behind me on this wall.
And if you think you can be rich enough in spirit or in possessions to earn a spot in heaven, I ask you a simple question. Why would Jesus have to die on the cross if you used to be good enough? Why would Jesus have to die on the cross if you used to be a good church kid and just kind of follow the rules and don't bring your bad commandments? It's barbaric for Jesus to have to die on the cross if you could do it by just going on missions this summer.
It doesn't work like that. We have to be spiritually bankrupt. I am a sinner. I cannot earn a spot before the Lord.
I have no nothing within me to save myself. I need him to do it. That is called the important spirit. And that's where you start at surrender.
And then guess what happens? Everything else flips upside down and begins to make sense. The second step is you start the new life creates a new hunger for what truly satisfies. Now, blessed are you who are hungry.
Don't it be full. No, no, no. You know Jesus and you still want to know him more. A.W.
To have to know God and to still to have found God and to still pursue him is the soul's paradox of love. Scorned too easily by those who are so satisfied in religion. They're ought to be this thing as a follower of Jesus. I know him but I want to know more.
Oh, I found him but I got to understand more about him. I've been able to walk with him but I want to walk with him closer. This new life reduces new appetites. The hunger for God replaces satisfaction that the world's been lying to me that I can have.
And I start to pursue holy habits with a real hunger. Not passive interest. At some point I stopped lying to myself and saying I don't have enough time to read my Bible. If I would just check my screen time and see how long I've been on the phone.
I do have time. Where's my hunger at? Full, too much stuff in the world. I cannot seek him.
You've got to start having a place where you start one of those things pursuing the holy habits. Folks, there are many days where I'm going, I'm reading the Bible because I know that I need to. But the more I do it, there's a hunger that develops. Because I've been eating at the world's table long enough and now I feast at this.
I've got this pace better. This satisfies longer. Start praying not because I have to because I'm in problem because I just want to talk to my father and produces this hunger. I just find myself satisfied in the midst of it.
Growth, spiritual growth. These holy habits are marked by pursuit, not passivity. Third thing that happens is that you stop. The more you know God's heart, the less you can tolerate what breaks it.
The less those who are weeping now, not those who are laughing now. I'm not talking to the culture right now. I'm talking to our precious church and I need you to hear this. You need to turn from sin rather than tolerating it.
You need to stop playing games with the enemy. You need to stop saying, well, I'm not as bad as such and such. The awareness of God's holiness ought to expose sin in us clearly and repentance is not an occasional event. It's an ongoing mindset where you're constantly saying, Lord, don't let me slip into those old patterns.
I don't see how any of us in this room would find comfort or peace in thinking that somehow we get comfortable with what Christ had to be crucified for. The sin that you do, that you talk about, that you watch, that you laugh about, that you engage in, whatever it is. If you get so comfortable with it, do not realize that Christ had to be put to death for these things. I'm not saying you're not going to struggle, but couldn't this gracious shit you and your right mind going, I don't want to live like this anymore.
I don't want to do the things that hurt the heart of God or that lead me into places of destruction. Like, I want to turn. I want to change. I don't want to get comfortable with what crucified Christ.
I hate it. I'll stop doing it. And the last thing it leads us to is to share that when you found eternal peace, you'll sacrifice temporary comfort to make it it known. You're going, you know what?
If I have surrendered to Jesus and started doing these wonderful things, I'll stop doing these things that break his heart, then guess what? I now motivated to share. But guess what? When I share, verse 22 is going to come about, bless her, you and people hate you when you share.
Bless her when they exclude you from the group because you're making everybody uncomfortable. Bless her, you and they insult you to your face for your backward views, right? Bless her, you and they slander your name as evil when you're not in the room and you're not in the text thread because you're one of those guys who take this old Christianity thing way too seriously. Jesus says you're blessed because if you have eternal peace, I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of temporary peace so you can get right with him.
We're tired. Following Jesus publicly will bring opposition. You speak truth openly. It's going to cost you something.
I promise you, if you can say that you value people's souls more than your comfort, you're willing to put your neck out there if you have to. I'll say what needs to be said and trust the results with God. When you put all this together, it leads to an unavoidable question. Does your life look upside down to the world or just like it?
Have you surrendered to Jesus? Have you started doing the things that you need to do? Have you stopped the things that you don't need to be a part of? Are you sharing that these truths with someone else?
Or you go, no, not at all. You know what? I'm just like the world. That's the problem.
You know, we're doing all kinds of stuff to try to invite people to church this coming week, right? We're also trying to do stuff to make sure that when they get here, they can find a seat or find a parking spot. We have discovered that there are some enemies that are trying to keep people from church. And they are what I'm calling the killer geese if you know about these guys.
If you've been around the last week, there's two of them, Gog and Magog. And basically, if you don't know, it's been a thing. They've been dropping presents all over the parking lot. They've been kind of hissing out some members and whatnot.
But about about 10 days ago, they literally attacked a FedEx lady on the way into the church building. Like, come, like, I'm going out. We have a video. I should have, well, I did laugh.
Okay, I'll repent, okay? She's okay. It was funny. But anyway, so then I started having this like, pentagon.
Right? I'm going, this, these geese think this is their house. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're literally, like, putting out roots here.
And I'm going, and a week from now, I'm going to put a little pond out of the parking lot that they've been protecting. And I just picture myself like, bad guys, I'm one of your kids and one goose sweeping and taking away. You know what I'm saying? I'm going, like, this is, this is the thing I'm being stressed out about.
And so, some of you have seen, there's a video. Yes, I did chase with a number of love. You know what? There are, there are other videos out there.
We're not posting because I have been declaring war against these evil little birds, okay? Because my fear is I don't want anybody hitting anybody from walking in these doors. I don't want anybody being hindered from being able to come in and find Jesus and get baptized and whatnot. And then I, and all the kind of things that I've been trying to do to declare war with these guys literally, I think that they recognize this because they were in the parking lot boats the other day and I came out and they started squawking and flying.
Like, you know who I am? You know what I am? You know what I'm saying? Like, I've done everything I possibly can.
Like, we're going at it. But I have to do it everything I can because I don't want anybody walking in the door and I'm like a threat. Like, you don't belong here. And you know what?
Beyond those geese, I'll tell you there isn't another threat. There are members in this church you don't represent Jesus. That's what I'm worried about. I'm worried about our lives going, now you don't belong here.
You see, you know what? We're kind of reacting a different way than what we're supposed to. Or maybe it's kind of almost a posture of you don't need to come in here and change because guess what? We haven't been changed either.
Just like everybody else. The biggest concern is not some kind of external obstacle. It's us and our hearts and the way that are we truly living after Jesus. So my question is this to you today.
How upside down are you living? Are you a, hey, come and see there's a better path than what this world's been lying to you about? Are you so much in the middle of it? You just look like everybody else.
I'm praying that maybe somebody will cause to make a change and realize that Jesus' words are worth it and his way is a whole lot better in this world's way. Let's pray.