The Insufficiency Of Misplaced Righteousness

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Lord, our confession today is rooted in our understanding that nothing can take away what you've created us to be a part of, to experience, to participate in, and to spread all over the world in which we live.

And so, not darkness, not a virus, not circumstance or situation is going to take out of us what you put in us.

And that's a big hallelujah.

That's a big even so, Lord Jesus, come.

And so, Lord, we look to you, we look to your word, and we ask for your spirit's assistance and presence this morning to illuminate what the Bible says and bring it to bear on the moment, not the future, not just the past, but on right now.

That's what we need you to do, God, to shape the way we think.

Our confession today, God, is that the way our mind is oriented around and toward the truth determines how we see the world.

And so there's a lot of people that see the world through a crooked lens because their mind is not oriented towards the truth, by the truth, or in the truth.

Their mind is about their preference.

Their mind is about their politics, not the truth.

And that's sin, God, and we confess that is sin today.

If our hope and passion is more about our politics and our politician than about God and the presence of God, we are we are hoping for a vein, a hope of deliverance.

We say what the psalmist has said uh some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we'll trust in the name of the Lord our God.

We lift our eyes up to the hills.

Where does our help come from?

Not from a vaccine or a vaccination.

Our help comes from the Lord.

And so, Lord, we open up your word today because it is a tangible reminder of your means and your ways and your nature.

Now, Lord, speak to your people from your word and by your spirit.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a C if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 18, as you know, we've been going through a series of parables.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

We've got two more weeks of parables, and then we'll start in the book of Daniel, which will probably be until Jesus comes back.

Amen.

Uh, and stop emailing me and asking me, are you gonna predict the end of the world in the book of Daniel?

No, I'm not.

But anyway, uh, we're gonna have a good time.

I will say this a little foreshadowing about the book of Daniel.

Here's one of the differences among the billions between us and God.

We think in terms of place, like place.

We got to be in a happy place, a better place.

We got to be in a place where not cold red in the county, we got to be here, we gotta be there.

We think in terms of place.

God thinks in terms of people.

And so it can be a terrible place, but God looks down like Babylonian captivity, terrible place, but God looks down and says, I got my people in that place, everything's gonna be fine.

So the issue for all of us right now in this COVID-19 political drama, racial tension going on, it's not place, it's can you be the people of God in the place that you're in right now?

But we'll get to that starting on August 23rd when we get into the book of Daniel.

Today I want to talk to you about the insufficiency of misplaced righteousness.

The insufficiency of misplaced righteousness.

And I now that I've announced the sermon title, let me just say this.

I realize that as preachers, sometimes we say something like that, and your first thought is, what in the cat hair does that mean?

Okay, I have no idea what that means.

So let me tell you what I mean by that.

Uh C.S.

Lewis, the great Christian writer and thinker, said this.

He said, a Christian's nostrils should be always attuned to the cesspool within.

I got a whiff of my depravity.

That's what he's talking about, the cesspool within.

Doesn't mean you're bad people, you're like I said, but but you have this capacity to go to a dark place in the nanosecond.

Are you aware of that?

Hello, let me say that again.

Uh, you have this capacity to go to a very dark place, a very unchristian place in a nanosecond.

Are you aware of that?

Yes, you are.

Good.

Well, this past week, Marcy and I took a friend to Bex Prime up here on Highway 6 for his birthday.

And that's great.

We'll go to Bex Prime, we'll have a nice burger.

Uh, I like Bex Prime.

I really like Bex Prime.

I get the Bills burger every time.

Here's my only drawback about Bex Prime.

You gotta sell a kidney before you get there to pay for that.

They do not give that thing away.

And so I get there, I get in line.

And by the way, I don't care.

My friend's worth it.

If it had been a thousand dollars, I'd have said, honey, sell a kidney.

We're gonna go.

Uh and but but we're there.

It's not about that, because it's the best$18 hamburger I've ever had.

Uh and so we everybody goes and I pay, and I'm like, oh yeah, I remember that about that's why I don't come to X Prime very often, because dang.

Uh and so we're I'm walking, it's not even 30 feet from the counter to the table where we're sitting.

I I go to sit down and I just glance down, and right there under the leg of the table is my ram caught in the thicket.

It's a money clip.

And they've trifolded their money, and it was a nice like mercury dime on the outside of the money clip, and I picked it up, and here's where I went in a nanosecond.

