What is hope, really? Join us as we take a look at the real hope we have in Christ!
The Remnant Church
For the Kingdom: Wishful Certainty - Todd Blanton
God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your faithfulness even when we're not. Lord, I don't know what everyone's going through, but I know we all have, man, things that we have to wrestle with, and I just ask that you would move in whatever ways people need, even if they don't know they need it, and I ask that you help me to preach a word and to preach it well, and I wouldn't get in the way. Jesus Christ, name me pray, amen. My voice sound weird, echo it or anything? A little bit, yeah, I thought so. You guys fixed that 'cause you know I'm a squirrel. Wherever David's at, echo me, echo me, hell, he's on it. Okay, good, that's already getting better. Did you already do something? No, just my mind. All right, hey, welcome to the random. I'm Todd on the pastor here, one of them, I guess. And I am really happy to see you guys. If it's your first time, your first time in a while, we're in the middle of a series. Now, some of you, let's see if you noticed, our sermon slide for the series is a little different today. And why is that? Well, when I send the title in, typically they're like, is this part of the same series or we're in a new one? And I said, kinda. So I'm pretty clever. See, this is why the team is so good. They attached for the kingdom to it. So what's for the kingdom? We've been going through the sermon on the Mount. Raise your hand if you've heard of the sermon on the Mount. That's the most hands anyone's ever raised in this entire church. Some of you still didn't. Anyway, it's such a psychological thing to me, right? Like a study of why people don't wanna raise their hands. I'm not talking about people. There's people holding babies. That's all, that makes sense. It's the grown men just going, not gonna do it. Don't wanna raise my hand. Not gonna do what you tell me to do. Anyway, so that's what we've been going through. And a lot of that has to do with, you know, Jesus, it's such a weird, it's kind of a word I like, dichotomy. I remember the first time I heard it. It's sort of like two different things that, I don't know, happen at the same time that don't make sense together. So on the one hand, for instance, after Jesus does the blessed are those, blessed are the meek. You guys know that part. He starts talking about sort of standards and he starts talking about the way, "Hey, you've heard, you've been taught "it's supposed to be like this." Well, I am telling you that it's supposed to be like this. And whatever he says is harder than what was originally said, right? So like you, he says, "You have said," I don't know, you know, not to be the adultery. And I say, if you even look at a woman with lust in your eyes, it's adultery. The standard gets high. And so there's two things happening. One is he's telling us how we should be, right? In our control, the way we should act, what we should strive for. And then the other hand, he's doing this crazy thing where he's essentially saying, but you've already failed and you can't possibly keep this standard, right? That's what he's saying. Because if you're a guy, I won't even say women 'cause you pretend you don't look at handsome men, right? A guy, and you at any time when you were 12, looked at one of the lust in your eyes, he doesn't give an addendum. He says, "You've already done it." And what is the punishment for adultery back then? It was death. And so we get in this place, it's like, boom. So it's interesting, but the hope comes, right? And we haven't gotten there, but hint, hint, is that he's essentially saying, this is the way it's supposed to be in the kingdom of my father, the way I made things. However, you have already failed that and you can't keep it, I'll do it for you. You need someone to do it for you because you can't. And you would have to accept that offer. And that offer doesn't happen on your terms. It happens on his. (clears throat) So anyway, that's where we've been. Matthew 4.23, did we get that? I gave him a verse literally the last minute. Yeah, this one. Now, Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Can you imagine teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people? Can you imagine what that must have been like for a second? Imagine the excitement, the joy, the hope of not just possibly but hearing, even if it was like you weren't there, but your aunt was there and she said, "I'm telling you with my own eyes, "I saw this guy that couldn't walk, get up and walk." Right? It's like Christmas morning when you're a kid. I'm getting trouble for talking that I believe in Santa for some reason. Why don't you get really mad about it? But like that's what it felt like when I was a kid, right? That feeling of like something crazy out of the ordinary, extraordinary is happening. That is good and that's what was happening. It was literally happening. And if you're a Christian, or if you're a Christian, you say you believe that. I say that I believe that. Can you imagine the good news of the kingdom, the good news, that's what the early church called it. But we still call it, right? Glad tidings, the word can be translated as, right? Also has to do with evangelism, all this stuff, tell people good news. It's what we still call it. Good news. And it was so good, and I think about this a lot, that if we go into the book, throughout the Bible and the New Testament, and listen, this is historically accurate. I had a good talk with Trent and AJ this week, we kind of just chopped it up. That's a cool way to mean talk about it. I guess it's cool, until I say it. And we were talking about the idea, and in some of us, it's just 21st century thinking. It's historically documented, regardless of anything else, that people chose to die, right? Then deny it. That people, we have accounts of people being burned at the stake while singing worship songs. It got to the point, and you'll have to fact check me on this, but I'm pretty sure, hoping the history major comes in here, that one of the early emperors in Rome after, right? He wanted this power that they had. It had spread around that he wanted these people, no matter what we do to them, we can skin them alive, feed them to lions, kill them, and they go to their death smiling and joyfully doing it, and he wanted it, not for a good reason, like, well, who wouldn't want this power to be able to overcome anything? This is historically documented. I'm not making this up. So even if you were in this room and you go, I don't believe this. Okay, then a bunch of crazy people decided for no