The Beautiful Standard

Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Stop trying to arm wrestle your flesh.

Just walk in the spirit.

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.

Father, I pray that you would increase our capacity to do just that, to adore you, uh, to make much of you, to enjoy you at a level uh and in a way we don't enjoy anybody or anything else in this life.

Uh and so, Lord, we uh we don't trust our own efforts or capacities or abilities to do that.

We trust the efficacy of the Bible.

So we open up the Bible and we say, God, speak into our lives, shape our affection and our intellect in such a way that our capacity to adore you and to enjoy you is bigger than it was when we walked in here this morning.

That would be a great gift for us to take to the world on our way out this morning.

So that's what we ask you to do, and we ask it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Uh, if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 901.

I want to talk to you this morning about the beautiful standard.

The beautiful standard.

Uh, and I think you'll see what I mean in the Bible.

Uh, while you're finding John chapter 14, uh, Jesus, uh, we're going through the Gospel of John if you're visiting today.

John 14 · chapter mention

And we just kind of take it verse by verse and we explain what the Bible says in a way that makes sense to you so you can understand it.

The Bible says, though it costs you everything you have, get understanding.

And so every time you come to church, the Bible should be open and it should be taught, and you should be engaged in your affections and in your uh uh attention.

Uh and what happens is that your understanding gets bigger and your capacity gets bigger.

Uh, John 14, uh Jesus is right before the cross.

He's finished the last supper.

I don't know if you ever go to a meal and it's so good that you just after it's over, maybe a waitress comes and takes away all the plates, refills your drinks, and you just sit around the table and just keep talking.

And you just keep talking and you just keep talking, and you lose track of time after a while.

Like, man, we've been sitting here talking for an hour.

We better tip this lady more.

This is what happens in John 14.

They are sitting and still at the table, what we call the Last Supper.

And Jesus is talking and he's explaining to them, it started off with him saying earlier in the chapter, let not your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And then Jesus says, If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

And then he continues this dialogue, okay?

In John chapter 14, we'll pick it up in verse 15, talking about the beautiful standard.

John 14 · chapter mention

He says, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live.

In that day you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, are and you in me, and I in you.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and he will come to him and will make our home with him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me.

These things have I spoken to you while I am still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither.

Let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, I am going away, and I will come to you.

If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming.

He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.

Rise, let us go from here.

And so what what what without pointing to it, what happens is this section of scripture, it begins while Jesus kind of uh uh he establishes the standard and it ends on that.

But I want to point to four or five things in the text.

And the first one is what I just said, that the standard is established.

The standard is established.

And what do you mean the standard is established?

Jesus at the very beginning, he kind of lays down this is what it means to have a relationship with God.

Hear it again in verse 15.

He says, if you love me, you keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.

Now he's talking about the Holy Spirit, and so here's the standard for these men, because the Holy Spirit's yet to be given.

So for them, the standard is you love me, you keep my commandments, and the father gives you the Holy Spirit.

Not as an obligatory payment because you love me and you kept the commandments, but this is the realities that accompany a relationship.

Now listen very carefully, okay?

Uh, because for us, it's actually reversed.

Uh you say, what do you mean?

We live after Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit has been given.

Jesus has not left the earth here in John 14.

He's still with them, and he says, Hey, I'm gonna go, but the Holy Spirit is gonna come, the comforter, the helper, and he's gonna be with you forever.

Not only is he gonna be with you, but he's going to be in you.

And so what Jesus establishes is this is what it means to be a Christian, to have a relationship with God.

You love God, you keep his commandments, and you get the Holy Spirit.

It's reversed for us because the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart, which empowers us to be able to repent and believe the gospel.

And listen carefully, as a consequence of that, not as effort, but just as a consequence of that, I love God and I keep his commandments.

Last weekend I was in Asheville, North Carolina, which is a great, beautiful place in desperate need of the gospel.

Uh, it is a huge LGBT community.

And the reason I found that out is every place I went, I ran into people that live that lifestyle.

And they love them some Pastor Neil up there.

Uh, I was talking to two of them in the lobby of my hotel, and and she said, Where are you from?

You got a funny accent.

And I said, Really?

You guys all sound like you married your sister up here.

