Even Worse Than You Thought (Romans 3:9-20) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: We were looking at Romans three, nine through 20.

And um, when I was in.

I, I probably told you this before, when I was in high school, I was really cool.

Um, I was in marching band and so there was a point though in high

school that maybe some of you are starting to realize maybe if you

play a sport, you play an instrument.

There's a point where I realized that, that I wasn't good enough

to be a professional musician.

There was a point where reality looked me in the face and I

realized I'm not gonna make it.

Someday.

For most of you who play sports or play instruments, there's gonna be a day

when you're, maybe it's in college, maybe it's in high school, where you're

gonna realize, I'm not gonna make it to the MLB, I'm not gonna make it.

I'm not, I'm not good enough.

There's gonna be a day where you have to come to terms with the

fact of what you really like.

You know, you're, you don't throw hard enough, you're not talented enough.

Right.

You, you, you can't practice enough.

No amount of practice will overcome your, your lack of talent or

your lack of genetics, right?

There's gonna be a time where you're gonna have to, to see

yourself as you really are.

Right?

And for me, that was the middle of high school.

I realized I, I went to this, I, I I was, because I thought I was really good.

And then I, I went to this, like, I joined this like advanced orchestra, which is.

I was really cool.

I know.

Um, I know you're all really jealous of me and, and I realized I'm not good enough.

Like these guys are way better than me.

There's I, I'm, I, I'm not good enough.

I can't do it.

I hope that very soon, if it hasn't happened to you already, that reality

has looked you in the face and you have realized that you're a sinner.

I hope that.

That's already happened to you, or I hope that might happen to you tonight,

that you are gonna to realize, to see yourself the way you really are,

that you're not good enough, that you aren't just someone who's, who makes

mistakes or occasionally does the wrong thing, or isn't always perfect.

But tonight, I, I want you to realize that you and, and I, and

everyone in this room is wicked evil.

That every single person who's ever walked the face of the earth

is sinner a terrible, guilty, condemned, awful sinner, and that

deserves God's wrath in hell forever.

That's the realization I want you to have tonight.

Tonight our main point, I want you to agree with God about your sinful state.

I want you to to see yourself the way you really are.

I don't want you to sugarcoat it.

I don't want you to, to try to patch it up with, I'm not that

bad, or everyone else does it too.

Or what about that person over there?

I want you to see yourself as you really are and agree

with what God says about you.

I heard a story this week that, um, there was a guy who was, uh, this

is, it was, it was one of my favorite stories I've heard in a while.

This guy, um, someone asked them to take a, him to take a picture of their family.

Or like a portrait, uh, of, of like some guy, you know, they're

walking, oh, can you take my picture?

He's like, actually, I already have your picture.

And they were like, what?

That's super creepy.

You have my picture.

And he opened up his Bible and he read them this passage.

He said, this passage is your picture.

This passage is you, you're looking in a mirror.

When you read this passage, you're looking at yourself when you read these words.

So that's what we're gonna see tonight.

Before we get there, I want you to remember where we're at, where we're at.

Romans is a letter.

It's a, it's an argument.

It's a, it's a series of thoughts.

It's one connected train of thought, and it's easy to lose

that when we go slowly like this.

I mean, this isn't really that slow for Romans.

There's people that take way longer to go through Romans than we're doing, but.

We're in this big first section.

God's wrath is good.

God's wrath is righteous.

God's wrath is the right response towards sinners like us.

We, we think God should punish us.

That's, that's the conclusion that we're getting to the, the point

of this section is we wanna get to this next part, next week's sermon.

I don't want you to be surprised that God sends people to hell.

I want you to be just surprised that God forgives anyone.

That's where I want you to be by 6:30 PM next Wednesday.

I don't want you to be surprised that people go to hell.

I want you to be surprised that anyone doesn't go to hell.

That's the the, that's what Romans is setting us up for.

Okay.

So what's happening?

How do we get there?

