Know The Story

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

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Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank you for the truth.

Thank you that you've made obvious what we everything we need to know.

And so we want to gaze it, we want to behold this wondrous mystery.

We want to understand.

We want to think about it.

The gospel engages every part of our being, our our our mind, our our will, our emotions, our body, our money, our sexuality, our parenting, everything.

God, everything.

Every form of consumption we engage in.

The gospel speaks to that.

So it behooves us to better understand who you are, what you're like, and what you're about in this world.

The story that you're telling, God.

So we want to tune our hearts to kind of hear what you're saying.

Because some of us got a bad message sent to us early on.

Some of us got told, hey, you're not good enough to be here, or you don't have the right kind of clothes or whatever.

And the Bible says that that's not the story God's telling at all.

And so, God, I just turn up the volume on your voice this morning and turn down the volume on everything that would distract us this morning.

Because we want to hear clearly so we can live vibrantly.

That's our prayer, God.

Make it our experience, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it over up to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

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

I'm on page 966.

And if you don't have a Bible in your house, you can take that one home with you today as our gift to you.

Like I said earlier, we're starting a new series, this three-part series called The Story.

And the reason we're doing this is because summer's winding down, much to your kids' chagrin, but much to your parents' delight.

Your parents haven't told you yet, but they've got a calendar in their bedroom and they're just X and days off.

And pretty soon you're going to go spend seven hours with somebody else, and your mom's going to smoke at home and have a mimosa.

But I digress.

Anyway, and so we want we're going to be around more people getting back to school, and they're going to bring some stories from their summer, and you're going to go to work tomorrow.

People are going to bring stories from their weekend, and they're not going to be necessarily God honoring stories, and you need to have a story to tell.

And I'm going to suggest to you and submit to you that you need to become fluent in the story that God has been telling.

And so I want to read from 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

I'll start reading verse 11.

I'll read down to verse 15.

But really, I just want to focus on nine words.

But on my way to these nine words, there's some other things I want to kind of point out, okay?

Like Wade Burgess on the back of the tour bus in Washington.

Hey, by the way, that over there is that, and that over there is that.

I want to point to a few things, and then I'm going to get to the story.

I'm going to give you three words to summarize the story that God has been telling from the very beginning, and He's going to tell for the rest of your life, okay?

And here's the deal: regardless of what your story entails, whether it entails all kinds of craziness, your story is welcome today to get lost in God's story.

Do you realize that?

What I'm saying is that none of you has sinned so much or done so much bad or so much wrong that God's given up on you and said, You're on your own, okay?

Listen to what the Bible says.

Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 11, he says, Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.

2 Corinthians 5:11

But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

We're not commending ourselves to you again, but we're giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

If we're in our right mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this that one has died for all, and therefore all have died.

And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

We'll just stop right there.

That's all you need to hear to understand.

I know the Bible is so textured and it says so much with in so little words.

I want to point to a few things before I get to the story.

And the first thing, just by way of introductory thought, the first one I want to give you this morning is simply this is that belief is possible.

Belief is possible.

You say, well, I uh okay, that that that's all you got.

I shaved my legs for this.

Uh allow me to explain.

Paul says we are controlled because we have concluded.

Look at verse 14.

He says, For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this.

In other words, he comes to some conclusions.

It's hard to be controlled by something that you're not certain about, that you haven't come to some conclusions about.

See, we live in a day and age where everything's relative and you can't really know anything, and who are you to judge me?

And no one's trying to judge anybody.

I'm just saying, relativism and and and hey, this uncertainty that we live in nowadays, it sounds and feels really good until the day comes where you need to have you need something to build and base your life on.

And if you believe the lie that culture tells, there's nothing there.

And so you're all on your own.

You say, I don't I don't I don't know what you mean.

See, one of the tragedies of modern Christianity is that we want to accomplish really big things while believing really small things.

And Paul says, hey, we the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this.

Beloved, look at me.

You're never going to get to living the life you really want to live unless you come to some conclusions beforehand.

Your life is a byproduct of what you believe.

Ask yourself this morning, what is the most consequential thing I believe?

What is the one unchanging reality that informs the way I do my life?

Or said differently, what is my life built on and based on?

In this day of relativism where nothing's really definite, nothing can be known, we can't be sure about anything.

What it leaves us with is nothing to really base or build our lives on, our life on.

In the middle of all that, the Bible says we have this blazing certainty at the center of it all called Jesus Christ.

