Romans: By Faith

Tobin continues this morning with our study of Romans.

And today's scripture comes from chapter 3, which you can find in your bulletin.

You can read along as I read.

Starting in verse 21.

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested,

being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.

For there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,

whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God,

He passed over the sins previously committed.

For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just

and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus.

Where then is boasting?

Is it excluded?

Yes, it is excluded.

By what kind of law?

Of works?

No, by a law of faith.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Or is God the God of Jews only?

He is not the God of Gentiles also?

Yes, of Gentiles also.

Since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith,

is one.

Do we then nullify the law through faith?

May it never be.

On the contrary, we establish the law.

This is God's word.

I just realized that I stepped in something squishy outside with our kiddos left behind.

So I'll try not to move around too much up here as I, but on my way up I could hear squeak,

squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.

But he is the justifier and he is the just.

If you, we've been on a journey.

We've been going through the book of Romans.

We have been basically in this pit.

So you're probably glad if this is the first time you're here that you weren't here the last week

or the week before that or the week before that.

Because we were just talking about stuff that is uncomfortable to talk about.

It's uncomfortable to preach.

And it's been very challenging as we look at God's word.

And remember we've said that if we come to God's word and we never get upset,

if we hear something that never bothers us,

then we're probably not listening.

Or we're probably worshiping a different God than the God of Scripture.

And so one of the things we did or we tried to do is we opened up a telephone line

and we had people text message questions in.

And so I wanted to look at one of them that came in and just talk about that.

So we've been trying to go on this journey and try to think about what happens.

And I don't have a copy of what I have here.

It says,

Romans 2.6,

You said that one day,

that on the day of judgment,

that we will all be judged according to the nature of our works,

good or selfish,

bad.

However,

last week you said that all of our works are purple,

sinful.

What did I miss out?

Okay,

so I know that we caused a lot of tension as we went to God's word last week

and we looked at what God's word has said about our hearts.

We used this word,

do you remember the word we used?

Total depravity,

right?

We said that total depravity,

that the Bible,

that Romans says that our hearts and our lives,

that we're totally depraved.

And I know that some people had a really hard time.

I mean,

I've had people dialoguing with me and angry and I'm not that bad and I'm not that

good and trying to figure out,

what is going on there.

But we said total depravity means that we're not as bad as we could be,

but that there's not a part of us that isn't tainted by sin.

We do this picture up here and I think we have a slide of it.

We tried to illustrate it.

And I said that if sin were a color,

if sin were the color purple,

that all of creation would be tainted purple,

that maybe we're not all Barney purple,

but that we're all have some parts of us that are purple,

right?

And so we have to realize that.

So when we talk about this idea of good works,

some of the questions we have to ask is,

what is the standard that we are determining what is good?

What is good?

I used the illustration last week of Kip,

and when he learned how to play the game of life.

And he looked at this money,

and my kids are really confused about money,

and he thought,

well,

this is money,

and can I go take this down to the bank?

And I made a great comment about HSBC.

Elaine wasn't here,

but I told her about that.

And I tried,

15 minutes,

I tried to explain to him that this isn't real money.

And as a little kid,

he has a hard time understanding that.

And the scripture says it in the same way,

that's kind of what our good works are like.

That we do these good works before the Lord,

and we say,

well,

I'm good.

I'm not that bad.

I'm not that bad of a person.

But none of these works,

none of these good works,

are salvation good works.

None of these good works are righteousness good works.

None of these good works,

apart from Christ,

make God look at us and go,

wow,

Tobin's awesome.

Look at what he just did.

None of those things do that.

Does that make sense?

So we're talking about,

when we talk about good works,

apart from Christ,

there's nothing good that we can do.

I used the illustration last week of going to visit Christina in Austin,

and I went to the rose garden at DTS.

Remember that?

And I confessed before everybody that I sinned,

and I stole roses from the garden,

because I thought that they'd be dead by the end of the week,

and I might as well give them to my wife,

my future wife on the weekend,

and I cut them,

and I took them down to Austin.

When I cut those beautiful flowers,

were those flowers alive or dead after I cut them?

They're dead.

They look beautiful.

They look great,

but they're not plugged into a life source,

a life-giving source.

And Romans says that's the same way that our works,

apart from Christ,

that's what our works look like with God.

