Lent: Theology That Actually Matters

Well, good morning.

So this week I watched the phenomenal film Heavyweights because our students had watched it on their student ministry uh retreat uh last weekend, and Rob told me how phenomenal this 1995 film is.

Uh it got robbed at the Oscars, Four Scump one, but this film about overweight kids going to camp uh wasn't even mentioned at the Oscars that year, amazingly.

Uh it's completely juvenile, the whole the whole movie, right?

I mean, it is it let's just go ahead and raise your hands if you've seen heavyweights.

That's actually quite remarkable that that many people have seen it.

Because I had never even heard of it.

1995, Ben Stiller, uh, this movie.

So all these kids go off to Camp Hope to have fun, summer of fun, and they're gonna learn some some about health, but a lot of fun.

And here's what it's about: it's about these kids going to a place of acceptance.

It's owned by this older couple who just love these kids, counselors that love these kids, a place of acceptance.

And they're accepted before they look a certain way, like before they lose the weight, before they act a certain way.

You know, it's a place they can go to, and they're not going to be called names, they don't have to be good at sports.

Like this is this is their salvation, Camp Hope.

I mean, this is the place for them.

And then they get there and there's a new owner, Tony Perkis.

And so Tony Perkis is this character in the movie who he is narcissistic, he is the perfect specimen of health, although all that's coming out of his own hurt, his own issues.

And he is putting on top of them his health regiment that he is filming for Perka system, Perka, you remember?

Anybody?

Percosystem.

Perca system.

Thank you, Rob.

Rob's seen it 50 times.

So uh perka system, which is his health, so he's putting it on these kids, and it's all it's all berating from Tony to the kids.

It's berating, it's judgment, it's condemnation.

And of course, you know what happens.

Because it's what happens anytime you're under judgment.

Rebellion.

Right?

You go, oh, you're you're gonna you're gonna judge me, you're gonna condemn me, you're gonna put that much demand on me.

Well, I'll I'll rebel, I'll escape.

I'll even try to escape the camp at that point.

But in all of it, there's this other character, and I'm not ruining the movie.

If you start the movie, you know how the movie's gonna end, okay?

So you don't worry about it.

I'm not giving anything away.

There's one counselor named Pat.

And while Tony is this representation of what we would call in the scriptures the law or demand or condemnation, uh, you have Pat.

And Pat is this guy who's been at the camp forever and he just loves the kids.

And he is this symbol of unconditional love to them.

And I won't ruin the movie too much, but eventually Tony's not in charge.

And under the care of someone who loves them unconditionally, all of a sudden, all these kids begin to feel worthy.

And all of a sudden, they're joyful.

All of a sudden there's there's change.

Isn't that interesting?

All the demand in the world to change doesn't create change in them.

The thing that creates change in them is for them to be loved and to be accepted, and then all of a sudden the heart's changed, and out of the heart comes behavior.

And that's why this movie is so so profound.

So profound.

Because being loved as you are, not as you should be, is the only thing that helps.

And this is what actually creates heart change, which is actually where obedience begins, which is what the New Testament talks about in terms of Christian obedience, is heart outward.

And it's what we're talking about, it's what we talk about every week.

That being accepted as you are is the thing that creates change.

And so I'm going to reread some of these verses and make a few points as we go.

Verses 1 and 2, Romans 5, 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

So a lot of theological stuff is going to happen this morning in the next 15 minutes.

A lot of theological words.

And I just want to say, it's not just for like head stuff, for us to feel smarter than other friends.

We can drop a couple theological words this week on them.

I mean, this has everything to do with you.

It has everything to do with tomorrow morning when you wake up.

For me to say you're justified by faith should mean everything to you because it means you're not justified by your production in this world.

That's incredibly freeing.

It means you're not justified by your weight.

It means you're not justified by your income.

It means you're not even justified by how good your kids are.

This is incredibly freeing.

Point number one, we are justified into peace with God.

We are justified into peace with God by God, not ourselves.

I mean, just let that kind of wash over you out of all your self-effort and merit.

That you're you're justified into peace with God.

Position with God, secure forever position as his beloved.

That is secured by God, not by you.

