1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,917 2 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:08,917 ♪♪♪ 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:10,208 Yeah, well, Paul says-- 4 00:00:10,292 --> 00:00:11,917 and this is where I'm going today-- 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,125 Paul says, as a result of what he believes-- 6 00:00:14,167 --> 00:00:15,417 his theological convictions-- 7 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:18,333 he says, "I worked harder and I got more done than anybody," 8 00:00:18,375 --> 00:00:20,500 which sounds like a pretty brash and bold statement. 9 00:00:20,583 --> 00:00:22,667 Until then, he says, "But it wasn't just me. 10 00:00:22,750 --> 00:00:24,792 I did it by the grace of God." 11 00:00:24,833 --> 00:00:27,917 And so, generally, Christians tend to see the grace of God as, 12 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,833 well, the grace of God forgives your sin when you blow it, 13 00:00:30,875 --> 00:00:33,875 which is true, but the grace of God also empowers your life 14 00:00:33,958 --> 00:00:35,500 so that you live differently. 15 00:00:35,583 --> 00:00:37,208 You live passionately. 16 00:00:37,292 --> 00:00:38,833 You live purposefully. 17 00:00:38,875 --> 00:00:40,667 You live meaningfully. 18 00:00:40,750 --> 00:00:43,833 And I think that's really the issue that a lot of people 19 00:00:43,875 --> 00:00:46,917 think Christianity is just "You do your best. 20 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,083 "You're not going to do a very good job. 21 00:00:49,167 --> 00:00:51,583 "And when you really mess up, God will forgive you, 22 00:00:51,667 --> 00:00:53,833 "but he's not really there to help you. 23 00:00:53,875 --> 00:00:56,375 He's only there to forgive you when you've failed him." 24 00:00:56,458 --> 00:00:58,792 In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, "The most important thing 25 00:00:58,833 --> 00:01:02,417 is to know who Jesus is and what he's done." 26 00:01:02,500 --> 00:01:04,625 And he says, "I want to remind you." 27 00:01:04,667 --> 00:01:07,292 And the truth is that Christians tend to forget. 28 00:01:07,333 --> 00:01:09,500 We tend to forget, well, it's about Jesus. 29 00:01:09,542 --> 00:01:11,417 We tend to forget about reading our Bible. 30 00:01:11,500 --> 00:01:12,875 We tend to forget about praying. 31 00:01:12,958 --> 00:01:16,125 We tend to forget that some people don't know Jesus. 32 00:01:16,167 --> 00:01:19,125 And what happens is one generation believes something, 33 00:01:19,167 --> 00:01:20,667 the next generation assumes it, 34 00:01:20,750 --> 00:01:22,500 and the third generation denies it, 35 00:01:22,583 --> 00:01:24,792 and that really is the history of Orange County. 36 00:01:24,833 --> 00:01:27,000 The truth is there are some big churches here, 37 00:01:27,083 --> 00:01:29,125 and there are some people who love Jesus. 38 00:01:29,167 --> 00:01:32,917 But, man, there's a lot, a lot, a lot of work left to do, 39 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,833 and there's still a very fast-growing younger generation 40 00:01:37,875 --> 00:01:39,917 that doesn't have Christian history. 41 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,208 That whole group of people, a whole generation 42 00:01:43,292 --> 00:01:45,333 is pretty much absent from church. 43 00:01:45,375 --> 00:01:47,000 We feel like there's still a need 44 00:01:47,083 --> 00:01:48,500 for more people to meet Jesus, 45 00:01:48,583 --> 00:01:50,625 and we feel like we have an opportunity 46 00:01:50,667 --> 00:01:52,333 to be part of that. 47 00:01:52,667 --> 00:01:55,000 All right, Mars Hill, you're going to watch the sermon 48 00:01:55,083 --> 00:01:56,500 I just got done preaching here. 49 00:01:56,583 --> 00:01:57,917 People are still getting baptized, 50 00:01:58,000 --> 00:01:59,208 singing away. 51 00:01:59,292 --> 00:02:01,000 I've never seen a house this packed. 52 00:02:01,083 --> 00:02:03,625 And you'll see in this sermon, as soon as we started, 53 00:02:03,667 --> 00:02:05,000 literally everything broke. 54 00:02:05,042 --> 00:02:07,375 All the headsets for the volunteers broke. 55 00:02:07,458 --> 00:02:08,917 Two microphones broke. 56 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,208 Everything broke. 57 00:02:10,292 --> 00:02:11,583 My voice broke. 58 00:02:11,667 --> 00:02:12,917 But God was gracious. 59 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 It's a good day, and we hope you enjoy seeing what he did. 60 00:02:16,083 --> 00:02:18,333 [congregation applauding] 61 00:02:18,375 --> 00:02:20,500 This could be one of those days 62 00:02:20,583 --> 00:02:23,292 that we tell our grandkids about. 63 00:02:23,333 --> 00:02:25,000 Your life is filled with many days, 64 00:02:25,083 --> 00:02:28,000 and occasionally there's one of those days. 65 00:02:28,083 --> 00:02:31,083 On one of those days something unusual happens. 66 00:02:31,167 --> 00:02:33,208 Some of you are going to meet Jesus today, 67 00:02:33,292 --> 00:02:34,583 and become Christians. 68 00:02:34,667 --> 00:02:36,292 He didn't tell you on your way. 69 00:02:36,333 --> 00:02:37,708 He knew you would've driven away. 70 00:02:37,792 --> 00:02:40,625 So he's going to spring it on you in the next hour. 71 00:02:40,667 --> 00:02:42,833 Your whole life and destiny is about to change. 72 00:02:42,875 --> 00:02:45,000 For some of you, you've been borrowing the faith 73 00:02:45,042 --> 00:02:47,375 of your parents, and it's time for you to really 74 00:02:47,458 --> 00:02:50,500 come to your adult convictions and walk away from adolescence 75 00:02:50,583 --> 00:02:53,417 and be part of what God is doing here in Orange County 76 00:02:53,500 --> 00:02:54,792 and around the world. 77 00:02:54,833 --> 00:02:56,708 And it's my great honor on this day-- 78 00:02:56,792 --> 00:02:58,708 I hope it is one of those days-- 79 00:02:58,792 --> 00:03:02,375 to talk to you about one of the core values 80 00:03:02,458 --> 00:03:03,708 of Mars Hill Church, 81 00:03:03,792 --> 00:03:06,083 and that is gospel-centered theology. 82 00:03:06,167 --> 00:03:09,000 For those of you who don't know, we started as a little 83 00:03:09,042 --> 00:03:11,375 Bible study in 1996, and God has been 84 00:03:11,458 --> 00:03:14,792 exceedingly gracious to us to make us one of the largest 85 00:03:14,833 --> 00:03:17,792 and fastest-growing churches in the United States of America 86 00:03:17,833 --> 00:03:21,375 in a place where there has not, historically, been Christians. 87 00:03:21,458 --> 00:03:23,167 And as we spread, we're getting ready 88 00:03:23,250 --> 00:03:26,333 on January 15th, to launch 4 churches 89 00:03:26,375 --> 00:03:29,000 in 3 states for 2 reasons-- 90 00:03:29,083 --> 00:03:31,333 we love God and people-- 91 00:03:31,375 --> 00:03:34,167 on 1 day, January 15th. 92 00:03:34,250 --> 00:03:36,875 Am I losing a mic? 93 00:03:36,958 --> 00:03:38,833 Yes. 94 00:03:38,875 --> 00:03:41,000 All right. 95 00:03:41,083 --> 00:03:44,708 What do you guys want me to do? 96 00:03:44,792 --> 00:03:46,125 Yell loud? 97 00:03:46,167 --> 00:03:47,417 [congregation laughing] 98 00:03:47,500 --> 00:03:48,917 'Cause I could totally do that. 99 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,500 Why don't you give me that, and if this doesn't work 100 00:03:51,583 --> 00:03:52,875 then I'll go with that. 101 00:03:52,958 --> 00:03:54,208 Come on out. 102 00:03:54,292 --> 00:03:55,917 We're going to make you feel awkward. 103 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,917 Here's your volunteer, hardworking sound guy. 104 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,375 [congregation applauding] 105 00:03:59,458 --> 00:04:01,083 Thank you, bro. What's your name? 106 00:04:01,167 --> 00:04:03,208 Brandon, what time did you get up today? 107 00:04:03,292 --> 00:04:05,292 5:30 in the morning. 108 00:04:05,333 --> 00:04:06,625 Wow, thank you. 109 00:04:06,667 --> 00:04:09,917 [congregation applauding] 110 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,333 Brandon is the holiest one among us. 111 00:04:12,375 --> 00:04:14,500 He was up at 5:30 in the morning. 112 00:04:14,542 --> 00:04:16,167 I'll make sure I've got these on. 113 00:04:16,250 --> 00:04:17,875 All right, here's what I'll do then, 114 00:04:17,958 --> 00:04:20,000 since we're having a little bit of technical difficulties, 115 00:04:20,083 --> 00:04:22,917 I'm going to pray for the Holy Spirit to fill the mic, 116 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:24,625 and then we'll get back to work. 117 00:04:24,667 --> 00:04:27,500 Father God, thank you so much for a time to come together. 118 00:04:27,583 --> 00:04:30,417 Thank you for all of these people giving us of their time, 119 00:04:30,500 --> 00:04:33,333 allowing us to love, and to serve, and to meet with them. 120 00:04:33,375 --> 00:04:36,708 And God, we do pray that this day would be one of those days, 121 00:04:36,792 --> 00:04:39,625 one of those days we tell our kids and our grandkids about. 122 00:04:39,667 --> 00:04:41,792 And so God, please allow me to serve well, 123 00:04:41,833 --> 00:04:45,625 allow us to learn about Jesus, and allow the technology 124 00:04:45,667 --> 00:04:47,417 to work, in Jesus' good name, amen. 125 00:04:47,500 --> 00:04:49,333 All right, here's where we're going to be. 126 00:04:49,375 --> 00:04:52,208 We're going to be in 1 Corinthians 15:1-3. 127 00:04:52,292 --> 00:04:53,583 This is a Bible. 128 00:04:53,667 --> 00:04:55,708 I know it's way too dark to read it, 129 00:04:55,792 --> 00:04:57,208 so I'll read it for you. 130 00:04:57,292 --> 00:04:58,500 Just trust me. 131 00:04:58,583 --> 00:05:00,333 It's written by a guy named Paul, 132 00:05:00,375 --> 00:05:02,000 one of the most influential thinkers, leaders, 133 00:05:02,083 --> 00:05:03,500 in the history of the world. 134 00:05:03,583 --> 00:05:05,917 One historian says if you take two scales, 135 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:08,833 and you put everyone on one side and Paul on the other, 136 00:05:08,875 --> 00:05:11,208 he outweighs them all. 137 00:05:11,292 --> 00:05:14,792 And he is here writing to a church that is very confused. 138 00:05:14,833 --> 00:05:17,500 It's an urban church filled with young people, 139 00:05:17,583 --> 00:05:22,000 new Christians, lots of sin, and lots of questions 140 00:05:22,083 --> 00:05:24,292 regarding gospel-centered theology. 141 00:05:24,333 --> 00:05:27,500 Number one, he says that Christians are forgetful, 142 00:05:27,583 --> 00:05:30,208 that Christians are forgetful. 143 00:05:30,292 --> 00:05:32,625 And so he says it in chapter 15, verse 1. 144 00:05:32,667 --> 00:05:34,500 "Now, I would remind you, brothers--" 145 00:05:34,542 --> 00:05:37,292 Well, you only remind people of things as they're prone 146 00:05:37,333 --> 00:05:40,208 to forget them, and Christians are prone to forget things. 147 00:05:40,292 --> 00:05:42,417 He's going to go on and talk about things 148 00:05:42,500 --> 00:05:43,917 that we're prone to forget. 149 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:45,208 Now, he talks about Jesus 150 00:05:45,292 --> 00:05:46,708 because we're prone to forget Jesus. 151 00:05:46,792 --> 00:05:49,125 We think about ourselves, and our family, and our friends, 152 00:05:49,167 --> 00:05:51,000 and our critics, and all of the people 153 00:05:51,083 --> 00:05:52,500 that are involved in our life, 154 00:05:52,583 --> 00:05:54,625 and sometimes we forget about Jesus. 155 00:05:54,667 --> 00:05:57,917 It's not that we don't know of him or haven't heard 156 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,625 regarding him, but we're forgetful about him. 157 00:06:01,667 --> 00:06:03,417 I had a really dark heart. 158 00:06:03,500 --> 00:06:05,833 I became a Christian when I was 7. 159 00:06:05,875 --> 00:06:08,792 Jesus saved me at a summer camp, actually. 160 00:06:08,833 --> 00:06:10,917 In the season that we were in, 161 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,000 before we came to Mars Hill Orange County, 162 00:06:15,083 --> 00:06:20,708 my heart just became increasingly cold to Christ. 163 00:06:20,792 --> 00:06:23,417 We were out of community. 