Now,

almost inevitably,

when I do a talk like this,

or I answer a question like this about our motives,

and our hearts,

and why are we doing these things,

you know,

because there's this idea of this line of salvation,

and we think this idea that faith plus works equals salvation.

But Romans has been saying that,

and the Bible says it,

it's faith equals salvation plus works.

And so when you look at this type of question,

you want to ask,

am I talking about the works I had before I became Christian?

Or am I talking about the works that I've done,

and God's allowed me to do,

after I've come into a relationship with him?

I will say that you need to ask yourself continually,

what is your heart?

And what's your motive?

Almost always after I say that,

someone's going to come up to me and say,

oh,

I just realized I've been serving on a worship team,

my motive is terrible,

I'm just going to leave the worship team,

I'm not going to do that anymore until I get a good motive.

Well,

my first reaction is,

well,

is that what God told you?

But my second reaction is,

well,

what if I said that as a dad,

or as a husband?

You know,

I realized that I've been a terrible husband,

because I've only been nice to Christina,

because I wanted to get sex from her,

and I realized that terrible motives,

and so I'm just going to stop being her husband.

I'm just going to stop being her husband,

I'm going to go off to an island until I get my heart right,

until I figure out how to do that.

Is that the right thing to do?

No.

Scripture says we look at our hearts and our motives,

and we need to deal with our motives and what's going on in our life.

But we don't throw out something that God's called us to do,

just because our motives aren't totally pure.

I'm sure I probably confused everybody the moment I said sex with my wife.

So,

I'll have to apologize to her afterwards.

But you've got to look at your heart,

and you've got to ask the Lord,

one,

do I know Christ?

And two,

as I know Christ,

he's given me these gifts to serve.

When I serve,

am I doing it to his pleasure and to his joy,

or am I doing it for Tobin?

Or you?

A great way to ask that and answer that question is this.

If you're a Christian,

and you're serving,

and you're saying,

I'm serving for the Lord,

how do you react when you get no acknowledgement?

How do you react when you've done all these things for God,

but no one ever comes up and says,

that's a great job,

thanks for doing that.

What are your feelings when you don't get that pat on the back for serving God?

And if your feelings are angry,

frustration,

oh man,

I can't believe they don't appreciate me.

I'm going to go to a church where I'm appreciated.

And Romans says that probably our motives

are not pleasing the Lord.

Because we serve,

and we use our gifts

as an act of love

for all that God has done for us.

Does that make sense?

I know I'm speaking with a Texas accent,

and some of you are looking at me like,

what are you saying?

But that's what we're saying.

So if you've been with us for any length of time,

we've talked often about Scripture like this.

That when we look at the Bible,

we look at Scripture,

we see it divided into categories.

We see it into creation,

we see it into fall,

we see it into redemption,

and we see it into restoration

throughout all time.

In creation,

we come to creation,

and we look at the Bible,

and we see how things should be.

How did God mean for things to be?

What are relationships supposed to look like?

What is marriage supposed to look like?

What is serving God supposed to look like?

We come to fall,

and we see what happens

when sin enters into our world.

We see the purpleness

that enters into our life

and in our hearts.

And we understand what's wrong with us.

We understand why we do the things

that we don't want to do.

We come to redemption,

and we look at how God fixes that.

And that's all about the cross.

That's all about Jesus.

Jesus comes in.

Jesus fixes it.

Jesus is the hero of the story.

Right?

Maybe one question we should ask ourselves

every day we wake up

or when we get done from our work,

maybe if you have a great spouse

or a great friend or a flatmate,

maybe you should ask that person,

hey, who is the hero of your story today?

Who's the hero Jesus?

Or was the hero you?

I think often, if I'm honest,

the hero of my story

throughout my day is me.

And that's what we learn in the fall.

And when Christ comes,

he redeems us.

He makes all things new.

And he is the only hero of the story.

And the fourth part is redemption.

We look at redemption,

and we say, okay,

this is where we're,

I mean, restoration.

This is where we've been redeemed.

We're here now.

C.S. Lewis says we're in the shadow lands.

We're in this in-between time.

We talk a lot about we're in the now,

but not yet.

And so you and I are in the now,

but not yet.

