Never Trade Down | Romans 1-24-32 | Josh Teis

Okay, so today is part three of a four -week

sermon series entitled rewrite we are going verse

by verse Through the book of Romans chapters

one two and three and if you didn't bring a Bible

today I want to encourage you to look at the

screen a little later throughout the service

We're gonna study every single part of this passage

Why because at Southern Hills we study the Bible

verse by verse chapter by chapter through the

books of the Bible and Romans is a letter that

was written by the Apostle Paul to the people

at Rome to explain to them the good news about

Jesus Christ. And he was telling them that they

don't have to stay living the same life and developing

the same culture that has led to such tragedy

and was leading Rome to a great fall. Instead

they could trade all of that which they had.

and receive a new destiny if they repented and

received Jesus Christ as Savior. And so that's

what Romans chapter one, two, and three are really

all about, and today we're in part three of four

weeks. And to illustrate the main concept of

today, I wanna have a little fun with the audience.

If you're new to our church, you've never seen

me do this because we've never done it in this

auditorium, but. when we started the church at

a storefront. And in our own building over here

and across the way, I used to come down into

the audience a little bit. And so I'm gonna do

that today. So if you are freaked out and I walk

by, just go like this and I'll walk right by

you. But we're gonna do that at this time. We're

gonna go out into the audience. And by the way,

if you're one of the hundreds and hundreds of

people who watch week after week online, and

you're used to actually seeing us, but you only

watch online, I wanna encourage you to come out.

be a part of this auditorium. You can actually

come. But follow me, I want to show you a few

individuals that I want to introduce you to and

I want to ask them to participate in something

that's going to help. First of all, marvelous

Mark, give them a round of applause. This is

Mark Camp. Mark, come on out, come on out. All

right, this is Mark, ladies and gentlemen. Many

of you don't know Mark, some of you do. Mark,

Mark, did I talk to you before this service?

Did you know that I was going to ring you up?

okay let's okay no you did not yeah okay well

first of all that is a lie and you don't have

to lie oh I was I was stretching the truth yeah

for the sake of the illustration yes give him

a round of applause ladies and gentlemen he's

a deacon who lies A deacon who lies. No, here

Mark, I did talk to you before but I did not

tell you exactly what we're gonna do. I gave

you a prop and I want you to hold out the prop.

Go ahead and pull it out right now and I want

you to describe... Nope, that's not what I gave

you. Alright, put that away. See, I did not know

that was gonna happen. I don't give money, I

take it. Okay, very good. Alright, what exactly

are you holding in your hand? A Pokemon card.

That's right, and that's not referred to as a

Pokemon card. That's referred to as a... Okay,

is this of your personal collection? No. No.

No. Okay. Do you know who that is on here? No.

Okay. All right. All right. Let me let me grab

this real quick. Can you tell this man who this

is? Who is that? That is Pikachu. Pikachu. Can

you say Pikachu? Pikachu? Okay. Yeah. Pikachu.

All right. All right. I was more of a poker man.

Yeah. He's a poker man, not a pokeball. That's

pretty good. Did you think of that down there?

Okay, here's what I want to do. What I want to

do is I want to find out if you'd be willing

to make a trade with me, okay? Now, you don't

obviously know much about Pokemon, but I would

say that the card you're holding is a good card,

and Pikachu is one of the more famous Pokemon.

I've got in my hand... Can you tell what this

is? What exactly is this? Looks like a challenge

coin of some sort. It's not a challenge coin,

but it does look like that. It's a silver dollar

coin from 2008. And if you've been paying attention

to the economy, it's actually gone... up in value

recently. I won't tell you how much this is worth,

and I'm not gonna tell you how much that card

is worth. My question to you is very simple.

Will you trade your Pokemon card for this Silver

Dollar U .S. Silver Eagle? Will you trade? Whoa,

whoa, whoa, before you answer, how many of you

in this room think he should trade? If you do,

say yes. Okay, how many of you in this room say

no, that's a bad trade? Say yes. okay so yeah

say no if you say don't trade say yes if you

say trade if you think he should trade say yes

how many of you think he should not trade say

no Okay, what do you think you're gonna do? I'm

gonna go with the audience because Human human

nature has told me that when you know nothing

about something that you have to go with the

masses and clearly all these people know about

Love and the mercy of the Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. Yes. So I'm gonna go with the audience

and not trade He's not gonna trade give him a

round of applause. Ladies and gentlemen, he's

holding on to his Pokemon card and he's having

a seat Thank you very much. We're gonna get have

a seat. Please sit down Sit down. Thank you very

much. We'll put that in the offering plate. Sir,

can you put that in the offering plate a little

bit later? Thank you very much. All right. Give

Mark a round of applause. I still have my coin.