See, this is Reformation theology.

Some of you don't even care.

You're just going like, I just want to go to church.

It's Christian, like, not too messed up, you know, nobody living in compounds with a whole bunch of other people or long mandatory skirts.

Like outside of that, you're going like just Christian.

I'm good with Christian.

But the problem is I've seen a lot of Christian faith that's actually uh burdensome.

I mean, maybe you've you've lived that.

I've I've lived that.

Like, I I what I always say is I was in the dance by God's grace, but I thought I had to dance really well to stay in there.

And so I was waking up every day just trying to dance harder and harder and harder and harder.

And we do that in church, we do it in the faith world.

We do it just in the world.

This week I was working out in the morning and I'm working out.

I'm there trying to self-justify, trying to put some muscle on my skinny frame.

I've been trying to do that for 30 years, still not working, still trying to self-justify myself in that gym.

And so I'm over there trying to work out and get some muscle, and I watch this lady walk up to a scale.

They have a scale in the exercise room.

That's what how I felt about it.

I was like, really?

Like, we really need that?

Is that what everybody needs?

Is to step on a scale right after they exercise?

That's going to be really helpful.

Talk about Tony Perkis, right?

And so I watch her walk up to the scale, and she gets in front of it, and she just stops.

And she doesn't know anybody's watching her.

She just stops.

And she just stands there for a while.

And she sort of looks at it, and she's sort of doing like this.

You know, like I'm I'm about to get up to courage.

And I'm I'm gonna step on this, and it's gonna, it's gonna tell me something.

Now what why does it take her that long to step onto the scale?

The same reason it takes all of us that long to step onto a scale.

It's gonna tell you something about yourself, and you're not quite sure if you want to hear it or to feel it.

Because you're using that to for your value, you're using it for your for your justification.

As a human being, what's it gonna tell me?

And and today am I gonna be approved, or today am I gonna be disapproved based on what this scale tells me?

And you you can go your whole life standing in front of scale after scale after scale, waiting for it to say something back to you.

And the good news is you don't have to.

Like you don't have to live your life that way.

I mean, you are you are justified as a human being, created in the image of God, and then justified as a child of God, fully righteous by God's work for you, justified by faith, the gift of grace to you.

That's incredibly freeing.

And we do it in the faith realm, right?

We do the same thing in the faith realm.

We step up to that scale of like, hey, am I doing enough?

Am I doing enough today?

Like, is this enough?

Is that quiet time long enough?

Did I give enough money?

Am I showing up at church enough?

Like, is this enough?

Is this enough?

Is this enough?

And at what point do I feel righteous?

At what point do I feel secure with God?

At what point is this thing sealed?

And then you'll be mature, and then you'll be serious, and then you'll be passionate, and then whatever word you want to put on it, and the whole time you're already fully justified by faith.

By God, by Jesus' word for you.

All your justification, your position before God as a person, it has nothing to do with you.

And those demands of Tony Perkins, right, that we put on ourselves or we receive from from church or we receive from the world, those demands of Tony Perkis, you know what they create?

Burden.

Moralism, escapism.

See, we don't need Tony, we need Pat, right?

Pat was the guy who just loved the kids.

And out of that love, there created heart change, and now all of a sudden these kids from their hearts begin to have some concern about their lives.

Justification is by God.

The story's not over, it keeps going.

Verse 3 not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So point number two, point number one is about justification.

Point number two, sanctification, another big, big theological word.

And this is sanctification is the process of becoming holy.

What does that look like for me?

What does that look like?

Sanctification is not life getting endlessly better.

Right?

Maybe you believed that for a while.

Now your experience has been totally different.

Whether you're ready to be honest about that or not, I don't know.

But your life experience, this is true.

Sanctification is not life getting endlessly better, but you remembering your hope in Jesus.

There's sanctification.

Okay, so let's follow the text here.

So suffering, all the difficulties, they keep coming, they don't go away.

You're justified by God.

Still suffering, all the difficulties that keep coming, they produce endurance, being made strong, stronger.

And out of that produces character, attested personhood.

And we need it.

We need that.

These things are huge in life.

I want my kids to have endurance and character.