And so the question we have to ask ourselves

in restoration is,

why does God have us here?

What does he want us to do?

What does it look like for us

to serve him?

To serve him?

To be used by him?

The story of the Bible

is not Old Testament

and New Testament.

The story of the Bible

is not little stories at all,

kind of really neat little stories

you tell your kids.

But the story of the Bible

is one big story.

And it's the story of God.

And it's the story of how God

is doing an amazing work

in his creation.

And what we see in Scripture

and in our everyday life

is that God is taking our stories

and is intertwining our stories

with his stories.

And if we let him,

if we submit to him,

if we surrender our lives,

if we acknowledge what's going on,

that when he does that,

something amazing happens.

Something amazing happens

when he intertwines our story

with his story.

And so that's where we're at

in Romans.

So far what we've looked at

is Paul is coming

in the book of Romans.

If you take out your passage here,

Paul was looked at

and so far what he said is

creation, fall,

and everybody's starting to redeem

or try to redeem themselves.

One day I was in China.

I was teaching.

I taught in China

for probably altogether

about eight or nine years.

And I shared this story

of creation, fall,

redemption, and restoration.

I shared the story

with my students

of how God is working

even when we don't see him work.

And in the middle of the class,

a student raised his hand.

And he stood up.

And he said this to me

and I'll never forget it.

He says,

if what you say is true,

if what you say about God is true,

if what you say about the Bible is true,

if what you say about me is true,

then I need,

I need a lot of help.

The student in front

of all the other students said,

because I realize

that I'm broken inside.

And so the question

I have to ask you is,

how can I be made right?

How can God make me right?

And this is where we're at today

in the book of Romans.

Throughout chapter one,

two, and three,

Paul has looked at people.

He's looked at the person

who is far from God.

He's looked at the person

who is moral

and they do all the right things.

He's looked at the person

who's religious.

He's looked at the Jew.

And he's looked at our hearts.

He's looked at our motives.

He's looked at all the things

we try to do.

And he's put all those things

under a microscope.

And he's allowed us

to examine our lives

and our motives.

And then he comes

to this passage today.

And this passage is,

I mean,

this passage is

an amazing passage.

A lot of people would say

that today Romans 33,

21 through 31

is the heart of the Bible.

Some people would say

this is the most important passage

in Scripture.

That it's the center of the Bible.

I mean,

up until this point,

mankind has been trying

to make themselves right.

We've been trying

to fix ourselves.

And at this point,

Paul comes in

and he kind of throws

a monkey wrench

into everything.

And he says,

stop.

The pathway

that you've been going

is wrong.

But if you head down

that pathway,

you're never going

to end up

in the place

that you want to end up.

So my desire today,

usually what I would say

is I want to give you

three points

and then we're going

to end with some questions.

What I want to do today

is just basically this.

I know it's going

to be hard,

but I want you

to look at your Scripture.

And what I want to do

is I want to look

at the passage.

I want to go verse

by verse

at a couple points

in the passage.

I want to paraphrase them

in Texan language.

And after I paraphrase them

in Texan language,

I want to bring out

some theological terms.

There's three or four

really important

theological terms.

Now usually as a pastor,

when you say theological terms,

people get bored,

they tune out,

they stop thinking

about things

and that's just my wife.

Other people are doing

that also, right?

And so,

but I want you

to hang in there

because I think

that we can do this.

I think God has something

to teach us

in this passage.

So look at Romans

chapter three

verses 21 through 31

and let's go through it.

Look at your passage.

Look at your Bible.

Look at your PDA.

Please don't be playing

flappy birds on your PDA.

We have people

looking around

and they're checking

to make sure.

Paul says this

in verse 21.

But now.

And what Paul does there

is counter historical.

What he's doing

is he's switching the map,

he's switching the road signs,

he's telling every person

basically something

that they've never heard before

because up until this point,

everybody has heard

all the cultures,

all the religions teach

that if you want

to get to God,

you have to do it.

That there's this done box

or a do box

and in this do box,

you just add things

into it,

do, do, do, do, do.

And eventually,

if you get enough do's,

then you get to God.

And in Romans 21,

Paul says,

stop.

He says,

now,

apart from the law,

and what he means

is that we cannot earn it.

That there's nothing

we can do to earn it.

