Who Does What and Why It Matters

So if you're here today and you don't have a pastor, I want to be your pastor, okay?

You may say, Well, I don't believe any of this.

That's okay.

It's not enough, though, just for you to register your unbelief.

You have to ask yourself, are you willing to live with the consequences of your unbelief?

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord, when we praise you, we're fulfilling our created purpose.

The 150th Psalm says, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

And so because we have breath, the Bible's talking to us as it always does.

It's not just disconnected religious information, it's personal invitation, it's indictment.

It indicts in us what's not in keeping with the character and the nature and the truth of God.

And so, Lord, that doesn't that doesn't bother us today.

We want to be set free by the truth.

Jesus, you said we'll know the truth, and the truth will set us free.

Set us free today, God, with the truth.

This is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I want to invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible as well on your row, I'm on page 902.

902, I want to talk to you this morning about who does what and why it matters.

Who does what and why it matters?

And I'm and I demonstrate it in my own life.

I'm backing out of my driveway this morning.

It's been a crazy week, so my grass has got a little out of control.

And so the grass at my, it's about maybe pushing 10 inches, and it's bad.

And my neighbor, who's a snarky mouthy Baptist, uh, said to me, walking out with his wife, hey preacher, you gonna do something about your grass?

And I said, No, it's Father's Day.

My wife's gonna mow.

I'm gonna watch the last round of the U.S.

Open and take a nap.

And the woman said, Plea, like that's gonna happen.

And I said, Well, my wife loves me unconditionally, unlike the way you love your husband.

I thought that was funny.

She got in the car and slammed the door, and I walked over to the guy and I said, Roll the window down, he rolled the window down, and I said, I'll be praying for you today.

I don't think this is gonna go well for you.

So, but I understand who does what and why it matters.

Now, some of you think I'm kidding.

My wife is like, I don't want you to do anything all day.

I know the grass needs to be mowed, I'll take care of that.

And I'm like, Yes, amen.

I'm like, knock yourself out.

Now, I know you said you should jump up.

I'm mowed all the time.

It's my job, it's one of the things I do.

So part of my Father's Day gift is I understand who does what, and I understand why it matters.

Now, reality is I'll talk my wife out of it.

Relax, ladies.

Some of you before you're you're you're drafting an email in your head.

You male chauvinist pig.

No, it's Neil, N-E-I-L.

But anyway, uh, I want you to understand, and more importantly, Jesus wants you to understand who does what and why it matters.

You say, What do you mean?

He's gonna talk about what the Holy Spirit does.

Because unless you understand the way the Holy Spirit works in the world, you're gonna get yourself in situations and you're gonna misrepresent God, most importantly, and you're gonna misrepresent yourself.

Let me demonstrate.

Have you ever been in conversations where you said something, you said the right thing, but maybe it came out with a little too much heat on it, and and it you said the right thing, but you said it in the wrong way.

If you've ever done that, say amen.

Yes, yes, and you're calling, I would suggest to you, even though I wasn't there, one of the unconscious motivations is that you're trying to do something that the whole that Jesus says the Holy Spirit will do.

Let me show it to you in the Bible.

John chapter 16, verse 5.

John 16:5

Jesus is, he's he's he's getting ready to go to the cross, and so this is kind of his his last discourse.

He's kind of his last lecture, so to speak.

He's really poured into the disciples.

He says, This, I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, Where are you going?

But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper, capital H, reference to the Holy Spirit, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.

Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

So let me just stop right there.

Now, let me just acknowledge something.

Sometimes Jesus says things in a way that we wouldn't say them.

That doesn't mean that you're not smart because you don't understand it, okay?

Sometimes I say things to my kids and they just look at me like, I got nothing, dad.

Nothing.

My kids are very smart young ladies.

It's just I have to I have to unpack it for them.

Much the same thing happens in the Bible.

So I just want to kind of say, uh, just just unpack well who does what and why it matters.

There's two things I want to say to you by way of observation.

The first one is this God places great value on the human body.

This is not explicit in the text, but this is inferred in the text.

And I'll show you what I mean.

God places great value on the human body.

This is seen in the incarnation that God takes on flesh, is born of a virgin, and and he and he walks on this earth is a human being.

Fully God, fully man.

But he takes on a body.

And so you see that God places value on the human body in the incarnation.

And secondly, by the fact that the Spirit of God dwells in a human body.