Give me a break.

And she's like, We're mountain people.

I said, Mountain people?

We mean backwoods or redneck, inbred.

And she's like, What are you?

You're from Texas.

What do you know?

And they said, What do you do in Texas?

And I was like, Great, here we go.

And in the course of the conversation, one of the ladies, her partner, said to me, Well, I mean, who in God's name, God's name thinks they can actually live out what the Bible says?

This guy.

Uh, and they're kind of like, Oh, because up there, she said, Oh, churches appear.

They just hate us and call us names and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And we got a long conversation.

And it was great because she said, There's no way I can live out what the Bible says.

And I didn't say, oh no, you can do it.

Come on.

No, no, no.

I said, you know what?

You're exactly right.

And apart from God living inside of me by his spirit, neither could I.

I want you to understand this as two women that live a totally different lifestyle than me.

I'm not better than you, I'm not more moral than you, I'm not smarter than you, and I'm not more self-disciplined than you.

The only difference in you and me is God by his spirit, because God's rich in mercy.

And if God has enough mercy to change me and forgive me of my sins, he has more than enough to change you and forgive you of your sins.

So you think what we're doing is sinful?

Absolutely.

And one of them was like, I don't know.

I want to argue with you, but I also want to hug you.

Don't hug me, I'm not into that.

And the lady said, say that again.

And I said, the same God who had the mercy to forgive me would forgive you.

But see, here's the thing: God revealed himself to me, regenerated my heart, which allowed me to repent.

I was made alive because I was spiritually dead.

You guys live the way you live because you're spiritually dead, not because you're immoral.

Well, that's not what the church up here says.

One of them said, if you came up here and started a church, I'd come to your church.

So me and one lesbian are going to start planting us a church in Asheville, North Carolina.

We're going to hang our shingle out.

Bring all your queens up here, two dope queens right here.

And they're like, now say this again.

I said, nobody can live the Bible apart from the Holy Spirit inside of them.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to teach my church about this next Sunday.

What do you say on Sundays?

I say what the Bible says.

What Jesus says to these people is, you love me, you keep my commands, the Father will give you the Holy Spirit.

What he says to us is, hey, you get the Holy Spirit.

That's how, because he regenerates your heart.

What in your idea that empowers you to repent, to confess sin, and believe the gospel.

And as here's how you know whose heart's been regenerated.

Don't miss this, students, because you love God and you keep his commandments, not out of effort, but out of intimacy.

That's the standard.

He establishes that.

Now, if you went into the locker room of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and you walked around, you walked by a black cinder block wall, and they've got this sign on the wall that says this the standard is the standard.

Now you're like, what's the deal with that?

Because last year they had a couple guys on the team, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, that they thought they got special treatment because they were an all-pro running back and wide receiver, until Coach Mike Tomlin got up and laid down the law and disciplined both of them.

And they were at a press conference, and the press kept saying, Well, are they going to get like different treatment?

You know, they are essential to the team.

And the coach kept saying, the standard is the standard.

Well, what about Leviam?

Because Leviathan, the standard is the standard.

They will both receive disciplinary action.

What he was saying was, nobody gets preferential treatment.

The standard is the standard.

Now, what has the Pittsburgh Steelers got to do with John 14?

Look at me.

Jesus is not talking about some outer body experience for Uber spiritual people.

He says, very matter of fact, and it's repeated all through this section, the standard is established.

This is what it looks like to have a relationship with God.

This is not some secondary experience, some second filling, some third baptism, some outer body experience.

This is what happens.

This is basic biblical Christianity.

This is what it means to have a relationship with God.

Apart from the Spirit of God living inside of you and leading you and guiding you, you walking in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

There's no way you can do this.

The church needs to stop speaking to students, especially and adults, but especially in student ministry, and stop making it all about how do we get kids to stop gratifying the desires of their flesh.

The only thing more powerful than your flesh is the Spirit of God occupying your flesh.

Matter of fact, I said to a 17-year-old who frequents this church every once in a while.

She goes, Well, you're my pastor when I come.

I don't come that much, but I don't like you on days you make me mad.

And I was like, What days are those?

About twice a month.

I said, Okay, well, I'm batting 500.

So she goes, No, I come about twice a month.