I was like, it was a one-dollar bill on the outside, and I thought, well, that's not, I mean, I mean, I'll turn that in.

And something, I don't know why.

I unclipped it and just started unfolding the money.

One dollar bill, two dollar bill, one dollar, I mean, a one-dollar bill, another one, another one, a five, a ten, another ten, a twenty, a twenty.

Hundy hundred.

$100 bill, two hundred dollar bill, and I thought this all happened in about 0.3 seconds.

A, who carries this much cash around in their front left pocket?

B, if they do, they ain't gonna miss this.

C, God wants me to come back to Bex Prime again tomorrow.

D, did anybody at my table see that I reached down and grab this?

F G H I J K L.

Let me take this to the manager.

All in 0.3 seconds.

I'm not exaggerating.

Now, would I keep that voice of girls?

Absolutely not.

That's not the type of person I am.

But my my depravity is not over.

This is why it's insufficient when we put our righteousness anywhere but in Jesus.

In our self, as you'll see in just a minute, and our religious behaviors you'll see in just a minute.

I walked up to the counter, I said, hang on, I counted my my wife and my friends are kind of looking like, wow.

And I was like, Yeah, let me take that up there.

And I walked up to the manager, I hand it to the manager, and he goes, I said, Hey, I found this on that table right over there.

And he's like, Oh, he goes, Oh, thank you.

I'm the manager.

And this, my depravity is not done.

I was, I was like, holding on to it.

What are you gonna do with it?

Just because you're the manager, you keep it two days, no one comes, you pocket this.

I think it I might need to drag drive back down there after church today and just say, Hey, what came that money and money clip?

You still got that?

Because I think it was lawfully, it's mine because I found it.

No one comes back and claims it.

And then my depravity is not done.

I do the right thing, of course.

I mean, it wasn't I I'm I'm kind of joking, but I was just, I was like, hey, here you go.

This is on the table because oh, thank you.

I'm the manager, I'll take care of that.

I turned and I walked back, and this is what I thought, because my depravity.

Oh, it's terrible.

Thought, oh, you're such a great person.

You're such a, I bet you some people would have found that.

They'd have never turned that in.

I bet Travis Dunham would have kept that.

You got 19 kids, you gotta spend money on something.

So I'm walking back, I was laughing at myself, kind of going, man, I'm not having a good day here, God.

I just did the right thing, which is always the right thing to do, glad to do it, and now I want to take credit for it.

Well, I'm walking, it's 30 feet, maybe 35 feet from the counter back to my table.

I think that.

And then the Holy Spirit says, Did you think you got this way on your own?

So when I say the insufficiency of misplaced righteousness, that can sound like, oh, great, our pastor's a Puritan, he likes to talk about things no one ever talks about.

Let me just bring misplaced righteousness down to where you live and apply it to having a burger at Beck's to celebrate a friend's birthday.

And by the way, my friend just had a hamburger, his wife had a kid's meal.

It was my wife over here, it's like, I need a hamburger, and they sell french fries a la carte.

It means on the side.

And I was like, Well, could have got this and about three, four more of these for free.

But I'm walking back and it's like, just the Holy Spirit's like, Do you think you got this way on your own?

You think this is about self or is this about me?

And I'm like, I was like, that's all about you.

And I sat down and ate my food and left.

See, because every day you are tempted to take credit for things that are not yours to take credit for, or to to place your righteousness in things other than Jesus.

Does that make sense to you?

Now, the Bible that that didn't start with us, it started way back in the Bible, Luke chapter 18, verse 9 says he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

Luke 18:9

Two men, by the way, you don't think you're righteous and treat other people with contempt, do you?

Of course not.

Nobody in America is doing that right now.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thusly, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here.

I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.

But he beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

I just want to point out four things that the text brings to us to consider today.

And the first one is this is this the bold compassion of Jesus.

The bold compassion of Jesus, verse nine, hear it again.

It ought to kind of burn and jolt you when you hear it.

He says, he told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

Ask yourself if you were going, you're standing in a room full of people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, that they had it figured out and all together and it depended on them.

And not only that, they treated others with contempt.

In other words, we're right and you're wrong.

They looked down on other people because they thought they were better than them.

Would you speak up?

Would you say anything?