He takes up residence by his spirit in the human body.

Now, my friends know that I don't really care much for much TV.

It's not a spiritual thing.

Well, some of it is.

I'm just like, I don't want that in my head or in my home.

I just don't find much of it interesting.

Like I told some friends this week, they were telling me about their infatuation with the Bachelorette, how they binge watch the bachelorette.

And I said, if your kids end up on the bachelor or the bachelorette, it's a sign you have failed as a parent.

Apparently that wasn't what they wanted to hear.

But anyway, so somebody sent me a documentary.

They said, Hey, I know you like watching documentaries.

You should watch this, a documentary called American Gospel.

I wish I would not have watched it.

It was great.

Basically, it just exposed the prosperity gospel in America.

But in the documentary, Costi Hinn, who's the nephew of Benny Hinn, who's a false prophet and a false teacher.

But anyway, Cossi Hinn, he was, he said, My life changed.

He played baseball at DBU, Dallas Baptist University.

He said, My life changed when our baseball coach stood up before a big game and he said, Hey, God, men, God is sovereign.

And the hands, the heart of the kings and rulers is like a river in the hand of God, and he guides it wherever he wants to go.

But Cossi Hinn said, when that man talked about that God was sovereign, something got set off in me and I wanted to understand it more.

He said, I respected my coach.

He was a great baseball coach, but more than that, he was a discipler.

We need baseball coaches that disciple the young men they coach.

Not just yell at them and use profanity and try to make your win-loss record look good.

Cause the end would tell you that my life changed that day, and the ramifications of that change just worked itself out more and more and more and more in his life.

One of the things, why do I bring up his name?

Because he talked about when he traveled with his uncle, he said we were in Dubai one night and we stayed in a$20,000 a night hotel.

And I'm watching this and I'm thinking, if I had$20,000, which I don't, I wouldn't spend it on a hotel.

This is free.

All hotels look the same in the dark.

I don't care if it's got gold-plated fixtures.

That's why my family and I always stay at the hotel six.

My kids are like, why are we so hoopedy, Dad?

They all look the same in the dark.

Shut up.

And they get in the room and they're like, you know what?

He's got a point there.

No, but here's the thing: God places value because a lot of people think that Jesus or God lives in these shrines or these temples or whatever.

And God, by his spirit, lives inside your body.

Okay?

Now, I want to just unpack this just a little bit more, but let me just say this.

In the church, typically you come to church and we preachers yell at you and get mad at you because you love what God hates.

Don't love evil, and that's true, you shouldn't.

Don't love sin.

Don't love things that God hates.

I want to flip that today and say this.

It's equally wrong to hate what God loves.

And God loves his creation.

He loves the human body and he bestows dignity upon it.

He doesn't worship the human body, he bestows dignity upon it by saying, Hey, I'm going to dwell.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's the house that God is going to live in by his spirit.

And so when he does this, he bestows dignity and honor and value on the human body.

And it should lead us to ask this question: Do I think about my body with the same kind of dignity that God does?

Because this is the basis of the Bible's teaching on sexual morality, oughtness, worship is the body.

You have to have a right view of the body.

You cannot hate what God loves.

I'll give you a couple examples from the Bible.

Romans 12, Paul begins and he says, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, because this is your spiritual act of worship, okay?

It's not just singing, it's the offering up of your physical body.

But I said it's the motivation for all the ethics in the Bible.

Good ethics.

Biblical ethics comes from biblical theology.

And so you can't just try to be ethical on your own effort.

That's got to flow from something the Bible teaches that you've come to believe.

And when it comes to morality, we've disconnected our ethic from the theology of the Bible.

The Apostle Paul pleads with the Corinthians, and because of the value that God places on the body, he pleads with them about the morality.

This is the way the Bible says it.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 13.

1 Corinthians 6:13

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside of the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, you were bought with a price.

Therefore, or so glorify God in your body.

You see, the call to ethical behavior, glorify God with your body, is rooted in this doctrinal truth that you're not your own, you were bought with a price.

So glorify God with your body.

I just want to say, I don't want to just rush past this because I think it's inferred in the text that God places great value on the body.

The second thing I want to say this morning is that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the world.

Jesus kind of gets on to the disciples and they're so focused on themselves they don't get it.

He says to them, starting in verse 5, he says, I told you that I'm going back to the one who sent me, and none of you ask, where are you going?