reason to hear something, and then die. That's how good it was to them. And I want that. That's why I kind of, I get jaded. I'm jaded. If you're close to me, I say that a lot. I'm jaded, you know? And what does that mean? I guess bitter, it's just a nice word for bitter. Because, and this is not me justifying genuinely. I don't know what happened. I mean, because of the way I think, believe it or not, I start with me. I'm a big proponent of that. I know James likes his phrase, extreme ownership. I never knew that's what it was called. I just always blame myself first because it makes the most sense. I can only control me, right? And I start there. So when I say this to not offend you, I do this all the time, but I look around at the church and I'm, that's why you'll hear me say things like, I don't understand, you say you believe, but you don't want to come to church. And then on top of it, you lie about the reason. You can't even just say, I didn't want to go today, right? I'm not judging you saying you got to be go to church. I'm just saying, like, do you think that's weird? People died, hit snooze. It's not good enough to get out of bed in the morning. It's not good for me to come and be excited. Yeah. (audience laughing) That's good. See, that's joy. Why don't I deepen my heart, view it as good news sometimes? Do you, do you? And I'm gonna pick on, I thought, Emerson, he did a great job today, right? Give him a hand. Lee is singing. Oh, worship team. But, I'm gonna pick on one thing she said, and I'm not gonna pick on it because we think this way. She goes, everything's bad here, right? She said that. And it's, I get it, like, and that's what it feels like, and it is. It is bad, there's a lot of bad. And then that bad makes you forget the good. Why don't I view it in my heart, deepen my heart as good news sometimes. And if I'm honest, maybe a lot of times I don't live like it's good news. Now, clearly, believing it's good news doesn't mean that sad things don't happen. We know that, and some of you're going, "Well, it's hot, well, you know, bad things happen." That's what I'm talking about. 'Cause I'm sure the person being burned alive is they're singing joyfully, still didn't enjoy the feeling of being burned alive. I'm sure if they had the choice, hey, how about not die on the being burned? They go, yeah, I choose that, I don't wanna die, okay? We're not saying insanity. But it was so good that they were so confident that whatever this happened, right? What was coming was so much better. And let's say, okay, some of you go, okay, well, yeah, here's what I'm fascinated with. Yeah, Todd, they died. It's like, there were people that didn't just die for this good news, they lived for it. What do I mean by that? They went, 'cause you might say, okay, someone can die one time for something, steal yourself, burn, burn on a stake. What about the people that go into other countries where there's no water, no heat, no cooling, where they get malaria just to tell people about this good news? How many times have you told someone this week? Tell the truth. How many times have I? This doesn't count. Why doesn't it feel that way? Why do our non-Christian friends sometimes seem to have so much more joy and happiness than us? He gets it. Why does it feel so heavy? This week I was on the Facebook, and I hate Facebook. It's useful, but I do because it gives a platform to a lot of people that shouldn't have one. But anyway, I've become an old, angry man. You just, but I've went down a deep hole here. Now, I thought about telling you exactly what it is, but I think if I do that, it's gonna intrigue some of you, and I don't wanna send you down this hole, 'cause I don't think you should go down it, 'cause some of you aren't in a place where you should even look at this. So I'm on it, and I don't know how Facebook, Facebook pulls up this religion, this religion's website. And 99% of the time I flipped through, but it said something, I was like, it got me. It got me, good to add. So I click it, and it takes me to a fact, right? Frequently asked questions. And I start to read about this religion that I've heard of numerous times, and I start to actually read what they believe, and I read about their founder, and I read about what he did, and I'm always fascinated by that, because people on the outside will say bad things about founders, right? But the people on the inside believe these good things, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. But what was interesting is it said, when it went to, how do you get into this religion? How do you get into it? There was actually a literal section that said that, and I was like, well, clearly, now I'm interested, how do I get into it? And this is what it said. Usually by word of mouth, I'm quoting, often by reading a book, seeing promotional materials, or visiting a, we'll call it church. Sometimes, and listen to this, sometimes one becomes interested by meeting someone in this religion and sensing that that person has something. They put in a positive attitude toward life, certainty, self-confidence, and happiness, which they too would like to have. Fundamentally, people get into this religion because they want to improve something in their lives, or because they wish to help others improve and thus create a better civilization. That doesn't sound bad, right? You think I'm tricking you, I'm not. It's okay to say that doesn't sound bad. But that sentence got me. Sometimes one becomes interested by meeting them and sensing that a person has something, a positive attitude toward life, certainty, self-confidence, happiness. Bam, do I have that? When people meet me, do they get that? When people meet you, do they get those four things? Do they want what you have? Why would they want what you're selling? That's why you don't sell it, right? Me, that's why. Do people meet us as Christians and say, man, those guys and gals have a positive attitude toward life, certainty, self-confidence, and happiness. And I would like to have that because that happened in the early church. People met them and said something's different about these people. The emperor was like, man, I don't know, even if it wasn't a good reason, he's like, I want this power they have. I'm asking you a question that I'm asking myself. I'm right now, I don't care if you're 14 or 105 in this room. Do you have a positive attitude toward life, certainty, self-confidence, and happiness? For a brief moment after I read that, I found myself thinking, man, I want that. And here's the thing I'm not supposed to say, I even thought about it. Maybe I should like go chat with someone. Just for a second. 