See, when I say the bold compassion of Jesus, what I'm saying is we've all been in circumstances where we need to have a hard conversation with someone and you psych yourself out of it by say, well, if it comes up, I don't want to rock the boat, but if they bring it up, then I might say something, I'll just suggest.

But Jesus is so bold and yet so compassionate, he does not leave them in this natural state.

This is why he tells the parable that they will hear in this parable, in this story, they would hear and see themselves and go, Oh my gosh, what was I thinking?

Are you kidding me?

Look what I'm capable of.

I thought I thought I was making progress, but here I am in a nanosecond, not making much progress at all, because I trusted myself that I'm righteous and I treat others with contempt.

Terrible combination.

Yet Jesus is so full of boldness and compassion.

The bold compassion of uh uh uh of Jesus.

If you have boldness without compassion, you come off as heavy-handed.

If you have compassion and no boldness, you come off as indifferent.

You're not a friend, you're a fear-based individual who really doesn't contribute anything to the dialogue.

But Jesus is around these people, and so he tells them this parable.

Second thing we see is that the church is a place of diversity.

Look at verse 10.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Could you be any more different?

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, a leader of the religious system of the day, well dressed, well healed, well respected.

And then you got this other guy, tax collector.

Tax collectors were hated by the Pharisees, but they're also hated by their own people because usually they were one of the masses who flipped sides and now went to work for the Romans.

And if the tax was like 3%, they charged five and kept the 2% delta.

You just couldn't stand them.

You hated them.

There were people you went to high school with that lived in a gated community while you were working an extra job just to keep food on the table.

And every time you saw them, they had this little greasy grin on their face, like, yeah, I'm killing it.

You're struggling.

Isn't it awesome?

And you're like, I'm gonna get you.

I'm gonna get you when I see you.

Your day's coming.

These people were were content, people had contempt for them on a level that we have, we don't have language for today.

So you've got somebody that's really respected in the religious establishment, and somebody that everybody hates.

And here's what I want you to see.

Both of these people, as the Bible says, this two men went up to the temple to pray.

Two men, as we would say nowadays, went to the same church.

The church is a place of beautiful diversity.

Now, this guy is not what we want to be, but he needs the gospel too.

Are you aware of that?

Hello.

Have you run out of people in your life?

See, here's my concern that most Christians in America have run out of people who need the gospel just in general, in salvation terms, salvific terms, but also people that need the gospel in their behavior.

See, this is why the church has to be diverse, it has to stay diverse, and I'm not just talking racially, we'll get to that in just a minute, but I'm just talking about makeup, just the content.

Because if the church is full of people who have it all together, how boring would that be?

Aren't you glad you go to a church where not everybody has it together?

Don't you walk in and look around and go, uh, oh, I hey, I'm I'm not perfect, but you don't look around and go, hey, but I'm not that guy, because you're like the Pharisee then.

Oh Lord, I think I'm not like other men.

Uh, this is not praying, by the way, this is bragging.

We'll get to that in just a minute.

But the church is just a place of diversity.

I love what C.S.

Lewis said.

He said this about diversity.

He said, it takes all sorts to make a world or a church.

This may be even truer of a church.

If grace perfects nature, it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when he made them.

And heaven will display far more variety than hell.

This is why Ephesians says that the church is the manifold wisdom of God.

I love that our church is multi-ethnic and multi-generational.

But also there's people all across the spectrum spiritually.

People come every Sunday that are not Christians, they do not have a relationship with God, they live in consistent and constant sin.

You say, Oh, that's kind of being hateful.

No, no, no.

They tell me.

They tell me.

One guy told me not too long ago, I don't agree with you, but I really like hearing you preach.

That's why I come.

And my girlfriend here, she likes it, and so I come to appease her.

I said, So your girlfriend needs the gospel, but you don't.

And he said, I don't even know what you mean by the gospel.

And I was like, I am so glad you're here.

The church is not a place for people that have it all figured out.

If you have it all figured out, go find somewhere else because you won't fit in here because we don't have it all figured out.

But we worship a God who does.

And we take him at his word and we value what he says.

The church is a place of diversity.

Don't just think color, think content.

Thirdly, we see in the text misplaced righteousness.

Misplaced righteousness.

Here, verse 11 and 12, the Pharisee standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector over here.

I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I get.

This is a preacher's dream, by the way.

And this guy tithes of all that he gets.