But because I've said these things, sorrow has filled your heart.

Verse 7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

Now, by the way, have you ever asked yourself, who in your life can you say that to?

It is to your advantage that I go away.

You don't say that to anybody.

You don't go in the morning and say to your kids when you get ready to go to work, it is to your advantage I go away.

Jesus is telling you something about the Holy Spirit.

He's telling the disciples something about this.

And he says, He says, If I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

And when he comes, this is the way you gotta understand who does what and why it matters.

Listen to what Jesus says the Holy Spirit's gonna do.

He says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

When he comes, and he's here now, he came at the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost.

Uh he will convict the the world.

Now, by the way, let me just explain that word convict.

Now, convict usually means are you guilty or innocent.

That's not the meaning in that.

That that that ultimately what happens.

But convicts, convict here means bring you to the awareness of the truth.

And so you and I don't have to go out and protest and picket and yell and scream.

I love what Rosaria Butterfield said this weekend.

She goes, I do not believe in let's agree to disagree, because you never get down to the truth.

She said, Let's disagree and then have dinner.

Don't you want to go to a dinner like that at least once before you die?

Hey, uh, we rattly disagree.

I think you're crazy wrong.

Pass the peace.

And you talk about it.

That's what I think that the Bible calls us to.

But if you're not careful and you don't understand who does what and why it matters, you fail to recognize that that the Holy Spirit's at work in the world.

Now, when I say the Holy Spirit's at work in the world, I mean that the Holy Spirit doesn't just belong to the church.

And it's not like this weapon of mass destruction that we roll out to win our battles with the culture.

Because if you're a student of the Old Testament, you'll remember that that's what the children of Israel did.

They were in a battle with the Philistines, their vaunted enemy, okay?

And they were losing.

And they were like, what do we do?

What do we do?

And someone said, Hey, go back to the temple or go back to the tabernacle and get the Ark of the Covenant, get the presence of God, and bring that thing out here, and we'll unleash this the Spirit of God canon on these people.

And what happened was the enemies of God captured the Ark of the Covenant, which was the presence of God.

Because God's people wanted to use God's presence as a weapon instead of a reality.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the world as well.

Now, what do I mean by that?

There's three specific ways that the Bible says that he's at work.

He says, first of all, he's at work to convict the world of three things.

Number one, of sin.

Of sin.

Now, Jesus says things, he says, sin, righteousness, and judgment, verse 8.

And then he unpacks it in verse 9 and 10.

Hear this.

He says in verse 9, concerning sin, and right concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Now he says he's going to convict the world.

In other words, he's not going to shame the world.

By the way, the world knows that they're wrong.

You realize that, right?

There's nobody in the world that says, I've never sinned, I've never done anything wrong.

So you don't have to establish what people already live with.

I'm not saying don't stand up for the truth.

I am saying we don't have to try to do what the what Jesus said the Holy Spirit is going to do.

And the first thing he's going to convict the world of sin.

And then Jesus kind of unpacks it.

He says, concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Now, when I say that do not believe in me, what Jesus is saying is the greatest sin and the most damning consequential sin anybody ever commits is they do not believe in me.

Why is that a big deal?

I'll show you in just a minute.

But before we get to that, I want to talk to you about the word concerning.

He says, hey, he doesn't say about sin.

I'm here to convict the world about sin.

I'm here to convict the world concerning sin.

It's important we understand this word because it allows us to stop trying uh uh uh uh to just imitate, just roll out a Christian version of all the rage activism we see taking place in the culture today.

The word concerning is a Greek word peri.

Peri, and it means this.

It means uh properly, through, all over, around, with respect to.

Hear it again.

He says concerning.

In other words, I'm gonna convict the world concerning sin.

I'm gonna convict the world uh properly, through, all over, around, with respect to sin.

Now, this is important because what Jesus is telling us here that the Holy Spirit will convict the world about sin, obviously, not just that the existence of sin, but he says concerning sin.

Everything having anything to do with sin, the Holy Spirit will convict them of.

And so it's our responsibility, our responsibility is not to try to convict people, but to proclaim, to share, to talk about, to invite to dinner, to love, to understand.

Here's why.

Because by not believing in Jesus Christ, you've denied the one solution God provides for your sin.

And Jesus says this over and over and over as he held up a consequence of unbelief.