His life is historically verifiable, his death is sufficiently available, and coming like he did, living like he lived, and dying the death that he died, Jesus Christ has given us a certainty to build our lives upon.

That's why when he started talking in Matthew's gospel, he tells a story and he wants people to understand, hey, this is what it's like to be a Christian.

This is what it's like to have a relationship with me.

Not to be religious, but to be a person that has a relationship with the living God.

He says it's like a man that set out to build a house, and instead of just building it on top of the sand, he digs down deep until he finds a rock and he builds his house upon the rock.

And Jesus said, because this person has dug through the rel the sand of relativism and uncertainty and has got down to something he can build and base his life on.

When the storm comes and beats against that house, that house is going to stand.

You realize the storm is going to come, right?

Yeah, just a couple of weeks ago, the storm found me.

This is my confession for the day.

Every once in a while, I like to confess my sins to my people.

So if you're visiting today, I would love for this to be your church.

I would love to be your pastor.

That doesn't mean I just want to talk to you on Sundays.

That means I want to come to your house and eat your food.

I want to know your kids' names, and I want to confess my sins to you.

Y'all are like, uh, I don't want any of that.

I don't want you to come to my house.

I don't want you to know my kids' names, and I don't care about your sins.

Well, you're going to get one anyway today.

A couple weeks ago, I had one of those weeks.

Okay, I pulled out of the church and I got here on the highway and going down the road, and all of a sudden, the transmission in my truck just let go.

Just went out.

I whipped it around and got it going about 20 miles an hour, kicked it neutral and coasted back to my house.

Called the guy and said, Hey, I think I need to get my my I think my transmission's got a problem.

Uh and by the way, when you say that, they're just like, cha-ching, come on down.

We can solve that.

The next day I go to the mailbox because we had a final extension on our taxes back in April.

My accountant called said, Hey, we've got your we've got your taxes done.

I'll send you what it's going to be in the mail.

I'm like, can't you tell me over the phone?

No.

So the next day I go to the mailbox, guess what was in my mailbox?

My tax bill.

Cha-ching.

I was walking back to my house thinking, I work for God.

This shouldn't happen.

My transmission should last forever.

Two days later, I go to that same mailbox.

I get my daughter's semester bill for Baylor.

I'm crawling back home by this point.

Jesus, have me Lord, have me.

The man got his foot on my neck.

By the way, you're gonna have those weeks.

And then you got to ask yourself, what is my life built on, and what is my life based on?

Because sometimes, here's my sick confession.

I feel better about my life when I got a little money in the bank.

I know none of you feel that way.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, that's gone.

Anyway, and then, oh, I'll just go ahead and say this.

And then my wife and kids had to go school shopping.

Just one of them, not the other one.

One of them had to go school shopping.

So I was sitting on the couch yesterday, saw a receipt on the college table.

I picked it up, and across the top of it, it said Abercrombie and Finch.

Oh, you've been there.

Sakawea.

I was like, what in the world is this?

I mean, I just felt rage come all over me.

I was like, what?

What do you?

I thought y'all were going like Target and Walmart and Sam's.

That's where I shop.

This is more money than I spent on clothes in a year.

And you know what they said to me?

We don't want to dress like you.

Oh, okay.

Prison rules, huh?

That's how we're gonna do this.

Okay.

And so I'm just like, man, everybody's against me.

If it can break, it's breaking, and we are just we're leaking money like a sieve up in here.

Hey, when you have those weeks, and you're gonna have them, then you're gonna find out what your life is built on and based on.

See, the Bible says, hey, belief is possible.

Paul says, hey, uh, the love of Christ controls us why?

Because we have concluded this.

Here's what I'm saying today.

I want you to walk out of here this morning in a few minutes, having concluded a few things.

Having concluded a few things.

Number one, introductory thought, belief is possible.

Secondly, God is consequential.

God is consequential.

What do you mean?

Back in verse 13, Paul says this.

He says, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

If we're in our right mind, it is for you.

Now, that's a cleaned up version.

I think the NIV, he says, hey, if we're out of our minds.

Because basically, this is 2 Corinthians.

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, and they wrote back and said, We took a vote, we think you're crazy.

He says, If we if we are beside ourselves, you say, What do you mean when I say God is consequential?

Let's face it, we live in a culture that says, you know, my faith is a private matter.

I don't really discuss that, and I don't really share my faith.

Hey, hey, listen, biblical faith, you don't have to try to share it.