I still have my coin, and I need to trade this

coin with somebody. So I'm going to come over

to this back section over here. I'm going to

see our deacon. This is one of our deacons, Troy

Pollard. Give him a round of applause, Troy.

This is Troy again if you're watching online

as you can see we have plenty of seats still

So you're welcome to come in person next week

Troy. Okay. Now did I talk to you beforehand?

Yes or no? Yes. Okay and good and hold that.

Thank you for not lying like mark, right? Okay.

Now I gave you a also something. It's not a Pokemon

card. What is the thing that I gave you? I want

you to pull it out right now It's in your what

do you what is your problem? It's all your sermon

notes. Oh, it's all Oh, give him a round of applause

Now, what did I give you? Hold it out to the

camera and describe what it is. It's the Taylor

Swift CD. It's not just any Taylor Swift CD,

it's 1989 Taylor's version of Taylor, which holds

the famous song, your favorite, right? It's Shake

It Off. Wow, that was on there? Oh, yes, yes.

Troy goes from construction site to construction

site, constantly singing Shake It Off. He's a

big Tay -Tay fan. Every day. Here's my question

to Troy. Do you already have this CD? No, no,

so you could add it to your collection Yes, I

could I could But I'm not going to Not at all

It's like a dog whistle. All right. Look here.

Let me just say he's very judgmental. Can you

tell? Okay, you have a choice Mark chose not

to trade. I want to ask you this question this

1989 I I just Let me just tell you about this

CD. It's one of her defining CDs. It's become

a collector's item. You don't know much about

it, but you also don't maybe know how much this

coin is worth. Maybe you do, maybe you follow.

My question is, are you willing to trade this

CD, Taylor Swift CD, for this silver coin? Yes.

That was pretty quick. All right, audience, how

many of you? Church, how many of you would say

he definitely should trade? Say yes. How many

of you say no? There's a little girls in the

back over there. You can come get it. That's

right. There's one Taylor Swift fan over there.

Give him a round of applause. All right, very

good. You're gonna need the mic. I've got Taylor

Swift. I need that mic. Give me that mic. All

right, very good. All right, so now I've got

the Taylor Swift CD, and I've got one other person

that I might be able to make a trade with. It's

an individual over here that I gave a skateboard

to earlier. If I gave you a skateboard earlier,

would you stand up? Oh, there he is. John David

Kolish, ladies and gentlemen. We love John David.

This is John David Kolish and John as we look

at this this skateboard Oh, our cameraman's having

trouble. Okay. There he is All right. Now you

have this skateboard. Do you know much about

this skateboard? I do not. Okay, you do not Here's

the question that I have for you. Would you trade

this skateboard for this 1989 Taylor Swift CB?

Yes or no? That's a that's a hard no. Okay. No

No way. I should have picked younger and more

feminine, I think, for this to work. So it's

a hard note. You thought I would trade? You thought

I would? Here's my question. Can you ride this?

I mean, I can give it a whirl. No, please don't.

No, we're not going to do that. OK, that's a

different sermon illustration called Broken Back.

OK, now, he's saying no, he's not going to trade

this CD for that skateboard. That's the decision

that you're making. Are you going to stick with

your decision? How many of you, by the way, think

he should make this trade? Say yes. How many

of you say no, this is a bad trade say no No,

I'm losing my man card if I trade. Yeah, correct

happen a long time ago done. Um It's a joke we're

friends. All right, give him a round of applause.

He made his decision. Have a seat I get to keep

the Taylor Swift CD What a great joy that is.

Okay. All right. So all of these things have

been happening right in front of you. These men

did not know specifically and individually that

I was going to make these trade offers. They

had no idea. Hey, Jordan, good job with worship

today. Give them a round of applause. Jordan.

Okay. Why go around with all of these questions

and talk about it today? Here's why. Because

oftentimes we trade and we don't realize what

we're trading away. Absolutely true that the

silver coin at today's rate, I used to start

collecting them when they were $18 a piece. They're

trading now for $100 a coin. How many of you

knew that? That's absolutely incredible. And

so that was a, that was an interesting trade.