So if you're here today, let me love you enough to tell you this.

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

You say, I don't believe any of this.

That's great.

I still want to be your pastor.

I'm not gonna change my mind.

Not because I'm some jerk that can't admit when I was wrong.

Just this past week I looked at my wife and said, Oh, I was totally wrong about that.

And she went, I know.

I was like, that's it, no trophy.

She goes, Yeah, I knew you were wrong.

But I said to wait for you to come around.

And she said, you know what?

I love that you're not defensive.

You don't get you're just like, oh man, I missed it on that one, okay?

Absolutely.

But here's the thing: I I I I'm not going to apologize for believing the Bible.

I'm not gonna, I don't see you as a project, I see you as a person.

So if you're here today and you don't have a pastor, I want to be your pastor, okay?

And you may say, Well, I don't believe any of this.

That's okay.

It's not enough, though, just for you to register your unbelief.

You have to ask yourself, are you willing to live with the consequences of your unbelief?

You say, Well, I don't know what that is.

Because now the way we distinguish ourselves in our culture nowadays is by all the things we don't do or the things we don't believe.

And that's great, it gets your attention on Twitter, but you got to ask yourself, hey, what are the consequences of this?

Which, by the way, Jesus loved people so much he always reminded them.

Let me give you a couple examples right out of the Gospel of John.

John chapter 3, verse 18.

John 3:18

Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Now, this is John 3.18, which is two verses after John 3.16.

The most popular verse in the entire Bible that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

But he sent him into the world so that the world might be saved through him.

Verse 18 goes on to say, Whoever believes in him, Jesus, is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already because you have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

In other words, Jesus says to these people, let's just don't get sentimental in the love of God.

Let's get principled on the exclusivity of God.

Jesus says the only solution to your sin problem and my sin problem is Jesus Christ.

John chapter 8, verse 24, Jesus says, He's talking to these religious people, and he says, I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

John 8:24

Now, think about that.

You're smart people.

If Jesus says you die in your sins, then what he's saying is you were born in sin.

In other words, nothing goes unchanged about you.

But see, you have to understand who does what?

That the whole Jesus said the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin.

Why?

Because they do not believe in me.

And that is the natural outcome is conviction for people who do not believe in him.

Why?

Because how you react to the Spirit convicting you about your own sin and God's provision for your sin, which is found only in Jesus' death on the cross, this is the thing that seals your fate for all of eternity.

So he says, the Holy Spirit.

Who does what and why?

Why it matters?

The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin.

So you don't have to walk out here today.

Uh you say, well, why are you harping on that?

You're making a big deal out of that.

Have you ever heard anybody present the gospel and it starts with this?

Man is sinful and separated from God.

We're trying to convict the world of sin.

This is free.

I'll preach on this later in the year.

Uh, but the gospel doesn't start in Genesis 3.

The gospel starts in Genesis 1.

Genesis 3 is of the fall of man, and where God said to Adam, hey, because you did this, uh, you're gonna have to toil by toil, you're gonna get your produce from the land and Eve and childbirth, it's gonna be very painful because of what you did.

And he said, Cursed are you to the serpent, he cursed the serpent and all this stuff.

The gospel doesn't start there.

And when we talk about it, because we don't understand what the Holy Spirit does, we're trying to convict the world of sin by saying, hey, you know, uh man is sinful and separated from God, but God has offered a plan, has a wonderful plan, and blah, blah, blah.

No, no, no.

I would say to you, the gospel doesn't start in Genesis 3.

The gospel starts in Genesis 1.

And it says things like this you're created by God.

You're not an accident, you're here because of intelligent design by a personal God.

Secondly, you're created by God, you're created, secondly, in the image of God, for a relationship with God.

And here's something we don't talk about enough in the church to have dominion over everything.

I say dominion, and y'all go to your favorite TV preacher, like, oh, where's it going now?

Yeah.

He says, rule over creation and subdue it.

You gotta ask yourself, does anything ruling over me?

Men when you open your refrigerator out in the garage, that brown water in the back, is it ruling over you today?

Some of y'all like, honey, has he been to our house?

What?

What?

What?

Yeah.

Because God says to them, hey, be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it.

That's where the gospel starts.

In Genesis 1.

It doesn't start in Genesis 3.

If you start in Genesis 3, the outcome is shame.

If you start in Genesis 1, the outcome is identity.