It shares you.

It shares your money, it shares everything.

My wife, we went to a family wedding in the hill country.

We were in Green, Texas.

I'm like, we're going to Green, let's go dancing, okay?

My wife's like, oh, well, we gotta go to the wedding, and da-da-da.

And so we go eat at the grist meal.

Great restaurant.

Highly recommend you go eat the grist meal.

We're sitting there, and we went Monday, we went back again on Tuesday.

We had a waitress walk up, had another lady behind her, and I said, You're being trained, aren't you?

And she says, Yeah, this is my trainer.

My wife starts talking to the girl and then starts speaking life into her.

Then the girl starts crying at our table.

And I thought, well, I might as well get into this.

I look into her eyes, I listen to her language.

She's like, you know, I was in a dark place, and I came to the light, and blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, what is this poltergeist?

Come to the light, little children.

So I just looked at her and said, Hey, you ever been in rehab?

And my wife's like, You can't say that.

Oh, yeah, it's a party.

Let's come on here.

And she's kind of like, Don't you know?

I just do it the voices, tell me.

And so my wife keeps speaking life into the conversation and then starts talking to the other one.

They both start crying.

I'm sitting there.

They walk off, and my wife goes, I think you need to give them a big tip.

How about tipping me, okay?

My transmission went out of my truck, and everything else that could happen, that could happen.

What?

What?

Got done, the check came.

I put a tip on there, my wife picked it up and was like, mm-hmm.

And then she patted my hand like, I approve.

I walked away from the grist meal that day.

You know what I thought?

Nothing I think, say, or do matters to this woman.

Why am I even married to her?

Why do I even exist?

I just got in the truck and she said, I just so glad to have some time with you.

That's my thoughts exactly, babe.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Here to tell you.

Yeah.

You know why my wife does things like that?

Because she's crazy.

That's why.

She's beside herself.

She loves to give my stuff away.

And she goes, I just think it's important, you know, because we we we we we we we're part of a church.

One of our core values is blessing.

We need to be blessing people.

Uh-huh.

What bless me right now is if you shut up.

That's what will bless me.

I didn't say that, but I thought it.

But Isaiah, what I said was, you know, it's been a full couple days.

Why don't we just listen to some country music on the way home?

And she said, that's great with me.

Mm-hmm.

You see, here's the reality: God is consequential.

You cannot be in a relationship with God without that having an obvious and outward effect upon you.

Paul says, hey, if we're if we're beside ourselves, here's what I'm trying to get at.

The greatest tangible demonstration for the existence of God are Christians who have escaped the vacuum of self.

That big sucking sound, that is you wanting to, by nature, do what's best for you.

And Paul says, hey, if we are beside ourselves, here's my next question to you.

Have you ever been accused of being beside yourself?

Of being out of your mind?

Have you ever done something?

What have you done lately that required explanation?

Because God is consequential.

A.W.

Tozer, a preacher from the 50s, said this.

He said, A real Christian is an odd number anyway.

You should get that tattooed on your back.

Speaking of which, that the wedding idea, there was a lady in the wedding that she had a big round tattoo on her back.

And I walked by and said, Hey, I loved you in Waterworld.

And apparently no one's seen that movie.

Thank you.

The few of you that saw that.

She was like, I don't get it.

I said, Waterworld, Kevin Coster, the girl had the map.

Never mind.

Just just keep drinking, okay?

By the way, when you go to a wedding and at the reception, they have five kinds of free margaritas and free shiner.

Something's gonna get off the reservation just in a matter of time.

And it did.

And I'm like, okay, I'm taking my mom and going back to the hotel now.

Why?

Because God's consequential.

He says, hey, uh, A.W.

Tozer said this.

He said, a real Christian is an odd number anyway.

In other words, let's stop trying to normalize God in the gospel.

It's not normal.

A real Christian is an odd number anyway.

He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen.

He talks familiarly.

Shut up.

I've had a bad week.

Did I tell you?

He talks in a familiar way every day to someone he cannot see.

Oh, people didn't talk right back then anyway.

Were they?

Puritans?

He expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another.

He empties himself in order that he might be full.

He admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, and he goes down in order to get up.

He is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and is happiest when he feels worse.

He dies so he can live.

He forsakes in order to have, and gives away so he can keep.

He sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge.

Why?

Because God is consequential.

Third thing I want to say too, just by way of introduction, is that the cross is necessary.