'Cause what I realized is that doesn't sound like wishful thinking. That sounds like people that are like doing it, right? Like if that's true. And Christianity today, at least I don't know if you ever feel this way. Sometimes it feels like wishful thinking. Wishful thinking's not bad. What is wishful thinking? It's a positive attitude in a way, right? It's like I am going to be hoping that something good is going to happen and I'm gonna live like something good might happen, right, and that's gonna help me stay positive. But I don't know about you. I don't do a very good job of living in wishful thinking. In fact, I become the opposite and I justify it by saying I am a realistic thinker. I'm not alone in that, good. We'll see. And actually it's not good. This is not good that we're like that. And I was talking to my... God's been doing a lot with me in the past few weeks. Stuff I haven't got, you know, I'm not even in a place where I can talk to you about it yet 'cause I don't know where it, I don't have to put it together, haven't figured it out. But I know that this is part of it. And I know that and it's part of my story, and I don't know, I've considered some of you ask, I've considered like coming and telling you my testimony like truly 'cause I don't know if I've really done that and I don't know, it seems weird to use a sermon to do that, but one of the things I would tell you and I joke is kind of a highlight or low light, I don't know what you wanna say, but this is a true story and he may be watching because he did watch "Real Talking Common" and I was on a bench at 2 a.m., 12 to 2 a.m., with a Nazi, and you're like, "Oh, that's cute, that's a funny story." No, he's a literal card-carrying Nazi if they had cards. He did it, but his house definitely was adorned in it. And the guy was crying on my shoulder. It's hard, hard, and he's a tough dude. I'm not afraid of a lot of dudes, like when you meet him, you're going, "If I wasn't your friend, I don't know where this would go." But the reason I'm telling you that is not to brag on, but to say, you know what's funny about that time, I was homeless, true story. I didn't have anywhere to live. Now people get, "Well, have you hit true?" Yes it is, I don't care what anyone tells you, it's true, okay? Well, how did you survive? I don't know, I went around and stayed on people's couches, including a Nazi, so. But here's my point. I was telling, in the worst moment in my life, I had enough, or time, one of the worst times in my life, I had enough, I don't know, good. I want to tell people the good news. A guy who was in, not in a position that nobody would have met me and said, "You know what I want with you? "I want your circumstances. "I would love to be where you're at." And it's even more humiliating, because in my town, in case somebody from my, I always think about this, I wonder what they think, like, I had a pretty good reputation, I had a lot of friends, people knew me, you know, go to town, you'd probably still go to town and say my name, and I would imagine they're gonna be people that know me. And so that was even more humiliating, because you're supposed to do something, you're supposed to accomplish something when you do that, right? And now I'm here. That's the sound of where you're at, those are moments. How, and now, if I'm honest with you, and you want to know something crazy, that guy sinned. Did you know that? This is funny, I love to watch them on the air, and I was like, "Well, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. "I sinned." That wasn't a sin in of itself, but I probably did stupid stuff, and said stupid stuff, and I certainly know that I had done some things to contribute to getting me where I was at, but here's the thing, when I talked to people, I didn't focus on my sin, and I wasn't embarrassed to tell them, because it wasn't about me, it was about him. And somewhere along the line, years later, he gets sucked into this culture in which we say it's all about Jesus, but it's really all about trying to figure out and find out who's really with him. Who's really with him? Because we have nothing better to do, except, you know, spread the good news of the gospel. I'm ashamed of who, you know, we were kind of talking in this conversation, and I think all three of us, I hope I shouldn't say that, I already ratted them out. I'll talk about me. They just go ahead, grab me. Here's the thing I've come to. When I don't talk about Jesus' people, and this is true, you can think it's not, it's fine. Prefercy, protect myself from the pain if you don't believe in me. Anyway, I'm not ashamed of Jesus, I'm ashamed of me, and I'm ashamed of my reputation harming him, but in that moment, I've still twisted it, 'cause I've somehow made it seem like the good news has been about me, and there are people that are going, the 99% of the people that I've ever met that want to do that and talk about that, they're not even unbelievers. The people, like, they don't really care, because they, a lot of unbelievers, people that need the good news, they already know, they're sinners, so they're in this place of, like, I ain't gonna judge, you've probably heard that, I don't judge people, 'cause they know how bad they are. It's these other, it's our culture. And some of you in this room do it too, and you justify it by saying you're protecting against the wolves, no matter how many sheep you slaughter on the way. I do that too, wishful thinking, but then I look at the good news, and I'm like, how's this all coming together? Todd, where are you at? I don't really know, hopefully by the end, we'll all be in the same place. So in this, you know, in this for the kingdom series, we've been talking, this is all true, and I want us to understand the standard, and I want us to, I've tried to point at the end that Jesus is saying, hey, it's a hard standard, don't soften it, we've gotta believe it, but at the same time, trust in him. But that can become this heavy, way down thing if you don't remember, like, that's not all the good news is. Like this stuff had been said, right? Pharisees taught stuff. In fact, if anything, Pharisees put weights on people. Jesus says this later and didn't tell him how to take it off. In fact, that's one of the things he says when he tears him apart. Says you put weights on people's back, but you don't put one, you don't lift one finger to help them know how to take it off. And I want to read something to you, and I want you to do me a favor, and I guess I got to quit trying to talk to people that aren't listening and to listening. That's another thing I do. I'm just talk to the four or five of you that are hearing me. I want you to read this, and remember, this came right after the Sermon on the Mount, right? So he's boom, boom, boom, he's telling you all this stuff. Hey, you need to keep the standard, but you did it. Matthew 6, chapter 25 to 34, you've all heard it, but I want you to remember the when it came. Matthew chapter six, there we go. Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about life, what you would eat or what you would drink, or about your body or what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky. They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't they worth more? Aren't you worth more than they? I don't necessarily know if I think I'm worth more than a bird, if I'm honest, sometimes. Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that's how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you? You have little faith. So don't worry saying what we eat or what we drink or what we wear for the Gentiles eagerly seek it. All these things, Gentiles, unbelievers. And your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Come back, I wanna jump a section and then we'll come back and talk about that, okay? Same, Matthew chapter seven. So remember, this is not chapter breaks in Jesus' teaching here, he's just teaching. Chapter seven, starting at verse seven. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks, finds and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them. For this, listen to me. For this is the law in the prophets. When you read the first section, we're talking about consider the birds of the field, they don't see, if you're like me, I don't know if you are, some of you might be. I'm gonna start with those people 'cause we're the worst. And we're the people that are gonna start and say, but what about those starving Christians in the world? What about those cold Christians? Right? I don't act like you don't do that in your back, your head, me too. But we're missing the point. And part of that is because I think we don't, we take everything, like we should take everything literal, but Jesus isn't speaking literally. He speaks in parables for a reason. He wants us to think. And what he's saying here, what's he really saying, is the point what you wear, what you eat, all those things, that's actually completely the opposite of the point. But we make that the point. He will provide your needs. Yeah, he will, but that's actually, you ready? Maybe for one, I don't know, maybe I'll shock some of you onto him Christians 'cause this is not about that. Good, I see it, I got you mad. You mean it's about, he gives, provides my needs. I don't think it's, I don't think that's the whole, I don't think that's the point. That's in there and he does. What's the point? The point is this, stop worrying like I don't care about you. Stop worrying like I don't see you. Stop worrying like I don't want good for you. Stop worrying like I won't provide for you. Stop worrying like every single thing that happens to you on this earth, I will work for your good. How do I know that? Because it says it in Romans. He works out all things for the good those believe according to his purposes. Now, if you're like me again, I'm gonna talk to me. You're already arguing. Well, why did this happen to me? The same reason that I don't let my daughter kick her mother when she's upset. The same reason I don't let my daughter claw my eyeballs out if I'm fast enough. The same reason I don't let my daughter have and she will sometimes, you know. Bar, bar have 17 granola bars. Because in that moment, all she can think is he doesn't love me enough to give me what I want. When the truth is I know better than you and I'm not gonna let you do something that's gonna hurt you and hurt others because when you hurt others and she is sensitive, it ends up making her sad. Now, everyone's going, I understand we're the children of God. No, you're not, I don't think you are getting it. Because I am not getting it. And I don't think you do either because we're so caught up in all this and we're so stinkin' arrogant. The gospel message, the good news is not complicated. It's simple, it's just not simple to live out. But the message is simple. And what is he saying here, Todd? I don't know if that's what it means. I don't know about in the Greek. Well, what does it say here? Why do you worry? If that's how God closed the grass of the field which is here today and thrown in the first tomorrow, won't he do so much more for you? You of little faith, faith in what? Faith in that I love you. Faith in that the Father loves you and sees you and wants to give you good things. So why worry? That's what unbelievers do because they don't have hope. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. So if he's gonna do one of two things, he's going to give you what that thing you want and that thing you need, or he's gonna give you that thing you need. Meaning you sometimes don't know what you need. Using my daughter again, there's some nasty medicine they gave her. And I thought she was just being a baby, I get it. And I smelled it one time and it is, I'm telling you right now, take the nastiest gym shoe you ever had and that's this thing was worse than that. And I'm like, they want my daughter. No wonder she's spitting it out. This is nasty. But then I just go, you know what? It's okay, continue to get sick. No, in this case, gave her the medicine 'til we got some new medicine because she needed it. And that's the, that's what he's saying here. Let's strip this down for a minute. Father knows this is so powerful, guys. We hear the, let's say unbelievers. The Gentiles eagerly seek all these things instead of going, oh, they're excited. What if you look, they're paranoid, they panic. They're trying to save themselves. They're trying to gather enough in their barns, right? He uses this analogy a lot. They're trying to get enough. They're trying to make sure they got closed. All the justification, got to take care of mine. Got to do this, got to do that. I got to do it because nobody's coming for them. But what does Jesus say to us here? He says, Gentiles seek all these things. The people who have no hope, but what? Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Need what? Whatever it is you need. Now you have two options right now. You can do what I do 99% of the time when I'm even prepping a message and you read it and you hear it and you just let it fall off 'cause you're ready to get out of here. You can say, I want more than wishful thinking in this life. I'm tired of waking up and having a faith that I have to drag myself to. And God bless you because you have enough faith that you drag yourself when you don't like it. But I'm saying to you, do people want what you have? And if they don't, are we living the good news of the gospel? Are we living the it's okay news of the gospel as long as I'm good enough and as long as I can hide the really bad parts of me and as long as life's going okay? Because what she said is partially true. Things are bad here and here's the crazy part. Bad things are gonna happen whether you know Jesus or not. The only issue is whose hand does it have to go through before it gets to you? The Bible tells us and I used to mess with me but there's hope in that. There's not a single thing that touches you as a believer that happens to you without him saying, all right. Now that can mess with you and make you sad or it can give you hope. Because what it means is that giant rock that was gonna break you in half and kill you becomes pebbles that might give you some welts. But then he uses the welts to teach you to rely on, I don't know how it works, but you get what I'm saying. And I look around at our church man and before I continue on for a second and I'm gonna call out Remnant 'cause you guys always think I'm talking to the guests, that's so bizarre. The guests just here to have a good to see what's going on. You go here, who do you think I'm talking to? You already signed up for this mess, right? (congregation laughs) What happened to us? What happened to you? When did waking up and serving on a team become something you dread and try to get out of instead of saying I get to cheerfully and joyfully serve because my Lord served. He said he washed feet, Peter goes, you don't wash my feet, that's too lowly for you. And he said, if I don't wash you, you have no part of my kingdom. That's a powerful thing. And he's like, okay, wash all of me. It's a classic Peter, never mind. And then what does God say goes, remember this, what I did for you and you call me Lord and look what I did for you. And some of us are too tired to get up in the morning and just say hi to people as they come in. (congregation laughs) I'm not trying to call you out, but I am. 'Cause I'm calling me out. I look around and I confess this to the guys. I sit around as I'm pondering this and wondering. And I go, man, I'm a loser or I have a, you know, I'm stuck in the past, man. I'm stuck in a place that he already pulled me from. And sometimes I feel like I can't get out. And that's the illusion is that I'm keeping myself there. Or I'm letting other people. I'm letting these other people keep me in a place that he's already freed me from. It's hard. But see what happens at moment is I've already forgotten the good news. I've somehow, I've switched when I knew to be true when I came to know him and made it about me earning my salvation, keeping my salvation, keeping his favor. That's another word that's so bizarre. Lord, you know, you wanna keep his favor. What do you mean his favor? I've already been favored enough that he died on a cross for me. What more do I want? And if he died on a cross for me, that's not like, well, I guess I shouldn't want anything. Like what is he, what more will he do for me? For you. And when I start to think, and if I'm honest, when I read this and Jesus is so, so good, don't worry about your life. Because what he's essentially saying is, listen, I know, let me say, but I don't think it's angry. I know that you think worrying makes you safe. But you can't even make a single minute of your life. You get added by worrying. You don't have control, and that's scary. That's what he's saying, right? You worrying about whether you got enough in savings. You worrying about some of you all literally won't spend savings, and I wanna come to you, and I just wanna be rational for a second and go, what's it for? Your casket? We can't spend that on that emergency bill that happened. We have to keep $14,000 in savings. I know, I'm not, listen, it's good to be wise, and you've been taught that that creeps in Christianity, but where's your hope really at? What he's trying to say is, this isn't a shame thing. Stop worrying. Stop being like the people that don't know me. I see you, you are my child, and I will never let you go, and I know what you need, and that doesn't mean hard things don't happen because he told us that he didn't do that. We did that. And the promise comes that in the midst of this bad stuff that happens sometimes, and the things that are gonna happen regardless, we have hoped that the Gentiles don't, because we've put our faith in the Father, and the Father has said, I know what you need, I will never turn my back on you, I will never let you go, I will always work out for you or good. Now here's the thing you have to accept, do you believe that? Are you willing to let go of control? I want you to right now for a second, do me a favor, imagine, imagine letting go. Letting go of the worry right now. You can do it, I can do it for about half a second. Do it right now. All those stuff that then it creeps back up, that's okay. In that half a second, how did it feel? In that second, how did it feel to say, instead of saying, what if the bad things happen, you said, God's got me? I've given this analogy before. If I'm a, I'll come back to that, remind me of the analogy, Kaylee, bus, child, you get it. You think you know which one it is, right, if I ask. Let's jump down, keep this in mind, don't worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself. A lot of our misery in this faith is running around like chicken little, the sky's falling, the sky's falling, I gotta keep it up myself, and it's an illusion. You aren't gonna make your husband good, you aren't gonna fix your family problems by yourself. You're not gonna, you're not gonna all of a sudden, you know, if I do it right with my $14,000, then me, then I'll be happy and not worry. No, because then you'll need $14,000 and two. Jump down to Matthew seven, he says, asking what will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock in the door will be open to you, for everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks, finds, the one who knocks the door will be opened. Automatically, I'm taught how to, like, I come out from apologetics, well, I've gotta answer the reasons of when that doesn't happen. That's not the point of the message. Ask gonna be given to you, seek, you'll find, knock in the door will be open to you, do you believe that? Get ready, close your eyes, imagine, right? Imagine that what you ask for God is going to give you. Not maybe, not if you beg good enough, not if you will sacrifice enough that he is actually going to give you what you want, what