Well, this is kind of Paul's tying everything together.

Paul, the Apostle Paul, he wrote this letter to the church in Rome.

He's tying all of all of these steps together into this big

conclusion, and, and this is the conclusion that he's come to.

So read.

Um, actually before that we're gonna do things a little different.

I'm gonna give you the point first, and then I'll, we'll look at the verses.

Okay?

So our first point is we need to ag, we need to agree with

God about who we are, right?

Acknowledge your rebellion against God.

There's a few different ways that the Bible talks about sin.

We talk about sin, maybe the, the most common way you think of sin

is maybe missing the mark, right?

I messed up, I made a mistake.

Maybe that's the way you think of sin, or maybe you think of sin,

um, as doing the wrong thing.

I, I disobeyed God.

Sin isn't just disobeying.

Sin is actually personal.

Sin is you personally rejecting God, rebelling against God.

Sin is is you turning away from God.

You're God's the God's, the ruler, and you're saying, I don't

want you to be in charge of me.

That's what sin.

And that's the first part of what Paul wants us to see.

Look at verse nine of chapter three.

So we just talked about some arguments against the gospel and then we talked

about a lot about Jews and Gentiles.

Verse nine, what then are we Jews any better off?

Right?

Is there any advantage to being Jewish?

Is there any advantage to being God's chosen people from the Old Testament?

Paul says, no, there's, you're not any better off on Judgment Day.

You don't get any extra righteousness credited to your account.

There's no, there's no benefits to being a Jew when it comes to judgment four.

Why?

We have already charged that all.

Both Jews and Greeks are under sin.

Under sin.

Let's look at that under sin.

What does that mean?

Right?

Does that mean like sin is.

On top and we're like literally under sin.

No.

So what does that mean?

Well, what Paul's doing here is he's, he's giving us a picture of sin.

Like sin is a slave master, or sin is a, a kingdom.

And he's saying that every single person, you, me, doesn't matter

where we're from, doesn't matter how much religion we have in our past.

Doesn't matter how, what church we went to or who our parents are, every single

person starts off in this category.

Under sin, every single person starts off under sins mastery.

The way we talked about it, our community group last night, was

that sin is driving the car.

Sin is taking you where it wants to go.

You aren't driving the car, sin is driving the car, right?

Some of you guys, you get.

Sibling driving and you're stuck in, in the back.

Your siblings taking you places that you don't want to go.

You don't want to go get ice cream.

You're stuck in the back of the car.

They're your ride.

You gotta go, right?

What Paul is saying here is that that's every single person when it comes to sin.

Sin is in charge of you.

Sin is in control of you.

And that's different than maybe some, some things that you

might think about sin, right?

You might think of sin as something that I choose.

I'm the one who's, who's in control of my life.

I'm making these decisions.

I'm the one who's, who's choosing what to do.

I get to decide, oh, I'm not gonna do this.

I'm gonna do that.

I don't do this.

I am, I don't love this.

I love this.

Instead, you, maybe you think you're the one in control,

but really sin is addictive.

You think you control it, but really your sinful desires control you.

You don't control your sinful desires.

They control.

You,

it's when you think about addiction, right?

A lot of people who, who are addicted to things think that

they can stop whenever they want, and that's how they get addicted.

They think, well, okay, I'll start doing this drug.

Or maybe it's, you know, I'll start playing this game.

And then they can't stop.

They can't stop.

I remember when we went to, um, strikes.

Right.

There was a, a game that may or may not have been gambling, and there

were some students there who were gambling, um, and they couldn't stop.

They, they couldn't leave.

They literally wouldn't, they like begging their parents, please,

please don't make us leave.

Please don't make us leave.

We need to stay here.

We can't leave.

They thought, oh, well this game's not in control of me.

I'm playing the game.

But, but really the game's in control of them, right?

Because they're locked in, they can't leave, they're stuck.

They're like, I can't leave this game.

I have to get everything right.