The cross is necessary.

Look at verse 14, for the love of Christ controls us because we've concluded this.

What is this thing that's so consequential?

What is this conclusion that Paul came to that that explained the way he lived?

Nine words.

That one has died for all, therefore all have died.

That one has died for all, therefore all have died.

See, we need to learn, when I say the cross is necessary, we need to learn to start at the cross and go backwards or forwards as far as necessary to establish the fact that God has always had and will always have a plan for everything He's created, humanity and creation.

And so while we can be good stewards of the planet, we do not give our life to a lesser mission like saving the planet.

We don't want to become the next Al Gore, okay?

Again, let me be clear.

We're called to be good stewards of all the natural resources around us, but we don't exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve creation instead of the creator.

That's what we're called to.

And unless you can start at the cross and go backwards or forwards, uh, I had a professor in college used to walk around, went to a Christian college, and you have a Bible on your desk.

Kind of like at AM, you know, where you got Bibles everywhere.

Oh, that's not funny, is it?

Let's just keep going.

Uh and he would just he would just flip your Bible open and put his finger down and say, Preach me the gospel from right there.

And one day he was walking around, he opened my Bible, and we were in 2 Corinthians, and he put his finger down and he said, Preach me the Bible from that sentence right there.

I asked him one time, I said, Why are you so hard on me?

You tell you give everybody else a verse, you give me one sentence, and he said, You have a big personality, Mr.

McClendon.

You better have a big gospel, or else your personality will disqualify and crucify you.

Fight the power.

He was tenured.

We couldn't lay a hand on him, and we didn't want to.

Everybody wanted that guy to have that guy in class.

He was like a clown on fire.

He was compelling and tragic all at the same time.

You're like, do I look at this or or why?

I looked down at that and I was like, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

Uh well, the Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross, and he was like, ah, that's all you know.

He said to my face, I don't think you know the gospel.

I think you know four or five verses that you memorized a long time ago, and I think you hide your ignorance behind them.

Quit it out.

I'm gonna tell the principal.

I didn't want to tell the principal.

I love that this man loved me enough to look at me and go, I'm not impressed.

I'm not impressed at all.

I don't think you can't start at the cross and go backwards in history and go forward into the future and tell the story that God's been telling, Mr.

McClendon.

What are you doing here?

You just getting a certificate that you took some classes, or you want to get an education?

Make the bad man go away.

But I never read those nine words the same ever again, that one has died for all and therefore all have died.

I understand what he means now.

What he means is what you and I need to understand this morning what is being said here.

Otherwise, you're you you're gonna be a universalist.

You're gonna say, Oh, well, Christ died for all, therefore all have died, so everyone's getting in.

It's not what he's described, but he's not talking about a condition, he's talking about an event, he's talking about the Christian's union with Christ and his death.

Because according to the Bible, becoming a Christian is not praying a prayer when you're eight and then just doing your best the rest of the life, and you obligated God with some verbal contract to take you to heaven when you die, regardless of how you live.

That's nowhere in the Bible.

You realize that, correct?

No, according to the Bible, becoming a Christian is akin to dying.

That's why when we baptize people here, when we put them underwater, we say, buried with Christ in baptism.

Why do you bury somebody?

Because as their faith community, we say, we see in you that you live in, you've escaped the vacuum of self, and you've been delivered from yourself by dying to yourself.

That's what the gospel does.

The gospel kills a person, but it has the power to raise them up to walk in a newness of life.

That's the gospel.

It's not trying harder.

Well, I'm gonna try Jesus.

Well, this Jesus thing is not working for me.

That is not the confession of a person that's died and been raised again.

That's a person that's tried but not died.

I hesitate to say that because it sounds cheesy, because it rhymes.

But it happens all the time in the American church.

We raise up people and all they do is try.

And well, if it doesn't make it better, it's just glorified pragmatism.

If it doesn't make my life better, I'm gonna find something else to try.

Good luck.

I say the cross is necessary.

We say, What do you mean?

Because those nine words, one has died for all, therefore all have died.

That's all you need to know to understand the story God's telling.

The story God's telling involves three words, and I want to give them to you this morning.

It involves separation, mediation, and reconciliation.

Separation, mediation, and reconciliation.

You don't have to know the whole Bible, you don't have to know the books of the Bible, you don't even have to have a clean shirt to come to church, okay?

You don't, all you got to do today, and I want you to understand, you can forget everything I've just said.