There's nothing we can do

to say that we're righteous.

There's nothing we can do

to earn it.

There's nothing we can do

to be awesome enough

to get it into our life.

What he's saying here

is that righteousness,

getting right with God,

is apart from the law.

That there's nothing

you can do,

there's nothing

that you can't do.

Righteousness is this term.

It means,

we've talked about it

over and over.

It's a term

about legal standing,

and it's a term

about relationship standing.

And what Paul says

in 21 is,

forget what you've been doing,

because by now,

or but now,

the way to God

is apart from your works.

It's apart from the law.

And if it's apart

from your works,

and if it's apart

from your law,

then what you have

to understand

is that somebody else

has to do it.

And so the question

we have to ask ourselves

is,

who is going to do it?

Verse 22,

he goes,

it's a right relationship

with God,

our creator.

That this righteousness

is needed by everyone

because we're all broken.

That this righteousness

is available to everyone.

He says it's by faith.

And when we use the word faith,

it's a very difficult word

for some people sometimes.

But faith just means

believing God's words

and trusting in what he says.

Believing in God's words

and trusting in what he says.

If you were to come

into my house

and I took this chair

and you were tired

and you were going to sit down

and I said,

hey, go ahead and sit down.

This chair is really comfortable.

Go ahead and do it.

And you looked at it

and you go,

oh, that's great.

I believe it's good.

I believe it will hold me up.

And you just kind of look at it.

Or maybe you go like this.

Or maybe if you're really daring,

you kind of go like this

but you keep one foot on the floor.

But Paul says faith

is believing God at his word

and trusting him

and putting your whole weight

in his life.

I think sometimes

we get that confused,

don't we?

A lot of times in our journey

we say,

yeah, I have faith.

I'm trusting God.

I'm giving all myself to God.

But what he says here

is that when we say that,

what we're actually kind of doing

and acting

is we're keeping a couple feet

on the floor.

Because you know,

I don't know if God is really good.

I don't know if God

is really good for me.

I don't know if God

really knows what I need.

So I don't know if I can put

all of my faith in him.

But in Romans chapter 3,

Romans 3:22

verse 22,

Paul says,

having faith in God

means sitting in the chair.

It means trusting him.

It means giving all

that you have to him.

It means leaning on him.

It means depending upon him.

It means resting in him.

It means receiving

everything that you have

based on a relationship with him.

Verse 23 says

that we've all sinned

and we fall short

of the glory of God.

And sin is this archery term

in Greek.

It means we've missed

the center.

We've missed perfection.

We've missed a perfect bullseye.

That we've all done that.

We've all failed.

We've all failed.

We've all broken God's laws.

Sometimes we break laws

by doing things wrong.

Sometimes we break laws

by not doing the right thing.

I mean, often we think about it,

well, I didn't do anything bad.

But Scripture says that

we need to do the right thing also.

And so there's this idea

that we've all failed God.

We've all lived for ourselves.

We've all failed to glorify him.

How many people have failed?

Come on.

How many people have failed?

All.

All people have failed.

All people have missed it.

I think we forget that sometimes

as we walk with God.

Verse 24 goes on and it says,

so God gives us this gift.

And this gift is justification.

It doesn't mean that we're made righteous,

but it means that we're declared righteous.

It's a one-time act.

It's not a process.

It means that God comes in

and he takes all of our sin.

And he takes all of our punishment.

Everything that we deserve legally.

And he places that on Christ.

And it means that from now on,

forever,

if you are in the family of God,

you are legally free of sin

and guilt

and shame

and punishment.

What it means is that when God looks at you,

what he sees

is his son, Jesus Christ,

standing before God.

I mean, it's this judicial act.

Sometimes we talk about it as being adopted.

I had friends once,

they lived in Texas,

and they adopted two girls.

And they were seven and eight years old.

And they came out of an incredibly abusive background.

I mean, they were just abused,

abused, and abused.

And so these friends loved these kids,

and so they adopted them into their family.

And they brought them into their family

in the first three weeks.

And they would say,

can I, can I,

can I get something to drink?

And the parents would say,

of course, it's yours.

All of this is yours.

It's what you get when you enter into my family.

Everything.

The girls would walk around,

and they would see TVs,

and they would say,

can we turn this on?