Sin is addictive.

Sin isn't just bad things you do.

I heard a pastor put it like this.

Sin is a slave.

Master.

Sin isn't just you saying, oh, I do these bad things.

Sin is actually taking control of you.

You're under sin.

Maybe you think, oh, well, I can just stop sinning when I get

older and I'll become a Christian.

Then Paul's saying that you're actually under sin.

Your sinful desires are in the driver's seat.

They're driving you around.

All you can do is sin.

You can't stop.

You're stuck.

But it's easy to say that and then be like, well, I'm just a victim, right?

My sin controls me.

I just do whatever my sinful desires want.

How I'm not responsible then, right?

'cause I'm a sinner.

That's just what I do.

I sin.

I can't help it.

That's actually the opposite of what Paul's about to say.

Keep reading here in verse 10.

He's gonna quote a bunch of Old Testament passages.

Verse 10.

As it is written, no one is righteous.

No, not one.

No one understands.

No one seeks for God.

Everyone all has have turned aside.

Together.

They have become.

Worthless like corrupt.

No one does good.

Not even one.

You aren't just a victim of your sinful desires.

You're an active participant in them.

You're not just in the back of the car being driven around.

You're in the back of the car enjoying the ride.

You're in the back of the car saying, this is awesome.

Please take me there.

Please let me go where you want me to go.

I love this ride.

You're not just stuck in the car, you actually are stuck in the car because

you don't wanna get out of the car.

It doesn't even matter if there's a child lock on, you can't get out.

You're saying, I love this.

I want to be here.

And that's what sinful desires are like.

You're not just a a victim to them.

You are a willing participant.

That's what Paul's talking about.

No one is righteous.

No one likes doing the right thing.

He's saying every single person loves sinning.

No one understands.

What that means is that there's no one who naturally agrees with what God says.

Everyone naturally opposes God and His word.

That's your natural disposition.

That's what you're naturally like naturally.

No one says, oh, you know what?

I want to follow God.

I want to to be unselfish and love other people.

That has to come from God.

It doesn't come from you.

All of our values are backward to God's values.

Like you think about, a great example is humility, right?

You don't have to teach a baby to be prideful.

You don't have to teach a baby to look out for their best interests.

Every baby grows up thinking about themselves when they

don't get what they want.

They cry when they're hungry.

They cry when they're cold.

They cry when they're hot.

They cry, right?

They're, do they care if they're waking their parents up?

No.

They just wanna get what they want, right?

Then you get older and really you just learn how to like socially

make your sin socially acceptable.

So instead of crying, you just gossip about people instead, or you exclude

them or you hurt them or whatever.

So everyone, sin comes naturally to everyone.

Every single person naturally is opposed to God's values.

God loves things like humility.

We love things like pride.

God loves things like peace.

We naturally are anxious.

We naturally worry about all these different things that

we don't need to worry about.

You don't have to try to sin.

Also, when we talk about no one seeks for God, right?

You think about, well, there's all these religious people out there.

There's all these other religions.

Everyone seems to know that God exists.

What do you mean no one seeks for God?

Right?

You're telling me that the Buddhist monk isn't seeking for God.

You're telling me that the, the, the Muslim guy who, who goes

to and prays seven times a day, he, he doesn't seek for God.

Well, one, he's not seeking for this God, right?

But also no one naturally wants God.

We just want His stuff.

We don't really want God, we want.

God gives us, we love the things that God gives us more than we love God.

That's called idolatry, right?

We, we say, oh God, well, I want you to make me happy.

I want you to keep me safe.

I want you to give me the, the, the grades I want.

I want you to gimme the friends I want.

I want you to make my siblings do what I want, but I don't want you.

We don't naturally want God.

We just naturally want his stuff because we're sinners.

That's how deeply rooted our sin is, in fact.

We all avoid God, that word turned aside.

It sounds kind of weak.

It's like, oh, I just made a wrong turn.