I didn't want to rush past it to get to this.

But the story that God is telling, when we say know the story, know what the Bible means when it talks about separation.

You say, What do you mean?

When Adam and Eve sinned, their relationship with God was affected, fellowship was broken, and as a consequence, God put them outside of the Garden of Eden.

On the surface, this can seem like a really mean thing, like God's harsh and judgmental and he's just a hater.

But actually, it's the most merciful thing God could do.

Let me say this, let me make this statement.

If you have a relationship where you can sin, and that that sin has no bearing on the relationship, then that person you're in relationship with with neither loves you nor themselves.

Let me say that again because the Bible makes us think, so let's don't.

Be afraid of thinking.

Let me back up and say this thing.

Sin affects any relationship you're in, whether it's husband and wife, boss to employer, friend to friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever.

Sin affects every relationship that you're in.

So therefore, we cannot act like sin does not affect our relationship with God.

Which is why I say to you, if you can be in a relationship, if you have a relationship where you can sin against that person, and that sin has no bearing on the relationship, then that person does not love you and they do not love themselves.

But the reason God expels Adam and Eve out of the garden is because God loves himself.

He's not going to compromise his nature.

And God loves Adam and Eve.

When you sin, you feel this sense of separation.

The Bible says in Isaiah 59, 2, he says to these people, he says, Hey, your sins have cut you off.

Let's don't kid about what the problem is.

You know what it is.

But notice that when God kicked them out, he didn't say, Get your stuff together and I'll let you back in.

That's legalism, by the way.

That's what that is.

Legalism.

God didn't expel Adam and Eve and say, hey, stop smoking pot and watching inappropriate things on your computer, and I'll let you come back and spend time with me.

No, because God knows what we all know, that we cannot make ourselves right with God.

So God doesn't put them out and say, get it together, because people who are sinful, they employ sinful means and sinful logic to get back in fellowship with a God in ways that don't involve Jesus.

Let me say that again.

People who are sinful employ sinful means and sinful logic to get back into fellowship with God in ways that don't involve Jesus.

And Jesus knew this all along.

So way back in John's gospel in chapter 10 of the book of John, Jesus said this.

He says, I am the door.

Whoever tries to get to God any other way besides me, they're thieves and robbers.

So if you're here this morning, you're like, hey man, I don't believe this.

You know, I got my own thing worked out.

Jesus says of you, and he said a long time ago, you're a thief and a robber.

You're trying to climb over the wall and get in instead of coming through the door.

Seven times in the book of John, Jesus makes these I am statements.

Now next month, we'll start preaching to the book of John.

We'll start in John chapter 1, verse 1, and we'll go through the whole thing.

John 1:1

I'd love for you to come along for that journey.

What we do here when we open the Bible and teach it, we'll never condemn you.

We'll never yell at you.

We'll never scream at you.

I don't try to make you feel bad.

I want you to know the truth.

And you know why?

Because Jesus says, and he says it in John, we'll look at it.

He says, You'll know the truth, the truth will set you free.

That's what we want for you.

We want you to be free here.

We want you to understand the truth that Jesus came to establish and live in the freedom of that.

But see, when I say that people employ uh sinful logic and sinful means, this is what I mean.

Here's the big problem for humanity.

God expels Adam and Eve out of the garden and ever since then, everyone who's ever been born, me at the top of the list, we have been born separated from God.

We cannot say, well, we're all God's children.

No, we're God's creation, but we're not God's children.

You do not have a relationship with God just because you're breathing.

So the big problem for humanity is this.

How do people that are separated from God because of their sins ever get restored to live in the presence of a holy and just God?

That's the problem that vexes us.

That's the problem that causes us to eat too much, drink too much, talk too much, lie too much, steal too much, is because we're trying to fix it ourselves.

So what do we do?

Here's what I mean by sinful logic.

It's good cubed.

It's good, good, good.

People say, Well, I'm a good person.

It doesn't take long to establish that that's not true.

Then they move to their second option.

They say, Well, I try to help my fellow man.

I do good deeds.

It doesn't take long to just crush that as insufficient logic.

And then here's the third part, the third good thing.

They say, Well, God's a good God.

And I've even had people say this to me.

Maybe you've heard this.

How can a good God and loving God create people and then let them go to hell?

My God's a God of love.

He would never do that.

So I just respond with this question.

That's a great question, but I've got a better one.

Do you think that I asked, do you think there's a better question than that?