He's not like some of you trying to figure out do I tithe on the gross or on the net?

He tithes on his income, his investments, his bonus, his birthday card.

He gets from grandma, he gets$10, he's kicking a buck to the church.

This guy exceeds all of us in righteousness.

Amen.

Some of y'all are like, wait, we're supposed to tithe on a birthday gift?

Well, you're getting personal up in here.

Hey, here's what you're supposed to do: you're supposed to give as you purpose in your heart to give.

That's all.

That's all.

But this guy's like, I mean, he's like, I am killing it, God.

I'm checking all the boxes.

I got it going on in here.

When I say misplaced righteousness, let me give you some false sources of righteousness that I see in the text and in the culture.

The first one is self.

Self.

This is the Pharisee, stands by himself because nobody compares to him.

This is the guy that when he comes to church, he has to sit in the front row because he has to know everybody to know he's here.

Travels with an entourage.

He stands by himself.

He uses the personal pronoun I five times.

I, I, I, I am not like other men.

I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get, blah, blah, blah.

I thank you.

Just full of himself.

Again, this is not praying, this is bragging.

Remember this, by the way.

If the basis of your righteousness is someone else's unrighteousness, then when they repent, you have nothing upon which to base your righteousness.

Let me say that again.

Because he's like, oh Lord, I thank you.

I'm not like other men.

And then he'd list off some of these people that are welcome in this church.

He said, extortioners, unjust, adulterers.

If you're an extortioner, you're unjust, or you're an adulterer, I want to be your pastor.

And I want you to come to this church.

And I want you to taste and see that the Lord is good.

I want you to meet the people of this church.

Because it's my belief, and I want you to understand the God of this Bible, because it's my belief that if you experience all those things, the people of God, the presence of God, and the word of God, you don't want to be an adulterer anymore.

You don't want to extort anymore.

You're like Zacchaeus in Luke 19, who's like, oh Lord, if I if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I'll give back fourfold.

And I just see Jesus rolling his eyes like, if.

Did you just say if, you greasy, money-loving weasel?

If you and I both know you've cheated people your entire life, of course you'll give back fourfold.

That's not noble, that's gospel displacement.

Think I'm not like these other men.

When your source of righteousness is yourself, you're gonna spend your whole life stepping on everybody else to get a good foothold and traction for exalting yourself above the crowd.

Again, the basis of your righteousness, think Jonah, who is mad because Nineveh repented.

If the basis of your righteousness is everybody else's unrighteousness, then when they repent, you have no basis for your own righteousness.

You have to either reinvent yourself all over again, which you're not going to do because you don't know how to be anybody else, or you're gonna keep the narrative going in order to feel righteous.

And again, this is Jonah.

Jonah's just like, ah, I mean, I mean, come on.

And you find yourself caring about a plant and forgetting about a people.

Self-exaltation naturally follows self-deception.

We deceive ourselves into thinking we're greater than we really are.

Nothing can be less Christ-like.

And here's the real practical outworking of that.

Nobody ever knows how to help you because you don't need it.

I love what the Chinese theologian Watchman Ni said.

He said, to exalt oneself is to put oneself in an improper place.

This is a danger to the young believers and a trap to the older saints.

Only after the cross has done its thorough work in a person's heart can he refrain from expressing himself.

Only then will a person allow others to receive the glory and remain silent himself as a sword in God's scabbard.

One of the places that we misplace our righteousness is in ourselves.

Second place we misplace our righteousness is in our religious accomplishments.

It's verse 12 where he lists off what his religious duties.

I fast twice a week.

Why is that in there?

Why is that a big deal?

Because most Christians back then just fasted once a week.

Nowadays we don't fast at all unless it's about May and we got to get into that swimsuit.

And we're all about that fasting.

Or if Jimmy Kimmel goes on TV and says, I practice intermittent fasting and I've lost some weight, we're like, I want that.

This guy's like, hey, I'm doing twice as much as the law requires.

Bonus points.

Then he says, I tithe.

Preacher's dream, I tithe of all that I get.

Religious accomplishments.

Both fasting and tithing are both good things, but when done the wrong way, they amount to nothing.

Let me say that again.

Then I'm gonna show you in the Bible what I mean.

Listen very carefully.

Fasting, great thing, spiritual discipline.

Uh Jesus says in Matthew 6, not if you fast, but when you fast.