And the parents said,

yeah, of course, it's yours.

Everything here is yours.

This house is yours.

These beds are yours.

These dolls are yours.

This TV is yours.

This food is yours.

You're in our family now.

And the problem with us as Christians sometimes

is we forget the message of Romans 3,

22, 23, and 24.

And we live our lives like we're still orphans.

We live our lives like we're still

in an abusive relationship.

And what Paul says here is that

when God looks at you,

when he redeems you,

when he declares you righteous,

he takes all of the hurt,

and all of the junk,

and all of the shame,

and all of the guilt,

and everything that you deserve to be punished,

and he puts it on Jesus,

and he gives you everything that Jesus has.

Is that amazing?

I mean, every time I think of that,

I just get overwhelmed.

Because for so long in my life,

I walked around like I was still

in an abusive relationship.

But Paul says that the message of the gospel

is that everything that God has given

to Jesus he now gives to you.

When Paul said this,

no one understood him and his culture.

Because every religion

and every philosophy in Paul's time said,

do this, do this, do this, do this,

do this, do this, do this,

do this, do this, do this,

do this, do this, do this,

and if you do this,

then maybe you'll get to heaven.

If you are the hero of your story,

and you do it by doing things,

and you get it by doing things,

then maybe, maybe you'll get to heaven.

But for the first time,

Christianity comes in and it says,

no, that's impossible.

That the only way that you can be right with God,

the only way that you can be happy with God,

the only way that you can be made right

into a relationship with him,

is by God coming into your life

and making that possible.

The word there in 24, redemption,

is this commercial term.

When Paul used it,

he would have thought,

everybody would have thought

of a slave market.

And it was this idea

that you walked into a slave market

and you saw all the slaves

and all the terrible conditions

and the redemption part

was that you came in,

you saw how much a slave was worth,

you paid the money for them,

you bought them,

and then you freed them.

And what Paul says is,

God came into our world,

he saw all of us in this slave market,

he saw the price that we had to pay

to be freed,

he knew that there was no way

that we could do that on our own,

even though for thousands of years

people have been trying,

and he put down the money,

and he redeemed us for that.

He goes on and he says,

by grace,

by grace,

grace is a word that basically

just means that God

has shown us favor,

that God has given us something

that we don't deserve,

that God has given us

this new status,

he's given us this new position,

he's given us Jesus Christ.

Grace isn't mercy.

Mercy is when you don't get something

that you deserve,

like punishment.

But grace,

when they use it in the Bible,

is when you get something

that you don't deserve.

And that's the Christian life,

and that's what makes it so different.

When C.S. Lewis in Oxford

heard this story,

he said,

this has to be true,

because no human being

would ever make up

something like this.

No human being

would ever say

it doesn't depend on you

and your works,

but it depends on a God

who loves you.

And so what Paul says

in verse 24

is that now when God

looks at you,

he sees you as his child

and you have a new status.

It means that all of your rights,

all of Christ's righteousness

was given to you.

So when God looks at you,

he sees you are right.

He sees you are accepted.

He sees that you are forgiven.

He sees that you're cared for.

He sees that you're protected.

He sees that you're worthy.

He sees that you're perfect.

He sees that you're loved.

And Paul goes on,

he says,

most importantly,

what he says is,

you're mine.

You're mine.

So when God looks at you

as a child of God,

he sees Jesus.

Hang in there.

Verses 25 through 28.

Paul says this.

This is only possible at the cross.

The only way unrighteous people

can be made righteous,

the only way our unrighteousness

can be made righteous,

the only way that that can happen

is at the cross.

Because on the cross,

God took our unrighteousness

and he put it on

a righteous man,

his son,

God.

And on the cross,

our unrighteousness

was given to Christ.

And so what that means

is that all of God's anger,

all of God's wrath,

we've been talking about

for the last five services,

all of God's frustration

with sin

and how it's coming in,

how it's broken up relationships

and it's hurt people

and it's hurt society,

all of this hurt

God has put on his son.

And the blood of Christ

takes all of that away.

You see,

when Paul said this

before,

everybody in his congregation

would have thought this.

For 2,000 years,

whenever I sin,

I take a sheep

and I take this sheep

to the temple

and in the temple,

the priest takes the hand

and puts it on my head

and he puts a hand

on this sheep.