People walk in their identity, but that's a sermon for later.

Back to John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

You don't have to convict the world of sin.

The Holy Spirit's going to do that.

Okay?

Secondly, he says, concerning righteousness, and then he says this really cryptic six words, because I go to the Father.

And you're like, what?

Concerning righteousness.

Because I go to the Father.

What do you mean, righteousness?

Concerning how a person looks at me gets right with God because we're born out of sync with God.

The Apostle Paul was a man that was an enemy of Christians.

He killed Christians, persecuted Christians.

He was out of sync.

Matter of fact, he says in 1 Corinthians.

15.

I was like a man who was born out of due time.

In other words, that word in the Greek, out of due time, is where we get an English word abortion.

He says, I just, I, I, I just was, I didn't come full term.

I was always at odds with God.

But righteousness is about how people look at me.

Get right with God.

Now, look at me.

You do not get right with God by giving money to the church.

You just don't.

You don't.

People give money to the church because they understand stewardship, because you can't buy salvation.

You don't get right with God by doing absolution, good deeds, penance, any of that kind of stuff.

You don't get right with God by being nice to the preacher.

Man, I am ruining it for preachers here today.

Are you picking up on this?

I said you don't get right by giving money, you don't be got right by being nice to the preacher.

No.

No.

Righteousness.

He says, righteousness, why?

Because I go to the Father.

Jesus has acted righteously and he secured righteousness for all who have faith in him.

So Jesus goes to be with the Father.

Look at me.

Because he's finished the work that the Father sent him to do.

And later on in John 17, Jesus will say to the Father, Give me back the glory I had with you before the world began.

And we're going to talk about Christology on that day.

He's finished.

That's why he's allowed back into the presence of a holy and righteous God.

He says, Righteousness, because I go to be with the Father.

It's why he says from the cross it is finished.

There's nothing left to do.

Now, by the way, this is all through the Bible.

Let me show you.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 21.

Galatians 2:21

The apostle Paul says this, I do not nullify the grace of God.

For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

If then, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Let me just break it down.

He says, I do not nullify the grace of God.

Nullify means to render pointless, powerless, hapless, useless.

I do not nullify the grace of God.

Look at me.

Don't be so self-righteous that you nullify the grace of God.

Because not just for the unbeliever, but for the believer, you need the grace of God.

Because Titus 2 tells us that grace, this grace of God is what teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

The way you escape temptation as a Christian is because of the grace of God.

You're just reminded, God's been so good to me.

Why would I want to violate all the goodness and grace of God?

Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to live upright and moral lives in this present age while we await the blessed appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now, what's that part?

While we await, grace has this enduring capacity that your determination never does.

You ever walked out of church and said, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life?

And about three days later, you got the fridge open, where's that brown water?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

He says, I don't nullify the grace of God.

For if righteousness were through the law, in other words, if getting right with God could happen because I keep the rules, then what happens?

He says, Hey, then Christ died for no purpose.

But righteousness, being right with God cannot be obtained by keeping the rules.

You can keep all the religious rules you want to keep.

I promise you, no one wants to be like you.

No one's ringing your doorbell.

No one's walking over your cubicle at work and saying, hey, you seem really compelling and joyful.

Can we have lunch?

Because you're not.

Yeah, you're just like, oh, I got yelled at by a guy this week.

And I wanted to say to him, he had two packs of cigarettes.

He got back from the store with two packs of cigarettes in his hand.

Hey, what's going on here?

And what I wanted to say was, hey, there's more to life than just being angry and chained smoking.

You want to talk about that?

But I thought, I don't know him.

Let me reel that in.

And I had a better response.

Yeah.

But you can't get right by keeping the rules.

Because if you could, then Christ died for no purpose.

But because you can't, look at me.

The death of Jesus has a great purpose.

Great purpose.

It accomplishes for you and I what we could never accomplish for ourselves.

In other words, if there's another way to get right with God, then the life of Jesus will have no meaning, purpose, or consequence.

And we nullify the grace of God when you look for another way to get right with God besides faith in Jesus.

And beloved, let me love you enough to tell you there's not one.

There's not another way.

And lastly, he says, hey, who does what and why it matters?

He says, hey, the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, of righteousness.

And then he says, judgment.

And here's why, judgment.

Because the ruler of this world is judged.

That's a reference to Satan.

The ruler of this world is judged.