Now I found out today that each and every one

of these items that I talked about today actually

hold an intrinsic value. The coin. $100, the

Pokemon card. The Pokemon card, how many of you

think that was a good trade or a bad trade? You

say, does a good trade say yes? Bad trades say

no. I found out that, yeah, yeah. I found out

that that Pokemon card is worth $17. Bad trade,

bad trade. Then I found out whenever it comes

to this, where was it? We were talking about

the coin or the Taylor Swift CD. Somebody came

up after the service after the first service

said they looked it up. Don't spend your time

do it after the service They said this CD specifically

because of the style of CD it is and Taylor's

version of this with the CD. It's selling online

for a hundred and fifty six dollars Wow, then

I found out that this skateboard this skateboard

because Tony Hawk That's not true. I made that

part up That skateboard goes online for about

a hundred and fifteen dollars They said well,

which one was the good trade? Which one was the

bad trade? Well, we could debate it based on

what you actually like or what you might want,

but I'll tell you the the worst trade The worst

trades that human beings have ever made are all

of them outlined in the Bible passage We're about

to talk about I've been making trades since I

was a child. I traded baseball cards, and now

I like to trade stocks. I love to trade stories,

but I'll tell you what you see in the scripture

here are the top five worst trades that humanity

makes. Here is the problem. We as humans have

a proclivity to trade down because we think We

know the value of something without doing the

research to know what the actual value is. And

the message that I want to talk to you about

today over the next 25 to 30 minutes is this.

Never trade down. And here's why. When you begin

to swap out God's best for lesser things, this

is when life is ruined. I know this to be the

case because I've done it. I have many times

swapped out God's best for lesser things and

I've lived to regret it and so have you. There

have been times in your life that God gave you

something and the thing that God gave you you

did not value so you threw it away and you traded

it for something less than. And all of this can

be traced back to this concept found in Romans

chapter one verses 18 through 20. where the apostle

Paul is speaking to the Roman Christians and

he's telling them, don't you ever wonder how

the world got into the mess that it is? Have

you ever looked at society and thought, how did

we get here? When did humanity arrive at this

place? What happened to our city? What happened

to our nation? What happened to my family? What

happened to my life? What happened to our relationship?

All of the brokenness can be traced back to five

bad trades. Let me list them for you. Number

one, in Romans chapter one, verse 18, he talks

about the first of the five worst trades of humanity.

Number one. We as humans like to trade the truth

for a lie Worst trade number one we trade the

truth for a lie God gives you as his creation

the truth And we like to hold that truth and

the moment we hear a good sounding lie. We trade

it away Look what it says, but God shows his

anger from heaven Against all sinful and wicked

people who suppress the truth by their wickedness

You say I don't like the idea of God being angry

But I actually myself like the idea of God being

angry when you read the rest of the verse The

Bible says God gets angry when wicked humans

suppress the truth How many of you agree it's

a villain who suppresses the truth? How many

of you also agree with the great truth of the

Bible that the truth will set you free? We don't

need less truth. We need more truth in our world

But there are those in our world who want to

suppress the truth. They do it politically. They

do it nationally They do it globally, but we

also do it personally we get truth from God But

because we don't like the way the truth sounds

we Suppress it. Oh, in fact, that's gonna happen

in this room today. There will be some of us

in this room who are gonna hear truths for the

first time. And the moment you hear it, it'll

go contrary to what you've been believing. And

instead of receiving truth, you'll suppress the

truth. And it'll hurt you. And you've always

known the truth because from a child when you

were born, God gave you as your inheritance of

His creation, the truth. But because a long time

ago you traded the truth for a lie, now it's

hard for you to give that lie back up. Look,

it goes on. It says they know the truth about

God. They, who's they? Humans. Humans know the

truth about God because He has made it obvious

to them. Truth number one, there is a God. You

say, how do you know there's a God? Because it's

obvious. You say, some people don't believe in

a God. I understand. Some people don't believe

in a God. You say, why don't they? Because they

took the truth about God that God gave them at

creation, at their birth, and they traded it

away for a lie. See, that's not a very open -minded

way to think. It's a biblically -minded way to

think. The reason some do not believe in a God,

even if it's you. is because you had the truth

about God somewhere in your past, you know there's

a God. You've always, listen, you've always known

there's a God. Inside of you, you know that someone

created you and somebody somehow convinced you

to take a very, very bad thing and trade it away.