you need. Well, Todd, that doesn't make sense, it does make sense because if you follow God and seek first the righteousness of the kingdom of God, God's desires will become your desires. And you'll start putting your faith in a bunch of garbage that doesn't lead anywhere because if it was fulfilling, why do you need more? He says, knock in the door will be open to you. What if that's literal, Jacob? What if he means that? Jacob's always listening so I can say his name, he wasn't not paying attention, he's actually a friendly face. For everyone who asks, and the one who receives, and the one who seeks fine, do you believe that? Do you actually believe when you ask, you're gonna receive? I already know the answer, me either, but is he lying? See, those are the things you gotta ask yourself. And then he says this incredible analogy, and I need you to stop being a nerd. Well, sometimes, listen to the point of the parable, that's what you sound like, me too. Who among you, 'cause he says it'll be open, right? Ask, you're gonna get it, seek, you'll find, knock the doors, gonna be open. And he says, who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, let me make this easy. Are you ever a jerk? Yes or no? Dave, I'm just kidding, are you ever a jerk? See, that's what he gets. You guys didn't hear him in software practice, all the stuff you're saying to me. I remember, all right? Listen. God's never a jerk. God's never evil, he doesn't have a bad day. He's not grumpy, he doesn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed. So you, who does that? And listen, before you say, well, some fathers are evil. He's giving the parable, we know as humanity what a good father and a good mother do in general, right? They do the best they can for their children. And God always speaks to us in the ways we understand, right? He does. What is he saying here? So essentially what he's saying, I'll take it a different analogy. Let's say I take that baby right there that was yelling earlier, and it comes up here and it's like, wow, wow, and I go, oh really? (audience laughs) Everybody said, oh my God, he talked about throwing a baby. I'm not gonna do it, right? Listen, but here's my point, she got her mama bear. Don't you throw my, listen, that's my point though. But let me tell you something. Isn't that how you view yourself? That if you cry, if you mess up, and he's not just not gonna give you what you want, he's gonna punish you. Everybody knows that's ridiculous until it comes to you are the baby to the father. So what good father and earth when you're in need and you're crying out to him and you're hurting and lonely, right? What good father is not gonna come through? So some of you say, but I've been praying and I've been clinging to and it's been months and maybe it's even been years. And let me tell you something. I don't know if you know babies, right? Do you know why they say, don't let a baby cry more than five minutes, right? When they're little, I can't speak, when they're little babies and they're crying, like why do they say it? Because that five minutes might as well be five years to a child. When you're two months old and we start messing or a week old, if we took five minutes, that becomes a long time. Sometimes it's gonna seem long to us, but remember he's eternal. Don't take the, and here's the crazy part. Him coming, even in that process, the cool thing about God versus us, sometimes I'm just like hitting my knee on the way in and tripping, trying to get the bottle, right? I just stink, and when he does it, even the waiting has a purpose. Who asks for a son, fish will give him a snake. Now let me ask you again, if he loves you, you put your faith in him and he loves you just like, you all got mad when I joked about throwing a baby. Okay, well let me make it different. The baby's sitting here, I've got seven bottles of milk and he's like me hungry, he can talk some day, right? And I go, well you can't have one because you've been a bad boy. You can't have one because, Diane said you're a bad boy, and Diane saw you do something bad yesterday. You pooped yourself so you don't get any. And we start to believe that. We would never accept that for a child, but yet we accept that for ourselves and believe the father is okay with that or believe that that's how he views us. Is the child in Africa starving, right? It's dirty and got malaria, any less valuable to you if you had the chance than the one that's all cleaned up and nice and smells like baby powder? Who among you would let that child starve because it's been in the mud a little longer than the other? Or the good smelling baby powder, baby falls in the mud. Nasty, you're useless. I used to hate when people talked about parenthood and God, it annoyed me. I didn't have kids who later in life, you know, 22. And because of that, I'm only 23, anyway. Because of that, right, I would get annoyed, but I'm telling you, and I have to tell you, and it's okay to use other babies 'cause I think that'll help. But at her worst, there is never a moment when I ever, ever want bad for my daughter. I used to think the idea of like, yeah, I'll die for someone and you think it, and I think I wouldn't want, but I wouldn't blink. Does that mean she's nice or obedient all the time? If you've met her, sometimes she's not, she is nice. Don't tell me she's not nice, we'll talk. Anyway, let's keep going. If you ask for fish, but her value to me never changes, I don't think of that. And if somebody comes up and goes, hey, I saw your baby, you know, your baby hit this baby. He's a piece of trash. I would punch that person in the face. That's still my daughter. And just because someone else says something about her and just because she may have done it, it doesn't change her value to me. It doesn't mean I'll stop loving her, stop taking care of her and stop providing that I won't move heaven and hell if I had the ability to get to her if she needed me. And here's the crazy thing, God has that power. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also for them, for this is all on the province. That seems like kind of comes out of nowhere. How much more will your father in heaven give good things? That translates different. Let's say the Lord of all heaven and earth is your father. The Lord of creation. What do you think he might give you? If you're willing, if you're not going to be evil to your child, right? He has the power and then he says something crazy. And I actually think this is even cooler. Because remember, we've been stacking weights, right? We've been stacking, gotta do this, gotta do that. And then I feel like Jesus does the most loving thing in the world and he says, listen, since you know that, how about simplify this for you? Stop worrying about trying to be perfect. Just do what you want others to do for you. And that's all the father wants because all the law and the prophets is in that. You get what I mean? Do you get it? Do you not see how beautiful that is? He says all these things and then it's like, I could good father, right? Like a big brother, he says, so stop worrying. Stop worrying about where the line is. And just do on to others that you want them to do to you and if you do that, that's all my father's ever wanted for me. He's wanted you to love others as yourself. So wives, when you're screaming at your husbands, do you want to be screamed at? See what I mean? Husbands, when you're evil to your wives, do you want someone to be evil to you? I'm just using an example. Do you want someone to do to your girlfriend or boyfriend, what you're doing to them? You want someone to make you insecure? You want someone to make you sad? Why would you do that? My point isn't even to pile that on right. My point is to say, remember, I told you it's simple. The message is simple. You know, hope in our world is wishful thinking. That's what it is. I hope something good will happen. I'll cross my fingers and hope for it. But hope in the Bible isn't. Hope is looking forward to what's going to happen. Not what might happen. Hope is looking at you looking at yours and note. There's no note. There's no notice here and again. He's like, where's that? I was a good pastor, I would have done that, right? That's not my notes though, that's the problem. Holy Spirit, right? Hope is looking forward to what's going to happen, what the Father's going to do. Now, stop being lazy. Stop thinking that that's a feeling. Hope isn't a feeling, right? It produces feelings, but it's not a feeling. Hope is a choice to say, right? I believe, faith, that you're going to do what you promised me you're going to do. And I'm going to live like it's already done. So what would hope lead to? Remember what I said, close your eyes, breathe for a minute? What if your family's not going to starve? What if he's going to work at all things for your good? What if you're not going to marry a tyrant? So I'm going to hate men and I'll never marry him because they're going to be a tyrant. All right, what if your hope isn't in whether people think you're successful or not? 'Cause it'll never be enough. It won't. What if it's already done? What if he's already answering your prayers right now? What if you're just in the room crying for dad and it feels like it's been 10,000 years, but it's been five minutes, he's coming. And I'm saying this to you 'cause I don't naturally live this way because I've been let down a lot because here's what I do. I put the word, instead of thinking what I view a good father would do to God, I put what I think the worst fathers would do on God. I do, I put what I think the worst people would do to me. And sometimes right, it becomes hard. And then what ends up happening in life when you already struggle with that is that you'll notice that people are gonna make it easy to do that 'cause they call themselves Christians and they hate you and condemn you and they make you feel bad. And that's why you can't put your hope even in the religion. The hope has to be in Jesus. So if you believe for a second and let go of all that and believed it and believed that what he said, right? That you're not condemned, that he's got a hold of you and he'll never let you go that he's coming through for you, that he loves you, right? That no greater love of this that someone would lay down his life for his friends, that he said, Jesus said in John 10, I will never let go of one of the ones you've given me as he talks to the father, he'll never let you go. If you believe that, I think wishful thinking would become wishful certainty. So what's the difference? I made it up, I don't know, but you ready? All the good that you're hoping for, instead of thinking it might, you can't wait 'til it does. I've experienced a little tiny bit of that this week and I'm hesitant to tell you that because I'm scared of good things. As I let go for one week of like beat myself up, thinking I gotta be perfect, thinking of all the ways, letting other people tell me where I'm not. And all of a sudden I realized that my bitterness phase, my frustration fades, and then weirdly enough, I start to naturally do what God's created me to do, which is love people and be patient and joyful because I've let go of the weight of my own salvation, my own sanctification, my own holiness, my own perfection. And I gave it to the only one who could ever carry it. The good news, it's when I was that young kid talking to a Nazi, talking to everyone I could and I did, guys. I was crazy, way crazier than now. I think that kid would look at me and be like, it's kinda cool what you're doing, but how come you don't tell everyone about what happened to you? Well, I don't wanna make him look bad. What do you mean? I thought it's forgiven. That's what he was said to me 'cause I never, I'll tell you, when I came out the night I was saved, I didn't walk around going, man, I wonder when the next time I'm mess up is all I thought was I felt free and it felt like good news. Good news is that it's never been about me. Ever, ever, ever, it's always been about him. We have to take the focus off of you and your worthiness, you're not worthy. That's okay, don't let that be sad. My daughter's not worthy in her actions of being rewarded with the fact that I get her a toy almost every time I go, and I gotta stop 'cause I'm gonna create a problem. 'Cause now the first thing she says when she sees me is, what daddy got? (audience laughs) That's a true story, right? What daddy got, right? But I wanna do that because I love her. Your father loves you. He's already set up here, stop worrying. He said, ask me and trust that I'm gonna come through. And when we do that, when we let go of all of it, then the law becomes simple. Just love people the way that you wanna be loved, and here's the crazy thing, you ready? Because I'm already loving you the way you wanna be loved. And that would motivate you. It motivates you because, yes, eternity's real and sin is real and hell is real, and we should be motivated by that, but we should also be motivated by the freedom that we're given because of that. She's gonna come up and play some music. There's not a lot to today. I said she 'cause I didn't know who. (audience laughs) It's a true story. Sydney, thank you. (audience laughs) Now, I'm gonna try to connect this real fast. Fruit of the Spirit is peace, love, joy, all these things. And you're kinda like, oh, I'm gonna have that. It all starts with Jesus because if we believe that in wishful certainty, do you see how you're naturally? Remember, I know it's gonna feel like an RPG role-playing game. It's gonna feel like you're pretending. That's okay. Let yourself feel it for a minute and realize how naturally, under as you're freed of the weight of your own life, you naturally wanna be loving. You naturally can breathe. You wanna celebrate because you're able to look around and go, "Man, what a beautiful day." 