164 00:06:23,500 --> 00:06:27,125 We weren't in a church and, as a result, my heart just 165 00:06:27,167 --> 00:06:30,875 increasingly became cold to Jesus, 166 00:06:30,958 --> 00:06:32,792 is I think the bottom line. 167 00:06:32,833 --> 00:06:34,708 We could forget, as well, about community, 168 00:06:34,792 --> 00:06:36,417 and he's writing to a church, saying, 169 00:06:36,500 --> 00:06:38,125 "You really need to help one another, 170 00:06:38,167 --> 00:06:39,917 "serve one another, love one another, 171 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:41,625 "walk with one another because you're not 172 00:06:41,667 --> 00:06:43,333 "going to make it on your own. 173 00:06:43,375 --> 00:06:45,708 You need the people of God to go with you." 174 00:06:45,792 --> 00:06:47,833 He says, as well, that it's about Scripture. 175 00:06:47,875 --> 00:06:49,583 We tend to forget Scripture. 176 00:06:49,667 --> 00:06:52,583 Sometimes people can go days, weeks, months, years 177 00:06:52,667 --> 00:06:55,125 without actually reading the book that God wrote, 178 00:06:55,167 --> 00:06:57,625 and sometimes we can get really excited about other books 179 00:06:57,667 --> 00:06:59,833 that have been written, maybe even decent Christian books. 180 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,833 And that's not a bad thing, but we forget about the book 181 00:07:02,875 --> 00:07:04,167 that God wrote. 182 00:07:04,250 --> 00:07:06,833 He's going to go on, as well, to talk about sin. 183 00:07:06,875 --> 00:07:09,208 And sometimes we can forget that we are sinners, 184 00:07:09,292 --> 00:07:11,708 and other people are sinners, and sinners need help, 185 00:07:11,792 --> 00:07:13,667 and sinners need a Savior. 186 00:07:13,750 --> 00:07:15,500 I grew up in Orange County, Irvine. 187 00:07:15,542 --> 00:07:16,917 I've been an atheist. 188 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,083 I was an atheist for most of my life. 189 00:07:19,167 --> 00:07:22,833 I became prideful and changed a lot for the worse. 190 00:07:22,875 --> 00:07:25,167 I was really into school and grades. 191 00:07:25,250 --> 00:07:28,000 And the minute anything went wrong, 192 00:07:28,083 --> 00:07:29,625 you've lost everything. 193 00:07:29,667 --> 00:07:32,292 And he's ultimately going to talk about forgiveness of sin 194 00:07:32,333 --> 00:07:36,667 and new life in Jesus Christ because we oftentimes can forget 195 00:07:36,750 --> 00:07:38,917 that we are forgiven. 196 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:41,333 And some of you have even said things like this: 197 00:07:41,375 --> 00:07:44,500 "I know that God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself." 198 00:07:44,583 --> 00:07:47,083 Well, that just goes to prove that we've forgotten; 199 00:07:47,167 --> 00:07:49,708 that we're not a god above the God of the Bible, 200 00:07:49,792 --> 00:07:51,875 and if the God of the Bible forgives us, 201 00:07:51,958 --> 00:07:54,708 we're forgiven. And we're not above him, 202 00:07:54,792 --> 00:07:57,917 and if he forgives us, we need to receive that forgiveness. 203 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:01,125 And the key is to always come back to what is the truth, 204 00:08:01,167 --> 00:08:02,875 and who is Jesus. 205 00:08:02,958 --> 00:08:05,708 And each generation has to make its own decision 206 00:08:05,792 --> 00:08:08,625 regarding the person and work of Christ. 207 00:08:08,667 --> 00:08:11,417 And so Paul says we're prone to forget. 208 00:08:11,500 --> 00:08:13,208 And so there are some wonderful churches, 209 00:08:13,292 --> 00:08:15,375 some wonderful movements, some wonderful schools, 210 00:08:15,458 --> 00:08:19,000 some wonderful ministries, but there are many people 211 00:08:19,042 --> 00:08:22,417 who are prone to forget who Jesus is and what he's done, 212 00:08:22,500 --> 00:08:25,500 even in a place where there's lots of opportunity. 213 00:08:25,542 --> 00:08:29,125 And so, number two, we believe that the gospel is good news, 214 00:08:29,167 --> 00:08:33,667 and it's always coming back to that source of life and power, 215 00:08:33,750 --> 00:08:36,583 and that is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 216 00:08:36,667 --> 00:08:39,333 So in chapter 15, verse 1, he speaks of, quote, 217 00:08:39,375 --> 00:08:40,708 "the gospel." 218 00:08:40,792 --> 00:08:43,583 And the gospel simply means good news. 219 00:08:43,667 --> 00:08:45,375 Good news. 220 00:08:45,458 --> 00:08:47,500 And this is different than good advice. 221 00:08:47,583 --> 00:08:50,917 What tends to happen a lot, when Christianity gets diluted 222 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,208 and polluted, is that it's simply reduced to good advice. 223 00:08:55,292 --> 00:08:57,417 And all of a sudden, Christianity becomes a moral 224 00:08:57,500 --> 00:09:01,167 lifestyle, and the Bible becomes a bunch of examples. 225 00:09:01,250 --> 00:09:03,375 Here's some bad guys; don't be like them. 226 00:09:03,458 --> 00:09:05,625 Here's some good guys; do be like them. 227 00:09:05,667 --> 00:09:08,708 And the Bible is reduced to simply good advice. 228 00:09:08,792 --> 00:09:11,833 Good advice is not necessarily bad, 229 00:09:11,875 --> 00:09:15,125 but it's not necessarily Christian because-- 230 00:09:15,167 --> 00:09:19,500 [loss of audio] 231 00:09:19,583 --> 00:09:22,833 You can-- this one is working. 232 00:09:22,875 --> 00:09:25,292 You can disbelieve in the God of the Bible 233 00:09:25,333 --> 00:09:27,500 and still receive good advice. 234 00:09:27,542 --> 00:09:29,917 You can be an atheist, you can be a Mormon, 235 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,500 you can be a Muslim, you can be Jewish, 236 00:09:32,542 --> 00:09:34,125 you could be just vague, general, 237 00:09:34,167 --> 00:09:38,625 skinny-jeans spiritual, and still receive good advice. 238 00:09:38,667 --> 00:09:41,375 The Bible is not primarily about good advice. 239 00:09:41,458 --> 00:09:42,917 It's about good news. 240 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:45,083 It's not about good advice that you and I 241 00:09:45,167 --> 00:09:47,000 have a lot of things to do. 242 00:09:47,042 --> 00:09:50,708 It's about good news, some things that Jesus has done. 243 00:09:50,792 --> 00:09:54,000 And the Bible is not a bunch of disconnected stories. 244 00:09:54,083 --> 00:09:56,792 It's not about David versus Goliath. 245 00:09:56,833 --> 00:09:59,208 It's not about Abraham leaving his family. 246 00:09:59,292 --> 00:10:03,000 It's not about Jonah being in a fish for 3 days. 247 00:10:03,083 --> 00:10:04,708 Those stories are in the Bible, 248 00:10:04,792 --> 00:10:07,500 but all the stories of the Bible are all subplots 249 00:10:07,583 --> 00:10:09,500 for the big story of the Bible: 250 00:10:09,583 --> 00:10:11,000 that God is Creator, 251 00:10:11,042 --> 00:10:12,792 that we've sinned and rebelled against him, 252 00:10:12,833 --> 00:10:14,417 that we've run from him, 253 00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:17,167 that he has come on a rescue mission to seek us, 254 00:10:17,250 --> 00:10:19,208 to serve us, to save us, 255 00:10:19,292 --> 00:10:21,333 that his name is Jesus Christ, 256 00:10:21,375 --> 00:10:23,625 that he lived a life that is exemplary, 257 00:10:23,667 --> 00:10:25,417 that is perfect and without sin; 258 00:10:25,500 --> 00:10:28,083 but his goal was not just to be a good example, 259 00:10:28,167 --> 00:10:29,833 but to be a good Savior. 260 00:10:29,875 --> 00:10:31,417 And he died in our place, 261 00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:34,583 paying our penalty for our sin on the cross. 262 00:10:34,667 --> 00:10:37,708 Three days later, he rose-- this is where Paul's going to go 263 00:10:37,792 --> 00:10:39,792 in 1 Corinthians 15-- 264 00:10:39,833 --> 00:10:43,208 and that, ultimately, he doesn't just make us better; 265 00:10:43,292 --> 00:10:46,333 he makes us new. 266 00:10:46,375 --> 00:10:48,000 And it's not just good advice-- 267 00:10:48,042 --> 00:10:49,667 "Here's some things to improve your life"-- 268 00:10:49,750 --> 00:10:51,000 it's good news. 269 00:10:51,083 --> 00:10:52,500 He says it from the cross. 270 00:10:52,583 --> 00:10:53,833 "It is finished." 271 00:10:53,875 --> 00:10:55,708 All the work of salvation is done. 272 00:10:55,792 --> 00:10:57,000 We trust in him. 273 00:10:57,083 --> 00:10:59,000 We receive new life from him. 274 00:10:59,083 --> 00:11:01,417 We don't then just become better people. 275 00:11:01,500 --> 00:11:04,375 We become new people, different people 276 00:11:04,458 --> 00:11:05,792 by the grace of God, 277 00:11:05,833 --> 00:11:07,917 and that's the good news. 278 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,000 The Holy Spirit softened my heart that day 279 00:11:10,042 --> 00:11:11,500 because before it was very hard. 280 00:11:11,542 --> 00:11:12,833 I don't know. 281 00:11:12,875 --> 00:11:14,708 I still think about, "Wow, he changed me." 282 00:11:14,792 --> 00:11:16,417 That means he must be really powerful 283 00:11:16,500 --> 00:11:19,000 because I was really, really prideful. 284 00:11:19,083 --> 00:11:21,667 But I know he did it because I really wouldn't have 285 00:11:21,750 --> 00:11:23,208 done it myself, you know? 286 00:11:23,292 --> 00:11:25,875 And when the good news is reduced to the good advice, 287 00:11:25,958 --> 00:11:29,000 what Christianity ends up becoming is a brand, 288 00:11:29,083 --> 00:11:32,125 and people can get converted to a brand and a lifestyle 289 00:11:32,167 --> 00:11:35,792 without ever actually knowing Jesus, loving Jesus, 290 00:11:35,833 --> 00:11:40,000 belonging to Jesus, experiencing that newness of life from Jesus. 291 00:11:40,042 --> 00:11:41,917 And you know when things have gone astray 292 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:43,833 when people come to the Bible, just saying, 293 00:11:43,875 --> 00:11:45,625 "I need to get some good advice." 294 00:11:45,667 --> 00:11:47,625 Friends, there's good advice all over the world. 295 00:11:47,667 --> 00:11:50,000 There's only one place to get good news, 296 00:11:50,083 --> 00:11:52,000 and that is that there's a Savior. 297 00:11:52,083 --> 00:11:53,375 He's the Creator God. 298 00:11:53,458 --> 00:11:54,708 His name is Jesus. 299 00:11:54,792 --> 00:11:56,000 He loves you. 300 00:11:56,083 --> 00:11:57,375 He cares for you. 301 00:11:57,458 --> 00:12:00,583 He doesn't just make you better; he makes you new. 302 00:12:00,667 --> 00:12:03,708 Number three, we believe that the gospel must be preached. 303 00:12:03,792 --> 00:12:06,625 This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1. 304 00:12:06,667 --> 00:12:09,500 Yes, we're still in the first verse. 305 00:12:09,583 --> 00:12:12,625 He says, quote, "I preached to you." 306 00:12:12,667 --> 00:12:14,917 And so what you are doing today, right now, 307 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:16,500 is an act of worship. 308 00:12:16,583 --> 00:12:19,083 You're listening to the preaching of the Word of God. 309 00:12:19,167 --> 00:12:21,000 Our God is a speaking God. 310 00:12:21,042 --> 00:12:22,500 Our God is a communicating God. 311 00:12:22,583 --> 00:12:24,917 Our God is a Trinitarian God: 312 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:26,708 one God, three persons. 313 00:12:26,792 --> 00:12:29,833 They have constant unbroken union and communion: 314 00:12:29,875 --> 00:12:32,417 God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, 315 00:12:32,500 --> 00:12:34,208 eternally existing as one God. 316 00:12:34,292 --> 00:12:36,625 They communicate with one another. 317 00:12:36,667 --> 00:12:38,000 That's magnificent. 318 00:12:38,083 --> 00:12:39,917 So when God goes to make the world, 319 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:41,708 he speaks it into existence. 320 00:12:41,792 --> 00:12:44,500 That's how powerful the Word of God is. 321 00:12:44,542 --> 00:12:46,667 God creates our first parents, Adam and Eve, 322 00:12:46,750 --> 00:12:49,083 and he speaks to them. 323 00:12:49,167 --> 00:12:52,500 And after they sin, he comes speaking to them again, 324 00:12:52,542 --> 00:12:56,167 and he sends a succession of prophets to speak to us. 325 00:12:56,250 --> 00:12:59,333 He sends leaders in the New Testament to speak to us, 326 00:12:59,375 --> 00:13:02,417 that God ultimately speaks to us through the Scriptures. 