And there's a symbolic

transferring of our sin

and God's wrath

onto this sheep.

And then the priest

would take a knife

and he would cut

the sheep's throat

and he would take some blood

and he would go into

the temple

in this place called

the Holy of Holies.

And in this temple,

there was an ark

of the covenant.

If you're older

than 30 years old,

you've watched the movie

Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In this ark,

there was the law,

the tablets,

the Ten Commandments.

And above this ark,

there was this thing

called the mercy seat.

It was specially made

with two angels

coming together.

And we're told

that God's presence

was above the mercy seat.

And so when God

was looking down at man,

what he would see

is the law.

He would see a list

of do's and don'ts

and things we shouldn't

have done

and things we should have done

and he would see

all of our judgment

happening because

we didn't do those things.

And the priest came in

and he took the blood

and he sprinkled it

all over the mercy seat

so that when God

looked down,

he didn't see the law.

He saw a sacrifice.

But the thing about

that sacrifice

is that every year,

you and I had to go

back to the temple.

And every year,

we had to kill a sheep.

And every year,

we had to be pronounced

clean or covered.

And every year,

we would wonder,

was it enough?

Was it enough?

Was it enough?

And Paul says

in his passage,

that for a little time,

God allowed those sacrifices

to cover.

Not to forgive,

but to cover.

Because he was waiting

for the perfect moment.

And that perfect moment

was when he was going

to send his son

who on a cross,

after living a perfect life,

died and shed his blood.

In the blood of Jesus now,

Paul says in Romans 3,

21 through 31,

saves us.

It makes us righteous.

It makes us able

to come into God's presence.

Not because of what we've done.

Not because of what

we haven't done.

But all because of God's love.

and care

for you.

It's a little different message

than we've been talking about

throughout the last four weeks.

For the last four weeks,

it's been about sin,

brokenness,

sin, brokenness.

What are you trying to do?

How are you trying

to fix yourself?

And here Paul comes in

and he says,

you can't fix yourself.

You can't make yourself right.

You can't obtain righteousness.

You can't look good

in other people's eyes.

You can't even fix

your own relationships.

You don't even want to talk

about the things

that are broken

in your relationships.

The only way that's possible

is through Jesus.

Is that good news?

For people who know

Romans 1, 2, and 3

and how bad off they are,

that's amazing news.

And when Paul said that,

it was the first time

in human history

that people heard

that it's not dependent

on me,

that it's dependent

upon God.

I have three thoughts

I want to leave you

and then we're going

to do communion.

Three thoughts.

I'm sure that I'm going

to offend some people,

but there have been

things in my head

and I've been praying

through this passage

and I'm trying not

to spit on the baby

in front of me

as I talk

and things like that.

first thought is this.

The word justified,

justification is a legal term.

It means to be declared

righteous.

It means to be declared

right.

It means that no one

can come into your life

and say,

you know,

you owe this debt

and you need to pay this debt.

It means that you owe

no one.

It means that you're

seen as good.

It means that you're

in right standing.

It means that you have favor.

It means that you're

pleased with those people

around you.

It means that you're

worthy of.

It means that you're

right in other people's

eyes and in God's eyes.

And in first three chapters,

Paul is talking about

how you and I go

through our life

and we try to make

ourselves right.

We try to make ourselves

look sexy in front

of other people.

We try to make our lives

look good.

We try to make us

look righteous.

We try to do things

when we wear masks.

And if we're honest,

I think many of us

still struggle with

that today.

I think many of us

still struggle with

Jerry's question.

Remember Jerry's question

at the beginning

of this talk?

Jerry's question was,

if what you say is true,

and all that's true

about God,

I know my heart,

I'm in bad shape,

what can I do

to make myself right?

I think that we all

struggle with

what does that look like

to make ourself right?

I mean,

it haunts me,

those words,

and I think it should

haunt us.

How do I

prove myself?

How do I make myself

look good

to those around me?

How do I make my actions

look right

in people's eyes

when I know in my heart

that they're not right?

We just watched

the Olympics.

And it's amazing

as you watch

the Olympics,

there's a lot of

weird things going on

and a lot of weird

things have happened

afterwards,

but you can count

how many times

the athlete

held up that medal

and either they

or an interviewer

said,

this medal,

it validates

me.