I said, Well, I'll make you mad all the time.

And so she was all wanting to defend her lifestyle.

I said, Let me ask you two things.

What's the two sins you enjoy the most right now?

And she said, Listen, your business.

I said, I can tell you what they are.

Just by the way you dress and carry yourself and talk.

And she goes, I like to get my party on and I like to get with guys.

And when I say get with guys, I don't mean necessarily, you know, go all the way.

I just like attention and I like, you know, I like guys.

And I said, okay, so basically, you like to drink and you like to get with guys.

I said, Can I say something crazy to you?

And she goes, like you don't say that already.

And I said, What if I told you that the Holy Spirit could teach you how to enjoy both of those things when you get in the context of marriage and adulthood?

You could enjoy both of those things in a way that satisfies you and glorifies God.

But right now, you've taken them out of the context in which they belong, and you're trying to enjoy them.

And it's like watching you wear your mom's clothes.

It's clunky and awkward, and no one finds it interesting.

And then she's kind of looking like, what do I respond to?

And I said, here's the thing.

I'm not trying to get at it.

I'm trying to say, the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5.16, walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Stop trying to arm wrestle your flesh.

Just walk in the spirit.

Your flesh will take care of itself.

And I said, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to enjoy both of those things in a responsible manner.

Well, I don't even know what that means.

I said, then that's your problem.

Because you don't know enough about God to trust your appetites of now to a God who says, then you can enjoy them in a way that satisfies you and glorifies me.

You're going to take them out of their proper context and you're going to exploit them now, and you're going to affect your ability to enjoy them then.

Well, that's enough for today.

Okay.

Okay.

And by the way, can I give you one more thing that's really going to make you mad?

This is what's wrong with being pretty but not being willing to think.

You think being pretty gets you all through life.

And at that, she stood up and kicked one of my new chairs and walked out.

Are we done?

And she didn't come back and say bye.

Now, if you're visiting today, you're thinking, man, what a jerk.

No, no, no.

I want her to understand what the Bible says.

That the standard is the Holy Spirit regenerates your heart, makes your dead heart come to life.

And here's how you know that.

Because you love God and you're able to keep his commandments.

The Bible says it like this, Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Again, this is not some uh a secondary experience for the Uber spiritual.

Hear the Bible, Romans chapter 8, verse 1.

Romans 8:1

There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the spirit, set their mind on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death.

But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, hear this last sentence.

This is why I see this is the standard.

It's established.

Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

Here's what the Bible is saying: you do not get a relationship with God without having the Spirit of God.

That's just the way God set it up, because the Spirit of God inside of you is what regenerates your heart and brings it to life to allow you to see the truth and respond in repentance and faith.

And as a result of that, what happens is that you love God and you keep his commandments.

And you're not, it's not exertion, it's identity.

Second thing the text tells us that the plan is revealed.

The plan is revealed.

It's verse 18 to 21.

Now keep in mind, Peter's already kind of wigged out and said, Jesus, what's the deal?

Why are you leaving?

And Jesus begins to talk about heaven in the early part of chapter 14.

In verses 18 to 21, he's trying to kind of pull back the curtain and let them see.

He's talking about after the resurrection.

He's yet to go to the cross.

He's getting ready to go to the cross.

And he's saying, By the way, after the cross, I'm going to rise from the dead.

Now, with that in mind, the context, this is, he's referring to after the resurrection.

Here, verse 18 again.

He says, I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you.

Yet a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live.

Resurrection.

And you're like, because that why is he saying he's living right now?

He's saying, Because I live, the resurrection is going to seal the deal in their minds.

Because I live, you also will live.

In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you're in me, and I in you.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him to this last part and manifest myself to him.

And manifest myself to him.

Ask yourself this question.

If I could ask Jesus to explain any one thing that's going on in my life right now, what would it be?

If you could ask Jesus to kind of, hey, would you kind of manifest yourself around this?

The word manifest means to show, to indicate, to make plain, to disclose, to inform.

And the point is not just about having some power encounter.

He says this, that loving God and being loved by God is not a neutral experience.

He says, hey, you love me, I love those people back, and guess what?

I manifest myself to them.