Now think about it.

You're smart people.

If the being who's been given spiritual permission to rule over this world has already been judged, then on what basis do you think you'll escape that same reality?

Now we live in a world where judgment is a four-letter word.

Matter of fact, let me tell you this: you should parent your kids in such a way that they understand judgment.

And we're failing as parents because our kids aren't prepared for judgment.

I mean, we put them in fair, fun, positive soccer where no one keeps scoring, everybody gets a trophy.

And you expect them to understand?

I'm not narguing, I'm not ragging on your kid's soccer program.

I just think this is a consequenceless world where there's no consequence.

I mean, the fat kid that sits on the bench and eats slowpokes, he gets a trophy.

I mean, his mom never washed his uniform.

He never saw the field.

You're not doing oh, I lost you there when I said fat kid, didn't I?

The skinny kid down there that's anemic.

He's got his asthma inhaler.

Now my kid's got an inhaler.

Relax.

Y'all are like, it's Father's Day, man.

Just give us five steps to being a better dad.

Look at me.

That's just the law that makes you more moral.

And it's being preached, you can hear it, it's being preached all over America right now.

Now, ask yourself, he says, judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

If, again, the being who's been given spiritual permission to rule this world has already been judged, on what basis do you think you'll escape that same reality?

See, we're not prepared for judgment because there's no consequence, there's no judgment.

One of my kids asked one time when she got in trouble, she goes, Does it bother you when you discipline me?

Not at all.

I feel very much like God when I discipline you.

Matter of fact, I should probably do it more.

And she's like, I think you're crazy.

And I said, Go write about it on social media.

And she did.

Because one of my friends called me because I'm not on social media and goes, Hey, oh, serious.

Hey, you know, I don't like like stalk your kids, but I'm on, I don't know how it works.

You can get on people's whatever, Facebook and their feed.

And she said, I think my dad is crazy because if he disciplines me, he tells me he's being Christ-like.

Yes, I do.

Because I'm preparing my children for a God who judges.

You guys look like you walked out of Walmart and forgot where you park.

You're like.

Keep looking, honey.

It's a big Buick.

It's here somewhere.

Let me show you what I mean.

Let me ask you this question.

If you were talking to a group of people that were religious and superstitious, but not Christian, and they had idols everywhere to kind of signify what they believed, how would you talk to them and what would you say?

Would you say, God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life?

But man is sinful and separated from God.

But God has made provision in Jesus to bridge the gap.

In the Bible, in Acts chapter 17, this guy Paul's walking around the city of Athens.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And all over the city, these statues to these idols and to these different gods, the moon god, the fertility god, the god of water, the god of money, all this stuff.

And they got this one that says, in the inscription, it says, to an unknown God.

And Paul's just walking around with his vanilla caramel latte from Starbucks.

He just throws it on the ground.

He's like, I'm gonna smoke these fools.

Let's go.

And he goes to, these are the smartest people.

This is like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, all these cats of the day come together and they're all in a room.

And he's explaining God to them.

And this is what he says, Acts 17, verse 22.

Acts 17:22

It says, So Paul standing in the middle of the Arapagus said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you're very religious.

For as I passed along, I observed the objects of your worship.

I found also an altar with this inscription to an unknown God.

What therefore you worship is unknown, this I proclaim to you.

Translation, I'm gonna tell you what God is like.

And look at what he tells them about God.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live all all the face of the earth, to live on all the face of the earth, having determined the allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being.

As even some of your own poets have said, this is why you should not just listen to Christian music.

See there, I'm three for three.

I told you you can't get by getting money, be nice to the preacher, and I told you you shouldn't just listen to KSBJ.

That's terrible.

Yes.

Some of you are going, my children are here.

I think Christian music is okay.

Some of it.

Some of it's just cheesy and not very good.

And some of it's theologically terrible.

Back to the text.

Uh I don't think I'm I don't think I'm gonna get homage for this.

Anyway, look at what he says.

Uh preach, Pastor.

I think I will.

Anyway, he quotes, he says, as even as some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

You see what he did?

He took one of their poets and makes a point about God.

You should be so gospel fluent that wherever the conversation is, you can pick it up.

Oh, you're like you're quoting me your poet, you're quoting me the lyric to a to a U2 song or to Bob Dylan.

Thank you.

That wonderfully segues to the gospel.

And he says, you shouldn't think this way.