I mean,

this medal

makes everything

I did

right.

This medal

makes me look

right for practicing

and sacrificing.

This medal

makes my whole

life

right.

And I heard that

over

and over

and over.

You're going to go

to work on Monday.

I'm sorry for

reminding you about that.

Some of you

didn't want to hear that.

But you're going to walk

into your office

and you're going

to do things

to make yourself

look right.

You're going to do

things to validate

your existence

in your office,

especially now

as layoffs

are happening

for certain companies.

You're going to try

really hard

to look righteous.

You're going to try

really hard

to look right,

to make people

think differently

of you,

to make them

think that you're

doing well.

For children,

my little kids,

it was surprising

to me at the age

of three and four

and even today,

14,

11,

and 11,

and 7,

how many times

my kids came up

to me and said,

am I doing okay?

Am I right?

Am I good?

And I watched my kids

over and over

trying to validate

themselves

to me.

And I realized

that there's something

inside of us

that causes us

to have this tension

and this frustration.

And we realize

that maybe we're not

as right

as we think we are.

and we're trying

to fix that.

I have a lot

of single friends.

They're trying

to validate

themselves.

They're trying

to show everybody

that they're right

by getting married.

And if they can

get married,

then the world

will think that

they're right

and everything

is okay

and everything's

perfect.

I have a lot

of friends

with kids

and it's amazing

when we get together

how often

the conversation

talks about

how we can make

our kids'

life better.

How we can send

our kids

to the right school.

How we can get

our kids

in the right track.

How we don't want

our kids

to miss anything.

What I realize

as a parent

is often

I justify

my own life

through my children.

And I feel like

if I can do

all these things

for my kids

then everything's

good.

I'm a good person.

I'm a good dad.

Everything's going

to be okay.

People are going

to look at me

and say wow

you're right.

As a son

for years

and years

as kids

and as boys

what do you want

to be to be right?

You want your dad

to look at you

and you want your dad

to say wow

I'm really proud

of you.

Wow

you really did well.

Wow

you are really good.

And man

you know

what I'm talking about.

There's something

with inside

of our hearts

that we seek

validation.

We want proof

that we've done well.

We want proof

to know

that we're right.

We're all searching

for things

that justify

ourselves

and say

you were good

and you did well.

Peter Singer

he's a bioethicist

at Princeton.

He's one of my

favorite readers

and authors.

He's an atheist

and the reason

I like him

is he just

he bugs everybody.

I mean

he's probably

what I've heard

is he's probably

the most influential

atheist writer

and professor

in the world today.

And he just bugs

everybody.

He bugs the atheist.

He bugs the Christians.

I mean he just

he's

and he talks

about validation

and righteousness

and this is what he says.

Listen to this.

He says

the only way

that you can validate

your existence

the only way

that you can validate

your existence

is to produce.

And if a person

does not produce

or they have lost

their capacity

to produce

then they are not right.

They might not

have even earned

the right

to be called

human.

They have not

justified

their existence.

He's saying it

right there.

The way you prove

yourself

the way you show

that you're doing well

the way that you're

doing your good

is by

doing right things.

eight years ago

I heard this

in a talk

so I stole it.

It's an article

from a man

in northern England

by the York

Railroad Station.