327 00:13:02,500 --> 00:13:05,333 And I know some of you would love to hear from God. 328 00:13:05,375 --> 00:13:07,000 You wish God would talk to you. 329 00:13:07,083 --> 00:13:09,708 I'm telling you, if you read the book that God wrote, 330 00:13:09,792 --> 00:13:11,083 God will speak to you. 331 00:13:11,167 --> 00:13:13,708 That's the primary way that God speaks today. 332 00:13:13,792 --> 00:13:16,125 Our God is a speaking God. 333 00:13:16,167 --> 00:13:19,333 He's a communicating God, and one of the ways that 334 00:13:19,375 --> 00:13:23,292 he communicates to us is through the preaching of his Word. 335 00:13:23,333 --> 00:13:25,792 And so God has, from the beginning, 336 00:13:25,833 --> 00:13:29,500 sent forth preachers, prophets, proclaimers, 337 00:13:29,583 --> 00:13:32,625 truth tellers, teachers to open the Word of God 338 00:13:32,667 --> 00:13:35,083 and to communicate to the people of God. 339 00:13:35,167 --> 00:13:36,417 And I'll tell you what. 340 00:13:36,500 --> 00:13:39,583 This is one of the most amazing things of my whole life. 341 00:13:39,667 --> 00:13:42,417 I grew up non-Christian, jack Catholic. 342 00:13:42,500 --> 00:13:44,583 I believed in good advice, not good news. 343 00:13:44,667 --> 00:13:45,917 I didn't know Jesus. 344 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,500 I thought that the Bible was just a bunch of things 345 00:13:48,583 --> 00:13:51,167 for me to do to try to be a better person. 346 00:13:51,250 --> 00:13:53,500 Some Catholics know and love Jesus. 347 00:13:53,583 --> 00:13:54,917 I wasn't one of them. 348 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:56,333 It wasn't the church's fault. 349 00:13:56,375 --> 00:13:58,208 It was my fault. 350 00:13:58,292 --> 00:14:00,833 And everything changed as I started to hear 351 00:14:00,875 --> 00:14:02,500 the Word of God preached. 352 00:14:02,583 --> 00:14:05,625 Somebody got up on a Sunday, a good man, and he just opened 353 00:14:05,667 --> 00:14:07,917 the Bible and he taught it. 354 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,375 And I remember the Holy Spirit confirming in me, 355 00:14:11,458 --> 00:14:14,000 "That's the book that God wrote. 356 00:14:14,042 --> 00:14:15,333 "This is the truth. 357 00:14:15,375 --> 00:14:16,625 "This is who God is. 358 00:14:16,667 --> 00:14:18,000 "This is who I am. 359 00:14:18,042 --> 00:14:19,333 "This is who Jesus is. 360 00:14:19,375 --> 00:14:21,083 This is what Jesus has done." 361 00:14:21,167 --> 00:14:23,417 And my life has never been the same. 362 00:14:23,500 --> 00:14:26,083 And if you come to Mars Hill, we open the Bible. 363 00:14:26,167 --> 00:14:27,417 We go through the Bible. 364 00:14:27,500 --> 00:14:28,708 We like the Bible. 365 00:14:28,792 --> 00:14:30,083 We talk about Jesus. 366 00:14:30,167 --> 00:14:32,208 And God has multiplied that in an extraordinary way, 367 00:14:32,292 --> 00:14:34,167 to where, as I said, now we're working 368 00:14:34,250 --> 00:14:36,125 on churches in four states. 369 00:14:36,167 --> 00:14:37,917 We do use video. 370 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,500 And some people say, "Well, does it matter if the preacher 371 00:14:40,583 --> 00:14:41,875 is in the room?" 372 00:14:41,958 --> 00:14:43,208 Here's the truth. 373 00:14:43,292 --> 00:14:46,583 What matters is whether or not the Word of God is in the room. 374 00:14:46,667 --> 00:14:49,917 What matters is whether or not the truth of God is in the room. 375 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,083 What matters is whether or not the truth of the Word of God 376 00:14:53,167 --> 00:14:54,792 about the person of Jesus is preached. 377 00:14:54,833 --> 00:14:56,917 And if it is, the Holy Spirit shows up, 378 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:58,417 changes lives, and makes a difference. 379 00:14:58,500 --> 00:15:00,167 The power is not in the preacher; 380 00:15:00,250 --> 00:15:01,792 the power is in the truth. 381 00:15:01,833 --> 00:15:03,500 The power is not in the preacher; 382 00:15:03,542 --> 00:15:06,125 the power is in the truth of the Word of God. 383 00:15:06,167 --> 00:15:09,208 And friends, it is such a great honor to be able to preach 384 00:15:09,292 --> 00:15:10,583 and teach to you. 385 00:15:10,667 --> 00:15:14,667 And Paul says that because we tend to forget things, 386 00:15:14,750 --> 00:15:17,708 because we tend to reduce Christianity down to a brand 387 00:15:17,792 --> 00:15:20,417 and a moral lifestyle of good advice, 388 00:15:20,500 --> 00:15:22,500 we need to constantly be preached at. 389 00:15:22,583 --> 00:15:26,417 Somebody has to open the Bible and lovingly course-correct us 390 00:15:26,500 --> 00:15:30,833 and reveal to us who and what is going on in the world 391 00:15:30,875 --> 00:15:32,833 in regards to God. 392 00:15:32,875 --> 00:15:37,417 Number four, we believe that the gospel must be received. 393 00:15:37,500 --> 00:15:40,667 He says in chapter 15, verses 1-2, 394 00:15:40,750 --> 00:15:44,375 "Which you received, in which you stand," like a soldier 395 00:15:44,458 --> 00:15:47,833 holding their ground, "and by which you are being saved." 396 00:15:47,875 --> 00:15:50,500 Salvation is a constant process. 397 00:15:50,583 --> 00:15:52,625 It starts with what we call justification, 398 00:15:52,667 --> 00:15:55,625 where you are declared righteous in the sight of God 399 00:15:55,667 --> 00:15:59,208 because of the person and work of Jesus and faith in him. 400 00:15:59,292 --> 00:16:01,708 It continues with something called sanctification, 401 00:16:01,792 --> 00:16:03,500 where you learn and you grow. 402 00:16:03,583 --> 00:16:05,792 And as a Christian, you're maturing and changing 403 00:16:05,833 --> 00:16:07,708 through the course of your life, 404 00:16:07,792 --> 00:16:09,625 by the power of the Holy Spirit, 405 00:16:09,667 --> 00:16:12,708 and it ends in glorification, where one day you die 406 00:16:12,792 --> 00:16:16,792 and you look Jesus in the eye and everything is ultimately 407 00:16:16,833 --> 00:16:21,208 forever concluded insofar as your maturing goes. 408 00:16:21,292 --> 00:16:23,875 And you raise one day to be with him, like him, 409 00:16:23,958 --> 00:16:25,708 for him, forever. 410 00:16:25,792 --> 00:16:30,417 So he says your salvation is receiving the truth about Jesus 411 00:16:30,500 --> 00:16:33,792 and then standing in it, continuing as a Christian, 412 00:16:33,833 --> 00:16:38,917 as your salvation keeps growing, as you keep maturing. 413 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,292 He goes on to say, "if you hold fast to the word I've preached 414 00:16:42,333 --> 00:16:44,708 to you--unless you believed in vain." 415 00:16:44,792 --> 00:16:46,500 Now, let me ask you this. 416 00:16:46,583 --> 00:16:48,333 Have you received Jesus? 417 00:16:48,375 --> 00:16:49,708 Not morality. 418 00:16:49,792 --> 00:16:51,500 Have you received Jesus as Lord, God, 419 00:16:51,542 --> 00:16:53,167 Savior, King, and Christ? 420 00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:56,417 Not just good example, big therapist, 421 00:16:56,500 --> 00:17:01,125 the giver of good advice, but actually the giver of good news? 422 00:17:01,167 --> 00:17:04,375 Have you borrowed the faith of your parents or your family? 423 00:17:04,458 --> 00:17:06,833 You were born into a Christian family or home, 424 00:17:06,875 --> 00:17:09,000 but you've never really come to your own personal 425 00:17:09,042 --> 00:17:10,500 relationship with Jesus? 426 00:17:10,583 --> 00:17:13,208 And looking around, I know that many of you are young, 427 00:17:13,292 --> 00:17:15,417 and I know that many of you probably come 428 00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:17,417 from church families, and church backgrounds, 429 00:17:17,500 --> 00:17:19,000 and maybe you have godly parents, 430 00:17:19,042 --> 00:17:21,625 and we rejoice in that and we praise God for that. 431 00:17:21,667 --> 00:17:23,625 But have you come to your own faith? 432 00:17:23,667 --> 00:17:25,375 Have you received it for yourself? 433 00:17:25,458 --> 00:17:27,708 Are you standing in it for yourself? 434 00:17:27,792 --> 00:17:30,625 Are you persevering in it for yourself? 435 00:17:30,667 --> 00:17:33,500 And are you standing in that faith, 436 00:17:33,542 --> 00:17:36,708 maturing in, growing in that faith? 437 00:17:36,792 --> 00:17:38,167 This is really important. 438 00:17:38,250 --> 00:17:40,667 We want to be a church here for all ages, 439 00:17:40,750 --> 00:17:43,833 all races, all cultures, all backgrounds, 440 00:17:43,875 --> 00:17:46,417 but let me just say this plainly and clearly. 441 00:17:46,500 --> 00:17:49,583 The bull's-eye for us are young 20-somethings, 442 00:17:49,667 --> 00:17:51,417 30-somethings. 443 00:17:51,500 --> 00:17:55,417 We want those people to come to their own faith in Christ. 444 00:17:55,500 --> 00:17:58,333 And if you're here today, it begins with you. 445 00:17:58,375 --> 00:18:01,167 Some of you may be carrying on the legacy of faith 446 00:18:01,250 --> 00:18:02,875 in your family. 447 00:18:02,958 --> 00:18:05,500 Some of you may become today, patriarchs and matriarchs, 448 00:18:05,542 --> 00:18:06,833 saying, "You know what? 449 00:18:06,875 --> 00:18:09,083 "The history of my family has not been great, 450 00:18:09,167 --> 00:18:10,917 "so maybe it starts with me. 451 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,833 "Maybe one day when the kids and the grandkids tell the story 452 00:18:13,875 --> 00:18:15,625 "of the life change in our family, 453 00:18:15,667 --> 00:18:18,333 "it starts today with me becoming 454 00:18:18,375 --> 00:18:21,875 "a man or a woman who receives Jesus Christ, 455 00:18:21,958 --> 00:18:26,000 "stands in it, grows by it for the rest of my life, 456 00:18:26,083 --> 00:18:29,125 and hands that on to my children." 457 00:18:29,167 --> 00:18:31,625 And friends, that's what we want for you. 458 00:18:31,667 --> 00:18:34,417 Most fools are thinking about a good time. 459 00:18:34,500 --> 00:18:37,500 Most Christians should be thinking about a good legacy; 460 00:18:37,583 --> 00:18:40,125 two, three, four, five generations. 461 00:18:40,167 --> 00:18:42,083 Who do you want your kids to marry? 462 00:18:42,167 --> 00:18:44,208 Who do you want your grandkids to marry? 463 00:18:44,292 --> 00:18:46,125 They're going to marry someone like you 464 00:18:46,167 --> 00:18:49,167 or someone like the person you're with. 465 00:18:49,250 --> 00:18:52,000 What do you want your legacy to be? 466 00:18:52,042 --> 00:18:55,708 This is a big issue for us at Mars Hill. 467 00:18:55,792 --> 00:18:59,125 See, Paul is a guy talking to the Corinthians: 468 00:18:59,167 --> 00:19:05,208 young, urban, sexual, confused, educated, a bit proud, 469 00:19:05,292 --> 00:19:08,875 pretentious young church. 470 00:19:08,958 --> 00:19:12,500 And he tells them, "You've got to receive the God of the Bible. 471 00:19:12,583 --> 00:19:13,917 "You've got to stand there. 472 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:15,208 "Don't move. 473 00:19:15,292 --> 00:19:17,167 "And you've got to persevere to the end. 474 00:19:17,250 --> 00:19:20,333 That's what God wants from you because he loves you." 475 00:19:20,375 --> 00:19:22,583 How about you? 476 00:19:22,667 --> 00:19:25,792 See, this could be one of those days that you tell your kids 477 00:19:25,833 --> 00:19:28,000 and grandkids about. 478 00:19:28,042 --> 00:19:31,708 And I pray for many of you, especially you young men, 479 00:19:31,792 --> 00:19:34,917 that this would be one of those days for you. 480 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,208 "Yes, in the grace of God, now 1 Corinthians 13 makes sense." 481 00:19:39,292 --> 00:19:41,625 "When I was a boy, I thought like a boy 482 00:19:41,667 --> 00:19:44,500 "and I acted like a boy and I spoke like a boy. 483 00:19:44,583 --> 00:19:50,125 And when I became a man, I put boyish ways behind me." 484 00:19:50,167 --> 00:19:52,583 We believe the gospel must be received. 485 00:19:52,667 --> 00:19:54,292 Number five, we believe that the gospel 486 00:19:54,333 --> 00:19:56,625 is the most important thing. 487 00:19:56,667 --> 00:20:00,208 He says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, "For I delivered to you 488 00:20:00,292 --> 00:20:02,333 as of first importance--" 489 00:20:02,375 --> 00:20:03,833 Now, that's a massive statement. 