So I'm not knocking on fasting.

Tithing, very biblical, very biblical.

Okay?

Great thing.

Uh but when done with the wrong motive, they amount to nothing.

You say, What do you mean?

Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 to 4.

Matthew 6:1–4

Jesus himself said, Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

Could this not Be anymore this guy.

Hello, he walks into the temple.

Microphone check.

One, two, one, two, says it's on.

I want everybody here.

I'm about to pray a really flowery prayer.

The way of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

For then you will have no reward from your father who's in heaven.

This is what I mean when you can do a lot of good things on earth and they come to nothing in heaven.

You think, man, I'm really somebody on earth, and you get to heaven and they check the record and they go, yep, yep, we got nothing.

Is there an alternate spelling to your last name?

Oh no, no, no, no.

I tied twice, I tied everything I possessed, and I fasted twice a week.

Check the books.

Nah, nah, we got nothing.

And the reason we have nothing is because everybody on earth knew every time you did something you were supposed to do.

So I hope you got fat on the cookies of earth because there's no treasure in heaven.

Thus, there's the warning, the first part.

Thus, here's the instruction.

When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.

You know what that means?

When you find a money clip on the floor in Beck's prime, don't make a big deal out of it.

You're supposed to do the right thing.

You don't get a cookie.

Just go eat your hamburger and shut up.

If you know somebody that's found a money clip anytime soon, don't sound a trumpet.

Oh, here, I'm a Christian.

I'm doing the right thing.

You ever wonder if you have to tell people you're a Christian, if they really believe you?

It's like if you put a fish on the back of your car and then drive like a bat out of hell.

No one believes you.

Just practical advice there.

When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, and that they may be praised by others.

Truly I say to you, they've received their reward.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your right hand, let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

And your father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

Anytime we hunger and we thirst for the accolades of earth, what we're really saying is, I do not believe my father sees in secret, number one, and number two, I don't believe he's going to reward me.

So I need a lot of stroke from people.

I need some horizontal recognition because I doubt all the vertical realities of the Bible and of God.

Let me give you one last uh uh false source of righteousness that I think if if Jesus were alive today, and he is, but if he was speaking this parable today, he would say it like this.

He told this parable to those who trusted in their race, that their race was righteous and treated others with contempt.

Race is a false source of righteousness.

Now stay with me.

Some of you just leaned back on your couch, like, uh-oh, uh-oh, here we go.

Here he goes.

Yes, here he goes.

Some of you have asked about our church's stand on racial equality and what Pastor Neil believes.

Let me be real clear.

It does not matter what Pastor Neil believes.

And I understand you need to have, I'm going to a church that's supposed to be multi-ethnic, whatever.

I want to know what my pastor believes.

That is great.

But the bigger and better question is what does the gospel teach?

Because if our pastor is not in keeping what the gospel teaches, our pastor needs to be fired.

And so don't say amen so loudly.

Uh uh, and so again, it's not about Pastor Neil or the elders, can they release a statement or whatever?

Uh, but but let me be real clear.

And again, it's not about Pastor Neil.

I am a Christian, and as much as I demonstrate a fidelity to what the gospel says, not what the culture thinks.

Okay?

And so don't get it twisted here.

So what let me be very clear.

We believe that all racial supremacy is sin.

All racial supremacy.

What does that mean?

White supremacy is sin.

Black supremacy is sin.

Brown supremacy is sin.

Yellow supremacy is sin.

Red supremacy is sin.

That leave anybody out.

You see, there's a lot of applause when you say, oh, white supremacy is sin.

Ah.

And so what we have now is a lot of racism being put forth in the name of art.

Beyonce has songs like, I'm gonna take a picket from your fence and make a sign.

And you're like, you don't think people hear that and go, you're coming to the suburbs and you're gonna like protest or whatever?

Or you put out a what I haven't seen it, but apparently a beautiful, artistically beautiful, beautiful documentary called Black is King, and you say, Oh, it's about the Lion King.

That's not about racial supremacy.

That's not about we've been oppressed, so it's our turn to be the oppressor.

Now, by the way, here's my confession.

I like a lot of Beyonce's music.

Not all of it, there's some of it.

Yeah, my oldest daughter's dating a guy.

I want to text him and just kind of say, hey, before you think about putting a ring on it, you might want to come see me.

I stole that from Beyoncé.