These things are good.

And there's a part of you that reads this and you kind of go, like, I kind of would have thought the train ended there.

I kind of would have thought, like, sufferings, uh, endurance, character.

Like in the train, in the thought.

And Paul goes, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It doesn't stop there.

As important as endurance and character are in this world, and we need them, as important as they are, it keeps going to hope.

Like, like, like, what is that connection?

Where did that connection come from?

And the connection is because when you live in endurance and character, you're still in the recognition that your endurance and character is not enough.

You know, even though they're incredibly important for your work life and your family life and your relationships, they're incredible.

But you're still aware your character's not flawless.

Your character is not saving you out of all your anxiety.

Your character's not saving you out of all your fear.

It's not saving you out of all your shame.

You still have a compulsion inside of you to think things and do things that people knew.

Sometimes they're so silly and sometimes they're so grotesque.

Hope.

But what is that?

I mean, we throw that word around.

I mean, this week I I I wrote it in an email to a friend, and the the wife had been sick, and then the two kids had been sick, and I wrote, I hope, and a bunch of other stuff.

I I hope you don't get sick.

Like I I hope you don't get sick.

I hope I hope you have a good test this week.

Hope you're good.

Hope you're well.

Hope your haircut goes well.

Hope you have a good trip.

What are we saying?

We're not saying much, I mean we're saying something.

I mean, we're we're saying like I'm with you.

Like I'm for you, I'm for it going well, I love you.

So like it's a way of saying, I love, maybe we just just say that, like, I love you.

That would be probably better.

But we just say, hope it goes well.

And sort of like, it's kind of out there.

Because it doesn't really have to do, like me hoping your test goes well really has nothing to do with how well your test goes.

But it's just me saying, like, I'm for you in your test.

So we say it a lot, we're just like saying this word a lot, but it might not change the outcome.

So, what is hope?

So a month ago, I come in from work, I think it's like Monday or Tuesday, I come in, come in from work, uh, you know, busy day, you know, woke up early, stared at the gym, trying to self-justify myself, trying to get some muscles on my scrawny bones, and you know, in the office, I'm studying, preparing for a sermon, meeting with people, I have a lunch appointment, doing emails, doing other stuff.

Come home about five o'clock, I come into the kitchen, and Christy's there, and and she says, Oh, yeah, by the way, you know, Thursday night, um, we're going out with Chris and Katie.

It's great.

Okay, Thursday night's normal date night.

I'm putting, you know, I'm putting my stuff on the counter.

Little girls are coming around, I'm hugging them, and she says, Yeah, by the way, um, we're gonna go to the uh Korean foot massage parlor and say, say what?

What was that?

We're going out with Chris and Katie, and then I was nodding along with that, and then say, say, we're going, where are we going?

Like uh like you and Katie are going to the Korean foot massage parlor, and Chris and I are going to a pub to watch football and uh you know do mainly grunting and things like that, or or oh, we're all we're all good.

Oh, you already made the reservation for four of us, okay.

So all week, all week I'm nervous about this.

And Christy, all my hopes in Christy, she's like, you're gonna love it.

You're gonna love it.

She's like, yeah, she's just telling me you're gonna love it.

She I love the price,$30 for an hour, by the way.

That's amazing.

That is amazing.

$30 for an hour.

It's down on Beauford Highway.

That scares me.

I'll just be honest.

Just being honest.

There's some nice places down there.

I'm not saying it's all bad, I'm just saying it's a mix.

That's what I'm saying.

I'm just saying you don't know what you're gonna get.

And so I'm not quite sure on Beauford Highway where it's gonna fit in.

And we get there, and some people in robes.

Isn't that strange?

Uh I didn't bring a robe, no robing going on here, just to say that.

And there's soothing fountains, and it was nicer than I thought, and there was a mix of men and women, which made me, who's very um you know, nervous about all of this and concerned, that led me to some comfort.

And so we go into the room, and there's there's five recliners lined up against the wall, and the four so we we got the room covers, the four of us lined up, and I sit down in the last recliner, and uh in come our people.

Because she had already told me that each you get one person, and that person stays with you.