What it really means is like you're avoiding, you're going out of the way.

People go out of their way to not look for God.

People go out of their way to avoid God, and we've all been there, right?

All of us have actively avoided God.

You've actively decided, God's given me a Bible.

I don't wanna read it.

You've actively decided.

God's offered himself to me in prayer.

Not gonna do it.

We've all actively turned away from God.

God has said, I give life, I give peace.

I give joy.

And we say, well actually God, I can be happier doing my own thing.

I can be happier living my own way.

I can be happier making my own decisions and not listening to you.

We all turn aside.

We all reject God.

We say, God, your way's dumb.

My way's better.

I'm gonna do that.

That's sin.

Whenever we sin, that's what we're saying.

We're saying, God, I don't want you.

I want me.

That's sin.

We are all so sinful.

We are rebelling against God.

We're opposing God, right?

Sin isn't just making mistakes.

Sin is actively opposing God.

When we sin, right?

When, when, like for example, let's just take, um, let's take anger, right?

You get upset with someone in your heart.

You hate them in your heart.

That's you saying, God, this person is so inconvenient to me or

bothering me so much that I'm going to, to murder them in my heart.

You're rebelling against God.

That's what, that's what anger is.

Or let's take um, anxiety, right?

Anxiety, rejection of God.

Anxiety is saying, God, I know that you're good.

I know that you're wise.

I know that you love me, but I don't trust you.

I need.

To be safe.

That's what anxiety is.

It's a rebellion against God.

It's saying, God, I'm gonna live as if you don't exist, and I'm gonna live as

if this thing is more powerful than you.

I'm gonna be more afraid of this thing than I am of you.

It's rebelling against God.

So all, all sin is, is actively rejecting God and rebelling against him.

Remember, sin is sinful because of what it says about God.

I heard one pastor, he said that if.

God didn't exist.

And let's say you were a successful version of Hitler and you

actually did kill all of the Jews,

would that person, if there was no God, no heaven, no.

Hell would that person deserve to suffer forever for their punishment.

If they killed, if they succeeded in wiping out a whole race of people,

they wouldn't deserve to suffer forever.

They did a finite amount of sin and they sinned against finite people.

If you sin against an infinitely awesome and amazing God, that's why

you deserve infinite punishment.

You don't go to hell because of what your sin does to other people.

You go to hell because your sin says God is.

Even though he's the most amazing, most glorious, most worthy to be

trusted, most worthy, to be loved most, he's so patient with me, he,

he's so kind to me and I don't care.

That's why sin sends people to hell forever because of God, not because

of what happens to other people.

So even if you say, oh, my sins not hurting anyone,

what does it say about God?

Sin is sinful because of what it says about God, not because of

what it says about other people.

And because of all that, our sin has made us, this word says worthless.

It's ruined us.

We've become corrupt.

We've become thoroughly infected by our sin.

So our second point tonight is admit that you are thoroughly

evil, thoroughly, right?

Whole, holistically all of you.

Every part of you is infected by sin, right?

You're not a house that just has a couple rooms of sin and a

couple rooms of righteousness.

Every part of you is sinful.

I don't know if you've seen this before, but if you've seen the difference between

when you put food coloring in cold water and when you put it in hot water, it's

like this science experiment people do.

When you put food coloring in cold water, it takes way longer to spread out.

When you put it in hot water, it fills the whole thing pretty fast.

So I think a lot of times we see ourselves like this.

We say, well, yeah, part of me might be sinful, but part of me is not.

I do some good things.

I do some bad things right?

Part of me loves God.

Part of me doesn't, and we see ourselves as, oh, well, parts of me are bad.

Parts of me are infected by sin and parts of me aren't.

Part of me are clean water.

Part of me is.

Polluted water.

Right?

Really, this is us apart from Christ, all of us are colored by sin.

All of us.

This, this sin is infecting every part of us, not just some parts.