Well, what do you mean?

How about this question?

How can a just God let unjust people into heaven?

Now think about this.

See, if you're not careful, that insufficient logic makes the story not interesting at all.

You say, well, what do you mean?

If a holy and just God lets unholy and unjust, sinful people into heaven, into his presence, wouldn't they contaminate the place?

Now think, you say, why are you talking so much about Adam and Eve?

Here's why.

Look at me.

Don't miss this.

Because if a holy and just God lets unholy and unjust people into heaven, then what you've done is recreate the Garden of Eden all over again in heaven.

Remember when Adam and Eve sinned?

They were in sin and God expelled them?

Why?

Because they were sinful, so they could be restored.

If you think, oh well, God's good and God's love, and He's going to let everybody in in the end, you have a contaminated heaven.

You have the Garden of Eden in the sky.

I would just ask you this.

So you're saying that God went through everything that he endured just to end up with what he had in the beginning?

That's not a very good story.

See, the story that God tells involves separation.

So you cannot be afraid or ashamed to acknowledge, you know what?

I'm separated from God.

Why?

Because of the second thing, mediation.

Mediation.

Watch this.

God, this just God acts mercifully and provides animal skins for Adam and Eve.

Did you know that?

We preachers don't talk about that part enough.

But you can write it down.

It's in Genesis chapter 3, verse 21.

Genesis 3:21

Don't turn there.

But after God lays out the punishment for their sin, then the Bible says this, and God provided animal skins for their covering.

Why?

Because the Bible says earlier that when Adam and Eve they sinned, their eyes are open and they realize they were naked.

And then the Bible says this, they were ashamed.

Here's one of the ways that God demonstrates from the very beginning that He's merciful.

He doesn't look at them in their shame and go, You deserve that.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

What do you say for yourself now?

No.

God sacrifices, don't miss this.

God sacrifices animals and takes their skins and covers the shame of Adam and Eve.

You say, What's the big deal?

Here's the big deal.

In doing that, God's introducing the idea of a mediator.

A mediator is someone who gives their life to provide us what we most desperately need.

And so it's always, I mean, God, He doesn't compromise His justice.

He doesn't lay down His holiness.

He looks and He says, Hey, there's always going to be a consequence for sin.

We talked about that a couple weeks ago.

He looks at them and He says, But you know what?

I'm a God of justice and mercy.

This is going to cost you to be separated from me, but I'm going to cover your shame because I don't want you to walk around in shame.

And in doing that, God's kind of saying, hey, get ready, because this is the one story I'm going to tell all through the Old Testament into the New Testament.

You say, What do you mean?

We go from the animal skins for Adam and Eve to the sacrificial system under Moses and the Mosaic Law to the representative suffering of Israel's king, Isaiah's suffering servant of the Lord in the book of Isaiah.

Towards the end of the Old Testament, there's a minor prophet named Zechariah, and he has this prophecy of a stricken shepherd.

And the entire Old Testament points to this king who will suffer and die and then triumph.

That's the story God's been telling.

All along, God's been telling.

Yesterday, I got to meet a friend of mine, nine years old, met him because he had questions about communion.

He said, I think I'm ready to receive communion.

And I turned back to page 56 of my Bible and I said, You know that communion started way back here with a thing God instituted called Passover?

And he just kind of looked at me like, Really?

And I said, So God's been telling the same story for a long time.

It's not that God's not creative, it's that God's consistent.

And so the story God tells just involves three parts.

Number one, separation.

Number two is mediation.

God demonstrates his justice in solving the problem of separation with mediation.

He provides a mediator.

The Bible says it like this.

This is 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 5 and 6.

1 Timothy 2:5

It says, For there's one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is a testimony given at the proper time.

Now, let me make a statement I want you to hear and remember, okay?

Look at me.

From the very beginning, when the Bible talks about God and man, a mediator is involved.

Why?

Because the Bible teaches that we have sinned and where our sins separate us from God.

And so we need a mediator.

This is why Jesus comes, because where I left off in the Old Testament talking about Isaiah's suffering servant and Zachariah's prophecy and all this stuff.

Because somebody's coming and you think you're ready, but you ain't ready.

You're not ready at all.

It's like Daniel Cormier thought last night he was ready for John Bones Jones, but he wasn't.

UFC, anybody?

Anybody?

Yes, I see that hand or the others.

Brother got knocked smooth out in the third round.

That's what John the Baptist does.