'Cause I don't have to worry about if I'm gonna crash as soon as I walk out. And some of y'all do that. I get it, just you guys, not me. It's always been about him. There's gonna be people that come in your life and they're gonna try to make it about you. And sometimes it even starts in a good place. They're like, "Oh, I've been hurt and I don't want anyone else to get hurt and they're gonna try to make it about you." They're gonna try to make you the point of all of this. And that's when you get to smile at 'em and say, "Yes, but Jesus." Let me tell you about the man who turned me from that into this. From the man who even when I act like that says I'm this. From the man who's freed me. The man who saved me. It's all real. So you can see, nobody, very few people hate Jesus. But some of you in this room, you're not really putting your faith in him. You walk around, you come when you can because you don't wanna let go of being your own savior. 'Cause nobody else has come through for you in this life, so you gotta do it yourself. But you're not doing a great job of it. All right, that's why you're scared and anxious and upset all the time because it's hard being God. You have an opportunity today. I don't know what you're going through, but I know that this is good news. And it's been good news for thousands of years. And the same good news that people sing as they burn across is the same good news that you have. The same salvation that Peter and Paul. The same Holy Spirit that saved them resides in you. The same God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The same God of Moses and David. The same God of Paul and all the miraculous things that ever happened. That same God is your God. If you believe that and you live that way, what would happen? Not just some corny, okay Todd? From this moment forward, right now make the decision. If you said, "I'm not gonna worry about if I fail tomorrow, today I will live in wishful certainty." So I'm gonna leave you with today. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, I'm gonna make it even simpler than normal. We messed everything up. We've rejected God and because of that, like a branch broken off a tree, sin is end of the world. I don't care what you think. And that seems, sounds mean. Just like if you had a knife stuck in your chest and you go, "There's not a knife in my chest. I'm gonna throw you on the ground and pull it out and try to help you." Whether you believe it or not, here's the reality. You have a disease and all the bad things that you do come from that disease. And that's why, no matter how many times you try to cure those bad actions, that part of you, it sprouts out somewhere else. That's why you can't get over that addiction. That's why you can't get over that frustration. That's why you can't get over that sin on your own. You have moments of it. And I'm not saying it's gonna happen tomorrow if you do, but the reason you can't, you can't fix yourself. You can't make yourself wholly enough for a perfect God. Thousands of years of human existence have shown us what happens when the Creator is separated from the creation. The disease runs rampant. It runs rampant. We have war and hate and murder and all of these horrible things that we all experience in disease. It was never meant to be this way. And God could have left us in that because that's what we deserve. The Bible says all is sinned and falling short of the glory of God. That's a fact. No one is without excuse. Not even you. Who, me? Yes, you. You have no excuse. The Bible also says that the wages of sin is death. But the hope comes in the second part. But the free gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself, God made flesh when we couldn't come to Him, when we couldn't bear the weight of our lives of our own even hope. He came down and He said, "I will take the punishment reserved for you." He taught us how to live, showed us the truth, and then died on a cross for you and me. He died in your place as a substitutionary atonement. As a fancy word, it says, "He grabbed you and moved and died on the cross." Now, that sounds hokey and crazy. So does a magical force that holds you on earth that you believe called gravity. Have you touched the moon? How do you know it's not made of cheese? You already know what faith is. Faith is believing something when you are given enough evidence. Your evidence is what's in your heart right now, that thing, that little prick. That's called the Holy Spirit, knocking at the door of your heart. Open up. How do you open up? The Bible says this. If you confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, you'll be saved. Turn from your sins. Repent. It doesn't mean be perfect. It says, "God, I'm sorry for what I've done. I put my faith in you, Jesus. I believe." If you do that. In this moment, you will be saved from hell. But the crazy part is you could have just done that. It would have been pretty good news, but he did more than that. He's promised to be your father. To provide for you to take care of you. To work all things out for your good. Until when? Until the moment he comes back and he fixes all of this for good. It's going to happen. Jesus Christ is going to return. He will be here. And he is going to fix this mess. And every knee will bow. Do you want to bow now? Or when you're going to bow and you don't have the choice? Whatever you do, you're going to have opportunity to pray. Let go of the weight. Talk to your father. Repent of your sins so that you can let go. Not because you need to earn it again. Not because you need to be re-saved. If you don't know Jesus, if you can't say 100% be on a shout-out, I'm a Christian. If I die today, I would go to heaven. There are going to be people up here willing to pray with you. I'll probably roam up here too. Come find me. And I would just like you. We will pray. And I'll pray with you. And guess what will happen? Wishful thinking can become wishful certainty. Whatever you do, don't leave the same as you came in. Because if you do, you are choosing to. (gentle music)