It's not like, oh, well I'm, I'm only sinful when I'm with those people, or I'm

only sinful when I'm doing bad things.

Actually.

Because of how thoroughly, how sinful we are.

You're always under sin.

Apart from Christ, you are always infected by sin.

That's what Paul talks about in verse 12.

Everyone's turned away from God, the other of become corrupt.

No one does good.

Not even one.

No one does good.

Paul is saying that that billionaire.

Atheist who donates to charity, he's not doing good.

What do you agree with that?

That sounds weird, right?

Well, why?

Well, when you think about it, every good deed that someone does,

if it's not for God, who's it for?

It's for them.

It's selfish.

And remember what we talked about with sin?

Sin is sin because of what it says about God.

If you donate a billion dollars to charity.

For you.

What are you saying about God?

You're not even acknowledging God.

You're saying God is worthless.

God isn't important.

God's not worth my time.

You're stealing glory from God.

Maybe you're drawing attention to yourself.

So really that good thing that you did is still infected by sin.

There's no clean water in that activity.

It's all polluted.

Think about all the things, all the the good things that you could do for selfish

reasons, and think about your life if maybe before you were a Christian or

maybe now you're, you're not a Christian, think about all the good things you

do and think about how your motives are so sometimes double sided, right?

It's like, well, did I really do that?

Did I really?

Say that encouraging word to that person because I wanted to encourage them, or did

I say it because I wanted 'em to like me?

Maybe both, but guess what?

Is that a pure act then?

No, it's infected by sin or, oh, well, did I really, um, answer that question in

small group because I wanted to be honest?

Or was I answering it because I wanted attention and I

wanted to impress my leader?

Well, even if it's both, guess what?

Not a pure motive, right?

So we're incapable apart from, from God of doing anything good because

everything about us is infected by sin.

Just like all of the water in the jar is polluted.

And then Paul goes on to talk about how he talks about a lot of

different body parts here, right?

You see things like throat.

Tongues, lips, mouth.

And then we talk about feet and we talk about like walking,

and then we talk about eyes.

I think what Paul's trying to say here is he, so he's compiled a bunch

of quotes from the Old Testament, and what he's saying is that you're

evil from head to toe, right?

From your head to your feet.

You're a terrible person.

That's what Paul's saying.

Paul is saying that your words are, they tear people down.

They're an an asp, that's a snake.

That's like a Egyptian cobra.

If you know about Cleopatra, that's probably the kind that

she used to kill herself Anyway.

Um, there your mouth.

And what did you just say about our mouths?

Right?

Our mouths reveal our hearts.

He says, out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks.

What comes outta your mouth is actually showing your heart.

So everything about us is polluted by sin.

See how Paul here is focusing on motives and intentions too.

Not just actions.

He's not just talking about the external things that people can see.

He's talking about the things that go on in your heart

that no one else knows about.

Right?

He's talking about deceiving people.

He's talking about bitterness, right?

I, I might not be able to tell if you're bitter.

Your parents might not be able to tell if you're, if you're being bitter, if

you're holding a grudge against someone, if you're tearing someone, someone down

when, when they, they walk away or even.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

That's an intention.

That's it.

I, I want to hurt someone.

So

even our good deeds are filled with mixed motives.

They're filled with selfishness, they're filled with pride, and so

we are thoroughly infected by sin.

There's no part of us that's untouched by sin.

We're not like, oh, 90% sinful, 10% good, or.

60% righteous, 40% sinful.

Everyone is 100% sinful, 100% sinful before God does something to you.

But also sin makes us blind to our need for help.

So if you keep reading in our passage, verse 19.

After all those quotes, Paul says, now that we know, whatever

the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, right?

So under the law, that means the people that are under the authority

of the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world

may be held accountable for God.

So no objections.

No objections.

Every single person is accountable to God.

Every single person falls short of God's standard, and every single

person is responsible for that.

That's why we all deserve God's punishment because God has a standard, he, he gives

the law and no one can make any excuse.