So ask yourself, hey, if I could get some clarity around any one thing in my life right now, what would I want Jesus to bring some clarity to?

Okay?

Because that's the second thing.

He says that Jesus pulls back the curtain and kind of lets them see, hey, here's a little bit more of the plan.

Here's the third thing the Bible tells us that the distinction is established.

The distinction is established.

Look at verse 22.

And here's what happens.

One of the problems in American Christianity is in the name of being loving or kind or not offensive or even evangelistic.

We take things that the Bible says are only true of Christians and try to make them true of everybody else.

This was the conversation I had over and over and over in Ashville, where people were like, Well, you know, I just don't believe that.

I mean, there's just no way anybody can live like that.

And I would say, you're exactly right.

You do not have the capacity apart from God regenerating your heart.

Matter of fact, the Bible says, because one guy said, I just think that's all foolishness.

And I said, you know what?

The Bible says the same thing.

He goes, What do you mean?

I said, The Bible says to those who do not know God, the things of God are foolishness.

He goes, see, the Bible agrees with me.

I said, You're exactly right.

Does it make you want to read it more?

Not at all.

And I said, What's your biggest fear about reading the Bible?

I don't understand anything that's in there.

I said, again, apart from a relationship with God where God by his spirit lives inside of you, you mean to tell me God lives inside of you?

Absolutely.

I wake up every day and I remind myself that God lives inside of me.

This is not a genie in a bottle.

This is the Spirit of God inside the temple that he purchased with his own blood.

The dude's like, that makes me want to drink.

And I said, people have that response to me every Sunday.

And he's like, wait a minute, one more time.

You're telling me that the God, the God that made the mountains that you guys worship, hey man, there's nothing wrong with worshiping mountains.

Uh yeah, there's everything wrong with worshiping mountains.

That's exchange.

Matter of fact, the Bible talks about that too in Romans 1.

It says, you've exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and you worship and serve creation instead of the creator who's forever praise.

You guys were created by God to worship.

It's just that you worship the wrong thing.

You sit around thinking these things to say to people.

No, I just I just walked in here 30 minutes ago.

I don't know if you're really enjoyable or irritating.

That's another thing that people ask every Sunday.

But when I say the distinct or the established, here's the thing.

I'm not hating on those people.

I'm loving them.

And by the way, look at me.

I'm loving you to tell you, unless you have a relationship with God, you can't cherry pick the things out of the Bible and claim them for yourself.

Look at what Jesus says in verse 22.

He said, Judas, not Iscariot.

Have you noticed no one names their kid Judas anymore?

There was a lot of people back then named Judas.

It's a very popular name.

And so the Bible's telling you, hey, not the guy that ratfinked on Jesus.

Another Judas said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

That's a great question.

Hey, God, it doesn't seem fair.

Listen to what Jesus says.

Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word, and the Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

There's the standard again.

If you love me, you keep my word, I will make my home with you.

Verse 24.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me.

Hey, you can't go through life not loving me and not keeping my word and thinking that you can claim the spirit.

Not at all.

There's this distinction.

And I just think we've got to be clear.

I think it's with great intentions.

But what happens is we end up being heretical because we tell people, hey, yeah, you can do this.

No, you can't.

Jesus himself said, This is not my message.

This is what the Father said.

Here's the fourth thing the Bible tells us that the function is revealed.

The function is revealed.

And the function we're talking about is the Holy Spirit.

A lot of times if you turn on your TV, especially late at night, and you see those guys on TV, they all are misrepresenting the Holy Spirit.

Because it's always sensational and all this other stuff.

And right here, the Bible says, hey, this is what the Holy Spirit does.

The function of the Holy Spirit is primarily two things.

Look at verse 25.

These things have I spoken to you while I'm still with you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you.

The Holy Spirit does basically two things.

He teaches, teaches, and he reminds.

He will teach you all things.

You ever been in a conversation with somebody, and you walk away five minutes later or two minutes later, you think of ten things you could have, should have said?

You're like, oh man, hang on a second.

Come back and you call them back like I'm done talking about it.

What you have to do is train yourself to be in that conversation.

Conversation and just in your mind and your spirit to say, Holy Spirit, what's the truth going on right here?

Like I was in Asheville Saturday, met the pastor for lunch, went there to meet with.