490 00:20:03,875 --> 00:20:05,583 You think of all the information today. 491 00:20:05,667 --> 00:20:09,083 Paul says, of all the information on the earth, 492 00:20:09,167 --> 00:20:11,708 that has ever been on the earth, is on the earth, 493 00:20:11,792 --> 00:20:15,292 or will ever be on the earth, there's one bit of information 494 00:20:15,333 --> 00:20:19,792 that supersedes, rises above all others. 495 00:20:19,833 --> 00:20:23,417 It's of first importance, and that's about 496 00:20:23,500 --> 00:20:26,333 the person and work of Jesus. 497 00:20:26,375 --> 00:20:28,917 That's about what the truth of the Bible reveals 498 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,000 about the Savior of the world. 499 00:20:32,083 --> 00:20:34,000 I want you to study hard. 500 00:20:34,083 --> 00:20:36,667 If you're in school, I want you to study hard. 501 00:20:36,750 --> 00:20:39,583 If you're in a trade, I want you to master that trade. 502 00:20:39,667 --> 00:20:42,208 Whatever city or town you're in, I want you to know 503 00:20:42,292 --> 00:20:43,500 what's going on there. 504 00:20:43,583 --> 00:20:45,708 I want you to love and serve that community 505 00:20:45,792 --> 00:20:48,208 and seek the well-being of everyone who is there, 506 00:20:48,292 --> 00:20:51,708 but never forget the most important thing 507 00:20:51,792 --> 00:20:55,000 is the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, 508 00:20:55,083 --> 00:20:58,125 the big story about the good news. 509 00:20:58,167 --> 00:21:00,667 That's the most important thing. 510 00:21:00,750 --> 00:21:04,583 And how many of you are really passionate about learning? 511 00:21:04,667 --> 00:21:07,333 And what I would say is if you're not passionate about 512 00:21:07,375 --> 00:21:10,417 learning the Word of God and getting to know the Son of God, 513 00:21:10,500 --> 00:21:12,417 rather than just doing it out of guilt, 514 00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:14,792 I would ask you to first pray. 515 00:21:14,833 --> 00:21:18,708 "Holy Spirit, you wrote the Scriptures. 516 00:21:18,792 --> 00:21:21,333 "Holy Spirit, you convict of sin. 517 00:21:21,375 --> 00:21:24,125 "Holy Spirit, you lead us into the truth. 518 00:21:24,167 --> 00:21:27,083 "Holy Spirit, give me an appetite 519 00:21:27,167 --> 00:21:28,625 "to know the Word of God. 520 00:21:28,667 --> 00:21:31,792 "Give me an appetite to love the Son of God. 521 00:21:31,833 --> 00:21:35,417 "Give me a desire to grow in my knowledge of the good news, 522 00:21:35,500 --> 00:21:37,583 that which is of first importance." 523 00:21:37,667 --> 00:21:40,500 And some of you will wrongly think this is an old book. 524 00:21:40,542 --> 00:21:41,833 It's not. 525 00:21:41,875 --> 00:21:44,875 It's an eternal book, and so it's always timely. 526 00:21:44,958 --> 00:21:48,833 Your whole life will change if you continually come back 527 00:21:48,875 --> 00:21:51,583 to that which is of first importance, 528 00:21:51,667 --> 00:21:54,000 the Word of God about the good news 529 00:21:54,042 --> 00:21:57,583 regarding Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. 530 00:21:57,667 --> 00:22:00,417 In addition, number six, we believe that the gospel 531 00:22:00,500 --> 00:22:02,583 is unchanging. 532 00:22:02,667 --> 00:22:05,833 This is very controversial and very important. 533 00:22:05,875 --> 00:22:09,000 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, 534 00:22:09,083 --> 00:22:11,208 "What I delivered to you as of first importance 535 00:22:11,292 --> 00:22:13,167 is what I also received." 536 00:22:13,250 --> 00:22:14,875 What Paul is saying is, he says, 537 00:22:14,958 --> 00:22:17,500 "You know, when it comes to the gospel, the good news, 538 00:22:17,583 --> 00:22:19,708 "the story of Jesus, I didn't make this up, 539 00:22:19,792 --> 00:22:21,792 and it didn't start with me." 540 00:22:21,833 --> 00:22:23,667 Okay, let me just say this. 541 00:22:23,750 --> 00:22:28,292 Be wary of any religion that started in America, okay? 542 00:22:28,333 --> 00:22:32,625 Just, like, just as a general rule, 543 00:22:32,667 --> 00:22:34,792 all right, be wary of any religion that started 544 00:22:34,833 --> 00:22:38,375 in Southern California, right? 545 00:22:38,458 --> 00:22:41,417 Our goal is not to believe anything new, 546 00:22:41,500 --> 00:22:43,583 but to believe things that are true 547 00:22:43,667 --> 00:22:46,875 and communicate them in new ways. 548 00:22:46,958 --> 00:22:49,083 So we're not changing the content. 549 00:22:49,167 --> 00:22:51,375 We may change the delivery system, 550 00:22:51,458 --> 00:22:55,000 using technology and such, but Paul says, 551 00:22:55,083 --> 00:22:57,500 "What I received, I pass on to you." 552 00:22:57,583 --> 00:22:58,833 You see that? 553 00:22:58,875 --> 00:23:00,833 Saying, "The truth was before me. 554 00:23:00,875 --> 00:23:04,375 It came to me, and now I pass it on to you." 555 00:23:04,458 --> 00:23:08,000 The gospel is first preached in Genesis 3. 556 00:23:08,083 --> 00:23:10,500 Adam and Eve sin against God. 557 00:23:10,583 --> 00:23:13,708 God comes, and he preaches what is called the protoevangelion, 558 00:23:13,792 --> 00:23:15,625 the first gospel. 559 00:23:15,667 --> 00:23:18,000 And he says, "All right, Adam and Eve, you've sinned." 560 00:23:18,083 --> 00:23:19,625 I'm paraphrasing. 561 00:23:19,667 --> 00:23:23,000 "And Satan, you have done a horrendous evil, 562 00:23:23,083 --> 00:23:25,208 "and so I'm going to send someone. 563 00:23:25,292 --> 00:23:28,167 "He'll be a male Son born of a woman, 564 00:23:28,250 --> 00:23:31,000 "and he will do battle with Satan, 565 00:23:31,042 --> 00:23:35,000 and though Satan will harm him, he will crush Satan." 566 00:23:35,083 --> 00:23:37,875 Yes, we believe in real evil. 567 00:23:37,958 --> 00:23:40,375 We believe in God and an enemy of God. 568 00:23:40,458 --> 00:23:43,375 We believe that this world really is a battlefield. 569 00:23:43,458 --> 00:23:46,500 That's why it's hard and painful. 570 00:23:46,583 --> 00:23:49,417 And we do believe that God is the first one who preaches 571 00:23:49,500 --> 00:23:51,708 the good news of the gospel. 572 00:23:51,792 --> 00:23:55,000 And in the middle of sin, he says Jesus is coming 573 00:23:55,042 --> 00:23:56,917 through the womb of Mary. 574 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,625 That's in Genesis 3. 575 00:23:59,667 --> 00:24:02,833 And then the gospel is to be preached all the way up until 576 00:24:02,875 --> 00:24:06,167 Revelation 14, and that's the final time in the Bible 577 00:24:06,250 --> 00:24:08,292 that the gospel is preached. 578 00:24:08,333 --> 00:24:10,667 And the Bible says it's preached by an angel 579 00:24:10,750 --> 00:24:14,083 near the end of time, whenever that might be. 580 00:24:14,167 --> 00:24:16,625 In between God preaching the first gospel 581 00:24:16,667 --> 00:24:19,208 and an angel preaching the gospel for the last time, 582 00:24:19,292 --> 00:24:22,625 we are to tell the story of Jesus. 583 00:24:22,667 --> 00:24:26,125 We're to tell the story of the Bible with clarity, 584 00:24:26,167 --> 00:24:28,625 and conviction, and compassion. 585 00:24:28,667 --> 00:24:30,333 And it is never to be changed. 586 00:24:30,375 --> 00:24:31,875 And let me say this. 587 00:24:31,958 --> 00:24:34,875 We are not to innovate the Scriptures or the truth. 588 00:24:34,958 --> 00:24:37,208 We're to receive it and hand it on. 589 00:24:37,292 --> 00:24:40,000 The message belongs to God, not to us. 590 00:24:40,042 --> 00:24:41,667 We deliver the mail. 591 00:24:41,750 --> 00:24:44,417 We don't write the mail. 592 00:24:44,500 --> 00:24:46,125 So you may come to Mars Hill. 593 00:24:46,167 --> 00:24:47,708 You're like, "I've heard all this before." 594 00:24:47,792 --> 00:24:49,417 Praise God, then we're not a cult. 595 00:24:49,500 --> 00:24:50,792 [congregation laughing] 596 00:24:50,833 --> 00:24:52,500 Praise God, then we're not a cult. 597 00:24:52,542 --> 00:24:54,500 [congregation applauding] 598 00:24:54,583 --> 00:24:56,417 So some of you'd come, and you'd say, 599 00:24:56,500 --> 00:24:57,792 "Okay, cool website. 600 00:24:57,833 --> 00:24:59,917 "You know, people seem interesting. 601 00:25:00,042 --> 00:25:02,000 "This is a weird place to meet. 602 00:25:02,083 --> 00:25:04,917 I heard you've gone out of state and use technology." 603 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,833 At the bottom of it all, at the base of it all, 604 00:25:07,875 --> 00:25:09,333 the engine driving the whole thing, 605 00:25:09,375 --> 00:25:12,375 Jesus is God, Jesus is God, Jesus is God. 606 00:25:12,458 --> 00:25:14,875 Sin is the problem; the cross is the solution. 607 00:25:14,958 --> 00:25:16,333 Jesus is alive. 608 00:25:16,375 --> 00:25:17,667 There's hope for you. 609 00:25:17,750 --> 00:25:20,667 Same message for 2,000 years. 610 00:25:20,750 --> 00:25:23,333 Christians are to be a band that just plays one song 611 00:25:23,375 --> 00:25:25,625 and plays it loud and proud, amen? 612 00:25:25,667 --> 00:25:28,083 [congregation applauding] 613 00:25:28,167 --> 00:25:30,500 The distortion is it's all about me, 614 00:25:30,583 --> 00:25:32,833 and the truth is it's all about Jesus. 615 00:25:32,875 --> 00:25:34,167 Man, it changes everything. 616 00:25:34,250 --> 00:25:36,583 You know, it kind of takes the load off from, 617 00:25:36,667 --> 00:25:39,417 like, I've got to fix myself and save myself to, 618 00:25:39,500 --> 00:25:42,167 oh no, that's what Jesus accomplished on the cross, 619 00:25:42,250 --> 00:25:45,333 and that's what the Holy Spirit is doing in me. 620 00:25:45,375 --> 00:25:50,000 I was living in such a way of when I was being religious, 621 00:25:50,083 --> 00:25:54,667 of, okay, I should do this, I should do this, 622 00:25:54,750 --> 00:25:57,292 versus going, "Oh, Christ loves me, 623 00:25:57,333 --> 00:25:59,083 I will respond to his love." 624 00:25:59,167 --> 00:26:00,875 Number seven, we believe that the gospel 625 00:26:00,958 --> 00:26:03,208 is about Jesus' cross. 626 00:26:03,292 --> 00:26:06,083 You can't talk about Jesus without talking about the cross. 627 00:26:06,167 --> 00:26:08,417 He says in chapter 15, verse 3, 628 00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:11,792 "that Christ died for our sins." 629 00:26:11,833 --> 00:26:13,333 Now, Christ died. 630 00:26:13,375 --> 00:26:14,708 You need to know this. 631 00:26:14,792 --> 00:26:16,500 God comes to earth. 632 00:26:16,583 --> 00:26:18,708 He is opposed by religious people, 633 00:26:18,792 --> 00:26:20,833 hated and despised. 634 00:26:20,875 --> 00:26:23,000 He is ultimately arrested. 635 00:26:23,083 --> 00:26:25,000 The political leaders don't like him 636 00:26:25,042 --> 00:26:26,917 because he keeps saying he's Lord, 637 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,333 which would make him above the political rulers. 638 00:26:29,375 --> 00:26:31,000 The religious leaders don't like him 639 00:26:31,083 --> 00:26:33,417 because he keeps saying he's God. 640 00:26:33,500 --> 00:26:35,333 And so, ultimately, they murder him. 641 00:26:35,375 --> 00:26:36,625 They put him to death. 642 00:26:36,667 --> 00:26:38,333 Now, some would say Jesus didn't die. 643 00:26:38,375 --> 00:26:39,667 He did die. 644 00:26:39,750 --> 00:26:42,083 And some would say, "Oh, Jesus died on the cross 645 00:26:42,167 --> 00:26:44,208 for your sins," but we say it so flippantly, 646 00:26:44,292 --> 00:26:45,583 so quickly, so hastily, 647 00:26:45,667 --> 00:26:47,292 that sometimes people don't even really understand 648 00:26:47,333 --> 00:26:50,708 what that means, that "God demonstrates his love 649 00:26:50,792 --> 00:26:52,917 "for us in this: while we were yet sinners, 650 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:54,583 Christ died for us." 651 00:26:54,667 --> 00:26:58,167 See, the cross was something done by us: we killed God. 652 00:26:58,250 --> 00:27:02,292 And it was something done for us: God saved us. 653 00:27:02,333 --> 00:27:05,708 And what Jesus did on the cross is he died for us. 654 00:27:05,792 --> 00:27:07,833 See, the wage for sin is death. 655 00:27:07,875 --> 00:27:10,333 The reason we have sickness, the reason we have division, 656 00:27:10,375 --> 00:27:13,792 the reason we have wars, and atrocity, and famine, 657 00:27:13,833 --> 00:27:16,417 the reason why the world is the way that it is 658 00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:19,917 is not because this is the way that God made the world. 