A truth for a lie. Look, it goes on. It says,

and they knew the truth about God because he

has made it obvious to them forever since the

world was created, people have seen the earth

and sky. It shows you how you came to the truth

about God. You knew there's a God because the

other truth is there's a creator. He created

you. He made you. You know that he made you.

He created all things and he created you you

say how to how is this so obvious? The reason

it's obvious is because rational logical thinking

would to say if there's a creation there must

be a creator It's illogical to think in any way

that all of this just happens to be here we know

inherently that there is a Creator as it goes

on and it says it says forever since the world

was created people have seen the earth and sky

Through everything God made they can clearly

see his invisible qualities Not only can we see

there is a creator when we look at his creation.

We can learn things about the creator Himself

his eternal power and divine nature so you say

so what's the point so? They have no excuse for

not knowing God Humanity has no excuse for not

knowing God ignorance is not an excuse Willful

ignorance is not an excuse We know there's a

God because the creation shouts there is God

One of the first big mistakes humans make is

They think about God and they think I don't want

somebody telling me what to do So they trade

the truth of God for a lie and That leads to

the second trade the second worst trade that

humans make is they trade the truth for a lie

the second Trade they make is they trade light

for darkness We we trade light for darkness When

you're born God gives you truth when you're born

God gives you light But throughout our lives

Men love darkness rather than light because our

deeds are evil and we don't like the light of

God Illuminating the darkness of our heart so

we prefer to cover up and not allow God to see

us Look he goes on and says yes, they knew God

But they wouldn't worship him as God or even

give him thanks They knew there's a God humans,

but they didn't want to worship. God is the God

that he was and so They began to think up foolish

ideas of what God might be like as a result their

minds became dark and confused Humans naturally

want to worship something We desire it. This

is something that an atheist and a Christian

can agree on something inside of our hearts desire

to worship something and So what we do is humans

according to this passage is God says worship

me and We don't want God because we don't like

what he has to say to us So we say I'll create

my own God and when we turn off the light from

God our hearts become darkened When you reject

the light God is trying to show you all that

does is darken your own heart You've heard the

phrase show me the light. This is the bit God

showed me the light this illuminated your mind

illuminated your heart see that's what the Bible

is talking about here now We all know what it's

like to turn a light on and to turn the light

off You remember as a child does anybody remember

as a child? standing at your bedroom door and

shutting the door and ready to turn the light

off. And you go to turn the light off and you

try to get into bed before it gets dark. How

many of you remember that last week? You remember?

When you turn off the light, darkness comes.

Here's where a lot of humans are. individually,

nationally, globally, as a people group. What

we do is we turn down the light, we say, no God,

no, no, no, and we wonder why our hearts are

getting darker and our society is getting darker.

We trade the light for the darkness. It goes

on in verse 22, claiming to be wise, these humans

instead became utter fools. How many of you have

ever worked with somebody who thought they were

smarter than they really were? Anybody? Yeah,

you're pointing at your husband. Don't do that.

That's not All right Claiming to be wise instead

they became fools and instead of worshiping the

glorious ever -living God They worshiped idols

made to look like mere people and birds and animals

and reptiles Like this is human history Instead

of worshipping God a lot of people say why are

there so many religions? There's not there's

God and then there's human fantasy that has created

a bunch of stories That's the binariness of all

this And God revealed himself to man and man

says, no, we turn off the darkness. But inside

of man, we want to worship something. And so

instead of worshiping the creator, we create

our own little gods. And so we go over to the

stone heap and we carve out a little stone and

it looks like a reptile. And we're like, this

is a God. And we carve a little fish and we say,

this is my God. And this is what we've done throughout

human history. The Egyptians did it the Mesopotamians

did it the Babylonians did it the Persians did

it all throughout history no matter where you

go humans desire to worship something but if

they turn off the light of God in their heart

they become dark and now suddenly they're bowing

down now think about this from God's point of

view God the one who made everybody he's watching

you cut down a tree and then carve out of the

tree a bird and then you bow down to worship

the bird and say give me good crops You say,

you're making it sound silly. It's not silly,

it's stupid. My goal is not to be soft with you

today. My goal is to share truth with you today.

And if you've got to a place where you're so

willing to trade comfortability for truth, you

may not like the rest of this sermon. And by

the way, I don't think you want a church where

all they're doing is trading comfortability for

truth. Can I get an amen? So this is not wise.