Tim and I go to the Stony Knob uh restaurant, great little artsy restaurant.

We're sitting down, our waitress comes over, she starts talking.

I looked up and she's talking and I said, Hey, can I ask you a weird question?

And she's like, sure.

And I said, Why, when I listen to you talk, do I hear that phrase that in a storm any port will do?

She's like, I don't know.

And I said, You know, she says, Why do you ask?

I said, Because I read a book one time, and the central character of the book, Jesus, says that the eye is the lamp of the body.

I look into your eyes and I see a lot of trauma.

And I see a young lady had a horribly dysfunctional childhood.

I'm not making some broad general application.

Everybody could claim that.

I mean, yours was like not dysfunctional, it was traumatic.

And she's like, oh my gosh, yes, it was.

She was, but I took in my sister when I was 18 and she was failing, and I got her through high school and she was a straight A student.

She graduated and she went into the Navy.

I think that's awesome.

You're also a caregiver.

My question is, who takes care of you?

Now I'm starting to understand why it rises up in me and says, In a storm, any port will do.

Because you go out in the world looking for relief, not truth.

And she said, Well, what does that mean?

And I said, You don't regard yourself, and so you're just out there kind of, hey, I'm taking care of everybody.

Who takes care of you?

And she said, uh, Jim.

I said, Who's Jim?

She goes, he's my boyfriend.

And uh, she goes, Well, I got pregnant at 18.

Now I have an eight-year-old, so I'm in my mind, but you're 26.

And I just felt led to ask, I said, so tell me about Jim.

How old's Jim?

Jim's 50.

So you're 26, and you're with the 50-year-old man.

I said, Who's your dad?

Now, at this point, Timmy the pastor, is like he's watching a tennis match.

He's like, This is gonna be greater.

We're gonna be killed right here.

And I said, Who's your dad?

She goes, I don't know who my dad is.

I said, So you found you a little port in the storm called Jim.

Can I just say to you that Jim is exploiting you and taking advantage of you?

Jim is a good man.

I said, You're gonna take care of him because you're 26 now.

You're 36, he'll be 60.

You're gonna take care of him?

She said, and I quote, I already clip his toenails.

I'm no longer hungry, I don't want to eat anymore.

I'll have a little side side.

Timmy's like, shut up.

I said, Do you really think God created you to go through life taking care of people never being taken care of?

Well, he takes care of me.

No, he doesn't.

He explores, he takes advantage of you.

You got out there, now it's making sense.

In the storm, you're just looking for a port.

Just somebody put a roof over my head.

She's sitting there talking.

We're probably 15 minutes.

The other waitress comes over and says, Hey, uh, uh, can you help me something in the kitchen?

Goes in the kitchen and comes back five minutes later.

She's laughing.

I said, What?

She said, She thought y'all were hitting on me, and so she came to rescue me from y'all.

Awesome, awesome.

Tell her thanks for the assumption.

And she goes, So basically, and I said, No, I'm not mad at you.

She goes, How do you know all this?

I said, I don't.

I don't.

I just want God wants you to know that He knows you this well and doesn't have to keep being this way.

She walked off, and I looked at Tim and I said, Who pastors that girl?

Who wants to pastor her?

Who wants to go hard after her?

I got half a mind to move up here and start me at church with one big old lesbian over here and this broken down waitress.

We'll go from there.

And he's like, Man, every time we turn, here's the thing.

Jesus said, I didn't say Jesus said, it's not, oh, Pastor has a big personality and a loud mouth.

He'd like to get these conversations.

If Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach you all things, don't you want to know more than you already know?

Stop walking away from conversations.

It's kind of like, uh, well, I mean, that'd been great in the moment to think of that.

Why didn't you say something?

Why didn't you in the moment say, Holy Spirit, would you teach me what's going on here?

And he'll remind you.

Jesus says, everything that I've said.

Here's the last thing the Bible tells us this morning that this this peace is given.

The peace is given, not a peace.

Look at verse 27.

He says, Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give it to you?

Now, a lot of times preachers don't read the text and say what the text says.

I heard I hear this all the time.

You know, the peace that God gives, not the world gives.

Look at me.