659 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,125 When God made the world in Genesis 1:31, 660 00:27:22,167 --> 00:27:24,125 he said it was all very good. 661 00:27:24,167 --> 00:27:26,125 You say, "Well, something has gone very wrong." 662 00:27:26,167 --> 00:27:28,208 Yes: sin. 663 00:27:28,292 --> 00:27:30,500 And so Jesus comes, and he lives without sin. 664 00:27:30,542 --> 00:27:32,625 He is God become a man. 665 00:27:32,667 --> 00:27:34,792 He adds to his divinity humanity. 666 00:27:34,833 --> 00:27:38,583 God comes on a rescue mission for his enemies. 667 00:27:38,667 --> 00:27:39,917 That's amazing. 668 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,625 How many of you would suffer and die for your enemies? 669 00:27:43,667 --> 00:27:46,000 That's what God does in Christ. 670 00:27:46,083 --> 00:27:47,708 So when it comes to being Christians, 671 00:27:47,792 --> 00:27:50,417 we're not just undeserving of God's love and forgiveness; 672 00:27:50,500 --> 00:27:52,667 we're ill-deserving. 673 00:27:52,750 --> 00:27:57,208 And Jesus goes to the cross, and he dies for our sins. 674 00:27:57,292 --> 00:27:59,708 We call this penal substitutionary atonement. 675 00:27:59,792 --> 00:28:02,208 Death is the penalty. 676 00:28:02,292 --> 00:28:05,792 Substitution is what Jesus did, so that our sin could be 677 00:28:05,833 --> 00:28:09,125 atoned for and forgiven. 678 00:28:09,167 --> 00:28:11,667 Christians never get over this. 679 00:28:11,750 --> 00:28:15,000 And see, Martin Luther says rightly, that religion is 680 00:28:15,083 --> 00:28:16,708 the default mode of the human heart. 681 00:28:16,792 --> 00:28:18,625 So you know what we want to do? 682 00:28:18,667 --> 00:28:21,292 We want to pay God back. 683 00:28:21,333 --> 00:28:22,833 We don't pay God back. 684 00:28:22,875 --> 00:28:25,125 We trust Jesus. 685 00:28:25,167 --> 00:28:28,208 You say, "Well, I feel so bad." 686 00:28:28,292 --> 00:28:31,500 Right, but Jesus is so good. 687 00:28:31,583 --> 00:28:33,000 "Well, what can I do?" 688 00:28:33,083 --> 00:28:35,000 Nothing, because Jesus said on the cross, 689 00:28:35,042 --> 00:28:38,833 "It is finished." 690 00:28:38,875 --> 00:28:40,917 The love of God, the forgiveness of God, 691 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,500 the salvation of God, it's not cheap. 692 00:28:44,542 --> 00:28:50,000 It's priceless, and so we can't earn, merit, or deserve it. 693 00:28:50,042 --> 00:28:53,500 It has to be given as a gift, and that's a gift of grace. 694 00:28:53,583 --> 00:28:55,208 So I want you to know this. 695 00:28:55,292 --> 00:28:57,833 When Jesus went to the cross, he died for our sins, 696 00:28:57,875 --> 00:29:00,583 for your sins and mine, and something called 697 00:29:00,667 --> 00:29:02,875 the Great Exchange happened. 698 00:29:02,958 --> 00:29:04,917 All your sin went to Jesus. 699 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,208 All of it. 700 00:29:06,292 --> 00:29:08,500 Sins you haven't even committed yet, 701 00:29:08,542 --> 00:29:11,833 all your condemnation, all your guilt, all your filth, 702 00:29:11,875 --> 00:29:14,417 all your shame, all your failures. 703 00:29:14,500 --> 00:29:17,167 How many of you feel that? 704 00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:18,917 Now, when your buddies are around, 705 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,833 or you're out on Friday night, or you've got a few drinks 706 00:29:21,875 --> 00:29:25,417 in you, or you're trying to keep yourself busy with your life, 707 00:29:25,500 --> 00:29:26,875 you don't think about it. 708 00:29:26,958 --> 00:29:29,792 But how many of you, in those quiet moments, you feel it? 709 00:29:29,833 --> 00:29:34,208 "Man, what am I doing? 710 00:29:34,292 --> 00:29:36,833 "I'm not really excited about who I am, 711 00:29:36,875 --> 00:29:38,917 "or what I'm doing, or where I'm going. 712 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,000 "And as I look back on my life, I have some real regrets, 713 00:29:42,083 --> 00:29:43,375 "if I'm honest. 714 00:29:43,458 --> 00:29:45,333 "I wouldn't talk about that with my buddies 715 00:29:45,375 --> 00:29:48,417 "because those guys would just make fun of me. 716 00:29:48,500 --> 00:29:51,625 But in those lonely, quiet moments, I feel it." 717 00:29:51,667 --> 00:29:54,500 You need to know that all of that went to Jesus. 718 00:29:54,542 --> 00:29:57,792 He was alone, he was cursed, he was defiled, 719 00:29:57,833 --> 00:30:02,708 he was broken, he was ashamed, and all of his righteousness 720 00:30:02,792 --> 00:30:04,875 came to you. 721 00:30:04,958 --> 00:30:07,000 So in Christ, you are clean; 722 00:30:07,083 --> 00:30:08,333 in Christ, you are loved; 723 00:30:08,375 --> 00:30:10,000 in Christ, you are forgiven; 724 00:30:10,083 --> 00:30:11,708 in Christ, you are redeemed; 725 00:30:11,792 --> 00:30:15,833 in Christ, you are adopted into a new family, the church, 726 00:30:15,875 --> 00:30:18,500 with brothers and sisters, spiritually speaking, 727 00:30:18,583 --> 00:30:24,000 and God, who's the Father, and you have a new future. 728 00:30:24,042 --> 00:30:26,375 And Christians never get over that. 729 00:30:26,458 --> 00:30:29,792 It just makes me feel really loved to know that he did 730 00:30:29,833 --> 00:30:34,917 all that for me, even though I don't deserve it. 731 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,500 And I think I'm only one person and he's doing this 732 00:30:37,583 --> 00:30:39,125 for so many people. 733 00:30:39,167 --> 00:30:40,583 Now, I'll tell you three things. 734 00:30:40,667 --> 00:30:43,000 There are many things that the cross of Jesus does, 735 00:30:43,042 --> 00:30:44,333 if you trust in him. 736 00:30:44,375 --> 00:30:46,333 Number one, you're forgiven. 737 00:30:46,375 --> 00:30:48,000 Jesus says this from the cross. 738 00:30:48,083 --> 00:30:49,667 "Father," what? 739 00:30:49,750 --> 00:30:51,000 "Forgive them." 740 00:30:51,083 --> 00:30:52,333 Who? 741 00:30:52,375 --> 00:30:53,667 His murderers! 742 00:30:53,750 --> 00:30:56,083 Let me tell you, if Jesus can forgive his murderers, 743 00:30:56,167 --> 00:30:58,708 at his moment of murder, he can forgive anyone and everyone 744 00:30:58,792 --> 00:31:00,125 of anything and everything. 745 00:31:00,167 --> 00:31:05,125 How many of you really need that confirmation 746 00:31:05,167 --> 00:31:06,500 that you're forgiven? 747 00:31:06,542 --> 00:31:08,167 How many of you have done that? 748 00:31:08,250 --> 00:31:10,000 You've said or done something horrendous? 749 00:31:10,042 --> 00:31:12,375 Because see, our sin is Commission--we do bad things; 750 00:31:12,458 --> 00:31:15,208 it's omission--we don't do what we're supposed to do. 751 00:31:15,292 --> 00:31:17,500 We sin in thought, word, deed, motive. 752 00:31:17,583 --> 00:31:19,917 How many of you have sinned, and someone has just 753 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,708 looked at you and said, "I forgive you"? 754 00:31:22,792 --> 00:31:25,125 How does that feel? 755 00:31:25,167 --> 00:31:27,708 Doesn't that feel like a weight off the shoulders, 756 00:31:27,792 --> 00:31:30,000 like a guilt off the conscience? 757 00:31:30,042 --> 00:31:31,375 Isn't that life-giving? 758 00:31:31,458 --> 00:31:32,708 "You forgive me? 759 00:31:32,792 --> 00:31:34,917 "Thank you. 760 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:36,875 "You're not going to make me do anything? 761 00:31:36,958 --> 00:31:38,333 "You're not going to punish me? 762 00:31:38,375 --> 00:31:40,000 "You're not going to yell at me? 763 00:31:40,083 --> 00:31:41,500 "You're not going to tell everyone? 764 00:31:41,583 --> 00:31:43,000 You're not going to destroy me?" 765 00:31:43,042 --> 00:31:44,333 "No, I just forgive you." 766 00:31:44,375 --> 00:31:47,625 Wow. 767 00:31:47,667 --> 00:31:51,583 Jesus just forgives you. 768 00:31:51,667 --> 00:31:53,917 See, when we sin, we do sin against others, 769 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:55,708 but we ultimately sin against God. 770 00:31:55,792 --> 00:31:57,083 That's why the psalmist says, 771 00:31:57,167 --> 00:31:59,417 "Against you only, Lord God, have I sinned." 772 00:31:59,500 --> 00:32:01,417 And Jesus would look you in the eye, 773 00:32:01,500 --> 00:32:03,708 as a friend, face-to-face, and say, 774 00:32:03,792 --> 00:32:06,000 "I forgive you." 775 00:32:06,083 --> 00:32:07,625 You just need to receive that. 776 00:32:07,667 --> 00:32:11,125 Number two, Jesus cleanses you on the cross. 777 00:32:11,167 --> 00:32:15,625 Because see, forgiveness is about the sins we've committed. 778 00:32:15,667 --> 00:32:18,583 Cleansing is about the sins that have been committed against us. 779 00:32:18,667 --> 00:32:21,208 Some of you have had horrible sin done to you. 780 00:32:21,292 --> 00:32:23,875 We live in a day when one of you three women 781 00:32:23,958 --> 00:32:25,375 has been sexually assaulted, 782 00:32:25,458 --> 00:32:28,125 one of you six men has been sexually assaulted. 783 00:32:28,167 --> 00:32:30,208 Your parents' home blew up. 784 00:32:30,292 --> 00:32:31,583 Your friends have betrayed you. 785 00:32:31,667 --> 00:32:33,583 People have lied to you, cheated on you, 786 00:32:33,667 --> 00:32:35,917 taken advantage of you. 787 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,833 People that you gave your heart to just absolutely 788 00:32:38,875 --> 00:32:42,292 destroyed you and betrayed you. 789 00:32:42,333 --> 00:32:44,125 In Christ, you're clean. 790 00:32:44,167 --> 00:32:45,708 It doesn't matter what you've done. 791 00:32:45,792 --> 00:32:47,708 It doesn't matter what's been done to you. 792 00:32:47,792 --> 00:32:50,625 It's about what Jesus has done for you. 793 00:32:50,667 --> 00:32:54,500 And so in the Bible, what color do God's people usually wear? 794 00:32:54,583 --> 00:32:55,833 White. 795 00:32:55,875 --> 00:32:57,167 Why? 796 00:32:57,250 --> 00:33:00,625 Because they're forgiven and clean. 797 00:33:00,667 --> 00:33:04,917 Well, I think that Jesus has constantly been after me. 798 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,625 I think that I have been the prodigal son, 799 00:33:07,667 --> 00:33:09,917 when you kind of wake up, and you go, "Jesus, I'm--" 800 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,333 for me specifically-- "Jesus, you know, I'm sorry. 801 00:33:12,375 --> 00:33:16,583 "My heart has been just black and cold to you and to my wife, 802 00:33:16,667 --> 00:33:19,917 and I'm sorry." It's that, you know-- 803 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,833 What has happened in the last 8 months 804 00:33:21,875 --> 00:33:24,333 is that--that picture of the prodigal son, 805 00:33:24,375 --> 00:33:27,000 of when the prodigal first started going back, 806 00:33:27,042 --> 00:33:30,208 and while the son was still a far way off, 807 00:33:30,292 --> 00:33:33,000 that the father ran to him. 808 00:33:33,083 --> 00:33:35,625 And what I love about that is even before the son 809 00:33:35,667 --> 00:33:38,292 got anything out, he ran to him, 810 00:33:38,333 --> 00:33:41,333 and that has been the picture of what Jesus 811 00:33:41,375 --> 00:33:45,125 has done in my heart and is continuing to do in my heart 812 00:33:45,167 --> 00:33:46,708 and in my marriage. 813 00:33:46,792 --> 00:33:50,333 Because of Jesus, I'm able to love my wife. 814 00:33:50,375 --> 00:33:52,292 Because of Jesus, I'm able to smile again. 815 00:33:52,333 --> 00:33:54,917 Because of Jesus, I'm like, "Man, when is the last time 816 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,208 I've been anxious?" 817 00:33:56,292 --> 00:33:58,375 You know, because of Jesus, it's just--life feels 818 00:33:58,458 --> 00:34:02,833 a lot freer, instead of this prison that I was living in 819 00:34:02,875 --> 00:34:05,167 apart from Jesus. 820 00:34:05,250 --> 00:34:08,792 This changes how we even view people. 821 00:34:08,833 --> 00:34:10,625 You're not just a victim; you're clean. 822 00:34:10,667 --> 00:34:12,417 You're not just dirty; you're clean. 823 00:34:12,500 --> 00:34:14,500 You're not just defiled; you're clean. 824 00:34:14,542 --> 00:34:17,417 You're not just damaged goods; you're clean. 825 00:34:17,500 --> 00:34:19,375 Jesus took all the filth. 