You can't say, well, God, I, I wasn't sure that you existed.

Right.

Romans one, we talked about how everyone knows that God exists

and then you say, well, um, maybe I was part of the right group.

I got baptized, or I went to church, or My parents are Christians.

Romans two, right.

Paul talked about how even the Jewish people have all these

religious advantages, but.

They don't measure up to God's standard either.

So no one has any, any standing to say, God, actually you shouldn't condemn me.

You shouldn't punish me for my sin.

So sin because it makes us blind to our need for help.

God gives us the law by works of the law, no human being

will be justified in his sight.

No one, no person is good enough to go to heaven.

That's what Paul's saying.

Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The law shows us that we're sinful.

God gives us the law.

He gives us his word, he, he tells us what he expects of us, to show

us that we're not good enough.

Because one of the symptoms of sin is that we don't see it.

We don't think we're sinful.

Most people, if you ask them, are you a good person?

Yes.

Or most people, you ask them, do you think you're gonna go to heaven or go to hell?

Uh, I think I'm go to heaven.

Why?

I'm a good person.

Or I went to church, or I prayed a prayer.

Get a lot of people who assume, right?

There's a country song.

I believe most people are good, or I believe that most people say, oh, but

there's goodness in everyone, right?

We see that in a lot like Star Wars, right?

That's like the whole point of Star Wars.

So we see a lot of, a lot of this come out just implicitly.

We think, oh, well, somewhat deep down they're, they're really a good person.

Or we think kids are just good natured and then they get corrupted by our society.

Not true.

Kids are sinners, and so that's why they sin.

So God needs to show us that we're sinful.

And the way he does that is he gives us his law.

It's kind of like, I dunno if you remember these things from elementary school.

So I have terrible handwriting.

Um, these things don't help me write neatly.

They just make me feel bad.

These things don't help me have good handwriting.

What they do is they show me that I stink at writing.

They show me as I try to fill out the, as I could even

probably do this on the board.

I'm not going to, but they show me that I'm a terrible writer.

That I, I have terrible handwriting, terrible penmanship.

I don't write neatly or I have bad motor skills, whatever.

Right.

That's what God's law does.

Right.

We try to fill out the, the form.

We try to, to write the A's and and write ant.

We try to do that and.

We end up looking terrible 'cause we see what we're supposed to be like and

we realize, oh man, I'm not doing that.

We need that.

'cause otherwise we would think we're good because we look around.

Imagine if you didn't know what an A was supposed to look like

and you just had a bunch of third graders try to write the letter.

Or sorry, a bunch of three-year-olds try to write the letter A sometimes

third graders, some of you.

I see your sermon notes anyway.

Um, no, I'm just kidding.

But imagine, right, if we're just all doing this and we're just comparing

ourselves to each other and we're not comparing ourselves to this,

it makes it harder to see, right?

If all the three-year-olds in the room are like trying to write, you know, in

the lines and they're like, well, I'm better than you and I'm better than you.

But guess what?

If we show them this, oh yeah, I don't measure up.

I'm not good enough.

My A looks nothing like that.

A, even if it's the best a in the three-year-old class.

I don't even know if three year old's, right.

Anyway, um, you get the point, right?

The whole point of the first three chapters of Romans is to expose your sin.

The whole point of, of what probably feels like a bunch of discouraging

sermons is because we are so bad at admitting that we need God to save us

because we love to rely on ourselves.

We love to think that we're good enough.

We love to think that, that I don't, I, I can make it.

Maybe, maybe God will help me, but I'll do like some of the work.

We love to think those things, right?

The Mormons, one of their phrases that they'll tell you is, the way

salvation works is you do your best and God takes care of the rest.

So you try as hard as you can to be a good person to, to do what

the Book of Mormon says, and then God will make up the difference.

But as long as you tried.

Good.

The Bible says you're the worst and God does everything.

So we are so bad at admitting because we love to rely on ourselves.