He says, Hey, you guys, I know you think you're ready, but you're not.

And Jesus just walks up, no fanfare, no entourage.

Yeah, come on, Jesus.

Kick that jam.

He just comes walking in, and John looks up and says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

And in that one simple statement, God is kind of winking, going, Hey, did you get that?

Y'all been sacrificing these animals all through the Old Testament.

And here comes the Lamb of God.

You ain't gonna have to sacrifice anymore.

Because I'm continuing to tell a story.

The story God tells involves three things.

Number one, separation.

You have to embrace that we're separated from God.

Otherwise, mediation makes no sense.

And thirdly and finally, reconciliation.

This is where God does for us what we could never do for ourselves.

He accomplishes what is necessary for us to be restored.

Okay?

And look at me.

Here's the great thing.

Here's where everybody in this room gets to play, gets to be involved.

Some of you are like, oh man, well, you know, I'm a Christian, but I don't really like, I don't talk to waiters and waitresses like you do.

So what?

You know, I'm not asking you to be like me.

Oh, please do not be.

My wife would tell you, he's the most highly functioning bipolar I know.

She may be right.

But here's what I am saying based on the Bible, okay?

Look at me.

If you're in this room and you have a relationship with Christ, God has given you the message of reconciliation.

Here's what that means.

And I'll read it in the Bible in just a minute.

God reconciles you from being born separated from Him, and He says, You know what?

There's other people out in the world.

They used to think like you, live like you, drink like you, love like you, eat like you, talk like you.

And now that you've been reconciled, all those things have changed, okay, for you.

Now I want you to go and I want you to tell them my story because they'll listen to you.

That's what the Bible means when he says he's committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Where does the Bible say that?

Thanks for asking.

Look at verse 16, and we'll be done this morning.

He says, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old is passed away.

Behold, the new is come.

And all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God was reconciled in the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are Christ's ambassadors.

We are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And we'll unpack that over the next couple of weeks as we talk about not today's about knowing the story.

Next week we'll talk about living the story.

And one of the fundamental ways that we live the story is we don't live for ourselves.

But we'll get to that next week.

But God says, did you hear what he said right there?

He said he's reconciled us to himself and he's given us the message of reconciliation.

You have this responsibility and this privilege to be so fluent in the story that God is telling that you can open your mouth at work and it comes out in ways that other people are provoked.

You don't go to work and scream at people and tell them they're all going to hell.

Let me tell you something.

Before I was a Christian, I knew I was going to hell.

Matter of fact, there's some people I said to, hey, if people like you go to heaven, I want to go to hell.

The thought of being with you forever makes me crazy.

And they would look at me, they had nothing to say.

None of them knew the story enough to kind of say, hey, you know what?

That's interesting, but have you ever thought about this?

And God says this to you and me today.

I so trust you that I'm going to entrust you to represent me.

And because God's committed to us, this ministry of reconciliation, we should know how God reconciles people.

Said differently, we should know the story.

My question to you this morning is do you know the story?

And has this story ever intersected and overwhelmed your story?

Let's pray together.

Take a moment, if you would, and just think about what the Bible has said.

If you're our guest today, what we'd like to do is just teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it, to interact with it, to ask yourself, hey, where did this where did this kind of rub up against me and make me think some things?

Maybe it was at the very beginning when we said, hey, we have something belief is possible.

Paul said we the love of God compels us because we're convinced.

We've kind of come to some conclusions about this.

What conclusions do you come to as a result of what you heard today?

Secondly, the Bible told us today that God's consequential.

You cannot be in a relationship with God and no one knows about it.

Jesus will say in John, and we'll get to it in a couple months.

He'll say, Hey, if you're thirsty, come to me and drink, and out of your inmost being will flow rivers of living water.

It's like you've got a river just flowing out of you.

That's hard to keep that on the down low, my man.

And the cross is necessary.

Why?

Because God closes the gap of separation by offering his son on the cross in our place and for our sin.

If you ever doubt how God feels about you, it is the greatest expression of love.

And that he gave his son.

Let's think about this for a moment and ask yourself do I know this story?

Amen.

Lord, that's that's us.

We want to tell the story.

Some of these people here, God, that they recognize that old hymn and they just kind of whispered it.

They couldn't contain themselves, they couldn't help themselves, God.

We want to be that way with the story you've been telling from the very beginning.

I pray for people in this room that got a bad story told to them.

That they'd walk out and kind of go, you know what?