So in comes my person who walks to me, and the first thing is like a real hot bath for your feet, and you get your feet in there and it kind of warms them up.

And and so we're in there, I'm starting to calm down a little bit.

Uh and my lady's about 50 years old, she's little, she's serious, she's in charge.

She's in charge.

I'm not in charge.

I there's not a lot of conversation back and forth.

It's just one hour, she's in charge.

It's really, really clear.

Also, my hope is no longer in Christy.

My hope is in that lady right there, 50-year-old, really lovely but serious lady.

She's the boss.

This point, you need to know I have tender feet.

That might be too much information.

I think I crossed a barrier, but you need to know it because it has to play into the fact that that I how nervous I am.

Because I got these tender feet out there, she's serious, there were robes out in the lobby.

So I'm just, it's uncomfortable.

It's uncomfortable for me.

And she comes in, she's bringing oils in, you know, she's digging in, and then she has hot rocks, and then she has she at one point there's a little wooden hammer nailing my feet.

All of this, okay.

And my hope, the whole time, my hope is not aimless, right?

It's really clear where my hope is.

It is secured somewhere.

It's in her.

It's in her ability to carry me through and to bring relief.

That is the goal.

It's not pain.

The goal's not pain here.

The goal is for relief.

And I'll just say, she was on that Achilles heel.

She was on she was on my heel.

She was working, she was working those ligaments and that toe and magic.

Magic.

I mean, unbelievable magic.

I think I cried at one point.

I was emotions were coming out.

Here's the point.

Number one, you should go to the Korean foot massage parlor on the Beauford Highway.

Number two, more importantly, hope is not aimless.

It's not aimless.

It's not like, oh, I hope hope is secured somewhere.

It's secured and it's got it's connected to something secure.

See, when we say our hope is in Jesus, that that is something secure and his ability to carry us through.

Right?

Like he was fully righteous and took on the cross our sin and gives to us his righteousness.

That is secure work.

So now that's talking about some justification, and now talking about sanctification is growing in your awareness of how needy you are for that.

And it's growing in that more and more and more because that affects the heart, which affects your life.

Listen to verse five.

Hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Verses six through eleven.

For, so he keeps going, he's just reasoning through this, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, not your work, by his work, his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him we have now received reconciliation.

So that means to be friends again.

It's by his word, we're friends again.

Okay, so the text says this for us, what it's calling us, it calls us weak.

It calls us sinners, it calls us enemies of God.

And let me just say that this is good news for you to hear this.

Because you can either pretend you're not that and waste your life exhausting yourself in that and pretending and performing.

Or you can receive.

You can receive what you are, what you've been experiencing your whole life.

You're rightful and you always want something you don't have.

And you love to use merit to feel justified rather than faith.

You love to self-save.

And that's good news to receive that.

Point number three.

A low anthropology creates a high Christology.

That's how I heard it.

I heard it this week, worded that way.

A low anthropology creates a high Christology.

So Christology is your view of Christ, your view of Jesus.

Anthropology is where you go to buy great clothes and overpriced furniture.

That's what anthropology.

No, I'm kidding.

So anthropology is a way we think about people.

It's how you think about people.

Anthropology is the way you think about people.

A low anthropology.

Is to say, uh, we want to be good, but we'd never pull it off.

A high anthropology is to believe that people are inerrantly good and always getting better.

A high anthropology says people are always getting better.

Maybe you're here, you would say, oh, Russ, this whole idea of low anthropology, sure it's sure it's negative.

Sure is negative.

You know, whoo, Debbie Downer.

Uh you might even think I'm ridiculous, but I think you're ridiculous and naive.

Right?

And so now we're both in judgment over each other, which then proves the fact that we all have low anthropology, right?

Like that, and that's my point.

And we can see it in Syria.

I mean, we could we could get like global, and we we could go like you see low anthropology in Syria.

Or we can see it in Tony Perkis.

We can see it in the way that we live out Tony Perkis on ourselves, like just demanding ourselves constantly to be better, and we think that that's the thing that's gonna solve all of our problems.

That's self-saving.

It's low anthropology.

Or you can just see it the way that you view other people.

Right?