The distinction that Jesus makes is not in the peace, but in the manner in which it's given.

Look at the Bible.

He says, I don't give as the world gives.

I don't give it to you like that.

So you've got to ask yourself, how does the world give it?

Here's what Jesus is trying to get at the world gives peace without acknowledging the cause of all the chaos and anxiety.

It's like I remember as a little kid watching the news with my dad, and uh they were talking about, you know, making a peace summit between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

1972.

By the way, we're still having the same conversation.

We're gonna have peace for these people because they cannot.

They cannot.

Jesus says, I don't give peace, I don't give it as the world does, the peace that I give.

No, no, not at all.

Now again, remember the context.

Jesus is sitting at the table after the Last Supper.

He's gonna go to the cross tomorrow.

He knows this.

And basically what he's saying is, hey, I know what's necessary to accomplish peace.

I know what the core issue is, and I'm gonna do something about the core issue.

So he says in verse 27, he says, Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Now, when you read, let not your hearts be troubled, you should think about, wait a minute, that sounds familiar.

Remember earlier in the chapter, Jesus says to Peter, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

He's talking about heaven.

And so, again, here at the end of the chapter, Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled.

He's talking about right now.

So look at me.

This sermon's over in two minutes.

You up for that?

Everyone up for that?

Say amen.

God's like a knife, people.

Look at me.

Here's what Jesus is saying when I say the peace is given.

He says earlier in the chapter, he says, Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

In my father's house are many rooms.

In other words, Jesus says, Hey, I've taken care of heaven.

If you're wondering what happens after you die, you don't have to wonder.

You don't have to live in fear.

You can be at peace about that.

If you're wondering about what happens right now, Jesus says, You don't have to be at peace at that because I've gone to make a place for you there.

Look at this.

Don't miss this.

He says, the Father and I, by the Spirit, are gonna make our place in you, in your body, right here, right now.

And so Jesus says, if you're worried about now, I'm gonna be with you.

I'm gonna be in you, he says.

If you're worried about then, don't let not your heart be troubled.

This is the peace when I say, hey, this peace is this peace that he's given.

Then you got to ask yourself, why would you not want a relationship with a God who's covered now and then?

And he says, hey, I have a peace that covers both ends and everything in between.

This is the peace that the Bible, you ever heard this phrase?

Preachers say it all the time, the peace that passes all understanding.

That's actually in the Bible.

And what it's saying is, I'm looking around this room right now, there are people in this room who've gone through tragedy this year.

There's people in this room that have lost babies.

There's people in this room that have buried their mother.

And so you know what it's like to go through something like that, and you have this strange sense of peace that we are sad, but we're gonna be okay.

Does that make sense?

That's the peace that passes all understanding.

It's when you can't get your head around it, but you have this deep sense of peace, you're experiencing what Jesus talks about here.

And again, you have to ask yourself this question if this is true, and it is, why would you not want to know this guy?

Let's pray together.

Let's take a moment.

If you're new to our church, we'd like to just teach the Bible, and then we'd like to give you some space to think about it.

So Lindsay's gonna come, she may play, she may sing something, some questions that come up on the screen for you just to think about.

We think the Bible engages your mind and your emotions.

And so I'm gonna voice a prayer, and then we'll just spend some time thinking about what we've heard this morning.

And ask the Holy Spirit to just, hey, you said the Bible says you would lead me into the truth, and you remind me of everything Jesus has said.

Ask him to do that right now.

So, Holy Spirit, we want to ask you to do just what Jesus said you would do, and that's lead us into the truth.

About ourselves, our circumstances.

Remind us of things that we've forgotten or things that we've neglected.

But more than anything, just brood over us and set us free.

Increase our understanding, enlarge our capacity.

Make it more than it was when we walked in this room this morning.

We want to think about these things now in Jesus' name.

And Father, we are comforted by the fact that you're changing everything.

We love that about you.

Sanctification means that we don't get to just be this static, stayed people who are just set in one place.

It means that we're consistently becoming more and more like you and less and less like our natural selves.

You're kind of sweeping us up into, inviting us into this reality of walking in the spirit that is juicy and delicious and intoxicating and satisfying and God glorifying all the things we are created by you to experience.