826 00:34:19,458 --> 00:34:21,333 He gave you all of his righteousness. 827 00:34:21,375 --> 00:34:25,292 In Christ, you're forgiven and clean. 828 00:34:25,333 --> 00:34:26,625 You know what? 829 00:34:26,667 --> 00:34:28,500 This comes down to the issue of identity. 830 00:34:28,583 --> 00:34:30,708 So many people today are trying to figure out 831 00:34:30,792 --> 00:34:33,125 who they are, or trying to invent who they are, 832 00:34:33,167 --> 00:34:34,917 trying to create who they are. 833 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:40,000 That's what leads to every problem that we have. 834 00:34:40,042 --> 00:34:42,125 They want to look like they've got it together, 835 00:34:42,167 --> 00:34:46,375 or they don't, and they're tired of pretending and hiding. 836 00:34:46,458 --> 00:34:50,667 Jesus comes and says, "You're forgiven, and you're clean." 837 00:34:50,750 --> 00:34:54,708 And number three then, makes you new. 838 00:34:54,792 --> 00:34:56,208 You know what that means? 839 00:34:56,292 --> 00:34:57,583 You get a new mind. 840 00:34:57,667 --> 00:34:59,000 You start to think differently. 841 00:34:59,042 --> 00:35:02,208 How many of you have experienced that? 842 00:35:02,292 --> 00:35:03,833 You get new desires. 843 00:35:03,875 --> 00:35:05,917 You're like, "I want to read the Bible. 844 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,625 "I want to be with God's people. 845 00:35:07,667 --> 00:35:09,917 "I want to get in a Community Group. 846 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,833 "What? What has happened to me? 847 00:35:14,875 --> 00:35:17,917 "I want to sing to Jesus, even though my voice 848 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:20,125 "sounds like I've been captured by al-Qaeda. 849 00:35:20,167 --> 00:35:24,208 "I can't sing, but I want to sing to Jesus! 850 00:35:24,292 --> 00:35:26,625 "All of a sudden, people are telling me their problems, 851 00:35:26,667 --> 00:35:28,125 "and I'm talking about Jesus. 852 00:35:28,167 --> 00:35:29,833 "Well, what do you think about Jesus? 853 00:35:29,875 --> 00:35:31,500 "And how is Jesus involved in this? 854 00:35:31,583 --> 00:35:33,667 And what does Jesus mean to you?" 855 00:35:33,750 --> 00:35:35,208 See, when you become a Christian, 856 00:35:35,292 --> 00:35:37,583 you're forgiven, clean, and new: 857 00:35:37,667 --> 00:35:42,125 new mind, new desires, new community, new identity, 858 00:35:42,167 --> 00:35:44,500 new destiny. 859 00:35:44,583 --> 00:35:47,333 Christianity is not about doing better and trying harder. 860 00:35:47,375 --> 00:35:51,000 It's about being new, forgiven, clean, and new. 861 00:35:51,083 --> 00:35:53,833 And I'll tell you, that's my story. 862 00:35:53,875 --> 00:35:56,917 That's my story. 863 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:01,333 Number eight, we believe the Bible is all about Jesus. 864 00:36:01,375 --> 00:36:04,292 This is the book about Jesus. 865 00:36:04,333 --> 00:36:05,667 It's all about Jesus. 866 00:36:05,750 --> 00:36:08,917 That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, 867 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:13,000 "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures." 868 00:36:13,042 --> 00:36:15,417 The Bible, he's saying, is about Jesus. 869 00:36:15,500 --> 00:36:17,708 It's not just about what to do. 870 00:36:17,792 --> 00:36:20,000 It's about what's been done. 871 00:36:20,042 --> 00:36:21,333 Here's the truth, friends. 872 00:36:21,375 --> 00:36:24,000 The Bible is not primarily about you, 873 00:36:24,083 --> 00:36:28,083 but it's for you. But it's about Jesus. 874 00:36:28,167 --> 00:36:30,500 And see, sometimes, "Oh, what does it say about me? 875 00:36:30,542 --> 00:36:31,917 "What does it say about me? 876 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,417 What does it say about me?" 877 00:36:33,500 --> 00:36:34,708 You're not the hero. 878 00:36:34,792 --> 00:36:36,917 All right, the whole book is not about you. 879 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:38,833 It's about him, and his love for you, 880 00:36:38,875 --> 00:36:41,500 and his salvation of you, and his good news for you. 881 00:36:41,542 --> 00:36:44,375 So at Mars Hill, we believe the whole Bible is about Jesus. 882 00:36:44,458 --> 00:36:46,333 This is why the Bible can be taught, 883 00:36:46,375 --> 00:36:51,000 but if Jesus isn't proclaimed, the Bible wasn't rightly taught. 884 00:36:51,083 --> 00:36:54,375 What can happen then is teaching just becomes therapy 885 00:36:54,458 --> 00:36:59,625 instead of salvation, how to feel better and do more, 886 00:36:59,667 --> 00:37:03,833 not how to meet him. 887 00:37:03,875 --> 00:37:06,667 I'll give you some ways that this goes astray. 888 00:37:06,750 --> 00:37:09,333 If you don't see that the Bible is firstly and foremostly 889 00:37:09,375 --> 00:37:13,125 about Jesus, you end up moralizing it. 890 00:37:13,167 --> 00:37:15,125 It just becomes morality. 891 00:37:15,167 --> 00:37:16,500 Let me say this. 892 00:37:16,542 --> 00:37:18,917 We're not immoral, but we're not moral. 893 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,625 I've got to be very careful with that. 894 00:37:20,667 --> 00:37:23,000 Some people are like, "They said not to be moral. 895 00:37:23,083 --> 00:37:24,792 Amen, this is the church for me." 896 00:37:24,833 --> 00:37:26,792 That's not what we're saying. 897 00:37:26,833 --> 00:37:29,417 What we're not saying is we want you to be immoral, 898 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:32,333 but what we're not saying is we want you to be moral. 899 00:37:32,375 --> 00:37:34,583 What we want you to be is a Christian. 900 00:37:34,667 --> 00:37:37,500 We want you to meet the Jesus of the Bible, 901 00:37:37,542 --> 00:37:39,917 we want the Holy Spirit to live in you, 902 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,500 and we want the life of Christ to start to be made manifest 903 00:37:43,583 --> 00:37:47,375 in your life, so that you increasingly become 904 00:37:47,458 --> 00:37:50,083 more like Jesus. 905 00:37:50,167 --> 00:37:53,792 We connect it all to Jesus, and we believe that the whole Bible 906 00:37:53,833 --> 00:37:56,625 is ultimately about Jesus. 907 00:37:56,667 --> 00:37:58,833 Number nine, here's the good news. 908 00:37:58,875 --> 00:38:01,375 We believe Jesus is alive. 909 00:38:01,458 --> 00:38:03,167 He's not dead. 910 00:38:03,250 --> 00:38:06,167 He's not just a dead example like a Martin Luther King 911 00:38:06,250 --> 00:38:07,708 or a Mahatma Gandhi. 912 00:38:07,792 --> 00:38:09,083 They lived a nice life. 913 00:38:09,167 --> 00:38:10,417 We could read the biography 914 00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:13,792 and get some interesting observations of good advice. 915 00:38:13,833 --> 00:38:16,125 The good news is not only did he die, 916 00:38:16,167 --> 00:38:20,417 he rose to conquer death and sin that causes death. 917 00:38:20,500 --> 00:38:21,708 Here's how Paul says it. 918 00:38:21,792 --> 00:38:23,917 This is crazy! 919 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,333 If you've been a Christian for a while, you're like, 920 00:38:26,375 --> 00:38:27,625 "Jesus rose from death." 921 00:38:27,667 --> 00:38:29,000 Think about it! 922 00:38:29,042 --> 00:38:30,833 Just think about going to somebody's funeral, 923 00:38:30,875 --> 00:38:32,583 crying, meeting with the family, 924 00:38:32,667 --> 00:38:35,208 going back to work 2 days later, and getting a text. 925 00:38:35,292 --> 00:38:37,125 "Hey, you want to do lunch?" 926 00:38:37,167 --> 00:38:39,000 Wow! 927 00:38:39,083 --> 00:38:40,667 That was unexpected. 928 00:38:40,750 --> 00:38:44,208 [congregation laughing] 929 00:38:44,292 --> 00:38:46,000 This is amazing. 930 00:38:46,083 --> 00:38:49,500 See, the problem is sin, and the result is death, 931 00:38:49,583 --> 00:38:51,875 and the answer is Jesus' resurrection. 932 00:38:51,958 --> 00:38:54,417 Paul says it this way, 1 Corinthians 15:4-8, 933 00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:55,833 "that he was buried." 934 00:38:55,875 --> 00:38:57,125 All right, he's dead. 935 00:38:57,167 --> 00:38:59,083 "That he was raised on the third day," 936 00:38:59,167 --> 00:39:01,833 just like he promised, "in accordance with the Scriptures." 937 00:39:01,875 --> 00:39:03,167 Why? 938 00:39:03,250 --> 00:39:05,667 Because the whole Bible is about Jesus. 939 00:39:05,750 --> 00:39:08,875 "That he appeared to Cephas"-- that's Peter-- 940 00:39:08,958 --> 00:39:10,333 "and then to the twelve," 941 00:39:10,375 --> 00:39:12,833 one of whom was Thomas the doubter, 942 00:39:12,875 --> 00:39:14,417 saying, "I don't believe it. 943 00:39:14,500 --> 00:39:17,500 "Until I see the scar on his side and in his hands, 944 00:39:17,583 --> 00:39:18,833 I don't believe it." 945 00:39:18,875 --> 00:39:20,833 Jesus shows up, Thomas falls down, 946 00:39:20,875 --> 00:39:23,417 as we all should, and says, "My Lord and my God," 947 00:39:23,500 --> 00:39:25,833 and he worships the risen Jesus. 948 00:39:25,875 --> 00:39:29,208 "Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time." 949 00:39:29,292 --> 00:39:31,000 Some people say, "Oh, they hallucinated." 950 00:39:31,042 --> 00:39:33,125 Five hundred people don't have the same hallucination. 951 00:39:33,167 --> 00:39:34,708 Amen? 952 00:39:34,792 --> 00:39:36,167 You're like, "Yeah, we all hallucinated, 953 00:39:36,250 --> 00:39:37,875 then we went and saw a movie." 954 00:39:37,958 --> 00:39:42,000 No, you went to a movie, all 500 of you. 955 00:39:42,083 --> 00:39:44,917 A hallucination is a very private event, right potheads? 956 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:46,500 It's a very private event. 957 00:39:46,583 --> 00:39:49,083 [congregation applauding] 958 00:39:49,167 --> 00:39:50,708 "Most of whom are still alive, 959 00:39:50,792 --> 00:39:52,083 though some have fallen asleep." 960 00:39:52,167 --> 00:39:55,208 And what Paul is saying is those who saw Jesus risen from death, 961 00:39:55,292 --> 00:39:57,833 yeah, a few of them are dead, but most of them 962 00:39:57,875 --> 00:39:59,167 are still alive. 963 00:39:59,250 --> 00:40:01,333 You can walk right up, "Did you see Jesus?" 964 00:40:01,375 --> 00:40:02,667 "Yep, he was alive." 965 00:40:02,750 --> 00:40:04,000 He had breakfast with people, 966 00:40:04,083 --> 00:40:05,333 he hugged people, 967 00:40:05,375 --> 00:40:07,708 he taught, and he's going to go on to say 968 00:40:07,792 --> 00:40:09,417 that he hung out for 40 days. 969 00:40:09,500 --> 00:40:11,125 He even hung out with his family 970 00:40:11,167 --> 00:40:14,000 so that even his own mother, who was a devout Jewish gal, 971 00:40:14,083 --> 00:40:16,125 started worshiping her Son as God. 972 00:40:16,167 --> 00:40:17,500 So did Jesus' two brothers. 973 00:40:17,542 --> 00:40:18,917 That's where he's going to go. 974 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:20,292 "Then he appeared to James." 975 00:40:20,333 --> 00:40:21,625 That's his brother. 976 00:40:21,667 --> 00:40:24,208 How many of you could get your brother to worship you 977 00:40:24,292 --> 00:40:25,917 as Lord, God, Savior, Redeemer, King, Creator, 978 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:27,292 and Christ? 979 00:40:27,333 --> 00:40:28,625 No! 980 00:40:28,667 --> 00:40:30,333 [congregation laughing] 981 00:40:30,375 --> 00:40:33,333 Big brothers do horrible things to little brothers, right? 982 00:40:33,375 --> 00:40:35,417 Big brothers do things to little brothers that, 983 00:40:35,500 --> 00:40:37,333 were they not brothers, you'd be incarcerated 984 00:40:37,375 --> 00:40:38,667 for doing those things. 985 00:40:38,750 --> 00:40:40,000 [congregation laughing] 986 00:40:40,083 --> 00:40:42,500 Right? Swirlies, wedgies, acts of random violence, 987 00:40:42,583 --> 00:40:44,292 ninja practice; 988 00:40:44,333 --> 00:40:47,917 horrible things get done to little brothers, horrible. 989 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:49,500 Jesus was the big brother. 990 00:40:49,542 --> 00:40:52,208 His little brothers worshiped him as God. 991 00:40:52,292 --> 00:40:53,917 And they're devout Jewish guys who know, 992 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:55,833 "If he's not God, we're going to hell 993 00:40:55,875 --> 00:40:57,875 because we're worshiping a false god." 994 00:40:57,958 --> 00:41:00,333 Jesus' brother, James, goes on to be a pastor, 995 00:41:00,375 --> 00:41:03,500 writes a book of the Bible called James. 