I mean, just how quickly you come to judgment over you know some somebody else's kids.

Or how you would do it, right?

Because you how you would how you would parent that kid, right?

Or you how you would coach that team.

Because you got it, you got it figured out.

You know, that guy with 30 years of coaching experience, he doesn't know anything, but you do.

You you have it figured out.

You know, those parents that know that kid, you know, day in and day out, they don't they don't know, you you know, you know, right?

I mean, this is what we do.

This is our low anthropology.

It's the stuff in the core of our beings.

And sometimes it's the stuff out in the open.

And see, as you see your low anthropology, you can have a higher and higher Christology.

Jesus can mean more and more and more and more, and you will see more and more ways you self-justify.

More and more ways sanctification doesn't seem to be working itself out.

And then all of a sudden you're falling back on Jesus being bigger and bigger for you, which is actually sanctification, and your heart is changed.

Pastor and author Steve Brown, he says it this way the only people who get better are people who know that if they never get better, God will love them anyway.

The only people who get better, like real better, like from the heart outward, not just like changing behaviors and manipulating stuff.

Like heart change.

The only people who get better are people who know that if they never get better, God will love them anyway.

See, then you start to get better from the heart outward, and all of it's important.

The inward and the outward.

But you'll never know you're getting better because you're in touch with your low anthropology, which is sending you into high Christology.

And that's why sanctification is growing in your awareness of your low anthropology and your high Christology.

A few weeks ago, Christy began uh listening to this podcast called Up and Vanished.

So she started listening to this, and it's entertainment crack.

I mean, this podcast is unbelievably addicting.

Take over your life.

Don't even get into it until you have a long road trip.

Just gonna go ahead and tell you that.

And so she was telling me about this.

It's an 11-year-old cold case down in South Georgia.

Talk about some low anthropology.

Sorry if you're from South Georgia, but it's not this is not a podcast promoting South Georgia, I'll let you know that.

And so this small town, and something happens, and then the whole town is just clams up and we'll talk about it, and it's real interesting, and you get into it, and you are you you are in this small town, you know, it's just episode after episode, you're getting more and more addicted.

So she's telling me about it, you gotta listen to it, you gotta listen to it, you know, I'm like, eh, or whatever, whatever.

And you know, finally I listen to it, and I'm like, that's amazing.

That's how I we we always react.

She tells me how good something is, act like it's not, and then I listen to it, and then it's amazing.

And so finally I listen to it, and it it's like Friday, and I just start consuming.

I mean, talk about my low anthropology for self-control.

That is out the window.

I mean, it is gone.

I can't stop listening.

Last last Sunday, I'm like midway through the podcast.

You thought I was like present preaching?

No, no, no.

I'm thinking about Tara and Marcus and Heath, and I don't know what's happening, and all that Heath, you know, like that's what I was thinking about literally last week, standing right here as I preach, because that podcast was all up inside my brain.

Why does that happen?

Why does that happen to you when you're reading a book and you go like, it's it's 12:30 at night.

Why can't I not just shut this thing?

Why can't I not just go to sleep?

Like when you're watching the TV series and it's like next one begins in 10 seconds, and you're like, yeah, that's a great idea.

It's not a great idea.

Like, why can't you stop?

Why can't you stop?

Right?

Well, you can't stop because the story is active in you.

That's why you can't stop.

The story is active in you.

This is how God's grace works.

This unconditional love of God for you doesn't just justify you and free you and then like leave you alone and you just what you do whatever you want for the rest of your life.

It is extravagant and it is active.

It is active.

It frees, and in the awareness of that freedom, it transforms.

And you'll probably never even know it.

Because you'll be in touch with your low anthropology, which is getting you in touch with high Christology.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you be weary of your self-saving.

And may you know this love that is given and active in you by the grace of God, by the work of Jesus for you.

You are justified and you are being sanctified by his spirit in you.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for the great gift of Jesus.

Help us to live in confession and repentance in a greater way.

Would you give us by your grace, would you give us the courage to see the ways we self-save that we might live in confession and repentance?

And live in an admiration of Jesus.

And would we live with open hands to say, Take my heart, take my life, may it honor you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.