That the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Why?

Because he's fixed a day on which the world he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he's given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

These religious, religiously superstitious and traditional people, he says to them, none of that's gonna save you from the judgment that awaits all of humanity.

So you should ask yourself, what can we in 2019 take away from this little talk Paul gives to this religious elite in the city of Athens?

There's six things that come up on the screen.

You don't have to write them down.

You can just take out your phone and take a picture.

Number one, you take away, it's important that we think rightly about God.

He said, don't think that God's like some statue of gold or silver or whatever, something you guys came up with.

You gotta think rightly about God.

Secondly, God is patient.

He says, the times of ignorance, God is overlooked.

Let me ask you one last personal question since I've already offended you enough.

How many in this room can look back at a period, not just like a day, but a period in your life, an epoch uh in your life, and just think, I was just ignorant.

If you can look back and say, man, I was just ignorant.

Say amen.

So you're surrounded by ignorant people today.

Yes.

Yes.

He says, the times of ignorance, God is overlooked.

Why?

Because God's patient.

Thirdly, you take away everyone from everywhere is commanded to repent.

Everyone from everywhere is commanded to repent.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

He says that, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of the dwelling place.

Uh this is the man in Africa argument.

People say, someone sat on my back porch with me a while back and said, I say, well, tell me about you spirits.

And he goes, Well, I'm I'm not into all that.

And I just I just have a problem with the guy in Africa that's never heard, and blah, blah, blah.

And I said, So you're using a man you've never met before to excuse yourself from the commands of scripture?

Well, yeah, I just, it's almost like I'm I'm I really care about the world.

No, you don't.

This is what you say to chicks in bars to sound pseudo-spiritual.

I'm so hip, I don't believe because I'm so concerned.

Because I just said, if you're so concerned about the man in Africa, submit to the missionary call and take the gospel to him.

You're not concerned about the man in Africa.

You used him to excuse your unbelief.

And God's gonna judge you and him on judgment day.

Well, I mean, I respect that that's your truth, not my truth.

I just quoted you the Bible.

Well, can you show me the Bible?

I'll be right back.

When my house got a Bible, lick ity split.

Well, I mean, the Bible's written by men, so we're down that little path.

It's like, dude, I'm not trying to front you here on my back porch.

I'm just trying to get to know you.

But the things you say are crazy.

And so, by the way, if you're in the room and you think, yeah, what about the man in Africa?

Romans says, well, Romans 1 says, what can be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious in creation.

Hear this part so that men are without excuse.

They don't have a leg to stand on.

Creation itself, just the scientific things you see around you in creation, that all just screams out there is a God and you were created by him for him.

And so my guy on my back porch said, I need to smoke a cigarette.

And I said, Smoke away.

He goes, Is this gonna bother you?

Not at all.

Not at all.

I didn't say smoke now, because you're gonna smoke forever in hell, too.

I thought it, and I thought that'd be funny, but he didn't seem to be enjoying himself.

And he said, I've never smoked a cigarette in front of a preacher.

And I said, You feel dirty?

He goes, kinda.

And I said, hey man, I'm just gonna say that's conviction.

It's not about smoking, it's about you use the whole man in Africa thing to get off the hook.

And just, hey, everyone from everywhere is commanded to repent.

Why?

Because judgment day has been fixed by God.

He says, He's fixed a day.

Now, what is so terrible that God commands all people everywhere to get ready for it?

Judgment.

That's why you should parent your kids in such a way they understand judgment.

Fifthly, we'll all be judged by a righteous standard.

People say to me all the time, you can't judge me.

I see this tattoo a lot.

Only God can judge me.

You don't want that.

He's going to.

Why?

I mean, it's not like you have an option.

It's like only God can judge me.

Who else has applied for the job?

That's where I want to get my tattoo.

Who else has applied for the job?

Yeah, only God can judge me.

Yes.

And you will judge, and I will be judged by a resurrected, righteous, perfect Jesus.

Who's full of glory, who's not compassionate.

I love prostitutes and downcast sinners, who comes to Revelation 19, treading the rhine press of the wrath and the fury of God Almighty.

He's going to be the judge.

The Bible says he has a sharp sword coming out of his mouth with which to strike down the nations.

You see, because we don't preach the Bible, we're thinking about Jesus incarnate, not Jesus full of glory.

And Jesus full of glory is coming back to judge.