996 00:41:03,583 --> 00:41:05,917 I mean, it's amazing. 997 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,500 And the burden of proof is on those who would deny 998 00:41:08,583 --> 00:41:11,000 the resurrection of Jesus because Christianity is not 999 00:41:11,042 --> 00:41:12,625 just a philosophy. 1000 00:41:12,667 --> 00:41:14,083 It's not a therapy. 1001 00:41:14,167 --> 00:41:15,708 It's not a psychology. 1002 00:41:15,792 --> 00:41:18,417 It's not a sociology. 1003 00:41:18,500 --> 00:41:20,083 It's history. 1004 00:41:20,167 --> 00:41:23,500 Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus rose. 1005 00:41:23,583 --> 00:41:25,417 That means something. 1006 00:41:25,500 --> 00:41:27,375 That never happened before. 1007 00:41:27,458 --> 00:41:29,292 That'll never happen again. 1008 00:41:29,333 --> 00:41:30,917 He's unique, distinct. 1009 00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:32,208 There's no one like him. 1010 00:41:32,292 --> 00:41:34,417 There's no one who does what he does. 1011 00:41:34,500 --> 00:41:36,833 And those who would say, "He didn't rise from death," 1012 00:41:36,875 --> 00:41:40,500 you have got to account for all of these lines of evidence. 1013 00:41:40,583 --> 00:41:42,833 Jesus is alive. 1014 00:41:42,875 --> 00:41:44,333 He then ascended back into heaven. 1015 00:41:44,375 --> 00:41:46,708 And if you don't believe it, here's what Paul says. 1016 00:41:46,792 --> 00:41:51,125 "Last of all, as to one untimely born, 1017 00:41:51,167 --> 00:41:52,625 he appeared also to me." 1018 00:41:52,667 --> 00:41:54,292 Paul says, "I saw." 1019 00:41:54,333 --> 00:41:56,000 Some of you say, "Well yeah, Paul's a pastor, 1020 00:41:56,042 --> 00:41:57,333 wrote the Bible." 1021 00:41:57,375 --> 00:41:58,625 He didn't start that way. 1022 00:41:58,667 --> 00:42:02,000 He started off hating Jesus, hating Christians, 1023 00:42:02,042 --> 00:42:03,917 maybe like some of you who are going 1024 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:05,208 to become Christians today. 1025 00:42:05,292 --> 00:42:06,917 Welcome. 1026 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,125 We see that he is murdering, in the book of Acts, 1027 00:42:10,167 --> 00:42:12,417 an early church deacon named Stephen. 1028 00:42:12,500 --> 00:42:13,917 Murdering him! 1029 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,500 If you put on your resume, "What are you good at?" 1030 00:42:16,583 --> 00:42:18,167 "I'm good at murdering deacons." 1031 00:42:18,250 --> 00:42:19,792 Right? 1032 00:42:19,833 --> 00:42:21,208 You're not pro-Jesus. 1033 00:42:21,292 --> 00:42:22,583 Amen? 1034 00:42:22,667 --> 00:42:23,917 You're on the other team. 1035 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,125 To Christians in the 1st century, 1036 00:42:26,167 --> 00:42:27,917 his name is Bin Laden. 1037 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:30,833 I mean, that's how they're looking at this guy, right? 1038 00:42:30,875 --> 00:42:35,833 He hates God's people, and he wants them dead. 1039 00:42:35,875 --> 00:42:37,500 So how did Paul become a Christian? 1040 00:42:37,583 --> 00:42:39,917 His name was Saul, and he changed it to Paul. 1041 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:41,417 How did he start worshiping Jesus? 1042 00:42:41,500 --> 00:42:42,875 Do you know what it took? 1043 00:42:42,958 --> 00:42:44,625 A magnificent event. 1044 00:42:44,667 --> 00:42:47,000 He's murdering Christians, and then Jesus comes down 1045 00:42:47,083 --> 00:42:50,875 from heaven, blinds him, knocks him off the horse, and says, 1046 00:42:50,958 --> 00:42:52,708 "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" 1047 00:42:52,792 --> 00:42:54,083 "What do you mean?" 1048 00:42:54,167 --> 00:42:56,208 "Well, you're hurting the church; those are my people." 1049 00:42:56,292 --> 00:42:57,583 "Well, who are you?" 1050 00:42:57,667 --> 00:42:59,958 "I'm Jesus. Don't mess with me!" 1051 00:43:00,083 --> 00:43:01,917 "Oh, oh." 1052 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:04,333 The early church, when they hear Paul becomes a Christian, 1053 00:43:04,375 --> 00:43:06,417 they're like, "Yeah, we believe it, sure, yeah." 1054 00:43:06,500 --> 00:43:08,833 Can you imagine Paul showing up at your small group? 1055 00:43:08,875 --> 00:43:10,292 "All right, everybody close their eyes. 1056 00:43:10,333 --> 00:43:11,625 We'll pray." 1057 00:43:11,667 --> 00:43:13,500 "No, no, no, no, no. 1058 00:43:13,583 --> 00:43:14,917 "I'm keeping one eye open. 1059 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,875 "I am not closing my eyes so you can whack me. 1060 00:43:19,958 --> 00:43:21,625 "You're going to do something nefarious. 1061 00:43:21,667 --> 00:43:24,125 I heard about you." 1062 00:43:24,167 --> 00:43:27,708 Paul had his whole life changed because he met the risen Jesus. 1063 00:43:27,792 --> 00:43:29,208 And what Paul is saying is, 1064 00:43:29,292 --> 00:43:31,375 "Trust me, he's alive. 1065 00:43:31,458 --> 00:43:33,625 "Trust me, death is conquered. 1066 00:43:33,667 --> 00:43:35,917 "Trust me, sin is forgiven. 1067 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:42,500 Trust me, I didn't believe it, but I can't disprove it." 1068 00:43:42,542 --> 00:43:44,625 Number ten, we believe that Jesus saves 1069 00:43:44,667 --> 00:43:47,208 from sin and religion. 1070 00:43:47,292 --> 00:43:49,500 This is a distinguishing part of Mars Hill because 1071 00:43:49,583 --> 00:43:51,500 most of the time, Christianity is presented as, 1072 00:43:51,583 --> 00:43:53,500 "You sinners need to repent!" 1073 00:43:53,583 --> 00:43:55,292 And then all the religious people cheer, 1074 00:43:55,333 --> 00:43:59,000 "Yay, we're not like them. We're better than they are." 1075 00:43:59,083 --> 00:44:00,708 And the sinners think, "Oh man, 1076 00:44:00,792 --> 00:44:03,208 you're trying to make me religious." 1077 00:44:03,292 --> 00:44:06,375 And then sometimes religious people demonstrate hypocrisy. 1078 00:44:06,458 --> 00:44:08,167 There's adultery or something like that. 1079 00:44:08,250 --> 00:44:09,875 And then all the sinners are like, 1080 00:44:09,958 --> 00:44:12,875 "Well, you're no better than us. You're just a hypocrite. 1081 00:44:12,958 --> 00:44:14,583 At least we're authentic." 1082 00:44:14,667 --> 00:44:18,917 [congregation laughing] 1083 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:20,625 And here's the truth. 1084 00:44:20,667 --> 00:44:26,000 There are two enemies of Jesus: sin and religion. 1085 00:44:26,083 --> 00:44:30,875 Two enemies of Jesus: sin and religion. 1086 00:44:30,958 --> 00:44:35,625 Sin is about innovation; religion is about tradition. 1087 00:44:35,667 --> 00:44:39,917 Sin is about nonconformity; religion is about conformity. 1088 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:44,333 Sin breaks the rules; religion keeps the rules. 1089 00:44:44,375 --> 00:44:47,083 Sinners tend to be liberal; religious people 1090 00:44:47,167 --> 00:44:49,792 tend to be conservative. 1091 00:44:49,833 --> 00:44:54,583 Sin tends to be immoral; religion tends to be very moral. 1092 00:44:54,667 --> 00:44:58,500 Sin tends to be disobedient; religion tends to be 1093 00:44:58,583 --> 00:45:00,417 very obedient. 1094 00:45:00,500 --> 00:45:03,333 Sometimes sin is lazy; and religion can be 1095 00:45:03,375 --> 00:45:06,333 very hardworking. 1096 00:45:06,375 --> 00:45:08,292 Sin tends to be visible. 1097 00:45:08,333 --> 00:45:09,625 You can just tell. 1098 00:45:09,667 --> 00:45:12,208 Religion tends to be invisible because it lives in the heart, 1099 00:45:12,292 --> 00:45:13,875 and the mind, and the motives. 1100 00:45:13,958 --> 00:45:20,167 Sin uses people; religion judges people. 1101 00:45:20,250 --> 00:45:26,833 Sin is unrighteous; religion is self-righteous. 1102 00:45:26,875 --> 00:45:30,333 Before Paul became a Christian, he was a sinner, 1103 00:45:30,375 --> 00:45:32,167 but his real problem was religion. 1104 00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:34,667 Sometimes we forget that. 1105 00:45:34,750 --> 00:45:36,375 He says elsewhere, "I was a Pharisee." 1106 00:45:36,458 --> 00:45:39,625 That's the strictest of the strict. 1107 00:45:39,667 --> 00:45:42,292 Said, "I studied under this leading rabbi named Gamaliel." 1108 00:45:42,333 --> 00:45:46,417 So he went to, like, the best theological school. 1109 00:45:46,500 --> 00:45:48,917 He probably memorized whole books of the Old Testament 1110 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,167 in the original Hebrew. 1111 00:45:52,250 --> 00:45:54,167 Here's what he says. 1112 00:45:54,250 --> 00:45:57,000 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, "For I am the least of the apostles, 1113 00:45:57,083 --> 00:45:58,708 "unworthy to be called an apostle 1114 00:45:58,792 --> 00:46:00,500 "because I persecuted the church of God. 1115 00:46:00,583 --> 00:46:03,125 But by the grace of God, I am what I am." 1116 00:46:03,167 --> 00:46:04,625 He says, "Here was my problem. 1117 00:46:04,667 --> 00:46:06,000 "I was religious. 1118 00:46:06,083 --> 00:46:08,333 "I was so religious that I was judging people 1119 00:46:08,375 --> 00:46:10,667 "and condemning people and opposing people 1120 00:46:10,750 --> 00:46:15,000 "and hurting people. 1121 00:46:15,083 --> 00:46:17,417 I wasn't like Jesus." 1122 00:46:17,500 --> 00:46:18,708 So, two things. 1123 00:46:18,792 --> 00:46:20,417 If you're here, and you're a sinner, 1124 00:46:20,500 --> 00:46:21,792 repent of your sin. 1125 00:46:21,833 --> 00:46:25,375 What that means is agree with God that you need a Savior, 1126 00:46:25,458 --> 00:46:27,500 and his name is Jesus. 1127 00:46:27,583 --> 00:46:29,333 But if you're here, and you're religious, 1128 00:46:29,375 --> 00:46:33,708 repent of your religion, your haughtiness, 1129 00:46:33,792 --> 00:46:37,333 your self-righteousness, your boastfulness, 1130 00:46:37,375 --> 00:46:40,917 your record-keeping of wrongs, all the good things you've done 1131 00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:44,708 and how you're better than others. 1132 00:46:44,792 --> 00:46:49,708 Now me, I tend to gravitate toward being religious 1133 00:46:49,792 --> 00:46:52,333 because, see, I grew up in a poor neighborhood, 1134 00:46:52,375 --> 00:46:56,208 working class, but I was the kid who never drank. 1135 00:46:56,292 --> 00:46:57,667 I never did drugs. 1136 00:46:57,750 --> 00:46:59,833 I never even took a puff of a cigarette. 1137 00:46:59,875 --> 00:47:02,917 Wasn't a Christian, but I was really hardworking, 1138 00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,583 and I was a good guy. 1139 00:47:05,667 --> 00:47:07,292 And then I started reading the Bible, 1140 00:47:07,333 --> 00:47:11,333 and I realized guys like me murdered Jesus, 1141 00:47:11,375 --> 00:47:14,667 and we were the villains and not the heroes, 1142 00:47:14,750 --> 00:47:17,417 and that it's not about me and my performance 1143 00:47:17,500 --> 00:47:19,375 and my religion and my devotion 1144 00:47:19,458 --> 00:47:23,000 and my zeal and my hard work and my great effort. 1145 00:47:23,083 --> 00:47:28,208 It's about Jesus' grace, and his love, and his mercy. 1146 00:47:28,292 --> 00:47:31,292 If you're a sinner, repent of your sin and trust in Jesus. 1147 00:47:31,333 --> 00:47:33,333 If you're religious, repent of your religion 1148 00:47:33,375 --> 00:47:34,833 and trust in Jesus. 1149 00:47:34,875 --> 00:47:39,583 Jesus has two enemies, not one: sin and religion. 1150 00:47:39,667 --> 00:47:42,875 Lastly, you know, when a preacher says lastly, 1151 00:47:42,958 --> 00:47:44,583 do you know what it means? 1152 00:47:44,667 --> 00:47:45,917 Nothing. 1153 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:47,708 [congregation laughing] 1154 00:47:47,792 --> 00:47:50,417 It just means he senses you're not paying attention, 1155 00:47:50,500 --> 00:47:54,917 and he would like to fix that for a long time. 1156 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,417 Number eleven, we believe that God's grace results 1157 00:47:57,500 --> 00:47:59,958 in making disciples and planting churches. 1158 00:48:00,083 --> 00:48:02,292 1 Corinthians 15:10-11. 