Yeah.

By the way, just because you like a song by somebody, let me endorse everything they're doing.

By the way, I don't dislike Beyoncé.

I think she's a wildly gifted creative person.

I'm against racial supremacy in all its manifestations.

White supremacy is sin, black supremacy is sin, brown supremacy is sin, yellow, red, it's all, here's why.

You say, well, I don't know, not because of politics or a politician, but because of the gospel.

You see, you got to ask yourself, when it comes to race relations, do I act more like a member of my race or do I act more like a Christian?

Because what you cannot do, Christ over culture.

I'm not saying lay down the distinctness of your culture, not at all.

Absolutely not.

I am saying you can't lay down the gospel and call it culture or art.

I'm just, I'm just doing art.

This is what we're doing.

Oh, we don't mean that, really.

You cannot insult the intelligence of thinking people, because there's actually some left in America.

He said, why?

Again, not politics.

This is why race, any race, any race, let me be very clear.

We believe in racial equality.

No race is better than any other.

We do not treat people that way here.

We don't give preference or anything.

The Bible talks about this in the book of James, talking about the sin of favoritism.

But it's not about politics or cultural dialogue for us.

Or, oh, this is happening.

We better run over here and convince everybody that we really are.

No, no, no.

We better stand on the gospel and not move one inch.

Because you are the church, in as much as you demonstrate a fidelity to the gospel, when you start chasing every wind of culture, you cease to be the church and you've gone a whoring on playing the whore on every high hill and under every green tree, as God said to Israel in the Old Testament.

Because you you want to be accepted by them.

Instead of wanting to be accepted by people, you should act like someone who's been accepted by God.

That is the source of your righteousness.

Not, oh well, the culture thinks we're cool because we released a statement.

You know that most people that release a statement that was written by somebody else, they don't believe those things.

We believe this, Galatians chapter 3, starting verse 23.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Now, before faith came, before you knew Jesus, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law, our natural tendencies, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, black nor white, there's neither slave nor free, there's no male and female.

Why?

For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

This is why we believe that all racial supremacy is blatant sin.

You say, I don't get, let me give you three problems with racial supremacy.Anywhere you find it, any culture, any, any, any race that says, hey, we're better because of the color of our skin.

Here's why that's a problem.

I would say going from that's sin, and we don't agree with that.

Because three problems with racial supremacy.

Number one, it nullifies the work of Christ on the cross.

It nullifies the work of Christ on the cross.

Secondly, it creates for you a standard of unforgiveness that will be applied to you.

This is what we're forgetting about.

It creates this standard of unforgiveness that will be applied to you.

What do you mean?

Again, the gospel, Jesus, hot out of the mouth of God.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 14.

Matthew 6:14

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

You got to ask yourself, lest you get caught up in the cultural dialogue of the day and lose sight of eternity and your identity in Christ and that your righteousness is based on Christ and Christ alone.

It was imputed into you.

You didn't earn it, and we sure didn't deserve it, but we received it as a gift.

Now, by the way, when you practice unforgiveness of people or races, what you're doing is you're building a standard of unforgiveness that Jesus says, keep it up.

I'm just going to apply that to you on judgment day.

This is not works.

This is He's delivering you from hypocrisy.

I lived in bitterness my whole life.

But I want to stand before God who knows everything about me and I want forgiveness.

That doesn't line up, beloved.

Here's the third reason racial supremacy is a sin.

It violates the context of heaven.

Again, the gospel.

Revelation chapter 7, verse 9.

Revelation 7:9

After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Here's the description of this great multitude one more time.

This great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.

That is an ethnically diverse group of people.

Why do I make a big deal out of that?

Because you got to ask yourself, how can you spend your life here on earth saying that one race is superior to another and then get to heaven, which is full of diversity, where only Jesus is supreme.

Only Jesus is superior.

In all things, Christ is preeminent.

It violates the context of heaven.

You will not be a citizen of heaven if you live that way.

Not because of what a preacher said, but because what the gospel says over and over and over.

Ephesians 2, he's our peace that has broken down every wall, and he's made of the two, Jew and Gentile.

Racial hate, you talk about racial hate.

He's made of the two, the Jew and the Gentile, one new man.

Racial supremacy is an insult to the sufficiency of the crucifixion.

Here's the last thing the Bible tells us in Luke 18.

What we see is the gospel humility.