That's the one we're going to stand before.

The last thing you take away is just the resurrection gives us assurance as to the reality of judgment.

And my friend on the back porch, who's like, dude, this is uh this isn't going well.

I said, well, light up another, and maybe you could just put one between every finger and just harmonica smoke.

I said, why is it not going well?

Because you said your whole life, how long have you been rolling that lame, pathetic logic with the man in Africa?

I said, it's about 14.

He's 27, by the way.

I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

He goes, I mean, how can you be how can you be sure that there's gonna be a judgment?

That just sounds not very loving.

I said, let me ask you another question.

If God does not punish the wicked, on what basis can he reward the righteous?

See, because you've deconstructed hell, you also have to deconstruct heaven.

At this, he stood up, stamped it out, and said, I gotta go, man.

You're you're you're killing me.

So I followed him around my side yard.

I said, Don't go back to the house.

You smell like an ashtray.

My wife, I'm not like that.

Uh walked out front to his car.

I said, Hey, you know I love you, right?

I I love you.

See, there's consequences, not just to unbelief.

Look at me, we're done.

There's consequences to bad theology, too.

You can't just say crazy things that aren't in the Bible.

I'm gonna say this so much it's gonna become true, it's never gonna become true.

So, in our culture, anything with the word judgment in it is declared hate speech.

You know that.

You hear it all the time.

If what we just read, Acts 17, is true, and it is, then wouldn't it be hate to not speak the truth to these people and trust the Holy Spirit to convict them of these realities?

Again, you're smart people.

I know, oh, this is hate.

No, it's not.

If this is true, and it is, then wouldn't it really be hate to not be winsomely engaging these people?

Trusting the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment?

I think it would be hate to not speak up.

So here's a question you gotta ask yourself: who are you willing to go through life hating?

Let's pray together.

If you're our guests, we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.

And so uh a voice of prayer and Clyde will just play, may sing something over us.

And just think about what you've heard the Bible say this morning.

A lot of times we put questions on the screen.

We're not gonna do that today.

We're just gonna ask you what questions rise up in you as a result of what you've heard this morning.

Let me pray.

God thanks for the truth.

It's thought-provoking, mind-altering, and soul shaping.

And so, the way we thought and spoke and reasoned when we were children, it won't hold up anymore.

And so, Lord, let us lay down what no longer fits and take up things we were fitted for.

So we think and listen in Jesus' name.

And while you're praying and thinking, let me just let me just ask you if if it's true that the Holy Spirit does all this stuff, and it is.

He convicts the world concerning sin.

Not just if there's a reality of sin, but he convicts the world.

He brings them to a point of awareness and understanding about everything having anything and anything having everything to do with sin.

Then what conversation can you not have?

Father, our prayer today is that you would uh help us to understand what the Holy Spirit does, who does what, and why it matters.

It's as simple as that, God.

And because of that, let that unleash winsome, joyful, theologically astute, robust, God-worshiping mouth, open, smile on the face, people that engage the culture around them in ways that are engaging, not condemning.

This is our prayer, God.

We ask that you'd make it our experience.

We ask that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, hopefully you've had an opportunity to, on your row, there's a little uh card holder in one of the couple of the seats.

If you pull one of those guest cards, fill it out on your way out in just a minute.

If you drop all these wooden boxes by the door on your way out, we'd love to have a record of your visit, okay?

If you have any questions about anything you heard this morning, myself and some of our pastors will be down front.

We'd love to pray with you, talk with you, answer any questions that you may have, all right?

There's some different things going on in the life of our church.

Some of them are starting up new.

We'd like you to be aware of.

And so give your attention to the screens for our announcements this week.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Camp registration is still available for Pine Cove Camp in the City and student camp.

Starting point is next Sunday, June 23rd in the Fellowship Hall.

Registration is available online.

Knowing God is a Sunday morning Bible study for college students and young adults.

Jeff Wood will be teaching about the holy character of God and how it transforms our lives.

If you have questions about anything you've heard today, or you would like someone to pray with you, some of our pastors and elders will be available at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

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

So would you stand to your feet?

Hold your hands out if you're willing.

God has joyously declared what He is joyfully going to do in relation to the world.

May this free you up to joyfully do what you're supposed to do in relation to the world.

Depart now and give yourselves to these realities and call your dad.

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

Amen.

Bless you.