The man

had no faith

and he wrote

an article

in a London paper

and he realized

that as he went

to work

every day

to the York

Railroad Station

in northern England

I've never been there

he said there's

this billboard

the billboard

was on the way

to the station

and on the billboard

there was this

Bible verse

and it had

Romans 14

12

he said he went

back home

and he looked it up

and this is what

it said

it said

so that every one

of us

shall give an

account of himself

to God

so that every one

of us

shall give an

account of himself

to God

and he wrote

this

no matter

whether you're

religious or not

the longer you live

the idea of being

able to justify

your existence

keeps coming up

more and more

you know I'm not

a religious person

but when I go

by that sign

I realize

in my heart

of hearts

that the older

I get

I need to justify

why I'm here

as I talk

to my friends

both secular

and religious

they talk

and we talk

about this idea

he says

they look at me

and they say

you're stupid

why do you need

to justify

your ideas

and yourself

and your worth

why do you need

to prove

that you're worthy

of being here

you are who you are

you live the way

you want to live

who cares

what other people

think about you

he says

you know

people who actually

believe that

people who actually

say those type

of things

people who actually

say they don't

need to justify

themselves

or they do not

care what other

people think

or they don't

need to prove

themselves

they don't

need to do

what they do

they are

they are who

they are

they're going

to do

whatever

they want

to do

he says

people who

say that

people who

live that

way

those people

are sociopaths

and those people

are capable

of very

very

very

bad

things

he goes on

and he says

every single

person

whether you're

religious or not

begins to know

that you need

to justify

your existence

but the problem

is this

when you start

to ask yourself

what does it

mean to justify

myself

you start asking

questions like this

or saying things

like this

am I living the

kind of life

I think people

should live

or am I the

type of person

that I think

I should be

or am I the

type of person

that I think

other people

should be

this is when

we talk about

determining what's

good and bad

right

and this was

his answer

his response

he said

the problem

is this

I'm not

here's the

problem with

justifying my

existence

it's very

hard

it's very

very hard

not because

I'm a really

bad person

but because

I know

I should

could be

and I should

be

far better

than I am

I know

that I should

be living

differently

but I don't

you know

it seems to me

if we're honest

we live in a

world where

everyone is

trying to

justify

themselves

they're trying

to show

everybody

that they're

right

they're trying

to show

that their

existence

is worthy

sometimes we

do that

openly in front

of it

with cars

and houses

and promotions

and actions

and attitudes

that hurt

people

and often

hurt ourselves

but sometimes

we do it

within our

heart

and so the

question I want

to ask us

today

right before

we go into

communion

is how do

you justify

yourself today

how do you

prove that

you're righteous

how do you

prove that

you're in

right standing

what do you

look like

what do you

look at

to justify

your existence

are you the

type of person

that everybody

should be

are you the

type of person

that you think

everybody should

be

are you the

type of person

that you think

you should

be

how do you

find value

in what you

do

everyone wants

to live a life

that's right

and has value

everyone is

searching for it

whether we

know it or not

and the question

is where are we

finding that

are we finding

it in our

work

what happens

when we get

laid off

are we finding

it in our

families

what happens

when our

families aren't

doing too

good

or we get

divorced

are we

having it

in our

health

what happens

when we

get cancer

we can no

longer run

the 10

miles

that we

did every

day

are we

doing it

with our

kids

what happens

when our

kids don't

get into

that perfect

school

and everybody

looks at us

and goes

ooh you

must be a

bad parent

I was in

China one

time we

had this

meeting of

teachers and

the teachers

brought in

the parents

and in the

middle of the

meeting the

teacher goes

okay who is

Xiaotong's

parents

and Xiaotong's

parents raised

their hand

and the

teachers said

your kid

is the

stupidest kid

in this

class

how can your

kid be so

stupid

what's wrong

with you

how come

you're so

bad parents

how come

you haven't

done better

in raising

your kids

if Xiaotong's

parents found

their validation

and their

righteousness

in how they

raise their

kids

what would

have

happened

then

where do

you find

your validation

second thought

as I look

through all

this

we don't

like talking

about grace

let's be

honest

I think

in this

culture

we don't

like talking

about grace

we don't

like talking

about this

unmerited

favor

we don't

like talking

about gifts

given to us

there's

something

about an

Asian

culture

that we

don't like

talking

about gifts

we don't

like talking

about grace

we don't

want to

owe

anybody

anything

I mean

the idea

of getting

something

and not

paying back

for that

that is

beyond

our

comprehension

I mean

when we

look at

the Bible

and we

say that

man

this is

too good

to be

true

I'm

not

going

to

believe

it

because

I

don't

want

to

owe

God

anything

I

don't

want

to

be

in

debt

to

anybody

else

I

can't

believe

it

can I

be

honest

with

you

and I

prayed

whether I

should

say

this

but I

love us

as a

group

this

isn't

my

job

it's

my

lifestyle

what

God

has

called

us

to

but I

want

you

to hear

these

words

and I

hope

that I

don't

offend

you

too

much

but

every

one

of us

in

here

every

one

of us

in

here

every

one

of us

in

here

every

one

of us

in

here

we

all

are

in

debt

to

God

no

matter

how