So I pray for people in this room that are trying to muster up the energy to make themselves feel something.

They would stop.

They would just stop and say, I don't know that I have the Holy Spirit inside of me.

Find it really hard to love God and keep his commandments.

And instead, they begin to plead for merciful God to reveal himself and regenerate their dead and tired heart.

Lord, this is our prayer.

We're not here for religion.

Religion has never changed anybody.

Only a relationship with an active, living, breathing, real God who says, you know what, I'm not ashamed to be called your God.

I'll also prove that I'll come live inside of you.

Who else has done that?

God, with most of us, when we sin, when we screw up, we put it in the ditch, everyone flees from us.

And you said, I'm not ashamed.

And I'll demonstrate it.

I'll come live inside of you.

And I'll be called your God, and I'll take you as my people.

God, there's so many people in Asheville, North Carolina that don't hear that message.

And there's probably more in Fort Bend County that don't hear that message.

And so, God, we want to take that message with us today.

That's the message of life and liberation.

That's the message of the gospel.

And so we pray for that to begin to permeate every fiber of our being in every corner of our county.

We pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Again, if you're a guest, I say thanks for being a part of our church.

Uh hope you've had a chance to fill out one of those guest cards, those visitor cards in your row.

In just a minute, when you're dismissed, just drop it in the box on your way out.

That's also where we receive our offering.

Uh consistently, people say, Hey, uh, well, you don't do that.

People that understand, people that have the Spirit of God inside of them and have read the Bible, they understand that stewardship is just a part of Christianity.

Uh, so we don't beat the drum about that.

So if today's a day you practice stewardship, that's where you do that as well.

We have some incredible things coming up in the life of our church.

Want to make you aware of those before you're dismissed.

So give your attention to the screen this morning for announcements.

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

Rosaria Butterfield will be with us on June 14th and 15th.

Childcare is available for church members if you register.

This is a church-wide event prepared for each of us to grasp and grow in the area of relational, hospitable evangelism, and ministering to the LGBT community around us.

Your teenagers need to hear her, we as parents need to hear her, and our church needs to hear her.

So we hope you will make plans to be there Friday night and Saturday morning until noon.

Then let's lead our families to experience this spiritually formative event.

This is not a large-time investment, but it is an equipping opportunity that will pay dividends in your conversations around these topics for years to come.

Preschool Playing Connect is this Saturday at 9:30 a.m.

in the kids building for parents and kids three and under.

We'll be playing outside to bring some sunscreen and a fishing pole so you can get in on all the fun.

Our final men's breakfast before the summer will happen this Tuesday in the warehouse at 6 a.m.

We'll eat breakfast, be taught by the Bible, and end with discussion and prayer.

We'll see you there.

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.

Folks, I want to remind you, uh, don't sleep on the fact that Rosario Butterfield is coming here.

Uh we live in a what I call a trisexual generation.

They'll try anything.

Uh I had conversations with women that are partnered with other women, and and I said to them, I said, I'm not more moral than you.

And they were like, didn't you just say you're a preacher?

Yes, I I'm not more moral than you.

It's just that God's changed my heart.

And and and we get told all the time that we're something's wrong with us and that we're just this way.

I said, no, no, no.

Matter of fact, I've got people in my church, I've got single people in my church that live in sexual sin, and they're just as simple as you are.

You're not a greater sinner than anybody else's sins.

This is just the way sin manifests itself in your life.

And they're like, say that again.

I didn't get yelled at, I didn't get told to go to hell, I didn't get told to shut up.

Matter of fact, one guy said, Would you keep talking?

This is life-giving.

And I said, My wife says the same thing every day.

So, Rosaria Butterfield coming here is a big deal.

Uh, and so I want you, I'm saying this as your pastor, to prioritize uh sitting under someone who comes out of that lifestyle and gets it and gets the gospel uh in such a great, refreshing way.

Uh the restaurant in the lobby today, if you have any questions, you can register online.

We like to close our service with a blessing.

So stand on your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your heavenly father loves you so much, he gave you an earthly mother.

And so today, for the rest of the day, until the sun goes down, it's all about mom.

Shut up, don't complain, don't ask for anything, don't need anything.

Just bless your mom.

Now get out of here in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.