We love to be to get credit for things.

We love to deserve things.

We love to earn things, and that's what's wrong with us.

So our third point tonight is abandon your reliance on self.

Right.

Give it up.

Say, I can't, trust me, I can't rely on me.

I can't count on me to be good enough.

When I stand before God and he judges me, I can't say, well, God,

look what I fill in the blank.

Look what I did.

I can't say that because that's me relying on me.

One of the, the things with sin is it, it's called blindness a lot in the Bible.

And the thing about sin is it, it makes us think that we're fine on our own.

It makes us think that we don't need other people's help.

When I was listening to what some people said about this passage, I heard

this epic story about Ringo the Duck.

I want you guys to meet Ringo, the duck from the seventies.

The reason he is named Ringo.

Is because he was trying to like, eat stuff through some trash and you know,

those like soda can things, he got one of those stuck around his, his beak and so

he couldn't open his mouth all the way.

Um, and so he, this was in Toronto I think, and everyone tried to help him,

but imagine, right, you're trying to help this duck get the, the ring off.

Its off its bill.

What's the duck gonna do?

Is duck gonna be like, oh yeah, please help.

Duck's gonna fly away, right?

Duck's gonna jump in the water.

So all these people are trying to help Ringo and Ringo's running away.

Ringo's saying, I'm scared of you.

I don't like you, I'm going away.

So these people in Toronto, they made like a, like a coalition

to help Ringo, like save Ringo.

And so they got, um, people with like net guns to try to catch Ringo.

Didn't work, couldn't catch a Ringo.

He kept escaping.

They got like some skin divers to go and like try to ambush Ringo and, and get him.

Still didn't work.

They even got the champion duck collar from Canada to get Ringo to come and they

got other ducks to come, but not Ringo.

I don't know what happened to Ringo.

Ringo may have been liberated from his, his plight, um, but.

He might not have.

Ringo might have died.

He might have, he might have starved to death 'cause he couldn't eat anything.

But the point is that all these people tried to help Ringo and Ringo ran away

from their help because Ringo didn't realize that they're trying to help him.

Ringo didn't realize that these people care about him.

He just saw, oh, they're scary.

I'm gonna run away.

Ringo obviously is a duck.

Can't admit that he needs help.

A lot of people are like Ringo, like God comes to you with the gospel.

You hear sermons, your parents talk to you, your leaders talk to you.

You're convicted of your sin, and you run away.

You say, I don't want that.

That's, I, I don't think that's good for me.

'cause Ringo thought I was gonna hurt Ringo's.

Like, oh, they're gonna kill me, they're going to eat me, whatever.

Right?

Ringo didn't wanna do do that, and so he ran away.

Part of the problem for us when we're under sin, right?

We're even sometimes Christians, we're so influenced by our sinful

flesh that we don't want God's help.

People are naturally resistant to God.

We naturally want to rely on ourselves.

We naturally want to do things our way.

We naturally don't want God's help because we want to hold on

to anything that gives us credit.

We wanna hold onto?

Oh, well, I'm, I'm not really that bad.

I know that I know what the Bible says.

I know that I'm a sinner, but I'm not like that bad.

I'm not gonna confess that sin.

I can't give up that God's asking me to stop doing that.

That's what repentance looks like.

I don't wanna do that.

You're telling me that that's better.

That God is better than, than this.

You're telling me God's better than that relationship.

You're telling me God's better than, than this hobby that I really enjoy.

You're telling me that that God's worth investing time into time reading

the Bible and and time praying and and time talking to other Christians.

We love to hold onto our own goodness or our own independence or our own

priorities, and it prevents us.

From being saved a lot, or if you're a Christian, it prevents us from growing.

If you never admit that you need help, you're not gonna grow as a Christian.

The the less you feel like you're a sinner, the less you'll grow

even as a Christian, the less that you feel like you need.

God's grace and God's help, and God's power and God's Word, and

God's people to help you grow.