Now, a lot of us as Americans, we can be like,

that is so silly. But here's what Americans do.

We don't chop down trees and create gods. We

look in the mirror and call ourselves God. The

God we worship is whatever I want to be whoever

I think I am discover myself and My identity

is what I claim my identity to be I don't even

believe in God except for the one who looks back

at me in the mirror Whatever you want is what

I get and you end up worshiping yourself And

you're no better than any other false Human alive

and neither am I These are the trades we make.

Oh, this is getting interesting goes on the truth

for a lie the light for the darkness Here's the

third worst trade that we as humans make trade

number three. We trade the creator for his creation

We we as humans love the gift of God's creation

We look at it and we're amazed by it. The animal

life, the sky, space, what's happening in the

sea, all the creation that God has made and we're

in love with what he gave us. The problem is

we love what he gave us so much that we begin

to reject the one who gave it to us. It's it's

like loving the Christmas gift that your parents

gave you but hating your parents who gave it

So much so that all you do is spend time with

your Christmas gift and you ignore your parents.

That's not right This is what humans do We elevate

creation above the creator. There are more Americans

today who elevate creation above the creator

They would rather focus on the environment than

the one who created the environment and that's

a problem Look at what the scripture says So

God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things

that are in their hearts that they desired Here's

how it works. If you abandon the light of God

God will abandon you to do whatever you want

We don't like that word abandoned right because

some of us have actually been abandoned by fathers

and mothers We've been abandoned by husbands

or wives We've been turned away from listen to

me very clearly Jesus said I will never leave

you or forsake you But God also says I won't

force myself on you Which means if you turn your

back on God and say I don't want anything to

do with you he Abandons you that is lets you

go your own way and explore your path until you

realize how fruitless it is God is a gentleman.

He will not force himself into your life. Do

you see? He abandons you to go your own way and

do whatever your heart desires by the way Whatever

your heart desires you say that's what I want

I want to just I grew up in the age in the 90s

where we were taught as kids from Disney Just

follow your heart Every movie at the end every

movie you know like every one of my sermons at

the end is like follow Jesus right every Disney

movie the same follow your heart The problem

is I have followed my heart into really bad scenarios

many times. You know why? Because the Bible teaches

us the heart is wicked, desperately evil. It

constantly desires that which will hurt us. We

don't follow our hearts into the truth. We follow

the scripture to God. This is what the word of

God teaches. No, no, no, it goes on, it goes

on, it goes on. It says, as a result of following

your heart, They divide they did vile and degrading

things with each other's bodies That is if you

tell your heart whatever you want today. That's

what you'll get. You'll end up hurting yourself

You have to say no to yourself They traded the

truth about God for a lie. There's the bad trades.

So they worshiped and served the things that

God created Instead of the creator himself who

is worthy of praise and honor and glory forever.

Amen trading the truth of the creator for his

creation. I was at Chipotle. Can I get an amen

and hallelujah for Chipotle? I love Chipotle.

I do, I love Chipotle. I'm going to Chipotle

today. You know why? Because I was thinking about

this sermon all week and I'm like, I need some

Chipotle. This happened like 12, 10 years ago.

I was with my kids. I remember they were little.

I don't remember how long ago it was, but I was

at the Aurora Crossing Chipotle, you know, right

up there. And we were sitting there. It was a

Sunday after church with some friends. We were

sitting there with our Chipotle, and all of a

sudden came through the door, and this is absolutely

true, a Chipotle protest, which I'd never seen

before. And immediately my wife was like, ugh.

And I was like, oh, this is gonna be good. This

is Primo. We've picked the right day. And there

was like seven people in there that came in.

They were all holding signs and there was one

or two guys with cameras and they were gonna

photograph and obviously this was some sort of

a social media thing. And so we're sitting there

and all of a sudden they got in place and they're

holding the signs up and they started chanting.

This is true. Chicken are people, too. Chicken

are people, too. Chicken are people, too. And

my kids, they were young, they were having fun.

They thought it was a show. They're like, this

is great. And I can remember, there's a few signs

I remember. One of the signs, they didn't want

us to eat chicken apparently. And one of the

signs, there was a chicken face and a chicken

head and there was a tear coming down the chicken's

eye. I was like, that is some, that's good. And

then there was another one of like a chicken

like it was kind of bloody like his head was

cut off That wasn't the one I looked at there

was another one. She had a sign on both sides

one was like fried chicken grilled chicken and

like like sauteed chicken on the other there

was multiple other and like it was It was really

making me more hungry, you know, like I was like

I could go her It had the converse effect of

what I think it was supposed to do And they shouted

and yelled and shamed and they're very passionate,

very passionate about saving the chickens' lives.