Maybe God's maybe God's not given up on me.

Maybe Jesus did come and die so that I could be forgiven and get another chance.

That's the story, God.

None of us would be here without another chance.

So we're grateful for that.

So we say thank you for the chance and for the story that reminds us of the second chance.

We say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Every once in a while, some of you'll come up to me and say, So what happened?

How'd that story end?

The story with the waitresses at the grist meal.

Here's how it ended.

They said to us, You're wonderful.

Y'all are wonderful.

Y'all are wonderful.

I'm like, no, no, no.

My wife probably is.

Me, not so much.

But here's the thing that people like to have to walk away.

What kind of God is it that works in people's lives to where they love strangers more than they love their own money?

And that's what they got to walk away and think about.

I was like, I am not wonderful.

I am pouting because my transmission went out.

I tell you about that.

No, no, not at all.

Here's my point.

That's not a commercial for me and my wife.

It's a the world's full of people who've never heard the story.

Who've never picked up the tab and went, oh my gosh.

Why'd you do that?

Couldn't help myself.

Hemorrhaging cash last week?

Here to bless you this week.

That's better than leaving a track on the table.

Just from a former waiter.

We hate you people that don't tip.

If you're our guest today, let me say you thanks for being a part of our service, our service.

Hopefully you got it.

This is what we do.

And you're welcome to come do it with us anytime.

You don't have to be there yet.

You may still have some questions.

You may say, I don't believe.

That's okay.

Keep coming.

And if you'll keep coming and keep listening, we believe that the Bible, the Bible says you'll do well to pay attention to it until the morning star rises in your hearts.

God will reveal Himself to you and you'll see Him in us.

That's why you're welcome to be here among us, okay?

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

Bill and Irene Lauder, the lady that shared earlier, should I ask them to stand over here?

Because some of you may want to just come and encourage them or just say, Hey, I'm kind of where you are.

Would you pray for me?

They'd be glad to do that, okay?

Uh if you're our guest, when you came in, you're given a worship folder on the far right side is a tear-off portion.

Ask for some information.

Uh if you fill that out, we'd like you to just tear it off and drop it by the wooden boxes by the door on your way out.

And in case some of you have forgotten, that's where we receive our offering as well.

Did you see that?

See what I did there?

Just subtle.

Speaking of offering, I want to show you a picture because you paid for this.

Uh this is Park Slope Community Church in Brooklyn, okay?

Beautiful street.

It's kind of towards the bottom of the hill.

The street goes up, brownstones on both sides, tree-lined everything.

Uh, this is a church that we partnered with.

We send money to them.

Why do I show you that?

Because when the pastor went there, it's a beautiful architecture, old, old, old, cavernous building.

They had seven people in the church.

And Sterling Edwards left his church in Long Island to go pastor seven people because God told him to.

And so he moved his family there.

Uh, myself, Don uh Minton, our missions pastor, went, our spiritual formation pastor, and one of our men, Jason Daly, went and spent three days spending time with him and his staff.

And one of the things that came out of one of our coffee conversations are those benches there those people are sitting on, and those covered umbrella seating areas there, you paid for that.

Because they said people walk by all the time, and somebody said, Hey, the doors of these churches have never been open.

We've never seen them open in our entire life.

And I said, You need to have something like get a boosted Wi-Fi signal out here.

Let people congregate here.

And so when you put money in that offering box, it doesn't stay there.

Why?

Look at me.

Because we no longer live for just ourselves.

And so he sent me this picture this past week sitting Don and I, and he said, Man, you wouldn't believe we had 56 people in church last Sunday.

And we had this.

He said, We had a hot dog, we had a hot dog dinner for our neighborhood.

We invited everybody, and people just kept coming and kept coming and kept coming, and they were loving the outdoor furniture your church paid for.

And I said, So I want my church to know.

If you're visiting day, when we say, hey, when the Bible says, hey, we no longer live for ourselves, this is an example of what we mean.

We continue on a monthly basis to support because we don't want just our church to flourish.

We want the gospel to flourish.

And Brooklyn, New York needs a flourishing gospel centered church.

And this is one of them, okay?

And so when you give to this church, some of it goes there, and that's what it looks like.

All right?

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

You have not only been reconciled, but you've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

That means that God trusts you that much.

So depart now and reconcile what needs to be reconciled.

Speak to what feels separated.

And bask in the finished work of reconciliation.

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

Amen.

Bless you dismiss.