Trials to help you.

That's why God gives you trials as a Christian, because we're so bad at

growing that God has to make us go through really hard things so that we trust him.

Because if God just gave us all these good things all the

time, we'd forget about 'em.

And we love all his gifts and we wouldn't love God.

So God has to give us, there's, there's a, one of Paul's letters.

He basically says that God almost had to kill me to get me to, to

trust him, to stop relying on myself.

How sinful Paul was, and I can't imagine that any of us here

are much better off than that.

There's a scene in Indiana Jones, um, the last crusade where, I don't know, at the

very end, spoiler alert, um, they find the holy grail and um, which isn't real.

Anyway, um, this lady really wants it and she, she wants to grab it.

And what happens is they're, they find it and the cha uh, every Indiana

Jones movie, everything starts falling down and the building gets destroyed

every, at the end of every movie.

And, um, the, the Holy Grail, it falls down this crack and she jumps after

it 'cause she's trying to get it.

And if Indiana Jones, he grabs her hand because he, if she,

lets go of him, she's gonna fall.

But she's trying to grab this.

She wants the this cup, she wants the holy grail and she wants it so

bad and she's so consumed with, I need that, that I need that treasure.

I need that.

She thinks it's gonna make her live forever, right?

She's like, I want that so bad.

She doesn't realize she's literally about to die to get it, and so he's

trying to pull her up and she can't stop.

She, she wants it so bad.

She ends up letting go and dying because of how bad she wants.

That she, if, if she lets, if she gives up on this, if she says, you know what?

I give up on that, I'm gonna let go of that and grab onto

you, then I'll be saved.

I'll live.

But she is so caught up in this, in the holy grail.

She wants it so bad she can't give it up.

And she can't let go of it in order to to grab Indy and be saved.

That's where I think a lot of you guys are at.

You know that, that God could save you.

You know that he could pull you up,

but you're so caught up with your sin, you love it too much.

You can't let it go, or you can't really bring yourself to admit

the fact that I need a savior.

I don't just need God to help me and clean me up a little bit.

I need God to save me 'cause I'm a sinner.

I deserve hell.

I deserve wrath forever.

And you can't let go of the fact that, oh, I'm, I'm not that bad.

Or I, I have to, I have to.

Following Jesus means putting him above that person or that

priority, or that ambition of mine.

You can't give it up.

You can't let it go and it's, it's gonna kill you.

If, if you can't surrender to Jesus,

whatever you're, you're chasing after will kill you

because you have to let go of it.

You have to abandon your self-reliance.

You have to say, I'm not good enough, so don't hold on to that anymore.

Right.

Stop holding on to.

Whatever it is that that makes you feel like you can, maybe you think

I'm too sinful to come to Jesus, whatever it is, stop holding onto that.

Give it up and it, and admit, turn away from yourself.

Say, I'm not good enough.

I fall short.

I need Jesus to save me.

I don't just need Jesus to help me.

I don't just need Jesus to, to partner with me.

I need a savior.

I don't just need help.

Let's pray and we'll talk about that in small groups.

God, thank you that you love us so much.

We are awful people.

Um, and we admit that and confess that, um, that we are sinful.

We are worse than we think we are.

We are more evil, more selfish, more prideful, more lazy, more lustful,

more anxious than we think we are.

And so I pray tonight that you show us that, that you show us who

we really are, that we would see ourselves the way you see us, first and

foremost, our sin, the way you see it.

But I also pray that we would be able to see salvation for what it is that we would

remember, that trying to hold on to our sin, trying to hold onto the world, trying

to hold onto ourselves will kill us.

Turning to you in repentance and faith, trusting that you, Jesus,

died to take away our sin, and you live to give us righteousness, and

you rose again to defeat death.

Trusting you, turning to you in in faith gives us life.

So I pray that we're honest and we're open in small groups.

And I pray that we, you help us to, to really see things the way they really are.

You pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.