And then the manager came out and said, okay,

you know, you got to go. This is private property.

We're going to call the police. And they finished

their filming and they left peacefully and they

left out. And I thought to myself, man. Need

another chicken burrito. I that's what I You

say you mocking it yes Because things that are

deserving of being mocked need to be mocked now

hear me now You say people are passionate about

the planet. We as children of God are stewards

of this planet We have a responsibility to care

for our environment and care for this planet

and care for the animals. Yes Yes, we believe

this The problem is not in caring for the planet

The problem is we live in a society that cares

more about caring for creation than we care for

the creator People are dying and going to hell

and we're talking about saving the turtles You

see, you talk about this like you actually believe

that. Yes, that's the point. Don't you understand?

Our society is no better than some ancient culture

that begin to elevate all of creation above the

creator themselves. And as we look down upon

those who follow the things of God as unintelligent,

here's the reality, people are talking about

chickens are people too. There's something broken.

And how did it break? We made a bad trade. We

traded the creator for his creation. We don't

think about God. We worship his creation. By

the way, the more you actually worship the creator,

the more you wanna take care of creation. Properly.

Fourth worst trade. Here's the fourth worst trade

we make. We trade God's way for humanity's way.

The next statements he makes. cut right to the

heart of the way we as humans are. The problem

we have with God is not that God is a problem,

as long as God does what we want him to do. We

want God made in an image like Santa Claus. That's

a God I can believe in. A God who has a list

and checks it twice, but occasionally he just

crosses it out and says, they're fine, give them

a gift. That's the kind of God we want The problem

is that's not who God is God has a very specific

way Life is supposed to live be lived a certain

way every aspect of your life See, I'll do it

my own way The problem is you as a human don't

know how life is supposed to be lived You say

why because you didn't create life Okay, imagine

imagine there was a guy named Steve Jobs who

made the iPhone and He walked into your house

and he saw you had an iPhone and you used it

as a doorstop And Steve Jobs came to you and

said, wait a second, wait a second, you know

that can do a lot more than stop doors. And you

say, who are you to tell me how to use my iPhone?

And he's like, well, I'm not trying to ruin your

life. I'm just trying to say, that can do a lot

more than stop doors. I'll do what I want with

my iPhone. I will abandon you to your own way.

God says, I know how life is supposed to be lived.

How about, listen to me, and maybe your life

will go better than the way you're living it.

Humanity's way versus God's way, look at what

it says in verses 26 and following. That is why

God abandoned them to their own shameful desires.

God allows you to do whatever your heart tells

you to do and it leads to some problems. Even

the women turned against the natural use of having

sex and instead indulged with sex with each other.

And the men, instead of having normal sexual

relations with women, burned in their lust for

each other. Men did shameful things with other

men. And as a result of this sin, they suffered

within themselves the penalty they deserved.

The natural results of doing it man's way versus

God's way is there going to be some consequences

to this. And God says, if you want to go your

own way, do your thing. You do you, bro. Verse

28, since they thought it was foolish to acknowledge

God, He abandoned them to their own foolish thinking

and let them do the things that should never

be done. Happens the same for all humans. God

gives you His best. You take it. And if you're

foolish, you trade away God's best for your way.

It's true in relationships. It's true in sexuality.

It's true in finances. It's true in nations.

It's true in politics. It's true in every aspect

of your life. You can seek your way or you can

seek God's way. And if you go God's way, things

go well because He made life. If you go your

way, this is what we get. And all of that leads

to the worst trade humanity has ever made. Number

five. The worst trade we've ever made. We trade

God's kingdom for man's nightmare. Now maybe

you're absolutely good with how the world has

handled itself. All of humans, we've done pretty

good. How did it get this way? Look at what he

says. Their lives, talking about humanity, became

full of every kind of wickedness. He's telling

you the history of humanity. Sin and greed and

hate and envy and murder and quarreling and deception.

Do you see these things? These things were never

part of the original plan for God's kingdom.