Verse 13 and 14.

You still with me?

Verse 13 says this, but the tax collector, the guy that was just a crooked, is a dog's hind leg.

Loved money.

We cheat people to get more of it.

Somebody's got to pay for that second home.

Might as well be you.

But the tax collector standing far off.

Pharisee stands out by himself.

Hello, I'm here.

The tax collector standing far off.

Why'd he stand far off?

Because he feels far off from God.

He stands far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven because he's afraid lightning's gonna strike him.

By the way, if you identify with this, if you're watching this and you think, man, if I went to church, the building would fall down.

I want you to come to this church.

I want to be your pastor.

If you're like, I'm far from God, dude.

Please, if you don't have a pastor, I want to be your pastor.

And I don't think you're a project, I think you're a person.

I think you're a person who is created by God in the image of God for a relationship with God that brings glory to God.

And it doesn't matter if you're white, black, brown, dark brown, whatever.

Skin color doesn't matter.

Someone asked me, they said, Oh, do you see color?

Oh, absolutely.

And people that tell you they don't are liars.

Yeah.

But I don't make an assessment on people's character on the color of their skin.

I know some crooked, sorry white people.

Some of them are in my family.

I know some crooked, sorry black people.

I know some crooked, sorry brown people and yellow people.

Hey, see, y'all act like being crooked and sorry.

That's just this one ethnic, this one people group.

No, that's about your heart.

Some of the most noble people I know are in all races.

I worked when I was coming out of high school in high school and into college with a man named Walter Bolton, older African-American gentleman.

Walter was 60 something.

He would work the swing shift, excuse me, the graveyard shift at the steel mill.

And he'd get off at six in the morning, excuse me, seven in the morning.

And he would just be there waiting for me and my boss's son to build fence around this 252-acre ranch.

Part of it was on the side of a mountain.

Terribly hard.

And Walter would work all down in the steel mill and he'd be there waiting for us.

We called him Buddha because he had a little boiler.

And I was like, Buddha, how long you been here?

And he's there, I came straight from the plant.

What you boys taking so long for?

And we'd work about 20 minutes.

We're like, it's time we get we need some water.

And I said to him one time, I said, Walter, how old are you?

He goes, I'm 65 years old.

I was like 20.

That cat outworked me after working a full shift at the steel mill every day.

And I said, Well, you don't look a day over 40.

He goes, Black don't crack.

That was the funniest thing I'd heard.

I was just like, What did you just say?

He said, Black don't crack, son.

And I was like, Why do you work so hard?

He goes, I ain't looking to anybody else provided.

He said, All my kids went to college and I paid all the way through.

I said, Why he works two jobs?

I mean, aren't you set?

He goes, I still got other things I want to do.

The hardest working, honest, noble person I remember just thinking, wow, I want to be more like Walter.

Standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Hear this next phrase.

Say, what do you mean?

Gospel humility.

If you've ever felt like that, you don't know how to pray.

I hear all the time we ask people, hey, would you mind leading the congregation?

No, no, no, no, no.

I get it.

I understand that.

A little self-conscious, whatever.

You ain't got to use big words, whatever.

All you got to do when it comes to praying is know three things.

Number one, know that there is a God.

Both these men start their prayer with God.

The Pharisee says God and then talks about himself.

The tax collector says God and then talks about God.

Just know there's a God.

Secondly, know yourself.

This tax collector is humbled by what he knows about himself.

He's not puffed up.

The other guy is like, oh, don't you, don't you?

I mean, I mean, get a load of me.

The tax collector's like, I'm not gonna look up to heaven, God, because I'm afraid you're gonna strike me with lightning.

I'm such just a I'm just a piece of work here.

God, I need help.

Thirdly, ask God for what you need.

You think I want to get better at praying?

Just know there's a God, know yourself, ask God for what you need.

Now, having said that, listen to this prayer again.

The tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

It's a great seven-word prayer.

And look at this response.

You talk about the danger of misplaced righteousness.

Verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

Notice these two men went up, but they also went down.

The text says, This man went down justified.

That word means to declare one to be righteous.

He didn't declare himself to be righteous.

Jesus declared him to be righteous.

One man trusted in himself that he was righteous, and he looked on others with contempt, while the other trusted in God to make him righteous.

Everybody in this room and everybody watching this podcast fits into one of those two categories.