1159 00:48:02,333 --> 00:48:04,000 "And his grace toward me," he says, 1160 00:48:04,083 --> 00:48:05,625 "was not in vain. 1161 00:48:05,667 --> 00:48:08,208 "On the contrary, I worked harder than all of them-- 1162 00:48:08,292 --> 00:48:09,583 or any of them." 1163 00:48:09,667 --> 00:48:11,208 Doesn't that sound a little arrogant? 1164 00:48:11,292 --> 00:48:12,583 Just read that. 1165 00:48:12,667 --> 00:48:14,417 "I worked harder than everyone." 1166 00:48:14,500 --> 00:48:16,833 Whoa, that sounds a little arrogant. 1167 00:48:16,875 --> 00:48:19,917 He goes on, "Though it was not I, 1168 00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:23,000 "but the grace of God that is with me. 1169 00:48:23,042 --> 00:48:26,500 "Whether then it was I, or they, so we preach 1170 00:48:26,583 --> 00:48:28,833 and so you believed." 1171 00:48:28,875 --> 00:48:31,833 So we believe that God's grace results in making disciples 1172 00:48:31,875 --> 00:48:33,167 and planting churches. 1173 00:48:33,250 --> 00:48:36,125 Some of you have a very anemic, reduced, 1174 00:48:36,167 --> 00:48:38,208 diluted view of God's grace. 1175 00:48:38,292 --> 00:48:40,917 That's his unmerited favor, his undeserved love, 1176 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,500 his affection toward you. 1177 00:48:43,583 --> 00:48:47,167 And your view of God is that God is very far away, 1178 00:48:47,250 --> 00:48:49,500 and you're supposed to try very hard. 1179 00:48:49,542 --> 00:48:51,917 And when you fail, God is disappointed, 1180 00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:54,917 and he'll judge you, but Jesus will forgive you 1181 00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,833 because he knows how pathetic you are. 1182 00:48:57,875 --> 00:49:00,583 That's not very motivating, right? 1183 00:49:00,667 --> 00:49:02,500 It's like God saying, "Run through the wall. 1184 00:49:02,583 --> 00:49:03,833 "I know you can't. 1185 00:49:03,875 --> 00:49:06,708 "And when you fall down, I'll tell you that I forgive you 1186 00:49:06,792 --> 00:49:08,083 "for being pathetic. 1187 00:49:08,167 --> 00:49:09,583 Now get up and run again." 1188 00:49:09,667 --> 00:49:11,708 "Really, that's my life? Do I get a helmet? 1189 00:49:11,792 --> 00:49:14,375 "Do I get a cup? Do I get a day off? 1190 00:49:14,458 --> 00:49:16,917 "Like, this is a really hard job description. 1191 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:18,625 Will I ever go through the wall?" 1192 00:49:18,667 --> 00:49:19,917 "No!" 1193 00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:21,292 "What if I stop running?" 1194 00:49:21,333 --> 00:49:22,625 "You'll go to hell!" 1195 00:49:22,667 --> 00:49:24,500 "Wow, this is a really-- I don't know. 1196 00:49:24,583 --> 00:49:25,917 "Wow, okay. 1197 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:27,625 "And we're not supposed to drink either? 1198 00:49:27,667 --> 00:49:29,833 Like, how do we deal with all of this?" 1199 00:49:29,875 --> 00:49:32,125 [congregation laughing] 1200 00:49:32,167 --> 00:49:33,500 Here's the truth. 1201 00:49:33,583 --> 00:49:36,583 God's grace does forgive you when you fail, 1202 00:49:36,667 --> 00:49:40,792 but most of the time, it's God's grace empowering you to be 1203 00:49:40,833 --> 00:49:43,917 who you cannot be, to do what you cannot do, 1204 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,792 by a power you do not possess. 1205 00:49:46,833 --> 00:49:49,708 God's grace doesn't just pick you up when you fail. 1206 00:49:49,792 --> 00:49:54,333 It keeps you strong so that you don't have to. 1207 00:49:54,375 --> 00:49:58,083 So he says, "I got a lot done, and I worked harder than 1208 00:49:58,167 --> 00:50:00,792 "everyone, and my life has really counted, 1209 00:50:00,833 --> 00:50:03,708 "and it's made a significant difference, 1210 00:50:03,792 --> 00:50:06,833 "by the grace of God, the strengthening, 1211 00:50:06,875 --> 00:50:10,208 empowering, gifting grace of God." 1212 00:50:10,292 --> 00:50:15,292 The grace of God empowers you to be a new person. 1213 00:50:15,333 --> 00:50:18,375 Yes, God's grace is there to forgive you when you fail, 1214 00:50:18,458 --> 00:50:22,000 but it's there before you fail to change your heart, 1215 00:50:22,083 --> 00:50:24,333 to change your mind, to change your desires, 1216 00:50:24,375 --> 00:50:28,125 to reorient your course of life, to make you a different person, 1217 00:50:28,167 --> 00:50:30,833 to give you meaning and value and purpose and pleasure 1218 00:50:30,875 --> 00:50:33,333 that Jesus is with you, that Jesus is in you, 1219 00:50:33,375 --> 00:50:36,667 that Jesus is for you, that if you do fail, 1220 00:50:36,750 --> 00:50:38,500 Jesus will forgive you. 1221 00:50:38,542 --> 00:50:40,500 But because Jesus is with you, 1222 00:50:40,583 --> 00:50:42,792 you don't have to say yes to sin. 1223 00:50:42,833 --> 00:50:44,708 You could say yes to Jesus. 1224 00:50:44,792 --> 00:50:47,125 You don't have to say yes to condemnation 1225 00:50:47,167 --> 00:50:49,875 and guilt and shame and waking up and thinking, 1226 00:50:49,958 --> 00:50:51,500 "Is there any hope for me?" 1227 00:50:51,583 --> 00:50:54,125 Yes, there is, and the hope is for you. 1228 00:50:54,167 --> 00:50:55,917 It's not in you; 1229 00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:01,875 it's for you in Christ and the grace of God. 1230 00:51:01,958 --> 00:51:04,417 And so you will meet people 1231 00:51:04,500 --> 00:51:06,625 who the grace of God has empowered them. 1232 00:51:06,667 --> 00:51:09,083 You're like, "How do they do it? 1233 00:51:09,167 --> 00:51:13,208 How do they live that kind of free, joyful, fruitful, happy, 1234 00:51:13,292 --> 00:51:15,708 hopeful, biblical life?" 1235 00:51:15,792 --> 00:51:18,500 By the grace of God, by the power and the presence 1236 00:51:18,583 --> 00:51:22,125 of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. 1237 00:51:22,167 --> 00:51:25,708 And so the Christian life is not something you live for God. 1238 00:51:25,792 --> 00:51:28,125 It's something that God lives for you in Christ. 1239 00:51:28,167 --> 00:51:29,833 It's something that Christ lives in you. 1240 00:51:29,875 --> 00:51:32,917 It's something that Christ lives through you, 1241 00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:37,000 and this leads to an explosive, passionate, joy-filled life. 1242 00:51:37,083 --> 00:51:39,208 This is the best life of all! 1243 00:51:39,292 --> 00:51:42,000 There's no guilt, or shame, or condemnation in it, 1244 00:51:42,042 --> 00:51:45,000 and there's eternity at the end of it! 1245 00:51:45,083 --> 00:51:48,000 And so at Mars Hill, we believe this means people need Jesus 1246 00:51:48,083 --> 00:51:51,125 and people who meet Jesus get absolutely filled 1247 00:51:51,167 --> 00:51:53,417 with the Holy Spirit and joy and hope, 1248 00:51:53,500 --> 00:51:55,208 and they introduce other people to Jesus 1249 00:51:55,292 --> 00:51:57,667 and lives get changed and legacies get changed 1250 00:51:57,750 --> 00:52:01,125 and lineages get changed and people meet Christ. 1251 00:52:01,167 --> 00:52:03,833 We've already seen over 1,000 people at our church 1252 00:52:03,875 --> 00:52:06,500 get baptized as new Christians this year. 1253 00:52:06,542 --> 00:52:08,500 This thing keeps exploding. 1254 00:52:08,583 --> 00:52:11,708 We can't explain it, but Jesus is alive. 1255 00:52:11,792 --> 00:52:13,000 He's the senior pastor. 1256 00:52:13,083 --> 00:52:14,375 He's good. 1257 00:52:14,458 --> 00:52:15,708 He's grabbing people. 1258 00:52:15,792 --> 00:52:18,125 He's making a difference and he invites you to be 1259 00:52:18,167 --> 00:52:19,708 on mission with him. 1260 00:52:19,792 --> 00:52:21,917 And we're hoping, we're trusting, we're praying. 1261 00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:25,500 Yeah, 4 churches, 3 states, 1 day. 1262 00:52:25,542 --> 00:52:26,833 Why? 1263 00:52:26,875 --> 00:52:29,500 He's alive, so anything's possible. 1264 00:52:29,542 --> 00:52:31,000 We're trusting you to give. 1265 00:52:31,083 --> 00:52:32,375 We're trusting you to serve. 1266 00:52:32,458 --> 00:52:33,708 We're trusting you to care. 1267 00:52:33,792 --> 00:52:35,333 We're trusting you to pray. 1268 00:52:35,375 --> 00:52:36,792 I'm here to love and serve. 1269 00:52:36,833 --> 00:52:38,333 I'm here to hope and give. 1270 00:52:38,375 --> 00:52:40,417 But ultimately, this is your church, 1271 00:52:40,500 --> 00:52:43,375 this is your Jesus, this is your city, 1272 00:52:43,458 --> 00:52:45,917 and this is your time. 1273 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:52,917 [congregation applauding] 1274 00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:57,375 Father God, I thank you so much for the living and active 1275 00:52:57,458 --> 00:52:59,083 Word of God. 1276 00:52:59,167 --> 00:53:02,708 Holy Spirit, thank you that you inspired the Scriptures to be 1277 00:53:02,792 --> 00:53:05,167 written, that you illuminate our understanding of them. 1278 00:53:05,250 --> 00:53:08,208 Thank you that they're all about Jesus, 1279 00:53:08,292 --> 00:53:11,000 that we're not just here for a sociological lecture, 1280 00:53:11,083 --> 00:53:15,375 a psychological lecture, a philosophical lecture. 1281 00:53:15,458 --> 00:53:18,208 We're here to meet with the God who made 1282 00:53:18,292 --> 00:53:20,167 the heavens and the earth. 1283 00:53:20,250 --> 00:53:25,833 We're here to have sin forgiven, to have filth cleansed, 1284 00:53:25,875 --> 00:53:29,500 to have lives made new. 1285 00:53:29,583 --> 00:53:32,208 God, I pray for Mars Hill Church. 1286 00:53:32,292 --> 00:53:33,917 I pray for all of our locations. 1287 00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:39,000 I pray for the more than 400 churches in Acts 29. 1288 00:53:39,083 --> 00:53:42,417 I pray for the movement of 200,000 people 1289 00:53:42,500 --> 00:53:45,000 that are part of this tribe that you've built 1290 00:53:45,042 --> 00:53:47,000 and we get to be a part of. 1291 00:53:47,083 --> 00:53:49,500 God, we don't understand it. 1292 00:53:49,542 --> 00:53:52,208 Like Paul, we would say we work hard 1293 00:53:52,292 --> 00:53:55,417 and amazing things get done. 1294 00:53:55,500 --> 00:53:59,292 But really, it's by the grace of God, 1295 00:53:59,333 --> 00:54:01,833 the strengthening, empowering, encouraging, 1296 00:54:01,875 --> 00:54:07,375 motivating, transforming, life-altering, destiny-shaping, 1297 00:54:07,458 --> 00:54:10,625 world-shaking grace of God poured out 1298 00:54:10,667 --> 00:54:13,292 through the person and work of Jesus Christ. 1299 00:54:13,333 --> 00:54:15,333 Jesus, we confess that Paul is right. 1300 00:54:15,375 --> 00:54:17,208 Sometimes we forget. 1301 00:54:17,292 --> 00:54:19,917 We need to be reminded of who you are 1302 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,625 and what you've done and who we are in you 1303 00:54:22,667 --> 00:54:26,083 and what we can do because of you. 1304 00:54:26,167 --> 00:54:28,917 And so, God, as we come to respond, 1305 00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:31,333 I pray you would take those who are not Christians, 1306 00:54:31,375 --> 00:54:33,000 and that you would make them Christians 1307 00:54:33,083 --> 00:54:36,917 and give them a deep desire in their heart to meet Jesus. 1308 00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:38,833 For those, Lord God, who have been borrowing 1309 00:54:38,875 --> 00:54:40,417 the faith of their parents, 1310 00:54:40,500 --> 00:54:42,333 and I pray they'd come to their own. 1311 00:54:42,375 --> 00:54:44,625 For those, Lord God, who have been hypocritical 1312 00:54:44,667 --> 00:54:47,292 and living religious or sinful lives, 1313 00:54:47,333 --> 00:54:50,208 that they would come to a real life-giving 1314 00:54:50,292 --> 00:54:52,417 relationship with Jesus. 1315 00:54:52,500 --> 00:54:55,917 And, Lord Jesus, thank you so much that we get to be 1316 00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:58,833 part of what you're doing. 1317 00:54:58,875 --> 00:55:02,917 We get to see lives changed, including our own. 1318 00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:04,625 And we thank you for that. 1319 00:55:04,667 --> 00:55:06,625 And we say thanks, in Jesus' good name. 1320 00:55:06,667 --> 00:55:08,000 Amen.