When God made humanity, there was supposed to

be no murder, there was supposed to be no greed,

there was supposed to be no lying and hate and

envy, none of these things were supposed to be,

there was no scams, there was no deception, there

was no lying to each other, that's not what God

had intended. But man said, I don't need you,

I'm doing my own thing. We don't need you as

our king, we don't need you as our God, we're

going our own way and we'll figure it out. They

are backstabbers and haters of God Insolent and

proud and boastful they invent new ways of sinning

and they disobey their parents They refuse to

understand break their promises. They're heartless

They have no mercy and they know God's justice

requires that those who do the things deserve

to die Yet they do them anyway Humans know inherently

deep down that I've done something wrong and

God's gonna judge me for it. And then you do

the thing anyway. Now before you point your finger

at them, how many of you have ever known the

thing you're not supposed to do? And then you

go and do the thing you're not supposed to do

anyway? He's talking about. See, Christians like

to talk about this passage and we're like, see

how they are? Until we realize and really study

it. And it's God saying, yeah, do you see how

you are? And then the last few words I didn't

have on the screen, because I want you to see

them in your Bible. If you don't have a Bible

open, I'll read them to you out loud. Hear the

words. It ends the chapter by saying, worse yet,

they encourage others to do them too. What does

that mean for Christians? It means this. We say

things like this as Christians. We think, I follow

Jesus, I do my thing, but you do you. And we

encourage people to damnation. And we actually

think that that's tolerance and open -mindedness.

It's not that it's tolerant and open -minded.

It's the fact that you don't want to carefully

and lovingly confront somebody you love. Because

you don't want to be uncomfortable So we go day

after day and allow people to trade light for

darkness truth for lies the creator for his creation

my way for his way and Now they live a nightmare

and the entire time you have the truth And we

encourage them no, it's fine. I'm just a Jesus

person Well, then help them How do you help them

How do you help them? Here's how you help them.

Tell them about the trade. See what trade? If

you have been saved, you made a trade. Do you

remember when you traded your whole life for

Jesus? Do you remember? Do you remember when

you were born? Do you remember when you were

born again? Do you remember when you got saved?

Do you remember when you bowed your head and

you admitted you're a sinner, you received the

good news of the gospel, you called upon Christ

to be your Savior? Romans chapter 1 verses 20,

Romans 1:20

Romans chapter 1, 16 and 17. Do you remember

Romans 1 · chapter mention

what it says? You gave your life to Christ. You

traded everything for Jesus. Tell him. Tell him

kindly. Tell him patiently. But tell them why

you made that trade. It's because you figured

out what was actually valuable. I'll end with

this story. It's not a Josh story, it's a Jesus

story. Jesus was talking about making a trade,

just like I was, except His story you'll remember.

Jesus one time said, there was a man who was

walking through a field one day. And as he walked

through the field one day, he tripped over a

box. And he went back to the box and he opened

up the box that was sticking half out of the

dirt, brushed away the brush, the dirt, opened

it up and inside the box was a treasure of great

value. And in Jesus' parable, the man stepped

back and he looked around and he said, does anybody

see me? Anybody? Whose treasure is this? It looks

like it's been here a very long time. What do

I do?" And he closed the box and he went to find

who the treasure might belong to. So he went

down to the county assessor's office and he said,

there's a piece of land, not too far, and he

described it and said, who owns that land? They

said, well, it's owned by the county, but it's

for sale if you want it. How much? Said the man.

The assessor looked and said, well, and gave

him a number that the man could barely calculate.

So he went home and he sat down with a pen and

a pad and he began to calculate, how much does

my farm cost? And how much are my mules and how

much are my goats? And if I were to sell everything

that I had, and he was able to calculate that

if he calculated everything he owned, he would

have enough to buy the piece of land. And so

he did. He spent the next few months selling

everything in his possession, gathered all the

money, went to the county assessor and put the

money on the table and say, I want that piece

of land. You want that old piece of land? Why

would you want that old piece of land? Little

did the county assessor know there was a treasure

in that land that would make everything worth

it. And when he bought, Jesus says, the land,

he got the treasure with it. The point of the

story is obvious. Jesus says, I am that treasure.

And for those who have never given their life

to Jesus, you need to understand what Jesus'

people think. What we've done is we've calculated

everything in my life of value. And we've thought,

you know what? All that I am is nothing compared

to Jesus. I'm willing to trade everything and

give it to Him. And if I get Him, I get everything.

That is the trade of a Christian.