Either you think you're righteous because of yourself and your your your behavior, your charity, whatever, you misplace your righteousness.

Or you look back to God who sacrificed himself to take on your sin and to give you his righteousness.

That's the only place we can get right with God.

You say, Why do you say that?

Because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 by verse 21, he, God, made him Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for us.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Why?

So that we can become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

That's who you are if you're a Christian.

You're not just a sinner saved by grace, you're the righteousness of God in and because of Christ Jesus.

Do not misplace your righteousness in anybody or anything else.

Let's pray to God.

Father, thanks for the for the truth of your word.

Thanks that it cuts to the quick.

It's ancient and it's contemporary.

It reaches back, it reaches forward, and it presses hard on us in the now.

It says to all that's going on in this culture, hey, hey, when it comes to all this, do you act more like a Christian or do you act like a member of your race?

You try to slip it in under the guise of art, but it's just thinly veiled racism.

To use a phrase we love to use nowadays, it's just systemic racism.

Just done by, just perpetrated by different people.

Still racism.

God, we live in a country.

And some people are like, oh no, no, only one race can be racist.

That's racism.

But the church, our hope is not in race relations, our hope is in God and gospel.

And so, Lord, just brood over us as we think about the questions that come with the with the passage this Sunday.

This is our prayer, God.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Father, once again, the cross triumphs over all of our agendas, our ideas, our preferences.

There's the cross.

Calling us back to a God-centered, gospel-central life.

That doesn't drown in smallness, that doesn't go chasing after cultural acceptance, but says to the culture, here's the good news.

So, Holy Spirit, press in on us today.

Expose any area in our life that is not in keeping with the nature and the teaching of the gospel.

And we'll repent.

We are a repenting people because repentance makes us more like God.

Repentance says God's right and I'm wrong.

That's a good thing.

And so, Lord, give us the humility we need to do whatever the gospel calls us to do today because of what we've heard.

Lord, this is our pleasure to be your people.

But it's also a sober responsibility to be your people, to speak up when so many people are being silent, and to be silent when we feel like it's time to be silent.

Give us the wisdom to know when and where.

Ask for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence today.

Uh in person and online.

Uh, we uh hopefully we'll have an update for you very soon.

In the meantime, uh, we continue to ask you to be praying, pray for our elders for wisdom, pray for our staff and our church.

Uh uh, someone once said a prayer prayer is not what prepares us for the great work, prayer is the great work.

And so don't think about praying as uh, well, I guess all we can do now is pray, pray.

Praying's not a last resort, it is the first resort for the believer.

And so uh we are we're we're all about prayer, not just as a means and a mechanism or tool, but just as a way of life.

And so uh we have a pray for me campaign going on in our church.

You may have heard, you should have heard things about it by now.

Uh, but let me uh show you a video that'll give you just a little more insight into what it's all about.

Hi, my name is Janna McKee, and I'm the children's pastor at Grand Park Bay Baptist Church.

I would like to invite you to join us in the Pray for Me campaign.

This is a national movement where we connect men and women of all generations to pray for the students of our church.

In joining this effort, you will be committing to pray for one family during this school year.

As a prayer champion, you will receive a guide that will help you pray for them daily and encourage them.

As I'm sure you know, this is the most uncertain time for our kids as they are all entering an unfamiliar setting.

If any time prayer has been needed, it is now.

Here are some reasons some of our members are committing to pray this year.

As an elderly person, this is something I can do.

When a child is dedicated in our church, we are always asked, as a congregation, if we will support that child and that family as they grow.

This privilege to pray for them is a way to put action behind that commitment.

Love kids, love prayer, love Jesus.

Enough said.

Commit to being a prayer champion today by signing up on our website at grandparkway.org/slash events.

So if you're stuck in your house, you're stirred crazy, uh, and you're looking for something to do, this is a great thing to do, even right now as a family.

Just go to the computer uh and sign up at the link there.

We would love for you to be a part of this campaign where we connect uh with other people through prayer and people know that they're being lifted up, remind and remembered in prayer together.

Okay?

We'd like to close our service with a blessing, with a spoken blessing.

So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.

Because it pleased God to place upon Jesus all of your sin.

You were then free to take upon yourself all of his righteousness.

Sufficient, satisfactory, satisfactory righteousness.

Depart now and live like the righteous people of God.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.